Delightful January: Snowflake craft, Cheesy Bites & Crossword Challenge!
The city is immersing in winters as students gear up for their annual fiestas and winter vacations. Christmas, though not religiously, but is often celebrated by kids as a fun festival with cute Santa and Christmas trees.
To make your Christmas and winter vacation more fun, you can add a little glitter with learning tasks to your weekend. This weekend, we suggest you prep up and create your own happy snowflakes. Though it is does not snow in most parts of India, you can make these snowflakes that look prettier and won’t break if you touch them!
Further, it’s not just delightful but also delicious January. To enjoy the flavours of some delectable and yet easy-to-make dishes, start this weekend by making ‘Cheesy Bites’.
The best way to spend time while having fun is to play a crossword. Not only this one will boost your vocabulary and spellings, but will take you on an adventurous trip to Africa!
Snowflake Ornament & Craft
What will you need?
• Pipe cleaners
• Colourful beads
• Scissors
Preparation for Snowflake
1. Start by cutting your pipe cleaners in half for your beaded snowflake craft.
2. You will need 3 of the halved pipe cleaners for each snowflake.
3. You can fold the small (halved) pipe cleaners in half.
4. Then, you should twist two of them together on the bend.
5. Finally, for the final step, twist the third small pipe cleaner around the first two.
6. That’s all you need to do to get them ready. Now, they are all set for kids to add the beads.
How to use this activity to teach & develop kid’s skills?
Fine Motor Practice
If you want kids to have creative freedom, you can just let them place the pony beads on the pipe cleaner snowflakes without additional instructions. Kids will enjoy the fine motor activity as they create gorgeous snowflakes.
Math Concepts
When we made our snowflakes we tried to incorporate some math learning. I get excited when I think about all the different ways I can create learning opportunities within an activity. Here are a few ideas:
Counting
Ask kids to place 5 pony beads on each pipe cleaner. I found that they kept counting them to check the quantity. They also had to figure out how many more they needed to add or take off to get the correct number of beads. When your snowflakes are complete, you can ask kids to count the total quantity of beads on their snowflakes.
Pattern by Colour
Ask kids to create a pattern with the bead colours. They can create an ABAB or similar pattern on each individual pipe cleaner or kids can create a pattern by filling alternating colours on each pipe cleaner.
Pattern by Quantity
If kids placed 4 beads on one pipe cleaner and 5 beads on the next pipe cleaner, etc…they would have an ABAB pattern made with bead quantities.
Constructing and Deconstructing Numbers
Use two-colour of beads. Ask kids to place 5 beads on each pipe cleaner and ask them how many different ways they can create 5 with the colours. (4 purple beads + 1 blue bead, 3 purple beads + 2 blue beads, 2 purple beads + 3 blue beads…..)
Finishing the Snowflakes
Okay, back to making the snowflakes. To finish the snowflakes we wrapped the end of the pipe cleaner around our finger to curl it and stuffed the end of the pipe cleaner into the hole of the last bead. This kind of creates a knot so that the beads won’t come off.
Easy Cheesy Bites
Ingredients
• Baguette (a long loaf of bread)
• Cheese slices
• Cheese spread
• Curry powder
• Black pepper
Let’s get baking!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cut baguette into thick slices.
3. Top bread slices with slices of cheese and cheese spread.
4. Sprinkle with curry powder and pepper.
5. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted.
Hints to solve the crossword
ACROSS
1 Looks like a cow with curved horns
3 A meerkat is one type of species
7 Some make a sound that sounds like laughing
8 Has a very long neck
10 World's fastest bird
11 Has a thick armor-like coat
DOWN
1 Member of the pig family
2 Has rings called "rosttes"
4 Striped horse
5 Monkey that has a face of a dog
6 World's fastest land animal
9 King of the Jungle
WORD BANK:
Baboon, cheetah, giraffe, hyena, leopard, lion, mongoose, ostrich, pangolin, warthog, water-buffalo, zebra.
