Twinkl Educational Publisher create high-quality, easy to use learning materials. They aim their resources at several age ranges and stages, from Early Years to GCSE level and also encompassing social, emotional and mental health difficulties and parents’ resources.
The website itself (www.twinkl.co.uk) is intuitive and simple to navigate around, each age range and/or stage has its own section and is divided up into what sort of learning activity you’re looking for, including sensory, communication, language, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive art and design.
I have an 18 month old and a four year old so have been paying particular attention to the Early Years, specifically Birth to Twos, and Key Stage 1 areas. At this point, there are two observations I’d like to point out, my 18 month old had little interest in some of the more complex activities in the Birth to Two section, however my four year old enjoyed all of the activities I tried with her regardless of which stage they were from. This may be a difference in personalities or possibly that the Birth to Two section is possibly a little too expanded and maybe needs dividing down into the individual year groups.
The activities we tried (with a little help from a friend!) were:
- Marshmallow Play Dough/Porridge Oat Play Dough
- Ice Ornaments Science Experiment
- Two versions of the Magnetic Christmas Bottle Experiment
Marshmallow Play Dough and Porridge Oat Play Dough
I am merging these two activities as they were very similar, however the Marshmallow Play Dough was created by myself and the Porridge Oat Play Dough was created by a friend.
Both pieces of play dough were easy to make, neither taking any longer than ten minutes. The main difference between the two was that the Marshmallow Dough was soft and pliable, and the Porridge Oat Dough was textured (although my friend did make a version without the porridge oats in as well to see which her son preferred, he preferred the textured dough.)
Both children (both aged 18 months) enjoyed playing with the dough. My son started by sticking his fingers in the marshmallow dough before using the cutters to make some Christmas shapes. He was quite happy that he was allowed to eat this dough (unlike regular play dough) although he wasn’t that impressed with the taste! After around five to ten minutes of play, he got distracted and found throwing the flour around much more fun, but the dough stayed soft for two days after creation, so both him and my daughter were able to continue playing as and when they felt like it for a while afterwards.
My friends’ son enjoyed playing with the dough, and as a childcare worker herself, commented on how easy it was to make the recipe. She swapped the coconut oil for baby oil and said it smelled lovely. Her little boy enjoyed poking and prodding the dough with various different cutters and objects, including star cutters, which also encouraged him to clearly say the word ‘star’ for the first time (twinkl resources are good for all sorts of things!).
All in all, the play dough experimentation has been fun, and both my friend and I agreed that we prefer the use of these homemade products to the shop bought play dough. We know the ingredients, we can make up as much as we need, and you can of course store it for as long as you want to (within reason!).
Ice Ornaments Science Experiment
I took the opportunity to do one of the more complex activities with my four year old and this seemed the perfect option with the cold snap we just had (the full two days of it!)
I did make some amendments to the method I took from twinkl, just to reflect the things I had in the house, but twinkl provided me with the basis for the experiment.
Using a silicone ice tray, my daughter and I filled them with water and placed string in the top before placing them in the garden in the evening. I’d looked ahead and was aware that it would be freezing that night. Low and behold, the next morning the ice had frozen and we had four little figurines to hang up. (It hadn’t frozen quite as hard as I wanted it to unfortunately, and the ornaments were fairly drippy at this point!)
Still, we hung the ornaments up and watched the changes in them as they melted. Although my daughter was slightly disgruntled that her pretty ornaments had just disappeared, we did have discussion about why they had melted and what had changed. It was nice to hear her thoughts on melting and temperature, and also a little imagination about how she was making the garden pretty for the fairies when they visited.
The only thing that would have improved this experiment would have been longer cold snap so we could repeat it a few more times!
Two versions of the Magnetic Christmas Bottle Experiment
There are two versions of this experiment as both my friend and I decided to go with it to see whether we got similar results.
I conducted the experiment with both of my children with a few amendments; my 18 month old was not interested in the slightest, he shook the bottle a little bit but wasn’t interested in looking in the bottle to see what he could find. My four year old really enjoyed it though. Rather than using magnets, we filled the bottle with pasta and hid small plastic animals inside, her job was to find the objects and tell me what I’d hidden in there.
It became a repetitive game where she would then manage the process for me to guess what was inside her bottle.
She really liked this and has asked if we can play it a few more times since. It will be a keeper in our house.
My friend also tried the experiment with her 18 month old, but this time did use the magnets (she’s much more organised than me!), she had a similar reaction from her 18 month old as I did from mine, he just wasn’t interested in finding out what was in the bottle.
This experiment is within the Birth to Two section of the website, and I think it would probably be more appropriate for a slightly older child.
Conclusion
I would definitely recommend the twinkl website to others. As well as the fun experiments I’ve mentioned, it also has areas with printable colouring pages which are useful for rainy day activities and also printable reward charts which are useful for guiding children along the right path. All of the activities are educational, but they are also good opportunities to spend some quality time with your children doing things that are fun, something which there can never be too much of.
The resources provide a good basis for using general objects that you find around the house. Most activities are adaptable, so even if you don’t have exactly what they have prescribed, you can make it work somehow.
There is also a section where you can create your own resources, so even if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, which is unlikely, you can have some fun creating your own. Ranging from display letters and banners, to colouring sheets and words pages, my daughter and I had fun with this tool, and with her input we created a few fun pieces for our playroom.
There is also a section where you can create your own resources, so even if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, which is unlikely, you can have some fun creating your own. Ranging from display letters and banners, to colouring sheets and words pages, my daughter and I had fun with this tool, and with her input we created a few fun pieces for our playroom.
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