Pondering Playtime // Sandy Beach Tuff Spot

Welcome back to Pondering Playtime, my fortnightly series where I share a favourite picture book and a craft or play activity to go with it. This week, I’ve chosen Kipper’s Beach Ball by Mick Inkpen*, and set up this mega quick and easy beach tuff spot to go with it.

Kipper’s Beach Ball – What’s the Story?

Kipper’s Beach Ball is the tale of how Kipper the dog finds a beach ball as a prize in his cereal box. I love the Kipper books, as Mick Inkpen is brilliant at showing Kipper’s thought processes (and misconceptions!) through the stories. Kipper is such a lovely character. In this story, Kipper’s friend Tiger helps him to work out how to make this wrinkled, plastic item into a bouncy beach ball, which they then take to the beach.

Kipper’s Beach Ball – Sandy Beach Tuff Spot

This week, I was looking for a really low maintenance activity that I could set up in a flash, and leave the girls to play with. It doesn’t really get any simpler than this! I just emptied a bag of play sand into the tuff spot, then raided our beach bag for our buckets, spades and other accessories. Then I left the girls to get stuck in!

You will need:

• Tuff spot and stand
• Play sand
• Buckets, spades and other sand sculpting accessories!

Sandy Beach Tuff Spot – What M thought

M loves all of the Kipper books and will gravitate towards them if she seems them in the library. She thinks Kipper is hilarious, and will ask to read the books over and over again.

The girls have loved playing with this tuff spot – in fact, I left it out in the garden for two days as the weather has been so nice this week, and they kept on going back to it to play some more.

Our garden is too small to have a dedicated sandpit, so I love being able to set up the tuff spot in this way, for the girls to play with. When they’d finished playing, I simply swept the sand back into the bag it came in, and stored it in our garage, ready for next time.

If you enjoyed this, you can find more Pondering Playtime activities here, and you might like to join my Early Years craft and activity Facebook group; Play Craft, Explore. We’d love to have you! And lastly, don’t forget to Pin it!

*Affiliate Link – I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk.