Archive for May, 2013

Volcano Eruption

31
May

We have been learning about dinosaurs, which sparked an interest in volcanos, so we have had some fun doing some things with volcanos.  We made this fun craft:

Volcano Eruption

Spread some yellow, orange and red paint onto a volcano shaped paper.

Volcano Eruption

Cover it with saran wrap, and then let your child spread the paint around.

Volcano Eruption

No mess 🙂

Volcano Eruption

Glue a mountain onto a piece of construction paper.

Volcano Eruption

Add your volcano

Volcano Eruption

Completed erupting volcanos.

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Model Magic Dinosaur Fossils

29
May

Last week we made dinosaur fossils, and while they turned out like I expected, Hailey was disappointed that she could not play with her fossil since it was breakable.  So, my solution was to make another dinosaur fossil, this time using Model Magic instead of Plaster of Paris.

Dinosaur Fossil Activity

First up, press a dinosaur into some Model Magic

Hunter loved this!!  He spent a very long time making footprints in his piece.

Once you are happy with how it looks, just leave it out to dry.  If you just let it air dry it will take several days.

Hailey’s completed t-rex fossil.

Super simple, and they can be played with.

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Poppins Book Nook- Dinosaur Fun!

27
May

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I am so excited to be a part of the Poppins Book Nook!  This is our first month joining in the fun.  Each month a different theme is picked and then everyone picks a book that relates to the theme and then creates some activities to go along with the book.

Dinosaurs Before Dark

We picked “Dinosaurs Before Dark” by Mary Pope Osborne for our book.  Hailey has just recently started reading chapter books, so she has been really excited that she can read these books on her own.  If you haven’t read this book before- it’s a series about a brother and sister, Jack and Annie.  This is the first book in the series where Jack and Annie discover a tree house.  There are lots of books in the tree house and when Jack is looking at one about dinosaurs he wishes that he could see a real pteranodon.  Suddenly Jack and Annie end up in the days of dinosaurs and of course, an adventure begins.  I love the Magic Tree House series- they are fun, fictional stories but with lots of opportunities for learning about history added in.

We decided to make a dinosaur diorama for our project:

Dinosaur Diorama

A shoebox just wasn’t going to cut it for our plans 🙂 so we used a regular box instead.  Hailey got to work painting her box.

Dinosaur Diorama

She added lots of different props.

Dinosaur Diorama

Some dinosaur eggs

Dinosaur Diorama

A volcano

Dinosaur Diorama

She put a stream and a little pond in, painted some grass on, added some cotton clouds, put some sand and trees in.  And of course, the dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Diorama

Hailey’s completed diorama- she did a great job!

We also made a paper mache dinosaur:

Paper Mache Dinosaur

First the dinosaur was formed using aluminum foil.  There is newspaper stuffed inside his head and body to help keep its shape.

Paper Mache Dinosaur

The dinosaur all covered in paper mache.
For paper mache, we use a 2:1 ratio of water to flour, and I added a little white glue to the mixture too.  It takes a couple of days to be completely dry.

Paper Mache Dinosaur

Once the dinosaur was dry it was time to paint him.  We did a little research about the color of dinosaurs- some scientists believe that dinosaurs were gray, dark green, brown, etc. so that they could blend in with their surroundings.  Other scientists believe that dinosaurs were colorful and even had pretty, bright spots in order to attract a mate.  Hailey decided she agrees with the scientists who think the dinosaurs were colorful, so she painted him purple.

Paper Mache Dinosaur

She added some pink and blue spots.

Paper Mache Dinosaur

The completed paper mache dinosaur.

Dinosaur Diorama

We learned a lot about volcanos too.  I cut out some dinosaur footprints and wrote some volcano related vocabulary words on them (lava, eruption, magma, crust, mantle, outer core, inner core, pumice, tuff, and pahoehoe).  Hailey wrote the definitions on the backs of the footprints.

Dinosaur Diorama

Then she spread them around the living room.  I made some noises and Hailey and Hunter danced around on the footprints.

Dinosaur Diorama

When I stopped making the noise, Hailey read the definition of the word.  The goal, of course, being that once we play it enough she will remember the definitions.

We did a bunch of fun activities all about dinosaurs so it was really hard to pick what to share!  So, here are some of the other activities we did last week too:

Dinosaur Bones Craft

  Hailey made some dinosaur bones.

Dinosaur Fossil Craft

She created a dinosaur fossil.

Volcano Activity

One of her favorite activities was setting off a volcano she made.

Dinosaur Oil Pastel Painting

She made this pretty dinosaur oil pastel painting.

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Check out some (or all!) of the other bloggers participating in Poppins Book Nook:

Enchanted Homeschooling MomRoyal Baloo3 DinosaursMonsters EdChestnut Grove AcademyGrowing in God’s GraceRoyal Little LambsLife with Moore BabiesTeach Beside MeThe Usual MayhemMum CentralFantastic Fun and LearningKathys Cluttered MindPlay Create ExploreToddler ApprovedGrowing Book by BookAdventures in MommydomB-Inspired MamaThe Fairy and The FrogEdventures with KidsLearning & Growing the Piwi wayA Gluten Free JourneyMom to Crazy Monkeys No Doubt LearningPreschool Powol PacketsTo The Moon and Back Our Craft ~N~ ThingsFarm Fresh AdventuresProverbial Homemaker

If you have your own fun activity to link up, you can that here:


Tot School

26
May

Tot School

Hunter is 17 months old.

We had a super fun week at Tot School this week!!  We were busy learning about dinosaurs and the color orange.

Tot School

We had an orange day, Hunter loved wearing his hat.  Our weather has been so crazy!!  We had some days that were hot enough to need air conditioning.  Then we had days so cold that some places in our area saw snow.  Obviously, this was taken on one of the cold days.

Tot School

Hunter thought this little dinosaur mat was pretty fun.  He has loved playing with the dinosaurs!

Tot School

Of course, he had to go and line up the dinosaurs with his cars.

Tot School

Hunter growls every time he sees this dinosaur poster, although he says “tweet, tweet” for the pterodactyl.

Tot School

Hailey read Hunter some books about dinosaurs.  This is one of my favorite things to see- Hailey reading to Hunter!

Volcano Activity

Hunter and Hailey loved playing in our little dinosaur land.

Volcano Activity

Hailey made this volcano and we set it off several times.  So much fun!!

Tot School

Hunter painted some orange dinosaur footprints.  He loves to paint!!  Anytime he sees me get the paint out he starts saying, “More, more!”

Dinosaur Fossil Craft

We made some fun dinosaur fossils.  Hunter always paints very carefully.

Dinosaur Bones Craft

We also made some dinosaur bones.

Tot School

Hailey made a huge bowl of bubbles.

Tot School

Hunter thought the bowl of bubbles was great!

Stop by 1+1+1=1 to see what the other tots were up to this week.

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

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