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If you want to come on an adventure,
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However, we know you can't visit us everyday so create some of the magic at home with the help of our blog!
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by offering tutorials, hints and tips on how to bring books alive at home.
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with exclusive content and insight to what's going on in the factory, be sure to keep checking back to stay up to date!
With the help of our in house professionals,
From artists to actors to authors, we will be seeking help from our specialist team to give you the best hints and tips!

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Nursery Rhyme Week Messy Play - A Fairy Tale Twist

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Another week and another messy play for us to share with you! It was recently Nursery Rhyme week so we used this as our inspiration and mixed it up with Fairy Tales to give us our inspiration for our Messy Play and whole Babies and Beyond day!  With so many stories to choose from it was quite tough to select just two for our two tubs. After careful consideration we went with.. Drum roll please.. Goldilocks & the Three Bears and Jack & the Beanstalk. We went with these stories for several reasons, our Messy Play sessions take place in our Goldilocks' Creative Kitchen. So that one was a no brainer! As for Jack and the Beanstalk, that is one of our favourite theatre shows here at the Rainbow Factory which we have been perfecting for over a year now and all love, so it was only fair to do it justice and commemorate it in a Messy Play form (plus, magic beans was a great way to get messy!).

So, without further ado here is the how-to on this weeks Messy Play:




So, first up, the Three Bears. Now we all know this story of how a nosey little girl crept into the bears house to eat their porridge, borrow their chairs and to sleep in their bed. So we created something that was juuuust right for the little ones to get involved in. When we think of the Three Bears we always think of porridge, so what's more fun than oats? Of course, chocolate covered oats! We also wanted to bring some of the woods into the tub so we also included some herbs to add a new dimension to the messy play.

The ingredients we used were:

Oats
Cocoa Powder
Dill
Sage
Water

To make this simple, yet effective tub you simply need to add the porridge oats and mix with warm/hot water. You can choose how much water you would like to add. The more you add the sloppier it will be, or if you just add a little it will have more of a sponge-y texture. That's the tough bit done! Now just to garnish the edges with the dill and sage, to really get the aroma its best to tear the dill and to pick the sage leaves off. The little ones will love the different smells and munching on it! The final part is optional, but it was my favourite bit, you can then use the cocoa powder to sprinkle a pattern onto the oats. I created a bear and wrote '3 bears' at the top! It is a really great opportunity to show your creative flair, or if you're little ones are not so little, get them to create a design!





If you want to create a really messy tub then this is the one for you! For Jack and the Beanstalk we obviously had to opt for beans, not just any beans but magic beans. This means we have to use a variety to add lots of colour, and if we are going to do a bean based messy play of course we are going to use baked beans and their tomato sauce. It's a great excuse to get slimy and to feel all the different textures. So for this messy play, these are the ingredients we used:

Baked Beans
Garden Peas
Red Kidney Beans
Chickpeas
Butter Beans
Mixed Bean Salad
Sage

All of our beans for this messy play were tinned, so apart from the baked beans we drained all of the water and liquids that the beans were in - if you don't empty it it makes for a very... interesting... smell with all the juices. Once drained, mix all the beans together or you can create a pattern with them. We also added sage leaves to the mix because we thought they really gave the impression of beanstalk leaves, or at least how I imagine them! Now all that's left is to let them make a mess.




In the messy paint area for Nursery Rhyme week we decided to continue the Jack and the Beanstalk theme and make our very own hand print beanstalks!

This was really simple to do, put out the green paint (we used two different greens, a darker on for the leaves and a lighter one for the beanstalk itself), dip your hands in and do a couple of hand prints layered slightly on top of one another. Once you have made the beanstalk  you can add some rainbow coloured beans at the bottom by using the tips of your fingers.

It is so simple and so much fun! And don't forget to go free style and show us what nursery rhyme or fairy tale pictures you can make with your hand prints and foot prints.

If you want to send your pictures in e-mail them to: bryony@rainbowfactorykids.com and we will feature some of our favourites on this post and on our social media! Don't forget to leave a name and age.





So that's all for this messy play post! If you have any ideas or thoughts of future themes be sure to let us know and we will see what magic we can work! 

