February Half Term Fun

Looking for some cheap or free activities in and around Swansea for half term? Look no further! I've compiled them all in a handy list! I'm keeping everything crossed for good weather as Margam's program of events looks fantastic this half term. There are some wet weather library and museum options though!

Monday 24th February

Margam Park: Grow Your Own Veg session along with the opportunity to make a grasshead to take home. Sessions are at 10.30, 12, 1.30 and 3.30 and cost £2 per child.

Waterfront Museum: Design Your Own Lemon Clock, make a clock using a lemon! 12.30 - 2.30. Ages 7+ and needs to be booked. £2 per child.

Tuesday 25th February

Margam Park: Drumming Workshop at 10.30, 12.00, 1.30 and 3.30 in the Castle.

Swansea Museum: Make and illustrate your own book and do 'giant fridge poetry'! Ages 4+. 10- 1 and 2 - 4pm

Swansea Central Library: Spy Adventure Treasure Hunt suitable for ages 8 - 12. 1.30 - 2.30pm

Wednesday 26th February

Clydach Library: 'Design to Smile', I think this is some kind of dentist run/themed craft session. 11 - 12.

Margam Park: Willow Weaving, make a Willow Snail. £2 per child, sessions at 10.30, 12, 1.30 and 3.30

Thursday 27th February

Margam Park: Storytelling in the Castle at 11.30, 12.30, 1.30, 2.30, 3.30

Swansea Museum: 'Dylan's Swansea' a collage and painting workshop suitable for ages 8 - 16 although younger children are welcome. Sessions are at 10 - 1 and 2 - 4pm

Swansea Central Library: 'Here Come the Aliens', story time and craft 1.30 - 2.30 pm. Suitable for ages 5 - 8.

Friday 28th February

Margam Park: Super Soapy Soap Socks (!), a felt making workshop to make a super soap sock (whatever that is!). 10.30, 12, 1.30, 3.30. £2 per child.

Swansea Central Library: Family Film (no information about which film it is yet) at 1.30pm

On top of all this there's free swimming at all the local leisure centres and play sessions at various places in Swansea (look on swansea.gov.uk for more info). The Odeon and The Vue are also running their Kids Club films in the mornings which are pretty good value.

Happy Holidays!

The Winter Olympics have come to Clydach!

So this week we've been inspired by the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. We've used the Olympics as the theme for our artwork and for some other activities too.

Painting circles, I showed them the Olympic logo and one of the boys made a pretty good attempt at copying it!

 We also made the logo out of paper plates and coloured tissue paper:

The after school children enjoyed making toboggans out of lego and racing them down the courses I made:

By far the most popular activity was the little ice rink I made, they just didn't want to make their toy figures race though, they wanted to get onto the ice themselves!

Happy Chinese New Year!

One of my (Chinese) New Year Resolutions is to update my poor neglected blog more often! This week we've celebrated Chinese New Year with some lovely crafts and activities for kids of all ages, as well as trying some Chinese Food.

Using footprints to make a horse picture was very popular, the children really enjoyed the tickly feeling of the paint on their feet!

  

They made Chinese lanterns too - great for practicing scissor skills:

Using some printables from the fantastic Red Ted Art the older children made these Chinese Dragons

Noodles made for some lovely messy play:

And we tried a variety of different Chinese food today, chicken and veg stir fry for dinner and vegetable spring rolls and prawn crackers for lunch!

Happy Mother's Day!

We've spent the week making lots of lovely presents and cards for our Mummys! I wanted to make things where the children could really get involved in and enjoy the process.
We made truffles that had crushed biscuits in them, it was lots of fun making the crumbs:

So was mixing and rolling the truffles, as well as decorating a cone to put them in:

Painting the cards and a flower pot was also fun! We went to the garden and I let the children choose which flowers they wanted to put in their flower pot.

The end result looked pretty good too:

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus!

Heddiw ro'n ni'n dathlu Dydd Santes Dwynwen gyda crefftiau a coginio:
Today we were celebrating Santes Dwynwen Day (the Welsh equivalent of St Valentine) with crafts and baking:

 Quality sweet wrappers stuck onto some sticky back plastic make a lovely suncatcher!

Oes ti ddim yn gwybod amdano Santes Dwynwen, dyma'r stori/If you don't know about Santes Dwynwen, heres' the story; Pwy Oedd Santes Dwynwen?

A festival of Christmas activities!

We've rounded off a brilliant year with some lovely Christmassy activities. I've not got round to blogging much as we've been so busy, so here's a quick run down:

We've made christmassy cupcakes:

 Saltdough decorations:

 Mincepies:

 We've partied!

 We've played with snowy sensory trays:

 And peppermint christmas tree playdough:

 We've decorated the Christmas tree:

 And exlpored a Christmassy discovery box:

 Done Christmassy colouring in:

 Made snowmen:

And gingerbread Christmas trees:

 Explored the oaty, pepperminty Christmas sensory tray:

 Gone on a trip to Winter Wonderland:

 Made Christmas cards:

 Been to see the Coca Cola lorry:

 And finished off with Christmas dinner:

It's been so much fun - hope Father Christmas brings something lovely for all these good little boys and girls!

Making an Advent Wreath

There are so many lovely Christmassy craft ideas out there, we just have to try them out over the next few weeks. We started with an Advent Wreath, the finished article didn't look that spectacular if I'm honest, but the kids really enjoyed the process which is the main thing!

First we painted the wreath (made out of paper plates!) red

Then we glued green hand prints made out of tissue paper onto the wreath

This bit was FUN! The babies rolled cut up tissue rolls in white paint before adding glitter. We'll use this method again, they loved it!

The finished article; an advent wreath - kind of!