Moon Sand/ Quicksand

MOON SAND

I found this website that promised homemade moon sand like the kind you can buy in the store. I can't say it was really much like it BUT Zorro had TONS of fun all the same. He spent a good hour playing with it (yes you read that right!). So if your toddler likes messy, this is a fun CRAFTivity!

*I changed the order of the original directions because it was poorly put together. Originally it mixed water and cornstarch together first. Tell me what happens when you mix those two together..Ya... DUH!

Recipe for homemade moon sand
(I cut the recipe down to 1/3)

6 cups of play sand (I got a 50lb bag from Home Depot for $4.99, you can also buy colored sand in smaller amounts for less at a pet store)

3 cups of cornstarch

1 1/2 cups of cold water

Step one: Mix the Sand and cornstarch together thoroughly. To make it "mess free" put in a gallon ziplock to mix it rather than a bowl.

Step two: Mix in the water either in the bowl or the bag. Mix completely.

Step three: Play with it!

**TO MAKE QUICKSAND add about 1/2-1 cup of water to mixture

FOR MORE THEMED IDEAS CHECK OUT THESE LABELS:
THEME/SCHOOL BOX- Our planned curriculum for the week
CRAFTivities -Crafts and activities
FIELD TRIP- Theme related outings in Orange County, CA

Cookie Cutter Lunch- Dino

Zorro's not eating much lately since hes been sick for 2 weeks poor guy. Here is what he had. I'm afraid he had more fun playing with it then eating it:

Organic Pear Tree and PB & H Dino Sandwich

I used an apple cutter to cute the pear and the slices were perfect for the tree.

As you can see, he had a lot of fun playing with it.

FOR MORE CAR THEMED LINKS CHECK OUT THESE LABELS:

THEME/SCHOOL BOX- Our planned curriculum for the week

CRAFTivities -A photo walk through of our week

BOOK TREE- Our picks from the local library

FIELD TRIP- Theme related outings in Orange County, CA

Field Trip - La Brea Tar Pits

Click on photo for link

We didn't go to the Tar Pits this week, we went a little while ago but it's worth a mention since we are talking about Dinosaurs.

ADMISSION:
Adults $7
Children under 5 are FREE
5-12 is $2
13-17-$4.50
PARKING $6

I grew up going to this place on school field trips. If you haven't heard of it, let me tell you a little bit about it. The Tar Pits say,"Rancho La Brea is one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of extinct Ice Age plants and animals in the world." - that's funny, because I thought Laguna Hills had that covered. Someone's lying... ACTUALLY they're not because there have been NO dinosaurs discovered at the Tar Pits. Most people think that's what it's all about but it's not. Surprise you? It sure as HECK did me. I grew up going there and always thought there were Dinos there... I wonder why...Go figure.

BUT it's not to be dismissed. There's much to learn there! You can see the tar pits and excavation that is still going on. You can watch as they as do whatever it is they do with the bones and fossils, and a movie to watch and learn about how it was there during the ice age.

The entrance price makes the visit well worth it. It's different and you can expect to learn a lot.

FOR MORE DINOSAUR THEMED LINKS CHECK OUT THESE LABELS:

THEME/SCHOOL BOX- Our planned curriculum for the week
CRAFTivities -A photo walk through of our week
FIELD TRIP- Theme related outings in Orange County, CA

Field Trip - Prehistoric Park/Playground (Dinos)

Click on photo for link

The link above will take you to a resource for kids provided by the City. It's a greta site for everyone.
The links HERE and HERE are more about the park and HERE is more about other programs offered!

I had heard about Prehistoric Park at some point along the way and when I was planning for our Dino theme I finally went in search (online) to see if it really was a place. Sure enough it DOES exist! And the ultra COOL COOL part is that it is ACTUALLY built on "one of the richest fossil sites in the US" -per The City Of Laguna Hills.



At any rate, I had no idea there really was dino bones in OC much less CA, or the US... Ya you can pretty much say I didn't know they were really real. I always thought they were not sure if Dinos really existed. Maybe I was getting confused with, "not sure how they died."

It's ok you can visualize me wearing a dunce cap. I do sport one from time to time.



So our experience here was that it was MEGA difficult to find. It was easy finding all the other land marks but the park itself is sort of tucked away through a walk path behind the sports field.
LIKE I'M SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!



Once we found it though, we fell in love. Particularly Zorro...



Check out some of this parks unique features...sand/water area, fossils and bones, dinos to ride on and AWESOME play equipment for little ones and big kids!

FOR MORE DINO THEMED LINKS CHECK OUT THESE LABELS:

THEME/SCHOOL BOX- Our planned curriculum for the week
CRAFTivities -A photo walk through of our week
FIELD TRIP- Theme related outings in Orange County, CA

Field Trip - Prehistoric Pets

Click on photo for link

There's this really cool reptile store in Huntington Beach called Prehistoric Pets. We've been a few times before. They have TONS of snakes and lizards and other animals. Some are for sale and others are for viewing only. The price if free to get in but they ask for donation. I believe that they may be charging entrance fee for the "reptile zoo" soon though. At any rate it's worth at least one visit. Some of the snakes are MONSTROUS like hundreds of pounds! Totally cool.
You can also feed worms tot eh turtles and fish in the open pond that cost about $3 but really it's worth it for the fun.
Zorro loved it and oohed and ahhed and yelled and ran around the whole place 10 times over.
OH and did I mention you can have parties there? Or they can come to your place too!

Ya, you see those snakes?

PS You wanna buy a snakey? $500-50,000 (about)...what a STEAL!

