Electricity

We went to a very interesting workshop about electricity this week with our HE friends. The children had the chance to make their own circuits and then completed an experiment about what happened when you made the wires longer. It was the first time Chops had been in a 'classroom' situation with having to put your hand up to answer questions etc and I think he found the idea a bit perplexing! He enjoyed the activities though and I think I'll try to get some of the equipment for him to experiment a but more with it at home.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Finished off the Spring theme this week by looking at the life cycle of a butterfly. We read Very Hungry Caterpillar (a lot), looked in our encyclopaedia and on YouTube.

Over the week we did papier mâché over a balloon to be the cocoon, painted it and then painted a butterfly to go inside. When painting we talked about the colour mixing and also the symmetry of the butterfly's wings.

I'll probably try to find symmetry in one of his workbooks next week to look at it a bit more.

I think we're done for Spring now. It's involved a lot of life cycles - frogs, butterflies, plants, farm animals.

Next subject to be confirmed! Chops picked a few books from the library this week so will see if one of those sparks an interest. Plus there are trips to Spain and London in the not too distant future that we can start preparing for! And the Olympics. I've seen Twinkl have put some Olympics resources up this week so need to have a look at those.

Gears! Gears! Gears!

I'd had my eye on the starter set of this for ages so when I saw it reduced to half price last week I couldn't resist. We've all enjoyed trying it out in different shapes and towers. It's very satisfying seeing how these things work when they all fit together

Spring is springing!

It's been lovely to see so many signs of spring when we've been out and about over the past few days! So much so that I thought it was time to start our Spring display door and take down the winter stuff.

The boys have both made some lovely sticky glittery mothers' day cards for me.

We've spotted lots of buds on trees, nesting birds at the Wildfowl Park and thought about other 'new life'.

This afternoon the Chops made a display of the life cycle of the frog by cutting and sticking the pictures onto a tin foil pond. His scissor skills have improved vastly over the past few weeks. It was really noticeable how much more confident he is now with craft activities. I left it up to him to spot the differences between the stages (legs, tail, live on land) which he did easily and he also worked out the order without a problem. I'm planning to take the boys to the Botanic Gardens in the next few days to see the frogspawn there.

In other news this week, Chops has been reading a lot. Not so much of the ORT but 'proper' books (with help) and a lot of reading signs and packets and adverts when we're out and about. We played a 'stepping stones' game where I wrote a lot of words down and laid them across the 'river'. He then had to read them to get across to the other side away from the Roly monster! It was a very quick, fun way to do some reading practice!

Speaking of the Roly one, he's making more sounds and generally being highly amusing. His face when he does something mischievous is fantastic. Can't wait to see what he's like as he gets older. He scaled the pirate ship at the park this week. I'm sure his older brother was 3 before he even attempted it but Roly was half way up before I could catch up with him!

Kitchen Science

The Chops and I baked some yummy vegan brownies this afternoon. While we were measuring the liquid ingredients he noticed that the oil was floating on top of the water which was odd as he thought it would be heavier.

While they were baking we checked (ah, google how I love thee) and found some good websites about density and how a spoon of oil is lighter than a spoon of water.

Then we got chocolatey and ate brownies. Yum!

Star-gazing

Shared a lovely moment with the Chops this evening. Once Roly was asleep, I put Chops (already in his pjs) onto my back and inside my babywearing coat then we took a walk to see the stars and moon. I'd read that Venus and Jupiter were visible and they were so so clear. Amazing to see and mind-blowing to think of what's up there.

I promised Chops that I'd try to find some worksheets etc on space. Maybe that can be our next project.

Shadow Walk

'Mummy my shadow moves because the sun can't get through my body!'