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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Hunter and Hailey loved playing in our little dinosaur land.

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

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

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

We also made some dinosaur bones.

Hailey made a huge bowl of bubbles.

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.

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Dinosaur Oil Pastel Painting

As we continue along with our dinosaur theme, Hailey made a really pretty dinosaur painting.

First, sketch a picture with a pencil.

Next, trace your pencil with a black oil pastel.

Color the picture using the oil pastels.

Don’t color the picture in completely, leave some white showing.

Next use water colors to paint over the oil pastels.  The oil pastels will resist the water color.

Pretty and simple.

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Volcano Fun!

We are learning all about dinosaurs, and what would a theme about dinosaurs be without making a volcano?

First, Hailey mixed up a mountain- we used:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tbs cooking oil
water

She formed a mountain around a small water bottle.

Then she painted it.  We didn’t wait for the salt dough to dry before painting, and it worked out fine.

We set up a little area for our dinosaurs.  Hailey added a little pond (lower left hand corner), some rocks, trees, dinosaurs, and of course the volcano.

Time to set off the volcano!! In the bottle we put:
warm water
red food coloring
Dawn dish soap
2 tbsp of baking soda
and…

Hailey added the vinegar!

Hunter and Hailey playing with the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs heard that the volcano was going to erupt again, so they wanted to get a closer look.

Hailey loved it!

More lava!

Hailey wanted to see a bigger explosion, so when Rich got home, we mixed everything up in a soda bottle and put the top on the bottle and let the gasses built up for a bit.

Here is what happens when you do that:

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Dinosaur Fossils

We are learning all about dinosaurs this week and so we made some dinosaur fossils.

First we put some playdough into a plastic container and pressed a dinosaur into the playdough.  Take the dinosaur out and see the indentation that it leaves in the playdough.

Hunter had  great time making footprints with his dinosaur.

This picture didn’t come out, but it’s the only one I have of this step.  Next mix up some Plaster of Paris (use a 2:1 ratio with water).  Pour the plaster over your playdough so that it fills in the indentation left from the dinosaur.

We let ours dry for a couple of hours.

After the plaster was dry, I popped Hunter’s out of his styrofoam bowl.

Then, peel off the playdough.  This part ended up being kind of difficult.  I would recommend using older playdough if you have it.  Ours was new and still pretty sticky.  I ended up scrubbing it off with water and a toothbrush.  Or use white playdough if you have it, that is what Hailey used for half of hers and we couldn’t see what was left behind like we could with the red.

The completed fossils.

Then Hailey decided they should paint their fossils:

Hunter works so carefully when he paints.

Hailey working on her painting.

The painted fossils.

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(Any containers you use for this activity should be ones that can be thrown away if necessary.)