Toy Drop Lands In Brisbane

Brisbane’s (Australia) largest handmade collective, BrisStyle, is joining forces with the Toy Society to co-ordinate a MEGA Toy Drop throughout the South East and beyond during the month of May. Hundreds of toys with notes to “take me home” are set to be anonymously tied to trees, lamp posts or left in other prominent places throughout the immediate Brisbane region, and with BrisStyle’s networks reaching a global audience drops are set to be made the world over.

The Toy Society started this global gift giving exercise as a way to give random recipients the buzz of receiving a “something for nothing” experience as well as for creative communities to contribute to their local streetscape and encourage people to notice and engage with their surroundings.

The local BrisStyle project will give crafty souls near and far purpose to their creative passions by lifting spirits throughout the communities where they secretly drop their handmade toys. The emphasis will be to think big and drop not only in urban areas but also those suburbs which may be in need some extra care and attention such as those which have been recently affected by natural disasters.

The May 27^th BrisStyle Indie Twilight Markets will mark the end of the project with King George Square being transformed into a toy giving hub. Leading up to this celebration, the Square will see random acts of toy giving kindness bringing it to life as well as highlighting Brisbane’s sense of community.

WHEN :: From 9^th to 27^th May – ending with the BrisStyle Indie Twilight Markets in King George Square on Friday May 27^th from 5pm – 9pm

WHERE :: Think BIG! Drops can be made in your local areas (whether you are local, out of state or overseas), a flood or cyclone affected suburb or any suburb in need of some care and attention.

WHO :: Whether you are in Queensland, Australia or even the other side of the world you can participate. Get your Mum and your Nana involved; your friends at work or school – anyone who loves to craft for a purpose.

WHAT:: As featured in the courier mail our sister site CraftBits.com is chock full of plushie patterns so everyone can have a go at making something to “Drop” away.

Don’t forget to come back here and tell us if you are “dropping” something we know we certainly are and will share the pictures soon.

MORE INFORMATION: http://brisstyle.blogspot.com/2011/04/brisbane-comes-to-life-with-its-own-toy.html or http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/

One of the subjects that’s often covered in preschool is learning about the five senses. Understanding our senses helps us describe the world around us and our experience in it, and it’s fun to explore the senses in different ways.

Rock Your Homeschool has a great free printables pack having to do with the five senses. I love the foldable activity shown above because it emphasizes that the way we really experience our senses is through our brains. They also have a sensory scavenger hunt printable, which doesn’t include taste but has the rest of the senses included.

Of course we don’t really want kids tasting things they find outside (unless you happen to have fruit or vegetables growing nearby) but I like the way Hands on Teaching Ideas handled it by including “something an animal would eat” on their five senses scavenger hunt.

Sea of Knowledge has lots of ideas for things to do with preschoolers to learn about the five senses, as well as this free with email signup template for making a five senses craft (you could also trace the child’s hands instead of using the hands in the template if you like).

Use a potato head toy you probably already have to play a five senses game with the download from A Little Pinch of Perfect. You could do the same thing on paper with a potato (or human body) shape and color on the different sense organs.

Simple Everyday Mom has a cute set of senses puppets you can print and play with, or use for different projects and crafts.

Preschool Packets has a whole set of posts dealing with teaching the five senses (the one linked here is for hearing but the rest are linked within that post), which includes a great idea for making shakers with kids to explore the sense of hearing.

Tim’s Printables has some cute five senses printables where kids can match the image to the sense you’d use to explore it. There’s also a body to label but I think there’s only a male version.

Have you read?