We've been cooking and baking with E. a lot ever since she could sit on the kitchen counter safely. (Check out my housework fun or Christmas gingerbread baking blog posts on our cokking adventures)
This week one day there was one of the rare occasions that L. (E.'s baby sister) was not sleeping in a sling on me so I managed to put her down and I could prepare a baking activity for E. while she was at the nursery.
As E. is familiar with the alphabet (check out this post on the alphabet activities and other ABC posts) and quite a lot of sight words (I haven't written about it separately but I should) and E. has been handling picture and story books since she was born, it is no problem for her to recognise/read certain words.
I wanted to expand her knowledge of recognising words in a fun way.
Here is our oat and pumpkin cookie baking and reading fun:
I prepared everything beforehand (maybe next time it'll be a measuring activity, when SHE can prepare all the ingredients).
Whoops... the R is missing from "butter" - sorry about the poor photo
Ingredients:
150 g oat flakes
100 g flour (I used oat and wholemeal flour mixed)
100 g sugar (I use Xylitol)
100 g butter or margarine
120 g pumpkin purée (pre-baked)
1 teaspoonful of baking powder
1 egg
optional:
5 g dried fruit of any kind (I use cranberries and raisins but you can add chocolate chips too)
vanilla extract
I made little cards for her to read and I placed them in front of each bowl. The twist was I mixed them up before she started the activity.
First, she needed to swap the cards around to place them in front of the right bowl.
After that she cracked the egg.
Then the mixing could start. She added everything in a big bowl. I asked her to report me what she was doing as in a cooking show. - I'm putting the flour in. - Now comes the butter.
After all this, I made little balls out of the mixture (she doesn't like to dirty her hands) and placed them on a tray covered with baking paper. Finally, I managed to convince her to flatten the balls with her fingers and palm.
It was a lovely treat after dinner time and we practised a lot of English. (Unfortunately the cookies were gone so quickly I couldn't take a photo of them)
Do you cook or bake with your little one(s)? Let me know what in the comments.
E. is quite excited every time she can spend some time in the kitchen with me. For me it's rather a challenge and I need to be extra relaxed, plus in a good mood to shoulder all the mess and fuss around it.
Whenever I pull myself together and dare to enter the kitchen with a 2,5 year old hurricane to do some cooking or baking projects, it's always fun and the result is fantastic, though.
Cooking and baking together together with your child/children always gives you a great chance to learn and practice new things. Not only kitchen activities like whisking, stiring and pouring but also your second language.
This is what we did a few months ago when E. made her first pizza.
Today I wasn't prepared for the kitchen mess so I only entered into the spirit of painting.
While doing it we practiced a lot of food names:
salami
fish
tomato slices
corn
olives
pineapple
mushroom
pizza dough
salt (shake)
As well as colours and how to get certain colours by mixing two:
red + blue = purple
yellow + red = orange
red + green = brown
The kitchen stayed clutter- and mess-free and we were all happy.
The Solar System craze started about a half a year ago (August 2014). Planets caught her attention while having the usual pre-dinner-youtube-video-watching session. Since then she's been an expert in this field just like we needed to become.
The very first song in the line:
She liked it so much that we had to watch it several times and of course more came:
She quickly learned the next one, so at bedtime I had to sing this song 7/11:
After What shape is it? here is another video from the same youtube channel with the title: What planet is it? Annoying for parents, fascinating for kids :) You can also learn about some dwarf planets like Pluto, Ceres, Makemake, Charon etc.
E. loves the next video too, although the colours of the planets are not so accurate. She mentions it every time we watch it. I guess it is an Indian video, and the pronunciation is a little funny. Still, we watch it a lot. She knows exactly how to pronounce the names of the planets and I want her to listen to as many different accents as possible.
These videos are not only about the names of the planets in our Solar System but also give some interesting information about them.
Then, we found Storybots on youtube. It's hilarious. Even for parents. At last something I and Daddy love watching, too. Well, the next videos are not typical children videos. First: The Solar System Rap
(For a week we were playing the "Microphone game" i.e. throwing a microphone to each other - E. was the Sun, I was Mercury, Daddy was Venus (!) and Doggie was Mars. The game always ended with Mars as the dog couldn't catch the microphone :) By the way, Daddy made the microphone out of a kitchen roll tube, a deodorant cap and some duct tape.)
I'm hot - the Sun song
Beautiful Earth
I could go on and on adding more videos in the topic. But if your child is intereted in the planets you'll find them anyway through the above mentioned examples.
