Henry does Hens!

At Christmas we became the proud owners of two brown hens - Henry took delivery of them on Xmas day from Santa! Named Henrietta and Peck Peck, they have become integral members of our family! As I write this blog however, I am recovering from finding one of said hens in the middle of the road near our house after she decided a re enactment of "chicken run" would be fun! Luckily I found her, caught her & delivered her back safely!

With a number of snow days in the last couple of weeks, I dedicated one day to lots

of activities with a "

hen" theme. I'll try & outline them all here, but in summary we had:

1. Create a piece of hen related art (painting, collage, drawing etc)
2. Words rhyming with "egg" and "hen" - thought of and written down by Henry.
3. Read some hen related stories (see another post).
4. Sight words bingo (with an egg theme)
5. Simple addition of how many eggs have the two hens layed!
6. Provide an egg shape and suggest that it be turned into a person/animal etc.
7. Create a story about Henry and his hens in simple words and read it.

I apologise for the long post, but we did quite a few activities!

1. Hen art

Henry's piece of hen art was a collage using tissue paper cut up and scrunched up. I drew the outline of the Hen, and provided the

squares of cut tissue paper. I did originally offer this in gold, orange and yellow, thinking Henry would use all colours for a multi coloured hen.....however he

stuck with gold and I cut adequate bits for him to finish in that colour. Peck Peck the collage hen was a great success!

2. Rhyming words

On the internet you can find images of

anything you want. A search for "eggs" brought me a great egg picture which I replicated loads of

times. For the rhyming words, Henry had the egg shapes to write each letter on to create the rhyming words.

3. Hen & egg stories

We have on our shelf - Coriander the contrary hen and The most wonderful egg in the world, which we read. We also did an activity with the latter title which I will post as a separate activity.

4. Simple words egg bingo

For Egg bingo I printed a page with 8 eggs on, and onto each of these eggs I wrote one of Henry's sight words. I then printed out a further 8 eggs that I cut out and wrote the same words on. I replicated each of these so I could play with Henry. We took it in turns to take eggs off the pile and read the words then cover the eggs. It was a bit more fun that simple squares with words in.

5.Egg addition eggsercise!

I found a picture of a hen on the internet & printed it out twice. I then printed about 10 eggs out. Under each hen I placed a number of eggs and we did simple addition with Henry recording the number of eggs layed next to a picture of his hen run.

6. Egg head

I provided Henry with a blank piece of paper and a cut out of an egg, and suggested he turn it into a face. I imagined he would add some hair, eyes, nose and mouth......I was wrong - he actually turned it into an egg person! Then when asked to name it...called it Henry Egg!

7. A story about Henry and his hens

This I prepared in advance. I created simple sentences that Henry knew the words or could sound out the words with some help. I then added a few images to help with the story recognition. Henry thought this was great, that he appeared in the story with his hens!

A farm park trip out

During school half term we ventured out in the rain to our local farm park - Cotswold Farm park it is a fantastic place about an hours drive from where we live. The weather certainly kept most visitors at home, so we nearly had the place to ourselves. Henry and i went with one of his friends from school.

Henry loves animals, and so the touch and

cuddle area was a BIG hit!

Henry started with a very fluffy bunny....then moved onto a very small yellow cheeping chick!

He thendecided that the pen full of ducks looked like they needed some loving, so he asked if he could hold one. Judging by the assistant's response it was obviously not a regular request! But she managed to catch a very large duckling/small duck......and Henry loved it. Fascinated by its webbed feet and the fact it had small claws on the webs.

During the rest of our trip Henry fed a VERY LARGE lamb by bottle! Chased piglets,fed goats and drove electric tractors for about an hour! We also checked out the nature trail in the wood, and took a trip round the farm by tractor and trailer.

Altogether, a FANTASTIC day out!

Henrys new hobby - Horse riding!

Much to my delight, Henry is showing an interest in horses! Actually at the moment it is all animals....dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, cows...you name it Henry wants to get up close and personal which is great.

