Today, I am super excited to have Anna from Kids’ Play Space guest posting on Housing A Forest.  My kids have been asking about some of the different nocturnal animals, so her post comes at a perfect time!  I love the fun interactive activity she created for her possum loving son ~ Nocturnal Possum Small World.   Read on to find out how she put it all together.

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Hi folks! Anna here from Kids’ Play Space, delighted to be over at Housing A Forest sharing with you all our latest space saving project: Nocturnal Possum Small World in a Window Sill.

Our 2 year old boy is amazed by possums at the moment by night he and I go ~ star gazing and possum hunting before bed, and by day … well, he screams excitedly as he points out every bit of possum poo under the local trees! So, creating an interactive nocturnal small world seemed like the perfect project for us!

At Kids’ Play Space, I love recording how we try to make the most of our limited space (indoors and outdoors) at home, simply, on a budget, recycling wherever possible, and incorporating as many interesting natural and sensory elements as possible. This small world took over our living room window sill, and whilst older kids could definitely enjoy setting up the scene – knowing my boy’s limited attention span and love for all things sensory, I chose to get it part ready so he could just jump right in and start playing.

What you’ll need for the initial set-up:

• Black cardboard ‘night sky’
• Popsicle/ icypole sticks glued on as the fence
• Coloured wool wrapped around recycled paper rolls  – ‘tree trunks’, with tape over the bases to hold the branches later
• Corrugated card roof tops, and moon piece glued on
• String ‘power lines’ taped in place
• Laminated cut photos of possums attached via bulldog (stationary) clips  – some hooked over the string/ power lines, and others standing up on the clips as moveable animal pieces
• A small cord ‘clothes line’ taped on, and felt ‘clothes’ pieces attached with mini pegs

…And for the fun additions: 

• Memories of observations, and collected ‘treasures’ from a trip (or multiple trips) to the park (including fallen branch pieces to add to the tree trunks)
• Brown felt ‘possum poo’
• Green tissue paper paper, ribbon and felt ‘grass’ pieces
• Star stickers
• A torch to explore the world with the lights low

To start our play session here, I let Master B choose an item from the box of collected goodies one at a time, and I followed his lead as he explored each of the park treasures and the scurrying possums along the power lines.

Placing the tree tops into the trunks took a great deal of upper arm control on the little one’s part!

Then we had fun adding the different elements to the window sill scene… Naming, feeling, feeding the possums, and moving the possums about…

Then the torch came out – even though it was the middle of the day – ready and armed, we hunted little possums!

Can you guess what were possibly the most favourite and popular elements? … Yep, possum poop and stars! (Good mix hey!!)

If you’re into small worlds too, you may like to check out our outdoor Frog Small World which was so easy and has been a hit with my son pottering about outdoors alone, as well as during many ‘play dates’!

I feel so honoured to be guest blogging at the amazing Housing a Forest and really hope you enjoyed our little small world fun! Here’s to bridging the gap between the park and art fun for kids:-)

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Thanks so much for sharing Anna, I love your sons excitement about Possums! What a great way to explore and learn about nocturnal animals.  We all love comments, so why not pop over and visit Kids’ Play Space and tell her how much you enjoyed her post on Housing A Forest.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Kids’ Play Space to get you started:

• Tyre ladybird & bottle top insect friends ~ a phase by phase outdoor playspace update!
• The cooking obsession continues ~ cardboard box kitchen
• Pizzas! ~ easy felt pizza creations

I am so excited to have Jessica from Play Trains guest posting on Housing A Forest today.  If you have a little train enthusiast in your home, then I know you will enjoy her blog too.  It is packed full of engaging train activities that I know you will love.  However, for a fun twist instead of trains, Jessica is sharing a fun Meerkat Small World: a Child-Led Literacy Adventure with us today.

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It may come as a surprise to anyone who’s visited us at Play Trains! that we have time for anything other than, well, playing trains. But the truth is we also spend quite a lot of time pretending to be meerkats.

The Little Engineer’s best friend is a stuffed meerkat named Meekat, whose story I told as an introduction to how I made him his own tiny felt engineer’s hat. Most of our meerkat activities include Meekat, but perhaps the most special meerkat experience we’ve had happened in a place the scruffy little mongoose isn’t allowed to go: our sandbox.

Last summer, we had several meerkat books out from the library. Learning about his favorite animals inspired the Little Engineer to make a meerkat small world in the sandbox. We took Mama Meerkat and her pups out with us and pretended to build a new meerkat habitat at the zoo. We mounded the sand and dug small caves (he wouldn’t let me get the sand wet enough for tunnels). From our planters around the play area, we picked herbs and weeds and stuck them in the sand for plants.

After we’d been working for some time, building and rebuilding the habitat, he asked for markers and paper to write on. My first reaction was to say markers and sand don’t mix, but fortunately I took a moment to think it over and went inside to grab them.

He immediately went to work and wrote a sign for the meerkat habitat.

He told me it said, “No taking Meerkats out of the meerkat cage,” and, “No feeding meerkats.” But he, as the zookeeper, was allowed to feed them bugs, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes.

Next, he asked me to write a sign for him as he said the words.

And then then he drew the plans for a meerkat habitat.

Finally, he asked me to write down his words again as he described what happened in the habitat.

About halfway through, I commented that it sounded like a poem. I think he was emulating the rhythm of one we had recently read. He liked that idea so much he mentioned it in the poem itself.

Drawing attention to what he was doing did seem to break the natural flow of the poem. But on the other hand, it got him to purposefully try to create poetry. And I had to smile when he saw I had used an exclamation point and added his word for them into the poem. He still calls exclamation points “Gusto!” thanks to the way I first described their function to him.

This literacy adventure took no more from me than a simple yes and a willingness to follow his lead. What a beautiful experience it was to watch my child’s language skills and imagination blossom in such a relaxed, natural way.

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Thanks so much for sharing Jessica!  What a great reminder to follow our kids lead, and watch the learning unfold.  We all love comments, so why not pop over and visit  Play Trains and tell Jessica how much you enjoyed her post on Housing A Forest.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Play Trains to get you started:

• Fizzy Engine: Baking Soda and Vinegar Trains 
• Dryer Sheet Box Engine Shed 
• Pipe Cleaner Trees for Wooden Train Layouts