Mast & Sail Pictures

Following on from the Catamaran activity,

we were still focused on our trip on the Pirate Ship...

we used the masts and sails we saw as inspiration.

I taped down 2 pieces of string for 2 masts.

I cut out some rectangles and triangles of different sizes from a magazine as flags.

I also cut out some plain shapes for the boys to decorate their own flags.

They then stuck the flags onto the strings, until the string sails were full.

The following day, Big Seed wanted to do this again.

I cut out some white paper flags in rectangle and triangle shapes.

He had to stick all the square flags on one string and the triangular ones on the other.

After that I put 2 different numbers on them and he had to sort these.

Then he had to sort 2 different letters.

You can adapt this in so many ways for a sorting and sticking activity.

Beads, beads, beads

Today we did lots of different activities with various bags of beads.

They were all bought from Ebay and cost about £1 a packet.

First Big Seed sorted a whole bag of wooden alphabet beads by colour.

I then picked out the letters in his name and he sorted these.

Then he spelt out his name by himself with the beads.

He then threaded them altogether with elastic which I tied for him.

Great for developing fine motor skills!

Then wore it all day...he was very proud!

So he wanted to make some more...

So he made one for me.

I got out a bag of assorted wooden beads, he chose some,

 and I taught him some symmetry.

And one for Dad of course! 

Do you think he will wear it to work??

We were going to make some for his Grandmas with these,

but the beads are too small for the elastic...so don't buy these beads!

By the way, we did all these things over the course of a day...

I just wait for him to ask to do an activity, that's how it tends to work.

 And yes, he's very demanding! He loves doing these things.

Next I needed a bunch of beads the same colour but different sizes,

so I bought a secondhand necklace.

I cut the string and put them in a bowl for him to sort by size.

I used a muffin tin for something with multiple compartments.

See he's still wearing his bracelet

Here he is spooning from one pot to another with a Chinese soup spoon

which I found on holiday.

A box tray is invaluable to stop the beads rolling everywhere interrupting momentum.

I got the box tray from here in the UK.

Treasure Hunt!

I hid 12 wooden letter beads, one for each muffin tin compartment.

This is very important or he won't know how many to look for.

He loved this so much I had to do it with marbles afterwards.

He also learnt how to use a sieve by himself.

Finally - are you still with me?

He chose 5 wooden beads and then had to draw what he saw.

It helps to have round beads because he can only do circle shapes at the moment!

This is the very beginning of 2D technical drawing if you really want to "big up" your child!

OK, then it was time for supper.

Sunday Newspaper Letters

We sometimes get newspapers at the weekend with their endless supplements...

Why? I only get to read a paragraph!

So I thought I would put them to more use...

Simple: I cut 3 large letters out of black card,

then cut out the same 3 letters out of the newspaper,

mixed them on a plate and asked Big Seed to sort and stick them down.

I have done this before by typing letters in different colours,

then again in different fonts on the computer and printing them off.

He is so chuffed he can read some letters ( although he calls them numbers).