Childhood101

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We Play: Because it keeps us young!

Our play experiences are influenced by many things – ideas from real life, ideas from my previous life as a teacher, ideas from television, ideas from books, ideas from the seasons…anywhere really. This week’s play idea was an extension of a real life experience from our weekend, a visit to a local fair, where Immy had her face painted.


Some coloured circles cut from sheets of craft foam and stuck onto a plastic lid made for an easy face painting palette. Jemima was transformed into a beautiful butterfly and me… well I’ve been a dinosaur… a ladybird… a pirate… a dolphin…

Now it is your turn, what playfulness has filled your home this past week?

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Caz says

    What a great idea the face painting palette is, so simple but looks just like the real thing. My girls love dress ups at the moment, this would be a great way to encourage them to play together rather than just doing their own thing. Thankyou, we will be giving this a go today :-)
    Love the tiger face by the way - adorable!

  4. science-at-home.org says

    Face painting is huge here, we get face crayons rather than the paints and the girls do it themselves in front of a big mirror. I wonder how they'd go with pretend palettes and let the toys join in the fun.

  5. Anne@LittleSproutBooks says

    How smart - my B doesn't really like to have paints or things on his face, but pretend paints would be right up his alley!

  7. Tricia says

    I love your imaginary face paint. My daughter was gifted some face paint once....and although she loved using it - boy does it create a mess!! I think we'll try the imaginary stuff next time ;-)

  8. Janey says

    This face painting idea is so simple and fun. I love your blog. I've gotten so much inspiration from it. Thank you!

  10. Chapter Forty says

    Recently I volunteered my amateur face painting skills for a school fete. It turned out half the school children wanted to be face painted. The line was huge, and at the end of the day I was shattered. So I really like the look of those imaginary paints.

  11. •´.¸¸.•¨¯`♥.Trish.♥´¯¨•.¸¸.´• says

    Cute idea, we just had our faces painted on the weekend and they pretended in the bath to do it again.

  13. Mama to 3 Blessings says

    Oh my goodness - this is my 1st time here - I love this blog! I saw your button on another blog so I decided to check it out - glad I did! I am a homeschool mom of a 5, 3 & 1 year old - your blog has so many great ideas! I will definitely be coming back! I linked up too w/ our homemade puzzle! Nice to meet you! Have a great week! :)
    Nicole

  14. Sarah says

    Lovely pretend play - and so simple. At first i thought we were going to see Jemima with a face-full of paint!

    Thanks so much for mentioning my buttons post as one of your favourites from last week. Very flattering given all these great blogs linking up. I'm going to try to link up every Tuesday.

  15. Tricia says

    I love the face painting idea! We had our MOMs Halloween party this week and ever since Sweet Pea keeps wanting me to draw on his face so he can be a lion again - I'm going to try this!

    I love your blog - thanks for the inspiration!

    -Mom is the Only Girl

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