Another Homeschool Activity About Flowers and Butterflies

I was researching for activities and crafts that I can do with my kids when I chanced upon an interesting video by a preschool teacher.  I found it a good and easy activity that we can do as a follow up for the previous activities we had about flowers and butterflies.  I decided to do it a few days ago with my eldest son.  It was similar to the video I saw with some modifications.

 

Let me enumerate the steps on how we did it:

 

1.  We got a paper plate.

 

2.  We traced a petal on colored paper.  Since my son is still struggling with tracing, I needed to assist him in this.

 

3.  We cut the "petals" using scissors.  This was good practice for my son's fine motor skills.  He needs to practice more in cutting curves.

 

4.  My son glued each petal into the paper plate.  Again, this tested his impulse control as he squeezed glue out and spread it on one side of the petal.  Since we used tow colors of petals, I instructed him to glue the purple ones first and to leave a gap or space in between for the pink petals.

 

5.  Once the entire rim of the paper plate was covered with petals, I asked him to dot the center with yellow dots using a yellow marker.

 

6.  Next, I prepared a calamansi juice for him sweetened with honey on a cup.

 

7.  We placed the cup in the center of the paper plate flower we made.

 

 

 

8.  I gave my son a straw and he used it to drink the juice in the cup at the center of the paper plate.  But before that, I did some explaining and told him that we will pretend that he's a butterfly sipping the nectar from the flower.  I also mentioned about pollens and how butterflies help flowering plants.

 

That was our simple art and science activity with practice on fine motor skills.  My son loved drinking his calamansi juice pretending to be a butterfly in the days that followed. 

 

 

 

Another thing that I liked about this activity is that it enabled us to use scraps of colored paper and an extra paper plate to come up with a beautiful art project.  It's something that can be easily done by simply making use of things or objects that can be easily found at home.  In the original video, the teacher used a paper cup and glued it at the middle of the flower.  Since we didn't have a paper cup at home that day when we made it, we just used one of our cups.  Good thing we had an extra straw left so we used it for our activity.

 

Here's the link to the website where I saw the video that inspired me to do this activity.

 

Activities Inspired by the Book In the Forest

I just finished meeting with a client regarding a new HR project I was going to do when I saw that there's a Booksale at the ground floor of their building.  The book lover that I am, I gave in to the urge to search for good books from the pile displayed.

 

That was almost two years ago and this book that we read again today is my great Booksale find that day.  In the Forest, a touch-and-feel adventure is a nature trail book by Maurice Pledger.

 

 

 

"If you love nature, take a look at what is hiding in this book.  All sorts of wonders are in store, as round the forest you explore.  There are things to feel and things to see -- a scaly snake, a fuzzy bee, a velvet flower, a snail's shiny shell, and lots of things to count as well.  So come, get ready.  Don't delay!  We're on a nature trail today."  These are the opening lines that you'll read when you open first open the book. 

 

I loved the book right away as soon as I went through the pages.  There are many things that a young reader can explore in it.  Every page is filled with surprises that the child can either touch, count and feast his eyes on.  It's truly an adventure!  It also made use of rhymes and rhythm making it fun to read aloud and listen to.

 

My kids took turns exploring the book -- lifting the flaps and touching it.  There were also questions on every page asking the child to search and count for things with a specific color.  My eldest eagerly looked for these things and counted them aloud while pointing them to me and his baby brother. 

 

My eldest son and I also had an art activity.  We made a "fuzzy, buzzy bee" which he played with after we finished making it.

 

Here are the steps in making our bumble bee.

 

1. We looked for a toilet paper tube.

 

2. We drew lines on yellow paper which my eldest son cut using a pair of scissors.

 

3. My son put some glue on the yellow strips of paper.

 

 

 

4. I helped him paste each strip around the toilet paper tube.  We left spaces in between for the black strips of paper we will later glue.

 

 

 

5. We drew lines at the back of a used bond paper using a pencil and ruler.

 

6. My son cut them along the lines to form strips.

 

7. My son painted the strips with black paint using his fingers.

 

 

 

8. We air-dried the strips.

 

9. Then, my son put glue again on them when they were already dry.

 

10. I helped him paste them and put them around the toilet paper tube beside the yellow strips so that they form alternating yellow and black strips.

 

11. While we were letting the black strips dry, we drew circles on white paper for the face of our bee and for the tail end.

 

12. My son glued googly eyes on the face and drew a smile using a colored pencil.

 

13. Next, we attached the white round papers including the face of the bee at the ends of the toilet paper tube. 

 

14. We cut short, black strips from the excess black strips we used earlier to form the antennae.  We used glue to attach them near the top/face.

 

15. I drew some wings on white paper which my son cut using his scissors.

 

16. We pasted the wings on the body of our bee.

 

 

 

That's how we made our bumble bee out of a toilet paper tube! 

 

Next time, we will make ladybugs, another colorful creature that we saw in the book. 

 

Until next time!

