This Day in History - The Eiffel Tower Opens

On the 31st March 1889 The Eiffel Tower opened

The Eiffel Tower is in Paris. The capitol city of France

We painted the flag :) 

The tower is 320 meters high. To help the children understand how big this is we compared it to the size of a average two storey house which is roughly about 6m high meaning the tower is as high as 53 houses stacked on top of each other.

There are 1710 steps to get to the top of the tower.

The tower was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel whose company designed and built the tower.

Gustave Eiffel 

We attempted to build the tower out of Wafer biscuits and icing sugar. It was a little tricky it took a couple of attempts. We had a giggle trying to balance the biscuits without them falling down.

 Once you have assembled the bottom part leave it a few moments for the icing sugar to set and it will stay in place better and you will find the second layer a little easier. Also it prevents the first layer from falling if the second layer collapses. We learnt this the hard way :/

Macey had a go making the first layer of the tower and Drew made a tower of his own.

We then looked at the pattern of the panels and assembled matchsticks in a similar way.

After we finished the activity the kids decided they wanted to draw some towers

Princess sunflower tower 

Wizards Magical Tower 

They then decided to get the lego out and build some towers of their own.

Easter Potato Stamps

I was cutting potatoes for tea last night and clicked that a potato chopped in half would make a perfect Easter egg stamper. Today we put it to the test :)

Once the paint has dried you could decorate with pens and glitter :)

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Chocolate Shredded Wheat Nests

Easter wouldn't be the same without Shredded Wheat nests :)

Breaking the chocolate up into squares 

Adding shredded wheat to the melted chocolate 

Adding Shreaded Wheat to the melted chocolate 

Stirring the mixture 

Scooping the mixture into cake cases 

Finishing them off with mini eggs and chicks :) 

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Easter ice eggs

 I didn't think I would be saying this but I am a tiny bit disappointed (just a teenie tiny bit) that the snow has cleared in my area.  Expecting a snowy Easter weekend I thought it would be fun to make some ice eggs for a outdoor egg hunt and to play some games with them too.

To make the eggs use a dropper or syringe to put a few drops of food colouring inside of a balloon and fill with water. Give them a little jiggle around so that the food colouring mixes with the water evenly and place them in the freezer over night.

Tip: I used a normal balloon because they are a little thicker than water balloons. Stretch the balloon over the end of the tap to fill with water. 

When the water in the balloon is completely frozen cut the knot off the balloon and peel the balloon  away from the ice egg.

If it is still snowy in your area you can hide the eggs around the garden or have a game of marbles or skittles. You could also make some snow chicks and bunnies instead of snowmen.

Although we wont be using ours for a egg hunt we did find another use for them. We made Easter ice sculptures instead :)

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Easter Nest

We had a stay and play session at school today where parents could go along and do activities with the children. One of the activities was to make this cute little Easter nest :)

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Easter Bobble Chick

This was a lovely simple little activity but my little man loved it.  He thought it was hilarious watching the chick bounce around.

First of all we made a orange hand print on a piece of card for the chicks feet. Then I cut a slit in the center half the width of the card like shown above.

Next we blew up a yellow blown and slotted it into the slit in the card. Little man finished it off by gluing  on the beak, wings, eyes, and a few little feathers on top.

Finally place it on a flat surface and give it a little prod. The children will watch in delight as your chick wobbles around.

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Hanging Easter Chicks

I had some party plates that have been sat in my cupboard for a few months so I decided to get them out in our arts and crafts session this afternoon. My children wanted to do something for Easter so we made some hanging chicks.

I cut the plates in half and they painted them yellow.

We then cut a triangle out of some foam to make a beak.

They used a pompom for an eye and stuck lots of feathers on its back.

I then folded a piece of ribbon in half, tied the two loose ends together and sellotaped it to the back of the plate.

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Fly swatting games

I was doing a spot of shopping today and spotted these funky fly swatters in the pound shop. I thought they would be fab for the kids to play with

Once we got back home I got the pompoms out to use as little flies.

We bounced the flies up and down on our swatters and had a competition to see who could do it the longest without letting the fly fall to the ground.

We also used them to flick flies into a bucket and as indoor tennis sets bouncing the fly to one another. This was quite difficult with the small pompoms so I plan on making some larger pompoms out of wool later.

Unfortunatley I was too busy running around playing to take pics so I will try add more pics later.

I am sure we will find many more ways to use our swatters. They could be used to balance things on  or to play tig. We could have a egg and spoon style race. We could use them in arts and craft and make paint prints. The only limit is our imagination :)

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