Calico Cat Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

November 30, 2011
Calico Cat Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

Calico Cat Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

 

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/calico-cat-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST

  • the Calico is not a breed of cat – it is color pattern of reddish and dark patches on a base of white fur, and can happen in any breed
  • the name calico comes from the South Indian port city of  Calicut where a brightly colored cloth on a white background was made
  • calicos are almost all females
  • two female genes, called X chromosomes are needed to create the color patches
  • calicos are considered good luck
  • in the US, they are sometimes called money cats
  • Japanese sailors take Calicos on ships to guard against storms
Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , ,

Octopus Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

November 29, 2011
Octopus Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

Octopus Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

 

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/octopus-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST

  • The 150 speicies of octopus belong to the mollusk family.  They are found throughout the world’s oceans, most commonly in warm seas.
  • Octopuses range in size from two inches to a giant 32 feet across the arms of the Pacific octopus.
  • Octopuses are masters of camouflage – they can not only change color, but also shape and skin texture.
  • The octopus’s well-developed eyes enable it to see all around itself.  It has a large brain with quite a capacity for learning.

THE ANGRY OCTOPUS

A long time ago, all the sea creatures lived happily together in the palace of the Dragon King.  One day the King’s daughter became ill and the octopus was sent to find medicine for her.  He dutifully set out into the ocean’s depths and searched high and low.  He used his long tentacles to search beneath rocks and inside underwater caverns for the rare jellypalt that was used to sure the various ills that sometimes befell the sea creatures.

Alas, all his efforts were in vain and he returned home empty-tentacled and very worried.  What should he see but the little princess playing merrily with her friends!  Realizing that all his work had been for naught, he spun around agrily and shot a murky cloud of black ink at the princess and her friends, so that they dould see how greatly displeased he was.

The Dragon King, upon hearing what had happened to his daughter, flew into a rage and commanded that the octopus be banished forever.  That is why, to this day, you can see the solitary octopus slinking around in the dark depths of the sea.

     – a Japanese folktale

Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , , ,

Best Friends Forever!

November 27, 2011

  • Best Friends Forever magnetic dress up play set by Melissa & Doug

    Best Friends Forever! magnetic dress up play set by Melissa & Doug

  • helps teach hand eye coordination as well as matching and fine motor skills, encourages imaginative and independent play

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

  • ask the child to dress the dolls and then tell you a story about where they are going and what they will be doing
  • ask the child to count the number of shoes or any other articles of clothing contained in the set
  • trace the pieces on paper and let the child color them and create their own outfits – assist in cutting out the new outfits that can be temporarily affixed to the existing pieces
  • place four or more oieces in front of the child – let her study the pieces before asking her to close her eyes while you remove one piece – ask her to identify which piece was removed
  • identify specific outfits that Mia, Sarah, Ava or Hannah should wear, and have the child find them
Filed Under: Featured Dolls & Bears Tagged With: , ,

Black Bear Cub Puppet by Folkmanis

November 25, 2011
Black Bear Cub Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

Black Bear Cub by Folkmanis

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/black-bear-cub-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST:

  • the 9 species of bear are distributed across the North Hemisphere
  • they live alone, except when raising cubs
  • bears sleep through the winter in dens
  • they are not tru hibernators though, and often wake up during warm spells
  • the American black bear is usually timd, but when it becomes used to people in National Parks, it can hurt them when looking for food
  • the grizzly bear is a subspecies of the European brown bear – only a few hundred grizzlies remain in the lower 48 states

THE BEAR CLAN

A girl once found a bear cub and brought it home to her village.  Her mother reluctantly let her keep it since her name was little bear and soon the two did everything together, for in truth, they were very similar.  They went fishing in streams for rainbow trout, they searched out beehives to steal the honey, they gorged on berries until they could eat no more.  The day came tough when Brother Bear was too  big to stay in the village.  The night of the harvest moon he left them.  When Little Bear’s mother saw the sadness in her daughter’s face, she knew that her daughter must go too.  During the cold white months that followed, no one saw Little Bear.  But in the spring, she returned with a baby, a boy.  She also brought with her the secrets of the healing plants of the  forest that she had learned from the BEar tribe,  and was called Wise BEar from then on.  Her son founded the powerful Bear Clan whose members all have gleaming black eyes and love honey!

     -a Native AMerican folktale

Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , , ,

Activity Clock by Plan Toys

November 23, 2011

activity clock by Plan Toys
Activity Clock by Plan Toys
  • physical
  • mathematical
  • logical thinking
  • language
  • a fun wooden activity clock
  • a simple method for children to learn how to tell time
  • includes activity cards, which are place on the top of the clock so that children can match the time with the activity
  • encourages children to develop their language skills, social relationships and their environment
  • features 9 basic activity cards and 3 blank cards for parents to create based on different family activities
  • children can explain the activity cars or practice telling the time, which will encourage developing their language skills
  • children can place the activity card on the clock matching the related activity to a specific time
  • parents can specify a time and encourage the child to move the clock hands and match the activity card accordingly
  • the activity clock teaches children about the time, daily activities and discipline
  • parents should praise children when they can do it and advice if they are not able to do so
  • available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/activity-clock-wooden-toy
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Duck Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

November 22, 2011
duck hand puppet by Folkmanis

Duck Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/small-duck-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST

  • Most farm ducks are called Pekins.  They are white with yellow beaks.  they were domecticated from wild mallards in ancient times.
  • Only female ducks quack.  The male, or drake, makes a hoarse sound.  Drakes also have a curled feather on their tail.
  • Ducks love to dabble:  they tip up their bodies and sift through the water with their bills in search of food.
  • Ducklings bond easily with humans and other animals.  They make good pets if they have the companionship of a “Flock”.

