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 I want to let you know about new blog posts, upcoming play group session dates, and give you some tips along the way.

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DIY Colored Spaghetti

Rainbow colored spaghetti is one of my favorite invitations at our play groups. It is such a versatile material.  You can put it in the sensory table, in a kiddie pool, or anywhere you please!  The kids don't get too messy, but your porch or floor might!

At my youngest daughter's birthday party celebration, I had several questions about how to make the colored spaghetti.  So here it is!

 I am almost embarrassed to share this tutorial, because it is so easy to do!  I have actually tried several methods that I have found on pinterest: using vinegar, using rubbing alcohol, dying the spaghetti after cooking it, etc.  Some of these tries were failures. I have had mishaps in the kitchen.  My hands have gotten stained.  The spaghetti was too brittle and sometimes too oily.  Let me save you the headache, and fill you in on the best way to do it!

I came up with this no-fail method that has worked perfectly. 

What you need: 

• Uncooked spaghetti
• Food coloring (I have used both Wilton and the Dollar Tree brand, both work!)
• Large pot of boiling water
• Strainer
• Cookie sheets
• Couple drops of olive oil or vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Decide how much spaghetti you want to make.  In the photo below, I cooked 1.5 pounds of spaghetti.
   

If you are filling a larger area, you will need MORE spaghetti :)

2. Evenly divide your uncooked spaghetti according to the number of colors you want to make. If you want to make red, blue, and yellow spaghetti; you will need to separate it into three groups.

3. Fill your large soup pot with water.  As it begins to boil, put 3-5 drops of red food coloring into the water.  Let the dye distribute. Then stir in your spaghetti.  

4. Boil the spaghetti for 2 minutes less than the instructed time.  For example, my box says to cook the noodles for 10-11 minutes.  For colored spaghetti, I would only boil the noodles for 8 minutes. This keeps the noodles from turning to mush as the children play with them.

5. Drain the water and noodles into a strainer over the sink.  Be careful, that dyed water can splash onto things that you do not want to be dyed (speaking from experience).  Run cold water over the noodles for a couple of minutes.  This will keep the noodles from sticking together.

6.  Spread the red spaghetti onto a cookie sheet.  Let this sit there for 45 minutes to cool.  This will allow the color to set into the noodles.  When your children play with it later, the dye should stay on the noodles and not on their hands.

7. Put 2-3 drops of olive oil on your hands and work it through the cooled spaghetti.  Then put into a plastic ziplock bag and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to play.

8. Repeat the process with each of the other colors.  Be sure to rinse your pot before making a new batch, unless you are interested in color mixing :)

Because this recipe does not use rubbing alcohol, it is taste-safe.  

My cat has eaten a large portion and is still around to talk about it :)

I would love to know if you make colored spaghetti at your own house!  Post pics to Facebook or Instagram and tag #branchandblossomatelier

If you would rather skip out on the mess, we have several Friday Play Group Sessions coming up!  Email branchandblossomatelier@gmail.com to register.  We would love to spend the morning with you!

What are Loose Parts?

You may hear this term on Pinterest or at your child's school. What are loose parts? And how do they benefit your child?

What are they?

Loose parts are used during play.  The parts are open-ended, meaning that they can be used in endless ways.  A blue pebble can be a piece of candy for a tiger, or it can be arranged with other blue pebbles to form a river.  The possibilities are as far reaching as the child's imagination. 

Loose parts can be any item that can be moved and manipulated. The simplest things are the best.  These can be recycled items (bottle caps, cardboard tubes, scrap pieces of wood) or items found in nature (rocks, pine cones, shells).  You can also purchase loose parts (it is all the rage currently, but for good reason).  You can incorporate toys you already have at home.  In the invitation above, you see plastic animal figurines.  If a child has difficulty taking the loose parts beyond sorting, you may want to add animals, dinosaurs, or cars to extend the play.

Origins of Loose Parts

In all honesty, I am not sure who coined the term "loose parts." I do know that many educational approaches use loose parts during their daily routines.  I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Reggio Emilia, Italy last spring.  It was amazing.  I have had the dream of visiting the world renowned Reggio schools since my first days teaching preschool.  

The teachers in the Reggio Emilia schools provide children with what they call "intelligent materials." Paola Strozzi says, "If we value the children's desire and pleasure in carrying out investigations, either by themselves or in groups, then we must make sure that the sorts of materials we provide allow this to happen"(Giudici, Rinaldi, & Krechevsky, 2001, p. 67).

