We watched a lovely documentary about Petra. It talked about how it was made (perhaps), the type and number of people who may have lived there, what it may have been used for, why it was deserted, etc. We were inspired after to build our own Petra! This Petra is complete with tourists, archeologists, angel statues, and treasure!
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Most of the things we've done in the past week or two have been 'intangible'. In other words, not really picture worthy! :) Andrew is BIG into severe weather and maps. So, we've been watching documentaries on severe weather: tornadoes (or tomatoes, as Peter calls them), hurricanes, blizzards, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. We've also been focusing on animals of all the different continents and we've started learning the countries of South America. So far, we've learned about Brazil, Chile and Peru. But Andrew's favorite, by far, is 'Tornado Alley', which includes Texas. He thinks that is the coolest place ever (even though he NEVER wants to go there--his words)! Normally, he has me draw Texas (or other places) so he can decorate with tornadoes and houses, etc. Today, however, I gave him a book called Super Storms which has a map of the US with the hotspots for tornadoes. He discovered which was Texas, and decided to draw it by looking at it!! I am impressed! He did a fantastic job! I believe we have a budding artist! My mom would be proud! :) The best, though, is that he is doing some pretty advanced (for his age) art, along with learning the geography of the US and some weather science! Cool. How many 5 year olds can look at a tornado and tell you, 'That looks like an F4 tornado!'? Imaginative play is a super important part of toddler life! We love it here! The boys wanted to go camping, so we did! We set up blankets, pillows, 'friends' (stuffed animals), a tent, books, and I even made a camp fire! I took some building blocks and taped strategically cut orange paper on it to make it look like flames. They were very pleased and even spent a lot of time 'cooking' food over it! They put play food on giant wooden spoons and roasted it over the 'flames'. Andrew told us ghost stories, too. A great afternoon! After our exciting Palm Sunday adventures, we decided to learn a little more about birch and willow trees. We learned that the little buds are not leaves, but seeds. We painted pictures of them. Brown stems with paintbrushes, then the pods with fingers, and then, since it was actually snowing outside, we added snow by dipping a brush in white paint and flipping the paint all over the picture. We had a great time using different methods of painting! There is a tradition here in Finland on Palm Sunday to decorate branches of birch/willow trees with feathers and stuff, dress up like witches and wizards, go to people's houses, recite a poem, and get some candy! Sort of like trick or treating. We decorated our sticks and went out and enjoyed a great day of Finnish culture! :) What is the weather like today? We colored 6 different weather types, cut them out, laminated them, and used them for a memory/concentration game. Then I posted it on our calendar wall and we talk about the weather every day! Luckily, the template I used just happened to have a tornado on it, so the boys were happy! We've been learning a bit how rainbows are created. So today, we made a rainbow mobile to illustrate how it's done! First, the rain comes (umbrella), then the sun comes out, and it makes a rainbow! With the rainbows, we only used the 3 primary colors and mixed the lines together to make the rainbows 'pretty'. A fun painting day, and a great way to teach a scientific aspect. |
AndrewMr. Sparkle is full of adventure and fun and love for everyone! :) Archives
January 2019
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