Table of contents for Autumn 2022 in Creative Steps

We are nearly in September and the rudderless ship is about to get a new captain, but will it make a difference to the plight of the early years, childcare and education sectors? We can but hope that a serious review of the funding is undertaken, and soon, as there is growing evidence the under-investment in early years is exacerbating the longer-term detrimental effects on young children. Considerable government investment is imperative – changing the staff-to-child ratios is not – and continuing to put the blame on the pandemic is not acceptable. With alternative plans proposed on how to get the economy moving again, surely investing in childcare provision will enable more mothers to get back into the workforce to support the economy? One day, someone in government will grasp…

Snowman Snap – RRP £5.50 A fun, festive snap game for all the family, featuring seasonal snowpeople that young children will adore and fast-paced gameplay the will appeal to older children. As part of Orchard Toys Mini Games range, Snowman Snap is compact and portable in size making it perfect for travel, at home or on holiday. Goose on the Loose – RRP £14.00 Watch out! There’s a Goose on the Loose! Help the farmers round up the escaped geese in this fun, colour-matching board game for all the family! Players shout “Goose on the Loose” if their geese escapes. Players shout “Honk” when collecting geese for their board. Not only is this game lots of fun but it helps to develop shape recognition, hand-eye coordination and number and counting…

LEARNING ZONES: Expressive Arts & Design STORE CUPBOARD: ■ LED tea light candles ■ Orange, pale green, black & white paints ■ Paint brushes ■ Green foam ■ White cloth ■ Black marker pen ■ White wool ■ Orange, black & purple felt ■ Googly eyes ■ Strong glue ■ Scissors Ghost 1 Cut a piece of white cloth to the same size as a sheet of kitchen roll. 2 Place over the top of the LED candle and gather. 3 Tie with white wool under the candle. 4 Draw on eyes and mouth with a black marker pen. 5 Cut a small hole for the wick and push through. 6 Cut a slit in the back, so you can turn the light on and off. Pumpkin 1 Paint the…

KEY: HB HARDBACK ★ PB PAPERBACK ★ BB BOARD BOOK A Seed Grows Antoinette Portis RRP £12.99 (HB) www.scallywagpress.com A Seed falls and settles into the soil, the sun shines and the rain falls and then the seed begins to sprout and so on… Age 3 years + We say… We love this simple and yet stunning story which follows the life cycle of a sunflower. With its pull-out page and enticing activities at the end, this book will have youngsters wide eyed with excitement at every read! Let’s go Outside! Ben Lerwill and Marina Ruiz RRP £8.99 (PB) £12.99 (HB) www.welbeckpublishing.com Let’s find a big, splashy puddle! Let’s run as fast as our legs can carry us! Join a group of friends as they play together throughout the seasons…

STORE CUPBOARD: ■ Pencil ■ Tissue paper ■ A4 white card ■ Coloured card ■ Ruler ■ Sticky tape ■ Glue ■ Paint ■ Felt ■ Wool ■ Small buttons ■ Small paintbrush 1 To make the angel’s body, curl a piece of A4 white card into a cone shape, tape the edge to hold it in place, leaving a 1cm hole at the top of the cone. Trim the end so the cone is about 15cm long. 2 Scrunch up a piece of tissue paper into a tight 4cm ball, press a piece of tape over the top to hold the shape. Wrap another piece of tissue paper over the ball to cover it then twist the end. 3 Push the twisted tissue through the hole in the top…

STORE CUPBOARD: ■ Pencil ■ Coloured tissue paper ■ White card ■ PVA glue ■ Glue brush ■ Coloured card 1 Tear some small tissue paper strips in different colours. Brush some glue over a piece of A4 white card then then paste the tissue on top. Paste more overlapping tissue pieces until the paper is covered. Leave to dry. 2 Make a couple more sheets in the same way using different tissue paper colours. Leave to dry. 3 Draw simple Christmas shapes (stars, stocking, trees, baubles) on the reverse side of the card pieces. Cut them out and glue them onto folded card backgrounds. 4 Use left over tissue paper pattern to cut out strips for borders, or cut out pieces to make patterns and decorations. HINTS & TIPS…

KING TUTS MASK 1 Paint the paper face mask gold. 2 Using the templates, cut out the head-dress top and sides from the gold card. 3 Cut out the neck piece from the gold card (a paper plate is the perfect size). 4 Cut out the chin beard and the snake/vulture shapes from the remaining gold card. 5 Cut the shiny blue paper into 1cm strips and apply to the head-dress top and side pieces. 6 Cut and stick blue and red shiny pieces making the eyebrows, the snake and vulture, chin beard and the neck pieces. Add extra gems and gold if you wish. 7 Fix all the pieces to the painted face mask using glue and tape (maybe use a stapler to hold the various pieces in place).…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Felt Fabric ■ Scissors ■ Glue ■ Needle and thread TO MAKE THE BROCCOLI 1 Cut two of each of the templates. Cut two stems from light green felt and two tops from dark green. 2 Sew or draw a face onto one of the broccoli stems. 3 Place the two stems together and sew up each side to make a tube shape. 4 Glue one broccoli top to each side of the stem. OTHER IDEAS ■ Make lots of different vegetables and put on a harvest festival performance! HINTS & TIPS ■ Younger children may need to glue the puppets rather than sewing. Make a carrot and a mushroom in the same way. Sew carefully at each side of the body and glue on the carrot…

GHOULISH GHOSTS 1 Take two cardboard kitchen roll tubes. Cut one down to approx. 16cm in height and the other to approx. 14cm. Using white paint (we used acrylic), cover the outside of each tube and leave to dry. 2 Using the templates provided, transfer the ghost shapes onto pieces of thin, white card. If you want your ghosts to exactly match your tubes, then paint them as well. Leave to dry. 3 When dry, stick googly eyes onto your ghost bodies and then turn them over and put a strip of double-sided tape down the centre of their backs. Peel off the backing tape and press the ghosts onto the white tubes with their heads just sticking over the top. SPOOKY SPIDERS 1 Cut sections of cardboard kitchen roll…

To help you select activities to suit your learning environment, each project in Creative Steps includes guidelines to the skills and subjects which will be enhanced by doing that activity. To assist with the aims of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), projects and activities in the first section of the magazine for 0-5 year-olds will support the Early Learning Goals (ELGs): ★ Communication and Language Development ★ Physical Development ★ Personal, Social and Emotional Development ★ Literacy Development ★ Mathematics ★ Understanding the World ★ Expressive Arts and Design In the following sections for 5-7 and 7-11 year-olds, projects and activities will be linked to the following KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum subjects: ★ Art & Design ★ Design Technology ★ Drama ★ Geography ★ History ★ Home Economics…

LEARNING ZONES: Expressive Arts & Design ★ Understanding the World ★ Physical Development The Creation Station help unleash the wonder within, through fun and educational arts and crafts, classes, parties, events and products. As a multi-award-winning, five-star rated company, they inspire over 14,500 children and families every week with creative arts and crafts experiences across the UK. Creating journeys of discovery, exploration and development to unlock ideas through fun, hands-on activities, here are a few creative ideas, taken from the www.thecreationstation.co.uk website. Spooky Tangerine Fun STORE CUPBOARD ■ Tangerines ■ Black felt pen ■ Wiggly eyes ■ Glue ■ Stick on gems 1 Sketch out a few spooky design ideas to get started. 2 Glue the googly eyes onto the tangerine. 3 Draw on some spooky fangs. 4 Stick on…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Pencil ■ Thick card ■ Scissors ■ Ruler ■ Glue ■ Thin dry twigs ■ PVA glue ■ Glue brush ■ Paints ■ Paintbrushes ■ Bottle caps 1 Cut out a big oval from card for the owl’s body, about 25cm x 20cm. Corrugated card cut from a box is ideal. An adult will need to help cut the card. 2 Cut out 2 card wings, glue them onto the body at the sides. Glue 2 milk bottle caps near the top for eyes and a card triangle beak. Leave to dry. 3 Cut or break thin twigs into short 3-4cm lengths. Brush glue over the body then stick the twigs into a pattern for the feathers and around the eyes. Leave to dry. 4 Paint the…

