Prehistoric Play: Ice Age Discovery

 

Right now its hard to find a way to beat the summer heat. After all it is Florida and it has been oppressively HOT!!!! So why not create your own little Ice Age. This is a cute and simple science activity you can do with your little ones at home to help them understand how animals can be preserved in Ice and how scientist can find them many years later and study them. To learn a little more about the last Ice Age and the animals that were there click here.

All you need to do to prepare is find a large bowl or bundt cake pan. Fill it with water and add some plastic critters. They can be bugs, dinosaurs, ocean animals whatever you happen to have lying around.

Freeze overnight. The next day run a little warm water around the edge of the pan to loosen your glacier sample.

Have your little scientist head outside with a rubber hammer, or other plastic tools like a fork or spoon. Have them try to free the animals from their glacier. When they are done setting them free you can talk about how the animals might have found their way into the ice. They can also investigate their animals and compare them. How many legs do they have? Are they insects, mammals or reptiles?

Another great science concept to introduce is the effects of the sun (heat) on their glacier (ice). You can talk to them about how the sun's heat warms the Earth and melts our glaciers filling our oceans with more water. Depending on how old your children are you might even talk to them about ways our climate has changed over the past, and how the polar caps and glaciers are melting more rapidly within the last 100 years.
Beginning with basic science activities helps lay a foundation for your child as they enter the classroom and are exposed to a variety of science concepts. It is never too early to start talking science with your little ones!

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Yummy Animal Tracks

We're heading to the mountains of North Carolina soon and couldn't be more excited to have a little change of scenery and temperature!  There is something about the mountains that rejuvenates our souls and reminds us how majestic our world is.  The air seems cleaner, the terrain breathtaking, and the wilderness abundant.

My son is approaching two years old, and can't get enough of animals.  Especially bears, birds, and deer.  We went on a little field trip with friends the other day to a local wildlife museum, and Mack was enthralled at all that nature had to offer.  Before our family field trip I made some quick stencils for the driveway.  By finding images on Google, I was able to print them on card stock paper and then cut them out.  We used sidewalk chalk to make animal tracks up and down the driveway.  Our friend Kaki helped Mack identify the beginning sounds of the animals that the tracks represented.

While playing on the playground at the museum I notice a fun matching game that quizzed children on their knowledge of animal tracks.  I thought, "What a great idea for the car ride to North Carolina!"  So when we got home we gathered a few things from around the house and went back to Google Images for some animal tracks that we might encounter on our expedition.  It was an easy activity that young and older children could help to research and assemble.  For elementary aged children have them first research the habitats of the area that you are visiting or that you live in.  That way they can design their wheel accordingly.  It would be fun to do a wheel to represent different types of animals found in a variety of ecosystems (i.e. rainforests, deciduous forest, tundras, deserts, etc.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the finished project I glued down a circle tag to cover up the paperclip.

To cap off all good projects, it's always fun to take your creativity to the kitchen.  We made some animal track treats.  Mix all the ingredients listed above in a bowl.  Spoon small dollops onto wax paper.  Flatten them with the back side of a spoon (I sprayed the spoon with cooking spray first).  I followed a recipe I found online, but Mack and I couldn't get our animal tracks to show up with just thumbprints.  So to the pantry we headed and tracked down some snacks.  It was fun to use our creativity to make the animal tracks out of things like raisins, marshmallows, pretzels, and M & M's.  Then pop them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to harden up a bit.  While we were waiting for our treats I found some animal sounds online and Mack and I acted them out.  His favorite of course is the "scary bear" as he says.  

We look forward to tracking down some animals while in the mountains, and we hope that you are on the hunt for some animals during your adventures too!

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