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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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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My Calendar

I believe the best way to make education easy for children is to incorporate it with day to day routines or activities. We have a morning ritual of filling in our magnetic calendar and singing nursery rhymes around the breakfast table.

It is something that everyone can do. It takes two minutes to fill in the calendar but there are lots of benefits for your children. It encourages reading and spelling. We have been doing it for the last year and my daughter is four and can read the days of the week and some of the months.  It is great for number recognition.  We have a weather section which is good for observation skills and encouraging children to think and asses whats going on around them. We sing the weather song before we check the weather.

Whats the weather, whats the weather, whats the weather like today. 

Tell me children whats the weather, whats the weather like today.

Is it sunny! Is it rainy! Is it windy out today! 

Tell me children whats the weather, whats the weather like today.

We may also sing a few other weather related songs such as 

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 .