Types of Loose Parts

Just look at these gorgeous provocations (invitations) in a preschool classroom at the Malaguzzi Center. I encourage you to zoom in and look at the "intelligent materials" more closely.  What do you notice?

I hope you see a variety materials that can be used in open-ended ways.  But I really hope you see the simplicity of the items.  Many of these might be items that you already have at home. There is nothing fancy about any particular item by itself.  The beauty lies with what children are able to do with the parts. Strozzi says, "...materials that do not impose a direction but that pose questions and elicit hypotheses and the desire to experiment," (Giudici et al., 2001, p. 67).

I hope you are feeling inspired in your ability to gather loose parts for your child.  Loose parts can be small or large.  Smaller items like pebbles, popsicle sticks, and legos work fine motor skills. Larger loose parts work gross motor skills.  These giant yard Jenga blocks make great loose parts.  So do pieces of PVC pipe and cardboard boxes.

Appropriate for All

If you stick around long enough, you will hear me talk quite a bit about developmental appropriateness.  In order for an activity to be deemed developmentally appropriate, it must take into consideration 

• the child's developmental and learning needs
• the child's individual needs
• cultural appropriateness

Providing children with loose parts does this.  Children of different ages and different abilities will use loose parts in different ways.  This is what we want!

I gave my 23 month old daughter and my 4.5year old son the same loose parts.  My daughter enjoyed pouring the loose parts onto the tray (she brought the corn cob over). 

After she emptied the box, she independently sorted the parts back into their compartments. You can watch her in action below.

My son created pretend worlds for the animals using the loose parts.

When I asked him about the rocks on top of the house, he told me "those are staples to keep it sturdy."

Brickston spent about 30 minutes creating his home for his pony, Rainbow Dash.  Below is his final creation.

Loose Parts Can Build Social Skills

This is one of my favorite reasons to do any type of play invitation.  I love seeing how children are able to use their social skills.  My two children each had their own tray and worked with the loose parts independently.  This is called parallel play when children play with the same things beside each other, yet they don't interact.  Quinlan continued to watch Brickston as he built his house for his pony.  By the end of the play session, Quinlan built this...

Do you see the tables?  Do you see the tiger and the shark eating something?  I know they were eating because she made the "yum yum" sound and smacked her lips in imitation.

Most often the best teacher in the room is not the adult, it is the other children.

Did you know that everytime you attend a Branch and Blossom Atelier play group session, your child will take home a block?  You can paint it or color it or leave it plain.  My hope is that these blocks will inspire you to begin a loose parts collection for your little learners!

Resources: 

Giudici,C., Rinaldi, C., & Krechevsky, M., eds. (2001).  Making learning visible.  Reggio Emilia, Italy: Reggio Children.

Branch and Blossom Parties.

Did you know that’s a thing? It is!

Mobile messy play groups are perfect for birthday parties, shin-digs, or your next play date.

Schedule the date, choose the activities from the party menu, invite up to 12 little artists (additional guests for a fee), and I will bring the fun to you. 

You provide the space: backyards, porches, and garages work best. Depending on the activities you choose, it could get messy! It is ideal if I can have access to an outside hose. I am open to hosting the party at our outside atelier (message me for details).

I will bring the supplies for an hour of fun. After the hour, you can transition your guests to cake or presents while I clean up and leave you to finish celebrating.

Party Cost

$120

Party Menu

Every Party Has our Signature Invitation

* Drink Station (We have called this many things: Lemonade stand, milkshake shop, swamp water, etc).  I will bring two drink dispensers and all the play cups and pitchers.

Choose 2 of the following Invitations:

* Jello Sensory Tub

* Babydoll Bath 

* Car and Truck Painting

*Oobleck Sensory Tub

*Play Dough Cupcakes

*Clay Explorations

* Water Color Drop Painting

*Pool Noodle Stringing Water Tub

* Birthday Streamer Collages

Choose 1 of the Following Collaborative Pieces for the Host Artist to keep:

* Birthday Banner 

Children collaboratively paint a large piece of canvas.  After the party, I will create a banner for you using the children's artwork.

*One 12x16 Canvas painted by your child and party guests

So are you convinced?  Do you want to party with Branch and Blossom Atelier?

