Changing up the canvas you paint on can spark all kinds of creative play! Here we used Kwik Stix to decorate large pasta shells for our blue sand ocean.
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What you need:
- pasta shells- we used three different sizes
- Kwik Stix- we used the Classic colors, Neon colors and the Metalic set
- Crayola blue play sand
- selection of ocean themed toys- we used our Safari Ltd. Toobs In the Water Set
- contain the mess with a Bumkins Splat Mat
How it works:
I filled a small tray with the blue play sand and used a chip tray to sort the pasta shell sizes. This was very much an invitation to decorate, with the idea being my 18 month old and 5 yr old were free to use the materials as they please.
Straight away they both got to work experimenting with using the Kwik Stix on the pasta shells. The ridges in the pasta offered an added sensory experience as the kids ran the paint sticks over them. They were really intrigued!
Baby sis is very much at the mark making stage which worked just fine. She happily chose her own colors and made markings on her shells. Big brother was much more delicate with his creations, experimenting with patterns and color combinations.
It was a surprisingly tough workout for their fine motor skills too.
It was interesting watching big bro problem solving to work out how to color all areas of the shell. This is where the Kwik Stix worked so well. They dry in 90 seconds which meant we weren't left with smudged shells! The colors also really shimmered from the Metallic Kwik Stix!
Once each shell was created, the kids loved carefully placing it in their ocean.
- Kwik Stix- we used the Classic colors, Neon colors and the Metalic set
- Crayola blue play sand
- selection of ocean themed toys- we used our Safari Ltd. Toobs In the Water Set
- contain the mess with a Bumkins Splat Mat
How it works:
I filled a small tray with the blue play sand and used a chip tray to sort the pasta shell sizes. This was very much an invitation to decorate, with the idea being my 18 month old and 5 yr old were free to use the materials as they please.
Straight away they both got to work experimenting with using the Kwik Stix on the pasta shells. The ridges in the pasta offered an added sensory experience as the kids ran the paint sticks over them. They were really intrigued!
Baby sis is very much at the mark making stage which worked just fine. She happily chose her own colors and made markings on her shells. Big brother was much more delicate with his creations, experimenting with patterns and color combinations.
It was a surprisingly tough workout for their fine motor skills too.
It was interesting watching big bro problem solving to work out how to color all areas of the shell. This is where the Kwik Stix worked so well. They dry in 90 seconds which meant we weren't left with smudged shells! The colors also really shimmered from the Metallic Kwik Stix!
Once each shell was created, the kids loved carefully placing it in their ocean.
The real fun came when they started to turn their artwork into small world play! They added their small boats from the Safari Ltd. Toobs In the Water Set and had an absolute blast!
They enjoyed burying the shells, making sandy tracks with the boats, and even made an obstacle and race course for the boats to power around! This was all fantastic imaginative play, as well as sensory play of course!
I know it won't be long before we get this set up out again! It was a fabulous combination of art and play for both ages.
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