Fun with Dinosaurs {Make a Small Dinosaur World and Salt Dough Fossils}

   

Dinosaur week(s) has been lots of fun and the best part for me was the day Little One spent in the garden playing with a friend  - ALL DAY - digging for dino fossils. The fossils were some white shells we found on a walk on the beach a long time ago. I hid them in the ground, gave them each a spade and a paint brush, and I demonstrated how to be a Paleontologist (well best I could). After they got tired of looking for the seashell "fossils", they turned to the interesting bits of rock in the garden and then requested hammers, so that some hammering could happen too.

Perhaps it's too wet or cold where you are though to play outside, so I thought it would be fun to share and create a small indoor dinosaur world... for the indoor Paleontologists ;). 

I actually made this scene on my patio table, so technically it's still outdoors, but you can easily duplicate this indoors of course. 

(I must apologise for the very distracting table cloth.)

I used two cardboard boxes and connected them with a long piece of brown felt. I thought the sides of the boxes kept the scene fairly contained, which is helpful for tidying up purposes, and the sides also created a barrier for the dinosaurs to climb over. 

The following things were used to create the scene:

Pebbles/River stones collected from beach walks

White stones (can be purchased at a garden centre)

Small river stones (purchased from The Crazy Store for R20)

Shells that looked like fossils found at the beach

Blue felt to make a dam 

Home-made salt dough fossils (recipe below)

Egg boxes

Home-made volcano

Waterfall made from bubble wrap

Cave made from a tissue box

 I forgot to add greenery, but that's pretty simple, as all the greenery you need can be found in your garden. I added the big egg boxes, which Little One painted, to be the scary volcanic rocks around the erupting volcano. The dinosaurs had to tread rather carefully when crossing the perilous volcanic rock. :) The egg boxes also allowed me to create some height, as they are nice to stack on top of each other. 

The volcano was made from a foam cup, which I covered with brown felt as best I could. I then cut a red square and folded it over the top and glued it on. It took me a few minutes to make it. (A glue gun does come in very handy here.) 

The cave was created from a tissue box. I added some recycled biscuit box cardboard to the outside of it.

The recipe for our salt dough fossils is as follows:

2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

Mix it together and then roll it out to make a nice smooth dough.

Once you have made the fossils (or anything else for that matter), put it on a baking tray and bake for a few hours at 180 degrees Celsius.

Even though the children are very ready to move on to a new theme, I have decided to share one more dinosaur post, so hold on tight...it's a goodie.

How to make an Aircraft Carrier

 

Inspired by a picture in Little One's all time favourite book, I thought it couldn't be too hard to make an Aircraft Carrier and I knew Little One would love the idea! This little man is C.R.A.Z.Y about all forms of military transportation.

I grabbed a big cardboard box (and cut off the lid), a big juice box and some smaller boxes we've been collecting. Using the book mentioned (My Big Book of Cars, Ships and Planes) as a guideline, I cut out the top of the aircraft carrier, after marking the lines in pencil.

That little hand you see in the picture was just there to help my camera focus on my blank cardboard canvas. :) If I had a bigger piece of cardboard available, I would have cut the Carrier a bit longer in shape. 

Then we got to decorating the top of the Ship, using a black marker, some white masking  tape (painter's tape) and a yellow highlighter.

Jerry Palotta's, The Boat Alphabet Book, is another one of Little One's favourites and this inspired our tower buildings.

I used my glue gun to glue it all together. Only thing to be aware of before you glue it, is that the top piece of board must be balanced correctly on top of the juice box, as the tower buildings make it heavier on one side.

And there you have it. Have fun!

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.

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.

A felt mat and an unexpected geography lesson

Who knew that making a felt play mat would lead me deeply into the world of the Artic, Antartica and the animals that live there? 

Let me share some facts.

The Artic is a sea, surrounded by pieces of land and it is in the Northern hemisphere. Antartica in contrast, is a piece of land, surrounded by sea in the Southern hemisphere. Animals found in the Artic include the polar bear, the Artic fox, seals, walrusses, the very interesting narwal whale, the snowy owl and reindeer (caribou). Penguins are found in Antartica... here in South Africa too :)... but they are not naturally found in the Northern hemisphere.  

So with this in mind, can you tell what's wrong with that top picture? Polar bears and penguins together are a no-no!

As for those orcas (killer whales), they are found in the southern and northern seas. What I actually had in mind, putting them so close to the shore line, were the orcas of Peninsula Valdes, on the coast of Argentina. These particular orcas almost beach themselves to catch seals on the shore line and it's the only place in the world where orcas hunt in this way. If you want to see more, some amazing footage is available on You Tube.

Anyway, back to my mat. As you can now tell, I have not only mixed up the 'Artics', I went and threw in some (non-icy) Argentinian coast line too. (I write this smiling sheepishly) Geography in high school? No, I did History. Having said that, this is a great example of how one learns by making mistakes. (Well, that's my positive spin on it anyway). I also shared all my mistakes with the kiddos, so hopefully they will remember some of these rather important details.

Now onto the how-tos: To make the mat, cut two biggish pieces of felt, white and blue, and either sew or glue them together. I used my good friend the glue gun - the glue dries instantly, which is the best part for me  - I'm impatient that way. 