Laced Christmas Tree STORE CUPBOARD ■ Green and brown card ■ Glittery fun foam shapes – red, gold, white & silver ■ Gold elastic cord ■ Small hole punch ■ Pencil ■ Sticky tape ■ Scissors ■ Glue 1 Sketch the outline of a large Christmas tree on the sheet of green card. Neatly cut out the shape with scissors. 2 Use a small hole punch to make evenly spaced holes around the edges of the tree. 3 Take a long length of gold elastic cord. Tie a double knot in one end. The child can now thread the cord in and out of the holes to make the laced design. When finished, secure the loose cord end on the back of the tree with sticky tape. 4 Cut out…

Christmas Candles Card STORE CUPBOARD ■ A4 green card ■ Coloured card – red, tan, orange and yellow ■ Festive patterned card ■ Silver corrugated card ■ Gold ‘Merry Christmas’ stickers ■ Gold line stickers ■ Self-adhesive foam mount pads ■ Scissors and glue 1 Fold the sheet of green card neatly in half to create a greeting card. 2 Next, cut out a rectangle of tan card to measure 14cm x 20cm. Glue it onto the centre of the greeting card. 3 Use gold line stickers to decorate the border of the greeting card. 4 Cut out three candles for your greeting card in: red card, festive patterned card and silver corrugated card. Use foam mount pads to stick them onto the greeting card. 5 Take a gold line…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Felt pieces ■ Wiggly eyes ■ Twine or wool ■ Black fine liner pen ■ Red marker pen ■ Pom-poms ■ Strong glue ■ Paper ■ Pins ■ Scissors 1 Copy the templates onto paper and cut around. 2 Carefully pin the pieces onto felt and cut out. 3 Decorate the mittens with stripes, a heart, snowflake or pom-poms. Glue into place. 4 Glue on wiggly eyes. 5 Draw on whiskers, nose, mouth and claws with a black fine liner pen. 6 Make a loop with twine or wool and glue to the back of the head. Your kittens in mittens are ready to hang.…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Apple ■ Knife ■ Kitchen towel ■ Paints ■ Paintbrushes ■ Thick card strips ■ White card or thick paper ■ A4 coloured card background ■ Glue ■ Scissors 1 Cut an apple in half to make a flat shape for printing the pumpkins. Ask for an adult to help. Press the apple onto kitchen towel to absorb any excess moisture before printing. 2 Brush plenty of orange paint over the cut apple. Press it firmly onto a piece of white paper to make a print. Carefully lift the apple off the paper then apply more paint to make more prints in the same way. Use a small piece of curled card to print stalks on the pumpkins. Leave to dry. 3 Cut 2 or 3 long…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Card ■ Scissors ■ PVA glue and glue brush ■ Coloured paper ■ Tissue paper 1 Roll up a sheet of card to make a tube and glue or tape it into place. 2 Cut a strip of card and glue each end inside one end of the tube to make a handle. 3 Cut lots of leaf shapes from coloured paper. Glue them onto the windsock, starting from the bottom. (The end without the handle.) 4 Keep layering the leaf shapes until the windsock is covered. 5 Cut some long strips of tissue paper and glue the ends inside the windsock to make a fluttering tail! OTHER IDEAS ■ Collect and flatten real leaves between heavy books and use these instead of paper leaves! ■ Create…

