Rainy Day Ideas

Tuff tray play and toddler fun!

 

Another week of lockdown and the weather here in South Wales has been horrible!

Toddler G is still desperate for snow but all we have had is rain but we have still got out for some fabulous puddle splashing.

 

Also all the parks are empty in the rain so wrap up in waterproofs and your little one won’t have to share the swings!

 

Here are some of the things we got up to this week:

 

Off Road Race Track

 

ToddlerG loves racing his cars and what better way to race than over an off road track!

 

We built this with sand, stones, sticks and chocolate powder with some water and sugar. The sugar adds a grainy texture which is great for making tyre tracks.

 

I added a start line and a recovery truck which was necessary for pulling out the cars that inevitably get stuck.

 

This was a great tray for playing together and racing cars around but toddler G was also very happy to go around the track and rescuing cars alone too.

You can use anything you have for race track surface, flour, soil, rice etc

 

Car Wash

Following on from our off road race track I thought it would be fun to make a car wash.

 

I used some left over cartons and glued them together with a hot glue gun and pierced some holes so the water would drip down slowly.

 

I made a big muddy patch on the tuff tray so toddler G could get the cars super dirty before driving them through the wash.

 

He loved this! Although after a while of playing toddler G decided it was also fun to use the water and the cocoa powder to make a very very big muddy mess but he still really enjoyed this and it kept him entertained for a while.

 

 

Cotton wool flowers

This has to be one of my favourite things to do now, it was so much fun and it looks great.

 

I folded over cotton wool pads and stapled them so they looked like this:

Then I drew a flower stalk and stuck the cotton wool petals and leaves down with ordinary glue.

 

I popped some food colouring in to jars with water and provided toddler G with pipettes to drop the coloured water on the cotton.

It absorbed all the water and the colours look so pretty.

 

Toddler G really loved the precision of this activity and he also loved mixing the colours to see what he would end up with so it’s a great learning activity too.

 

Colourful chickpeas

 

Did anyone elses husband buy some really random things at the beginning of lockdown last year? No, just mine then!

 

I love chick peas, we use them all the time but the canned variety not the dried. I really don’t have time to soak them so I decided to do something else with them instead and this worked really well!

 

Split the peas in to batches of equal amounts and add a generous amount of white vinegar and liquid food colouring. Mix them well and then leave to dry. You can also use paint if you would prefer.

 

Once they are dry they are a great sensory item.

 

They make a lovely noise and because they are so round and smooth they are really lovely to play with.

 

You can use them for pouring, shaking, add them in to your little ones kitchen for pretend cooking.

We used ours to practice fine motor skills so toddler G picked them up using tweezers and we could separate them by colour.

 

These last for absolutely ages so once you are done, store them in a big container ready for playing another day.

 

I hope some of these ideas help you and your little ones on a rainy day!

 

Keep in touch and let me know what you have been up to and if you have tried any of the suggestions.

 

Lots of people are sending me their gorgeous ice lanterns so that idea is still the most popular I think!!

 

Take care Funky Fans, thanks for reading!!


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  • Veronica on

    Great blog thank you for some lovely ideas. Always looking for ways to use our tuff tray.


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