UNDER THE SEA OCTOBER - PART II

The boys have had a great time learning about all the things that live under the sea this month. The Ocean Life book I bought from Coles has been a real godsend as it has given us lots to read about as well as maths and english based activities. I find the boys are so much more willing to do some schoolwork when it's fun and centred around our monthly topic.

We finished off the month with some super cool art activities so I thought I'd share them with you all.

We bought some plain white paper plates in 2 sizes, some brightly coloured paper patty pan cases in 2 sizes and pulled out our scissors, stapler, sticky tape, paint, glitter and some party string. I found these 2 activities can be done with children of all ages. Ehren (2) did some of the painting and glitterwork, Dane (5) did most of his artwork alone just with some help with the stapler and sticky tape. Bailey (8) was able to to do all the work himself.

COLOURFUL JELLYFISH

Take a large paper plate. Cut from the edge towards the centre and stop in the middle. Holding the plate upside down pull the edge around until you get a cone-like shape with the plate and secure with 2 staples. Next the child can paint their jellyfish in a nice bright colour and finish by sprinkling some glitter over the top of the paint whilst still wet (glitter optional). Leave to dry. When dry tie a little piece of party string through the centre to hang the jellyfish from. Then cut several pieces of long party string and use sticky tape to secure under the jellyfish. Hang your jellyfish somewhere impressive where the glitter can catch the light.

TROPICAL FISH

Take a small paper plate. You or the child can cut a little semi circle from one edge for the fish mouth. Get the child to paint their paper plate in a bright colour, sprinkle with glitter and leave to dry. Once dry take a small patty pan case and fold in half. Glue this to the fish in the middle as the fin. Take 3 large patty pan cases in different colour and fold them in half with each colour showing a little. Staple this to the tail and fan out. Paint a black eye on the fish and then it is ready to display.

My boys loved doing these. We spent the afternoon out on the veranda where they could make as much mess as they liked, as the glitter can get things a little messy.

We finished off by cutting some starfish out of some remaining paper plates and painted them to stick on our light with our jellyfish. They were very simple and could be done using even the back of a cereal box!

This month we are doing our theme as 'Around the world in 30 days'. Watch out for the blog soon!