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 a Rainbow

The felt rainbow activity was created as part of our Noah's Ark theme, but it could be used for any activity involving rainbows or a simple quiet time activity.  The appearance of the rainbow in the sky forms the climax of the Noah's Ark story as a reminder of God's promise not to flood the earth again. I wanted the boys to appreciate the different colours of the rainbow and the way in which one colour blends into the next.

I found an image of a rainbow on the internet and printed it out and then used it as a template for each section of the felt rainbow I was making. As red is the first colour in the rainbow, I drew around the whole template onto red felt and cut it out and then I cut off the red section of the rainbow on the paper.  Then I used the smaller paper template (minus the red section) and drew around it onto orange felt.  I cut it out.  Then I cut off the orange section of the rainbow on the paper and drew around it onto yellow felt and so on until I had all seven colours of the rainbow in felt in sizes relative to the order in which they appear with red being the largest and violet being the smallest.  I laid the different sections out on the table in front of Wugs and demonstrated how the rainbow would be built by placing one colour on top of the other.

By creating the activity in this way, it meant that if Wugs put the wrong colour first (for instance the violet before the red), he would know as the violet would be hidden by the red because it is smaller.
To make the activity more challenging, I printed out the names of the colours and asked Wugs to identify them with the colours of the rainbow.

What we used:
Different coloured felt
Scissors
Paper
Printer
Laminator

As this activity was too difficult for Dooey (2 years old), I brought out our wooden rainbow and mixed up the different sections of it for him to build just as Wugs had done with his felt rainbow. The only problem with this rainbow is the missing indigo colour, but it at least gave him an idea of the majority of the colours of the rainbow and the order in which they appear.

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.

Noah's Ark

This week we have been reading the story of Noah.  The boys love the story and the pictures of all the different animals aboard the ark.  It has generated quite a few questions, like "Did the fish go on the ark or did they swim outside it?" and "Is God making it rain?" (asked by my despondent three-year old who wanted the rain to stop the other day so he could go outside and play on his bike).  To accompany our reading, I put together a few fun activities to help the boys appreciate the different aspects of the story.

Building and Floating an Ark

Matching Animals with their Skins/Fur

Matching Animals with their Fossils

Animal Families Cards

Making Rain Shakers

Counting 40 Days and 40 Nights

Raven and Dove Craft

Sampling Olives

Building a Rainbow

Rainbow Watercolour Picture

Botany Montessori-Inspired Activities

This month we have been celebrating the arrival of spring with lots of flowers.  Both boys love flowers and their interest in them led me to create the activities below.  For more details about each activity, please click on the sub-headings.  (We still have a few more planned so I will be adding to this page):

Exploring and Planting Seeds

This activity was all about exploring the texture, patterns and size of seeds as well as understanding how a seed develops into a plant.

The Parable of the Sower - Observing Plant Growth in Different Environments

The seed planting exercise was so popular that we decided to conduct an experiment based on The Parable of the Sower.  We planted seeds on rocky ground, among weeds, on a path and in good soil to observe how the environment in which a seed is planted effects the plant's growth.

Flower-Arranging

This is a classic Montessori exercise, but one which we haven't tried before.  This was an activity that both my toddler and pre-schooler were able to do.

Garden Sensory Tub

The sensory tub was an opportunity to explore the different textures, smells and colours of the garden.  This tub was enjoyed by my toddler, Dooey.

Garden of Eden Small World

Alongside learning about spring, we have been reading the creation story and decided to plant our very own Garden of Eden with our resident (for now!) Adam and Eve.  It is a garden that my sons water and take care of.  

The Anatomy of a Plant

Learning to identify the names given to parts of a plant.

Garden Counting Mat

My way of sneaking in a bit of maths!