Halloween is here in less than two weeks and E. is so excited about it. She has already chosen what to dress up as (a skeleton - what else a 2 and half year old girl wants to be?)
I'm trying to do some Halloween projects with her.
The first one was a skeleton out of cotton buds. I found this easy cutton bud skeleton craft idea on a fellow blogger mommy's site. (Q-tip is the equivalent of cotton buds in the US)
What you need:
cotton buds
black coloured or construction paper
glue
printed or drawn skull
She loved the skulls at first sight
Gluing in progress
(I was making it with her to show her how to and where to put the bones. Although she's got and almost perfect knowledge of bones of the skeleton. I'll write about our little skeleton craze in a later post)
This craft idea combines Halloween, shapes and colours. While E. was in the nursery I cut up the shapes and when we arrived home the sticking could start. (I should have chosen some more colours - she wanted to add red eyes)
orange rectangles for the hair
black rectangles and big triangles for the hat
small black triangles for the nose
green circle for the head - could be any other colour
pink small and bigger rectangles, semi-circles for eyes eyebrows, lips etc.
At first we identified the colours and the shapes
Then we put together the witch
Funny witch... not scary at all - stated E. happily.
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:
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.
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
Granny Fix - who solves all the problems and speaks in rhymes
Paul Ward - I guess he is Granny Fix's grandson. He helps Granny sort out the problems
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.
