We Play : Colorful Sea Life Fun & A Little Giveaway, Too!

Little Bro checking out sea life at The Dig, Atlantis Paradise Island.

Big Bro and Little Bro looking at the markings on the walls at The Dig, Atlantis Paradise Island.

Cool sea life at The Dig.

While we were at Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau, the Bahamas, we went on a wonderful excursion called The Dig. The Dig is a wonderful underground aquarium of sorts. You can tour The Dig on your own or with a tour guide. We kind of did both.

Here is our tour guide showing us a Conch as it is creeping out of its shell.

We started out by ourselves, joined in here and there with the tour guide, and then, went back to exploring by ourselves. What was really neat was to see the tour guides holding the conch and then, watching the conch come partly out of its shell.
We learned many facts about the conch that we did not already know, so that made it very worthwhile to listen to the tour guide for this part of the tour. Right after learning about conchs, sea stars, and sea urchins, the boys got to reach in a big tank to carefully touch and hold these sea creatures. Was neat to get to feel them and hold them like that...Big Bro enjoyed this part of the tour more so than Little Bro. He touched the animals but did not want to hold any of them.
There were all kinds of rays, sharks, fish, sea urchins, sea stars, conchs, coral, lobsters, shrimp, sea jellies, and moray eels to observe.

Spiny Lobsters hanging out, having fun at The Dig.

This photo does not do this beauty of a Manta Ray justice as to how big and cool looking is was...

Moray Eels hiding in the holes in their exhibit.

 We had studied Bahamian sea life before going there so the boys were able to identify many of the sea creatures we saw.
It was very fun for our whole family.
After we toured The Dig, we walked the grounds and got to see some of the sea life from above instead of below ground level.
Since our family just got back from the Bahamas, we are kind of still in sea life mode. So for practical life work today, Little Bro chose to do a work using little sea creature mats. He did a dry transfer activity by using a small spoon and transferring M & M's from the bowl to the mats. He covered a total of three sea stars and had a blast doing this activity!

Little Bro carefully transferring candies to his sea stars...and then, after wards, eating the candies! yummy!

One of Little Bro's candy coated sea stars.

It was especially fun for him,  as he was able to eat the candies after completing this activity.
Big Bro also chose to do a sea life activity. He read about sea life from some cards we have then, he made sea creatures to go with the cards.

One of Big Bro's stacks of sea life cards. He had fun reading the cards out loud to Little Bro. Big Bro then decided to make some sea life out of play dough. Little Bro thought that sounded fun so he joined in, too...

Big Bro making his school of fish...

Big Bro had such a good time that Little Bro joined in and did the same activity when he wrapped up his dry transfer.

Little Bro's sea horse card that was read to him by Big Bro.

Little Bro working hard at making his own sea horse.

Little Bro's sea horse...

All in all, both boys had a fun time while learning and playing.

This post is linked up to the We Play links over at Childhood 101.

Great for little hands to build their sea creature and then, to get to eat the candies as a snack after ward...

Update:  

The winner for this giveaway was contacted. 

This Giveaway has ended and comments on this post are now closed.  

Disclaimer: This giveaway was open to public followers and or public subscribers of my blog. If you have not done so, please choose to subscribe or follow before entering this giveaway.
You are to hold me harmless in the event that a child would choke while completing the activities related to the transfer or the making of play dough sea creatures. Any injury related to completing these activities would be at your own risk, although these activities are deemed age appropriate based on the fact that they are pretty common sorts of activities to be done in the home or school with young children. 
I was not asked by Atlantis to plug their excursion or their resort and am only doing it because we had a great time there.
I was not asked by any company to do this little giveaway...it is just a fun one to do for my blog subscribers and followers.

Montessori Monday: Grace & Courtesy Lesson: Intros. When You're on the Go

Our whole family loves to travel, whether by land, air, or water...we are always up for an exciting, fun time.

When traveling, there are many opportunities for your child or children to meet other new children from all over the world.
What we have found is that it is a good idea to prep our sons for these chance encounters.
Before going on vacation, we practice introducing ourselves.

We remind them that they are to introduce themselves using their first names and as far as details to tell a new person, they are welcome to share that we live in the state of Florida in the country of the USA and if they care to share, the continent of North America.

They are not to give out their last names, their phone numbers, their address, etc.
We also try to get them to ask the prospective new buddy if the child speaks English or possibly French or Spanish. The boys are fluent in English but are starting to learn French and Spanish and can at least say a few things in these languages to a prospective new friend. They have also found that many times, even if a child does not speak English, French, or Spanish, that through body movements and gestures, they can understand each other to an extent...
If they become really good buddies with a particular child while we are on vacation and the children wish to exchange pen pals, we take care of this with the child's parents. We do not allow the boys to set up pen pals or give out their address on their own. We offer to do pen pal letters in English but have also offered to do them in French and Spanish, as long as the parents can help their children to interpret our attempts at these languages.

We explain to our sons that children you are just meeting for the first time do not need to know everything about you...just the basics like your first name, where you are from and maybe a couple of things that you enjoy doing, such as playing with Lego and building with blocks.

Then, we remind our sons to be sure to ask the new child they have met what their first name is, where they are from, and what they like to do.

We encourage them to be good listeners and to be sure to give the child or children plenty of time to answer.

Our sons are very multi-sensory kids. They like to talk, share stories, sing, dance, hug friends,  and share their snacks and toys.  When we practice introductions, we remind the boys that not all children like to give or receive hugs, nor do all children like the same sorts of snacks...so it is best to wait until we all meet as a family before giving a new friend a hug or sharing a treat. Big Bro is more of a hugger than Little Bro if the child is older or a girl, so even though Little Bro is affectionate, he is more reserved when it comes to hugs than Big Bro. So, when we have the boys practice introducing themselves, we always highlight the fact that you have to wait until a person wants a hug or until their mom, dad, or nanny tells you that they may have some of your snack.

