Cranes back in Britain.

First crane egg in 400 years laid at Slimbridge

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Related Stories

• First crane nests for 400 years
• Cranes return to wetland centre
• Crane eggs arrive at bird centre

The first crane egg in southern Britain in more than 400 years has been laid by a nesting bird.

A Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire has been rearing cranes and reintroducing them to the West Country since 2010.  A nesting couple have laid an egg and is currently under 24 hour watch to ensure the egg hatches.  The trust has been rearing them in captivity. 

Hunting and the loss of wetlands led to cranes becoming extinct in Britain.

You can watch the birds and the eggs on a webcam from the WWT website.

Overview

Where to see them?

In Britain, migrating cranes are seen mostly in the south and east. The location of the single breeding site is kept secret to protect the birds.

When to see them?

You are most likely to see migrating cranes in Britain in April and early May, occasionally in autumn.

What they eat?

Seeds, crops, insects, snails and worms.

Craft ideas

3D model Cranes

http://ram.scdsb.on.ca/staff/Black/2007-8/crafts.html

Crane lollipop stick

A template can be found on this  site.

http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/birdcrafts.html

Origami paper crane

A clip of how to make these beautiful quite popular origami bird can be found on the site.

http://www.vivaboo.com/the-beauty-in-the-widely-popular-origami-tsuru-crane/

http://paperworks.wikidot.com/forum/t-92618/crane

This is a perfect opportunity to link news into activities you do with your Little Bright Sparks.

Pimp my toy car!

We have tried painting with cars before as a ploy to get him to use paint and get messy hands which he wasn't very keen on at first. He loved it so much that he asks for cars everything we paint.

This time I said yes, although I was trying to get him to paint stones.

It soon developed into 'pimping the cars' by painting them. Again loved it and great fun activity.

I admit I did have a hand at this one.

He absolutely loved the car wash afterwards.

And squirting water on them.

Only to play with them in the mud after.

Dylan 2.5

Crane: magnetic metal detector!

This is an adaptation of the simple science experiment testing if objects are magnetic or not.

As my son is obsessed with Thomas the tank he loves this crane. He calls it banana cranky as it is kind of yellow and cranky is green from Thomas . He constantly attaches his trains and has progressed to be able to use the turning wheel about a month ago.

So I got the usual selection of objects 

Put them in a cake tin

Wrote two signs saying magnetic and non-magnetic

Explained what to do and off he went.

Started off picking up trains.

Then he started investigating.

He loved this activity before and the addition of banana cranky made it even more fun especially as he lowered the crane to the object and lifted it all the way back up before removing to place in the correct pile.

Dylan 2.5

Peg Pinch Pilates Wheel

This activity was developed by my son who collected the peg basket and my Pilates hoop that he likes to try and hula hoop with. 

He then tried pinching the pegs ( something he struggles with). I asked he to put them on the wheel but he could quite do it.

So I then added them and asked him to remove them.

He could do this quite easily. He placed the pegs back in the basket counting as he did it.

Learning ideas

1. Counting pegs

2. Fine motor skills pinching pegs 

3. You could incorporate colours by getting assorted coloured pegs

4. Make it more literacy based by adding letters to the pegs

5. Add pictures of animals to the pegs and ask them to pick on- old McDonald had a farm. 

Dylan 2.5

Lollipop stick shapes

Lollipop sticks have many uses. Making shapes being one of them.

I have tried this activity a few times and most of the time I have had to do most of the work.

However this time Dylan responded really well. I asked him to make a blue square and a purple triangle.

He did really well after I modelled it first, he then wanted to make a rectangle.

His concentration didn't last for long. He also reverted back to train mode and wanted to make a track.

( an activity we tried previously)

He then helped tidy up.

Learning ideas

1. To make shapes

2. To make coloured shapes

3. To make shapes with lollipop sticks with shapes drawn on them

4. To make shapes with shape names written on.

5. To use the shapes to make a picture such as a house.

6. Use to count number of sides.

7. Glue sticks down to make pictures

8. Use playdoh to make 3D shapes such as a cuboid.

9. Use pipe cleaners to show round shapes.

Quick of the cuff activity, no mess , lots of learning and imagination plus fine motor movement picking up the sticks.

Dylan aged 2.5

 

Endangered species awareness

THE NORTHERN SPORTIVE LEMUR

Check out the top ten endangered species list

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1 Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

A North American bird so endangered it may actually be extinct

Toilet roll woodpecker

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mwoodpecker.html

Oscillating woodpecker 

http://madebyjoel.com/2010/10/woodpecker.html

2 Amur Leopard

The world’s rarest cat: Only 40 left in Russia’s Far East

Potato print leopard design

Leopard paper plate

http://www.clickacraft.com/crafts-material/paper-plate/paper-plate-leopard

3 Javan Rhinoceros

No more than 60 of these swamp-dwelling Asian rhinos exist

Dried bean rhino craft

http://frugalfun4boys.com/2011/01/12/dried-bean-mosaic-art-project/

4 Northern Sportive Lemur

Here’s the scarcest of Madagascar’s fast-dwindling lemur species

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mlemur.htm

5 Northern Right Whale

Hunted to near extinction, 350 right whales still swim the Atlantic

Bottle whale craft

http://www.examiner.com/article/yom-kippur-activities-the-story-of-jonah-yonah

6 Western Lowland Gorilla

Disease and illegal hunting are taking an alarming toll on this gentle giant of a primate

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/25739/good-night-gorilla

7 Leatherback Sea Turtle

The population of the world’s largest turtle is dropping at an alarming rate

Egg carton turtle 

http://carrotsareorange.com/sea-turtle-mini-unit-lots-free-printables/

8 Siberian (or Amur) Tiger

The world’s biggest cat weighs as much as 300 kilos (660 pounds)

Toilet roll tiger

http://asboartncraft.blogspot.co.uk/

9 Chinese Giant Salamander

Humans are eating the world’s largest amphibian into extinction

10 The Little Dodo Bird

Samoa’s little dodo bird is in immanent danger of following the large dodo into extinction.

http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/ten-most-endangered-animals

http://www.ekoskola.org.mt/projects-activities/animal-awareness-and-climate-changeongoing-activities/

http://www.care2.com/news/member/525884267/1407884

Hungry Hippos style diggers game.

                                    

My son loves the hungry hippos game and we had recently just played it, so when he had his diggers out I wondered what I could give him to move around as building materials. We used marbles the day before to make instruments so I choose them.

As he was playing with the diggers I asked him to count how many marbles each could carry and his task was to carry them to the skip or the builders yard.

Then he had to choose the right diggers for the job. The ones that can 'scoop'. I isn't but you could write a label with the words on to incorporate literacy.

He then had to line them up in the order of who could carry the most.

He then sorted the diggers out into colours. Again you can have the different labels to say the name of the colours to include literacy. I children are still unsure of colours you could also have pice of colour paper to do a colour match rather than sort.

He then lined them up in colour order. This could be done in the order of colours in the rainbow. 

Then he wanted me to play so we played hungry hippos using the diggers. We had a larger marble to act as the white ball. The aim of the game was to scoop as many marbles as possible. Then we has to count them to see who won. The winning wasn't as important for us it was just funny to see him try to scoop really fast.

He actually beat mean most times. Obviously because he had the diggers who could scoop the most. 

Learning activities

1. Counting the number of scooped marbles

2. Sequence in order of capacity

3. Sort into groups according to colour

4. Identify and sort diggers into scoopers and non scoopers

5. Line them up in order of size

6. Hungry hippo style game 

7.  Scooping and dumping marbles from one place to another.

Dylan enjoyed this activity but I wouldn't leave him unsupervised with marbles even though I don't think he would put them in his mouth. So please be aware if you try this.

There are lots of activities and learning options including numeracy, literacy, colours and using fine motor skills.