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Earth Day Eve Easy Activities

April 21, 2013 in Creative Adventures

Easy Earth Day Activities

Today our Sunday school director and helpers created a fun filled Earth Day with fun and easy activities. These are activities you can quickly pull together even tonight. Pick a couple Earth Day activities or do all of them. Hands on activities are a fun way to engage kids and educate them at the same time. The kids had a blast and learned how to care for the earth God created.

Mystery Bags

The morning started off with mystery bags. Each bag was marked with a question mark. Each bag contained some item that was a clue to what God created.

Dirt for the earth

Shells for the ocean

Pine cones for trees

Fur for animals

Feather for birds

Fake flowers for plants etc.

You may have some of your own ideas to convey what God created.

Explain how God created the heavens and the earth, light, sky, sun, moon and stars, earth and the waters, plants and trees, birds, fish and creatures and Adam and Eve. Genesis. 1:1-2:25

Skit: Take care of the earth and keep her clean

Child 1: Holds the earth and wraps blue sheet or plastic to represent the oceans.

Child 2: Throws paper cup at earth and sticks gum on her shoulder.

Child 3: Pours a bag of crumpled news papers over her.

Child 4: Comes with a sponge to wipe the earth, picks the gum off the earth’s shoulder and picks up the crumpled papers.

Bird Feeder Craft

Needed: Fluff, birdseed, ¼ inch round dowels 6 inches long(they come in 12 inch lengths so just cut it in half) toilet paper rolls, string, plastic knife, hole punch

Prep:

Punch two holes across from each other at the top (1/2 inch down) of each toilet paper roll and attach a string to hang later.

Punch two holes across from each other about 1 inch in at the bottom of your toilet paper rolls, punch two more holes about 1/2 inch in across from each other which are opposite the other holes. Later the children will slide the short dowels into the bottom holes creating a crisscross effect allowing pegs for the birds to sit on. You will do this after you stick the birdseed on.

Place bird seed in pie tins and fluff in little cups.

Let the kids spread the fluff on the toilet paper rolls with a plastic knife, then roll them in the birdseed.

Push the dowels through the holes at the bottom of your toilet paper roll.

Place creation on a paper plate to take home late.

Outside Activity

Place 4 containers marked Glass, Tin, Plastic and Paper.

Leader pours out a bag of the above recyclables. Theresa and  her team did a great job.

Children relay race to pick up the recyclables and places them in the correct bins.

Older kids can help the younger ones.

Snack

Make vanilla and chocolate pudding, children choose if they want crumbled cookies(dirt) or gummy worms on top. Yum!

Murals

Place an assortment of paint colors and let the kids paint what they learned about.

Have a Wonderful Earth Day Celebration!

 Ms. Dawn

For more see our Previous Earth Day Post with songs and craft ideas.

What is your biggest challenge to teach your children to take good care of our awesome world?  Please comment below.

 

 

 

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Earth Day & More, Who started this?

April 17, 2013 in Creative Adventures, God - Faith - Hope - Love

I have been searching the Internet today for post and videos that are great resources for you on Earth Day. We have been given such a glorious place to live. The earth is so diverse. We have deserts, mountains, oceans, lakes, plush places and dry places. We have such an array of animals and creatures I am sure we have not discovered them all. The plants that cover our earth generously shade us and feed us. We have so much to thank God for. We also have a great responsibility to be good care takers of all He’s given us.

This little song is great for your littlest ones, I love the little picture book this mother created. It looks pretty easy too.

Days of Creation Song

Days of Creation Collage-really cute idea, good for all kids

God of Wonders Song-great Chris Tomlin song with words sung by kids

Indescribable song by Chris Tomlin-some awesome pictures of creation as He proclaims God is indescribable

In the Beginning is the song I want you to check out. It is the first one in unit 1. It is lively and teaches the days of creation, all kids will love it. The Donut Man has been around for awhile but I love his songs. He has loads of DVD’s too so you can see all the hand motions. The link I have included below is a curriculum with 52 songs and lessons. It is very reasonably priced at 39.95.

 The Donut Man Website 

The Miracle in Seeds–arts and crafts using seeds, looks fun.