Great books for growing minds KEY: HB HARDBACK ★ PB PAPERBACK ★ BB BOARD BOOK Britannica’s Word of the Day RRP £12.99 (HB) books.britannica.com Become a word virtuoso in just one year with 366 crackerjack words aimed to impress. This charmingly illustrated book features boffo words selected by the masterminds at Britannica to highlight the best of the English language. Age 8 years + We say… Fun illustrations and descriptions sure to enthuse even the most reticent wordsmiths! Oceanarium Activity Loveday Trinick & Teagan White RRP £9.99 (PB) www.bonnierbooks.co.uk Bursting with fascinating facts and puzzles, this educational book offers hours of entertainment to young artists and animal enthusiasts. Beautiful and inspiring, the myriad activities in this book challenge the reader to learn something new and use their imagination to draw,…

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Off to the Market Off to the Market by Alice Oehr is a beautiful, nonfiction exploration of markets, cooking, and fresh food. Learn all about produce in this delightful child’s tour of a food market, full of fun facts and delicious new discoveries. Filled with charming characters, it’s also a loving ode to the people who bring food to our table and connection to our community. To celebrate the publication of Off to the Market on 22 September, Scribble are offering readers the chance to win one of five copies. www.scribblekidsbooks.com For your chance to win a copy, just complete and return the coupon on page 61. SUPER QUESTERS Discover your inner superhero in the further adventures of the intrepid SUPERQUESTERS: The Case of the Missing Memory. When Bea’s…

STORE CUPBOARD ■ Paper plates ■ Pencil ■ Scissors ■ Paints ■ Cardboard tubes ■ Sponges ■ Coloured paper ■ Colour tissue paper ■ PVA Glue ■ Decoration - e.g. sequins, biodegradable glitter, buttons etc 1 Use the template provided, which fits to the edges of the plate. Place it on the back of the paper plate and draw around it to form the fish’s fin and tail. 2 Remove the template and cut along the lines. Older children can cut out their own fish - slight variations are not a problem! 3 Decorate as desired – we have created different examples using tissue paper, coloured paper scales, printing using a cardboard tube, sponge painting, glitter, etc 4 Don’t forget to add an eye for your fish – either a…

HINTS & TIPS ■ If you can't get hold of wooden decoration blanks, use circles of card with a hole punched at the top. STORE CUPBOARD ■ Wooden decoration blanks ■ Scissors ■ PVA glue and glue brush ■ Paints and paintbrush ■ Felt fabric ■ String 1 Cut out two antlers from brown felt fabric and glue them onto the wooden decoration. 2 Cut out a nose from red felt and glue this on too. 3 Use black paint to add eyes and a smile! 4 Thread a piece of string through the hole and tie it in a knot so that the decoration can be hung up. OTHER IDEAS ■ Make a Santa in the same way, with a big white beard and a red hat with white…

1 Cut out and discard the middle from a paper plate. 2 Paint the remaining ring grey and leave to dry. 3 Ask an adult to cut the handles off 57 spoons with a strong pair of scissors. 4 Paint 19 spoons red and leave to dry. 5 Paint 19 spoons pale green and leave to dry. 6 Glue the red spoons to the outside edge of the paper plate. Leave a small gap in between them. 7 Glue the white spoons onto the next row. Glue them in between the red spoons. 8 Glue on the green spoons in between the white spoons. 9 Glue trimmings onto the inside of the green spoons. Pom-poms, heart buttons, stars or anything small you can find. 10 Make a loop from twine,…

Yarn Wrap Leaf Picture STORE CUPBOARD ■ Coloured card – in cream and light brown ■ Selection of coloured yarn (or embroidery thread) ■ Pencil ■ Scissors ■ Glue ■ Sticky tape ■ Craft knife and cutting mat 1 Sketch the outline of a large leaf onto the sheet of light brown card. 2 You will need an adult to carry out this step for safety. Place the sheet of card (with the leaf outline) on a cutting mat. Use a craft knife to carefully cut out the shape. Discard the leaf cut-out as it is not needed. You will be left with a leaf frame. 3 Now cut out a square of cream card (it should be slightly larger than the leaf on your frame). The child can now…