Animal Families Cards

I used the animal families cards in conjunction with our Noah's Ark theme, but they could be used for any animal-related activity.  In the Noah's Ark story, God asks Noah to take two of every animal with him into the ark to save the animals from the impending flood that would wipe out every living thing. In this activity, I wanted Wugs to understand the importance of taking two of everything (ie that a male and female would be saved in order to preserve the species through their offspring).

I purchased the animal families cards from the Absorbent Minds shop.  Whilst the pictures on the cards are not particularly sharp and the images shown are not those of real-life animals but rather Schleich figurine models, they are helpful in portraying the distinguishing features of the male and female of each animal in a way that might not be possible if a photograph of the real thing were taken. The cards portray 5 types of animals in the categories of: male, female, young and animals.

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

Matching Animals with their Fossils

I created this activity for our Noah's Ark theme, but it could be used with any animal-related activity. The ancient story of Noah and the historic traces of animal remains preserved in rock formations seemed to go together, so I thought I'd give the boys their first lesson in paleontology by creating fossils and seeing if they could match up the animals with their fossils.  I should point out that the animals I chose were not related to actual fossils that have been found (or at least not intended to be - apart from the dinosaurs of course!)

To make the fossils, I used the recipe for salt dough which I borrowed from this website, using only half of the ingredients recommended (as this activity didn't require such a large quantity of dough).  I pressed the animal figurines into the dough and gently pulled them away.  The animals with intricate features seemed to work particularly well (such as the octopus and the gecko).  I cut around the animal patterns and lifted the fossils onto a baking tray and put them into the oven at 100 degrees for about an hour and a half. The temperature should be high enough to dry out the dough, but low enough to prevent it from cooking.  

Once the dough felt hard, I removed the baking tray from the oven and let the fossils cool.

I set up the activity by presenting the boys with a basket of animals which included the animals with a matching fossil.  The activity required them to match up the animals with their corresponding fossil. To help the boys do this, I gave them a clump of playdough that they could use to test out the patterns that the animals made.

What we used:
Salt
Plain Flour
Animal Figurines
Knife
Playdough

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

Matching Animals with their Skin and Fur

I developed this activity to accompany our Noah's Ark theme, but it could be used with any animal-related activity.  It is a simple matching game that helped the boys appreciate and recognise the different skins/fur that animals have.

I decided to mount the patterned paper and felt onto thin wooden boards to make them more durable. I purchased all the materials for the boards from Hobbycraft.

What we used:

Thin wooden boards

Patterned felt

Decoupage paper (reptile)

Glue

Animal figurines

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

Building and Floating an Ark

Recently we have been reading the story of Noah and whenever I read about how God asked Noah to build an ark, my three-year old pipes up and asks if he too can build an ark.  I was trying to think of how he (or anyone!) could do this in a way that wouldn't be too time-consuming and that would be successful (ie, the ark would float and not sink).  I decided the building element to the activity would involve sticking two plastic containers together - one to house the animals and one to house Noah.

To start the activity I gave the boys some foam rectangles (flags) and pens so they could identify their arks floating on the water.

Then I gave the boys the first container and a basket of animal figurines for them to choose and place in their "arks".  At first they took a handful of animals, but once they had placed the animals in their containers we tried to identify them.  This was an important part of the activity to help the boys appreciate the variety and beauty of the animals that were preserved that day.

When the arks were full, the boys chose their human figurines. Unfortunately the second container was only large enough to hold one figurine so Wugs chose Noah's wife to go in his ark and Dooey chose Noah.  We then sealed our arks with sellotape.  (Whilst pulling out the clear tape, two pairs of eyes spotted the shiny coloured tape I was saving for Christmas so they asked to decorate their arks with it which is why the arks ended up looking like two Christmas presents floating on the water!)

Once everything was sealed down I made two cuts in the flags and wedged a craft stick through them, joining the bottom of the craft sticks to bottom plastic container through an incision I made in the container lid.

We were finally ready to float our arks!

As it was a warm day, I set up the activity in the garden, filling up a large plastic tub with water and then emptying some stones into it.  The boys took their arks outside and began to float them and blew them to get them moving in different directions.  We had a funnel with small holes in it, so I encouraged the boys to lift it up to create "rain" and to see if their arks could weather the storm.

What we used:
Foam (optional)
Craft sticks (optional)
Pens (optional)
A shallow container with a lid
A deeper container upturned
Sellotape
Shiny coloured tape (optional)
Animal and human figurines
Large tub
Stones
Blue food colouring (optional - but effective in making the arks look like they were in the sea)

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

Advent Calendar 2014 Activity – Day 1: God Is With Us Through Creation

Today is the start of this year’s advent calendar activities which are based around the theme “Immanuel – ‘God is with us’”.  (The name given to Jesus by the angel Gabriel when he appears in a dream to Joseph to prophesy Christ’s birth (Matthew 1:23)).  Each day we will be doing an activity that celebrates the ways in which God is present with us.

“…all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17) 

I love the holistic spirit of this passage - Jesus is not simply a baby in a manger or a man dying on a cross, but a Person through whom everything finds its purpose and connection with everything else.

My favourite room in our house is the conservatory.  It is full of light and enables us to have a close-up encounter with the animals and plants in the garden without actually being out there and suffering the cold.  This morning I arranged for Wugs to put out some bird seed and nuts to entice more wildlife into the garden.  This simple activity taught him a couple of things: hand control when pouring the food into the containers and an appreciation for animals, who are worthy of our care and attention. 

