Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts

April 10, 2014

O is for Octopus

My alphabet posts are in no particular order. I'm going to do the letters that Little One has already covered at school. You can find letter "a" here.

A long while back we did some activities O is for Ostrich and not wanting to be boring, I decided this time around to focus on an Octopus. 


First off we did this awesome paint activity, which Little One loved. He was completely oblivious to the final idea I had in mind and simply enjoyed the process of it. I often remind myself that it's really the process and not the product that's most important. Us mommy bloggers tend to want a nice final product to photograph for our blog and we can forget that it's about these little people and the p.r.o.c.e.s.s. :)

To do this activity, I took acrylic paint, mixed it with some water so that it was runny, and gave him some syringes. As you can see from the picture, the activity was a hit. I then took some white paper and, with his permission, rubbed it over his paint creations. The result was some pretty paper to make an octopus from. 
 

I would love to tell you that he enjoyed cutting out the tentacles and sticking on the suckers... but he was not at all interested. So the final craft here was all my doing. I cannot lie. :)

He does like having the picture up in his room though, so I'm glad about that.

The next craft was this cute sock octopus - a Soctopus! I first saw this idea on Pinterest and I love sock softies. I've made a few before (a bunny, a cat, a caterpillar/butterfly and a snowman). You can see them here, if you like.

Follow the wonderful and easy directions for the octopus at The Gold Jellybean. (I just didn't do that last part, where Shaleah added pipe cleaners to the tentacles).

Till next time, have fun!

November 29, 2013

Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm {and a craft}

 

Before November is over and out, I want to share this absolutely awesome family outing we went on a couple of months back. The Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm must be one of the Cape's best kept secrets. 
If you haven't been, you should go :). 



The venue is so pretty - they offer weddings and birthday parties. You can order a picnic basket, or like us, simply have lunch at the restaurant, where you will find Croc pie and Croc springrolls on the menu!


We went on the guided crocodile pond tour and learnt so much about the African Nile Crocodile. On tour you even get to touch a baby croc. The kids did this with ease. I, on the other hand, had the hibbie jibbies and couldn't wait to hand the croc back. (There's nothing cute about a baby crocodile!)


The pond tour was highly informative. Something we learnt was that one of the differences between an alligator and a crocodile, is that the crocodile's teeth are more visible than the alligators, when his jaw is closed.


 Another nice activity offered is catch and release fishing in the dam. All in all a super outing and very reasonably priced. 



Our outing was followed by a fun activity and craft. We made some simple crocodiles with pegs. Little One painted and I glued on teeth and eyes. Next time, I'd make the teeth smaller, as they got all bent when we opened the croc's mouth. 


 For Little World Play, we recreated the croc pond tour with blue rice, our peg crocs and duplo people. 


Till next time - Happy playing.

September 29, 2013

Cowboy Fun {Part 2}

 Cowboy fun continues here...

 Cowboy pages from Making Learning Fun. (love this website!)


Desert Diamond Back Snake craft also from Making Learning Fun. This is a great fine motor activity - lots of cutting and sticking.


Found these customizable worksheets at twistynoodle.


And we read about the spiny giants of the desert (saguaros) and did this fun cactus craft  (Idea via Pinterest). Little One really enjoyed this activity.


For more Cowboy fun, here are some great links:
Cowboy cut-outs by made by joel
The windowsill desert from Spoonful
Tiny teepees from youaremyfave

May 19, 2013

Bottle Top Bats

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. Wikipedia


I love that when we do a craft like this, we always learn something new and interesting. It's really one of the simplest and most effective ways to grab your child's attention about a new topic. Recently Little One and I made these bottle top bats, but at the same time we chatted about them. Of course this Mommy was prepared and I had done my homework before the time and could tell Little One about these creatures while we were crafting.

Big One inevitably overhears what we are getting up to and so also walks away with some new knowledge.




(On Little One's cupboard)

Here are some nice sites to visit to learn more about bats:

This idea was inspired by a craft at The Mailbox Magazine

PS. Sharing this at Shine on Friday and The Sunday Showcase

April 23, 2013

Little World Play: The Aquarium

I saw this super idea over on another Mommy blog and knew we had to try it. (As soon as I find the link, I'll add it and give proper credit). If I recall correctly, they even added  water, but after making ours, I decided not to. It certainly made less mess I think, than if water had been added to the fun. :)

A few days earlier we had spent time on the beach and collected some nice shells and rocks and pebbles for the project. Little One absolutely loved collecting all the treasures and it was probably even more fun than making the aquarium. We used aquarium stones to line the bottom of the containers and also added some fake and real greenery from the garden. 
 
So here's our mini Aquarium.


The Nemo Exhibit.


Watch out Mr Diver, that Shark is close-by!
 

Can you spot the crab?


The Aquarium Restaurant.


The jellyfish tank.


In the corner of the picture, you may spot some penguins on rocks. 


This turtle reminds me of the real one we saw when we visited the Aquarium in 2010.


Eels! 


This was a fun activity and really quite easy to do. It could be a nice way to pass the time on a rainy afternoon this coming Winter. 

Till next time, have fun.


November 23, 2012

Bottle Top Turkey


Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!


...to all my friends and family in the US :)

October 13, 2012

O is for Ostrich

Little One has been introduced to the alphabet via the Letterland program at his school this year - a super program that I like very much. I, on the other hand, haven't focused much on alphabet activities at home, but recently decided that we should. Added to that, Big One gets homework every day and Little One also wants to have homework, just like big brother. So I thought I'd prepare some things for him to do in the afternoon while Big One is busy. 

The first letter I chose to focus on was "o" - it's so easy to identify and it's a great first sound. 