BOOK TREE- Dinosaurs

DINOSAURS


The Book Tree is our pickings from the local library.

We go and pick 5 or 6 books from the library that have to do with our theme. Most of which we haven't heard of before, and maybe some we have.
My goal is to find new books and authors that we wouldn't otherwise know if we just went with the popular ones only. We've come across so many great books this way and found some new fave authors!


"Dino Pets" BY Lynn Plourde
This was # 1 this week hands down! I thought it was very cute but liked some of the other books better. Zorro was glued to it! He just adores itit, I might have to buy it. The illustrations are beautiful! The story is very sweet and simple about a boy who gets different dinos for pets because the one before ran away.


"Dinosaurumpus" BY Tony Mitton
This is most definitely a new favorite author for us! This book is so cute about Dinos that love to dance and the sounds each dino makes. FUN book!

"Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones" BY Byron Barton
Another new favorite author, we've happened upon several of his books and really like them They are simple and easy to read especially for LO's. He also illustrates his own books.
This book inspired out dino bone dig sensory activity.
The story takes you though the process of excavating all the way to rebuilding the dino.

"Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct" BY Mo Willems
This was a cute story about a boy who was trying to convince everyone including the local Dino that dinos where EXTINCT but no one would listen!


"Dinosaur V. Bedtime" BY Bob Shea
SO cute! About a little boy who needed to go to bed (he is the Dino) and how he resisted but eventually sleep won.


"Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe" BY Brian Moses
Well, I think it was a cute book but it was just too scary for Zorro. He doesn't like scary dinos and this was about a T-Rex that crashes a cafe and the dinos inside fight back.

Dinosaurs By: Benedicte Guettier
It has a cut out so you can tell the story and your face on the dino! What a neat idea and a great way to make dinos not so scary for little ones!


"The Most Amazing Dinosaur" BY James Stevenson
This book was about a homeless, friendless mous who needed a place to stay and happened upon a museum where he finds a home and friends.
The book is cute but Zorro was bored he never wanted to read it past the first few pages.

CRAFTivities- Dinosaurs

DINOSAURS

Zorro is 29 Months
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Scripture Repeat/Story :
Job 40:15-24 (New International Version)

"Look at the behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox."

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We watched Starfall


LETTER D and reviewed A.

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D Coloring Sheet
here

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PRINT OUTS

We used this Dino template here for most activities because it was not scary dino.

There's TONS of Dino printouts and info from Enchanted Learning here and here

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Land Before Time Movie
Movie Night

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SHAPE-A-SAURUS
Activity Cost: $0

TOOLS: Paint, plates or paint dishes, scissors, assorted paper, sponges, googly eye, marker, glue

I got the Shape-A-Saurus
This is by far one of my favorite crafts that we've done. He did AMAZING on it and I think it looks beautiful.

We changed it up a bit by painting the background to create the "environment" with sponges that I cut into a rectangle and circle to create trees. Zorro picked the colors and he stamped them on.I also changed it up by cutting out shapes in different color paper instead of a solid color and adding a tail. I cut and he glued.

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GROW A DINO
Activity Cost: $1

He TRANSFERRED the water.

After Grown


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STUFFED DINO
Activity Cost $0

TOOLS: Paint, brush/sponge, template, paint dish, stuffing (shredded paper, TP etc...), stapler, paper towel.

I used the dino template listed above and cut around the dino leaving about an inch from the line. after he painted and it was just starting to dry I blotted it with s paper towel. The texture gave it a scale like appearance. I thought it looked pretty cool.

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BUILD A DINO
Activity Cost $1- Michael's





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DINO BONE EXCAVATION Sensory Tub
Activity Cost: $1 -Bones

TOOLS: Tub, Dirt (or rice, beans, sand, etc), bones of some sort, shovel

In the Theme/School Box there was a shovel (he got from kids meal at Chik-fil-a). I saved it and planned to use it for this activity.

I bought Plaster of Paris to make the bones myself then I realized that I didn't want to take the time or spend the money ($6) so we used "milk bones" instead. Why not?!
Zorro LOVED this!

Digging for bones


Making fossils in the "buildings"

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STUFF-A-SAURUS
Activity Cost $2- J0-Ann's Clearance




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BLANKET MAKING ACTIVITY
This week's fabric:

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DINO STICKERS
Activity Cost $1

I have Zorro do "free art time" several times week and he loved using the sponges that he chose to use them again with the same colors but played with the sponges more this time to create a fun design.
I used that paper to have him stick his stickers on. Less waste and makes for a fun place to put the stickers.




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SCRAP-A-SAURUS

Ya, I know you're sick of reading "blank-a-saurus" but COME ON! You almost HAVE to call everything that!

Zorro worked on CUTTING and with the scraps from that I used the dino template at top for him to glue them into. I think it was a pretty ingenious idea myself. :)







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DINO TRACKS
everything that!

I loved this activity that I saw on Totally Tots



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CLOTHES PEN DINO

We didn't get to this but it's prepped and ready to go for a later activity!

Clothes Pen Dino
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PAPER MACHE DINO EGG

We didn't get to this but it's prepped and ready to go for a later activity!

Dino egg

Other activity Ideas:
Dino Egg Hunt (using Easter eggs)
Land Before Time activities

FOR MORE DINO THEMED LINKS CHECK OUT THESE LABELS:

THEME/SCHOOL BOX- Our planned curriculum for the week
CRAFTivities -A photo walk through of our week
BOOK TREE- Our picks from the local library
FIELD TRIP- Theme related outings in Orange County, CA
COOKIE CUTTER LUNCH- Themed lunch using cookie cutters

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