Friday, July 15, 2016

Magnificent Magnet!

We love magnet. There are lots of activities with magnet the kids can play and explore. It is such a simple iron bar yet so intriguing. Here are some of the information I've discussed with my girls about magnets and magnetism:

  1. The shape of magnets: Magnets come in variety of shapes such as U-shape magnet, horseshoe magnet, bar magnet, button magnets etc.
  2. The poles of magnets: Magnet has two poles, the north and the south poles. The like poles attract to each other, while the unlike poles repel.
  3. The magnetic and non-magnetic objects: The magnetic objects are the objects that attracted to the magnets such as nails, scissors and steel ruler. The non-magnetic objects are the objects that aren't attracted to the magnets such as plastics, woods and certain metals.
  4. Application of magnets: We listed some uses of magnets such as compass, fridge magnets, floating train and scrap magnets.

We also got excited over some fun facts about magnets:

  1. Magnetic pull is strongest at two points- the north and south poles.
  2. If you cut the magnet half, it will still has two poles, no matter how many times you cut it. 
  3. The first magnets used were natural stones called lodestones. The word "lode" means lead and so the stone was used to magnetize compass needles and lead sailors home. (Source)

And we jumped in excitement when we found this Quran verse about magnets!
"And We also sent down iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for mankind..." (Quran, 57:25)
Oh Allah, we couldn't thank You much for the scientific information You give us in the miraculous Quran! We love You so much! (Refer to this link for further explanation on the ayah).

Here are some of the activities we did with magnets.


Hanging paper clips.

Magnet is strongest at its poles.

No matter how hard Iesha tried to put the paper clips at the middle of the magnet bar, the clip stubbornly went to the end of the bar.

A freely magnet will always points in the North-South direction. 

This shows how a compass work. Iris calibrated it with the iPhone compass, and she jumped in joy when she got the magnet bar points to the same direction as in the apps.

A simple worksheet for Iyra. (Click here for the free worksheet)


Thursday, April 28, 2016

Frog Life Cycle Craft

We're still learning on animal's life cycles. Last Sunday we learnt about our green hopper friend, Mr Froggy.  We learnt that mother frog lays thousands of eggs in a pond.  It will then turn into a tadpole, which Iyra would love to keep in her small insect house.  She said "It's too cute! I cannot tahan!" We also learnt that the tadpole will then change to a froglet and finally to a charming prince after a good greeny kiss. 

You may need these materials to make this frog life cycle:
  1. Paper plate
  2. Green cardstock (Manila card)
  3. Felt paper for the lilypad
  4. Bubble wrap for the eggs
  5. Pipe cleaner for the frog's tongue
  6. Ladybug craft peg
  7. Googly eyes
  8. Sharpie

We found out some interesting facts about frog too.  You can check them out here:
  1. Frogs are amphibians.
  2. Frog drinks the water through the skin.
  3. A group of frog is called an 'army'.
  4. There are over 4,700 species of frogs. (Source)
  5. The study of amphibians and reptiles is called Herpetology, and those who study them are called Herpetologists.
  6. Croaking is used by male frogs as a way to attract females.
  7. A frog won't turn into a prince, no matter how many times you kiss him! (:P)

Videos on frogs:
There are a lots of free worksheets on frogs you can retrieve from the internet.  I think it's a good practice to have them do the worksheets to get to know their understanding after all the lessons.  

Till then, croak croak!





Worksheet for Iyra

Worksheet for Iris

Worksheet for Iesha


Monday, April 18, 2016

Easy Fish Aquarium Craft

Iesha's aquarium

Iris's aquarium

Iyra's aquarium

To Arr is Pirate

Pirate Iris

Pirate Iesha

Pirate Iyra


Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Symmetrical Portrait Drawing

Angels are often disguised as daughters.

A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give. 

Daughters are another version of yourself, only better.

Easy Tissue Paper Craft for Kids

Daffodil by Iris 

Rose by Iyra

Yellow Bank's Rose by Iesha

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Paper Plate Magnet Maze

 What you need

 Instructions here

 Lost in maze

"Happy to Be Back on Earth" by Iris, in acknowledging a return of Scott Kelly. (We did watch a video on their return, haven't you? 

 "My proboscis needs sweet sugary flower." This is made by Iyra. We used words we learnt from our butterfly life cycle craft. "Butterflies taste with feet, drink with proboscis."

"Rabbit-y Rabit" by Iesha.


Hot Air Balloon Craft

"Mummy, jom kita pi New Mexico nak? Kita naik hot air balloons?" Iesha suggested this nice vacation, inspired by a video she watched in the YouTube.  She'd love to fly high in the air in the basket with the help of a pilot who navigates the balloon.  "To the right! To the left! We are high, up in the air!" 

Now we know how to float a hot air balloon.

