Paw patrol - the new craze (with free printable)

Since the beginning of this year (around February) E.'s been crazy about a Canadian cartoon series, Paw Patrol. In this blog post I'd like to collect all the activities, games and fun Paw Patrol has brought to our lives:

1. Our old nanny, L., who has unfortunately returned to America, showed E. a page online where she can watch all the seasons. (www.kisscartoon.com). I'm not sure how legal it is but she is so crazy about the pups I can't stop her. This series is on Nick Jr. but we don't have a subscription (we do NOT watch TV due to the millions of commercials) but there is only one episode per day filled with loads of commercials I don't want E. to see. So she watches it online.
   
2. We celebrated her 4th birthday with her friends too, in a playhouse. Her birthday cake was a Paw Patrol bone:
   
   
   
   
   
3. E. was so excited and indulged in this cartoon she wanted the pup figurines for her birthday. Not only did she get them (it was Baby Sis's present for her) , but she also received a home-made  Paw Patrol board game. (The original idea came from Daddy, who, on the basis of chess, came up with the board game idea. On the link - I'll add it later, sorry - you can find a more detailed description of the board game)
   
   
   
4. Apart from the board game I also prepared a Paw Patrol Activity Pack for her birthday. This pack includes puzzle, writing practice, counting cards and many more. You can download your free copy at the end of this post.
   
   E. was so excited about this activity pack that she started examining it at her birthday party. She stopped opening her other presents.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   But of course, we devoted another, more quiet time to do the activities:

Matching characters and their names

Matching vehicles and their names

If your little one can't read at all, they can match the characters and their vehicles

Number cards

You can use different manipulatives (beans, gem stones, clips or clothes pegs) or (if you laminate the cards like I did) your child can cicle the right number with a whiteboard marker, which can be easily wiped off after finishing

Pre-writing practice

Badge puzzles with numbers

And many more fun activities....

Here you can download your FREE copy of the Paw Patrol Activity Pack

Doctor, doctor... - pretend play 1.

E. has just turned 2 and in the last couple of months she has started to take pleasure in playing role-plays.
The followings are her favourite:

• doctors
• vets
• cooking
• tea party
• shopping
• sleeping
• little house

First, I'd like to post about playing doctors.

Playing doctors:

In February I bought an issue of Dora, the Explorer magazine (in Hungarian). It always includes some toys and this time it was a doctor's case, a stethoscope, and a syringe. At first, she wasn't interested but around March she started to walk around with the stethoscope in her neck and giving injections to all the stuffed animal and our dog too.

We made her Teddy, Eric, Susie doll and Rabbit sit on the sofa; that was the waiting room. One by one she examined them saying:

- E. is examining Eric.

- Let's take Teddy's temperature.

- Breathe in, breath out.

- Thermometer goes in the armpit.

 - Open your mouth wide.

- Eric has fever.

a spatula is also added to the kit

taking Teddy's temperature

open wide!

Then three weeks ago our dog got ill and we needed to go to the vet several times. E. came once and she was absolutely fascinated. The vet at Gizmók veterinary was amazed how clever and interested she was :)

She wanted to know every utensil in the surgery, looked at our dog's X-ray photo, she checked some new born kittens and their mommy. She got a little frightened when the parrot screeched but she was also so engrossed with it she couldn't take her eyes off the bird. The vet was so kind that E. could borrow the doctor's case from the waiting area until the next morning (when our dog had to be taken back for another X-ray). As soon as we got home E. opened the doctor's case and examined the dog (again... poor thing).

She (and I, as well) learned a lot of new phrases both in Hungarian and in English (reflex hammer, otoscope, forceps, tweezers, bandage)

let's check his reflex.

listening to doggie's heart beat

examining Daddy - multi-tasking :)

Unfortunately we do not have a nice doctor's case with several tools (though I added a Nurofen tube, green mask, some bandage and plasters), we really need to buy a proper one together with a white doctor's coat. I've already prepared some flashcards on the topic but they are not finished yet.

So to finish with, here's a Doctor, doctor joke:

- Doctor, doctor, I keep thinking I'm a caterpillar.

- Don't worry, you'll soon change :D