Who doesn't love emojis?  And we're so excited to see the Emoji Movie that we couldn't resist when we were offered these adorable light up Emoji Figures to review.


As soon as they arrived the kids couldn't wait to tear into the packages and play with them. I have to say that they were a bit disappointed not to have the poo emoji (but I wasn't, ha ha!) We were sent Gene (which Ethan chose for himself) and Jailbreak (which Ivy was more than happy to have).  Each figure comes with a speech bubble shaped stand which they easily slot into and can stand up on a shelf when not being played with.


The figures come with batteries inside, so they work straight away (which I appreciate) so all the kids needed to do is gently lift up their emoji's arm and they light up!  Gene's mouth lights up and on Jailbreak it is the symbol on her hat and her hair.


In bright light of course it is difficult to see, but once you bring them into a dark room you can see that it really lights up their whole heads, and the kids were so excited to discover this!


They both decided to put their emojis on their window sills by their beds, so that if they wake up at night they can turn on a little light to be able to see.



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* This is a review post, we were sent these Emoji Figures from Flair to play with them and write our honest opinions about them.*

Where has the summer gone?  It's almost time to go back to school and we are getting ready.  We're just back from holiday and looking for some easy and fun crafts to do for back to school, so this was just perfect for us today!


What you'll need to make a back to school frame craft:

• card or cardboard sheet
• ruler
• scissors
• Bostik foam pads
• Scrabble letter tiles
• markers

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to make this craft and write our honest opinions.*

I recently realised that I rarely manage to post about the gifts that we give to the children's teachers because it's always such a busy time of year that I don't have the time to write about them.  So I thought I'd dig out some photos and try to share a few of them now.  I don't know about you, but we think it's really important to give a little something to the kids' teachers to show our appreciation.  Even if it's just a handmade card, we always say thank you to their school teachers, swim teachers, ballet teachers and all the others.

End of Year Gifts for Teachers

When Ethan finished his first year of nursery we really wanted to express our gratitude, so we put together some flowers and a card with a Thank You for Helping Me Grow theme for his teachers.




Last year we gave each of Ethan's preschool teachers a summer themed gift and used the fruit infusion water bottles as a base.  I then found some fruit themed stationery (a pen and a notebook) but unfortunately I can't find a photo of them anywhere (I may have to make another one for someone!)

We often contribute to larger class gifts now that Ethan has started proper school, but we still like to make a little something for his teachers.  So this year we are using Kilner drinking jars, decorating them with glass pens and filling them with tea bags (for iced tea), a really nice hand cream and other lotion for another summer themed gift.  I also found these adorable tags and printed them off from Everyday Savvy (I often search around to find tags designed by some very clever bloggers who are much better at this sort of thing than I am!)

Christmas Gifts for Teachers

For Christmas we often like to bake for the teachers and present them in some sort of jar or cup.  When Ethan was in nursery we made these mugs full of Christmas goodies for the teachers which Ethan loved helping to prepare.



We also like to give gloves, hand cream and hand sanitiser as a Christmas gift for the teachers tied all together with a bow, it's just the perfect thing for cold hands at that time of year!

This past year we went back to our original theme though and filled some jars with homemade cranberry shortbread cookies and fudge for each of the teachers that help Ethan's class.

Easter Gifts for Teachers

Ethan made Easter baskets out of yogurt pots for all of his teachers! He wrote 'thanks for being an egg-cellent teacher' on the handles and the cute tags we printed out from @lovetheday Then he filled the baskets with Easter grass, decorated with stickers and put chocolate eggs in (dairy free for one teacher, @lindtuk and @cadburyuk creme eggs for the others!) 🐰🐣 Happy Easter break!!!

A post shared by Niki - Play & Learn Every Day (@playandlearneveryday) on Mar 31, 2017 at 5:02am PDT

Beginning of the Year Gifts for Teachers

When the children first start in a new class it's nice to give the teacher a little something to say hello, and for them to get to know the kids a bit better.  We made this A is for Apple Teacher Card for Ethan's first teacher and also included some information about him on this For My New Teacher Transition Booklet that we printed out from Twinkl.



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There is no doubt in my mind that the beach is Ethan and Ivy's absolute favourite place to be at any time of year!  So we decided to make our own little beach small world with sea shells that we collected on our recent trip to Cornwall.



What you'll need to make a Beach Small World in a Jar craft:

• wide mouthed jar or large clear yogurt pot
• blue glitter paint
• Bostik White Glu
• sand
• seashells
• water
• small people toys

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* This is a review post, we were sent a box of craft supplies from Bostik in order to create a nature craft.*

We love any opportunity to release our creativity on the world, so when Ethan was asked to bring in a jar full of fun things for the kids jar tombola at his school's summer fair, we got very excited!  We needed to think of something that we could fit in a jar, that would be fun to play with and that everyone would love...so we decided on unicorn play dough!



