Simple Paper Plate Rocking Chicken Easter Craft

Mar 29, 2013

Easter craft, craft for kids, simple craft, paper plate craft, rocking chicken, chicken craft

There have been so many awesome Easter crafts going on all over the net that it's been hard to find something to do that everyone else isn't doing.

We actually did this Paper Plate Easter Chicken last year when I'd just started blogging, so, suffice to say, the photos weren't all that great and this year I thought that we could improve upon it.

I have shared this post on the memetales blog so if you'd like to see even more photos on it and details on working through it with a small child, click on the link below.


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9 Easter Activities for Kids with added Learning

Mar 26, 2013




Welcome to  TUESDAY TOTS for this week.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (us), Rainy Day Mum
Growing a Jeweled Rose and In Lieu of Preschool

This Week:
Learn with Play at home is featuring

9 Easter Activities with added Learning


These great activities all came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup
where we featured Easter Activities using Plastic Eggs



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Pipe Cleaner Numbers. Playful Maths

Mar 23, 2013



Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" weekly series brought to you by



Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

............................................................................................................


Last week I shared Bottle Top Number Game.

This week we bring you another 2 Playful Maths Activities using Pipe Cleaners. 



Today's activity from us focuses on "Number Recognition and Number Formation" 


This activity also includes  counting,  orderingnumber writing and fine motor skills. 



Ages: 4+
(M has just turned 4. See the bottom for handy tips to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)


Materials: Pipe Cleaners, Scissors
(optional fishing line and coat hangers to make a number mobile)

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Cutting Practice for Kids. DIY Contact Paper Bracelets or Cuffs

Mar 21, 2013

cutting practice, cutting activity, collage, contact paper, crafts for kids


My daughter loves snipping so I thought I'd give her some more cutting practice
with this "Invitation to Create" Contact Paper Cuffs.

This activity is also great for encouraging creativity, problem solving and fine motor skills


Ages: 2+
(See the Handy Hints at the bottom for ideas to Simplify and Extend to suit your child)



Materials: Contact Paper (Sticky back plastic), variety of paper, sequins (optional), scissors
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Teaching Children to be Fire Ready. Making a family Fire Plan

Mar 19, 2013

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang


Living in Victoria means that we are at real risk of fires. Despite the fact that we live in a residential suburban area we are on the urban fringe and therefore, still at risk of fire. 

Did you know?...In strong winds, embers can travel up to 35 kilometres in front of a fire, starting new fires. People who travel or holiday in high risk bushfire areas are also at risk of bushfire. Even people considering a day trip should be prepared. (CFA)

Living in a bush fire prone area or even on the fringe means that you must be Fire Ready.
You need a plan of action and to be prepared long before any fires are actually around. You can read more about how to make a plan with this Fire Ready Kit.

However, even if you don't live in any of those areas at all, there is always a risk that your house may catch fire regardless of where you live. 
It is important that you have a family plan of action if the worst was to happen and that your children are aware of what they should do in case of a fire.


Making a Family Friendly Fire Plan

As a parent it is my duty to look after my children. In the event of a fire a parent's first priority would be to get their children out of the house. This is especially the case with very young children whom would be incapable of leaving on their own.

I know that we would be doing everything in our power to get to our children and get them outside, so thinking about preparing them to be independent in the case of an emergency is something that is easy to let slip. Use this as your reminder to consider what your child knows and is capable of understanding and think about what they could and should know.

The plan that you make with your child has to be age appropriate.
Start by having a think about what they are capable of for their age and make sure any instructions you're giving them are both achievable by them and aren't going to scare them. 


Teaching Children to be Fire Ready

Here are the lessons that we felt were appropriate for our 4 year old (and older kids) to learn in order to be fire ready.

1) Learning about the Smoke Detector


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Easter Activities using Plastic Eggs

Easter Eggs, Decorating Eggs, Easter Crafts, Egg Craft, Egg Decoration, Plastic Egg Activity


Welcome to  TUESDAY TOTS for this week.
Brought to you by Learn with Play at home (us), Rainy Day Mum
Growing a Jeweled Rose and In Lieu of Preschool

This Week:
Learn with Play at home is featuring

Fun Activities for Easter using Plastic Eggs


These great activities all came from last weeks Tuesday Tots linkup
where we featured Activities to promote Imaginative Play




FEATURED

Obviously there are Easter Activities galore at the moment! We happen to have a whole lot of plastic eggs (that I bought very cheaply at the end of Easter last year) so I've been on the hunt for fun and different ways to use them for crafting, playing and learning.

Here are 6 fun posts that were linked up to Tuesday Tots last week that I thought provided some great inspiration and ideas for ways to use them.

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Fun Bottle Top Addition Game. Playful Maths

Mar 16, 2013



Welcome once again to the "Playful Maths" weekly series brought to you by



Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

............................................................................................................


Last week I shared Bottle Top Calculator.

This week we bring you another 2 Playful Maths Activities using Bottle Tops. 



Today's activity from us focuses on "Counting, Number Recognition and Basic Addition" 


This activity also includes  subitisingcounting on and creativity and could include ordering and number writing. 



Ages: 3+
(M has just turned 4. See the bottom for handy tips to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)
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Invitation to Draw with Blocks

Mar 14, 2013



In order to encourage my daughter to experiment with the way she draws, I set out a simple little drawing activity as an "Invitation to Draw."

This little set-up encouraged creativity, understanding of shapes, thinking skills, fine motor, coordination, building and more.


Ages: 2+ 
(see handy tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)


Materials: Paper, Markers (we've used the Micador Mega Markers here) and blocks.


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Fun Activities to promote Imaginative Play

Mar 12, 2013


Imaginative Play is a way for children to experiment with language, thoughts and processes that are vital to their development. It is a safe way for them to learn about the world around them and practice and experiment different ways of acting and reacting.