The city is immersing in winters as students gear up for their annual fiestas and winter vacations. Christmas, though not religiously, but is often celebrated by kids as a fun festival with cute Santa and Christmas trees.
To make your Christmas and winter vacation more fun, you can add a little glitter with learning tasks to your weekend. This weekend, we suggest you prep up and create your own happy snowflakes. Though it is does not snow in most parts of India, you can make these snowflakes that look prettier and won’t break if you touch them!
Further, it’s not just delightful but also delicious January. To enjoy the flavours of some delectable and yet easy-to-make dishes, start this weekend by making ‘Cheesy Bites’.
The best way to spend time while having fun is to play a crossword. Not only this one will boost your vocabulary and spellings, but will take you on an adventurous trip to Africa!
Snowflake Ornament & Craft
What will you need?
• Pipe cleaners
• Colourful beads
• Scissors
Preparation for Snowflake
1. Start by cutting your pipe cleaners in half for your beaded snowflake craft.
2. You will need 3 of the halved pipe cleaners for each snowflake.
3. You can fold the small (halved) pipe cleaners in half.
4. Then, you should twist two of them together on the bend.
5. Finally, for the final step, twist the third small pipe cleaner around the first two.
6. That’s all you need to do to get them ready. Now, they are all set for kids to add the beads.
How to use this activity to teach & develop kid’s skills?
Fine Motor Practice
If you want kids to have creative freedom, you can just let them place the pony beads on the pipe cleaner snowflakes without additional instructions. Kids will enjoy the fine motor activity as they create gorgeous snowflakes.
Math Concepts
When we made our snowflakes we tried to incorporate some math learning. I get excited when I think about all the different ways I can create learning opportunities within an activity. Here are a few ideas:
Counting
Ask kids to place 5 pony beads on each pipe cleaner. I found that they kept counting them to check the quantity. They also had to figure out how many more they needed to add or take off to get the correct number of beads. When your snowflakes are complete, you can ask kids to count the total quantity of beads on their snowflakes.
Pattern by Colour
Ask kids to create a pattern with the bead colours. They can create an ABAB or similar pattern on each individual pipe cleaner or kids can create a pattern by filling alternating colours on each pipe cleaner.
Pattern by Quantity
If kids placed 4 beads on one pipe cleaner and 5 beads on the next pipe cleaner, etc…they would have an ABAB pattern made with bead quantities.
Constructing and Deconstructing Numbers
Use two-colour of beads. Ask kids to place 5 beads on each pipe cleaner and ask them how many different ways they can create 5 with the colours. (4 purple beads + 1 blue bead, 3 purple beads + 2 blue beads, 2 purple beads + 3 blue beads…..)
Finishing the Snowflakes
Okay, back to making the snowflakes. To finish the snowflakes we wrapped the end of the pipe cleaner around our finger to curl it and stuffed the end of the pipe cleaner into the hole of the last bead. This kind of creates a knot so that the beads won’t come off.
Easy Cheesy Bites
Ingredients
• Baguette (a long loaf of bread)
• Cheese slices
• Cheese spread
• Curry powder
• Black pepper
Let’s get baking!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cut baguette into thick slices.
3. Top bread slices with slices of cheese and cheese spread.
4. Sprinkle with curry powder and pepper.
5. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted.
Hints to solve the crossword
ACROSS
1 Looks like a cow with curved horns
3 A meerkat is one type of species
7 Some make a sound that sounds like laughing
8 Has a very long neck
10 World's fastest bird
11 Has a thick armor-like coat
DOWN
1 Member of the pig family
2 Has rings called "rosttes"
4 Striped horse
5 Monkey that has a face of a dog
6 World's fastest land animal
9 King of the Jungle
WORD BANK:
Baboon, cheetah, giraffe, hyena, leopard, lion, mongoose, ostrich, pangolin, warthog, water-buffalo, zebra.