Fossils wall hanging on air dry clay

Like any other kid Avaneesh is also very interested in dinosaurs.. I suppose we all are to an extent...We are totally loving the nature and greenery in Singapore. When we are outside I make it a point to let sunny boy connect, explore and enjoy nature.. Avaneesh collects sticks, leaves and flowers of various sizes and shapes..we stop and admire the bugs, leaves , fruits and flowers!!!!

   So I thought of combining a two activities and making one project...Nature finds + Craft + Fossil prints!!

We collected some flowers and leaves from the garden.. Then pressed these in pages of a book and kept it under some heavy books for a day or two.  We checked every day to see if it has become dry and crispy .. Once satisfied we started with the work on fossil making!!

I asked him to roll out the air dry clay.. He noticed that it is of different in texture, thickness as compared to his play dough..  Once rolled out I gave him a tin to cut the circles out. Then he pressed the flowers on it. I did apply little glue to fix the flowers while sunny boy was not watching!! For the leaves I asked him to press firmly on the clay and then pull it out to see the print.. He was excited to see the prints.. He did many prints with different leaves .. Some leaves made good prints while some were very faint.. We used only the ones which made good visible prints. I asked him to make a hole in the top part of some of the circles. 

We let it dry overnight.. Next day I passed a twine through it and made a wall hanging/bunting with it !! 

Paper Plate fish Aquarium

I had seen paper plate fish aquarium on the net and really loved it. They look so easy to do and pretty as well. So in the afternoon activity Avaneesh made a fish aquarium from a paper plate. 

For this activity I collected things which are leftover in the house - paper plates, paper and  cereal. Avaneesh was excited to see all the items. He was even more excited to see me cutting fish. He said lets make a fish pond. When I cut first one. He said its Mamma fish. So I cut out 3 fishes- big, medium, small - Daddy, Mamma, Baby.

He choose the colors to color the fishes.I made sure he paints the medium (mamma) fish in pink. He painted it with pencils and sketch pens.  We talked about the aquarium in Dubai mall and about plants inside the water. I drew the eyes and mouth on the fishes.

After he was done coloring all three of them. I told him that its time to paint the water for the fish. I gave him blue and white on the plate and asked him to spread it around. He made circles and shapes around the plate.

While the paint was wet I told him to glue the fishes and the grass to it. Then I gave him the honey pop cereal to him. Avaneesh does not like it anymore. I gave him only 6-7 at a time, so that he does not get into throwing-the-ball game mode and lose concentration. He started fixing them one by one. I wish I had some sea shells as well...He fixed them all over also in between the fish. We talked about the bubbles and coral under the sea.  

This is how it turned out!! I put a double sided sticky tape on its back and pressed it to the wall. 

This was done in June. He was 2.5 yrs. I think older kids should be able to do even better job. 

Science experiment : Volcano Eruptions

Every family has some or other family activity which they do as a tradition or regular fun activity on weekend. I have been thinking about it for quite some time, just couldn't think what to do. I definitely don't want it around food. I wanted it to a fun activity- something educational, exciting, fun for us(adults) and Avaneesh as well. I have found our family activity for weekends - science experiments!!!!

We did a volcano experiment. For this science experiment, I used a tall plastic glass and kept it on oval plastic plate( only shape in plastic plate I had) I taped the glass with the plate using a masking tape. We spread a plastic sheet on the floor and kept the 'volcanic mountain' in the center. Then I put a few spoons of baking powder and poured vinegar over it. Bubbles started rising and it started overflowing from its crater. 

Avaneesh loved it and was very excited to see the volcano eruption.  I told him abut lava-molten rock. Why and volcano happen, how the mountain expands, smoke, gas and clouds coming out of the volcano. My 2.5 year old got so interested in volcanoes and watched videos with great interest about volcanic expedition and eruptions. Now he gets excited whenever he sees volcano or anything in the shape of a mountain with a crater in center. He says I am going inside the volcano(expedition)

I did lot of research on the net before starting this experiment. 

I suggest reading these two detailed posts on this topic : sciencebob and chemistry.about

Be cautious with science experiments around toddlers, I let Avaneesh only watch the experiment.

Magnetic play clock

Avaneesh has been interested in wrist watches(especially expensive ones..sigh) and clocks( very big and pretty ones) since he was a little baby. I thought I can start teaching about how to read them as well. All the clocks/watches we own have either roman numbers or none. So I thought I will make a easy to read and play magnetic clock for him.

I used the things I had on hand- magnetic sheet, paper, pens and glue. 

I had a magnet sheet from some useless advert. I decided to put the sheet to better use. I cut a circle from paper and wrote the numbers on it. I glued this page to the magnet sheet. I cut two arrows from the remaining sheet and glued paper on sheet. Made some design on it to make it look attractive for the little guy. The arrows stick to the clock well which keeps it together even if he carries it around. Additionally he finds it fun to remove and fix them again in another position.

Still a long way to go but at least he has started learning the basic things about reading a clock like how many numbers, hands, which number is it pointing to etc 

Sea shell Monogram art

A few days back we had been to the beach. My 2 year old and I collected lots of seashell and some sand as well. I came with a idea to make a monogrammed art for my son's room with the sea shells. A craft both me and my son can do together. I cut a thick card stock and drew a big A on it.  I gave Avaneesh the box in which we had collected the sand and sea shells. 

I helped him apply glue on the letter A. Then one by one he found the shells and fixed them on the alphabet. Later we sprinkled sand all over to cover the letter. We let it dry for a while. I applied a layer of modge podge to keep the loose sand together. 

Later i wrote his name under the big A with golden ink. I framed it after it had dried well.  It looks very pretty in his room. 

Linking to Metamorphosis Monday