I added a picture to show you how I cut and glued the caves. I first glued the sides of the cave and then folded and glued the back part of it. 

To make the igloo, I used a plastic ball (those that you find in ball ponds) and firstly cut the top third of the ball off with a cutting knife (be extra careful when doing this). I then cut out the door with a strong pair of scissors (a kitchen one). To finish off, paint it white and glue on some felt squares. Sweet hey? I must just add that I also painted the inside white, but only after this photograph was taken.

We have quite a nice collection of realistic looking plastic animals, but unfortunately didn't have any polar bears. I really wanted some to add to this mat, so I purchased some black bears (from a local plastic shop), painted them with white acrylic paint and then added the eyes and nose details with a permanent black marker. I thought they turned out quite nicely.

And lastly to add some extra interest to the mat, I covered some white polystyrene pieces with white felt too. These pieces were cut from a nice deep dish that some strawberries had come in. You really don't have to cover them; you could just use as is. By stacking them, it provides some extra places for the animals to walk under or over.

I do hope that you like my (not the Artic/not the Antartic) icy felt mat. Have you ever made a felt mat? Let me know, I'd love to come and see. Till next time, happy playing.

PS. This mat was inspired by the awesome mats at Shady Tree Diary.  

PPS. Shared at It's Playtime.

A mini ice rink

It's been a really cold Winter...brrrrr. One of the coldest in a few years here in South Africa. It has snowed in places that don't see snow very often. And, on our distant mountains there have been snow covered peaks almost everyday.

Having said that - we never actually got to play in any snow. Little One has yet to experience it up close and personal. Hopefully next year we will head off to those mountains and go and play.

So with all this really chilly weather, wintery activities have been on my mind. I do realize that Spring has officially sprung, but I'm going to (quickly) share some of our Winter fun in the next few posts, before the cold weather is gone for good :).

So first up is a mini ice rink, with little ice skaters as you can see. This was inspired by a similar rink at the amazing Play Create Explore blog. 

To make the rink, I used a cookie tray, added water and let it set overnight in the deep freeze. To make the ski poles, I added some masking tape to toothpicks, so that they would fit into the little men's hands. Popsicle sticks cut in half became the skis and I attached them to the men with Prestick. I must add though, that as soon as the popsicle sticks got wet, the Prestick came off. But it was fun while it lasted. 

Both boys really enjoyed this activity and Little One was fascinated by the ice and asked me to immediately go and make some more. It made me think that we definitely need to do more "ice play" - perhaps that can be on our agenda for the long hot summer that is probably on its way :). 

PS. Sharing this at It's Playtime and For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars. 

Mommy Made Moon Sand

A long while back, I raved about how much we like the real Moon Sand. What I haven't shared, is that we have made several home made batches since then and it is a HUGE hit with Little One. I have tried a few variations, but this is the recipe I use most often:

4-and-a-half cups of sandbox sand 

1-and-a-half cups of cornflour

1 cup of water (add more if necessary)

It does dry out, so you need to add water every time you play with it.
 

 If the consistency is right, you can easily mold it. I am able to use a small brick mold  and make little bricks using this sand.

We keep ours in a large plastic container in the kitchen and Little One requests this regularly. I try to keep it uncovered, otherwise it does get a little smelly. If uncovered, it lasts for quite some time - I've kept ours going for a month or two. And, because it cleans up quite easily, I allow the children to play with this indoors too. 

 

Have fun!

PS. Recipes found at: irresistable ideas for play based learning and Skip to my Lou

PPS. My apologies to my email readers. For some reason, you all received a re-post of my Bottle Top Play Dough Cakes today. Blogger must have a few gremlins, as I never republished the post. This is not the first time this has happened - I'm not sure what's up?

Make an Airport (and some aeroplanes)

I've had this idea for the longest time to make Little One an Airport. (I actually saw an amazing wooden toy one, but the price left me gasping for breath!) So with a little bit of imaginative thinking, some recycled containers and some craft paper...I got building.

Most importantly, I wanted an Air Traffic Control Tower. To make, I used a Lipton tea box...cut off the hinged lid and turned it upside-down.  I then glued a polystyrene rectangular dish (also upside-down) to the top of the upside-down tea box - you got that right?  And then I balanced a clear plastic container on top of the polystyrene container (also upside-down). I specifically didn't glue this part, so that Little One can remove the container and play with the men inside. I'm sure this picture will help make sense of my tutorial :).

The lego blocks that you can see inside the tower are the fancy computors and equipment that are used to bring aeroplanes home safely.

To make a hangar or two, I also cut off the hinged lid of a tea box and put it on it's side this time. Our smart passenger jet is parked inside one in this picture.

A nice tallish box makes for an Airport terminal...

The landing strip is a big piece of white cardboard and some coloured strips for the runway. I used the same road map for my Seussville Town.

The craft stick aeroplanes (can you spot them?) were also very easy to make. I painted the wings and added some star stickers.

I showed the boys some You Tube videos of Air Traffic Control Towers in action, as well as aeroplanes taking off and landing. It gave them a nice idea of what an Airport is like. Little One has never actually been to the Airport - that's still on our to do list .

All that's left to do is...PLAY!

 

Sharing this at:

Kid's Co-op 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123