Crafts: Trains

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Like many other children, our two youngest enjoy Thomas the Tank Engine. We watch the cartoon, read the books, play with the trains and track, enjoy some of the educational apps, and most recently our oldest's V-Smile was set up again so the two youngest could enjoy educational video games like the Thomas and Friends: Engines Working Together game.

To use up some of the scrap construction paper I have been saving, I cut out the shapes for the trains in a variety of colors for this project.

Materials 

• Construction paper 
• Glue sticks
• Scissors 

Steps

1. Gather all your materials. If you wish, your children can help cut out the shapes.

2. Work on one part of the train at a time. We started with the passenger train.

3. Passenger Train: Glue onto the large rectangle the squares (windows) and then the wheels (circles).

4. Engine: Glue on to the L-shaped piece, the rectangle for the door. 

5. Engine: Glue on the square onto the door for the window. 

6. Engine: Glue on the wheels (circles). 

7. Engine: Glue on the pilot (triangle, also known as the "cow catcher") onto the front of the engine. 

8. Engine: Glue on the trapezoid (over top of the door), the small rectangles for the funnel, and the small circle for the light. 

9. We needed to glue our train engine onto a separate piece of construction paper so we could connect all the pieces. We then taped our passenger train to our engine. 

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Z is for Zoo (Blogging through the Alphabet)

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Among the many memorable experiences of my life, probably one that impacted me the greatest, was my time working in the education department of our local zoo. I volunteered for several years with summer camps before turning 16 and becoming a paid camp counselor. I then taught summer camp, workshops, outreach programs, in-zoo lessons, and more for over ten years.

As my mom started working at the zoo when I was young, I also had many experiences and memories from the years prior to working at the zoo myself. I had many wonderful opportunities to meet animals up-close and feed them because of many great keepers.

Another exciting memory was seeing an Asian elephant create art first hand. The keepers provide a variety of different enrichment activities for the animals from simply hiding food in the exhibits to working with different animals and 'teaching' them to paint. One of the coolest experiences was getting to see the elephants paint. I received an elephant art for one birthday. Later, when I was leaving the zoo to start my job as a high school history teacher, I was also gifted another piece of art - created by one of the snakes in the education department.

There are so many ways that one can work with animals - more than just being a veterinarian or zoo keeper. But those are great careers to start studying if a child is interested in animals. Just studying animals is an ever better place to begin because there are so many different types of animals! 

Studying Animals

There are so many ways to study the world around us but one of my favorite resources for education has become SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It offers access to over 450 self-paced, homeschooling online courses, when you become a member. There are no books to buy. All the children in your family have access to courses that might further their interest in animals and zoology with one membership. Older children – middle school age and up – can take the Animal Science Course or even learn about Marine Biology.

In the Animal Science Course, there are twenty-seven weekly lessons that include the study of animal classification, digestive systems, reproduction, human responsibility towards animals, and preventative care in domestic animals.

If your children are elementary age or younger, there are plenty of opportunities to learn about animals from SchoolhouseTeachers.com, too. Elementary aged children could take A World of Animals which teaches them how animals are classified, what they like to eat, whether animals are endangered or not, and even how to care for possible pets.  Younger children have access to a variety of books through World Book Online such as Forest Friends and a World of Birds.

If you are hunting for lessons grounded in Christian values and designed to support a self-paced education for your children, then this is the perfect time to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com. 

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Wordless Wednesday: Spring

My stepson has taken up photography as a hobby after being left a camera by a family member. These are some of his photographs - alas from Spring 2017. 

I linked up with the following blog(s): 

A Mama's Corner of the World 

NanaHood 

Learning about the Alphabet: F is for Fire Safety

Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.  

For the letter F, we focused upon Fire Safety.

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Coloring Pages 

Mom Junction's Firefighter Coloring Pages 
There is a collection of pages that one can print for their children to color in firefighters, fire trucks, and more.

Projects 

Fireman Hand Print Craft 

Tots and Me...Growing Up Together featured this cute hand print craft on their blog for Fire Prevention Week. I have seen multiple versions of it on Pinterest and the Internet but I really like seeing the process with step-by-step photographs.

From Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

My Mommy Style's Letter of the Day: F is for Fire
This is a simple craft that only requires glue, construction paper, a pencil, and tissue paper. I love it!

Books 

Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill 

 

This book addresses many fire safety tips and introduces different facts about a variety of animals. Our children made several flamingo crafts to accompany the book.

Here are some other children's books about fire safety for you to check out!

Featured Shape

Construction Paper Shape Firetruck 

Tots and Me...Growing Up Together offers a perfect craft for your children to learn about different shapes while talking about fire safety and firetrucks. What I also like about this craft is that for older children you can have them work on measuring and cutting skills to prepare the shapes to build their firetrucks.

Activities

Fire Safety Plan 

We have set a plan in place for where to meet in case we ever need to evacuate our home due to an emergency. This is a simple activity to practice together with your family.

Fire Safety Tips 

Go over with your children the different home fire prevention tips and practices. Have your children help test smoke alarms, make sure lighters and matches are out of the reach of your children, and practice "stop, drop, and roll" with your children.

Take a look at the following sites for some tips and ideas to share with your family:

National Fire Protection Association Fire Prevention Week
American Red Cross Home Fire Safety

And don't forget to be in touch with your local fire department for additional local resources.

Other Topics

Flowers

Crafts: Spring Flowers
We made beautiful flowers with tissue paper and glue recently.

Crafty Morning's How to Make Paper Tulips - Easy Kids Craft 
I like how simple this craft is - few materials are needed to create this pretty tulip. And you can modify it to make other flowers if you are creative.

The Best Ideas for Kids' Toiler Paper Roll Flowers Craft 
These bright flowers are perfect to decorate for a floral-themed party.

Flamingos 

  

We made these crafts to accompany Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill.

Frogs 

Homeschool Preschool's 19 Fabulous Frog Crafts for Preschoolers 
This round-up has everything from paper plate crafts to food-related crafts to teach your young ones about frogs.

Resources 

Sand In My Toes' Busy Hands: Fire Truck Shape Craft
This offers another option to create using shapes like rectangles and circles.

Royal Baloo's Fire Safety PreK Pack
Offers a variety of worksheets to work on different skills with your toddlers while talking about fire safety.

The Printable Princess' Fire Safety Activities and Centers for Kindergarten
There are many different books, crafts, and ideas offered on this site.

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Crafts: Spring Flowers

Looking to recycle some of that tissue paper you saved from gift bags? I can't be the only person who tries to fold it neatly to reuse for future presents or for crafts, can I?

Our children made these two beautiful flowers with tissue paper, construction paper, and glue.

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Materials 

• Construction paper or drawing paper
• Pencil
• White glue 
• Tissue paper 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials.

2. Draw your flower onto your paper. You can draw it like I did or let your children draw it themselves.

3. After choosing the colors for the project, tear the tissue paper into strips and small pieces. Then crumble it a bit before gluing it to the paper.

4. Fill in all the white spaces with tissue paper to create a beautiful flower. 

OR 

If your children prefer our daughter's picture, you can skip the crumbling step and just glue the pieces of tissue paper onto the drawing paper. 

Will you create your own spring flower craft with your children? If you share a photograph on Instagram, please use the hashtag #momquesttoteach so I can see it! You can also follow me on Instagram (moms_quest_to_teach).

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