Feely box- guess the underwater animal

Sometimes the quickest ideas are the ones that bring the most fun and laughter.  That was definitely the case today all we did was make a feely box out of a shoe box and an old pair of Little Boos trousers.

We first of all felt all the underwater toys and made sure Little Boo knew the names for them all.  Luckily we managed to borrow these from the toy library this week and they are really nice toys.

Little Boo starting the game feeling the animals in the box 

Little Boo then started to put the animals in for Mommy to have a go .  She even told me how many animals there were in the box. 

Under the water play dough scene.

Today we made this wonderful under the water scene with play dough.  It was so much fun and what was even better was that Little Boo had loads of suggestions as to what could be under the water.

adding the shells we used our home made play dough for the base.

Putting in the seaweed in Little Boo liked this bit we nearly ended up with a sea full!

Making the first fish

The octopus 

Making a treasure chest as requested by Little Boo 

Inspiration for this was from sharing a shell. Little Boo loves that book 

Making the crab that goes "pinch, pinch" says Little Boo

I think the little crab is so cute

The finished creation. 

Some animal apps!

OK so here is where I confess that I do love technology.  I realise that the use of ipads and iphones with children is quite a controversial some people love the idea some people hate it.  I found this article online  which suggests that if the technology is used correctly for example with an adult facilitating the app then it can be beneficial and add to talk time with younger children.  I use my ipad/iphone in this manner very often me and Little Boo will sit down and play with them together. Often we have quite a giggle! So today I share with you our top animal apps all downloaded yesterday for FREE. 


Make a Scene Farmyard
This is great you can make your own farmyard scene.  Little Boo especially liked the farmers wife as she says "Hello my dears".  We had a giggle about that.  It also encourages counting as I asked Little Boo to count out the animals as she was placing them onto the screen.  This would also be a great way to make your own story!

This was the finished masterpiece! that was emailed to Nanny

Find Them all looking for animals 

This is a great app you have to find the animals that are on the farm.  Some are quite difficult to spot though but they make noises and the nearer you get to them the louder they get.  The mouse was quite difficult to find.  Once you have found so many animals you win a camera and can take photographs.  After 12 animals are found night time comes and the animals have to be found before it goes dark, Little Boo found this good and was rushing to find them "before it went to dark".  The farm world is free but other worlds are £1.49 each.  We are happy with just keeping the free one for now though.  


Make an Animal

Please do not let the image put you off this is so funny as you can  make your own animals up. This is a simple tap of the correct part that you want to change.  They can then be emailed to you once completed.  A great way I think to make some characters for story telling! Little Boo liked it and it got her talking about the different animals "that is the pigs nose".




Animal Zoo 

This is an interactive flash card app with 40 wonderful animal noises.  We used this to play the guess the animal game.  We took it in turns to hold the i pad and pressed the noise whilst the other had to guess what animal it was.  




Animal Zoo Puzzle 

There are 8 drag and drop puzzles in this app.  After placing the pieces into the correct shape you are told the animals name and it is then spelt out.  Little Boo liked this as it was like "stickers" at first she was a bit frustrated that the app slowed down the drag and drop process by telling you the name of the animals but after a while she started to repeat back the animal name and the letters.

Animal Find 

This is a simple app we used it on the tik tok mode where you are given a set amount of time to find the animals.  An animal is said then Little Boo had to find the animal in the grid.  The grid is never full and only displayed about six animals at a time.  The only concern was that some of the animal images were difficult for her to distinguish. 



Animals I spy Junior 

Another drag and drop activity there are seven scenes where Little Boo dragged and dropped the different animals into the correct shapes.  The only problem is that the animals were floating all about the screen not in a designated area.  Often this made the animals themselves difficult to spot. Once all the animals are placed in the correct areas Little Boo then had to answer questions such as "Find the pig" she then tapped on the pig and once all the questions were asked was awarded a gold, silver or bronze star.   

Animal pairs 

We used this on easy mode and took it in turns to try and match the cards.  A very simple idea and Little Boo enjoyed trying to win! Can be used in more difficult modes for older children as well or as the child progresses. 

Squiggles

I admit that I also love this app myself it is really good fun Little Boo had to draw loads of things including making squiggles for  the sheep's wool.  After this has been done you press go and the image is animated. 

Well I hope that you like this post love it or hate it let me know.  I would like to share more apps with you in the future and possibly e books that we have found for free thanks to No Twiddle Twaddle blog.  I will keep checking the comments as this will hopefully give me an indication of whether readers have enjoyed this. 

Music about animals and noisy balloons.

Today we listened to some music and made our own instruments out of balloons!   The balloons were filled with various different items that made them noisy.  These included water, rice, cous cous, pasta and spaghetti.  It was great fun and very noisy in the house as Little Boo has found the dial to turn  the music up.  We have a CD which I recently brought this has some great tracks on it our favourites are In the Pink and Down in the Jungle. However you do not need to buy CD with the internet now it is easy to get music.


Some animal music that we found on line

Walking through the jungle- Makaton signed version
Five Monkeys jumping on the bed
The Jungle song  this is so funny the video had me and Little Boo laughing the Little dog is so funny!
Bare Necessities 
Elephant march Jungle Book 
These are the sounds the animals make 
The animal Boogie - great video.
Animal sound with questions

Loads of shaking going on and kicking! Little Boo was even able to guess what was in the balloons. 