We also remind them that some children are shy, some children have special needs and in either case, these new children may not be up for telling you much about themselves, but to be friendly, kind, patient, and always give a smile when trying to meet a new potential buddy.  There are children who are differently able but who can also be great new friends if you are patient and get to know them as much as they want to get to know you.

We highlight that all children are children of God so right off the bat, you have that in common with them...and if you are patient and work at getting to know another child, they might have other things in common with you, especially what they might enjoy doing...plus, even if they are totally different than you, they might like to do something different that you would enjoy doing if you knew more about it...

We have found prepping our boys before going into social situations with other new children has really helped them to feel comfortable with meeting new children. Hopefully, their ease with meeting new children helps to make other children feel at ease around them as well...

Big Bro and Little Bro ready to make some new buddies in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Best friends, best brothers waiting to meet new little buddies in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Making new friends may seem scary to new children, but it can be as fun as playing peek-a-boo behind this Junkanoo mask in the Bahamas. Big Bro and Little Bro had a fun time taking photos with this huge costume, although they were too little to reach the space for a head and had to be in the spaces meant for hands!

Best brothers, best friends hanging out in Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, the Bahamas.

Our sons recently had the chance to put their grace and courtesy skills in action while on a family cruise to the Bahamas.
They had the chance to meet children both on board and on land while on vacation. 
Our boys participated in the on board children's program on the cruise ship we were on and both had a wonderful time.They also had the chance to meet some children while we did our land excursions at Atlantis Paradise Island and other places.
Both boys were comfortable meeting new children of mixed ages and abilities.
They seemed to feel really good about the new buddies they had made.
Various members of the cruise camp staff commented on how well prepared and at ease they both seemed to be with meeting new children of all ages. They said that both seemed to work at making other children feel comfortable and relaxed when around them and that both were good listeners, both with the adults and when listening to what other children were saying.
This was a nice moment when Dear Hubby and I heard this, as you always hope that they will remember to put into practice what we have tried to instill in them at home.
When the camp staff asked us what we did to prep them for being with other children, I said that we just do little Montessori Grace and Courtesy lessons as part of our day to day and that that is what helps them to feel confident and respond positively to new friends of all ages and abilities.

If you plan to travel with your children, you might want to also prep them for meeting new children. Doing a little Montessori Grace and Courtesy lesson about how to introduce yourself is a huge help to your children and to those they might meet.

What do you do to prep your children for meeting new people?

Just a reminder: 

Tomorrow, Whole Lotta Love starts back up...

Giveaway # 4 will start tomorrow so be sure to pop back tomorrow to see more about this week's giveaways (Giveaways for this week will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).

This post is linked up with Montessori Monday at One Hook Wonder.

Reggio Emilia Wednesday: Bahamas Blast!

We are going to the Bahamas in the near future, so to prep Big Bro and Little Bro for our trip, we have started to do some work about The Bahamas.
We have learned about the food, clothing, customs, sea and land animals, homes, restaurants and shops of The Bahamas.
What was really neat was to learn about an interesting holiday called Junkanoo. Junkanoo starts on December 26th. It involves a big parade and wearing ornate masks. The holiday has African roots, and originally coincided with Christmas but was moved to be on Boxing Day instead of Christmas. Sometimes, the celebrations go on well into the first week of January.
Both Big Bro and Little Bro made Junkanoo inspired masks, sans the feathers as feathers make us a bit sneezy here. They had such a fun time making these scary masks.
Mask making seems like it is going to morph into a long range Reggio Emilia inspired project about masks, as making the masks and learning about them seemed to really pique the interests of both Big Bro and Little Bro.
We have other masks in our Montessori inspired continents boxes from Italy, England, South Korea, and The Bahamas so it has some real potential to develop into more than just a one day Junkanoo mask project.  Discussing how emotions are portrayed on masks was very interesting to the boys. They also liked looking at how ornate the various masks were, as well as how the masks were pretty symmetrical...so this should be a fun start to an ongoing mask project here in the Sunshine State.

Dear Hubby helped me to format some three part cards and a bingo game of sorts all about The Bahamas.
Here are some photos of our Bahamas inspired work:

Big Bro working on making his Junkanoo mask.

Big Bro adding some detail to his mask...

Little Bro making his mask and imitating the look on his mask.

Big Bro's scary Junkanoo mask. All Junkanoo masks tend to look a little scary.

A little twist on three part cards....at Big Bro's request, we made an extra set of the cards and laminated them as "gameboards" so that we could play Bahamas Bingo for Family Game Night.

One of the picture cards for our Bahamas three part cards. This is the flag of The Bahamas.

Little Bro and Big Bro sporting their Junkanoo masks. Mask making was such a cool project! This is the spring board for more mask making fun, to be certain!

In addition to a long range Reggio Emilia inspired mask making project, we are also going to make some  snacks inspired by The Bahamas for this week, include some made of plantains and coconut. Yummy and fun!

Getting closer and closer for the real Bahamas experience...hope we will be able to pick up some real Junkanoo masks when we go there.

What are you doing in your classroom or homeschool this week?

Any long term Reggio Emilia inspired projects?

How are you integrating Montessori and Reggio Emilia in your home or classroom?

Any cool Reggio Emilia inspired projects you have discovered and think should be linked up here?

Please link up if you have something that you would like to share: