Restaurant play

I mentioned in my Play-doh play mat post that I thought it would be fun to make a restaurant play mat. I’m staying away from Play-Doh this week because, after a brief respite, Johnny is back to stuffing it into his mouth at an alarming rate. Then I saw these great colour and cut out food sheets from Filth Wizardry, and I knew I wanted to make a restaurant play mat to go with them.

I used the usual butcher paper, traced a couple plates and one cup, and then painted around the edges (very fancy for me, but Emma was playing with bubbles in the sink, I had leftover tempera paint from her earlier painting activity, and Johnny was napping).

I printed out the food templates. They are well-drawn, easily recognized, and they have nice thick lines for young children to color within/cut out along.

Both Emma and Johnny had a blast coloring. Emma had a go at cutting out the food, but she’s just learning about scissors and got frustrated, so I finished up.

Once again, Johnny surprised me by playing with this mat for a good half hour. Either he has a particular affinity for mat activities, or he has suddenly developed an attention span. Either way, it’s great to see him having fun.

Emma played with the mat for quite a bit this afternoon, and then asked to get it out again in the evening.