Just by the way, here in South Africa we teach lower case letters first and we teach the phonetic sounds (as in "a" is for apple, not ape). 

I chose ostrich as our first "o" activity and we started with identifying the letter using our fantastic magnetic alphabet. (Available from Little People's Products)

I added some ostrich handouts from Carisa's  Tot School Printables @ 1+1+1+1. (If you don't know this site - it's amazing!) 


We did some colour recognition and colouring in.


Little one then cut out each ostrich (Each ostrich is in a square, which makes this a nice cutting activity).  He helped me staple all the little squares together to make a small book - a nice reminder of the activity.  I also added in some maths language, by asking him which picture he wanted in the book first, second, third, etc, as I put the small pages together, before we stapled it. 


I also made a copy of the "shapes" page and asked him to "show me the ostrich in the oval, triangle etc." He used his dot markers for this one. These were very kindly sent to us awhile back by Donette from The Journey. They are a favourite during homework time. These ostriches can also be cut out to make a book... or flash cards.

There are lots more ostrich pages available from 1+1+1=1. 


And a  bottle top ostrich craft...

The boys and I visited the National Geographic website to get some extra information about the ostrich and we watched a You Tube video of an ostrich running - something they do rather well. (We actually ran around like ostriches - using our "wings" to steer and make sharp turns - this got some giggles). And we learned that an ostrich can cover up to 5 metres in a single stride - that got us measuring and estimating - it's about the length of our kitchen!

Little One calls it "fun homework". This must mean I'm doing something right ;). 

Till next time - happy learning :)  

PS. Little One is 4.2 years.
PPS. Sharing this at It's Playtime.

April 20, 2012

Easy Chicken Craft



I found my inspiration for this sweet chicken craft in an old copy of the your family magazine. The template I used was actually meant for a hen beanbag, which I would have loved to have made, but wasn't brave enough to attempt. I enjoyed making a paper version though (far easier too!)


Did you know that the frilly part on top of the chicken's head is called a "comb" and the wobbly bit below it's beak, a "wattle"? Aren't those just the perfect names for those body parts :)? For a nice labeled photograph of the parts of a chicken, peck your way over to Farming Friends and there's lots of interesting information and print-outs about chickens at Enchanted Learning.

Till next time. 

PS. Sharing at:
 Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

April 7, 2012

Bunny and Tail Colour Match

I wasn't going to post again this weekend, but I couldn't resist sharing these bunnies that we made this morning and also linking it up to a fun Easter Linky Party (see below).


I used this sweet bunny template from Punkin Patterns to cut out a number of coloured bunnies. I then set up a little bunny tail station. Little One loved sticking the matching tails (pom poms) onto the bunnies and it was a good recap of all his colours. We also spoke a bit about the missing colours. His best part was squeezing out the glue - I had to pry the tube from his little hands :).


I love how these turned out. I think that there is so much you could do with them. I am going to use them as Easter gift tags and if there's time I might make some bunting for our Easter table tomorrow.

I'm sharing these at the Hippity Hop Easter Project Hop. To see lots more fun Easter ideas, just click on the button below.






PS. Also sharing at Show and Tell @ ABC and 123.

February 13, 2012

Silly Valentines



Oh I can be silly - it's one of those things I like about myself - I think my children like it too. 

So I had great fun and giggles thinking up silly Valentines. The kiddos joined me. Big One with his own ideas (as always) and Little One enjoyed punching out little hearts... everywhere... he loves my punches.


Big One's... 

My Inspiration:  

A delightful book by Michael Hall - twenty animals all made from heart shapes. And the best part, twenty different emotions and behaviours for you to chat about with your child. It's a super book that can easily be used in play therapy too. Do click on the link above and grab the kids for a super little trailer of the book. Really cute.

My dear friend Katherine inspires me so and makes me look at every piece of pretty or interesting paper in a new fun visually creative light. If you do go visit over there, I know I've probably lost you for now, but that's okay - I won't blame you. :)

Happy Valentine's day!

September 13, 2011

More Bottle Top Animals

I had the wonderful opportunity recently to make some cards for a very special birthday party for the children of a children's home. Even though their ages ranged from one year to sixteen years of age, I wanted to do the same for all of them, so decided on some fun bottle top animal cards.  I thought that they would bring a smile to everyone...whether younger or older. I had a list to work from, so could also write a personal note to each child. It was great to be able to do this small act of kindness.

To see some more cute bottle top animals, click here.


 For some more fun planned with bottle tops, stay tuned :).


PS. Linking this to Making The World Cuter Monday

September 11, 2011

Plastic Egg Birds {Craft and Game}


These little birds were inspired by these that I saw at lets go fly a kite, who in turn had seen them at Busy Bee Kids Crafts.
(What a super website by the way.
Be sure to check it out for some really nice, cute kids' crafts.)


I decided to add a bit of a game to them that would be both educational and fun. I told Little One that the mommy bird is fetching worms for her hungry chicks. Can you see how hungry they are? She comes back with some colourful worms and her little chicks gobble them up. One little chick only eats one and then his tummy is full...another little chick eats two...and so on.

For the nest, I covered a plastic bowl in some green paper and then added the strips. To get your chicks to stand up in the nest, cut a toilet roll into smaller rings and rest the eggs in the rings. It works perfectly.

Till next time...

PS. Linking this to Show and Tell @ ABC and 123

August 20, 2011

Bottle Top Animals



  Inspired by some wonderful bottle top animals at Silly Eagle Books, I created these and turned them into cards... to keep for some parties coming up. When the kids are in the mood, I think this makes for a great rainy day activity :).



  I simply cannot throw a bottle top away anymore... more ideas coming soon!

PS. Linking this to  
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