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I saw this cool idea for teaching letter recognition and was keen to have a go with the girls. You write the letters of the alphabet on some card or paper and cut and paste letters from magazines over the letters. For Faith I just did capital letters as that is what she recognises best so far. Bethany has been confusing a few of her upper and lower case letters lately so I did both for her. I just wrote the letters on some cardboard from an old beer box.
3 or 4 fruits, diced (preferably in season)
bag of marshmellows
kebab skewers, toothpicks or small ice block stitcks
As an extra you could serve these with some yoghurt to dip them in.
The Crafty Crow linked to this neat idea today. A great use for those old egg cartons and an easy enough project for the kids to do from start to finish themselves. What kid doesn’t like getting messy with paints!
A blog I subscribe to linked to this great tutorial today. Definantly going to have a go with the girls.
I will come back and post some pics when we have made one for ourselves.
Ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green,
Pango is black, pangu is too, A E I O U.
Kowhai yellow, pakaka brown, kikorangi blue,
Parakaraka is our orange, A E I O U.
Wera is hot, maku wet, makariri cold,
Ua is rain, mahana warm, A E I O U.
Tahi is one, rua is two, toru number three,
Wha is four, rima is five – 1 2 3 4 5
Ono is six, whitu is seven, waru number eight,
iwa is nine, tekau is ten – 6 7 8 9 10
Teaching ideas
- Cut pieces of card in each of the colours and attach them to ice-block sticks. As you are singing get the kids to hold up the cards. You could also do cards with numbers on them and ones with pictures for hot, wet ect.
Fun facts
- There are seven colours in the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
- The colours are always in the same order starting with red at the top.
- You can memorise the colours by remembering the name ROY G BIV
- Rainbows are made of light, you can see them with your eyes but you can’t touch them.
- Sunlight looks white but is really made up of every colour of the rainbow.
- To see a rainbow the sun must be shining behind you and there must be water drops in the air in front of you. The sunlight shines in the water drops and makes the colours.
- The brightest rainbows are made when the water drops are large – after a rain shower or near waterfalls or waves.
Some fun things to try
- Make a rainbow using a garden hose. With the sun shining on your back spray a fine mist of water below your eye level and you’ll have made a rainbow.
- Go on a scavenger hunt collecting something for every colour of the rainbow.
- Make a rainbow collage.
- Sing the song “I can sing a rainbow”
- Have a go signing the above song. (link for a video on the words page)
- Draw a rainbow with chalk on the concrete.
- Read a story that has a rainbow in it. (Finding a book with rainbows in it could be something fun to do at the library)
- Make rainbows on the wall using a prism.
- Make up a poem about rainbows.
Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.
Listen with your eyes,
Listen with your ears,
and sing everything you see,
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing along with me.
Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue,
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too!
If you need help remembering the tune have a look here.
This looks like a nice easy form of paper mache for littlier hands.
Ingredients
1 bowl covered with cling film/plastic food wrap
Lots of torn up tissue paper
PVA glue watered down 50/50
Pressed flowers.
Method.
Cover bowl with lots of layers of tissue paper, and leave to dry. You can speed things up by cooking it in the microwave, but check it every minute or so, otherwise it will scorch/catch fire ( I speak from experience).
When dry, paint with acrylic paints if desired. Or leave it white – it will have a lovely translucency.
Apply another layer of glue mix to the inside of your bowl, and decorate with pressed flowers. I’ve also scattered the dusty bits from the bottom of my bag of dried rosebuds, to give it a ’summer meadow’ look.
Alternatively, use coloured tissue paper and decorate with sequins/glitter/pretty threads/stickers or beads.
Leave to dry, and then apply another couple of coats of glue inside and out.
I will come back with photos once we have had a go ourselves.
Montessori by Hand has a great tutorial here. I just need to get my hands on a blender so me and the girls can have a go. Goodness knows we have enough scrap paper lying around the house. The kids draw on everything in site.
