It is back!

We are back!

Messy Play for Matilda Mae is back!

Messy play is happening slowly in our house at the moment

This is mostly because I set up a small world scene on a Monday

And Esther and William insist on keeping it

Day after day after day

They want to play with it

Change it

Develop it

Their appetite for small world play

Is amazing

Inspiring

And a joy to behold

This past week we have been playing with stars

Inspired by the Oliver Jeffers’ book

(One of our favourites)

How To Catch A Star

To mark the book’s 10th anniversary

We are doing 10 activities that include or are inspired by stars

This one has been a favourite

A loose connection with stars perhaps

But links chosen by Esther and William

For their own individual small world play

I started to set the scene

And after initial explorations

They each chose how to play

We use our Tuff Spot all the time

But this week Esther and William have been a little under the weather

And have enjoyed having their own space to play

They each have a large gardening tray

That we use for creating their very own small worlds

This week I lined each tray with aluminium foil

I then scattered beans into the tray

Black turtle beans

Creamy butter beans

Red adzuki beans

And rich brown coffee beans

That filled our house with a gorgeous coffee smell

Esther and William spent a long time playing with the beans

Moving them around on the shiny foil

And searching for the tiny shiny stars

That I hid among the beans

This was a real sensory experience

Different textures to touch

Scents to smell

Colours to see

Sounds to hear

A rich sensory base for our star themed small world play

I had no input at all at first as to what they chose to add to their trays

William chose cars and vehicles

His entire collection of Miniland vehicles and WOW Toys

William carefully and methodically

Created a car park

A star park!

Esther chose fairies

And her Happy Land Fairy Tree House

She also wanted animals

And so I helped her to create the Starry Zoo Farm

And this is still what she has in her tray today

One week on!

William soon exhausted the play options of his star park

And so together we created the moon

Complete with rockets and moon buggies

And some of the cutest aliens I have ever seen

This scene is also still out

And played with daily

With storylines inspired by

Bob, The Man on the Moon

The Way Back Home and of course,

How To Catch A Star

We have had a lovely star filled week

And we are not done yet

This week we have five more star themed activities to share with you

A special 10th anniversary edition of How To Catch A Star to giveaway

And the start of our rainbow explorations

As we prepare to tell Esther and William

That they have a special baby sister on the way

We hope that you will join us

And please link up your own messy and sensory play