"The burner uses propane gas to heat up the air in the envelope to move the balloon off the ground and into the air.  The pilot must keep firing the burner at regular intervals throughout the flight to ensure that the balloon continues to be stable.  Naturally, the hot air will not escape from the hole at the very bottom of the envelope as firstly, hoe air rises and secondly, the buoyancy keeps it moving up." (Source: here)

It is extremely interesting to see how this big fat balloons fly up high in the air.  Here are a few great videos to watch: here and here

Till then, float up!


Parts of a hot air balloon

 Thing we used

 Float all the way girls!! To the stars!!

 Dream big little one!

 She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes.

 A great adventure is about to begin!

A book on hot air balloon adventure.


Friday, March 4, 2016

Butterfly Life Cycle Craft

I think it's a good time to start talking about animal life cycles with Iesha (6y)  and Iyra (5y).  We started with a butterfly. They found it interesting to know that the butterfly was first a caterpillar. They also wondered why the caterpillar is in extreme hunger and eat its own egg shell and almost everything near them.  So we watched a few videos and read some articles on butterflies.  I also decided to make this craft to show them the life cycle of a butterfly.

Fun facts about butterflies: (thanks to here and here and here.)
  • Butterflies are insects.
  • A butterfly's life cycle is made up four parts, egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult.
  • Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.
  • Most caterpillars are herbivores.
  • Fully grown caterpillars attach themselves to a suitable twig or leaf before shedding their outside layer of skin to reveal a hard skin underneath known as chrysalis.
  • An adult butterfly will eventually emerge from the chrysalis where it will wait a few hours for its wings to fill with blood and dry, before flying for the first time.
  • Butterflies can live in the adult stage from anywhere between a week and a year, depending on the species.
  • Butterflies have four wings.
  • Butterflies taste with their feet (they laughed on this).
  • Butterflies often have bright colored wings with unique patterns made up of tiny scales.
  • The fastest butterflies are the skippers, which can fly at 37 miles per hour, but most butterflies travel at 5 to 12 miles per hour.
  • Their eyes are made of 6000 lenses and can see ultraviolet light.
  • Many adult butterflies never excrete waste - they use up all they eat for energy.
  • In some areas, the number of feeding caterpillars on plants is so great that you can actually hear them munching.  Thus, manners are not important in butterfly society.


Watch videos on butterflies: hereherehere and here.


What we used.

How to make a chrysalis?
1. Cut out 2 inches x 4 inches of tissue paper.
2. Twist one end of the tissue paper.
3. Crumple another tissue paper and insert it into the unfinished chrysalis.
4. Twist the other end of the chrysalis and glue it to the twig.

How to make a caterpillar?
1. Cut a nylon string of about 5 inches long.
2. Knot one end of the string.
3. String some beads to the nylon string.
4. Secure the end with tight knot.

How to make a butterfly?
1. Stack the pieces of tissue paper together.
2. Scrunch up the center of both pieces of tissue paper and twist a pipe cleaner around it.







Friday, February 19, 2016

Lift Off!

I believe that every kid wants to be an astronaut. When clouds and rainbow aren't enough for them, they quest for something bigger, something over the clouds. So did my three little princesses. They asked too many questions about the stars, the sun, the planets, even the black holes. Reading books and watching videos about space couldn't fill their long and arduous search for that matter. They aim to be one of those selected people to space. 

In order to delight their NASAish dreams, I decided to make this simple straw rocket craft. We also watched and read fascinating facts about rockets and stuff. They couldn't comprehend why initially human sent flies, dog and monkeys to the space, "How can they tell us what they saw?" asked Iris. And the moment they saw the rocket detaching its booster and cried in unison "Look!" was priceless. And of course the 'Whys' and 'Hows' would naturally comes from these little creatures. 

So, here is our kick start for our first NASA project. Hopefully there will be more to come. I'd like to share some interesting facts and videos that I've watched with my future astronauts.


Fun facts about rockets - read here, here and here.

Videos on rockets - watch here and here.

On 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, lift off! Bye everyone!

 Things we used

1. Draw a rocket on a white card stock paper. 
2. Cut out the rocket.
3. Color the rocket.

 Glue the rocket on the straw. Glue the rocket and the star on the black paper.

By Astronaut Iris (She couldn't be happier once she knew NASA used her name in 2015. IRIS is abbreviated for Image Reversal in Space.)

 By Astronaut Iesha

By Astronaut Iyra


Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings ~ Salvador Dali

 What you need:
Felt papers
Shredded tissue papers
Googly eyes
Craft bird feather
Craft glue

 1. Draw the bird body on the felt paper.
2. Cut out the bird shape.
3. Glue the googly eyes onto the bird body.
4. Glue the feather at the back of the bird.
5. Put some glue to make bird's nest.
6. Paste the shredded paper as the bird's nest.