ofamily learning together

Male and Female animal folder

Posted on November 14, 2015 by ofamily

Our latest folder is this Male and Female animal name folder using the lovely cards from Twinkl. My kids really loved the Animal and their Young folder so I wanted to try to build on that interest. The Animal and their young folder was such a hit that it is now permanently upstairs in the kid’s bedroom as the kids are constantly using it to “teach ” their toys.

The Male and Female cards that I used are part of the platinum package from Twinkl.

I started off my sticking all the female animal name cards onto the folder.

Then I stuck the male card on top using some sticky tape. I only stuck it on the left side so that the kids could open it up and see the matching male and female animals cards.

Very easy, just some cutting and sticking and it is all complete. Quick and easy to put together.

And the kids ? My daughter started looking at the folder first and straight away called her younger brother over.

The only downside is it prompted them asking me a bunch of questions about other animals which I could not answer. But that is what the internet is for and we all ended up learning a few new words.

Posted in Folders /Lapbooks | Tagged Folders, home ed, homeschooling, Male and female animal words, Twinkl | Leave a comment

Hama Bead Christmas Tree decorations

Posted on November 7, 2015 by ofamily

Yes we have actually started making Christmas tree decorations. It was not planned by me but my daughter asked for some new Hama Bead patterns to follow and she choose two Christmas themed patterns from the Activity Village website. Activity village have a large selection of Hama Bead patterns (they call them fusion beads) which you can download and print for free. My daughter loves copying the patterns, and I think it is a great activity for her as she has to work out the patterns herself. We leave our Hama bead boards on a tray as the kids will often complete a pattern over more than one sitting.

Here are the two patterns that she selected.

Activity Village link – The Christmas tree Hama Bead pattern

Activity Village link – The Christmas Stocking Hama Bead Pattern

We decided to leave a small gap to at the top of each picture so that we could attach some string and hang them on our Christmas tree (and No we do not have a Christmas tree up yet – forward planning !!). I ironed them on both sides to make sure the beads had melted nicely and then we tied some craft string through the hole at the top of each decoration.

I wanted to see how they would hang and since our Christmas tree is not out yet we tested them on a door handle.

I think they are a great addition to our home-made Christmas tree decorations and I am already looking forward to seeing them hanging on the tree.

The Hama Bead booard that we used is the Large Midi Square – Large White Square Pegboard (Midi) and the bead were from a set of bright colours (also the Ikea tub of coloured beads would work well for these patterns).

UPDATE – when I initially wrote this post the Hama Bead patterns that we used were free to download but the Activity Village website has since changed and the pages can now only be downloaded if you are a member.

I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same.

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's craft, Christmas ideas, Fusion beads, Hama Bead Christmas decorations, Hama beads | 2 Comments

Large African Animal picture by kids

Posted on November 4, 2015 by ofamily

My daughter loves painting colouring pages. She likes using “simpler ” colouring pages so she can add different colours for details and shadows. Often the pages end up having an abstract feeling about them but recently she did a number of african animal pages that looked really good.

She is slowly getting the hang of her shading, although we do still get a number of pictures that do not turn out like she would like them to. With my daughter I have often found that if I physically do something with her it really helps. So we ended up doing the Rhino together, she really enjoyed it and afterwards tried really hard to do apply the shading to her elephant, although she did complain that the pattern of the giraffe made it very hard to shade.

With our african animal pictures I thought it might be fun to use them to create an extra-large african scene. So I cut them out for her (she was very scared that she would ruin her pictures by cutting them out so I did it for her).

I unrolled a large piece of paper on our kitchen table and the kids painted an African background. My daughter did draw some clouds on the paper which were suppose to be left blank but little brother got a bit carried away with painting the sky blue (she did not really mind as she loves it when he joins in with an activity that she is doing).

And then they had a lot of laughs trying to decide which animals should go where. The final picture looked like this

I love the end result.

The colouring pages that we used are all Free to download from Activity village. Here are the links.

They have lots of other great African animal colouring pages that you could also use.

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged africa, african animals, children's art, children's craft, free printables, home ed, homeschooling | 1 Comment

Animals and their Young folder

Posted on October 31, 2015 by ofamily

The kids are loving their folders so I thought we would make a new one. This one is aimed at my youngest with the thought that his big sister would enjoy reading the names to him (she loves reading to him and helping him recognise letters and sounds).

We used the FREE to download Animal and Their Young matching cards from Twinkl. (In order to download the Free resources from the Twinkl website you do need to set up a Free account).

I started by glueing the animal young cards on the folder cover and the inside of the folder.

Then I only glued the top section of the animal parent card and stuck it on top of their corresponding baby card so that it made a flap.

The end result – the cover of the folder looks like this.

And the inside

And the kids ? Well I found them sitting in their bedroom looking at the folder together. My son was saying what he thought the animal babies are called and his sister was helping him when he got stuck. And bonus for my son, he was able to read a few of the simple words himself – very proud moment !!

Another simple folder that appears te be a hit with the kids.

As with most of our home-made folders we used the A4 card wallets as our base to work on – I just find it easier to start with something and then cut along the sides so that it opens up – these are the ones that we used Forever A4 Half Flap Rigid Card Document Wallets Assorted Colours – Pack of 5

I have included an Affiliate link. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we own and use.

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Posted in Folders /Lapbooks | Tagged animal babies, Animals and their young, Folders, free printables, home ed, homeschooling, Lapbooks, Twinkl | 1 Comment

Firework pictures

Posted on October 27, 2015 by ofamily

We have been talking a lot about fireworks at the moment, mainly because my daughter hates the noise and because it is the season for fireworks so I am trying to prepare her a bit. I have been trying to emphasise that there is a fun side to fireworks – they way they light up the sky with pretty colours. So I thought it might be fun to do some firework pictures with her.

I had spotted the stunning Firework colouring pages on Twinkl (platinum) a while ago and had actually printed them out so I thought this was a good excuse to use them. Twinkl also have some lovely free firework pictures which you could use – Firework / bonfire night pictures. My daughter had already asked if we could use glitter for our fireworks so I suggested that she first colour in the pictures so that the glitter stands out. We used our favourite STABILO 3-in-1 pencils dipped in some water to get our lovely painting effect.

We let our pictures dry and then added our glitter. I find it easier to use a tray when the kids work with glitter, that way most of the excess glitter ends up contained on the tray and it is a lot easier to tidy up afterwards. (The kids actually pour the excess glitter from the tray into small cups and then reuse the glitter from the small cups.)

And some of her end results.

My daughter also had a go at tracing over some of the firework pictures on our sliding doors (again using her STABILO 3-in-1 pencils as they wipe off perfectly afterwards).

Now I am thinking we should also make some firework biscuits, or maybe some firework cupcakes (yum).

In case you have missed my earlier posts about the STABILO 3-in-1 pencils, we also use ours on laminated pages here is a post – Using STABILO 3-in-1 pencils on laminated pages

The STABILO 3-in-1 pencils come in a number of different packs. The large box of 18 pencils , pack of 10 and you can also get the a pack of 6. My favourite is the box of 18, which is expensive, I know, but you do get a wide range of colours and there really are lots of great ways of using them.

I have included affiliate links in the post. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will be the same.