Food chains

We learnt about food chains.Everyone of us need food for our energy.Similarly animals do need food.Each animal food differs from one to another and we did it fun way to understand the chain.

We started with small chain .For example,This is grass.Cow eats grass.Tiger eats the cow.Similarly we did up to 5 chains.We used 4 ways to learn it.

1.Paper cup method.

I took print of images from Google and asked child to stick it in paper cup.First we lined them in sequence and then also we kept one above the other to undwrstand food chain.

2.Blocks method

We used our old blocks.Sticked pictures on each block.The child build the block based on the food chain.

3.Icecream stick method.

Images were sticked on icecream sticks.Based on the order of food chain,the child had to insert the icecream sticks in top of the paper cup.

This activity helped in learning food chain in better way,helps in improving sequencing skills and fine motor skills

Save our animals

Today we did play with a theme Save our animals.This was done using puppets through story telling and pretend play of animals stating to save animals and animals raising their voice against the violence.We imagined that animals got the power to talk and how they fight to get justice.

I shared with my child how animals and different species have disappeared due to certain human activities.I showed him a animated  video how the human destroy everything and what consequences we face.

We also discussed how we can save animals by making space for animals,conserving habitats.Animals and plants need each other.Our world needs many different animals ,plants for them and us to live in.We need them for our future.We need to Save animals.

The importance and value of animals was conveyed to the child through play way method and story telling.

Animal teeth

While brushing his teeth,my son raised a question,does animals brush their teeth?Followed by other questions such as animals donot brush their teeth with tooth paste and tooth brushand how can they keep teeth clean, So we decided to learn about Animal teeth.

1 .Diy teeth

We did animal teeth for our pretend play.We did two types of teeth,one was using rice flour and other one using ice.

A.Diy rice flour teeth.

I asked the child to take 1 cup of rice flour and mix it with little flour.I helped him to get desired consistency.Then asked him to fill it in icecube tray and freeze it at high cooling speed .Our diy rice dough teeth is ready.

B.Ice teeth.

I just asked him to fill water in two glasses and freeze it.Our diy ice animal teeth are ready.

2.Stick and match.

Took pink colour paper and did different shapes in plain paper.Asked the child to cut and stick it in paper.We did hippo,crocodile,beaver teeth.

I took 2 copies of print out from Google images ,then asked the child to match according to the pattern of teeth.

3.Animal Dentist -Pretend play

He loved playing pretend play as animal dentist.He was examining all animal teeth.He was using our diy teeth to fix the broken teeth of animal and many more things. 

Today, we learnt that animal teeth differs from one animal to other.It depends on food they eat.Meat eaters have sharp teeth,those who eat plant have flat teeth.Those who eat both plant and eat have sharp teeth in front and flat teeth at back .We categorised animal according to their eating habits.

.All his questions were answered one by one during the pretend play that Animals eat raw meat and plants.Chewing on bones or sticks helps to remove food particles between teeth.We also talked about differences between human teeth and animal teeth.

Our Mahashivarathri Celebrations

Today we celebrated our festival of Mahashivarathri.It literally means Great night of Shiva”.It is believed that lord shiva appeared in the form of Linga in the night and hence we do Jagran on shivarathri.There are few stories which my mother and grandmother narrated to me.I roughly remember those stories and today I narrated to my child.

How we celebrated Maha shivarathri

1.Diy Shiva Lingam

We used clay to do Shiva Lingam for our Pooja.The child with lots of patience tried to knead the clay.I helped him to get the consistency.Then he finally made to get a form of Lingam.After it dried,he painted it with black fevicryl colour.Then applied vibuthi and Kumkum.He decorated it with flowers and Bilva leaves.We did Pooja with our Shiva Lingam on this Mahashivarathri.Last time,we did shiva lingam using water bottle for Thiruvadirai festival ,so we thought to do with clay for Shivarathri

He has uttered several times om namaha shivaya continuously while doing shiva lingam and was very much involved during the entire process.

2.Ice Lingam

This was my child’s own idea.He poured water in a glass and kept in freezer at high cooling.After he came home from play,he inverted it and our beautiful ice shiva linga is ready.

3.Green Moong dhal Shiva lingam

In the morning,I saw the post of Revathi Saravankumar ,art using grains.So I thought to try doing with my child .I drew the outine of shiva in a card board.Asked the child to apply glue inside the outline.He filled with green moong dal and he wanted to add our colourful chickpeas to the art.I gave him rice flour to sprinkle three lines as Vibhuthi .Our another version of colourful shiva lingam is ready.

4.Shlokas

We recited several slokas and songs for Lord Shiva.Then we uttered many times Om namaha Shivaya.We offered Bilva leaves and flowers to our shiva Lingam and celebrated the festival.We also learnt that Shiva has 108 different names.

5.Stories for Mahashivarathri.

I explained to my child why we celebrate Shivarathri,reason for staying awake in the night during Shivarathri,speciality of Bilva leaves and why we donot use Ketaki flower on Pooja.Through this story,I highlighted about importance of talking the truth at all times and many more.

The following stories were shared with my child for this mahashivarathri:

a.Why we celebrate Mahashivaratri festival

Once upon a time Devas and Asuras decided to extract Amruth from sea.Amruth had the ability to make any one live forever. Mount Meru was selected to be the churner and Lord Shiva’s Snake – Vasuki was to be the rope used to churn.During the process,Shiva’s snake poured large quantity of poison which was danger to the entire world.Everybody got scared and they went to Shiva for help.

Shiva drank the poison to save the entire world but Parvati held Lord Shiva’s neck, so that the poison would not be swallowed and Lord Vishnu held his mouth closed to make sure that the poison does not spill out.They stayed this way for the whole night. The poison stayed in Lord Shiva’s neck and therefore it turned blue. This gave Lord Shiva the name ‘Neelkanth’. Inorder to pay respect to Lord Shiva,we celebrate Mahashivaratri.

b.Bilwa leaves for the festival

There was a good man who once went to the forest to collect wood. He went too far into the forest and lost his way. It became night and he got scared.To save him from animals,he climbed a tree. He started feeling sleepy,so he  started picking the leaves of the tree one by one and started dropping them with Lord Shiva on his mind. Thus, he spent the night safely.In the morning, he realised that the tree he had climbed was a Bilwa tree and below it was a Shiva Linga. Then to say thank you to Lord Shiva,he did pooja with Bilva leaves one by one.Lord Shiva felt very happy by seeing his sincerity and devotion.Shiva blessed him with good health and wealth and forgived all his mistakes.Thus ,every Shivarathri we do pooja with Bilva leaves for shiva with full sincerity and Shiva will forgive our mistakes which was done knowingly and unknowingly.

c.Why we do not use Ketaki Flower

One day Brahma and Vishnu were fighting with each other to know who is powerful.In order to make them realise their mistake that fighting is not good habit,Shiva told them to find the end of beam of light.Whoever finds the light is winner and declared to be powerful. Vishnu was honest and told shiva the truth that he couldnot find the light.But Brahma met ketaki flower and both of them lied regarding finding of light.So Shiva got angry on ketki flower and Brahma for telling lie.So we donot worship Shiva with ketaki flower.

Wish you all very happy Mahashivaratri:)

 

 

 

Guess the animal’s egg

My little hero was curious to know what’s inside the egg.This question was asked by him whenever we pass through the shop.We donot eat egg,so my answer was not convincing to him,similarly when we did lifecycle of frog,he wanted to see the frog inside the egg.

So,few months back,I brought capsule eggs,dinosaur eggs from mompreneurs ,it was not appealing to my son and he didnot like it.

Today,while going for walk,I decided to buy few eggs to show him what’s inside the egg.Then came thought to me to use the same egg to make him understand the lifecycle of animals and to make him visualise the frog,crocodile,turtle inside the egg.

It sounded interesting to him.We started our game “Guess the animal’s egg”

Things needed

Few eggs

Very small animal figurines or colour printout will also work

Torch

Water colour

Transparent cellotape

Needle

How we played.

I have never used eggs and I had no idea how to break it.So I used needle and made hole in the egg and then made small space in the egg to insert small figurine.The child removed the inner contents of the egg and allowed it to dry.

I put the animal figurines of turtle,frog,crocodile,snake,dinosaur inside each egg and covered the open area with cello tape.I asked the child to paint any light water colour on the egg just to look it colourful.Allow it to dry.

Since it turned to night,I switched off lights and gave torch to my son to visualise animals in each egg.

