Just started running a playgroup - ideas for activities needed!

[CinnamonStar]

A friend and I have just set up a weekly playgroup for children aged 0-5.

I was hoping people might have suggestions for good arts and craft activities, and other things we could do, maybe any good books/websites which have ideas for activities...

At the moment we are thinking of setting up a craft table for the older kids - ideas for stuff for the under 1's to do whilst the older children are getting creative would also be gratefully received :)

My DD loves messy play:

Big bowls of things for them to get their hands in works really well, especially if you hide things in it (eg little plastic figures) or give them things to spoon, scoop, pour, scrape, cut it with and so on. Few ideas:

Cooked spaghetti coloured with food colouring.

Big bowl of supermarket value / basics cornflakes or rice crispies

Uncooked rice, couple of drops of food colouring, create several different colours and mix together with possibly a bit of glitter.

Cornflour and water (custard powder works well too)

Gellibaff (google it)

Jelly (supermarket basics again)

Big bowl of autum leaves and conkers

This used to keep DD occupied for ages at playgroup and even now she's 3.4 she still loves it!

My dcs favourite craft activity at toddlers was icing biscuits, even very small can join in with this (ie by eating them). I go a lot of toddler groups with my youngest dc(2y) & the ones I think work best always have music/song time. Stories don't really work for under 3's but they all like songs. Some places just have a dance around to hokey cokey, wind the bobbin up cd, others do nursery rhymes & others get out instruments (shakers etc,) so you can do it in whatever way you prefer.

Treasure baskets are popular with little ones, if your looking for things for 1yr olds to do while older kids do craft. Take a look at Montessori ideas if you'd like more ideas. But tbh as long as you have toys then it's fine not to have a set thing for them to do while crafts are on. Besides even some under 1s will give crafts a go with their mum/carer.

Thanks, some interesting ideas that I wouldn't have thought of.

Joyn, we are having a music half hour at the end (currently trying to source some cheap instruments), agree that singing always seems to go down well, was always DD1's favourite bit of any groups we went to.

I help run a toddler group and we always have a craft table set up. WE tend to do;

playdough (home made)
colouring (usually on sheets printed from cbeebies website etc, or cheap colouring books)
sticking (either bits cut from magazines or we buy in stickers or paper shapes from the pound shop, or glitter round christmas time)
puzzles
targeted crafts like cards for mother's/fathers day/christmas

We also do parent led sessions. We did a jewellery session, and a bit of cooking (making little tarts etc).

biscuit decorating
hand/finger prints

For the run up to christmas we've bought some ceramic magnets and coasters from Yellow Moon with the pens to decorate them, and we're going to let the kids do one each as a present for someone. Yellow Moon also do these black things (bookmarks/decorations/masks) that you scratch to reveal the colours. We're lucky that we're a big group that can afford to do these things, but we also do cake sales to raise extra cash to pay for the mum's christmas meal!

Heuristic play looks amazing, (and easy!).

Music? lots of percussive instruments which are cheap and music cds- classical is a good alternative to those awful sing-a-long cds.

Whereabouts are you?

Have just been reading about heuristic play - sounds quite simple and might be good for the little ones.

Not actually in the UK, we are in southern europe.

Sounds bizarre but play sand whisked with washing up liquid has great value.

A thin layer of dry sand in trays and give the children brushes, combs, twigs, anything that they can mark make with.

Also, if you make playdough add different scents to it. We use mint, vanilla, rosewater, lavender etc.

I help at a P&T group too. IME anything that requires parents to actually get involved with their DC won't get looked at so it needs to be things the children can do without help. (although if you're in a competitve parenting area you might find the opposite )

Favourites at our group are:

Cooked spaggetti to play with
Trays of shaving foam
Cold mashed potato
Sand
Playdoh (make it yourself and keep in tupperware box - will keep for at least a term)
Printing with paint (potatoes/sponges/leaves)
Sticking (leaves/old greetings cards/feathers/glitter/sequins)
Jelly

We sometimes give them a snack to prepare themselves e.g bread and jam, veg and cream cheese or cheese and crackers

For the music session have a bag with prompts in ie. a star would be twinkle twinkle, duck 5 little ducks, rabbit- peter rabbit has a fly etc. Have enough for the group. When all the children are sat nicely with mum they get a turn to get something from the bag, it encourages the children to stay sitting and to join in. Its also easier than having to think of songs to sing.
Make sure they don't put the toys back in the bag until the end otherwise you end up singing the same songs.
Don't have too much of a mix of instruments as you'll never please everyone and don't always have them out as it tends to drown out the singing.
Another tip is to start a folder with the activities you do and seperate it into seasons so after the first year you just open the folder and can have an activity prepared quickly.
Paper plates are very versatile to decorate, have a pot of sticky bits, glue and paint always on standby.
Google is great for ideas also usbourne do some cheap activity books one called farm fun and another called playtime activities they were only £3 I think.
Have fun and try to get a rota of helpers making drinks and preparing the snack from early on otherwise you'll be stuck with it.

Love especially the music bag idea and scented playdough idea - must admit to being a complete novice and never made my own though. Just googled and looks like its quite easy, (but no idea what is cream of tartar or where I would buy it.)

It's a raising agent used in baking. Find it with the baking powder

I like the cooked Spaghetti idea.

Mix cornflour with a little bit of water - if you pick it up it becomes a solid and then becomes liquid again and flows through your fingers. DC loved it as well as the adults!

Whatever you do don't leave the cream of tartar out, the play dough turns into a slimy mess without it. If you can't find it there are uncooked versions that don't need it.

Homemade playdough a roaring success today .

Enchanted Learning is a brillant site. I ran a toddler group for a couple of years and this kept us going with ideas. Not the best layout but bear with it!

this isn't bad either

It is amazing what you can do with paper plates and doilies!!

For that age group don't aim too high - you want variations on gluing and sticking.

Baker Ross is good for supplies as is The Works. Avoid Hobbycraft - it is very expensive.

Also, it is good to have a routine.

We did Craft table & free play
Song time (always finished with Twinkle Twinkle!)
Snack
Free play.

The kids got to know the routine pretty quickly and they liked it. Also they knew that song time ended with Twinkle and were hell for leather to the snack table!!

THe worst groups I went to were 2 hours of free play with self serve snack - dire imo!!

Usborne books do a great range of craft books.
the 'ichild' website is good
i always make my own playdough-much cheaper and lasts for ages in an airtight box
messy play is always a hit!!

Had a fab painting session this week at our local toddler group. Trays of paints and toy cars, wheel them in and get the tyre tracks printed on the paper when they are driven across. Such a simple one but was really popular with vehicle obsessed 22 month old.

Wow, thanks for these ideas. I think I'm in a similar situation to you OP, I've set up a playgroup for English speaking children where I live in Spain.

These ideas are going to be GREAT!