Things That Fly

This game was a fun way of teaching the girls about 'things that fly' as well as working on some fine motor skills. We did it outside where there was a slight breeze this morning, so our balloons went an extra long way!

WE USED:

* balloons
* pictures of things that fly
(we just drew some on paper but stickers would work great too)
* sticky tape

The girls and I made a list of 'things that fly' and I traced some pictures to use for our game. Stickers would work just as well or better if you have them!
We cut out each one and attached a small piece of tape, then the girls took turns choosing a picture for their balloon.

We blew up our balloons and held them closed without tying them off. We found the side of the balloon was the best place to put the pictures so we still got a lot of height when we let the balloon go.

Red Ted Art's Blog - Get Crafty

Nocturnal and Diurnal Animals

At night as it is getting dark the girls and I often lay out on the trampoline watching the bats flying overhead. They are fascinated that some animals are just waking up and heading out when they (and other animals, like the birds we see settling in to the trees) are about to go to sleep.
Today we used the animal pictures from our Spot Light Game to learn about nocturnal and diurnal animals, and some that are both!

WE USED:

* animal pictures
* cardboard
(we cut and folded out a medium size postal box)
* paint or coloured paper
(black, yellow, grey)
* paper
* textas/markers
* scissors

First we cut and opened up a medium sized postal box, then painted one side yellow (for daytime) and the other black (for night time). The centre strip we painted grey to represent the animals who are both nocturnal and diurnal.

I used markers to make some simple explanation cards.

One by one we sorted the pictures; I would tell the girls when each animal was awake and they would put them on the nocturnal or diurnal side (or in the centre).
Squeak was fascinated by the bilby picture :-)

I'd love to do this activity again with a wider range of animals, particularly a bat which Bubble was very disappointed we didn't have!

Animal Spotlight

Since the success of our Sight Word Spotlight game a while ago I've been meaning to use the concept for different activities for the girls to enjoy.

I remember when I was younger and growing up on a farm one of the most exciting things we used to do was go spotlighting for animals through the paddocks and bush at night. Since we have neither a farm or animals I thought I'd try and replicate the excitement of finding animals in the dark using photos and torches.

WE USED:

* animal pictures
(I used Google but you could also use pages from an old calendar, photos or pictures cut from magazines)
* blutac
* torch

Using blutac I covered the girls bedroom walls and ceiling in animal pictures. You don't need to use so many (we ended up with 32) I just got a bit carried away!
You could even extend the learning by clustering animals from the same continent or habitats.

Turn out the lights and turn on the torches and get hunting!
The girls were SO excited spotting different animals in the dark, they particularly enjoyed the ones on the ceiling.
We also played a game where I made different animal sounds and they had to find the corresponding animal with their torches.

Block Play - Zoo

While we've been stuck at home fighting flu bugs the girls blocks have gotten a big workout. They spent almost half a day playing with this block 'zoo' a few weeks ago, making pens and rooms and houses for all the animals to live in.

WE USED:

* blocks (Mega Blocks and wooden)
* animal figurines

Animals With Spots And Stripes

We have half a container of cotton buds to use in our craft projects after Squeak decorated the bathroom floor with them recently, so today we used some for painting with. We have used them for unstructured painting before but this time we did something a little more structured and talked about animals with stripes and spots.

WE USED:

* paper
* lead pencil
* black marker/texta
* paint
(we used orange, yellow, brown and black)
* cotton buds

To make the animal pictures minus their stripes and spots I found images on the net and then traced them straight off the screen onto my paper using a lead pencil (be careful not to press too hard against the screen). It was easy to trace what I needed onto my page and omit what I didn't need, then later I went over the pictures with black marker.

We used yellow, brown, orange and black paint to suit the animals we were using.

Some animals Bubble knew the colours and patterns of, but others like the Dalmatian dog weren't familiar to her so we looked them up on the Internet and chatted about what markings they had.

Milk Bottle Jumping Frogs

Ok, so I'm pretty excited that this idea actually worked! I thought maybe I'd been staring at milk bottles too long but not only do these jumping frogs do exactly what I was hoping (namely jump), Bubble also thought they were hugely fun :-)
This idea could easily be adapted to make spiders, rabbits - anything you like really.

WE USED:

* empty milk bottle (plastic)
* scissors
* googly eyes
* green and red paper
* glue/blutack
* pencil

Cut the base from an empty milk bottle or other bottle made of flexible plastic (juice etc...) about halfway down the bottle. Cut the base as shown in the photos above and below, leaving four 'legs'.

Bend the end of each 'leg' section at the end so that the tab faces outwards.

You can decorate your frog however you like (paint, glitter, stickers, contact) but we just glued green circles cut from construction paper to the top.

To make a tongue for your frog cut a strip of red paper and wind it firmly around a pencil.

Using blutac attach your frogs eyes and tongue.

To make your frog jump you simply press and flick on the back end (as you would with toy jumping frogs).

The best mid air action shot I managed to get of our jumping frogs!

Bubble had a stack of fun doing this activity, we'll be making more and decorating them in different ways for outside play at the park.

I cut a lilypad from another sheet of construction paper and we took turns to see if we could jump our frog onto it from varying distances.
You could make numbered lilypads and use them as a counting game, jumping the right number of frogs onto each, or just one frog onto correct answers.

Bubble insisted that her frogs needed water, so a sheet of blue paper and we had ourselves a pond :-D

This idea has been shared on ABC and 123 Show & Tell Blog Hop.