Dragon puppet neighbourhood watch

The puppet dragons were taken out for a Tour of the neighbourhood.

We took a squirting water bottle to pretend it was fire. They had to squirt letters, numbers, shapes and objects.

M

Dylan even spotted 3D shapes like a cone and cylinder .

Then a role play with a knight on a 'castle' .

The boys loved this and didn't want to go on for dinner . 

Dylan 5.5 and Zac 2.9

Dragon Sock puppets

Not great pics for this activity. Needed a more hands on role making and my battery was low.

But basically socks, glue, scissors and foam.

We made them for St George's day.

The boys were impressed with them and wanted to take them out.

DIY Playdoh Town: Castle

The boys love the idea of a Playdoh town and I asked them what kind of town we should make and a Castle was the answer from my knight loving 2.7 year old.

So... There was a castle with people (from ELC) some Playdoh , animal props and then we used pasta and tools to create more animals / dragons / monsters. 

We acted out a typical 'damsel in distress' story .

We used the animals to copy and make Playdoh versions.

We used imagination to create our own monsters/ dragons. Giving them names and using them in the role play.

They still talk about our Playdoh town  weeks later and will definitely make a different town using toys and Playdoh .

We will probably recreate for St George's day.

You could easily incorporate more learning such as numeracy

Counting, adding/subtracting animals and alphabet by putting a letter by each object indicating what they start with.

St George's day fun

Happy St George's day!

We started off watching mike the knight and a programme on cbebbies about st George .

I then googled where to go to celebrate. Unfortunately the parade was two days ago but a local museum was hosting some themed activities. These included a fact find, dragon hunt, craft, magic show and balloon making. The museum also has two parks and two duck ponds plus lovely scenery and picnic areas.

So off we went. First was the magic show followed by the balloon selection( a sword was a good choice). We walked around the museum and my son slayed all the dragons and we counted 19. We read the information about st George and answered the quiz which we entered into a prize draw. The craft workshop was next to decorate a knights mask and sword. We later at nanny's made a shield to match. Then we had a play in the park, a visit to the duck pond and a quick picnic as it started to get cold and rain.

A lovely morning and my son got to make some craft items too. There are some activities at Weoley castle 26th where ther are some castle ruins we might visit. I think we will definitely go to the parade in birmingham city centre next year and maybe Warwick castle.

So here are the pics 

The magic show with a dragon puppet called Percy.

Oh yeah Dylan asked for bananas first time round.

Slaying his first dragon.

Talking to Percy the dragon

Decorating his sword and mask

Now he asked for a sword.

To slay his brother the dragon

Aunty Coley helped make the shield out of cardboard.

Playing with Sellotape to attach a handle.

The full set.

I thought it was a great morning and many ideas can be done at home.

Craft sword

Craft mask

Craft shield

Dragon picture hunt 

St George fact finding

Quiz

Puppet show

Role play

Balloon swords

Challenge and discover weather science : forest fires

I started off thinking of a fire experiment to do to link to st George's day and dragons but then noticed the 'Challenge and discover : weather series from inspiration laboratories .

So I thought up a simple science experiment and then researched to find many others have done the same . I wasn't sure if my son of three was too young but others have tried it with his age before.

The Science 

Fire is a chemical reaction that creates light and heat from oxygen and fuel. A lit candle needs the oxygen from the air in order to continue burning. 

A fire triangle is a good way to teach kids the three things needed.

What can we investigate?

If you limit the amount of air available, the candle's flame eventually goes out once it uses up all the oxygen. 

A. science experiment that gives your child a chance to see this concept in action, with a little numeracy and literacy practice thrown in.

What You Need:

• Tea candle
• 4 glass jars in different sizes 
• Matches
• Permanent marker
• Pen or pencil
• Paper
• Stopwatch

What You Do:

1. Begin by explaining to your child that fire needs oxygen from the air in order to burn. Ask her what she thinks will happen if you limit a candle's oxygen supply.
2. Light the candle and place one of your jars over it. Watch and wait until it goes out. Was this what she expected to happen? What does she think will happen if you place a larger jar over the candle? How about a smaller jar?
3. Put the jars in a row from smallest to largest, and help your child write the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the sides in permanent marker.
4. Ask her to estimate how long it will take for the candle to go out as you place each jar over it. Make a table like the one below to record her estimates.

	Time Estimate	Actual Time
1
2
3
4

5. Light the tea candle, and place the first jar over it. As you do so, have your child start the stopwatch. How long does it take for the candle to go out? Record the actual time next to her estimate.
6. Repeat step four with the three remaining jars.
7. Compare your child's estimate to the actual length of time each candle burned. Did she predict that the candle would burn longer under larger jars? If not, point the pattern out and explain that the more air inside the jar, the longer the candle is likely to burn.

If you run out of fuel then the flame will go out.

You can time how long a tea lighter and a birthday candle lasts . Little ones may get bored watching so a recording that the time frame can be altered maybe useful. 

If you remove the heat the fire will go out.

To demonstrate this you can spray water onto the flame.

You can also talk to them about what to go in an emergency.  Introduce the 'stop , drop and roll' advice and ask why does this work ? linking back to the triangle. 

You could also tell them the emergency services number 999 in the UK. Then role play what to do /say in an emergency. 

Remember to reinforce that today's activities were not a game and fire isms dangerous and not to play with matches .

You could also talk about fire fighters, fire extinguishers and usefulness of fire. 

Remember not to leave the flame unattended and supervise children with this experiment all the time. Have a bucket of sand near by incase it gets out off control.

I will add pics of our experiment . 

Sarah Shan 

This is the equipment set up. We only had three jars and I think two were the same volume by the results but never mind.

We started off talking about safety and I asked Dylan what we were going to do. He said add water to the jars and blow out the candles.

I turned the jar over and Dylan had to press the green button on the ipad stopclock when I said go and press the red stop button when he saw the candle had gone out.

 

After the first experiment we used water to remove the heat.

Then I showed him bush fires in Australia and explained why they happen .

Then back to fire saftey and what to do if his clothes catch fire. Then showed him a clip on youtube stop, drop and roll. Then we found the smoke alarms and talked about the emergency phone number to call 999. We role played this. I was the operator and Dylan was in need of the fireman Sam lol.

Im not sure if I planted ideas in his head of making fire fun but I tried not to and was quite serious and controlling around the flames to emphasise the danger. I will probably revisit this again in a couple of months to reinforce it.