Baking Australia

As part of our recent Australia studies, E and I made a shortbread map like the one by the kids at Creekside Learning. We used the basic shortbread recipe from "Cookery the Australian Way". Here's E checking the instructions:

E got her hands sticky rubbing in the butter and then she rolled the dough flat.

I helped to get the right shape using a printed map and cling-wrap. There was just enough dough left over for E to use cookie-cutters to make her name. Then we baked it all in the oven.

E wasn't up to adding landforms or state lines like the cookie made by the Creekside kids, but at least we included Tasmania. E chose to make purple icing and we spread that all over our shortbread.

We added smarties in the approximate positions of each capital city and E had fun covering the whole thing in sprinkles...

and then we invited Daddy to help eat it. Yum!

-Polly

Australian Animals

As part of our "Australia" theme over the last week, we did a lot of animal themed activities. Australia does have a lot of unique animals.

E has a block-puzzle that has pictures of different Australian animals and we had fun putting the pictures together. E also likes to stack the blocks and find all the pieces with animal heads on them.

We did some arts and crafts, including a dot painting of a gecko:

and a paper-plate kangaroo with a joey:

I found some animal songs on youtube. This exercise song would have been better if the video showed children doing the actions instead of just pictures of the animals. Don Spencer sings many classic Australian animal songs. I used to listen to the "Feathers, Fur or Fins" album when I was young. The only ones I could find online were this video which includes "Please Don't Call Me a Koala Bear" and the Play School version of "Feathers, Fur or Fins".

E had plenty of fun pretending to be different animals. Her favourites were a bouncing kangaroo and a squawking, flying cockatoo.

We read some animal books, too. After reading "Koala Lou" by Mem Fox, E pretended to be a koala using a mask from Wildlife Fun 4 Kids:

Echidnas were made using play-dough and pop-sticks:

I knew that bag of pop-sticks would come in handy one day. :)
-Polly

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day (for yesterday) to all the Aussies out there!

For the last week, E has been doing a lot of "Australia" themed activities. Here's just some of them:

We looked at maps of Australia in our atlas and E learnt where on the map we, and other relatives, live. She also learned how to locate Australia on her new globe.

E did some Australia themed colouring pages and we read some Australia themed books including "A is for Australia", "Wattle Babies" and "Possum Magic". We, of course, ate Vegemite sandwiches and lamingtons. :)

I printed out a simple map of Australia that showed the state lines. E coloured it a little and then I gave her cut-outs of each state (on thin cardboard) that she could place on the map as a puzzle. This also helped her to start learning the names of each state and territory.

We did some activities based on the Australian flag. E made a paper flag using this puzzle from Lessons Learnt Journal and some glue. I also made a slightly more detailed flag puzzle using thin cardboard.

I printed a series of Australian flags in different sizes so that E could sort them from biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest. She found this activity fun, but easy.

Lovely Living do some great, free printables. They do ask that you donate to one of their preferred charities using links on their page. Together, E and I made their Australia Day Bunting and hung it in the window above E's desk.

Yesterday, which was actually Australia Day, we put on our Australia bucket hats (mine has a flag design and E's has lots of little Australia maps) and headed to a friend's place for a BBQ and a swim in the pool. We also painted our toenails in green and gold:

I printed this little Australia Day book to take along. E and another little girl coloured it together.

I hope all Australians are enjoying the long weekend.
-Polly