We went back into the conservatory expecting to see a garden full of squirrels and birds, but all morning we observed only two magpies and a robin in a tree.  This could have something to do with the fact that whenever a bird flew anywhere near the conservatory, Wugs and Dooey would rush to the window and holler “BIRD!!” at the top of their voices so the birds ran away!  I tried to make a game out of being quiet and walking slowly, but this inevitably failed.

                              

Well, as the birds wouldn't come to us, we created our own.  I opened up some air-drying clay and a couple of packets of feathers (new sensory materials for Wugs and Dooey) and helped mould their birds’ bodies and faces with Wugs adding the eyes and feathers (strengthening his fine motor skills).  The birds didn’t look quite like the birds I’ve seen in our garden or seen anywhere else for that matter, but the boys recognised them as such. 

What we used:

Bird feeder

Bird seed and nuts

Air-drying clay

Feathers

Peppercorns (eyes)   

It seems the lonely robin in the tree made quite an impression on Wugs.  This evening, he was asking about the robin, so we looked up a couple of videos on You Tube of robins singing before he went to sleep.  Hopefully the robin will be back in the garden tomorrow so he can see the real thing.  

Milo Dino Fizzy Small World Play

If there is one word that Wugs has pronounced with absolute clarity since he has been talking, it is the word "chocolate".  He absolutely loves it! I have been thinking of ways to incorporate chocolate into a small world play without having a sick child on my hands.  I came up with the idea of using the powder from the chocolate drink, Milo and mixing it together with baking soda, as I wanted the small world to bubble and fizz.  Originally I intended to mix the Milo and baking soda together thoroughly, but where the baking soda was partly clumpy, I left it as it was, as the clumps looked like stones in the ground.  I added some actual stones, vegetation and dinosaurs.

I let Wugs explore his dino world to begin with and then I passed him a jug of water for him to pour onto it. He sloshed the water around making a big muddy mess and then I passed him spoonfuls of vinegar which he added to the mix to create a fizzing effect.

An hour and forty minutes later, he was still standing there working his hands through the chocolatey mud. This must have been his favourite small world play yet!


What we used:
Large shallow container
Chocolate powder drink
Baking soda
Distilled White Vinegar
Stones
Plastic vegetation
Dinosaur figurines
Jugs, scoops, spoons

"What the Ladybird Heard" Small World Play

In February my sister came to stay for a couple of months with her son who is just 5 months older than Wugs.  She came bearing gifts and this particular gift, the book "What the Ladybird Heard" by Julia Donaldson has become a real treasure in the boys' book collection.  Whether it's the rhythmic repetition of the animal followed by the sound it makes or the little glittery ladybird that can be found on each page, this book has been Wugs' favourite for some time and so I decided to create a small world play based on it.







What we used:
Brown, red and yellow playdough
Craft sticks
Oats
Animal and people figurines
Fake flowers (for the tree)
Small shallow dish (for the pond)
Toilet roll (for the dog's kennel)
Small wooden block (one of the cats is sitting on)
Wooden box (for the cow shed)
Milo cereal balls (dung)

The small-world play isn't an exact representation of the picture in the book.  I didn't include the farmer's house as I had limited space in the tub and I wanted to focus on the parts of the story that Wugs pays close attention to - like the vegetable patch with the footprints of the two thieves across it and the dung in the corner.  Our "Hefty Hugh" and "Lanky Len" were two Duplo figurines (of identical proportions!) presiding over their map.

Whilst Wugs played with his small world, I read the story to him.  I'm not sure how much of it he heard as he was busily scooping up oats and emptying them over the tree and munching on Milo cereal balls.

Butterfly Coffee Filter Art

I have noticed the fascination that Wugs has for blending and mixing colours at the moment so I thought we would experiment with this very inexpensive craft.

What we used:

Coffee filter paper (I found filter paper for 4-6 cups is an ideal size especially if they are to feature on A5 cards)

Washable felt tip pens/markers

Squirty bottle of water or a dropper

Coloured popsicle sticks

Glue

I gave Wugs the felt tip pens and let him colour in one side of the filter paper.  Once he had finished, we took a squirty bottle (we used an empty Ecover bottle, washed it out thoroughly and filled it with water) and I let him squirt once or twice on to the filter paper.  The colours of the felt tip pens blended into one another as the water seeped into the paper to create this beautiful effect.  We left them to dry on a tray for a couple of hours.

Once the filter paper had dried, I cut the two sides and trimmed the edges and then pulled out the filter paper completely.  Up until this point I didn’t know how we would use the art, but the mirror effect of the colours on both sides of the filter paper reminded me of a butterfly.  I glued the coloured popsicle sticks down the centre of the coffee filter paper and then used double-sided tape to glue them to my kitchen window.  The kitchen in our apartment doesn’t get much natural light, so the butterflies were a uplifting, colourful addition to a dark room.

Here are some gift cards we made from our coffee filter butterflies:

Jelly Play

I decided to introduce Wugs to the texture of jelly and popped in a few slimy toys for fun.  I have to admit he was pretty disgusted with it and wasn't putting any of that green stuff in his mouth!  It also confirmed my fear that Wugs is unlikely to chase off the geckos (small house lizards) that seem to come out in the evening over here and which I'm terrified of!

What we used:
Green jelly mix
Toy lizards