After the videos, I had to make the Solar System on her plate. The following is just one occasion. The Solar System made out of frankfurters, but I've already made it out of fruit, cheese and bacon, vegetables etc.:
If something is in the middle of E.'s attention, she recreates it in all fields of life - like drawing:
(While she was drawing the picture below she was in English, later we changed languages and she asked me to write the names of the planets in Hungarian)
Why did she put the cotton buds on the planets? - It beats me...
I prepared a pom-pom colour sorting activity for her one afternoon (in September), which turned into a Solar System activity again. (It's a kind of size comparison as well.)
Here is a video about her naming the planets in English and at the end she also sings one of the planet songs.
At the playground (at the beginning of October) we made the Solar System out of sand. It wasn't my idea, but hers.
Sand Solar System
Destroying the Sun
Destroying all the planets
I made her a magnetic Solar System to play with. I found the following printable online at 2teachingmommies.com. You can find their Planet shadow match in their Space unit. (After downloading a zip file you need to print the Planet_shadow_match.pdf)
I printed and laminated the shadow sheets (2 x A/4) and the planets (1 x A/4). I cut out the planets first then I laminated them and cut them out again. In this way they are more durable. Adding Velcro is recommended in the explanations of the original planet shadow matching task but I used small magnets (you can buy them in Creative Hobby Shops) which are sticky on one side (I couldn't glue the Velcro on the laminated sheets)
Sometimes we play with it on the floor, but nowadays the Solar System is on our fridge:
Here is a video how we play with it in Hungarian
Last, but not least - salt dough planets. I'm sure the time comes in every family when they make salt dough, or some sort of home-made dough but you can use any kind of modelling clay as well. In this way E. could see the sizes compared to the sun (which is a yellow plastic ball). Originally we wanted to paint them, but somehow they disappeared during Christmas time.
E. wanted Pluto added. It's made out of kitchen foil
For Christmas, E. got a Solar System Model Making Kit.
On Boxing Day the three of us were working on it all day.
mixing the right colours
We needed to paint and assemble the planets, then hang them on rods with fishing lines placing them around the sun in the centre.
drying the planets
putting the planets together needs concentration
"hooked"
Let's read how we should put the whole thing together
measuring the fishing line
I added some glow plaint (which was included in the set. The planets glow in the dark.) It was a great family activity (in English). It looks nice in our living room hanging from the central lamp. (Sorry, the photo was taken with my mobile phone.)
This post has turned out to be a long one, but my main aim was to show you how many different activities you can do around a subject, let it be the Solar System or fruit or cars. You don't need to spend a lot of money on buying props or toys (see the sandpit or the pom-pom or the drawing fun). And there are just a few activities which needs preparation (planet shadow match or the model making). So let your and your little one's imagination fly and build the topic of interest in your everyday playtime.
Let me start with THE song, the small pebble that started the avalanche:
(Around Halloween it is quite relevant)
E. got crazy about bones and the skeleton itself. So it's time for us, parents, to learn a little too.
I didn't have the faintest idea about the names of the bones. I used to have problems with them in my native language, not to mention English. However, I did everything to satisfy my little one's hunger for knowledge.
Flashcards
I made skeleton cards for her. I found a blog (montessoriworkjobs) where there are black and white skeletons with the major bones highlighted in red. So I printed them and made flashcards.
Cotton bud skeleton - craft Cotton bud skeleton craft can bee reached in another post in more details.
gluing
sticking and pushing
finished
Child size skeleton puzzle
I found a child-size printable skeleton on a colouring site. You need to print about 8 A/4 pages. You do not need much colouring ;) I laminated the bones as I want to use them next year too.
the skeleton puzzle
after mixing the puzzle E. put the bones in place
"I'm a skeleton"
The book - The skeleton inside you
It's a funny book with a lot of information on bones. When it says "your skeleton helps you run, jump and stand", I added some more actions (squat, walk slowly, sit, roll, make a bridge, kick, clap etc.)
and E. needed to do what I said. She enjoyed it a lot.
You have 32 bones in your arm
the rib cage and the skull protect important organs
Halloween costume skeleton
"Look Daddy, this is the femur"
Skeleton as food
E. was absolutely amazed when she saw this snack on her plate. Since then I need to cut skeletons out of everything.
Last but not least: Skeleton costume for Halloween
These are H&M skeleton pyjamas and gloves
I do not need to comment this. Or if you wish you can read about our MEC Halloween party we had.
I hope you found some ideas useful if your little one is also obsessed with bones and skeletons.