Hope that you enjoy sharing this.  Sorry that it will not be a quiet activity but it will be good fun!

The felt farm

I love exploring with felt and have recently made a wonderful discovery! that t-shirt transfer works to transfer images onto white felt. Due to our theme of animals I decided to make Little Boo a Felt Farm.  Here is how it went.

I printed images of the farm animals and people on to the transfer paper, do not forget images need to be mirrored when printing so when completed they are the correct way around. These images were from  Twinkl and Dltk

Cut out  images and place face down on the felt.  It was important this was white as the transfer paper I had was for light fabrics. Please be careful when ironing place a t-towel over the felt and pieces and keep rotating the iron.  Mine needed ironing for quite a long time.  Do not use steam. 

The completed piece.  I also made, the sun, house, gate and had the tractor from a cheap felt set I had brought. 

Little Boo playing with her new felt farm. 

Putting the ducks in the pond 

It was great fun playing with this and got Little Boo thinking she started making up little stories about the farm and setting the scene with the felt pieces.  This also encouraged counting as I asked questions such as "how many ducks are there?"

Making animal tracks

Today we have looked at animal tracks I saw these shoes on-line and thought how can these be modified to a  "make your own" for a painting situation.  We were sitting having breakfast when Little Boos Wellies were looking at me and I had a moment of inspiration.  After all they are washable so no worries even if they do get covered in paint.  They are also (I think) a safer option than flip flops. 

The animal track that I used for this creation is a bear as I thought the print was interesting the tracks were found on-line. I just re sized the image by cropping it on Microsoft word then dragging out the image to increase the size.  I used an empty box to make the tracks but made the actual track prints thick by using two layers of card.  

Wellies with the cardboard elastic bands used to keep the card on 

Only a thin layer of paint is needed. 

Then the fun began.....

I held Little Boos hand while she stepped into the paint. 

Then it was track making time. 

Some of the tracks turned out well it all depended on how she walked.  You have to really pick up your feet.

"Look Mommy the cows footprints"

Time for the elephant 

Not happy with just making the animals prints she wanted to make her own :)

We noticed that with a thick layer of paint the animals make tracks in this as well

It was really funny as after all this fun I thought what better way to end the painting than by giving the animals a bath.  After all they needed a clean they were covered in paint! Nanny has recently been away for the weekend and knowing that Little Boo LOVES playing with little bottles of shower gel to wash her dolly's, brought all her hotel goodies back she was over the moon! hence the bag next to the bath with the hotel shampoos and shower gels in. The animals even got some lovely body cream on them afterwards.

I have also made some animal track rubbings made the same way as in my previous post.  The animal prints were found at nature detectives.  I just printed them out and stuck them on card (empty box).  Then did the same as before.  Unfortunately they did not turn out as good as I wanted them to but Little Boo was still impressed with them.  

Animal tracks rubbings 

20 great animal books fact, fiction and sticker

I LOVE reading books to Little Boo (think that you may have noticed by now).  So today I have decided to look at our top 20 animal books as this week we are looking at the theme of animals I thought this would be appropriate. 

I have split the books into three sections of fiction, fact and sticker books as I feel there is a benefit to each area.  I confess that it was not up until a few months back after reading a book about reading to children that I even considered factual books for a child of Little Boos age. However this book really promoted the reading of factual books to children and I have been really pleased with the benefits.  

The benefits of reading Factual books 

• Books can be picked on the child's interests, (last week Little Boo decided on the post deliverer) 
• Makes books less overwhelming as they do not need to be read in order but can be dipped into and out of and sections the child likes can be discussed.
• Improves vocabulary the words that are written in a factual book are often different to fiction as the text is written to inform.  
• Answers children's questions very often children start the "why" stage using factual books can feed their curious nature. 
• Teaches children to read for meaning from a young age especially if you ask simple questions about what has been explored.  

Factual Books

The factual books that are available now for children are fantastic here are the ones that we like. These are fantastic as you can select the areas that you want to read.

This one is great as the pages flap out to
 be massive life size images
 it is just unfortunate that
 they did not consider
 making the pages with thicker paper as it
could be easily ripped. 

This book is really big and has loads of interactive sections
like lifting flaps to reveal other animals or pulling the tabs. 

Little Boo using the wheel to change the colour
of the Toucans beak

Moving the tab to reveal the baby Joey. 

A book  that talks about opposites strongest and weakest animals 

This book is wonderful just to read little sections

A really lovely illustrated book

Fiction Books

The quiet lady bird saves the prize cow from the nasty thieves.  We always try to spot the lady bird on each page and especially like the glitter!

Handa has some fruit for her friend Akeyo however on the way  different animals take the fruits. Also a good book to learn numbers .

The animals decide to have a beauty contest before the zoo opens. 

As you know from the previous post we love this book. 

I know the words to this.  Little
Boo always asks for this book all
about a Little Monkey who has lost his Mom.

A very funny story where they go shopping but wild animals are on the shopping list 

All about animals in the Jungle a great rhyming book. 

A funny book where you need to guess the animals
in fancy dress

A different animal for each letter is explored and accompanied by a poem about the animal 

Going on a safari and spotting different animals 

The sections that are feely

A very funny story about a giraffe who learns to dance.

Sticker Books 

This is expensive for a sticker
book but it is really nice loads
of different stickers and scenes.