Back in the UK however, i have been given a great opportunity to use a small pony to teach Henry to ride. The pony is George...a very placid and fluffy pony who seems to cope with Henry very well!

Prior to George, Henry had never been on a pony; only horses of 16hh or higher, unsurprisingly he was a little daunted by the idea of riding. It was love at first sight with George though - a pony his size and one where there was no pressure to ride if he didn't want to.

In the last month, Henry has been on George about 5 times; each time getting a little more confident. Normally his interest lasts a lap around the field (about 10 minutes) - but he has tried a little trot (with a lot of giggling) and today Henry mastered slalom around buckets and going through the mouth of a cave (between two buckets) so he is getting the steering as well!

We will take it steady, ride whenever Henry wants to and get off as soon as the interest wains...at this stage it is important to keep it fun, so he wants to come back for more!

Meeting a lobster!

My parents live close to the coast, and as a result we have taken a number of visits to the coast whilst we have been staying with them. This one was a little different.

All togged up in several layers, we took a trip to Orford in Suffolk to catch a small boat called "Regardless" to go and see what is caught in lobster pots. Detailed as an 'excursion for the family', the boat was full of kids and accompanying adults - 23 of us in total. It was run by Orford Marine services.

The trip is all about seeing what comes out of lobster pots, and getting up close and personal with the catch of the day! On request we all chanted "lobster, lobster" as the pots were lifted...assured by our skipper that this would ensure the catch included a lobster!

We got lucky on the first pot and actually had a lobster on board the boat in the first ten minutes. The deck hand was very good at explaining about the lobster and quickly banded its claws so that it could not hurt anyone! That done, the lobster made a trip around the boat numerous times, and hit the deck several times as well. All the kids got to hold it. Henry was pretty unsure of it, but eventually we held it together, and he looked pretty proud that he managed that.

In addition to the lobster there were crabs of all shapes and sizes. We were shown how to carefully pick them up without getting nipped, then it was all hands on crab. There were hermit crabs, regular crabs and a velvet swimming crab, which actually felt like velvet to touch. How to tell the male and female crabs apart was detailed, as was the fact that they shed their shell every year.

The whole trip was extremely educational and informative, and fun. At an hour long it was perfect for the kids, and the boat was small enough so that everyone got to hold and touch whatever catch was available.

At the end, everything is returned to the sea, and a crab throwing competition ensued, even Henry threw a very small crab over board, returning it to where it belonged.

Looking a little wind blown - Debbie, William, Henry and I.....daddy was there, just behind the camera for once.

Outdoor Hour - Challenge # 27 - Bees

This week's Outdoor Hour challenge for us is Challenge #27 - Bees

This week, Henry has been at camp at the Botanic gardens. Yesterday the class spent the morning studying bees and discussing bees and their activities. I thought I'd jump on Henry's enthusiasm and we could do this outdoor hour challenge with his new found knowledge.

I checked out the bee's in the Botanic garden today and found out some interesting facts and snapped a couple of good pictures.After much discussion on the subject, I thought we would start with a craft. A bee!

Using tissue paper (in balls and cut into squares), we designed our bee. I drew the basic body, head and wing shapes which Henry cut out.

I then tore tissue paper up and Henry helped me screw it into little balls; very good for developing strength and co-ordination with the hands. He drew stripes on the bee's body, the proceeded to stick the tissue paper on in stripes.

With the head, we used a more mosaic approach, using little squares of tissue paper. I offered Henry one eye or two - he chose two. For the wings, i was going to have him use tissue paper, but he announced that he would like feathers! Good thing i carry such stock!

We put the bee together, and it looks great.

After the art, we did a little writing practice and made our journal entries.

With a little help Henry drew the bee honeycomb shapes and practiced his letter b and B writing, and described bees a little.

Polar bear encounter

I just wanted to post this, purely for you to see the photos I took today of Henry up close & personal with a polar bear.

At Lincoln Park zoo in Chicago we visited Henry's favourite animals; giraffes, penguins and now polar bears!

