Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Halloween science

Here are some Halloween science ideas that we are going to consider doing this month.

1. Sink snd float experiment witches couldron
I thought you could do this with candy or bits of nature collected or even general household items.
Easy experiment does the item float of sink ??

2. Twig/nature skeleton
I have seen a brilliant nature skeleton and really want to try and do it this year if we get chance.

3. Magnetism ghost
To do this you simply attach string to a paper clip and the opposite end Sellotape to a surface. You then attach the paper lip to a paper ghost. Using a magnet you can make it look like the ghost is floating.

4. Make slime
There are many different ways to make slime. When I do it I will update this post which I liked best.

5. Balloon rocket ghost or witch on a broom stick
A balloon rocket is basically a balloon attached to a straw which is threaded on a wire (fishing wire works best). Decorate the balloon to look like whatever and blow it up the let it go and it should move along the string.

6. Density potions
Mix liquids with different densities such oil, treacle , water and syrup they seperate when mixed and it looks good.

7. Make various luminaries to explore light
Using tin cans pierce them to allow light to shine out of them. 

8. Pumpkin float or sink
To investigate if different parts of the pumpkin float or sink.  Also various size pumpkins.

9. Chromatography
Draw a Halloween picture on filter paper and add a drop of water and watch the colours seperate.
We will probably try a pumpkin first.

10. Mixing potions 
Sodium bicarbonate and vinegar is always good fun.

11. Ice play melting
I have bought some Halloween ice cube trays and made milk ghosts and orange pop pumpkins. Not sure what they will come out like.

12. Static electricity ghost
To make a ghost out of tissue paper or grease proof paper may work. Rub it with a plastic ruler and it should stand up with the ruler.

13. Shadow puppets 
Halloween themed puppet show. I got a template and ued them to make the puppets. 

14. Rolling pumpkins
You could talk about kinetic movement energy and investigate the mass and how fast they roll down a ramp.

15. Creepy crawlies magnifying glass 
To have an insect hunt to try classify the bugs.

16. Inflating ghost / pumpkin
This is done by releasing carbon dioxide tk inflate a balloon attached to a bottle 
You can do this with baking soda and vinegar or yeast and warm sugar water.

17. Egg smoke bombs 
To explore diffusion as the egg shells filled with talc and smashed the talc diffuses and spreads out .

19. Fizzing pumpkins
We tried this with sodium bicarbonate and vinegar as well as effervescent vitamin C tablets and warm water.

20. Ghost rockets
Decorate a bottle as a ghost and add a mento style mint to fizzy pop like lemonade or come . Turn it upside down and the reaction will force the bottle up.

21. Halloween light table 
To place led lights in a box and have a variety of Halloween objects to explore.

22. Bouncy goblin eggs

35 Street sign post ideas














1. Finger letter tracing
To trace the letters on the sign with your fingers.  My son came up with this, you could then reproduce the sign at home on paper.

2. Wash
You could take a bucket of water an sponge and clean the signs which teaches them about helping keep their community clean.

3. Water brush trace
A similar activity to number one but with a paintbrush and a pit/bucket of water.  Again good for learning the alphabet and could be continued st home with writing materials.

4. Copy Writing
You could take a writing pad and write the road names of all your local roads.

5. Postcard image
A sketch pad would be just as good to draw the sign post and the surround area like a postcard.


















6. Water pistol target practise
You could take a water pistol out and ask them to locate letters and shoot them.  My son loved this, first time he shot letters as I said to based on the sign. The second time we searched for letters on alphabetical order which meant we had to revisit some signs.
 
7. Match 
To have cards/photos of the sign in a basket for them to search through when you get to a sign and match it. 

8. Body shape letters 
To use your body to recreate the letters seen on the sign. Obviously some easier than others. You could then take photos and collard them to make a body shape road sign.

9. Number of letters tally
You could produce a tally chart to record how many letter A's you have seen. You could have valves versus consonants or letters of their name.

10. Hidden words
This is for older children, you could look for words in sequence hidden in the sign. Such as Haden hill road you can pick out Had, den hi, ill.
  
11. Measuring signs
You can measure the signs with tape to order the biggest - smallest.

12. Water balloon target practise.
To throw water balloons at certain letters. Remember to pick up the litter.
 
13. Map
To follow a map or produce a map of your local signs.

14. Sequence in alphabetical order 
After visiting the signs and record them you must put them in alphabetical order and revisit them in sequence.

