Egg Carton Owls

These cute little owls are based on the ones made by Art and Soul Preschool. The girls auntie came across them, and (not so subtly) requested some of her own.  Even Eli was happy to make some because it meant he got to paint!

To start with you need an egg carton. Cut the top off the bottom. Then cut the top in two pieces and the bottom into sections of two to make eyes. When Cutting the eyes be sure to include the pointy section between the egg spaces to make the beak!  You can also vary the angle of your scissors to give them slightly different look. We made 4 owls, so we used two egg cartons.

Next you need to paint your egg cartons. We chose to go with whatever colors the kids wanted rather then sticking to fall colors. Eli enjoyed painting on the table too. 

Once they are dry you can glue on some feathers and glue your eye sockets on. Then add some eyes. We went with large googly eyes because they were most owl like. And here are our finished owls (I made one too just because we had the supplies). We delivered them that night, and I think their auntie was quite pleased!

Wild at the Zoo Review and Giveaway

When we were given the chance to review the Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack by KidQuest Adventures, I was thrilled (we were given a copy in exchange for our honest review). It is no secret how much I love animals, and my kids are pretty fond of them too. This gave us another reason to go to the zoo!

At first glance, I was impressed by the amount of information covered, and how nicely it all flowed. I was also concerned my girls may be a little young for some of it,  but I was really surprised by how much they took in, especially the 4 year old!

The Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack is divided into three parts: things to cover before your trip, activities to do at the zoo, and follow up activities. 

The section you cover before your trip goes over some basic classification of animals as well as specialized terms for what they eat. The classification part sunk in pretty well, but the more specialized terms for what they ate kind of went in one ear and out the other at their ages. At least they have heard the word, so it isn't completely foreign when they hear it again.

The next section contains some fun activities you can do at the zoo.  I actually looked through the activities ahead of time, so we could cover the information,  but we did not fill them out at the zoo for a couple reasons: the zoo was extremely busy and it kept sprinkling on us. Other then the general classification of the animals, they really enjoyed looking at the conservation status (endangered, threaten, etc) of the animals. The Wild at the Zoo pack also covered various people of the zoo. So anytime we saw a docent or a zoo keeper I made sure to point them out too!

Since we had spent the time covering the information at the zoo we were able to go back and easily fill out some of the at the zoo activities. It would have been a lot of fun to play the location bingo, but that is one things we did not get a chance to do this visit.  It would definitely be great with older kids (or maybe just without an extremely active toddler).

The Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack was definitely a fun way to introduce some animal facts to my kids, and I am sure we will repeat it! This will allow my kids to learn each time we go to the zoo while still having fun! Even after this first experience I know they have internalized some of it since a couple weeks later at the Indianapolis Zoo my 4 year old yells out "Look warthogs are mammals!" 

The one thing I did notice that could cause some problems with the at the zoo activity is that some of the information given on zoo signs was incomplete. At least at the St Louis Zoo, where we were, we noticed that some of the current signs only gave the animals name while others gave all the information needed to complete the packet.  All the information is easily found through Google though!

This packet contains a ton of information which is wonderful, but also a lot for little ones to take in. If you frequent the zoo it would be easy to add a little each time to master the material.  We are a few hours from a zoo, but I still plan on repeating it when we get the chance! There is definitely something for every age!

You can purchase the Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack (includes the download of the student workbook as well as the parent/ teacher guide) HERE! It is normally $9.00, but currently 50% off! This would be great for one last trip to the zoo before it gets cold!

The wonderful creators have also given me the opportunity to provide a copy to one of my readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Animal Learning Games

We found some fun ways to practice sorting and identifying animals including a fun little "Guess Who" game! Head over to Gummylump to read all about them!

Milking "Cows"

The second activity we did to go along with How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World was to milk cows (our first was Collecting Salt from Salt Water). No we don't have dairy cows or even know anyone who does, so we had to make some cows.

I started with some latex gloves (with the thumb taped down) and filled them with a very diluted solution of white paint.

I then hung them under a folding table with a bowl underneath. Using a needle I made small holes in the fingertips of the glove; I tried to swirl the needle around a little to make the holes a bit bigger but not so big the water just flows out.

 Then I showed the girls how to milk their cow by squeezing and pulling on each glove finger. They really enjoyed this and went through a few gloves each before we decided to stop and measure the amount of milk we got.

Once they we're finished I had them each poor their milk into a measuring cup and read me how much they had.  This was good practice in reading measurements for them. Too bad it wasn't real milk, so we could make our own butter again (Kid-Made Butter)!

K is for Kennel Worker

Our second Community Helper for K is Kennel Worker. This is a job I know well since it is the first job I had at a vet clinic. It is an overlooked job that I would say most people would not want! Luckily I was able to make it fun for the girls. We talked about what animals (dogs in particular) needed; they need food, water, exercise, and love.  I provided the girls with 5 different sized stuffed dogs, 5 different sized boxes (for cages), and an assortment of dishes for food and water.

The first thing the girls had to do was find an appropriately sized cage for each dog. This meant they had to order the dogs biggest to smallest and place them in the correctly sized box. I also reminded them how they needed to handle the dogs. Although these were stuffed, I tried to make sure they were carried nicely rather then by an ear or a tail!

Then they got to feed them (we used dried oatmeal to represent food) and water them. This required pouring the oatmeal and water and using the right sized dishes to fit in the cages.

I found a couple leashes and let them walk the dogs. After all dogs need to go outside for exercise and to potty!

They continued walking, feeding, and watering the dogs for over an hour, I actually had to stop them, so we could make it to gymnastics! 

What Made that Print?

The girls, Bria especially, have always been very intrigued by footprints.  Recently we came across some deer prints on the beach and on a separate occasion some paw prints, and of course they made their own footprints.

So I dug through all the girls little animals for some with feet that were slightly different shapes.  Then out came the play dough.  We hadn't had it out in a while, so I didn't realize it was all mixed and almost dried out.  Oops! We were still able to make a few tracks.

We even got some cars involved!

 We may have to revisit this activity after getting some more play dough!