Hand Fish on National Go Fishing Day

In honor of National Go Fishing Day, we went to the creek and "played" with some fish! Strictly catch and release! LOL! We then came home and made some Hand Fish paintings! It was a great day! Happy Fishing Y'all!

caught some minnows in a net

 Materials- card stock paper, acrylic paints, glue, blue beads, google eyes, paint brushes.

Procedure-
1.We painted Little Mister's hand and pressed it onto the paper. (We made two)
2. Then , we painted Daddy's hand and pressed it on one of the pages while Mommy's painted hand went on the second paper.
3. Paint green grass across the bottom on each page.
4. Glue eyes on each fish.
5. Glue beads to look like bubbles coming from each fish.
6. Lay flat to dry.

Sink or Float - Pirate Style

Little Mister has recently become fascinated with pirates! Thanks to Veggie Tales Jonah and the Pirates Who Don't do Anything! He found a pirate hat in the thrift store and wore it while we looked around. Every time someone got close to the buggy he said, "Arg... I'm a pirate!" We got many laughs and one strange look! This new pirate fascination got me thinking about boats, which eventually led me around to our investigation today! Yeah, my mind works in strange ways. Don't try to figure it out, just go with it!

Objective- Uses senses to explore the environment (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Scientific Development 3.3.4)

Materials- Large fish tank or pan of water, several different objects (optional: we glued small masts and construction paper flags on our objects)

Procedure-
1. Discuss each object before you place it in the water. (Is it heavy? Is it round? etc...)
2. Place it in the water.
3. Talk about what made it sink or float. (It has holes that let the water in. It is heavy. etc...)


Whether an object sinks or float in a liquid depends mainly on two factors: density and buoyancy. However, at this level, children do not need to explain why objects sink or float. Just make simple observations!

All our pirate ships

the foam shark floats

Bet you've never seen a boat like this before! It sank!

Wind Chimes for Nonnie

It's almost Nonnie's birthday and we have been scratching our heads trying to figure out what to make. Finally. like a light from above, we got it. Little Mister noticed that one of the chimes on her porch had lost the clacker ... not exactly sure what to call it ... So, off we go!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NONNIE

Materials- Several cans of different sizes, one can lid, acrylic paints, brushes, glitter, yarn, washers. nail, hammer

Procedure-
1. Poke a hole in the top of each can, and the lid, using a nail and hammer.
2. Paint the cans. We added glitter to a few while they were still wet.
3. Let them dry.
4. Run yarn through the holes and attach a washer to the end inside the can (clacker)! LOL
5. Grab all the strings and knot them together at the length you want them to hang.
6. Use a large washer as a hanger or simply use the loops from the knot.

Ready to get this started

We made 2 because we had so many cans!

Bubble Capture

We were outside today playing with bubbles. Unfortunately, it was very windy day so the bubbles quickly floated away. Little Mister got upset because he was not able to capture any bubbles. Super Mommy to the rescue! Inside we went and raided the craft cabinets!

This is a very hands on for mommy craft. Therefore, I didn't get many good pictures. Note: Save this one for when you have lots of time on your hands because there will be lots of clean up involved!


Materials- Large shallow baking dish, dish soap, acrylic paints, card stock, straws, water, glue, jars with lids

procedure-
1. In a small jar with a lid (we used a baby food jar), add just enough paint to cover the bottom.
2. Squirt in dish soap to double the volume of the paint.
3. Add a small squirt of glue.
4. Pour in water until you have doubled your volume in the jar. (It does not have to be precise). Shake it up well.
5. Make several jars with different colors if you want to.
6. Place one jar in the center of the baking dish and insert a straw.
7. Blow through the straw until the bubbles spill over the jar into the baking dish. Let enough accumilate until the bottom of the baking dish is covered.
8. Remove the jar and set aside. Make sure to place it on paper so you don't end up with an even bigger mess later!
9. Take a piece of card stock and holding the corners with both hands, lower the paper on the bubbles in the dish making sure not to let it touch the bottom.
10. You may have to do it a couple of times to cover the whole page.

Also, try dipping your paper in several different colors! It was fun but VERY hands on for Mommy!

Making some bubbles

Love this one!

Stick People Puppets

We had a really bad storm the other night! In our back yard, a tree topple over and would have hit the house if it had not gotten tangled up in the power lines! We were very fortunate that the power lines did not break!! Thank you Jesus! Today we ventured around back and selected a few choice sticks from the Near-Miss Tree! This activity was great fun! My Little Mister has a VERY active imagination and needed no prompting for the puppet interaction! I wish I had it on video! I laughed until I hurt!

 Objective- Acts out stories using dramatic play (MS Early learning guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Language, Vocabulary and Literacy Development 1.4.8)

Materials- Sticks, glue, google eyes, scrap materials, pizza box or other card board.

Procedure-
1. Collect suitable sticks from yard.
2. Glue on scrap material for clothes.
3. Add eyes.
4. Decorate box or other form of card board for a theater. We used an old bread stick box which already had a slot in the front!
5. Let the imagination take control!

The Near-Miss Tree

He loved it so much that I went back and decorated the box (and tweaked it a little)!! We play with it often!

Filter Fun

 Little Mister enjoyed this one very much! We did it over and over and over again!

Objective- Notices differences in colors (MS Early learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Scientific Development 3.3.3)

Materials- Coffee filters, Crayola Markers, Small spray bottle, water, card stock

Procedures-
1. Color on a filter with markers (make colorful pictures or just scribbles). We started out with just scribbles but after we did a few then he wanted to start trying it with pictures!
2. Place the decorated filter on a piece of card stock.
3. Mist the filter until the colors begin to bleed together.
4. Carefully lift the filter to see the beautiful design which appears on the card stock.

Alternate activity-
Let the filters dry flat on wax or foil and they can be used later for other crafts. We plan to use ours as tissue for a stain glass project.

Painting with the Wind

Living in the South, we are constantly talking about or complaining about the weather! We can have warm gentle summer breezes in the morning and, by noon, run for shelter from mighty gusts bringing in a storm! Today we were outside and some leaves decided to “run” across the driveway! Which lead to the following activity.

Objective- Notices and names characteristics of seasons and weather (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Scientific Development 3.2.1)

Materials- Card stock, straw, liquid watercolors or thinned acrylic paint, eye dropper

Procedure-
1. Drop some paint on the card stock.
2. Blow through the straw to move the paint on the paper.
3. Drop different colors on the paper and blow it around. Moving the paper around while blowing through the straw will make more interesting patterns.
4. Try variations on how hard you blow through the straw. After all, we don't always have tornado weather! In the South, we have gentle summer breezes along with gusts before a storm! LOL
5. Lay the card stock flat to dry.

Look Mommy! No Hands!

This is how the Elephants do it!

It was VERY windy today!