15. Photograph



 
You photograph them to use for lots of the other activities.  

16. Playdoh 
You could take a board and playdoh out to make a model of the sign. A photograph of the sign can also be used as a playdoh template. 
17. Verbal journey recording
A to route throttle tge neighbourhood can be decided and they can follow the route and verbally record the journey . This can be used to write a set of direction to follow next time.

18. Follow verbal directions
The directions can be from a previous journey . They are told the directions to follow either by you ir a voice recording they/you made previously.

19. Magnetic spell board
You can take a magnetic whiteboard and the magnetic letters and copy the sign. Photos can also be taken to use again.

20. Prize hunt
Small prizes can be hidden behind the signs for them to collect on the journey.

21. Hidden message
A set of clues and a letter can be hidden  at the sign to spell out a hidden message. So the letter can be the 'first letter' and a glue might be " the next sign is by a post box".

22, Name extraction
To help recognise and spell their name them could search for a sign that they can spell their name in if this isn't possible maybe search for the one with the most letters of their name or mom and sad or other family members.

23. Spelling soup
To use the letters of the sign as the letters in a spelling soup. The idea is to make as many words as they can. A magnetic white board with letters might be handy for this.

24. Sign to image converting 
To come up with an image that represents a sign . So meadow drive I would draw a meadow. 

25. Journey stick
To create a stick that represents the signs on your journey. So for example if you have been to green drive take something green and put it on your journey stick. It can be items that you find at the sign to help them remember the journey or items that represent the name of the sign. The stick vmcan be used to retell the events of the journey or write a story.

26. Musical sign
I'm sure all the neighbours would love you to use the signs to make music.

27. Footsteps
To count footsteps in between signs.

28. Pipe cleaner sign
To take pipe cleaners out to make a copy of the sign.

29. Stringy sign
Using the same principle make a string version off a sign. 

30. Chalkboard
To take a chalkboard and copy write the sign. A pavement option can be used if you clean up after.

31. Nature writing
You could use twigs, leaves and other bits of nature to copy write the sign.

32. Eat a sign
Use the sign post for the inspiration of snacks made with fruit, veg, biscuits or chocolate spread writing on toast.

33. Candy sign post
To make a candy sign post either out in the neighbourhood or back home .

34. Toy sign post
Use toys to write the sign post name

35. Toy adventure 
To use their favourite toys to explore sign posts . My son used his avengers to climb up the signs and talk to each other about the street name.  The toys can be combined with the use or development of a map.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Fizzing and foaming pumpkin fakers



We had lots of oranges in the fruit bowl that had been their for a while so I decided to test the new pumpkin carve set and do some Halloween science too.

So we carved a face into an orange.





We added a vitamin C effervescent tablet and then Dylan squirted the orange juice onto it.





This is what happened.









We practised sucking up more juice .




Then we tried the baking soda and vinegar.



















Great fun. I thought the orange effervescent tablets would foam more orange but there was just a little fizzing the baking soda was better. We will try orange food coloring next year.
Dylan 2.11




Saturday, October 19, 2013

Beaded pumpkin


As part of our non-carve pumpkin fun we decided to use beads. For this we used the small pumpkin.
I placed double sided sticky tape on the pumpkin and left Dylan to stick the beads on.
This was a totally fun activity although it can be used for colour and numeracy learning at a late date.
How?
can ask him to count the beads , add and subtract.
I could ask him to match the colour sequence with beads on a piece of paper or simply using crayons/felts.
I could also use it as a threading activity but these beads are too small for Dylan's tiny hands.
I could ask him to rearrange the beads in a certain sequence ie the rainbow.


Again another quick and easy activity but supervision is required as the beads are a chocking hazard.



Dylan 2.11

Googley eyed pumpkin




A good way to decorate pumpkins without mess and looks funky.
I simply placed double sided sticky tape tot he googley eyes and my two year old put them
Where he wanted.
Moving them around develops fine gross skills further. 

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin mad hatter!





This was a totally off the cuff activity inspired by my sons hat on the dining room table as we did other activities



I think we needed a bigger pumpkin but it was still very funny trying on hats ourselves and making the pumpkin into different people.

This has sparked a new idea to do other dress up items like glasses, moustaches, scarves and ties.


This encourages imaginative play and role playing characters. Great fun and very easy to do. Give it a try.

