Product Review: TTS Outdoor Mark Making Daisies

Part of my aim this year is to develop our outdoor area to offer more opportunities for learning. In many ways it has been a case of sitting and looking at what is already available in this space and how the resources and landscape can be used to help my children and those I look after to learn. I was recently offered to review an outdoor mark making resource by TTS Group which would make a great addition to our garden. 

The outdoor mark making daisies come in a pack of five and are all different colours. TTS describe the resource as:

'Bright, attractive and weather resistant these delightful chalkboard Daisies will extend your outdoor classroom and add an eye-catching splash of colour. Make good use of dull playground fencing or walls and transform them into fun, exciting and inspiring areas for young children to explore outdoor drawing and mark making. 

A truly open ended resource. Why not use the Daisies to create themed/zoned/roleplay areas, explore Maths or Literacy outdoors, create signs, menus for 'little chef's' whilst they're doing a spot of 'alfresco' cooking or write important notices for the day to parents? Made from sturdy plastic, the centre of the flower has a special 'chalkboard' finish though all of the flower could be used.'

Before buying a product I always read the feed back that had been put on the site by other customers and I loved how TTS Group had listened to their customers and changed the material the daisies were made from. The flowers are now made from a very sturdy plastics which can be attached to a fence using tie wraps or using screws. 

We added our first daisies to the fence on the raised patio which I have planned to turn into an outdoor role play area. At the moment this area has the big daisy chalk boards and we also recently added a small play house. The area will soon be surrounds by a range of long grasses and potted plants. I love the way the flowers draw your attention to this area as soon as you walk out into the garden. They make this area look very inviting to the children. 

The children have enjoyed having an area they can draw pictures and have been leaving messages for each other. This has been a great way to encourage Little Man to give meaning to the marks he makes. He is really into role play at the moment and we plan to turn this area into a cafe once we get into September. 

P enjoys using the chalk boards to make large pictures, she loves to do art on a big scale. She used the board to draw pictures of her riding her bike with out stabilisers. 

I have been thinking of ways that we can use these chalk boards in adult led activities as well as those the children may decide to use it for. When covered in chalk we could have a change and use paint brushes and water to paint on them which will clean them at the same time. I also have an outdoor paint which washes off but can dry to look like chalk. We have a few more chalk boards to put up so once they are up I will be using them to do out door shape hunts and of course many more role play ideas. 

The children love their chalk boards and I plan to do some videos to add here and You Tube for you to see it in action. I can see the children getting a lot of use out of them and we have had lovely feed back from the children's parents and other visitors. 

The Outdoor Chalk Board Daisies are available from TTS Group for £95.94 

Disclaimer: TTS Group sent us this lovely product to review with the children. All views on their product are however our own. Please feel free to comment below if you would like to ask any questions on this product.