First of all I realise that today is Tuesday

But this is what we did yesterday

For our very first Minibeast Monday

This is going to be a weekly feature

At home and on the blog

Throughout the summer

Exploring minibeasts through stories, songs, games, visits and play

We started with a simple butterfly sticker craft

And then moved on to our Incy Wincey Water Wall play

The reason I started with the sticker activity

Is because Esther and William are at preschool until 2 on a Monday

They like something simple and quiet to do when they first get home

And yesterday this was it

It was actually a repeat of an activity we have done before

Using foam stickers to make patterns on foam butterflies

Simple but effective with a pretty end product

Also great for developing fine motor skills

And for instigating talks about shapes, symmetry, colours and patterns

After this quiet time and a snack

It was time to get outside

And play with the water wall

To extend the play from using just water

I decided to add some spiders

Esther and William love painting with these spiders

And we have them around and about at Halloween

This was the first time that we used them in our water play

The spiders are great for the water wall

As they are so visual and show the direction and speed of the water

Esther and William soon learned that to make the spider travel faster

They needed to quickly add more water

They soon learned that if the spiders got stuck

Then they could be flushed out with lots of fast moving water

They had great fun moving the spiders through the pipes

Singing Incy Wincey Spider as they worked together

They also had a game where one of them would position a spider

And the other would add water to the different pipes

Until they washed the spider out

It was wonderful watching them play

Calling out ‘More rain’ as they poured the water

From jugs to pipes

They learned a lot through this activity about forces

About the direction of water and how it is pulled by gravity

They learned a bit about water pressure too

And the power of water to move things

They were chatting to each other all the time

About what they were doing

What they were observing as they played

Such a simple activity

After you have made the wall!

It is easy to set up and clear away

And provides hours and hours of fun

With lots of opportunity for learning

We will be doing lots of different activities with our water wall over the summer

We will also be extending the wall and creating a sensory wall

We hope you will come and join us for a play