Monday 7 November 2016

Autumn Messy Play!

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Since starting our Babies and Beyond sessions we have found them to be a massive hit, especially our messy play! So now we are showing you how you can recreate the messy play at home. You don't have to do them in the big cement mixing tubs like us, you could easily create the same effect in smaller containers (this could help reduce the mess you have to tidy up as well!). When designing the messy play I like to make sure everything is edible and can be bought from your local supermarket.

Due to having a background in psychology I have been reading up on my old developmental psychology textbooks to gain a deeper understanding of the sensory development of babies and toddlers. It is really interesting to learn about their abilities and how they change month by month - I will do a future blog about the sensory development so you can see what I mean! So when I am creating the messy play I try to make sure there are different smells, tastes, colours and textures for them to get stuck in with, I even try to incorporate sounds by using things that might crunch under their feet and bottoms. This really makes it a multi-sensory experience which is sure to enhance children's development at almost any age, even your older ones will still love getting messy.


This week we were celebrating Autumn, so here is a guide to our Autumn Messy Play!



The theme for this tub was an autumn walk, so we really wanted to recreate those crunchy leaves along with some fresh ones with a variety of smells.

To create our leafy walk, we used:

Cornflakes
Bran-Flakes
Baby Leaf Salad
Basil
Mint
Thyme

The babies absolutely loved munching on the cornflakes, bran-flakes, herbs and leaves. It gave them a chance to experience different textures and flavours along with the smells of the aromatic herbs. As soon as you got near the tub there was an infusion of basil and mint in the air. Although some of the children were a little bit unsure about standing and sitting in the cornflakes other adored being able to crunch and squash them and the sound underneath their feet. I would recommend this messy play tub for the babies to pre-school age however you could make this tub more interesting to older children by hiding small treasures in the cornflakes - maybe small squares of shiny paper which are jewels, or even collect some conkers and acorns to find. This could even be turned into a motor skill activity by trying to separate the bran-flakes from the cornflakes. Use your imagination to really bring it to life.



For the second tub I wanted to create a muddy experience, as we all know how rainy it gets in autumn! This one creates a lovely chocolate-y smell and the babies seem to love eating it! To make our edible mud, we used:
Cocoa Powder
Plain Flour
Vegetable Oil (Sunflower will work fine!)
Oats
Cornflour
Water
This one takes a little bit more work than the last, however it is worth it! First you need to mix the flour and cocoa powder. Once mixed together we need to mix in the oil. Do this a bit at a time and it is best to mix it with your hands, so maybe even get your little ones involved here as this is where the messy fun begins! You will roughly be using 1 cup of oil to 5 cups of flour, however just keep mixing slowly until you get a mixture that has the same consistency as kinetic sand, i.e. it will stay in a shape you squash it into but isn't too sticky. You may need to rub it together to evenly distribute the oil. Now you have your chocolate kinetic sand mixture you need to add the oats! Mix them all in to add to the texture. As the kinetic sand is quite dry, we wanted to add a gloopy mud element and for this we used cornflour and water! We mixed it in the middle of the chocolate sand mixture so some of the chocolate would mix in and add to the colour. Slowly add the water to the cornflour and you will find it gets quite tough to mix, slowly add more water until you get a mixture that moves like a liquid when left alone but acts like a solid when handled. There you have it, our edible mud! Again you can make this more advanced for your older children by adding thing like gummy worms for them to find in the mud. The cornflour and water is also a great science based activity for them to make and play with, it makes a great opportunity to teach them about non-Newtonian liquids (Liquids that act differently than normal liquids).

Sunday 4 September 2016

Getting Back into the swing of things - Back to school tips

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The first day back to school can be daunting, not just for the little ones! After 6 weeks of fun and no school it can be difficult getting back into the swing of things. So, we wanted to try and make things a little bit easier for you all. We have created our top 3 back to school tips to try and make the transition that bit easier!
 
