Teaching And Home Schooling Ideas

Make a mini raft to float. We got some twigs of a similar length. We bound them together with string. Added a twig for the mast and a leaf for the sail. We put the raft in the Beck to see if it would float and it did. If you don't live near a Beck or stream then you can float it in the sink or bath. If you have a group of children they can work together or make individual rafts.

Make Salt Dough Fossils. For the salt dough we used 8 ounces of plain flour, 4 ounces of salt and mixed with warm water until the mixture came together. Initially we added about 100ml of water and then just kept adding water till the mixture combined to form a dough. Roll out the salt dough and use a cutter to make the shapes. Place on a tray.  Print patterns in the dough with dinosaur toys or any toys you have, lego pieces, cars, playmobil people, toy animals etc You can air dry them for a few days or bake in the oven at 120 degrees for 2 hours or until hard.  We waited a few days before we painted them. 

Make a bird feeder from a recycled milk carton. We cut out 4 holes, one in each side of the milk carton. Adults may need to do this or help with this. Use permanent markers to colour in the container or stick on shiny paper or objects to attract the birds. Pierce a hole in either side of the top and thread ribbon or string to create a hanger for the bird feeder. We collected twigs and glued them to the four sides to act as a perch for the birds. You could glue twigs to the top of the carton to make it look like the roof of a bird house. Fill feeder with seed, nuts or fat balls. Hang on a tree in the garden. Record types and number of birds that use the bird feeder in a tally chart.