Rainforest

After enjoying the Eco Kids magazine and the children's enthusiasm for the rainforest, we have enjoyed watching some clips of different rainforest animals, tigers, tapir and macaws, which seem to be the favourite at the moment. Then there was that wonderful moment when they came across a picture of an ocelot and the children realise that they aren't just something made up in minecraft but a real creature.  I've also made the most of my twinkl membership and have used various power points they have put together including this one, which is photos of various rainforest animals and this one on the rainforest habitat. This then led on to a discussion with M about deforestation and I came across this you tube video which worked well for all ages, not always easy to do when you are working with a wide age range. M has decided that next week she would like to look more at deforestation and it's impact, I've found a couple of videos to start her of with, this on the effect on the climate and the lungs of our planet, plus a recap of photosynthesis.

We've had the books out looking at the different layers of the rainforest and the children spent time painting their own rainforest and decorating them with some animal stickers.

Perfect time to introduce  Henri Rousseau, we based out art on Surprise! we'll be looking at some more of his art work next week.

I am hoping to use this power point with them next week as it goes over some of what we have already learnt, plus a bit more.

Weekend has been busy mainly with a lot of time spent at the allotment, planting out plants and more seeds, harvesting a few red currants, strawberries and golden raspberries. Also painted one side of my husbands shed, this is the side that will be seen in our secret garden, when we finish it but was the old chicken run, I've gone for a purple colour bright but not over powering! The rest of the fences I am leaving brown with all the climbers over, think painting it all purple would be too much and today we picked up some lovely butterfly solar lights.

Bank Holiday Weekend

The last week has mainly been about enjoying the sunshine and making the most of being outside, Rosie has worked out that she doesn't have to do the hard work of finding the juiciest, nicest dandelions, she can sit back and let L do it for her, one very happy rabbit.

Bank holiday weekend we attended the local County Fayre, L enjoyed the animals and had her first ride on a donkey. She has been wanting to ride a horse for a long time but I think she would be a bit worried about getting near a large animal, let alone on it! So a donkey ride was a good starting point, she got on the donkey fine, panicked when it started to move and wanted to get off, with some reassurance she settled down and rode round the ring, wasn't sure at the time how much she enjoyed it or not but today she has asked if she could ride a donkey again, so assuming that means she actually did like the ride in the end but no mention of horse riding lessons at the moment!

They had loads of tractors, going back to one of the first produced in this country, to modern day, the commentary about each tractor was rather interesting.

They had a lovely display of some birds of prey, watching them fly is always amazing, the owner had a raven that would bark like a dog, rather that talk. they also had tug of war competitions, the young farmer's floats.

Fruit is slowly ripening at the allotment, well one red strawberry,

a few red currants,

and a nice lot of apples, hoping these do well as they are delicious , it's a blue moon column apple tree.

Peas are doing really well and we have just sowed a load more, to hopefully spread the season out.

The blackberries have just started to blossom.

I planted a couple of lupin plants two years ago, one is doing really well, do love lupins, had a lovely display in our front garden but they died of a few years ago and the next lot I planted didn't do well, now have some seedlings that I hope will do well, now the soil has had a break might do well again, fingers crossed.

Anna wrote a lovely review of The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, I've been on the library waiting list ever since and finally got to pick up a copy the other weekend, now halfway through it and loving it, it's a nice story but also interesting, as you get to see the different cultural mix and the traditional family views and the more modern ones collide.

Lots of work in progress, I've knitted a couple of rows of the throw and the same on L's cardi, cut out the fabric for the geranium dress for L. The purple fairy fabric is her choice, she was really pleased with it when she found it in our local fabric shop and can't wait to wear her fairy dress.

Have just about finished the autumn embroidery, just one leave to finish of and then to decide whether to move onto the spring or winter section.

Joining Kat for Unraveled wednesday

We have been given some back issues of Eco Kids, L loves these and I have decided to treat her to subscription, actually think this is a treat to hubby and I as we are both enjoying the magazines too. The first issue is covering the rain forest, we have this lovely book Nature Cross Sections, that covers various habitats, it was a book I bought for O when he was the same age, it has been well loved. Anyway I can see us having a lot of fun learning about the rain forest at the moment she is interested in the different layers as in the forest floor in the under canopy, the canopy, emergent layer and all the animals that live there.

Bears

Set up ready for tomorrow's activity, have searched through the animal toy box and found all our bears, dyed some rice green and had a very pleasant time creating this scene.

I have the Usborne Beginners Bears book and some other fact books on bears for the children to look for. Have also found some lovely clips for us to watch on you tube, first is polar bears, brown bears and then pandas

Paper Plate Seahorses

Today we reread Secret Seahorse, which the children really love and then they enjoyed painting some seahorses that I had cut out of a paper plate.

I think they turned out very well, now just need to find some space on my wall for them and discovered that a group of seahorses is called a herd.

I attempted to make a jelly fish in a bottle, I'm not sure how well it worked but the children loved it.

I had sorted out one of the water tray before the little ones arrived and had put some small foam creatures (that should get bigger throughout the day). I really loved the way one little one found the shells and put the crab in the shell. Then came and showed me saying "Look just like the story crab"  remembering the story A House For Hermit Crab, from the other week and of course lots of fun was had.

Wet Felting Starfish

The children have thoroughly enjoyed this mornings activity, they really appreciated the different textures, the softness of the wool, the roughness of the netting, how the bubble wrap felt etc. Then the fun of all the foamy bubbles they made, followed by rolling and squashing the bubble wrap.

First we looked at some pictures of starfish and counted how many legs they had, then they choose the colours they wanted to use. We used a mixture of blues for the background, they loved pulling the wool apart and laying it down.

When we had created our picture we covered it with some netting

and poured some hot water mixed with lots of washing up liquid on them, obviously only as hot as is safe for the children to touch.

Then lots of rubbing to mat all the fibres together.

When we had rubbed enough and the fibres were nicely matted together, we rolled our pictures up and spent time rolling and squishing them.

Rinse in cold water and leave to dry.

Children then decided to have their snack in our tent.