Here are a range of fun ideas and activities that promote imaginative play.
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Bottle Top Calculator. Number Writing and Recognition. Playful Maths

Mar 9, 2013

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Welcome once again to the "Playful Maths" weekly series brought to you by



Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

............................................................................................................



This week we bring you 2 Playful Maths Activities using Bottle Tops. 



Today's activity from us focuses on "Number Recognition and Number Writing" 


This activity also includes counting,  subitising and pretend play and could include addition, subtraction etc.



Ages: 2+
(M has just turned 4. See the bottom for handy tips to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)


Making your Bottle Top Calculator


Materials: 12 Plastic Recycled Bottle Tops, a piece of thick recycled cardboard, all purpose glue, scissors, marker and foam number stickers (optional).




Directions
  • Cut your cardboard to size
  • Stick (or write) the numbers 0-9 on ten of the bottle tops and write "on" and "off" on the remaining two.
  • Glue your number and word bottle tops on your cardboard
  • Draw in a "screen"

Free Play

I presented a real calculator with our bottle top calculator to explore with.


My daughter asked for the extra bottle tops so she could use them as money that she needed to calculate.



Extend the Play




Once the kids had enjoyed the calculator as it was, 
I cut the "screen" out of the cardboard to extend the play 
and allow for other learning opportunities.





To begin I wrote some numbers down a sheet of paper and she found the corresponding number.

She loved sliding the paper to reveal the next hidden number.

You can encourage subitising by putting in the dots and get them to see how quickly they can find the corresponding number.



Then she wanted to write the numbers in herself (which was the original idea behind the design)

Sometimes she pressed numbers and wrote them in. 
Other times, in order to practice her teen numbers I would ask her to put "12" on the calculator.

This allowed us to really talk about the order of numbers and which went first (eg the 1 or the 2? A common area children struggle with.) as she had to press the numbers one at a time.
We could see on a real calculator that when we pressed the numbers the first one would move along one space to the left. This allowed her to see how to write it in the space.



She insisted on practicing some numbers again and again. It was great having the numbers on the bottle tops so that she could copy them.



Handy Tips:


- Simplify this activity by just giving the play calculator for them to explore and use in imaginative play. Try some basic instructions like, "can you find the 4?"


- You can Extend this activity in many ways:
  • With the window screen cut out, challenge your child to find numbers, already written around the house (try labels, books etc) to display through the window.
  • Add some extra buttons to your calculator eg. "+" "-" and use these to encourage practicing basic sums
  • Have some larger numbers already written on some paper for them to feed behind the calculator. They can then find the numbers on the calculator and count out corresponding amounts of bottle tops.
  • Have the children make their own calculators

- Make the screen reusable by putting a white board behind it or painting the screen with blackboard chalk so that you can write in the numbers, rub off and write again.


- Mix it up by presenting your child with the same materials to see what they could create.


- Allow children the freedom to explore and investigate on their own. They will often come up with ideas or experiences that we would not have thought of. It also gives them the opportunity to make these discoveries and learn new skills themselves without being shown them.


- Have you see the rest of the Playful Maths series from us and The Imagination Tree?
Below are our previous posts using various everyday materials. 


Playful Maths Plastic Bottle Activities
(click the pictures to go to the posts)

   measuring activity, measuring for kids, rice play, sensory play, maths for kids, fun maths, hands-on maths       


Playful Maths Paper Tube Activities
(click on the pictures to go to the posts)

  maths for kids, fun maths, numeracy, maths activity
  


Playful Maths Egg Carton Activities
(click on the pictures to go to the posts)

           




Don't forget to join us next week where we're bringing you more Playful Maths activities.



Bottle Tops have so many uses. How do you use them for play?




Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Pom-pom Colour Sort & Count. Early Maths

Mar 7, 2013

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For me, there's not many manipulatives as fun as pom-poms for kids!

They're soft and fuzzy, small and light, coloured and shiney and textured. Delight!
(I wonder if anyone's every written a poem about pom-poms? haha)



This activity couldn't be any simpler to do and set up but is lots of fun and holds plenty of learning!


Use this activity to learn more about colours, sorting/categorising, counting, numbers, estimation, one-to-one correspondence (1:1) and  developing fine motor skills.


Ages: 2+
(see Handy Tips at the bottom for ideas to modify to your child's level)

Materials: Coloured pompoms, divided containers
(I deliberately started with only 1 container with not enough spaces for all the colours to see what she'd do)



It didn't take long before she realised that she didn't have enough compartments to sort the amount of different colours.



I then gave her another tray (just a muffin pan) so she could continue her sorting



Picking out those pom-poms was great for developing pincer-grip



She was happy about all the extra compartment she had and started to divide the lights from the darks.



When she'd divided them all I asked her which colour pom-pom she thought she had the most of? 
Which did she have the least of?



I then had her test her guess by counting the pom-poms. We practiced one-to-one correspondence (1:1) by moving each pompom from one side to another while counting aloud.



Handy Tips

- Simplify this activity by providing fewer pom-poms and colour options to sort and count. Start with 2 or 3 different colours and 5-10 pom-poms of each colour and work your way up.

- Extend this activity by having children guess which colour of pom-pom there is the most of before starting. Graph the results at the end to find out how close the initial guess was.

- Mix it up by doing the same activity with different manipulatives like blocks, legos, buttons, counters etc

- Talk with your child about what they are doing and naturally follow the conversation about colours and numbers. Use descriptive words like fuzzy and soft to help them develop their language.


Here are some more of our fun NUMBER activities for kids




You can also follow our Playful Maths series.



Happy playing,
Debs :)

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