Take a Trip to Tanzania With momstown Milton's Trip Around the World Program!

Jambo Rafiki!

We recently took a fun and exciting journey to Tanzania at our momstown Milton Trip Around the World program! 

We started the program by learning a Swahili phrase "Jambo Rafiki", which means "Hello Friends".  We listened to a song called "Jambo Bwana" so that we could hear what the Swahili language sounds like.  This is a very catchy tune, and a fun song to get kids dancing!  We also looked at a World map, and found Tanzania on the east coast of Africa.

Next we learned about the beautiful pieces of fabric called "kangas" that are worn by women in Tanzania.  Kangas have special meaning, and every single one has a Swahili Phrase written on it.  "Furaha ya maisha ni upendo"  means "love is the joy of life".  Kangas are given as gifts, new born babies are wrapped in a kanga, and newly married couples are wrapped in a kanga.  They are made of very colourful cotton, and sold with two identical pieces that can be cut down the centre - a skirt and a top, or maybe to be used to tie a baby on to mamas back for carrying.  I brought home several kangas from a trip to Tanzania.  The kids and mamas had fun trying them on!

We moved on to creating the flag of Tanzania, a very colourful and beautiful flag that is blue, black, yellow and green.

No Trip Around the World is complete without a sampling of food!  The "official" food of Tanzania is ugali and rice.  Ugali is very similar to polenta, but made with white cornmeal instead of yellow.  I decided to make a simple dish called "chips mayai".  This is a very popular dish that is eaten frequently in Tanzania, sold in restaurants as well as road side stalls.  Chips mayi is translated as "chips and eggs", and it is basically reheated fries that are cooked with eggs, similar to a fritatta.  Our little travelers enjoyed this snack, many asking for seconds!

 

 

Lastly, I showed the kids a picture of the school that I worked in while volunteering in Moshi, Tanzania.  The school is called Kilemehewa and it is a volunteer run school for kids who are not able to afford to attend public school (eg. cost of uniforms, books etc.).  It is run by the community with local teacher volunteers as well as international volunteers.  It is a wonderful place, and holds a special place in my heart!

 

 

Trip Around the World is a fun program that the kids always enjoy.  It is great to learn about other places, and this group always sparks fun conversations among the moms.  Everyone enjoyed their trip to Tanzania! Asante sana (thank you very much), little travelers for coming and bravely trying new tastes and experiences!

Kwaheri! (Goodbye!)

 

 

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Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two amazing girls.

 

Our momstown Milton Little Scientists Explore What Dissolves When Wet, Wet, Wet!

Our momstown Milton Little Scientists had fun experimenting in the kitchen, trying to determine what will dissolve when it gets wet, wet, wet! 

We started off with talking about what it means to "dissolve": when you add water to something and the little particles become so tiny that you can't see them anymore - they become part of the water; you may not see them but they are still there.

The kids were excited to be conducting experiments with common things that they see in their kitchens:  salt; instant coffee; pasta; quinoa; jello powder; and sprinkles.  We made a hypothesis for each item - would it dissolve in water, or would it stay the same?

Each Little Scientist chose a cup.  We then took turns putting a scoop of the food into a clear glass, then pouring warm water into the glass and stirring.

  
Kids love scooping and love pouring water, so this in itself was pretty entertaining for everyone!  It was fun for them to guess what would dissolve and what wouldn't.  

Seeing the coffee dissolve, the kids could see that something that dissolves is still a part of the solution.  We then moved on to the salt.  It dissolved into the water and the water is clear.  Everyone got to taste the water with a spoon to show that the salt didn't disappear, it changed form and became a part of the water.

 

The jello powder and the sprinkles were fun for the kids.  The water turned bright blue with the jello powder and our Halloween sprinkles turned the water black, though they didn't quite dissolve completely.  Not surprisingly, the sprinkles didn't dissolve completely off of little Sky's face after she sneaked a handful.

 

This is a fun and easy experiment to do with preschoolers.  They are able to participate by scooping, pouring and stirring, and they have fun guessing at the outcome (forming a hypothesis).  My daughter spent part of the afternoon walking around the house putting things like magnets, pens, a spoon of sugar, etc into a cup of water to see if they would "disappear".  It is nice to know that they think about these learning experiences once you have cleaned up the mess and moved on!

Thanks to everyone who came today for some basic science fun! Join us next month at our Little Scientists program  when we explore how to make music with bottles and water! !

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 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!

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

momstown Milton kids take a journey to Ireland!

A group of momstown Milton mamas and kids recently took a trip to Ireland during our Trip Around The World program.  We started off by looking at pictures of the country and learned why it is called "The Emerald Isle" (all the rain makes everything very green!).

We talked about the symbols of Ireland, the flag and the shamrock.  We had two crafts today.  We created Irish flags with green, white and orange paper.  

 

We also did some paint stamping using cut peppers and potatoes cut in the shape of shamrocks.  While we worked on our crafts we listened to some Irish music.

 

After our crafts, we talked about Irish folklore.  We learned that leprechauns are a big part of the folklore of Ireland.  Leprechauns are fairies, and they have specific jobs: they cobble fairy shoes, and they guard riches.  They are honest but very sneaky.  If you catch a Leprechaun they have to give you their gold... but they are crafty!  We read a story called "Clever Tom and the Leprechaun", the story of a man who gets outsmarted by a Leprechaun.

 

We finished off our trip to Ireland listening to Celtic music and eating Irish scones with butter and jam!  Thank you all for coming along on our journey!  

 

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Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.