Eureka….our try was successful☺☺

He had to guess correctly which animal that egg belongs and also discussed about lifecycle and didnot cover much about lifecycle in detail as he was enjoying with the eggs for long time.I just managed to take quick clicks as I didnot want him to get distracted from his happiness.

Dream of the child turned true through this game.

Animal Forensic

I love and crazily read and watch anything related to thriller,crime stories.This pretend play was initiated by me today with my child.I have just introduced him to the process of investigation which are done in general.Fortunately he loved the idea of the play when I shared with him and we talked a lot to understand in better way.My child loved to play this game as it sounded interesting to him

Scene

Forest Officer finds skull of few animals in the jungle and they start investigating about it.They call forensic team to help them in their investigation.

How we played the game

We were assumed as forensic officer and specialist in investigating wild life crimes.Our role was to identify the suspect,cause of death of animal,identify and compare the physical evidence so that we can find the suspect.

We created our forensic lab using things available at home

1.Sheet of paper

2.Magnifying glass

3 Stamp pad

4.Blood(kumkum mixed with water)

5.Jungle picture

6.Microscope(Kaliedascope was used )

The officer examined the foot prints in the jungle,took photo of foot prints,took sample of hair,skin of the suspect found near victim.These samples were taken to forensic lab.

Animals were enquired and made a list of few suspects.Blood sample test was done using icecube trays and magnifying glass.Microscope was used to examine hair and skin of animals.All the animals foot print were taken using stamped and matched with evidence.

CCTV footage was found in jungle .We got sheet of animal paper in shirt box and was used as CCTV footage.Finally forensic report was prepared and handed over to investigating officer.It was a very long play with so much of imaginations but a new & interesting learning experience.

Animals Xray

Wherever I go,I will be always accompanied by my little hero as I have no other choice.Since I m not well,we went to hospital,the curious mind saw other patient holding X-ray and was eager to know about X ray.Thats the reason behind today’s activity.

I explained him that  x-ray is a special photograph using  an x-ray machine taken by radiologist.  The photograph can be used to treat and examine the internal organs in the body if a person or animals are injured.I gave him.lots of examples to make him clear about X-ray.

1.Pretend play 

My child’s all time favorite is Pretend play.He observes lots of things happening around us.He was assumed as Radiologist and I was assistant to him.

a.Diy X Ray machine

We needed X-ray machine for our play,so we took box which was transparent and was approximate match.We covered it with plain sheet of paper.Our diy X-ray machine is ready.

b.Display Screen for X-ray

Next we needed display screen,so we used a cardboard which we get from shirt box,chalk board sheet.

I noted down list of animals as per my son’s choice and I took images accordingly from internet and then we sticked it using cello tape to chalkboard sheet as we have to use it for other purpose.

My child being radiologist checked all the animals.He questioned them about health history.

Animals narrated how they got hurt.For example,lion complained that it is not able to wag tail.Monkey said that it fell down from tree while swinging from tree to tree.Similarly,we did X-ray for 20 animals.

2.Matching X-ray with animals.

I gave him another sheet of X-ray of animals.He had to match the animal according to their X-ray.

Overall,it was fun learning and child enjoyed it very much.

Our Learning about Dogs

My son is fond of dogs.He wish to have pet dog but we are waiting for appropriate time due to several reasons.Today,we learnt few things about dogs.

We started our learning with diy bones and diy kennel.

1.Diy bones

I drew bone shape in chart paper and asked my child to cut with scissor,it turned very well for our play.

2.Diy kennel

We took our first cry card boxes.I just cut in middle to get a shape.I just asked the child to stick cello tape as it is good exercise for little fingers.Our diy kennel is ready.

3.Lifecycle of dog.

I explained him in detail all the four stages of dog using our toy dogs.

First stage:Baby dogs :They depend fully on mummy dog.They cannot hear and see for few weeks.

Second stage:Puppy: They drink milk from mummy dog.

Third stage: Young dog : They continue to grow and become independent.

Fourth stage : Adult dog: When they turn 2 years,they become adult dogs.

4.Where is the dog?

We played a game using prepositions.It was done just to build vocabulary of the child.I would ask the child where is the dog.The child had to tell dog is in the kennel.Similarly it was used for on,Infront of,behind,In,Between,above,behind,near

5.Feed the dog.

