Back to the big water.

We continue to learn about the ocean and its inhabitants. I was looking for special craft for this theme and I found gorgeous one! There is a lot of jelly fishes in internet but those just exited me a lot!

That is how we made them:

You need:

Two deep bowls;

Two googly eyes;

Ribbons - diversity

Hole puncher

Thread

Piece of double sided tape

You can paint or cover with pieces of tissue paper one bowl outside.

Make a few holes on the bottom of second bowl. It is very good exercise for children to lace ribbons through the hole. Do it as much as possible. Make a small hole on the middle of painted bowl and fix the thread with double sided tape inside. Fold them together and stack with double sided tape. Make a holes on the edge of bowls and let children lace them with the ribbon. Attach some more ribbons to the ribbon which laced edge.

Our jelly fishes didn't look so pretty but I love when they do lace for fine motor skills!

Those jelly fishes made by older children, who tied ribbons on the edge.

Happy fishing! See you soon again!

I think I still have time to participate with those fishes  hereand here!

Under the sea

If you read my post about flying jelly fish, just let you know there was a lesson a play with the jelly fish))
Yes, we discussed under the sea life, counting diamonds in pirates chest,we were fishing ocean creatures - nothing special.

But.....OMG, look here!

Let it go down, attach some ribbons as a legs,

Let it go up, take off those extra legs!

Teach children to play gently with the toy, push it nicely to your friend, pull it to yourself and move around!

We were playing around 20 minutes and children wanted to continue, but that was time for art.

that day I had children ages 2 to 5 so our octopuses looked different, youngest children just played with play dough and made a prints with shells and plastic turtle.

That is what we made 

Children still exited about our jelly fish and I promised to bring it again!

Vacation, vacation!

"Why did you come with this backpack?
Why do you wear this hat?
Why are you wearing sunglasses?"
Children bombarded me with a million question!
"Guess why?"
"I know! You are going for vacation!"

Yes! We are going together! And this is our ticket! 

So, let's start!

Turn on an Engines!

Spread wings!

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR........

"Let's do left turn, let's do right turn! Shake a wings! and land!

Hey! there is our suit case. Let's look what is inside:

At this point children can guess what is inside and you may take it out, or just put on the floor and ask children questions what belongs to things for vacations, what belongs to girls, to boys, why we don't need winter hat, what is flippers, why we doing snorkelling, what is missing for snorkelling and many others.

Give them a chance to dress up and play!

sometimes happens like that

 Now we ready to go to the beach!

I used sand paper to make a beach and my favourite wrapping paper to create a water. There are some real shells and some plastic toys to let children to discuss what we can find on the beach. I also used a wonderful book "What lives in the shell?" by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld  and flash cards about beach.

We can find gigantic shells on the beach and hear sound of the sea inside!

Some shells include pearls, and we discuss how may it happen...

This is my favourite part - we are popping the bubbles on wrapping paper !

and counting rocks.... No, we still popping bubbles)))

We also were listening and guessing sound of the sea and ocean: seagulls, waves on the beach, waves on the rocks,(what is difference), ships sounds(bell and siren)....

We had a beautiful vacation on the beach!

...

I enjoyed our vacations with children, but this part of my lesson I failed.....
My idea was to used a send play dough for sculpturing. I found a couple recipes in internet and they sounded good. Yes, I tried it day before and I made this star fish, which actually wasn't too bad...

But next day play dough wasn't working( On my luck, I had a few pieces of play dough, so we made our shells with regular play dough.

If you have any ideas about sand play dough I will very appreciate your contribution to my lesson plan!

 

Hey, everyone!

Next time we are going under the water! Join our under sea trip!

Flying jelly fish

Hurray! I got a pet!
Now Jelly fish flying in my room!
Yesterday was my daughter's Birth Day and she got a few balloons which were flying in the air.
I was thinking non stop about my new "Under Sea" lesson plan and suddenly I got an insight - "That is what I am looking for!" This is my idea, how to make a Jelly fish with the balloon.

You will need;

 a balloon with helium, tape (duck tape is better)

One plastic bag (I had recycling blue bag, but I think it may be colourful crepe paper - ribbons)

What to do

Gently remove stick or ribbon and fix with the tape a nipple.

Attach ribbons with the small pieces of duck tape to the balloon!

You can improve my project by adding eyes and mouth!

This is, in my opinion very good tool to teach children about weight. If there is one extra piece of duck tape at the bottom of jelly fish it slowly goes down, may stop in few inches above the floor. My idea is to "feed"

our jelly fish with paper fishes by attaching them with tape to the bottom.

Jelly fish prepared for "Under Sea" lesson plan but I think I will use it much broader!

I would like to share this idea here here

and here