Dylan 2.11

Chalky pumpkin



This activity was quick and easy but wasn't that impressed with how well it worked,
Maybe as we polished it first it redipuced the quality of the chalk drawn on.  However Dylan seemed to like this and it was after many other pumpkin activities too.

An extension of this could be to paint the pumpkin with chalkboard paint first.

Dylan 2.111

Musical pumpkin


We had been reading a book for the VBC that is called animal music. So the instruments were out as we role played to book. So they gave me an idea to use the pumpkin as a percussion instrument a drum.
Away he went using the xylophone like a symbol on a drum set.
He enjoyed this so much he told everyone about it days after.


I thought you could play a game using labeled pumpkins by asking them to hit a certain pumpkin.
You could also do an experiment listening to how it sound different when hollow p, filled with water or a different size.


 Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin plaster removal


After the plaster sticking activity and the dr check-up the removal of these plasters and bandages can be an activity practising fine motor skills. I can also prepare him for removal of plasters when he allows us to out them on him. 
Dylan's skills in this type of activity have improved really quickly. He even works out the best method of extraction.

Dylan 2.11

Plaster pumpkin


During the pumpkin check up doctor Dylan noticed a mark that he said was a cut and to put a plaster on. I had to open them and he put them on. He has got much better at handling plasters. He is a nightmare to get to have a plaster on so hoping this will help. I have a bunch of old plasters that I kept for craft purposes.  We also had a few of the new coloured plasters I bought to motivate him to wear one when he needs one obviously not as a fashion statement. 
After he had finished he did more doctor type checks from the previous activity.

He loved this and even more he loved the removal.

Dylan 2.11

Squirty cream pumpkin




This started as pretend medicine and ended up pasting the squirty cream all over.
He wasn't very keen to get the cream on his hands as he is funny like that.
But soon forgot about it and enjoyed it.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin check-up


Dylan loves his doctor set and was very excited to use it on the pumpkin.
We have a doctors set of the usual apparatus. So he went through the typical motions of a check-up.
Obviously he had to use his imagination  for things like the ear check.
This lasted quite long and developed into other activities such as -
Pumpkin cream pasting 
Pumpkin plaster placing and removal.
Pumpkin bandage placing and removal.


Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin polishing



After cleaning the pumpkin of the felt from the last activity, I gave Dylan a polishing cloth to make it really shiny.

Simple activity that also teaches about chores like washing and polishing.
Didn't last long, we did this last year too he still liked it. But he was more interested in what was coming next....... Pumpkin check-up.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin name peel



It had been a while since our last pumpkin activity of drawing and foam name sticking. So we cleaned off the pumpkin ready for the next one. Then I thought this is a valuable fine motor skills activity plus recap on the last activity of name recognition. 
This activity can be done straight after or leave it on show for a while.

Dylan 2.11

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Baby sensory club- B is for Balls the plan

I remember my three year old loved balls and still does so having balls as a focus seems worth while.

What can we do ?

Sight: see balls of different sizes and colours.

Hearing: use of musical instrument and singing. Songs played about balls . (Made a list on YouTube)

Taste: maybe ball shaped food. I thought make melon balls.

Touch: feel the different textured balls

Smell

Art/craft: hand/footprint animals,  foam animal sticking.

Messy play: play with paint after printing

Role play: dress up as animals

Explore & discover: animal sounds, animal patterns/ colours and shapes

Physical activity: action sounds about animals, playing instruments

Book club: Bear snores on :-will fit in as Karma Wilson is the virtual book club featured author for November.
Bring a favourite animal book to share and read.

Follow up ideas- teddy journal, visit a farm, sign animal songs and do animal noises from session.  Do other animal hand/footprint. 
Feel different balls
Play in ball pit

Bring fav ball
Bouncy ball painting or marble painting
Football dress up
Explore and discover action of balls
Ball games
Playdoh balls
Ball game diary
Pom Pom ball letter art
Sound- bouncing balls, marbles
Outside ; Balls down slide or bounce with balls

Baby sensory club: A is for animals (THE PLAN)

My friends and I have decided to make our own baby sensory club. 
We have decided to go with an Alphabet theme where we take a letter and explore something that begins with that letter. 
So for instance we are doing A is for animals .


