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JKL
24-08-2014, 09:46 PM
Hi everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying the bank holiday weekend?

I'm just sitting and going through what I have/haven't got with a view to buying some new toys/resources for my new mindees.

From September I have two 3 year olds and two 5 year olds starting as well as a 6 month old.

Now my DS is 14 months so I'm plenty equipped for the 6 month but I need some more things for the others.

Do any of you lovely lot have any suggestions/ideas as to the kind of things I should be getting?

My mind is drawing a blank to the things that 3, 4, 5+ year olds like!

TIA xxx

Mouse
24-08-2014, 10:12 PM
Role play is always popular - cooking stuff, play food, tools etc

Small world - Happyland, Little People, Wow toys

Puzzles - jigsaws, shape sorters, stacking rings

Construction toys - lego, duplo, building blocks, k'nex etc

Vehicles

Dolls

Dressing up - hats, scarves, old waistcoats, jewellery, bags, ties, big pieces of fabric. I don't have any 'proper' costumes.

Natural resources are also always good - pine cones, shells, flower petals, leaves, corks. Children use them for all sorts of things.

My 'random' box is also very well used. It started off as a treasure basket, but soon outgrew that. It's got things like wooden & metal egg cups, wooden spoons, a whisk, marble, wooden & metal eggs, bits of fabric, odd pieces of wood, small wooden boxes with lids and lots of things that I don't really know what they are, but they look interesting!
Again, the children use the contents for all sorts of play.

JKL
24-08-2014, 11:20 PM
Role play is always popular - cooking stuff, play food, tools etc Small world - Happyland, Little People, Wow toys Puzzles - jigsaws, shape sorters, stacking rings Construction toys - lego, duplo, building blocks, k'nex etc Vehicles Dolls Dressing up - hats, scarves, old waistcoats, jewellery, bags, ties, big pieces of fabric. I don't have any 'proper' costumes. Natural resources are also always good - pine cones, shells, flower petals, leaves, corks. Children use them for all sorts of things. My 'random' box is also very well used. It started off as a treasure basket, but soon outgrew that. It's got things like wooden & metal egg cups, wooden spoons, a whisk, marble, wooden & metal eggs, bits of fabric, odd pieces of wood, small wooden boxes with lids and lots of things that I don't really know what they are, but they look interesting! Again, the children use the contents for all sorts of play.

Brilliant suggestions there mouse! Thank you! xxx

Maza
25-08-2014, 06:55 AM
Great ideas from Mouse. We also have at leas one art and craft activity a week and sometimes one a day. Check out you £1 shop - you can get all sorts of open ended craft bits from there - pompoms, ribbon, paper plates etc. I get my drawing paper from The Entertainer, both A4 and A3. Save egg boxes, paper rolls, yogurt pots etc - it's amazing what they will come up with. ELC do lovely colours in poster paint, including glitter paints and glow in the dark paint. Don't forget scissors and glue sticks (our local Sure Start Centre sells them very cheap).

Outdoors, they all love our sand box (in a plastic under the bed storage box, on a bench, but sometimes on the floor). We have real pots and pans in it (from jumble sales) and stuff from the £shop - ladels, tongs, muffin tins, baking trays, jugs etc. They love to add leaves, pine cones etc and make cakes all day. I put our battered old toy cooker next to it and a little plastic table where they can put their utensils and they play for hours. x

FloraDora
25-08-2014, 07:24 AM
Gardening of any kind: digging,sowing seeds, weeding and watering. Going for walks and finding a pre given list of things, feeding the ducks,running on the field with ribbons.
Sticking things onto a piece of paper with really drippy glue - like Maza suggested, buttons,collage bits from discount stores.
Duplo is a big hit and also open ended; bricks,natural things,sticks,cloth, some smallworld animals or people ....mine play for ages with these. Books with cd's are also a big hit for quiet moments, though Jaspers beanstalk had to be hidden in the end as I got a little fed up of constantly hearing it when one LO played it continuously one day as background sound to everything.
Play kitchen, in or out with water.
All age love cooking, but the trick here is to make something that all ages can do in some way: pizza, make and decorate cakes and biscuits crosses all age groups.
But if your budget is small I would go for finding things on a walk that then become open ended play, counting, fillingbowls and emptying: conkers, leaves,twigs,petals,stones, pine cones etc...
We are off to Brighton this week and my shopping list was shells -then I remembered its all just stoney, but I am hoping at least to buy some in a cheap seaside shop - though there aren't many of these in Brighton.