Today we had an extra visitor at our house and we made up a batch of sandy cloud dough but after quickly realising our play tub was not quite big enough for four pairs of hands, I decided to set up another simple invitation for them all to enjoy. Our #easyplayidea today was to create their own zoo playmat - a perfect activity for mixed ages.
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To create this invitation you will need -
- a large plastic sheet (ours was from a leftover roll of disposable table cloth) but a cheap shower curtain or large piece of paper or cardboard would work just as well
- lots of textas (we used Sharpies) or crayons
- plastic animals (we love our Schleich animals)
- optional extra - a Zoo Sign (you can find this editable Zoo sign at Early Learning HQ)
To start them all off, I drew in some enclosures and a series of paths leading around the zoo and then left them to it. After some brief discussion between them about what should go where, they all set to work.
There was a lot of talk about which animals belonged where and whether or not they should be grouped in the continents they are native to. All the Australian animals ended up together.
They were also quite careful to include the right sort of vegetation in each enclosure. Bamboo for the pandas, grasslands or savannah for the zebras and jungle for the gorillas.
More and more details kept getting added and I suspect this will keep happening over the coming days.
Meanwhile, there was quite the line up in the carpark of Lalaloopsy's waiting for the zoo to open!
Finally, as it was starting to get late, the zoo was open!!
While we drew a zoo on our playmat , you could of course draw anything - a farm, a town, an airport, even the moon! Whatever your child's current interest might be. A zoo was an obvious choice as my children love animals and we've been talking about our coming zoo visit for the past week or so.
If you liked this you might also like my Creative Play board on Pinterest - I often pin pretend play ideas there
If you liked this you might also like my Creative Play board on Pinterest - I often pin pretend play ideas there