Activities for budding Veterinarians

In conjunction with our love and bucket filling activities of the past few weeks we recently did a caring for animals theme.  We set up an animal hospital and took turns being doctors and patients, bandaged paper animals and did a simple matching game.

Animal Hospital Sign

As a team the kids decorated their own sign for the hospital.  I laid out a large piece of paper with crayons and markers and then I added the final touch (which is animals cut out from my old telus calendar).

 

Animal Hospital

This was a lot of fun.  We hung up our sign and everyone was so proud.  Next we set up a few chairs for the waiting room and a small table covered in a sheet with a pile of tools set beside.  Everyone wore one of my collared shirts as their lab jacket.  We then got to work checking out all the animals and applying real band aids where needed.

 

For my girls who can read and write I made pretend forms for the doctors to fill in and a clip board to work on.  Next time I think I will give them a list of medical terms so they can fill the forms properly and of course learn how to spell the words.

 

Bandage Craft

This was lots of fun for the kids and great exercise for their little hands.  I found some animal colouring pages at activity village  and then put some Xs to mark the spot where the bandages were needed, I also gave them tiny stickers to put on the bandages.

 

 

Matching Activity

For this I quickly drew an animal and again marked it with Xs but this time I drew band aids on the surrounding paper and had the kids draw lines to link them.

 

 

Have fun!

Tracks in the snow

Tracks in the snow

Recently we’ve focused on tracks.  Its been so cold here (like -40C) so we’ve been a bit confined to the house, maybe not the best time to be looking for animal tracks but fun none the less.

Child Tracks

To start we made our own tracks.  I set up a sort of foot print making assembly line and had the kids take turns going across it.  I placed a bucket with black paint at the start, followed by a long sheet of paper and then a damp towel at the end for clean up.  The kids had a blast and have asked to repeat the activity since then.  My daycare families really appreciated the finished products as well.

 

Animal tracks in play dough

I made a batch of my usual cooked play dough and left it white to resemble snow.  I then had the children flatten it and make marks with some little toy animals.  What was really cool is that some of the animals actually made accurate tracks.  Once the kids were done exploring the prints they went on to some imaginary play- creating homes for the animals and people, and starting up a bit of a dialogue and story line.

 

 

Matching Game

There are so many great resources on-line and so I searched around and found some animals and their matching prints.  I glued them onto construction paper and shuffled them up creating a matching game.  You could also have the kids make a little book with one or two animals per page.

 

Animal Track Painting

Using the same animals as the above play dough activity we made paint prints.  I set up a tray of paint with the animals and let the children explore.

Nature Walk

The best activity is a walk if the weather permits or you live somewhere that animals cross often.  We have found the usual cat, dog and people tracks so far.

Well it was a pretty fun week spent indoors, hopefully things will warm up soon.    Happy tracking!

Kid Friendly Salad Bar

Salad Bar

Make your own pizza has been a very popular meal in my home for years but when my youngest decided she isn’t so into pizza anymore I had to come up with another plan… Kid friendly salad bar!!

Basically you lay out items for a salad and allow the children to dress their greens as they wish.

Ingredients;

Greens -any you have on hand

Proteins- BBQ chicken, variety of nuts and seeds is what we used (any meat, eggs, cheese, beans etc would do and can be switched up each time)

Veggies- cucumbers, celery, onions, carrots, tomatoes, corn, peppers etc.

Fruits-anything your little ones may like i.e.mango, avocado, berries, grapes etc.

Dressings-home made or store bought, my girls love ranch (Renee’s has a nice one), I like balsamic vinegar and oil

The beautiful thing about this meal is that it can be done with little planning and is different every time as the ingredients are based on what you have on hand.  Both of my girls loved it and ate their veggies without a fight, win win situation.

Why not try this with our Fizzy Fruity Drink.

Enjoy!

Four in the bed and the little one said, “time for a sleep over”

For the past week or so we have all had a rough time sleeping.  A heavy schedule and many nighttime interruptions have made for some very tired little and big people around here.  So I decided it was time for another sleepover.  In our house sleep overs with mom (me) are usually saved for nights when my husband will be out late playing a gig but with all the lack of sleep we needed to fit one in.

 

My girls were both co-sleepers when younger and my youngest still joins me in the middle of the night, the eldest sneaks in from time to time.  My husband is not a co-sleeper so by having a sleep over with my girls he gets the bed to himself and the girls and I get a night of cuddling and hopefully no middle of the night interruptions.

 

We usually blow up a double mattress and put it in the girls room for the three of us.  Some nights we will do each others hair or nails, others we will play games and read stories.  This time it was a popcorn and video sleepover.  We all really love these special nights of bonding and cuddling.

 

Good night!!

 

Play date Invitation

With summer coming my girls were a bit concerned about not seeing their friends, so why not send out some open play date invitations. It’s a great way for the kids to maintain their friendships and get some practice writing.

Start by collecting your materials. Whatever paper you have on hand, some stickers/decorations, pencils, markers etc.

My 6 year old is able to write on her own so I provided her with an example letter with our address and phone number and she set straight off.  My 4 year old needed a bit of help with the writing so we worked together, part of the note was written by her and I completed the rest, leaving her to sign her name.

Here are a few of the finished letters.  Happy writing!!