Some Earthy Post you may like:

♥  Take care of the Beach
♥ Painting with Plants
♥ Creating book cover with plants
♥ Shells and Rocks craft
♥ Picture poem about a Spring walk 
Have a Wonderful Spring Celebration on Earth Day, Remember who made it all…
For Life and Healthy Living,
Ms.Dawn

 

 

 

 

 

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Plant Painting, creating cards

April 9, 2013 in Creative Adventures, Uncategorized


First gather your plants. Gathering and handling plants is a great sensory activity for kids. It will give them tactile intake, sunshine, fresh air and a time to move about. Not only will your kids get a chance to explore the outdoors, they will be choosing what tools they will use in their plant painting project. Giving choices fosters independence in young children. Give them little hints as you go, to get those little imaginations working and curiosity stirred.

 

 

Say things like:

I wonder what it would look like if we painted these plants and printed them on paper?

I wonder what shape this plant will make?

What would it look like to print different textures and size plants?

We painted different leaves in different colors and pressed them in different directions.

We also painted and pressed flower type plants.

I worked hand over hand while my young patient’s arm was in a sling.

We finished our picture, cut around the edges and tried an assortment of background colors. 

You can paste your painting to the paper or you can take different pictures like I have done here and use those pictures for creating different cards etc.

This one has the corners ripped from one of the background colors. You can add your greeting over top of picture.

Print, cut and paste process below that comes out really cool. I used this process with my grandchildren to create an anniversary card for mom and dad. Each one printed different flowers and objects on his own paper. I painted the “Happy Anniversary” words and cut them out. After the pictures dried I cut around the shapes of the prints. We arranged and glued it all together(don’t press it too flat) which gave it a sort of 3D look. I trimmed it a bit, made a page with some crisscross edges and glued the trimmed picture to the crisscrossed edged picture which made it appear framed .     

I love encouraging creativity and the kids are always so proud of their final creations.

I am so thankful for the warmer weather that allows everyone to enjoy the awesome outdoors. I love seeing all the little emerging critters and plants. All of nature is blooming, makes you feel so alive. Make the most of every teachable moment.

For Happy Healthy Kids,

Ms. Dawn

Subscribe to our posts for more Music, Art, Inspirational and Healthy living posts.

Other posts you may like:

♥ Brag book cover

♥ Post sampling

Healthy living posts you may like:

♥ Hand washing game

♥ Lyme disease prevention for kids

All blog categories: here

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How to Make Music Fun 4 Kids-Part 2

April 3, 2013 in Music with Kids, The Singing Nurse Music

Who wants to make music time a blast for kids?

Keep it simple…

Keep it joyful…

Keep it fun…

Keep it stress free…

Creating music and keeping it simple makes for a stress free and fun music time. Who can agree making a joyful noise and being a little silly is a great way of expressing yourself and having a blast while you do it?

I hope you will stick with me as we continue through this series. You may not feel musically inclined and can appreciate some encouragement. I would love to help with that. Many of the songs I have written came about while playing on a simple keyboard like the Casio SA-76.

I know you can do it, every way is the right way, and sure to bring some joy and pleasure to your kids.

The Proverb still rings true : “A merry heart does good like a medicine”.

Today’s post will cover:

*Easy ways to pep up an old familiar song

*Using simple keyboards: beats, patterns and chord progressions

In the video below is the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. I used the “pattern” # 45 that the Casio SA-76 describes as a “Free Session”. This means it is a pre-recorded chord progression. It is a little song with no words. How cool is that, all you have to do is press “pattern” and the number 4 then 5 and press the Start/Stop button. Put the tempo @ 5 and the song is ready just as I did in the video.

I looked up the words to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and did not realize that it has such cool words. All to do with stars of course. I made up a simple melody(the kids can even help with that-a future post), I added a simple chorus with hand motions for the kids to sing.

So glad you stopped by. Music keeps flowing here from The Singing Nurse and friends. Can you share how you are having a musical blast with kids? Or do you have a questions?

To hear and purchase TSN music that teaches good health habits and more click here.

Click here to review other posts you may enjoy.