What you'll need to make a Unicorn Play Dough Jar:

• a clean empty jar
• flour
• salt
• water
• Kool Aid in a few different flavours
• bowl and spoon
• measuring cups
• glitter
• googly eyes
• cardboard cone shape
• glitter glue
• paint sticks
• glittery gold paint
• gems
• tag

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Lego is definitely our absolute favourite building toy and learning tool.  We have more Lego sets that I could possibly admit, and a few big boxes of Lego for building our own creations. So we definitely don't need much convincing to get the Lego out and start to build!  And as it's summer it's time to bring that Lego outside, it's not just for rainy days anymore!  We are so excited to be taking part in the Summer Camp at Home series, full of fun themed activities for each week of the summer holidays.  Join the Summer Camp at Home Facebook Group to keep up with all of the fun!

Lego Learning Week

If you want to take part in our Lego Learning week, here are a few things that you might need:

• a big box of assorted Lego (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• some Lego minifigures (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• a big box of assorted Lego Duplo (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• play dough (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• a small toy fishing net (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• a Lego shaped lunch box (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• toy hammers and chisels (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• reading books (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• large buckets of water (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)
• a permanent marker (buy from Amazon UK / Amazon US)

Monday - Duplo and Play Dough

This one is a super easy way to start the week, just get out that big box of Duplo and a few pots of play dough (or make your own, our favourite is this simple to make and incredible smelling Kool Aid Play Dough) then start making patterns with your Duplo box.


This is suitable for any age of children (even if they've outgrown the Duplo!) Try asking them to make a pattern with the different sizes of blocks, alternating sizes and following along.  


We also used some blocks that are similar to Duplo but are hollow to make our own play dough building blocks, which are really fun to play with!

Tuesday - Fishing for Number Duplo

Another day to play with that Duplo!  This time I wrote numbers using a permanent marker on each piece of Duplo and we brought them outside to do some water play.  We placed all of the numbered Duplo into a large bucket of water and then used a small toy fishing net to pick up one at a time.


For Ivy this activity was just about identifying numbers, each time she picked up a Duplo block she had to tell me which number was on it.  For older children you can add the challenge of then putting the blocks into numerical order or even to add the blocks together and tell you the sums.

Another fun math activity with Duplo is this Tower Building Busy Bag.

Wednesday - Lego Minifigure Ice Excavation

This one takes a bit of preparation, so we actually set it up the day before.  We have this great Lego lunch box which we filled about half way with water and then placed a few minifigures inside.  We then put the box into the freezer for the water to freeze.  After a few hours I took out the box and topped it up with water as all of the minifigures had floated to the top and I wanted them in the middle.


Once the block is fully frozen it is ready to play with!  We brought it outside and put it into a low bucket then warmed it up with our hands to free it from the lunch box.  The kids were so excited that it came out in the shape of a big Lego brick!  


Then we set to work with our hammers and chisels (we used wooden hammers from other toy sets and metal spoons as our chisels) to free the minifigures.

Thursday - Make a Lego Minifigure Reading Buddy

We definitely want to keep the children reading throughout the summer so that we don't experience that summer slide and have them forgetting everything they've learned this year. So we are reading every day, and making it fun by creating these cool minifigure reading buddies to help us follow along with the words in the books.

Friday - Lego Floating Boat Challenge

And finally, on the last day of the week it's time for a challenge!  I asked each of the children to make me a boat out of Lego, the challenge being that we want it to float in the water! They both set to work trying out different designs and making some incredible boats.


Then they tested them out in the water to see if they would float! Neither floated on the first try, so they went back and made some changes until they achieved their goal.  


It's a great way to keep them focused and to get their problem solving skills working. 


And if you're going on holiday at some point this summer, why not make a DIY Lego Busy Box to bring along with you?

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More nice weather means more excuses for water play in the garden!  And just in time for summer, Learning Resources have sent us this fantastic GeoSafari Jr Subscope for exploring underwater.  I can not even express to you just how excited Ethan was when this Subscope arrived for him to play with.  His two favourite things are submarines and swimming, so being able to look through a toy submarine to explore underwater is just perfect for him.  



The Subscope couldn't be easier to use, you just put one end into the water and put your eyes up to the other end.  If the water is a bit dark there are even lights on the front of the Subscope so that you can see what you're looking at.  It can be used in a variety of places, but we've started out by doing a bit of exploring in the garden just to get used to it.



We set up some big buckets of water with lots of shells and rocks that we collected from our recent beach holiday.  Then set out exploring them all.  (Of course if the weather isn't as nice it would be just as easy to do this in the bathtub or sink indoors, which I am sure we will be doing when the winter comes.)



Both Ivy and Ethan really enjoyed looking through the Subscope to see what they could discover and examine under water.  I could also see this working really well as a learning activity, if we use the water tray and put number and letter blocks in the water and the children have to identify what they see.



The next step is to take our Subscope down to the river to do some real investigating, the children are definitely going to love that!



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* This is a review post, we were sent the Subscope from Learning Resources in order to try it out and write our honest opinions*