Planning ahead

What you need you to bring (if you can)
A favourite stuffed animal teddy 
A animal storybook 
An animal themed outfit
An animal figure
Animal fabrics
Animal dress up items
An apron
A bumbo chair / mat 

Resources you will use
Paint/paper
Stuffed animal teddies
Animal figure toys
Animal flashcards/pictures
Animal sounds
Musical instruments
Ideas of animal sounds plus lyrics if unknown
Animal print/style fabrics
Animal themed dress up items
Foam animals
Animal cutters
Playdoh
Animal biscuits
A place to visit real animal (if possible)

Sensory checklist  

Sight: see toy animals , animated animals and real animals on screen and possibly in real life.
See patterns and variety of colours of fabrics.

Hearing: use of musical instrument and singing. Songs played about animals. Listen to animal noises.

Taste: babies old enough could try animal biscuits or a selection of foods from animals. Could make edible paint. 

Touch: feel the cuddly teddies, fabrics, real animals as well as toy animals. Touch paint and print onto paper.  Make playdoh animal shapes.

Smell: can add scent to the paint and make edible paint. Smell animals in their habitat. Scented playdoh.

Art/craft: hand/footprint animals,  foam animal sticking.

Messy play: play with paint after printing

Role play: dress up as animals

Explore & discover: animal sounds, animal patterns/ colours and shapes

Physical activity: action sounds about animals, playing instruments

Book club: Bear snores on :-will fit in as Karma Wilson is the virtual book club featured author for November.
Bring a favourite animal book to share and read.

Follow up ideas- teddy journal, visit a farm, sign animal songs and do animal noises from session.  Do other animal hand/footprint. 

I will scan my sons hand print animal to get a digital image to keep.

I am looking forward to seeing what actually happens and will feedback the best activities and share artwork and favourite shots. 


Sarah 
xxx



Monday, October 14, 2013

A-Z Science: N is for Night



So fellow bloggers are exploring a night theme.

So we decided to explore our garden at night time. We had a torch and off we went. We even had a night time bounce on the trampoline and the looked at the stars. 
We searched for animals and listened out for sounds. Unfortunately we only heard a motorbike. We saw a moth and was frightened by a bird flapping its wings. We couldn't see or draw the moon so that's an activity for another day!





He was so excited when I told him earlier that day. 

Dylan 2.11

N is for night: Fruity stars




After our evening exploring the stars I thought it would be nice to continue talking about stars. I wanted to use some milky stars chocolate to make constellations, letters, numbers and shapes but found a healthier option in the cupboard. Some fruit stars that look like sweets but are made from fruit and contain less sugar.

So first he made a starry night sky

The letters, numbers and shapes

A circle




Then he ate them!

Dylan 2.11

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Halloween sensory tub

 


I have seen many different sensory tubs or bins and never really been sure whether I could make one just as good or that my son would be interested. I love Halloween season so I thought why not give it a try.

The look on his face and the amusement he got was mad! 

What was in our tub?

Red split lentils
Black beans
Halloween chocolate balls
Pumpkin scoopers
Baby milk scoops
Toy spider, wolf, pumpkin scarecrow from bob the builder
Orange net bag 
Glow torch
Glow stick
Toy pumpkin
Mini pumpkin
Containers
Black lace

I know random but I tried to cover all senses and improvised with what I had in.
First time using one but we still played as well as practising making letters, numbers and shapes. We talked about textures, colours and size. Burying the glow torch or spider was amusing.

I have kept it to play with tomorrow. I will certainly try it again.

Dylan 2.11

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Thomas Tank Engine Lego number train.

My son has a collection of Thomas the tank Lego that you can take apart.  He likes playing switch up with the different trains.  We decided to use the number Lego blocks and make the train version that he has requested from an advert on the telly.

We took all the train pieces off so we were left with the base of the train and then sequenced the numbers and found the matching object version . We placed them on the train. A slight problem in that the blocks over hang the base but to overcome this you need to hook the trains together before you ad the blocks.

We put Thomas' face at the front and the coal block at the back.
He had to take it slow pulling it along but he enjoyed it. He even got the spare Thomas train to attach to the number train.

Then I asked him to point out the numbers and count the objects.
He pulled the train near the fridge where the number magnets that he loves are. I suggested that he matches the numbers up and placed them on top of the right block. He rushed to get them on soon completed the task with delight. Not in sequence but who cares?



He then checked to see if he was right and moved them to stand up in front of the block.


We only had one one so the zero was by the ten and we moved the one when we got to the ten when counted.  The other number one was placed in a hole at the back of my washing machine ?????


This was an off the cuff activity inspired by a tv advert and Dylan's desire for a number train.
He definitely loves his numbers! Bless him my budding mathematician. 
Dylan 2.11