A Continents Song with Spatial Awareness

As a second grader, I remember really enjoying the unit when we studied the continents.  Zachary has been interested in the continents since my brother n law taught him a song about the continents when he was 3. Adelyn is now 3 and she is acquiring her own interest in maps so we pulled out the large world map and taught her the song (thank you again Kev!)

Both of the kids had a great time jumping from continent to continent as each one was called out during the song.

This activity is great for:

• spatial awareness
• sensorimotor
• auditory skills
• visual skills

                                            

Shaving Cream and Glue Earth Day

Pinterest helped me find something for Adelyn to do for Earth Day last April.  I'm just slightly late posting this.  This idea came from the blog, "No Time for Flashcards" at this link http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/08/puffy-paint-earth.html.  

You can find the recipe there.  You mix shaving cream with glue and food coloring.  The kids play in it and then smear it all over the paper.  It's a great sensory activity and then you can pick your favorite Earth songs to play along.

Two weeks ago we did an Earth day/Astronomy project.  Here you see a close up view of the Earth in space taken by our own dear Zachary. Please note that this picture was not taken by our satellites orbiting Earth, although perhaps easily mistaken.   :) 


We found this very fun and easy project on D.L.T.K's Growing Together Site. It also makes a very good science experiment for the kids as they watch the colors mix together on the coffee filter which the earth is made of.


Materials:

• Coffee filter
• washable blue and green markers
• Medicine dropper
• black construction paper
• white paint
• a Popsicle stick
• small paint brush
• Glue stick

1. Kids scribble with the markers on the coffee filter.

2. Drop a few dots of water with the dropper on the filter.

3. Watch the colors spread

4. Let dry

5. Take black piece of paper and dip brush in white paint.

6. Use a Popsicle stick and slide it in a flicking motion down the paint brush to flick paint onto paper.

7. It should look like small stars.

8. Glue coffee filter onto black paper

Home Made Fish Tank

A few years ago Zachary and Scott made this fish tank as a fun project while I was on bed rest in the hospital.  The extra projects with Daddy and the grandparents definitely helped him cope with me being away.  The nights away from him were of course hard on me too so I enjoyed seeing the activities they worked on.  I'm very thankful we had great hands to help out during that time. 


I believe this beautiful tank contained leaves, rocks, sand, plants and plenty of pretend sea creatures! The container was an old drink container of some type....tea...lemonade...


Zachary lately has begun asking for a fish tank again. Taking care of our dog is plenty for me right now so I plan to bring this up again! :)

Tectonic Plates

Here's a creative way to teach kids about how tectonic plates work! My husband found this idea online. I'll have to ask him where he found it.  

1. Take a shoe box and cut it in half.
2. Put one side inside of the other for sliding closed and apart.
3. Add dirt to the entire bottom.
4. Push boxes together or pull them apart to make mountains, valleys, earthquakes, etc

Happy Learning!

Earth Day Books

Books to Celebrate Earth Day!

These are some books we checked out and really enjoyed. There are much more than this at the library of course, but here's a few ideas either to get started or to add to your family's knowledge.

This Tree Counts by Allison Formento

In this book a teacher brings his class out to listen to the sounds and observe nature around a tree. He also tells them about what trees are used for. It concludes with them planting more trees.

How Groundhog's Garden Grew- Lynne Cherry

One of my personal favorite children's stories by Lynne Cherry. Groundhog learns about planting his own garden from his friend Squirrl. This can be very inspiring for children to grow their own gardens. I learned a little about vegetable gardening myself from reading this. It also made me hungry for fresh produce!

Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres and Nadine Bernard Westcott

Another great children's gardening book. This book helps them understand how different vegetables and fruits grow.

Stuff! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Steven Kroll

In this story, Pinch the pack rat is reluctant to give up his stuff which is spilling out of every door, window and hole of his house. He learns about how others may have excellent uses for stuff he no longer does.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Plastic

Haven't read this one but it looks good! Saw it online! Looks like it is about how plastic is made, how it is used, and how it affects the environment.

Creative Projects to Be Green

Sometimes I go to the library story time or science time. Here in science time we read a book about recycling and not having too much stuff. We made a project afterward out of old cardboard and newspaper. It was a cool idea to use stuff we already had! I made a boat!

-Zachary