 

 

Studying and Painting Flowers

My eldest son and I had been reading books on nature, ecology and environment in the past days.  We read about flowers, pollen, leaves, photosynthesis, trees, roots, clouds, and rain from them aside from many other things.  We had discussions about them while we were reading and after.  Today, we had finger painting as part of reinforcing our learnings from the past days. 

 

We painted flowers of different colors.  Even our baby Mateo who turned ten months old yesterday joined in the fun.

 

 

 

Here's how we did it in case you're interested to do a similar activity.

 

1. We looked for coins of different sizes.  We used a 25 centavo coin and a five centavo coin.

 

2. We mixed some paints to get our desired colors.  We mixed red and white to get pink; then blue and white to get light blue.  At some point, I wasn't sure which paints to mix to get purple or lavender.  I suddenly forgot.  What I didn't know was that while I was thinking and preparing our other painting supplies, my eldest son was already mixing the light blue paint with the pink paint.  He proudly showed it to me we when he saw that the paints he mixed turned lavender.  :)

 

3. We positioned the coin first on the bond paper. 

 

4. Next, I painted Yanthy's thumb with pink paint.  He pressed his thumb around the coin repeatedly to form the flower's petals, brushing paint on his thumb every now and then whenever the paint gets completely wiped out.

 

5. It was Mateo's turn after Yanthy finished painting his flowers.  We used light blue paint for Mateo's flowers and a smaller coin.  We painted his big toe instead of his thumb because he still likes to put his fingers in his mouth.  I was afraid that Mateo would ingest some paint when he puts them in his mouth should we fail to remove all the traces of paint on his thumb.

 

6. It was my turn after Mateo.  I used shades of lavender for my flowers.  I followed the same procedure ealier.

 

7.  After all the petals were painted, Yanthy and I finger-painted (using our pinkies) the middle of the flowers including the flowers made by Mateo.

 

8. Next, we painted leaves around the flowers using light green paint (a mixture of green and white).

 

9.  We air-dried our painting.

 

10. We packed away. :)

 

 

It was another simple, fun, and creative way to bond with my kids and document Yanthy's finger prints and Mateo's toe print.  I also liked what Yanthy said while we were painting.  He said that these flowers are for Mama Mary.  I took that opportunity to remind him that it's Mama Mary's birthday month this September so his idea to dedicate those flowers to her is very apt.

 

By the way, here are the books we were reading these past days.

 

 

Activities Inspired by The Three Little Pigs

A few days ago, we started our new art project -- houses for the three little pigs.  I teach my little boy to recycle and reuse materials at home so I thought of making these cute little houses for our pig finger puppets.

 

Let me share how we did the houses for our pigs:

 

1. I first got a cereal box and cut it into two using a pair of scissors.

 

2. I used a cutter to cut windows and doors.

 

3. I gave my little boy yellow strips of paper and showed him how to cut them.  I told him that will represent the straw for our straw house for one of the pigs.

 

Our straw house for one of our little pigs.

 

 

4. Next, I gave him red paper.  I showed him again how to cut them so that they would look like bricks.  I said that these bricks will form the brick house of one of the pigs.

 

5. When he was finished cutting the strips of paper, I gave him some glue and asked him to spread them on the boxes.  He then glued the yellow strips of paper first on one of the boxes then the red rectangles or bricks on the next box.

 

Our unfinished brick house for one of our little pigs.

 

 

Since we don't have another empty cereal box, we went to the grocery again this morning and bought a box of cereal.  We also bought popsicle sticks that we will glue to our cereal box.  Tomorrow, we will make a stick house for the other pig.

 

We already had a lot of fun in the past days and nights playing with our cute little houses.  We are excited to read the story again and play with our little houses and finger puppets tomorrow because by then our houses wll be complete.  


UPDATE:

We have just finished our stick house today for one of our pig puppets.  Yanthy chose our colored popsicle sticks for our project today (September 5, 2012).

Yanthy's rainbow colored stick house for one of our pig puppets.

How we made it:

1. I cut the cereal box again in two and cut out the window and door.

2. Yanthy squeezed some glue, spread it on the box and lined up the colored popsicle sticks.

3. I broke some of the sticks to make them shorter.

4. Yanthy glued the smaller sticks to fill in the gaps.

5. Then, we air-dried our stick house.
 

Ice Cream Art Activity

Yanthy made popsicle art last Monday as part of their activity with his Occupational Therapist (OT), Teacher Erl.  His OT said that he was so quiet and focused during the activity that at some point she asked him if he liked their activity.  He said yes and he proved it to be true when he said that he wanted to make two popsicles instead of one.  He said that the other popsicle is for his baby brother, Mateo.  How sweet!  After their session, he gladly and eagerly showed me his art project.  He used it right away in his pretend play.

Popsicles made by Yanthy for himself and his baby brother.

This gave me inspiration to do a similar art activity.  Yesterday, we made ice cream art.

Some of the things I like with this simple art activity are the following:

1. It allowed us to use materials we already have in the house like scrap colored papers that we have used before but are still big enough to be used in our new art project.
2. It allowed my son to practice his fine motor skills as he traced circles on the colored papers, drew a triangle as ice cream cone, cut the different shapes, spread the glue and wrote names and words on his art work.
3. It helped my son practice being focused on a task until its completion.
4. It's another activity that demonstrated he is capable of working on something long enough as long as he is interested in it.  It showed he is capable of long attention span that is much longer than what is expected for children his age.
5. It's an activity that makes him sit still for a while and allows him to take a break from active play which he also likes to do all day.
6. It's so simple to do and yet it provides a nice bonding activity for me and my son.

Here's what we did step by step:

1. I asked Yanthy to trace some one peso coins on red colored paper for our cherry.
2. I helped him trace bigger circles on pink and lavender papers for our strawberry and ube ice cream.
3. Then I asked him to draw triangles for the ice cream cones.
4. Next, I asked him to cut the circles while I watched him.  He's still having a hard time cutting curves that's why I like this activity because he gets to practice that skill.



Cutting circles.

5. After cutting the circles, I asked him to cut the triangles.
6. Then, I first showed him how to arrange our cut outs to form ice creams.
7. After that, I asked him to spread some glue on the cut outs and paste the cut outs on the bond paper.
8. Next, I asked him to write names for his ice creams. As usual, one ice cream is for him and the other one is for his brother.  Actually, he wanted to make more ice cream cones.  He wanted to make enough for everyone in our household including our helper.  But I told him that we need to buy new colored paper because we've used up our supply.
9. Then I also asked him to spell ice cream and write it down on our art work.  One thing I like about our art works like this one is that writing becomes fun for him when it is integrated to an art activity.  He is still struggling in writing the alphabet but his therapist says that children his age (3 years old) actually are only expected to draw lines or crosses.  They are not yet expected to write letters and numbers or their names. Anyway, Yanthy likes to write his name or words related to his art so I seized the opportunity to let him practice his handwriting.  He wrote all the words including his name and that of his baby brother on his own, no hand assistance from me anymore.  But I gave him some coaching or verbal assistance on how to write the letter M and R.  We also erased some of his lines when they become so big and not proportioned to the other letters he already wrote.  I'm happy that he persevered and remained committed to finish writing the words we wanted to write on his art work.  It showed again that he can be committed to something he really wanted to do even at this young age.
10. Lastly, as with his other art works/projects, we displayed it by hanging it on our living room wall.  This gives him a lot of pride and confidence.  It encourages him to keep on doing more art projects that we can display in our house.

Now serving!  Ready to party with our ice cream cones!

Simplicity and Extravagant Giving

God must be teaching me to be extra simple this year. Typhoon Ondoy hit our house in San Mateo destroying most of our clothes, linens, appliances, furniture and decors. The flood water almost reached our ceiling thus all our things was submerged. These included around P12,000 worth of stocks of my book When My Bridegroom Comes, books which I collected since my college days, work and training materials I have developed since I started in training and important documents pertaining to my publishing business. Before it happened, I was planning to buy new décor for our condo. I thought we have some budget to spare. I was looking forward to making red as our motif this Christmas. But since we were very much affected by the flood, I have decided to forego home improvements in our condo until we have more to spare. I have also reused my old Christmas decors with pink and purple motif to save money. I thank God for the grace to stick to our priorities and not to succumb to my whims.

Since Christmas is a time of gift giving, I’m now thinking of extra creative ways to make it simple yet extravagant. God reminded me that I can choose to give simple and less expensive gifts to my loved ones and yet be extravagant by putting much thought and effort on choosing the best gift I could afford. I can make my own gifts or buy gifts that I can jazz up. I can buy meaningful gifts that could inspire them or uplift their spirits like inspirational books or magazines. I could also give them the gift of my service. There are many options especially when we truly love. Surely, we would come up with a gift they would appreciate.

So, as I join the countdown for Christmas, I get excited as I think of the people I would be giving gifts to and what special gift I can offer to express my love. I pray that they would see beyond the gift and that they would feel the love that comes with it.

God loves the cheerful giver. Happy giving!

Buy 1, Take 1 Baby Wipes

I got excited when I saw buy 1, take 1 baby wipes by Baby Company one time while we were doing our grocery. I thought it was a good buy considering that at a cheaper price, it gives more pulls; so I bought it immediately. I’ve tried many wipes in the past – Chubs, Giggles and Johnson’s to name a few. Baby Company was my latest find. It didn’t prove to be a better choice though. The sheets were very thin almost see through and they were also narrower. I used up the two cylinders very fast because I had to use more wipes.

So far, Johnson’s baby wipes are still the best. They are thicker and wider making it more efficient. With just a few pulls, you’re done with the baby clean up. The big pack I buy lasts for two weeks which makes it good for our budget. I saw another brand of baby wipe the other day in a magazine. I have yet to try it. This one is from Nivea. But until then, I’d stick to Johnson’s.

Since I’m already preparing for my son’s first birthday and I’m making the loot bags, I’ve decided to reuse/recycle the old containers of Baby Company baby wipes. I printed Madagascar characters on sticker paper and turned the old container into Yanthy’s coin bank. At least I have put it to good use still even though I was dissatisfied with its contents. That way, I am also able to teach Yanthy the concept of saving money and recycling.