Showing posts with label Around the World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Around the World. Show all posts

Friday, 24 January 2020

Polar Regions and Colours

I set up our sensory tray with a variety of animals from both polar regions, we have made a start reading through some of our polar books.  We have also been working our way through the Frozen Planet documentary and on Curiosity Stream we found a wonderful penguin documentary called Penguin Central, looking at 4 different locations around New Zealand.


L spent some time building an igloo out of lego



and then attempting to make one out of marshmallows, not easy!



On twinkl we found some lovely polar yoga cards, so I have printed and laminated them. I have also bookmarked cosmic yoga polar bear and penguin sessions to use later on.


I have found out some more books for L to read, I've also bought her Eve of the Emperor Penguin, I hadn't realised that the magic treehouse now do books for the older reader as in 7+, we have read lots of their younger series and enjoyed.


We've also mapped the climate across the world using a Mystery Science lesson.



We have also been looking at colours, starting with primary colours, the secondary etc, L loves to mix and experiment with colours, so thought we would have a play again with skittles. Place skittles on a plate in a pattern, add some water and wait and see the colours emerge.





We have used some of the sheets from Evan-Moor's Teaching Children Art, looking at how overlaying colours can create new ones.



 We have also been creating a colour wheel, starting with primary colours and then working through to tertiary colours. Then on another session we had the paints out, my idea was for L to enjoy mixing the different colours and painting her own picture but actually she wanted to recreate the colour wheel with paint, drawing it all out by hand.


We have an amazing games shop in our town, we popped in before Christmas and asked for some recommendations, they are spot on with what they suggested. Game one was Carcassonne, a strategy game that we are all enjoying playing and then Timeline, a brilliant game causing lots of interesting discussions and time after researching various facts!



Our art class this week was based around Gyotaku fish, it apparently dates back to the 1800s when Japanese fishermen wanted to create a record of their fish they caught, so they literally printed the fish. Printing in today's session used cardboard, foam shapes,bubble wrap and textured wall paper. L also made a cat shape but then decided to she didn't want to ruin it with paint!



Saturday, 1 September 2018

August

Well its been a while since I have posted and we have been busy, another round of hospital appointments, I'm now on the waiting list for a hip replacement and alternating between a yay I will get my life back and oh no help!!! L has been back to see her allergy consultant and after the successful introduction to peanuts, feeding her peanut butter now feels normal, it took a couple of weeks to stop watching for a reaction I can tell you! Anyway skin prick tests look good for nuts, have had blood tests, if they come back negative we can go for a nut food challenge too, if she passes that, oh wow life will really change for her and us, well around food anyway. Editing to add I now have a surgery date the 12th September, only have 12 days notice,pre op on Monday, so will be a while before I blog again.

L and I are working our way through our planned summer reading, we bought a mixture of books for her birthday, so plenty to choose from. She is loving The Wombles, think we will be reading the rest of the series, she adores how they tidy up everyone's rubbish and reuses it. Giggled through the first of the Worst Witch Series, goes without saying she loved the next couple of secret seven. We've also read the first of the Harry Potter books, she's been desperate to add these to her bedtime story pile. I say bedtime but we read not only at bedtime  but throughout the day to, depending on what we are doing.


I am determined to work through the pile of books by my bed and those queued on my kindle before I have surgery. Ended up reading the Elly Griffiths books back to back, as there was a twist in the plot that meant I just had to read the next one straight away, can't wait for the next one in the series to come out next year. Also reading Sapiens, well worth a read, its well written and informative, without being too heavy, loving the comparisons to modern day tribes, the various theories on how myths,legend and religion started.


Max is doing well, has now been neutered and is enjoying exploring the garden, he has yet to attempt to leave the garden, much to the relief of his youngest owner. Will add that the kitten didn't listen to the vet when we picked him up after his op. Keep the lampshade collar on for at least 24 hours, by the time we made the short journey home in the car, he had got one paw through and stuck, unhooked paw but 15 minutes later he had it of. As to the bit where they said he would be very sleepy for the rest of the day, oh boy he was the complete opposite, he was hyper, finally crashed at midnight and woke at 5am still hyper, lunch time he finally slept and woke back to normal!




L is enjoying the sassafras zoology, we had chapter on a Canadian farm, had fun creating our own small world farm.


We then had friends come and visit and they had an amazing time creating different bases for all the animals to live in.



We have also spent time looking at ancient Sumer and the use of cuneiform and trying to make our own clay tablets, writing on paper is a lot easier!


Now along with the hip issue, I also managed to compress a nerve in my wrist, resulting in painful wrist and pins and needles/numbness in little finger and ring finger. Physio has helped but he wants me to rest, as in lay of the knitting for a while, to let everything settle down. So have been busy working through my fabric stash, made two geranium tops,one for L and one for a friend's granddaughter.



Fell in love with Nanoo bibiana skirt, L wants another one in a large pink gingham print I have.






Tuesday, 5 June 2018

Wisley


We finely made to Wisley, we had a lovely time, that lovely I want to go again. M had my camera and she had a lovely time taking photos, I was on crutches, easiest way for me to manage hip pain and walk, so M became our photographer for the day. I do love coming home and loading up the photos she has taken, as you really get to see what she likes. 







The fruit gardens are amazing, I do love a walkway with the fruit trees, trained over it in an arch, I dream of having a garden big enough to do something similar in, a girls got to have her dreams.




The girls loved the herb gardens, so many different varieties to look at and smell, that moment where you realise you never knew there were so many different varieties of mint and sage!



The glasses houses had an amazing array of cacti.









The stunning bird of paradise in flower.



Finished L's top, she is really pleased with it, the cotton yarn was so lovely to knit with, hoping it washes and wears well, as I've not used this brand of yarn before.



We have read the first part of Sassafras Zoology and have spent time reading and learning about lions and as our Atlas of Animal Adventures had a lovely two page spread on the wildebeest, in Kenya, we added them into our animal studies.  We've watched a variety of you tube videos on the wildebeest migration, lions and cheetahs and some lovely videos of the Oloip Maasi dancers, I've put all the links at the bottom of this post as there are a rather a lot! Art we've had the chalk pastels out to draw some lions, while listening to Putumayo Kids African Playground



We had looked at the beaded necklaces of the Pokot people and used paper plates to sort of recreate them.


Savanna sunset, using chalk pastels and then created the animals using stencils and black paint.


Max's new hobby is watching the washing machine, he sits there with his head going round and round as the machine spins, I am amazed he doesn't seem to get dizzy! When he's not watching the washing machine, he has discovered a lovely place in the sun to curl up in.


You have got to just love the kitten ability to just fall asleep where ever you are, even in mid play!


You Tube Links
 Wildebeest migration

Books Used
Destination Detectives Kenya a lovely book covering some of the places in Kenya, lots of photos
A Kite's Flight a kite's journey over Africa seeing some of the different landmarks
A World Full of Animal Stories used the story from Kenya