Toddler Theme: Tropical

I credit my mother for instilling such a strong desire to learn within me at a very young age.  That desire has fueled me well beyond my school years and even inspired these toddler theme weeks.   I can only hope that I am able to create the same fascination with learning and exploration in my own two girls.  When Adam & I asked her to watch Mia & Millie while we went to Hawaii for a week, I should not have been surprised that she wanted to do her own toddler theme while we were gone -- Tropical week.  

Of course, Colorado had a blizzard right after we left but Nana & the girls were all comfy inside pretending they were on an island.  They dressed up in grass skirts, leis and sunglasses and danced to traditional Hawaiian music on Pandora.  We sent back lots of tropical animal photos & video clips to support Nana's efforts, and they researched them further in books.  Mia specifically enjoyed researching whales, the largest mammal in the world, and the life cycle of the sea turtle.  On the days that Adam & I visited Volcanoes National Park (and sent back photos like the one below from Kilauea's crater), the girls were learning about mountains and how some were formed by volcanoes.  They also watched the Lava animated short film that is included with the movie Inside Out to get a better visual before creating their own volcano with baking soda & vinegar.

Nana made the girls super special tropical juice drinks with paper umbrellas and she created a palm tree island made with kiwi, banana, and orange slices.  One afternoon, they cut up a pineapple and talked about how it's suited to grow in tropical environments.  They also did two fun art projects together.  The first was a puffer fish painting using a fork to make the spines.

The second project was a rainbow fish mosaic created by gluing together lots of paper scraps.

When we got home, I let Mia look through all of the rest of my photos and she was an excited wealth of information about lava, craters, and how volcanoes form.  She even taught me a few things.  Hopefully she stays curious and finds herself driving all over the Big Island one day in search of her beloved volcanoes, too.  And in that moment, Nana's legacy will have passed on to yet another generation.  We love you Nana!

A summary of all Tropical week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Learned about lava & volcanoes and then crafted a baking soda & vinegar volcano, Researched the tropical animals Mom & Dad saw on their trip, Played dress up with grass skirts and flower leis

ART PROJECTS: Made a fork-painting puffer fish, Created a mosaic rainbow fish collage

SNACK: Tropical mocktails garnished with Swedish fish and paper umbrellas, Celery sticks with peanut butter and goldfish crackers

BOOKS: The Magic School Bus Presents Volcanoes and Earthquakes by Tom Jackson, How Mountains are Made by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Blue Whale Babies by Matt Reher, Sharks by Gina Cline, This is an Ocean by Gina Cline, The Life of a Sea Turtle by Gina Cline, National Geographic Kids United States Atlas

BIBLE STORY: Jonah & the whale

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Toddler Theme: Science

NOTE: The move into our new home seemed to have knocked me out of my orbit.  I've moved many, many times before but for some reason (cough, the 2 young kids), this one was the most difficult.  Our weekly toddler themes were placed on the back burner as I worked to attain our new sense of normal.  I am forever grateful to my friend Ruth for offering to lead a Science toddler theme this week so that I could ease back into the whole process.  Without her help, I'm not sure how much longer it would have taken me to get back at this.  So thank you Ruth!  

If you are on Instagram, check out her feed here.  She takes the most wonderful photos of her children and I look forward to her posts every day.

-Gina

I had so much fun trying to decide on a theme for this week! After picking through our favorites, we decided on Science! How better to explain Science than with experiments! Noah is just turning three, so when I asked him what an experiment was, he shrugged his shoulders. I told him some experiments can be like magic, we can make something change from one thing into another. Some experiments we just try things to see what happens. Experimenting with your toddler can be so simple, and can cover so many different fields of science.

 First we experimented with magnets. I laid out a tray with magnetic and non-magnetic toys to sort. I gave him a magnetic toy to hold and to try to connect with the items on the tray. I placed a jar on either side of the tray so he could place non-magnetic items into one jar and magnetic items into the other jar. I made him a little booklet with paper I cut and stapled together, I called this book Noah's Experiments. I did this so we could log in what happened during our experiments. I drew two jars in the log book, and we recorded how many items were in each. This is also a great experiment to do if you have a baby; I have always found mine have always loved action and reaction.

My daughter who is 8 years old had to get in on this one too. I think she might be a bit of a science geek! She has a pre-made volcano mold from a science kit, but you can use a cup or anything that can contain liquid. You could even shape a small volcano using aluminum foil. Depending on the size of your container or volcano mold, I would start with using about 1/4 cup of white vinegar and a teaspoon of baking soda. And what you get is a volcanic eruption! They spent a lot of time doing this over and over again! We didn't use food coloring, but you could put in a few drops of red to make it feel more realistic! In our log book we drew a volcano, a box for the baking soda, and a jug of vinegar.

Another fan favorite was an experiment with gummy bears. We used four ramekins, but you can use any small bowl or container. We filled each with different solutions. The first had only water, the second had salt water, the third had vinegar and the fourth had water with baking soda. In each ramekin, we added 50 mL of water, except for the one with just vinegar, where we added...... 50 mL of vinegar! We added 1 tablespoon of table salt to one water ramekin and 1 tablespoon of baking soda to another. Make sure not to add the baking soda to the vinegar!! See previous experiment. My daughter and son drew a chart so we wouldn't forget which had which solution. We placed a gummy bear in each and left them in overnight. When we woke up we found some big changes! These were fun observational changes for us to make comparisons with. In our log book we drew a big gummy bear and a regular one.

A summary of all Science week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Did several science experiments including vinegar volcanoes, magnetic sorting, gummy bears in solution, and sundial creation

ART PROJECTS: We decorated our paper plate sundial before bringing it outside.  Crayon rubbing to experiment different patterns and textures in objects around the house, or even collecting leaves from different trees to compare patterns

OUTINGS: Our science centre in Toronto is an all-day outing with many exciting attractions, from an aging machine to making an impression of your body on a pin wall to making your own bottle garden. Going on nature walks and observing seasonal changes. Outdoor play at a park or in your yard can produce a lot of opportunities for experimentation. Discussing motion and force, placing a small car on the ground, you have to push the car to make it go, when the car is placed on a slide, it moves on its own. Is it as easy to move the car back up the slide as it is to move down?

BOOKS: The Magic School Bus books by Joanna Cole

BABY BONUS: Magnetic play, as long as the magnets aren’t too small! Playing while bathing the baby is a chance to try out some experiments like will the toy sink or float?

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).