We shall add an entry with follow up activities, but for now, just have a look at how close Henry got to this bear, and the amazing wonder of this huge

animal swimming so gracefully.

Peggy Notebart Nature Museum - Trip Out

One of our favourite museums in Chicago is the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum. Packed full of kid friendly exhibits and experiences it is a real treat.

Today we struck lucky and had an amazing visit.

The butterfly house was great, and Henry was far more relaxed as they fluttered by in close proximity. We went hunting for Henry's butterflies friends the painted ladies, but saw so many more. Check out the great slide show of some that i caught on camera at the bottom of this entry.

Although the butterflies are the main draw to this museum, every day, an animal that can be petted is normally on show as well. However today we found three, just waiting for us. Hen

ry, much to my amazement showed no hesitation in getting up close and personal with all three!

First he was intrigued by a HUGE python. He stroked it and described it as "warm and smooth".

Next he got down in amongst some very long suffering tortoises! He picked them up, turned them over, checked out their legs, eyes, tail, and shell. He even tried out his own experiment to see what happened when he put them on their backs....needless to say my intervention on behalf of the poor tortoise was needed at this point!

A lizard was also sat calmly (did not move a muscle) on an arm chair, so Henry checked that out "hard and rough". I'm not sure he believed me that it was real though, as it was so still.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The first butterfly has arrived

First in the kitchen this morning, Henry was more than a little excited to find that his first butterfly has emerged from its chrysalis in the early hours.

After watching it intently, we decided to provide it with some food. Watermelon on hand we gave it a nice juicy bit...only for me to have to re think an hour later as it kept getting soggy in the watermelon juice that pooled around the fruit!!!

Anyway, as usual my inventiveness shined through! Emptying out the mesh basket with all the paints in (which are now just dumped on the floor) we gave our new butterfly a more satisfactory home. It even spent the afternoon outside in the fresh air in its new home!

On the last few occasions that we have visited a butterfly house, Henry has been scared of the butterflies as they fluttered past him. However today, his inquisitiveness got the better of him. I showed him how the butterfly walked onto my hand with no hesitation and described how it felt to him. Regardless of Henry's education, this was a new one for me......it was FANTASTIC.

Shortly after, Henry had his hand down into the habitat and the butterfly climbed obligingly onto Henry. He was literally shaking with excitement and intrepidation. He was so excited by the experience though, it was amazing. It was all i could do all afternoon to keep him from making the butterfly a permanent attachment to him!

At bed time we read all the Caterpillar and butterfly books he has in his collection. With another butterfly expected tomorrow (with two of the other chrysalis's darkening) he went to bed a very happy boy.

Caterpillar update

A few days ago, some of our caterpillars made it to chrysalis stage. It took about 4 days for 5 caterpillars to make it to the top of the jar to create their cocoons. One of those making the top never cocooned.

It was with great excitement, and Henry very worried about disturbing them, on 26th May that we moved them into their new habitat, to hang as cocoons and hopefully come out as butterflies.

The chrysalis's are fascinating to look at. A silvery grey green colour, you can see the caterpillar inside, but also an area where i guess the wings are forming.

The caterpillar's spikes appear like a gold colour through the chrysalis.

So we will wait with patience and hope that at least one of these creatures will make it through the whole cycle so that Henry may experience this amazing natural wonder first hand.

We will keep you posted!

The caterpillars have arrived!

After much anticipation, our caterpillars arrived today.

We have one of my friend's; Melissa, to thank for the idea and the provision of these tiny creatures.

We have seven small caterpillars of the painted Lady butterfly, living in a jar in our kitchen now for the next few weeks!

Henry saw a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis when we were in New Zealand, and ever since he has been intrigued by caterpillars and the process by which they become butterflies. Hopefully we will have some success with these creepy crawlies and he will experience first hand, how caterpillars transform themselves.

We are going to create a caterpillar calendar, by which to keep an eye on these small black lines (which are about 2cm long today), to ensure we check regularly their progress.

I'll update the blogs as changes occur.

Today, Henry created his first journal page - drawing and describing the caterpillars.