Some more autumn crafts

As I said before I love autumn. Not only is it beautiful but also gives us a lot to talk about and plenty of opportunities to be creative.

Here come our new projects concerning autumn:

• Very Hungry Caterpillar out of conkers and dried orange slices (googly eyes, pipe cleaners and glue sticks). 

I made holes in the conkers with a screwdriver

threading the conker

then the orange slice

gluing the eyes on

caterpillar heads

caterpillar bodies

Let's make them friends

•  Autumn Nature Hunt - one day when we came home from the nursery I'd packed a bucket for E. to be able to collect whatever she found on the way home. (More simple picking and collecting whatever we find; not as directed and focused as the Tray Nature Hunt we did in the spring)

The next day we were sorting, grouping and naming them:

• Autumn twig and confetti decoration. The pictures speak for themselves. I found the stick and confetti idea on Pinterest.

end result

playing with autumn shadows

We covered a great number of autumn vocabulary (leaves, trees, berries, colours - just to list few topics), and also the process of sticking, gluing, sprinkling, threading. I've just realised that E. is more and more interested in short craft projects and it means a lot of language input. We won't stop. I'll come back with more.

Fun with Flupe - the new Helen Doron package

It's been a while since we started the new Helen Doron Early English package: Fun with Flupe. Now I have the time to review it a little.

The whole story is based on 3 main characters:

Granny Fix

Paul

1. Granny Fix - who solves all the problems and speaks in rhymes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Paul Ward - I guess he is Granny Fix's grandson. He helps Granny sort out the problems
3. Flupe or Flupie - a purple alien, who does not speak much apart from some words (it is very funny to see Flupe sad - turns blue- or frightened - turns yellow)

Flupe

This is what our package looks like:

Content:

• A bag - it's similar to the previous, but the colour of the straps are yellow while in case of the first package they were green
• 4 activity books - not just picture books and rhymes, but proper workbooks. One can colour, stick stickers. Now we are working with the second one. During the lesson we work in the booklets, but no longer than 4-5 minutes

Rub-a-dub-dub - we coloured the tub and the animals, then had to put 5 carrot stickers on the holes

Skill development: Find and circle the same animal as you can see in the front

• Booklet with the words for parents - quite useful for those parents who do not speak and/or understand much English (in the picture it is behind the 4 activity booklets)
• 1 DVD - with short stories
• 4 CDs - with all the conversations from the stories. My problem with the CDs is that the songs themselves cannot be listened to separately, only as a part of the whole story

I know it is officially not allowed but I asked our teacher to give us the teacher's CD and I uploaded the songs on our PC, so we can listen to the songs only.

I feel very strongly about this package. Very good material from many aspects. The workbooks are strong and good quality. The tasks are suitable for kids between 2-5 years of age.

Not only does this course develop a child's language skills but also their movements (dancing, jumping, crawling, running and hopping), fine motor skills (sticking, colouring, matching, craft activities). The five senses are in focus again.

There are 25 songs to listen to. They are mainly traditional nursery rhymes/songs with some change in the tune or in the lyrics. The songs appear in 12 animated stories in which Granny Fix talks in rhymes. (Certain lines of her return from episode to episode.) These episodes can be seen on the DVD.

Have a look at one episode (Rub a dub dub):

Our teacher, Zs., always involves some eating and drinking during the sessions if it is somehow connected to the topic. (E.g.: biscuits were hanging by the window on a rope. - I can't reach it. - she said and all the kids tried to reach the biscuits. Then they needed to ask for it: - Can I get a biscuit?. But a similar situation is created when asking for water to drink etc.) And this is just one example how well the kids are involved and encouraged to use the language in real life situations.

There is a Helen Doron Song Club on youtube where you can find videos connected to this material and to other courses too.

Five Little Monkeys has always been a favourite:

You can find Fun with Flupe as an application in the Google Play Store. Have a look at what it looks like. When I installed it, it was free of charge.

 

All in all, this set is just as professional, well-designed and full of fun as the previous, Baby's Best Start.

We love numbers - Numbers II.

Every time before E. goes to sleep we have this conversation (either in English or in Hungarian):

E.: - Mommy, numbers.
M.: - Which numbers?
E.: - The little numbers.
M.: - 1, 2, 3, ...
E.: - No, Mommy. Zero....
M.: - Oh, yes, sorry. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
E.: - Now the big numbers.
M.: - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
E.: - Hundreeeed (giggles)

She is so fascinated by numbers that at the age of 18 months she could read the numbers on her baby bottle from 10 to 280.

