OPA Playful Ideas 3

Each week (or so) we have a different OPA Playful Idea on the front page of the Oxfordshire Play Association website, and will archive them here to build a bank of ideas to help increase playfulness.

I Can Camcorder

Give the children a camcorder, and show them how to use it (or do it with them if they are younger). Let them film whatever they want. If needs be, you can give them some ideas to spark their imaginations:create a show and film itfilm people doing funny or silly thingsmake puppets and film a puppet showfilm a child's eye view of the house/ play setting/ garden/ field/ or wherever you are.

Make Candles

Either make your own candles with wax and string, or book OPA's amazing and easy Candlemaking Play Box (£5 per week plus materials for OPA members). You can use the moulds we provide, or make up your own moulds from yogurt pots, etc. Call OPA on 01865 779474 for more info.

Melted Wax Patterns

Use your old wax crayons to make melted wax pics. Use a pencil sharpener to make shavings of wax in different colours. Put some onto paper, place another piece of paper on top and iron to melt the wax (children love doing this themselves with supervision).
Use a maximum of 4 colours for each picture, as too many colours can turn murky brown!

Blindfold Yourself

Blindfold yourself for 20 minutes and see how it feels not to be able to use your eyes to see. How does it affect your other senses, such as hearing, taste and touch? Draw pictures, perhaps something that a friend suggests. Get your friends to talk in funny voices and see if you can guess who they are. Or people can hide and you can try to find them.

Changing Rooms

Change a room into something else - such as a spaceship, a cave or a shop.
Space ship - cover part of the walls in foil or silver paper, add round windows painted black with stars, put food into small containers, hang stars, planets and moons around...what else? A cave - get some old dark material (go to Orinoco The Oxfordshire Scrapstore for low cost material and other items - www.oxorinoco.org), drape it over a table, use torches, make animal noises...
A shop - that's easy!

Go Balloony!

Fill balloons with different substances, then tie them up and get others to guess what might be in them.
You could try rice, flour, water, tomato ketchup, air, dried lentils, mini marshmallows, stones...