 Please email: branchandblossomatelier@gmail.com with the dates you are considering.  

I would love to customize the party for your special artist!

Flour Paint Tutorial

Looking for taste-safe paint?  This is soooo easy!

Let me first start by saying that I do not think I will be making any more video tutorials...scariness! But if you can get past my swollen, tired eyes you just might be able to try this at home.

This "paint" is taste safe for the youngest artists.  Depending on how much coloring you use, it washes off of skin pretty easily.  I do still use tempera paint and acrylic paint for certain projects.  This paint will not stay on surfaces well over time.  Which can be good or bad.  If your child paints the most amazing masterpiece with this flour "paint," I suggest you snap a picture for lasting value.

Let's get to it!
You will need:
cup and stir stick
water
flour
coloring (Liquid watercolor or food coloring)

I chose to use Liquid watercolors, because it seems to wash off easier than food coloring, but both work very well.  If you are using food coloring, only use a few drops!

1. Put a few drops of food coloring or a squirt of liquid water colors into the cup.  Mix with a couple tablespoons of flour.  

2. Add water until you reach the consistency you want.  Use a thicker paint for upright surfaces like easels.  You can make the paint more runny if you are painting on a flat surface and you want the paint to cover more surface area.

If you are brave and want to watch the tutorial, you can check it out here:

 

If you want to read about our recent play group session where we used flour paint on our transparent canvas, go here. 

Transparent Canvas Painting

I love inviting the children to participate in collaborative painting experiences!

We had some new friends join us this past week for a play group session.  I was not sure how the children would react to using paint, so I decided to play it safe and use a taste-safe paint recipe.  You can check that out here.

Our theme was "Oceans of Fun" and we explored ocean themed invitations.  I thought a transparent canvas would make a perfect surface for collaborative painting.  Very "under the sea," right?

Why I love collaborative painting invitations:

Each play group session, I try to offer a collaborative painting experience.  In addition to all the benefits that painting offers (motor and cognitive skills), it also offers great communication and social skill building opportunities.  

Giving the children just one large surface to work on together, means that the children must communicate with one another.  This can be done both verbally and nonverbally.  Children watch each other navigate the invitation and decide how they, too, will engage in the medium.  Sometimes you see the children ask permission to join by sharing just a glance at each other.  This is an important skill is called joint attention.  This is the basis of all communication.  It means that two people are attending to the same thing at the same time.  This means that children understand that other people have their own thoughts and ideas that are separate from their own.  This joint attention is the foundation for future conversational skills.  When two people can talk about the same topic.  Sometimes during this invitation you will hear the children talking to one another.  The children may be telling their peer what they will be doing next.  Or they may be requesting items from each other.

That brings me to social skills.  During a collaborative painting invitation, children practice sharing materials and negotiating the space.  Sometimes this happens naturally, other times the children have to take some time to work on this skill.  That is okay.  No toddler or preschooler is going to be an expert at sharing.  Goodness, I know some preteens and adults in my life who sometimes have trouble with this skill.  This play invitation is the perfect backdrop to practice this skill.

How to set up this invitation: 

1.  Secure a clear shower curtain (the best dollar you will spend from the Dollar Tree) from two high points.  I tied ours to the two columns on our back porch.  
I do suggest doing this invitation vertically so that you are able to take advantage of having two sides to paint from.  The children did not completely discover this aspect during this play group session, but I know they will once they have more opportunities to explore.

2. Set out some paint and paint brushes.  We used flour paint.  You can find out how to make it here.  I knew this could be potentially messy, and we had some younger artists in this session, so we opted for taste-safe, washable paint. However, this does mean that the paint will crumble off once it completely dries.  You will not be able to save your creation.  BONUS: It does come off, so you can do this again and again.  
3. Sometimes children aren't sure what to do with an invitation, so you need to encourage someone to make the first mark.  Then step back, and document the process!

What a Perfect June

We had such a wonderful first month of play group sessions at Branch and Blossom Atelier! Thank you to everyone who decided to try it out! 

I’ve been think of new invitations to try with our artists during the month of July and am excited to get started again soon!

Until then, let’s reminisce on some of my favorite invitations from June. Look at all the learning and developmental skills happening!

Check back next week for upcoming sessions! We’d love for you to come get messy, explore, and create with us!