momstown Milton Little Scientists Explore the World of Birds!

Our momstown Milton mamas and kids had fun exploring the world of birds at our Little Scientist program recently!  I think it is safe to say that we are all breathing a sigh of relief that warmer weather is on the way.  After a long winter it is exciting to celebrate the return of Spring, and we are always happy to see the robins return to our back yards!

We had a big group of Little Scientists, and we started off by talking about what makes a bird, a bird!  The kids had many ideas about what a bird is!  We narrowed down their ideas to a couple of traits that all birds share:  Birds have feathers covering their bodies; and birds are hatched from eggs. 

I asked the group: “Do all birds fly?”.  Our smart little ones knew that all birds do not fly.  We talked about how all birds can walk, most can fly, and that some can even swim.

We read a book about birds called Sparrow, Eagle, Penguin and Seagull – What is a Bird? by Brian P. Cleary.

After the book, we talked about how Spring is nesting time for birds, and how they are very hungry after migrating back from their warmer winter homes.   Our Little Scientists got busy making pinecone bird feeders to bring home and hang outside in their back yards. 

Moms helped tie strings onto the pinecones (less messy to tie it on BEFORE the peanut butter and bird seed is applied).

Everyone had fun using butter knives to spread peanut butter on their pinecones.

 Once the peanut butter was spread on, the kids took turns shaking their pinecones in a Ziploc bag half filled with birdseed.

Voila!  A wonderful treat for our feathered friends!

After our bird feeders, our Little Scientists worked on colouring a Bird Watching list.  This was a page filled with birds that our little ones will see in our area – robin, chickadee, blue jay, cardinal, duck, goose, etc.  We named each bird and looked at a photo of each bird.  They enjoyed colouring the birds, and all were excited to start looking for the different birds as they left for home.

Thank you all for coming out to the Little Scientist group today!  See you next time!

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Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

  

momstown Milton Jr Chefs Explore Exotic Fruits!

Our momstown Milton Junior Chefs had a wonderful time being "little explorers"  with new and exotic fruits at our Junior Chef - exotic fruits event!

The beautiful display of colourful fruits on the table caught the eye of everyone. We started off with guessing the name of each fruit.  When we correctly identified the fruit, it was passed around the table for everyone to look at, touch and smell.  Pineapple and mango were easily guessed, but the others were a little more challenging.  The children enjoyed the guessing game, and everyone was happy to hold the fruits in their own hands.  

Once the fruit was passed around, it was time to dig in!  Each child got a butter knife, small plastic plate (or "cutting board") and a small plastic bowl.  It was time to guess what each fruit would look like on the inside!  Almost everyone guessed the papaya would be yellow, but they were surprised to see the beautiful salmon colour and black seeds.  Seeing the white flesh with tiny black seeds inside the dragon fruit (or "monster fruit" as one of our Jr Chefs called it) was surprising when the kids guessed "blue", "yellow" or "red" would be inside the vibrant pink skin.

The fruits we tried today were: Pineapple, dragon fruit, pomegranate, granadilla, mango, papaya, and star fruit.  Most of these fruits were very easy for our Junior Chefs to cut on their own with their butter knives. They also enjoyed picking out the delicious juicy pomegranate seeds from the yellow flesh.  Moms were close by to lend a helping hand, however the kids did a wonderful job making their own fruit salads. It was nice for the kids to be able to decide what they wanted to eat and when!  We were all so proud of them... everyone did such a beautiful job exploring the fruits and bravely tasted EVERYTHING!!
 

Us moms were especially amazed that each and every child tried the slimy, gelatinous yet crunchy, grey pulp of the granadilla (a kind of passion fruit).  Liam's face in the photo below is priceless.  He was a trooper... they all were!!
 

We had a really fun time today at Junior Chef.  It was wonderful to sit at the table for almost an hour, with all of the kids interested and taking part.  A part of the success of the event was the fun, bright and delicious fruit, but letting the children have their own knifes, bowls and cutting boards really seemed to make the experience special.  Sometimes the simple things are just so great.  

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

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If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

momstown Milton Kids Explore Recycling Bin Crafts!

Look no farther than your recycling bin for wonderful craft ideas!  Our momstown Milton kids had fun today making binoculars at our Recycled Treasures program. The momstown educational curriculum theme for the month of April is "Little Explorers", so binoculars were an obvious choice!

I have long been a fan of keeping a cupboard full of recycled items that will one day become items to spark the imagination of my girls.  When I was asked to host this group I was thrilled.  Recycling and repurposing are our way of life, and doing crafts with my daughters and nieces is a passion of mine.  Our binoculars were made from yellow Solo cups saved from my daughter's first birthday party (I knew they would come in handy some day!) and ribbon left over from my wedding day!  

This was a very simple craft.  I pre cut off the bottoms of all the cups with an x-acto knife.  Each child got two cups and a roll of tape.  The cups were taped together, then the kids had fun decorating their binoculars with colourful stickers.  Once decorated we used a hole puncher to make a hole on each side, then attached the ribbon.  

 

 

We had another craft to do today - a fun telescope, but only one of our crafty kids was interested enough to make one!  This was also a simple craft - a paper towel tube, wrapped in construction paper that we decorated with crayons and stickers. The fun part of this craft was a strip cut from a clear plastic clam shell container.  The strip was decorated with small animal stickers, then threaded through slits cut (by an adult) in the telescope.  When looking through the telescope, if you pull the strip you can see the different animals!  
 

There is something about binoculars that really sparks kids' imaginations!  My oldest daughter has been playing all day with her binoculars around her neck.  She has been exploring with them - observing the letters in her soup, watching the birds in the back yard, even watching TV.  Amazing how something so simple can provide so much entertainment for our kids.  

Thank you to everyone came out today to Recycled Treasures!  Looking forward to more fun next time, when we will be creating Spring themed paintings with recycled items!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

 

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If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca