Sunday, September 4, 2011

Dinosaur Themed Preschool Activity: Dinosaur Sensory Bin

I haven't done much with sensory bins for the boys before, in part because I just heard about them not that long ago, and in part because our little boys already love to explore everything with their hands anyway. Playing outside and eating seem to give lots of opportunities to explore with their senses, without making anything special, but this dinosaur unit seemed to lend itself well to a sensory bin, and we already had everything on hand. It really didn't take any time to throw the dinosaurs, fossils we made and hunted for, and some plastic shovels in a tub with sand after all.

Preschool (or Tot-school) Activity: Dinosaur Sensory bin

  • A bucket or bin with some sand or rice in it
  • Dinosaur fossils, plastic dinosaurs, or even dog bones
  • Small shovels if desired
Arrange the items in your bin, and then call the kiddos over to explore it. We put this on the balcony so sand wouldn't get all over the house. We practiced naming dinosaurs for a while and talking about other things like the different colors in the bin as well. The boys played for much longer than I thought they would with this simple set up. Andrew played with it for about 1/2 an hour, and Aaron spent almost 2 hours straight playing with the bin the first day I put it together. They kept asking to play with it for quite a few days afterwards too. Perhaps I should try sensory bins more often, as they had so much fun with it.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Dinosaur Themed Preschool Activity: Archaeological Dinosaur Dig

In August, we studied dinosaurs and did so many fun projects that I haven't had a chance to write about them all yet. For this project, we took the dinosaur fossils we made to the park in our apartment complex and buried them in the sand, and then the boys got to dig through the sand to find them.

 

Preschool (or Tot-school) Activity: Dinosaur Fossil Dig

  • Dinosaur fossils, plastic dinosaurs, or even dog bones to dig up
  • An area of sand or dirt to dig in
  • Small shovels, rakes, and/or pails to dig with

  1. Hide the "fossils" in the sand.
  2. Have the child dig through the sand or dirt to find them. Tell them how many they are looking for, so they can count them and be sure to find them all.

    Friday, September 2, 2011

    Dinosaur Themed Preschool Craft Idea: Dinosaur Fossils

    In August, we learned about dinosaurs. We did so many fun things that I still haven't written about them all. For this project we used a simple salt dough recipe and some plastic dinosaurs to make our own "dinosaur fossils."

    Preschool (or Tot-school) Craft Idea: Dinosaur Fossils

    • 1 batch of salt dough
    • plastic dinosaurs
    • cookie sheets or other baking pans
    • oven (optional)
    • paints (optional)

    1. Mix up a batch of salt dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. Use this time to hunt for all of the plastic dinosaurs that have suddenly gone missing in your house. No, I didn't plan this part of the activity, but it worked out to be fun though.
    2. Divide the dough into balls. We have big plastic dinosaurs so we just made 6, but if you had smaller dinosaurs you could make a lot more.
    3. Flatten into a roughly oval shape and press a different type of dinosaur into each piece of salt dough.
    4. Bake, or let dry.
    5. Have fun with the dinosaur fossils by painting them, naming the different dinosaurs found in each one, putting them in a sensory bin, or going on an archeological dig for dinosaur fossils.

    DIY Salt Dough

    Salt dough can be used to make all kinds of things like decorations, ornaments, and even dinosaur fossils like we just used it for.

    Salt Dough Recipe

    • 2 cups flour
    • 1 cup water
    • 1 cup table salt
    1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and knead until smooth.
    2. Let sit for 20 minutes.
    3. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters, shape into desired design, smash a dinosaur in it, or make whatever you want.
    4. Bake at 200 F for about 4 hours or let air dry in a dry environment for up to 48 hours.
    5. After the objects are completely dry and/or cool, they can be painted or sealed with varnish if you desire.

    Family Fridays: Learning

    Nate started up classes again this week. This semester he has class in the late morning, although this could change if they need to move classes or students around.

    This means that he is around and can sometimes participate in our morning breakfast/school routine of reading the Bible and Bible stories, doing memory verses, practicing a few Chinese and English flashcards, and a word book or two mixed in with our weekday granola and yogurt/milk breakfast. Aaron currently cannot function civilly without granola and daily readings. Even if the rest of us wanted to take a day off or do something different, he has to have those two things to start the day off right. He is a boy who loves his routine.

    Since daddy comes back later, and therefore lunch is later, we're trying out a snack-'n'-school time also. This week I have been just been reading books to them while they have a snack. We've read English, Chinese, number books, word books, simple funny stories (Pooh, Clifford, etc.), anything we pull out of the book bins for the day. Aaron asked today if we could do snack-'n'-school a second time. He has been having so much fun.

    After that I've been having the boys sit at my new desk with me and listen to some ChinesePod lessons. This has been helping me make sure that the boys and I are getting more time studying Chinese in our day. Then we do some computer flashcards (mostly for Andrew who is still just starting to learn how to read). We've been doing the flashcards while listening to some classical music, picked from recommendations by my brilliant mother, who has a Masters in Music Education. Andrew loves the music and likes to dance and bounce along as we do the flashcards. He will focus for much longer periods of time while the music is playing. He has be getting more and more interested in learning lately, but the addition of music playing in the background while we do the computer flashcards seems to make it even more fun for him.

    The boys have also been having lots of fun learning about dinosaurs in August and have been super excited to start a train unit for September. They like to use their reusable preschool workbooks all the time, so they don't have any particular set time to use them. I am sure our schedule will continue to change over time, but we're enjoying this new routine for the moment.

    Wednesday, August 31, 2011

    Dinosaur Themed Preschool Craft Idea: Dinosaur Reconstruction

    We're studying dinosaurs this month and doing some fun crafts to go along with our theme. For this project the boys got to reconstruct a paper dinosaur skeleton. You can print out your own dinosaurs and skeletons from my free dinosaur printables available here.

    Preschool (or Tot-school) Craft Idea: Dinosaur Reconstruction

    • Dinosaur skeleton drawn or printed out and then cut into pieces
    • A piece of paper or a dinosaur coloring page drawn or printed out
    • School glue (homemade works great!) or glue sticks
    • Q-tips to spread the glue if desired
    • Markers or crayons if desired
    1. Assemble supplies.
    2. I let the boys color the dinosaur coloring pages while I cut out the skeletons, but this is optional.
    3. Give the children the skeleton pieces and glue (or glue sticks), and have them glue and arrange the pieces to reconstruct the dinosaur skeleton how they think it should look.
    Using plain paper makes this a more open-ended project, and using a coloring sheet to match the skeleton pieces to adds a degree of direction and complexity. My 20-month-old just enjoyed gluing the pieces wherever, but my three-year-old really liked building the dinosaur in the coloring sheet so it looked more like a real dinosaur.
      Brachiosaurus skeleton cut apart
      Brachiosaurus skeleton I drew

      Dinosaur Themed Preschool Craft Idea: Shape-a-saurus

      We're studying dinosaurs this month and doing some fun crafts to go along with our theme. The boys had fun making a Shape-a-saurus three different ways. The different ways to make a shape-a-saurus change how open ended the project is and the difficulty level of this project. You can print out your own stegosaurus and correspond shape from my free dinosaur printables available here.

      Preschool (or Tot-school) Craft Idea: Shape-a-saurus

      • Shapes cut out of construction paper, paper the child has already colored on, or a shape dinosaur print out printed on colored paper or on plain paper and then colored in
      • A piece of paper, dinosaur coloring page, or shape dinosaur print out
      • School glue (homemade works great!) or glue sticks
      • Q-tips to spread the glue if desired
      1. Assemble supplies.
      2. For a completely open-ended, and the easiet way to do the project, have the child simply design their own dinosaur out of the precut shapes and glue them down.
      3. To add a degree of complexity, and give the child some direction in their project, have them try to glue shapes that roughly match the outline of a coloring page.
      4. For the most complex way to do this project, have the child match the shape cut outs exactly to a shape dinosaur print out, like a puzzle, and glue them down.
      5. For any of these methods talk to your child as they make their picture, and ask them questions about the shapes and colors they are using. This is a great way to start to get a young toddler to see shapes all around them.
      This is a great project to review shapes and colors for any toddler, and it can easily be adapted to the child’s individual level. You can create shape pictures for any other theme as well.


      Tuesday, August 30, 2011

      DIY Butterscotch Pudding

      Butterscotch pudding has such a unique homey taste. It thankfully (and ironically) doesn't have any scotch in it, but rather gets its flavor from butter and brown sugar. Therefore, don't skimp on the butter or brown sugar, otherwise it won't really have the full butterscotch flavor.

      Homemade Creamy Butterscotch Pudding Recipe

      • 2 Tbsp butter
      • ½ cup brown sugar
      • 2 cups whole milk (divided)
      • 1 egg
      • 3 Tbsp cornstarch



      1. In a small mixing bowl, begin by stirring together ½ cup milk, egg, and cornstarch until well combined.
      2. In a medium saucepan melt butter.
      3. Add brown sugar, and stir until dissolved.
      4. Add 1½ cups milk, and stir well. 
      5. Stir over medium heat to warm the milk.
      6. Take a couple of big spoonfuls (¼ to ½ cup) of the warm milk mixture, and add it into the cornstarch and egg mixture. Don't skip this step. This tempers the egg and prevents it from becoming a scrambled egg when adding it into the hot milk.
      7. Pour the cornstarch and egg mixture into the warm milk, and stir quickly to combine well.
      8. Continue to stir over medium heat until the pudding thickens and begins to bubble.
      9. You can serve this pudding warm (sounds good in the winter) or chill for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days and serve it cold.

      Monday, August 29, 2011

      Mandarin Mondays: 你好

      Babies greeting each other with a universal cheek pinch.
      Perhaps both boys' cheeks have been pinched too often
      by Chinese Grandmas greeting them.
      Greetings are usually one of the first things you learn when studying a foreign language because how are you going to have a conversation if you can't start one? While it is very good to know how to greet someone, or respond to their greeting, that doesn't always mean that greetings are the easiest thing to learn. Often they can be complicated, because how you normally start a conversation varies a lot culturally, and often there is no good direct translation for what a phrase means.

      When you see someone any time of the day here you can say, "Nǐ hǎo (你好)." This literally means "you good," but culturally it means something much closer to our "hello." You are not really asking how they are doing, and they won't respond by telling you how they are doing, but will usually just say, "Nǐ hǎo (你好)," in response.

      Now there is also the formal way to say hello, "Nín hǎo (您好)" and the way to say hello to more than one person, "nǐmen hǎo (你们)," but these are rarely used in daily conversation. In fact while these phrases are the most grammatically accurate, unless you are in a very formal setting, you will likely sound out of place using them. This isn't something you can learn from a textbook, but from everyday life, or perhaps a really good Chinese teacher or friend.


      Exchanging greetings at English corner
      Similarly, while English speakers usually ask "How are you," after saying hello, the direct translation of "how are you" (Nǐ hǎo ma, 你好吗) is almost never used here. Actually, I think outside of a Chinese lesson, I have only heard it spoken by foreigners here. It is much more common to use the phrase "Nǐ zěnme yàng? (你怎么样?)." This means something like our phrase "how are you doing," while the literal translation comes out quite strange: "You how way?"

      The Chinese people here have trouble with our greetings too. Most of the children here have learned the following greeting (even if it is all of the English they know): "Hi, how are you? I am fine, sanks." They do not have the th sound in Mandarin, so most people cannot pronounce it correctly, much like we have trouble with the multitude of sounds in Mandarin that English does not possess.

      At least we are not alone in our language difficulties. Hopefully, the Chinese people will give us grace as we work continually on improving our Mandarin.

      Sunday, August 28, 2011

      DIY Vanilla Pudding


      Vanilla pudding is great by itself or as a base for other desserts, like banana pudding. This easy, homemade vanilla pudding is so much tastier than the boxed version.

      Homemade Creamy Vanilla Pudding Recipe

      • ½ cup sugar
      • 2 cups whole milk (divided)
      • 1 egg
      • 3 Tbsp cornstarch
      • 1 tsp vanilla



      1. In a small mixing bowl, begin by stirring together ½ cup milk, egg, and cornstarch until well combined.
      2. In a medium saucepan, combine 1½ cups milk, sugar, and vanilla. 
      3. Stir over medium heat to warm the milk.
      4. Take a couple of big spoonfuls (¼ to ½ cup) of the warm milk mixture, and add it into the cornstarch and egg mixture. Don't skip this step. This tempers the egg and prevents it from becoming a scrambled egg when adding it into the hot milk.
      5. Pour the cornstarch and egg mixture into the warm milk, and stir quickly to combine well.
      6. Continue to stir over medium heat until the pudding thickens and begins to bubble.
      7. You can serve this pudding warm (sounds good in the winter) or chill for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days and serve it cold.

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