The Pinay Homeschooler

Still Life 101 ~ Apples

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

We haven’t done any painting activities for quite a while now. So I was inspired when I came across this blog of an art teacher. This site is full of wonderful art projects for little ones and are so easy to emulate. And I said to myself that we have to try her works!

We started with Still Life. As inspired by one of her art projects for kindergartens, I salvaged some of the apples from the fridge and use it as our subject. Please excuse some of the stains in the mat and plate, prior to this, my son has been playing with them LOL. So by the time I took the photo, one apple has a bite mark, the paper plate has Nutella on the side and the mat has some orange watercolor stains.

To start with, I created the outlines using a drafting compass. Using a plastic spoon, we swirled (circular motion) the red tempera paint on each smaller circles. Then we let it dry for about 3-4 hrs.

When it was ready, I let him trace the outline of the apples and plate using a black permanent pen. Then he added details for the apples as well.

We completed the work by applying green watercolors on the background and yellow on the plate.

And here’s the finish product. Tada! He loved his work so much that he placed this in our hallway (his gallery LOL). I am amazed on how he can finally follow instructions with regards to painting and enjoy the activity as well. He told me we should paint the muffins next :)

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
Preschool Corner
TGIF Linky Party
Hip Homeschool Hop
Teach Beside Me

Homemade Dinosaur Fossils

Monday, February 25, 2013

These homemade fossils were a huge hit!! A wonderful way to experience first hand how dinosaur fossils actually look like even if they’re just pretend. It’s the best way to teach little kiddos how fossils were formed and how dinosaurs were dug by scientists.

Recipe for my fossil dough:

1. Make a 3/4 cup instant coffee (need not to be hot).

2. 1 and a half cup of flour

3. Half cup of salt

Mix everything, just like how you do with play dough.

Press press press those dino figures in the dough :)

Bake the dough (after pressing the dino in the dough) at 180C for 30-35mins.

Linking to:

Continent ~ Africa [3] (Flags and Landmarks with Printable)

Friday, February 22, 2013

The last part of our Africa unit is learning about countries of Africa, the flags and famous landmarks. Our map works can be found here and animal studies on this link.

NOTE: All the flag cards used in this activity can be accessed from my Flags of Africa file. It contains the pin flags, nomenclature cards, flag cards for matching with landmarks and matching cards of country and capital for a price of 0.99cents (USD) only.

We started with pin flags.

Followed by 3 part cards of Flags of Africa.

We worked on the landmarks and match the country flag of its location.

I have a set of African Landmarks available for only 0.99cents (USD) and you can download it from here. It contains 29 landmarks around Africa and includes a title card as well.

We also checked the landmarks in YouTube to see the ‘real thing’.

Matching country flag, name and capital was a little bit advanced so I selected a few of his favorite countries and worked on the matching activity.

Flaglets using art papers.

Map works and landmarks again, this time locating the landmarks in the Africa map.

And that concludes our Continent Study of Africa, and we’ll revisit this once again next year! Hoping that I was able to share something significant that could add up to your activities in the future.

Linking to:

Washing Dishes

Thursday, February 21, 2013

I let him wash the plastic dishes. It’s not that I asked him to, it’s just that everytime he sees me working… he would say “Mom, can I help?” Because at the moment he loves to offer a helping hand and enjoys responsibilities I am grabbing the opportunity to teach him how to “work” on some simple things around the house.

And yes, I don’t stack plastic dishes in the dishwasher anymore :)

Do you let your kids work or help as well?

Continent ~ Africa [2]

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

We also worked on animal skin prints. It was fortunate that I couldn’t find printable skin prints that we could work on, and it resulted to an even more exciting activity: we made the skin prints all by ourselves!

I gathered a few African animal figures with interesting skins and we draw the skin print of each. As seen here, we’re doing the Hyena’s spotty skin.

And the zebra as well.

Then we check out the books I borrowed from our library. We discuss the culture, traditions and lifestyle of African people using the images in the book. Such as seen below, most women are wearing bead necklaces.

He was amazed of this wooden scooter!

We also worked on African animals using our animal figures and the cards which I got from Montessori Print Shop.

Books I got from the library. We were able to learn how to count in Swahili using one of the books below.

Linking to:

Continent – Africa [1] (Map Works)

Monday, February 18, 2013

As promised, I’d like to share how we go about our Continent study of Africa. The first part is all about maps.

Map of Africa DIY Puzzle

Since I don’t own a Puzzle Map of Africa, I decided to make my own out of papers :). I printed two copies of the African map in a cardstock. One copy for the control and the other one is for the puzzle. I colored the countries using crayons (or you can use colored pens) then cut it in different shapes.

He immediately spot Madagascar (his favorite African country LOL).

And finished the rest all by himself with a little assistance from me.

He loooved this activity! He enjoyed working map puzzle and it was a big hit! I will definitely do the same with the other continents!

And of course, he couldn’t resist putting the African animals on the map :) It’s just cute how he placed the dinosaur in the water. He said that they’re long dead now so they belong in the deep ocean.