Saturday, September 28, 2013

Top trump activities


As a secondary school teacher I have used top trump cards in my lessons many ways. My son is two and doesn't know how to play them the way they are intended as he can't read . Instead he tends to use it as a shopping list for asking for the next toy to add to his collection. (Spoilt by family). 

So he now has Disney cars & planes and Marvel ultimate heroes.
I thought of ways to use them differently as him loves looking at them.

This is what I came up with. We haven't tried them all yet.

Toy match
If you have the toys you could play a game to find them and match them.  This could be made more difficult hiding the toys. If you don't have the actual toy a drawing or other representation could be used.




Alphabet match
We have tried this with the Disney cars, we sorted the cards by the first letter of the name and matched them to the alphabet. We used alphabet flashcards but you could use magnet letters, stones or bottle tops.



Describing
Using the card encourage them to describe what they see without saying the name.  Getting them to guess from your description is just as fun. Focus on colours, shapes , number of wheels/ wings/ body parts, weapons, special powers, clothing and I'm sure much more depending on the pack.

Craft activity
Selecting a card to then focus a craft activity

Name identification and spelling
To recognise the object/ character's name.
To use letter to spell the names of the objects/ characters. Practise writing the names.

Sorting
Sorting the cards into groups- based on colour, name, type, skill, clothing and I'm sure you can think of more. The objects can also be included in this activity.

Building
Basic building by stacking cards, although this is challenging.

Activity selection
Use the cards to select what to do. So if you pick Spider-Man then spied related activities could be done.  The pack will determine how successful this is. Cars and plane maybe a little restricted. But if you picked lightening McQueen you could focus on lightening or a queen theme.  Dusty from planes you could focus on crops and farms/ scarecrows.

Sound
You could encourage them to make a sound related to the card. Again some cards are easier than others. Spider-Man web releasing sound , Thor hammer banging sound.
Story telling
Select a few cards and use them to tell a story. This can be verbal, drawing or written depending on age. You could also use multiple top trumps packs.

Shapes
You could look for shapes on the cards 
You can physically use the cards to make shapes.

Target practise
You can attach them to a board and throw objects at them or drop them if they are on the floor.

Role play
They could select a card and act like the character and rein act a scene if its from a movie.

Numeracy
To use them to make a number.
To spot numbers on the card
Count how many have similar attributes

Literacy
Spelling names, look for action words , recognise letters, have them as a letter focus day. Writing a story or a poem. Using words to describe.

Senses
Describe what senses the characters use to their advantage. To sense related activities linked to the card. Ghost rider incorporates fire- you could talk about fire, heat, the colours, listen to a fire, smell a fire, melt marshmallows obviously not touch but feel the heat.

Food
Make a food picture of the card. 
Or try foods that begin with the letter ie hulk: ham, hot dogs, hummus 

Create a card
To make your own version of the set. Make them and family members into a car or a plane or a super hero.

Top trumps game
Use them as intended



Brown bear what do you see: kebab


I saw a bead version of this sequencing activity and thought I would like to adapt it using food.
This activity is to go with the brown bear what do you see; activity series.



Other Possible food items

Chocolate rolo
Strawberry
Pineapple
Blue berry
Kiwi
Grape purple
Liquorice
Marshmallow 
Gold rolo 
Twiglet
Carrot

Any other ideas I would love to hear them.

Delicious way to recall the sequence from the book .

Dylan 2.11

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Baby wipe paint rubbing


This was totally my son's idea. I gave him a wipe and he rubbed the pictures he had made using cotton buds.
He was moving fairly fast so images are a little blurry but still good.




I think they came out quite effectively .


Also helps wipe excess paint off so they dry faster.

Dylan 2.11

Painting with .... Cotton buds


This is one of my favourite tools for painting with.
So easy and disposable. They produce fab looking art.














He called this masterpiece the football match. He is giving it to his daddy to take to work.

