Traditional St Patrick's Day badges

Here are pictures of  Traditional St. Patrick's Day badges from the early 20th century photographed at the Museum of Country Life in Ireland.

We got our glue sticks out and made our own badges :)

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Volcano Busy Bags

Last week Mount Etna erupted so I decided to do a little volcano activity with the children. I like to use real life events for inspiration for craft projects. It gets the children involved in what's going on around the world and gives them some general knowledge along with all the fun stuff.

I found some videos on You Tube showing the volcano erupting. The kids found them  fascinating.

We made a volcano Collage using tissue paper for lava.

My little boy loved decorating the volcano so I decided to make him a Volcano busy bag.

Firstly I stuck a volcano on a piece of white paper

I then shredded some orange tissue paper and cut out other scenery shapes that can be used to decorate his volcano. I found an old biscuit tin to store them in so he can put them away and get them out to play with whenever he likes.

Here is little mans first creation. 'There's lots of fire, its HOT HOT HOT' he shouts. 'That's why there is lots of smoke'

 'Watch out Mr Dinosaur the lava is coming to get you' 

Add a few more sceneries and items to your box. They can come in handy when you need to occupy them for five minutes or to keep them quiet while you answer the phone :)

Here are some other Volcano projects we have done :)

http://amazinglittleminds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/erupting-paper-mache-volcano.html

http://amazinglittleminds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/mountvesuviuserupts.html

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From Rags to Telescopes

In honor of International Womens day we looked at a famous Astronomer who truly lived a Cinderella fairy tale. She was rescued from her prince of a brother who changed her life from rags to telescopes and gave her her fairy tale ending.

Once upon of time there was a girl called Caroline Herschel. She lived in Germany with her Mother, Father and her nine brothers and sisters. Caroline had scars on her face and was very short. Her family didn't think anyone would want to marry her so she stayed at home and worked as a house maid looking after her family and doing all the chores.

Meanwhile Caroline's brother William was living a fairy tale life. He had moved to England and had become a musician. Caroline felt like Cinderella trapped in her home, held back from all her hopes and dreams.

One day something happened to Caroline that changed her life forever. She escaped her life of misery and chores and went to live with William in England. Caroline worked hard as Williams house keeper and he learnt her how to sing. 

By night William loved to watch the stars in the sky. He wanted to learn more so he built powerful telescopes to help him to see deeper in to space. He loved it so much he  left his job as a musician and became an Astronomer. William became well known for his work and went to work for the king.

We decorated tubes to use as Telescopes

Caroline helped her brother and became his apprentice. She loved studying the sky and worked along side her brother discovering  the mysteries of the skies.

We  made our own Constellations :)  

William gave Caroline a telescope as a gift and Caroline started making discoveries of her own. She discovered eight comets, eleven nebulae, and updated a book on the position of the stars.  Caroline became the First  lady of Astronomy

Hand Print Comets :) 

Not only did she discover eight comets but she showed that even with the odds stacked against her she could get her fairy tale ending and be an inspiration to astronomers and people all over the world. 

Comet Collage :) 

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Singing with Flash Cards

My children love playing with Flash Cards but after a little while they start to lose interest and want to do something else. To keep them interested a little longer I decided to use the cards a little bit differently. We look for words that are used in our favourite songs. 

There is a few different ways you can do this. The cards  can be grouped beforehand and the children can read the words on the cards and then sing the song associated with those words. The cards can be laid out so the children can pick some pictures and then sing the song or you could ask them to find the cards that match a song. 

Children could also be given the chance to use their imagination and be creative. Let them pick cards at random and make up their own songs. 

Here are a few examples :) 

Twinkle twinkle little star, my dad drives a rusty car

Turn the engine, pull the choke

Off he goes with a puff of smoke

Twinkle twinkle little star, my dad drives a rusty car 

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick sick sick

So she phoned for the doctor to be quick quick quick

The doctor came with his bag and hat

And he knocked on the door with a rat-a-tat-tat

He looked at dolly and he shook his head

And said Miss Polly put her straight to bed 

He wrote on a paper for a pill pill pill 

I will be back in the morning with my bill bill bill

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle 

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such fun 

And the dish ran away with the spoon 

How much is that doggie in the window

The one with the waggley tail

How much is that doggie in the window 

I do hope that doggie's for sale

Row row row your boat 

Gently down the stream 

Merrily merrily merrily merrily 

Life is but a dream 

Rock Rock Rock your boat 

Gently down the stream 

If you see a crocodile 

Don't forget to scream

Row Row Row your boat 

Down the Arctic river 

If you see a Polar Bear 

Don't forget to shiver

Rock Rock Rock your boat 

All the way to shore

If you see a Lion there 

Don't forget to ROAR!

Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up

Pull pull clap clap clap 

Wind it back again, Wind it back again 

Pull pull clap clap clap

Point to the ceiling, point to the floor

Point to the window, point to the door

Clap your hands together 

One two three

Put your hands down on your knee. 

Old MacDonald had a farm ee-i-ee-i-ooo

And on that farm he had a pig ee-i-ee-i-ooo

With a oink oink here and a oink there 

Here a oink there a oink 

Everywhere a oink oink

Old MacDonald had a farm ee-i-ee-i-ooo

(repeat verse with other animals)

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Round and round, round and round

The wheels on the bus go round and round 

all day long

The cat on the bus go Miow miow miow

Miow miow miow, miow miow miow 

The cat on the bus goes Miow miow miow 

All day long 

(Stray away from the traditional verses and mix the verses up with whatever animals/ things your child desires. The children will have a giggle imagining all the bizarre things on the bus. )

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are four little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me' 

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be 

Snap! 

There are three little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are two little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me' 

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be 

Snap! 

There is one little monkeys swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr crocodile 'you can't catch me'

Along came Mr crocodile hungry as can be

Snap!

There are no more monkeys swinging in a tree

Samhain for children

Once upon a time in the Celtic lands the nights became longer, colder  and  the leaves began to fall. The harvest season was ending and the winter was creeping in. The beginning of the dark season meant the door to the Otherworld would be open allowing fairies and  the souls of the dead and other spooky beings to pass into our world.
The people lit huge bonfires  and celebrated the dead with a huge festival called Samhain.  They had huge feasts and beckoned the souls of their dead relatives to celebrate with them.
Today we celebrate this time of year with Halloween but all  the things we like to do on Halloween today all evolved from  the Samhain festival that happened lots and lots of years ago.

Carving Jack O Lanterns 

During Samhain the people were frightened of the nasty evil spirits and fairies that passed through the door from the otherside. They did lots of things to protect themselves.
They made lanterns and carved scary faces into turnips and placed them in their windows to protect their homes.
Years later some of the people traveled by boat to North America (which was far far away) and passed the tradition of carving lanterns to the Americans. Turnips were really hard to find in the new lands so Pumpkins were used instead. They found that pumpkins were a lot easier to carve and made better lanterns.


We had a go at carving a turnip. It was really tricky.

Trick or treating

During Samhain the people  left food and drink out as a peace offering to the spirits, fairies, and creatures from the otherside to try stop them from becoming angry.  Over the centuries people started getting dressed up like the dreadful creatures and performing in exchange for food and drink. People started making Soul cakes which were used as a offering for the dead and were given to children and poor people who went door to door singing songs and saying a prayer for the dead. When a soul cake was eaten it represented a soul of  the dead being freed. 

We had a go at making our own soul cakes and sang a song that was traditionally sang in exchange for them.

Soul Cake Recipe 

340g plain flour
170g sugar
170g butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp  mixed spice
pinch nutmeg
1 egg beaten
2 tsp white wine vinegar

Mix all the dry ingredients.

 Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs

Add the egg and white wine vinegar and knead until soft.

Cover and put into fridge for 20 mins.
Preheat the oven to 200 °C Roll the dough out until it is around  7mm thick and cut into rounds.

Draw a cross shape on the top of the dough

Place on a greased baking tray and bake 15 - 20 mins

Cool for a few minutes and enjoy. We all found them very yummy.

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Muffin Maths Game

A simple muffin game that can be used to practice counting, shapes, colours, and sums.  

This morning little man and I had a mini cooking session. We usually make cakes completely from scratch but I wanted something quick and not too messy to do with him so I bought some muffin mix. Afterwards I kept the box for their toy kitchen. I thought he would love pretending to make the muffins himself. I intended on getting some cardboard and making some muffins with him to put into the box. I thought he could colour them in and glue some sprinkles on them but whilst digging around in the crafts box for something to make sprinkles with I found some left over felt and ended up making this fab little game.

Firstly I cut out a muffin case using brown felt and made a muffin top with pale pink fabric.

I then made some sprinkles. I made a set of 5 in  6 different shapes.

The sprinkles can be used simply to decorate the muffin. A little activity to occupy them for a short while or they can be used to practise counting and to sort shapes and colours.

To use this as a educational game I made some cards which will show what is required to put onto the muffin. These range from simply asking to put a certain amount of a shape, or 2 shapes to working out simple sums. Here are some examples below.

I have used my muffin box to store the game (with a small container inside for the sprinkles.) and plan on buying some more felt to expand this game further by making more sprinkles with a larger amount and variety of shapes and also making  a few different colour muffins and cases.

Little man loved his new game, here he is making his muffins this morning :)