Everyday afternoon from 12.30pm – 3pm weekdays during school term time children who are under five can bring their adults along and play all afternoon for free.

Our team of volunteers put on fun creative activities, messy play, stories and so much more in our purpose built fun venue in Charlton Park. As parents ourselves we know sometimes every family needs to get out of the house, wear the kids out before bed, meet and make friends and be part of a wider community.

No need to book, just drop in.

We were definitely blown away today, not only by the story but with the dancing that went on today. Lizzie from Global Fusion Music came to show us some dance moves, which everyone enjoyed. Our story was about the Antarctic, so we had some lovely blue ribbons which we could wave about like the water, and then we pretended to be whales! But had some time before the story, where we put on some funky music and danced around! We had the cobwebs of half term to shake off! 

We had a very interesting morning at Play Plus. Our Paramedic friend came a week early, so to fit into our theme of clothes he showed us some of the uniform he wears when he is working, we tried on his helmet, (which is actually quite heavy) and Hi Vis jacket, and we used a thermometer in our ears to see what our temperature was. The adults also became a little competitive when having their blood pressure taken. 

This morning was all about our emotions, we looked at happy faces and sad faces and we had a fun time playing with our emotion dice and then copying the face. 

We had some counting fun today at Play Plus. One Mole Digging a Hole by Julia Donaldson, is all about numbers and counting, so we did lots of different activities involving numbers. 

My personal favourite, and yes the kids enjoyed it too, were some squishy bags, with numbers underneath, so you can draw the numbers. 

If you want to make these at home, it's really easy. Put about 5 tablespoons of washing up liquid in a ziplock bag. It's important that its a bag that has a closing at the top so it doesn't all seep out. The bags I used were from Ikea. We also added a bit of glitter. We taped some numbers to the table, and then taped the bags over the top. Do be sure to add a lot of tape! The kids loved moving the liquid around and making shapes. All the adults had a go too! 

We also did some digging, I bought a bag of soil and added some tools, not only did we do some digging, but one of the children started making mud pies! Yum! 

I also put put some pom poms and tweezers, we were able to count the pom poms into different bowls. 

Our special guest was Claude from Global Fusion music and we were able to drum along to 1,2,3,4, Once I caught a fish alive and 5 little ducks. 

Come along next week, as we investigate patterns and our friends from Animal Days Out are coming with some furry creatures. Hope to see you there. 

We had another great morning today. Mainly we were getting excited about our Christmas Party on the 21st December (more details to follow), but we also enjoyed making animal noises and dancing like animals.

We had such a great session today, we had lots of new faces and it was great to welcome back some old friends.

Our story today was Choo Choo clickety clack, by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe. It's all about the sounds vehicles make and we had great fun discovering each sound and matching them with the story. 

The morning was spent exploring shapes, especially those we can find on cars and lorries.

We also made shapes in shaving foam, which was very messy fun! 

Chris From Global Fusion came today, it was his first time here, but the kids really enjoyed his session. We sung about all the different things we do at the Big Red Bus and played some amazing instruments as we sang 'I am the music man, I come from far away'. The children all joined in brilliantly and after one of them pretended to be Chris! 

Next week we are discovering more sounds, but this time Animal Sounds and making some musical instruments, so come along for some shakerific fun! 

Local kids put their baking skills to the test today as they tried out the Big Red Bus Club’s new mud kitchen designed and created for us by the great volunteers at Men in Sheds.

A huge range of delights worthy of The Great British Bake Off were made, including worm spaghetti, leaf mould pastries and mud cakes.

Hours of fun was had as lucky kids took part in a volunteer preview day to test out our great new outdoor resource.

As regulars to the Big Red Bus Club know, our summer term will see a return of our Free Friday gardening club and this mud kitchen will be a great addition to our garden and external play spaces.

A regular user of the Big Red Bus Club, Oscar Massand, aged two and eight months, said’

“I enjoy playing in the mud kitchen and mixing leaves”.

It’s donations like these from Men in Shed’s and Mears, who donated the sink, which means we can stay free and open to all.

Thank you.