We then did a kind of dot to dot activity with shapes, numbers and letters.








I was very surprised to see how easy he took to this. Plus how enthusiastic he was.

Dylan 2.11








Leaf printing


A great autumn activity so easy and fun o do.
1. Collect the leaves
2. Paint the leaves
3 print with the leaves.











The pictures come out great although I forgot to take a photo of these.

Dylan 2.11




Cardboard shape construction

I had a bit of cardboard left over and remember a fellow blogger cutting out shapes and making a slit in them so they can be. Used for construction model.
They didn't take long to do. I made various shapes. I think a triangle was the best.
It was a little tricky at first . 
He got his tools to pretend to cut them like bob the builder.










I encouraged him to colour them in with crayons but I think paint would be better. Probably paint them in advance or as a 3D model.

Definitely will try again. Next time I will also cut a bigger slit to make it easier.

Dylan 2.11

Alphabet object hunt

I made these alphabet cards to use with the playdoh as a guide to create the letters.
Dylan found them and wanted to play with them.
It was quite late so I said can you find an object/ toy that begins with the letter 'A', like apple 
Off he went to find it.

I gave him less help with clues but made sure an object was in sight.

We have been practising writing A-H only so that's all the cards I made.



We only did this for a short while , I left it out and as soon as we got up he wanted to play again.
So he must have enjoyed it.

Dylan 2.11

Teabag brown bear: book club activity





Another virtual book club activity to go with the book: brown bear what do you see by Bill MartinJr

Tea bag brown bear
We had great fun and got a bit messy making this.



What to do

1.  Drink tea (get used tea bags approx fiour, obviously depends how big you draw the bear)
2. Draw the outline of the bear or print



3. Dab the paper with the tea bags
4. Empty contents into a tub
5. Mix glue and tea
6. Stick broken tea bags to the bear
7. When stuck paste the tea/glue mix on top
8. Add eyes

You could go over the outline with a marker or use cardboard to make a separate head to make it stand out.

Great fun! But didn't get to take any action shots.

Dylan aged 2.11

Brown leaf brown bear: book club activity




Brown bear brown bear what do you see? Fantastic book by Bill Martin jr featured authour in the virtual book club for september.

There is a huge tree that leaves loads of leaves on our front lawn. So we decided to link our autumn activity with the book club activity.

So here is the brown bear made from leaves, cardboard, paper, glue, scissors and googley eyes.



1. Collect some leaves.
2. Draw the outline of the bear
3.'put some pva glue on the bear

4. Stick some leaves on

5. Draw and cut the head out of cardboard
6. Stick on googley eyes
7. Add brown shading
8. Attach head to the body

All done!

Tip: try to use leaf stem as the claw.

This activity was quite fiddley for my two year old as the leaves  didn't stick very easily. Maybe if we had flattened them overnight first they wouldn't curl up so much.

Not quite a master piece but he enjoyed it and we sang the story as a song like Bill Martin jr on YouTube .

Dylan 2.11

Disney Planes: nature picture.


We collected some bits of nature from our garden and then I asked my son what picture we should make and he said Dusty a plane from the new Disney movie Planes.

So I guided what and where to place them to look like a plane (kind of)
Dylan was happy with this and enjoyed sticking the objects to the double sided table I had already attached.

One of I'm sure many nature pictures.
Dylan 2.11

Monday, September 16, 2013

Playdoh and number magnets

My son loves playdoh, numbers and magnets, so why not combine them all?
That's what we did...
1. We cut out numbers

2. We counted and sequenced the numbers 


3. Then he made the right number of sausages to match the number


I'm sure we will come up with a lot more activity ideas to follow this. Do you have any?

Dylan 2.11

Acorn and playdoh hide and seek

After acorn and playdoh math we played a sensory activity of hiding the acorns and retrieving them.  He had to feel how many there were with his eyes closed.





This was still a numeracy activity matching the number of hidden acorns revealed. 

Dylan 2.11