Brown Bear Brown Bear

Eric Carl has a wonderful book titled "Brown Bear Brown Bear" that we read recently.  We've been talking about animals that hibernate in the winter and this gave us another opportunity to about what different animals do in the winter time.  Over the coarse of a few days we made our own Brown Bear Brown Bear book.  I printed pictures of different animals off the computer and wrote the words on each page to go along with the story (What do you see?  I see a...  looking at me).  Then I gave the kids one page at a time and a different supply to decorate it with (tissue paper, water colors, sparkles, finger paints, etc).  Then, after all the pages were dry, I stapled them together to make our own book.  The kids enjoy re-reading the books they made! 

Sink or Float?

This activity involves water so it’s always a hit with children!  There are multiple ways to do the activity and, even though you’re doing the same thing again, to kids it is a new activity.  This morning Lillian wanted to know if some metal balls would sink or float.  So we took them into the bathroom sink to find out.  We have carried toys into the bath tub to test the theory, put kitchen utensils in the kitchen sink and, this summer, outdoor toys (including bikes!) in the swimming pool!  We talk about if the items are lighter than the water, have air in them, and so forth.  We’ve even found if we put enough water in the pool or tub and lay real still our bodies will float! 

Trains

Both of the kids loved this activity and I have to admit I did too.  It's always fun to take the learning outside!  We started our activity by reading Donald Crews book Freight Train.  It is a short story so we read through it a couple times.  During the second reading I had the children help identify the colors of the train cars.  Afterwards we headed to our small near by city, parked the van, and walked the rails!  The children had a ball and, of course, were full of questions.  I loved that their brains were so engaged; we were just walking on a railroad track (does the train that goes close to our house come through here? What keeps the train on the track?).  Who knew!  We even got lucky and found a metal pin that is used on the tracks.  It was great to have an item to bring home and show dad from our "field trip."  Later, when we have more time, we're going to go up to Indianapolis so we can tour the train station and watch the trains come and go.  The kids have always been fascinated with trains, as most kids are.  Our house isn't to far from a railroad track and sometimes when we're outside we hear the distant sound of their horn blowing.  If time permits we run to the van, load up, drive to the track and watch the train go by.  We keep ear plugs in the car for the kids as it can be pretty loud.  We've always had wonderful luck with the conductors too.  They are always very friendly; waving and giving us some extra toots on the horn!  When we got home we read a couple more books with a train subject that I had picked up from the library.  Needless to say the kids had a lot to tell Dad when he got home in the evening!  This is definitly an activity that we'll repeat again next summer.

Holiday Lacing Cards

If your like me you like to buy holiday paper plates.  These can, of course, be found at your dollar store or on clearance after the holiday too.  It is very quick and easy to turn one of those paper plates into a lace up card for your child.  Simply use a hole punch to punch holes either around the outer edge of the plate (not to close to the edge though) or if the design permits around the border of the picture.  Then provide either a long shoe string or a long piece of yarn (put a small piece of scotch tape tightly on the end to lace with) and they can start lacing!  I usually tie a knot in one end of the lacer so they can't pull it all the way through.  This activity provides great hand eye co-ordination practice.  If you desire, you can also number the holes with letters or numerals thus incorporating another element.