We again took another cardboard box and I made a hole for mouth and asked the child to feed the dogs with bones and biscuit.

6.Doggie,Doggie ,where is your bone

We played another game which was gross motor task.I hided the bone all around the house.The child pretended as dog.I asked the child Doggie,Doggie ,where is your bone.The child need to search it and tell me where did he find it.For  example: The bone is above the fridge.

7.Pretend play of Dog.

Myself and child were assumed as dogs.We were in crawling position and crawled all over the house.

Then we learnt how does dog eat ,drink and smell.Then we pretended to help police in searching robber who was hiding in a building.

8.Dog paper bag puppet

We used white paper bag which was given as gift.Then did few sketches and pasted ears and legs so that it appears as dog.

9.Sorting and Counting

Whatever dogs were at home were sorted according to sizes and counted too.

10.Dog Breeds

I introduced different breeds of dog.Only those which I was able to recall.I didnot go much in detail.

11.Facts about dog.

I talked a lot about dogs.I have noted down few points to share with you.

12.How we need to care for the dog.

I talked in very detail about dogs.how we have to care and treat them.Gave lots of practical examples.Highlighted about feeding,bathing,brushing,cleaning the dog,Good and bad behaviour,Role model appropriate behavior.Shared real life incidents.I also narrated about our pet Robin,who is no more with us now.

Finally he concluded with a difference between needy dog and family dog.According to him,dogs who are in street ,struggling a lot are needy dog,they don’t have anyone to take care of them.He is going to help needy dogs when he becomes big boy.Family dogs are those who go in car,uncle and aunty take for walk,always they are taken care as family member.

Tic tac toe – Two letter word

Today,he was telling me that his teacher has sticked two letter word on wall.So thought to play tic tac toe game with two letter word .

To be honest,he was not interested in tic toe game and told me that he want to learn to spell it.Learning to spell is his current interest,so we learnt to spell few words .

Our Valentine day celebrations 2017

I wanted my child to understand what Valentine is all about.Nowdays in park,in building and in all surrounding,the child can see couples of all ages.

Yesterday evening,he was observing young boy and girl expressing love to each other with hug and wishing happy Valentine’s day.When we were discussing about Valentine’s day activity,I learnt what was in mind when he narrated that uncle will hug aunty and say I love you.To further explanation,he told Sivakarthik uncle(actor) will give many rose to aunty by saying I love you and they marry each other.

These instances made me to make my child understand what’s Valentine day is all about.To be kind and affectionate towards family,friends,neighbours and all other people in the world,animals,birds and everything is love.

If you help anybody,there is love.Talking politely and giving respect to everyone is love.

Then my little hero questioned me we can do this everyday but why only February 14?

Everyday we will not be able to do everything.In few days,we may skip doing it for certain reasons.There are few people who do hurt.So,february 14 is a special day where we make someone happy by being kind and gentle.This day is reminder for all of us in busy lives to be kind and to be lovable at all times.We gifted auto toy to.little boy who will be with his mummy selling balloons.I could observe happiness in both child’s faces,I told him this is love.

1.Diy love coupon to dad

This idea is from dear Amruta whom I admire a lot.I remember reading her post in the year 2014.Hope,I m right,since it is quite a long time.She had shared about diy love coupons to her husband.

The same idea,I utilised diy love coupons by son to dad.He has written in his own handwriting and inserted in envelope.After my husband slept,I kept envelope near his bed,office bag,pooja shelf so that it would be a surprise to him on Valentine’s day by our loving son.

2.Post cards

He wrote yesterday evening “I love you ” to his grandparents in post card and we posted it today.I sent the picture to them in WhatsApp too.We had planned to do it last week so that it reaches before February 14 but due to certain reasons,we couldn’t do it.

3.Handmade Valentine activity.

In sheet of papers,I quickly did few activities last night as he wanted to do activity book based on what was introduced to him by his teacher in school.

4.The most SPECIAL gift for mom

Today evening,I just went to receive a courier.In fraction of seconds,my little hero has written a note for me saying I Love you amma.Handed over the note by saying surprise ,I love you ,hug and kiss.

It was really very super quick..just done in fraction of seconds.

It was really very big surprise for me.I never expected it.This was my first Valentine’s day gift in my life❤❤❤