♥ Click here to read Part 1 of “How to Make Music Fun 4 Kids”.
For Healthy Happy Kids,
Ms. Dawn

Amazon Link for Casio SA-76 below

“The Singing Nurse website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazonsupply.com, or myhabit.com.”

TSN website will strive to make available only products that we have tried and love and feel you would love too. 

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Lyme Disease Prevention, School Visit

April 2, 2013 in Children's Health Education, TSN outreach Projects

Ticks on a Stick!

A Re-post: Spring is here yippee! Please read our Lyme Disease prevention posts to help you get ready for the tick season. I really dislike ticks. 

 

I prepared ticks on a stick for my visit to my grandson’s early learning center, Natural Wonders in Poughquag, NY. He really enjoys his class and my daughter in-law who is a Spec Ed teacher is very satisfied with the program.

I decided to make the ticks on a stick because I felt the children might be too young to participate in the full Tick Disease Prevention activities.

The adults raised the Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis and Lyme signs as the children raised their little ticks on a stick when we came to the words in the song, “Stay away from that Tick, He’ll make you feel sick…”. It worked great and the children were able to take the ticks, color them and share the information when they got home.

 I also recommended that the teacher place a magnet on the back so the child could place it on their refrigerator and use it to fan themselves during the hot summer. 

Lyme Disease Prevention Poster

This is a picture of my grandson and I at the end of our visit. We are posing in front of the poster I have been adding to as I educate children about Lyme Disease.

Before our session the children each made a thumb print on a small sticky note pad with their names and I added the legs and called them up one by one to place their little tick on the Lyme Disease Prevention Poster.

We had fun!

I also visited Acorn to Oaks, a quality early childhood program in Hopewell Juction NY on the same morning. It was good to see old friends and share with the children about Lyme Disease and how to protect ourselves from those pesky little eight legged ticks.

“Stay away from that tick, he’ll make you feel sick.”

Be Healthy, Ms. Dawn

 

Update:  Awwww, A Thank-You Poster from Natural Wonders-It is beautiful! Thanks…..I especially love the socks tucked in the pants pic.

Thank-you poster from Natural Wonders

Lyme Disease Prevention is lesson # 5 in “The Singing Nurse-Health Lessons for Kids”

See other posts about Lyme Disease Prevention:

♥ Beware Lyme is Here!

♥ Lyme Disease Prevention for Kids

♥ Hear “The Tick Song”

Don’t forget to sign-up to receive all our healthy kid posts , info on free stuff and other creative ways to teach kids about healthy living. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please comment below, what is your Lyme and Tick experiences….Send us your child’s drawing about Lyme Disease Prevention.

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Singing Nurse, Singing Nurse, Where Did You Go?

April 2, 2013 in Creative Adventures, God - Faith - Hope - Love

Happy Spring to you all!

Singing Nurse, Singing Nurse, Where did you go?

Dawn Ginese, May 29, 2011

Singing nurse, singing nurse, where did you go?

I went for a walk, on a country road

So I threw on my sneakers, I had to get it moving

Gail said you go, I’ll go too, so I grabbed my camera, and off I flew

 Singing nurse, singing nurse, what did you see?

I saw an old brown bull, looking at me

His hair was really shaggy, he was quite cute

He really didn’t mind, my photo shoot

Singing nurse, singing nurse, what did you hear?

The birds were a chirping, the lambs were a baaing

The frogs were a croaking, the bees were a buzzing

The cows were a mooing, need I say more

I’d highly recommend it, going outdoors

             

Singing nurse, singing nurse, what did you feel?

The warmth on my face, blood moving through my veins

I was a bit distracted, by all created things

Cuz winged bugs in flowers, were looking up at me

On my way back, a little turtle seemed stuck

I gave a little nudge, so he wouldn’t be mush

Yes, all in all, my walk was a treat

With all the signs of spring, blooming at my feet


Gotcha!

Have a great Spring and Summer, remember to drink fluids, wear sunscreen(not too much sun) and check for ticks!

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

A few more signs of spring….


…………………………..My church in spring…                                                      Awesome flowers enjoying the bloom…


A view from my deck….zoomed of course…

To hear some songs about critters and being healthy click here.

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