ocean life Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

LEGO Building Ideas- Ocean Life Building Directions and Work Mat

May 31, 2016 By Deirdre

Ocean life has been the theme of several activities I have created recently. I thought you would enjoy having an activity that focused on LEGO-building ideas. Children love building with LEGOS. Why not have them build some ocean creatures and seaweed with LEGOS?

I have created a learning packet for you that features cards displaying each of the Ocean Themed LEGO Mats. (The mats have been updated and changed from the backgrounds pictured.) Your children can be given the ocean mat and the cards to create their versions of the ocean creatures and seaweed.

I have also created my version of each of the LEGO building ideas. Below you will find pictures of each of my LEGO building ideas and a list of the bricks that were used to create each of them.
You can decide what direction you want your children to go with this activity. They can replicate mine or create one of their own.

LEGO Building Ideas

Starfish

This is the simplest of the LEGO building ideas. You will need only ten 1×6 bricks to create the starfish.

Jellyfish

The jellyfish is made of bright yellowish-green and dark green bricks.

Supply List

1×6

2×4 (2)

2×10 (2)

1×4 (2)

1×2 (5)

1×4 with ramp (1)

Crab

The crab is made with bright red bricks. You could mix in pink bricks if you have them. We only have red bricks available at my house.

Supply List

2×6 (1)

2×2 with long ramp (2)

2X1 with short ramp (2)

2×1 (4)

1×1 (1)

1×3 (8)

2×5 (2)

2×4 (2)

eyeball caps (2)

Seaweed

The seaweed was made using bright yellowish-green and dark green bricks.

Supply List

2×4 (4)

1×1 with ramp (2)

2×3 (6)

2×4 (4)

1×2 with ramp (4)

1×2 (2)

Octopus

The octopus was made with bright blue bricks. He could have been made with green bricks. You may decide you like him green rather than blue.

Supply List

1×6 with small ramp (1)

1×2 with small ramp (1)

1×4 with small ramp (1)

1×2 (10)

1×4 (1)

1×6 (1)

1×3 (4)

1×1 (2)

eyeball caps (2)

Lobster

Supply List

1×4 with short ramp (2)

flipper-like piece- This is not its official name. (2)

1×2 (13)

1×1 with small ramp (3)

3×1 (4)

1×1 (1)

1×6 (3)

1×8 (2)

Each of these LEGO building ideas used bricks we had a home. My son has been given a number of LEGO building sets and a LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box. That has given us a very full homemade LEGO storage bucket. You may find that you can create the same ocean-themed building ideas with different combinations of bricks. If you do, I would love for you to share them with me on my Facebook page.

This post is part of a LEGO Week celebration on Toddler Approved.

Math for Kids- Measuring Chalk Drawings

July 18, 2015 By Deirdre

$Math for Kids- Measuring Chalk Drawings- Measuring the Sun$

Kids love to draw or paint with chalk on the driveway or on the sidewalk. They may fill your driveway or sidewalks with beautiful summer themed drawings or pictures of their favorite things. Once they have finished drawing, they are ready to walk away or over them. Why not use them in a math for kids activity. You can pass out measuring tapes to your kids and they can measure their own drawings or the ones created by a friend.

$Math for Kids- Measuring Chalk Drawings$

Kids can use the measure tapes to find out the answers to the following questions:

How wide is the drawing?
How tall is the drawing?
Is there a part of the drawing that is five inches long?
How long is the smallest part of the drawing?
What part of the drawing is the longest? $Math for Kids- Measuring Chalk Drawings$

If your children haven’t used measuring tapes before, you will want to make sure that they know where place the beginning of the tape. They will also need to know that you can’t pull the measuring tape along to the end of the area they are measuring or their measuring won’t be accurate. If they need to help holding the tape in place, they can put a weight like a small stone on the end of the tape. They could also have a friend hold the tape.

$Math for Kids- Measuring Chalk Drawings- Measuring a Starfish$

When measuring you may want to have your children tell you the nearest number to the end of t the area they are measuring. I totally think kids can learn to measure to the 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch. Feel free to share with your children what the small lines between the numbers mean. If they are just learning to measuring I just think sticking the closest number may be easiest for them.

$Math for Kids: Measuring Chalk Drawings- Measuring the Sun$

Warning: You will need to ask your children to walk carefully around or over the drawings so the drawings won’t get smudged. Some children will be upset seeing friends smearing their pictures.

This is part math series hosted by Peakle Pie. Please take a moment to check out the math activities shared on her Cool Maths for Cool Kids page.

What is your children’s favorite thing to draw with chalk?

Ocean Animals Paper Plate Craft

July 9, 2014 By Deirdre

On a sunny day earlier this week JDaniel and I headed outside with his art set to create ocean painting. His art set includes all kinds of art supplies, but we focused on markers and watercolors. I didn’t tell me we were going to create ocean animals with the paintings. That I saved as a surprise.

Ocean Painting

We both used the blue and green watercolors to create blue stripes on white construction paper. The stripes were randomly arranged. We didn’t do each of the blues in his art kit in an abcd pattern.

As the paint was drying, we drew on the watercolor paintings with the magic maker. The end effect I had hoped for was a smudged blue stripe. Working with wet paint aided in the creation of that effect.

When the paintings were marked up, JDaniel used paintbrushes dipped in water to further smear the marker marks. It looked really cool when all the markers had been smudged.

It was now time to let the paintings dry. We left the painting in the sun and played tag while they dried. My son is getting way too fast for me. I have to work hard to catch him.

Creating the Ocean Animals Home

Later we used a hole punch to create holes down the sides of a paper plate. I think we ended up with six holes on each side. Half-inch blue ribbon was woven in a hole and out a hole on the opposite side of the plate. It ended up being a great fine motor skill.

The ribbon was supposed to look like the waves or currents in the ocean. It was also supposed to create a 3-D canvas for the fish we would make next to swim in.

Creating Ocean Animals

The watercolor and marker paintings were folded in half so, we would just have to cut out half a fish if we cut on the fold to get a whole fish. We cut out some big fish and some little fish.

The fish could have been cut out freehand or traced onto the paper to be then cut out. Cutting is another one of those fine motor activities I wanted to tie into this craft.

Placing the Ocean Animals

The ocean animals ended up being randomly placed. I don’t think there was a lot of thinking about where to put them. I did ask that some of them be placed on different layers of ribbon.

I think this craft turned out well. I guess I should say these crafts. There really were three crafts we created in the process. There were paintings, a ribbon woven creation, and ocean animals placed on the woven creation.