Let's see some number games we play.

First of all, our favourite number songs:

Zero, zero, super hero

Ten in the bed

The new favourite: Ten Little Dinosaurs

The bottle top calculator is just as much fun as pushing the buttons on a real calculator.

What's missing?

I found a quite difficult number task on www.firstgradebrain.com. What comes between? This task is more for 4-5 year old kids, but we gave it a try. I printed the sheets laminated them and at first I just put one task in front of her with 3 possible options that can come between the two numbers.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy

Much to my surprise it wasn't very difficult for her. We did two more of this task then she started to order the numbers. All by herself.

There is nothing more to add :)

Ordering the numbers - Making big numbers

I printed the numbers from 1 to 10 in two copies. I coloured and laminated them and the fun could begin.

First, I put them in order, then she matched the other set.

We played a memory game with them. (There are ladybird stickers on one side of the cards so that you can't see what is on the back)

Let's start

I've found a match

With these numbers, A., our British nanny, played another game. She and E. made big numbers putting the numbers next to each other.

110

And some basic additions.

Watermelon seeds counting game

I used the watermelon seeds counting idea on Toddler Approved! which I really like following as they have great and easy to make ideas.

So I just made the watermelon slices out of a green foam sheet, a white and a red sheet. I glued the different coloured paper on top of each other.

Turning the slices right side up

On the back of the slices there are the numbers written. (the slices deliberately grow in size from 1 to 10 so there is more room for the seeds and in this way we can put the slices in growing order.)

counting

I picked raisins instead of the chocolate chips recommended in the Toddler Approved blog post. Healthier and they do not leave a mark. I put them in a box and the counting started.

One raisin rolled down

We can do many other things with the watermelon slices:

• put them in order according to the numbers (or backwards)
  
  

  

  This is four, Mommy

• order them according to their sizes
  

  

  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ...

• throw a lot of raisins on a slice and eat up all the "seeds" that are not necessary in order to have the number of seeds on the slice as written on the back
  
  

  

  yummie

• explain how to eat up all the raisins to someone who does not know this game
  

  

  there is one - look

  
  
  

  

  And this is how you scoff the raisins

Number stickers - Helping Little Mole build a house

I drew a brick wall and Little Mole's head on a sheet of paper. Some bricks had the numbers on them from 0-10. On rectangle shaped empty stickers I wrote the numbers from 0-10. E. had to build the wall putting the stickers in the right places, on the matching number. She filled the empty bricks with empty stickers. (Sorry about these photos, they were taken by my mobile; this is why the quality is poor.)

(You can buy these stickers at a "one euro shop" - well, in Hungary at the Chinese markets or shops)

This idea has endless varieties: with the ABC, with big numbers, matching animals, clothes, everyday objects, playing with the colours, copying patterns etc. If you have any idea how to expand this game share it with me in the comments.

Books - some fun books to finish with


Dora the Explorer - A Birthday for Boots (By Scholastic)

In this Dora book, she and her friends buy some goody bags for Boots' birthday party, but Swiper always takes away one every page.

I bought this book when E was just 1 year old and she loved looking at the pictures. You can talk about a lot of things in the pictures. There can be a lot of counting (goody bags, candle sticks, balloons etc.) but also naming objects connected to a birthday party.

My very first book of numbers by Eric Carl

This book is divided in two parts horizontally and your child needs to find and match the fruits in the bottom part with the numbers (written in numerals and also represented with black squares). As E. has passed two years old, she doesn't need help, but around last Christmas when she got this book she needed help with the page turning and matching.

Flip me! Counting 1-10 (By Buster Books) You can read the full review of it here. I'm quoting just the essential part of it:

"Counting 1-10 has pages divided into two panels, which kids can rearrange to match. One side has photographs of objects to count <dolls, dinosaurs, sand toys, cars etc.>, along with words identifying the number and name of the object; the other side shows the numerals from 1-10."

Once we took this flip book on a longer car journey. While she was looking at it, E. threw up. Use it some other places. It's quite nice.

As numbers and counting are in E's focus, I'll come back with some more number games in the near future.