Habitat Game

 

We recently borrowed a video on habitats from the library.  It was really well made, upbeat and engaging and there were even little quizzes after each segment which L enjoyed.  It gave me the idea to make this habitat game.

Such a simple concept but really effective in learning about and discussing different habitats.  I used five different coloured pieces of card stock to make the habitats and then put labels on them.  I printed out different animals from Google images for each habitat onto card stock.

 

I made up a bunch of different cards which say things like:

 

Place an animal in the tundra habitat

Place an animal in its habitat

Which is the only continent that doesn't have a grassland habitat?

What are two types of water habitat?

 

It's a fun way to learn and talk about different characteristics of habitats and their inhabitants.

 



The Solar System Part 2

Here are some more of our Solar System activities.

This was another "try it" from the book Starting With Space: The Planets by Cynthia Pratt Nicolson.  The purpose of this "try it" is to see how the clouds of Jupiter are constantly moving, swirling and changing. 

To create your clouds you need to put 1 cup of milk into a pie plate or something similar.  Then add two drops of yellow food coloring on one half of the plate and two drops of red on the other half.  Then add a drop of dish detergent to each of the drops. 

 Gently swirl and you get a wonderful effect!  L loved this experiment and was busy swirling and watching for ages.  Once everything was totally blended together she wanted to try it again.

Another activity that was fun and also had so many educational elements is the Planets Winding Word Puzzle. You have to follow the directions to find words that make up a clue about one of the planets.  It covers reading, writing, following directions, left and right as well as questions on the planets. This is from my new favourite blog Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational.  This blog totally rocks and has so many super cool activities that are right about L's level. 

I think this next activity was L's favourite.  Pin the sun on the solar system!  I found the page here that L colored and then cut out the planets.  I used a compass to draw the white circles on black construction paper, added the planets and then we took turns using the blind fold and trying to place the sun in the centre.

Games and Activities

 Since L is now at Montessori school and I am working part time we don't do many specific Montessori activities at home any more.

We do however play lots and lots of games.  Some L does on her own and others we do together.

Mighty Minds.  L has been doing these since she was very young and has progressed to the hardest cards in the set now.  The beginning cards show you what pieces are needed while the harder ones leave it up to the child to decide.

 Sight word memory game.  I write the sight words we are working on at the time on card stock and we play memory together.

 L has never really been a big fan of creating on her own with blocks.  Instead we play a game where we each take turns building a simple tower and then the other person has to try an copy it.  She LOVES this game and it usually leads to "free building" after a few turns.

We've also been talking a lot about odd and even and greater than and less than.  I put different items on a tray for her and let her decide which were more.  She then decided if the amount was odd or even.

 We've followed up this concept with a cute little penguin card game where who ever has the greater amount of penguins on their card gets to keep both cards. 

This is our newest game which is so cool.  It comes with tons of little wooden circles and this balancing tree frame.  Each person rolls the die and then places that color on one of the platforms.  It gets trickier and trickier the longer we play.

For those of you who asked about the game I'm afraid I got it at a local market.  Not sure if they are for sale anywhere else.

What are your child's favourite games?