This day In History - Pablo Picasso

I thought it would be interesting to teach my children about history by finding out what happened this day in history and thinking of some activities we can do to relate to what we find.

Our first instalment takes us to 1901.  On the 24th June Pablo Picasso had his first exhibition in Paris at the age of 19.

Self Portrait 1901

 

 The Blue Period 1901 - 1904

As the blue period started in 1901 I thought it was apt to concentrate on this era of Picasso's life. I explained to my children that Picasso was a famous painter from Spain who spent most of his grown up life in France. I let my children find these places on the globe.

Picasso was born in Spain

Picasso spent most of his life in France

 We searched Google images for paintings and watched a youtube video showing paintings from this period and explained to them that Picasso was very sad because his friend Carlos Casagemas died. I explained to them that Picasso used mainly blue and green to paint and we talked about the expressions on the peoples faces and how it made them feel.

" Mammy it makes me feel sad, like when I get hurt. That makes me sad " - Macey age 4  

 Blue Collage

We dug around in our arts and crafts box to find blue materials to make our very own blue artwork.
My daughter drew a picture of Picasso and used blue and green crayons, paint, glitter, tissue and magazine cuttings. My son is too young to understand but he had lots of fun making a blue collage :)

Macey - age 4

Cardboard Dalek

I try to teach my children about helping the environment and recycling on a daily basis. My children help sort out what things we can reuse or throw into the recycle bin.

On this particular occasion we had just bought bedroom furniture which was packed in lots of cardboard. After pondering for a few moments on what we could possibly do with it I decided it would be pretty awesome to make a cardboard Dalek.

Recycle! Recycle!

Usbournes very first reading

As a child reading was a passion from a very early age. My childhood was consumed by books and the dream of becoming an author. Although this dream did not go beyond the shed in the garden, where I sat with my little type writer typing stories about giant blob monsters and magical worlds I still have a special place for books.
My love for books is shared with my 2 year old son and my 4 year old daughter. My daughter loves listening to Roald Dahl, and Enid Blytons Faraway Tree stories. There is nothing I like more then to enlighten their imagination with the books I loved as a child

Bearing this in mind I believe the best gift you can give your children is the ability to read and after a bit of research I found the perfect set of books to help with early reading: Usbournes very first reading.
They are a set of fifteen books designed to introduce younger children to read together with a parent.  Parents and children take turns to read from the page (the text clearly marked for who should be reading) and as the books progress in the series the adults read less and less and the child more and more. Here is a video of Peter Usbourne the company founder introducing the range and explaining how they work.

Dream English

My sister quite often jokes around with me saying I am like a walking children's TV presenter. I would like to defend myself and say I'm not but I guess if anyone observed our morning ritual of filling in our magnetic calender, looking at flashcards, and singing songs then my goofy educational techniques may be frowned upon in the same manner.

Thanks to Dream English kids a youtube channel  I found that is dedicated to teaching children through music, we have found some great songs to fit into our morning ritual. My children's favourite is a song called The Sun Comes Up which also has really cute actions to go along with it .

Trip to the Nature Reserve

Equipped with wellies we set of to the marshlands to discover the creatures that dwell in the marsh, across the grasslands and beneath the rippling ponds.

Hiding in the murky waters are great crested newts and slimy frogs and toads. Swarms of tadpoles and the googly eyes of the stickleback. Unfortunately it was difficult to capture them with our camera.

Stickleback!

Tadpoles

We made it our mission to find as many of these creatures as we possibly could before the dark clouds erupted and the heavens opened.

Weekend with Bertie bear.

Well done to my beautiful little girl. She got star of the week at nursery this week which means we have had the privilege of looking after Bertie bear for the weekend. Bertie became Maceys little fluffly bundle of joy. She loved looking after him.  Bertie came with his bag packed with his diary, toothbrush, hairbrush, pyjamas, and his favourite book, Owl Babies.

Macey asked me to read her and Bertie her favourite story. The Enchanted Wood - by Enid Blyton. She couldn't wait to introduce Bertie to silky, moonface, and her favourite character, saucepan man.

We wanted to make sure we had something interesting to write in Berties diary so we took him to the local Railway museum. They had a miniature railway set up which kept the kids amused, watching the little trains zoom around the track.  It was Chu Chu terrific!

There were various little activities set up around the museum. The kids particularly liked this one. When you press the button a sequence of coloured lights appear. The cargoes need arranging in the center in the same colour sequence of the lights. 

We have been blessed with sunny weather so Bertie and Macey hit the park.

At bedtime Macey brushes Berties teeth, combs his hair, and dresses him in his pyjamas. After a story they snuggle up in bed together for a good nights sleep.

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Tissue Flowers

I love tissue flowers. They look fab and are great for so many different projects. All you need is a few different colours of tissue paper, fuzzy sticks, and a pair of scissors.

I Really Wonder What Plant Im Growing

I came across a Charlie and Lola episode where Charlie teaches Lola about growing plants.  This fun, educational ten minute clip is a great way to recap what plants need to grow. My children were very excited pointing out things they knew throughout the episode. 

My Living World Pocket Microscope

My Living World Pocket Microscope

We have had lots of fun playing with the My Living World Pocket Microscope. My children have found it really amazing looking at flowers, leaves, and other materials found in the garden close up.
This is a really lovely set and only costs around ten pounds.

Product Description

Small enough to fit in your pocket, but powerful enough to make an ant look the size of an antelope! This real microscope magnifies 30 times using precision optics, and is much easier to use than those old-fashioned desk microscopes!

When you unfold the microscope, the light automatically illuminates the area in front of the lens, so that whether you are interested in nature studies, or crime-solving, this will be an invaluable companion!

Comes with sample slides and all you need to make your own slides. Works indoors and outdoors! Specimens do not need to be mounted onto slides! The colour manual gives helpful hints about how to get a close-up view of just about anything, and suggests some fascinating subject matter.

Contents

•  Illuminate pocket microscope
• Sample slide with grasshopper body part
• Sample slide with textiles
• 3 x blank microscope slides
• 12 x transparent sample covers
• 12 x labels for samples
• 4 x storage jars for samples
• Tweezers
• Colour instruction booklet

Flower Detectives

We have recently moved to a new village and a nice sunny afternoon was a perfect chance to get out and explore our new surroundings. I believe that education should be made fun by incorporating it into normal everyday activities. On this occasion we used our imaginations and became super sleuths for the day and embarked on a adventure flower hunt. Before we set off we equipped ourselves with cardboard magnifying glasses which my children had decorated earlier.

I also printed a poster with pictures of flowers we may find to check off along the way and off we set with our cameras to explore our village.