Top Tip #1
At the Rainbow Factory we always love using the power of books! So start getting the children excited about school by reading stories that are about going back to school.
Here are our top back to school books for you to read:

This book is absolutely fantastic for getting the children looking forward about school again, it starts with Splat being excited to go in but then he is sad when he comes home as he has homework (don't worry, it doesn't put a damper on going back to school!). His task is to prepare a for a show and tell at school about the summer holidays, he is fed up because he did so many fun things he doesn't know what to do the project on. He then goes on to talk about all the exciting and wonderful things he did over the summer before choosing what he will take in for show and tell.

 Not only is the story enjoyable but it is a great way to get your kids thinking and trying to get them to reflect about what they did over summer. Maybe even get them to do a show and tell project as well!
 
This book is great if your children love cars, trucks and dinosaurs! It is ideally for those who are going into their first year of school as it gives them a feel of what it's going to be like. Some of the Dinotrux are worried that they will need to go to the toilet or might be thirsty. It ends by the Dinotrux seeing school isn't so scary after all. 

It's a short and easy to read book and it gives your children an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about starting school, plus it shows that it's okay to be a little nervous.

Another book by Chris Gall, this time this is suitable for older children as it is a little scary (especially for somebody who has never been to school!). The children have a substitute teacher for the day, or should that be substitute creature! The creature tells tales of what has happened to naughty children he has taught in the past and what has made him the creature! It can be a little scary for younger ones however it has a lovely ending and is funny in between. 

It teaches the children to be nice to the teachers in school, as the creature became that way from being bad! It has a lovely moral as it shows the children that even if you are bad you can always fix it by being good again. The story is set in October and references to Halloween, so this one is also perfect for the October half term! 

 
Now this book speaks for itself! Perfect for older children or those who love to read longer stories. It is a lot to read in one sitting (especially before bed time), but one chapter a night is perfect for the build up to school. Especially if you plan it right and read the chapter where they get to Hogwarts the night before school, could you imagine the excitement? If you really want to bring the HP magic to life, be sure to keep an eye out for our Harry Potter events at the Rainbow Factory! We just had a return to Hogwarts day on the 1st September, keep checking our website here to stay up to date with our events and don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Harry Potter is a book that speaks for itself and I don't think we need me to explain how good it is or what happens! It is also a great way to get the children using their imaginations, to imagine Hogwarts, Quidditch and Diagon Alley not to mention it starts them on their way to reading longer novels and takes them a step away from picture books (however, there is an illustrated copy!).

Get the books here:


Top Tip #2
Take your imagineer shopping for school supplies! When I was younger I used to love our annual trip to buy pencil cases, pens, lunch boxes and the all the works. What else will get them more excited for school than being able to use all their new things.

Now, it can get costly if you end up buying the shop however that isn't necessary. You can buy as little or as much as you like! Just buying a new lunch box offers the same excitement without having to go all out. 

If you want to make the first day back to school really special, be sure to buy one of our Boggles bookbags! Now at a special price of £3.99, you can come in and buy them or for an extra £1 we will send them out to you. Just give us a call on 0113 257 5750 or e-mail info@rainbowfactorykids.com.


Top Tip #3
Routine, routine, routine. Get them back into their school routine! Start as soon as possible to get them ready to go back to school. Get them in bed for a certain time (or at least try to!), if mornings are usually a struggle to get them up at a certain time, a few days in advance get them up and ready for breakfast, dressed and even leave the house at the same time you would be leaving for school - even if it's just to go to the shops or the park. Once they are set in their routines it, hopefully, will be much easier when it comes to the real thing! And don't forget how important an evening routine is too, get into the habit of bath, book and bed so they are ready.

Top Tip #4
This one is more for you grown ups! Get everything organised the night before, lay out school uniforms, put lunchboxes to the side, put out bookbags and anything else that will be needed for the first day of school. If everything is organised the night before it will mean a lot less stress in the morning and, hopefully, nothing will get forgotten in the madness! 

Top Tip #5
When the kids go back it can be difficult to stay on top of all the different activities they are doing, after school clubs, sports along with going to friends houses and them coming to visit your home. A great way to keep on top of it all is to put a weekly schedule on the wall, this way you can keep glancing at it as you pass.


There we go! You now have all of our top tips! We wish you the best of luck in getting your little ones back to school and we hope they have an amazing school year. Happy learning to you all!   

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