Thursday 24 May 2012

BIG and LITTLE – dog park world


Welcome to the first BIG and LITTLE pretend play collaboration. Jillian from A Mom with a Lesson Plan is tackling the BIG and I am tackling the LITTLE. This month we chose dogs as our theme and I get to go first. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see Jillian's post – Jillian is an expert in pretend play and I am learning a lot from her. I am renowned for not being very good at pretend play, so for me, this is an exciting collaboration.

For our LITTLE we decided to make a dog park for all our toy doggies. This was a great opportunity to talk to the kids about how to safely approach dogs.

    To build our little dog park world we started by spreading out a large batch of bright green playdough. On a trip to the local park we had collected some twigs and sticks. The twigs became a 'wooded' area and the sticks became a path leading into the dog park.

    We used small paddle pop sticks for fencing and created a tree from a toilet paper roll stuffed with green tissue paper. The girls wanted to add a pond (we used a bowl) for the dogs to swim in – those lucky little doggies!

    We added some signage, drawn by Cakey, a water bowl (milk bottle lid) for thirsty canines and some lego flowers. We found string for leads – all dogs outside the fenced area had to be leashed! Dogs that escaped and ran around free and swam in the pond were called "naughty dogs". The girls enjoyed letting their doggies escape and trying to rustle them back into the fenced park.

    Our little dog park world was well used for a few days. The fence was pulled down and resurrected a number of times. The doggies came and went and all of them had a swim – it was a very packed pond!

    Laying down our big batch of green playdough
    Adding a pond so the dogs can have a swim
    Better get a bag and clean that up!
    Here comes another dog on his leash
    Run little fella
    Thanks for reading the first installment of BIG and LITTLE, I hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow Jillian will be revealing her BIG pretend play idea for all our furry friends. I can't wait!

    If this is your first visit to at home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along through our facebook page or subscribe via email or RSS. Cheers Ali

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    24 comments:

    1. Wonderful!!! I think you have to stop saying you don't like pretend play... you are way to good at it! :)

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      1. aha.... getting there slowly. Thanks Jill :)

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    2. Yay! The series is finally here! I love this small world :)

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    3. Wow! Ali, for someone who is not very good at pretend play, you created something pretty wonderful! Can't wait to see Jillian's BIG play. What a great idea for a series.

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      1. I am trying to improve in this area, kids love pretend play so much and it is so important for their active imaginations.

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    4. This is such a great pretend play and what a fantastic idea...I can't wait to see what you all come up with next!!

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      1. Thank you.... another theme for next month. I can't wait.

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    5. This is so awesome. You are an expert when it comes to LITTLE.

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      1. Thanks mansi. I love your little worlds too.

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    6. Brilliant - this is one area that I'm not very good at at all. J has just seen this and now wants me to make a park for our dogs as well. I think hearing dog walk park was a little too much for our greyhound and she got very excited

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      1. haha your poor dog will definitely want to go for a walk now!! If you make one I would love to see it.

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    7. What a fabulous idea! Your conversation with the kiddos about safely approaching dogs and clean up (my least fave part!) is great. Pretend play has so many opportunities for conversation with the little ones and a way to have fun too! Thanks for sharing..pinning this to try out soon. :)

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      1. Yes it was a really good opportunity to talk to the kids about dogs (not sure how much Boo understands). If I sat them down and tried to give them a lecture they wouldn't pay any attention to me!!!

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    8. oh, my daughter would love this!!! She would especially get a big kick out of the poop! Great job!

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      1. Thank you, I got a kick out of making brown playdough for the poop.

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    9. So sweet! This is the type of play that's very popular at my house. lol @ the poop :D

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      1. Yes I found the poop funnier that the girls did :)

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    10. Great idea for a series! Your dog park is very detailed and full of fun. :)

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    11. Using play dough as the terrain is a super idea! We don't have dogs- but that shouldn't stop us from doing something like this! :)

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      1. We don't have dogs but my girls absolutely love them so I'm sure we will get dogs eventually.

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    12. I don't think your twitter link works - but could be me?

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