MY LITTLE DUCK

I has a little duck

Who was clever and keen

She washed all my dishes

And kept the house clean.

She went to the mill

To fetch me some flour

And waddled back home

In less than an hour.

She baked me my bread

She brewed me my ale

She sat by the fire

And told many a fine tale.

     -a nursery rhyme

Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , , , ,

Balancing Scale by Plan Toys

November 21, 2011
balancing scale by PlanToys

Balancing Scale by Plan Toys

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/balancing-scale

  • social
  • mathematical
  • imagination
  • the balancing scale introduces children to the concept of weight comparison. 
  • It is also a fun addition for dramatic play with kitchen or market themes.
  • Children can weigh pieces of fruit, vegetables and other fruit for their customers.
  • Four weight blocks are included in the set
  • the balancing scale is perfect for children to explore basic measurement concepts
  • children can have fun experimenting with weight comparison by using the PlanToys fruit & vegtable set or items found around the house
  • add more fun with other PlanToys kitchen items
Filed Under: Plan Toys Tagged With: , , , , ,

Brown Bear Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

November 19, 2011
Brown Bear Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

Brown Bear Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/brown-bear-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST

  • Brown bears live across the Northern Hemisphere in wild regions.  The grizzly, the Alaskan, and the Urasian bears are all subspecies.
  • European brown bears average 150 pounds, whereas the Alaskan Kodiak may be ten feet tall and weigh 1500 pounds.
  • Brown bears come in many colors, from black to brown to reddich to blond.  Their fur is sometimes tipped with a lighter color which is called grizzling.
  • The grizzly bear is seriously threated in the lower 48 states, where they’re confined to the northern Rocky Mountains.  There is still plenty of wilderness in Canada and Alaska to support them.

The Grizzly Nation

Long ago, Old Man Above created the animals – from a little stick, he made the fish, from a bigger stick, he made all the animals except the grizzly and from the biggest stick, he made the grizzlies.  As soon as he saw them, huge and walking on their hind legs, and so clever that they could talk like people, he thought he had made a mistake.  After the creation, Old Man Above took his family to live deep down inside the mountain he had built, Mount Shasta in California.  One day, his lovely little daughter, tired of being alone in their dark home, wanted to explore.  She happened to walk right into the Grizzly Nations camp at the foot of the mountain.  The bears were kind to her and made her life more fun.  She was convinced to stay with the, thoush she did miss her family.  After mourning his daughter for a year, Old Man Above came out into the world to see his creation.  When he arrived at the grizzly camp and found his beloved daugher, whom he had thought dead, a deep fury grew inside him.  “Grizzlies” he shouted “you will be silent forever for keeping my daughter from me.  And you will no longer stand upright or use your hands!”  Since then, grizzlies have never talked and have walked on all fours like the other animals.  Old Man Above still grumbles and rumbles deep in his mountain when he thinks about what the grizzlies did.

     -a folktale of the Modoc tribe of California

Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , , ,

Gray Wolf Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

November 18, 2011
Gray Wolf Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

Gray Wolf Hand Puppet by Folkmanis

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/gray-wolf-hand-puppet

FACTS OF INTEREST

  • Scientists have discovered that all modern domestic dogs are decended from East Asian gray wolves.  Wolves may be populous or indangered depending on their environment and the humans around them.
  • The Wolf is a popular character in folktales throughout many cultures around the world.  In Western Europe, wolves have been depicted as “Wicked” like the “big bad wolf” in fairytales or as a monster like the Werewolf in legend and films.
  • Wolves are an important part of an ecosystem as a top tier predator.  They live in  family units and develop close relationships with one another.  In general, wild wolves fear humans and do not approach them.
  • The First Nations People of the Americas based many tales on the wolf.  Their stories also speak of gifted warriors and shamans who can “Shape-Shift” and become wolves to aid in hunting or with spiritual journeys.
  • Stories of Shapeshifters who turn into wolves and Werewolves continue in popular culture in the fictional worlds of Twilight and Harry Potter, to name a few.

WISE TALE

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt.  He said, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.  One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one.  The other wolf is the loving compassionate one.”

The grandson asked him, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”

The grandfather answered, “The one I feed.”

      -Native American story

WARM TAIL

Now Old Man was walking along, and far off he saw many wolves, and when he came closer, he saw there the chief of the wolves, a very old one, and sitting around him were all his children.

Old Man said “Pity me, Wold Chief, make me into a wolf that I may live your way and catch deer and everything that runs fast.”

“Come near then” said the Wolf Chief “that I may rub your body with my hands, so that hair will cover you.”

“Hold” said Old Man “do not cover my body with hair.  On my head, arms and legs only, put hair.”

When the Chief Wolf had done so, he said to the  Old Man, “You shall have three companions to help you, one is a very swift runner, another a good runner  and the last is not very fast.  Take them with you now and others of my younger children who are learning to hunt, but do not go where the wind blows, keep in the shelter or the young ones will freeze to death. “  Then they went hunting and Old Man led them on the high buttes, where it was very cold.

At night, they lay down to sleep, and Old Maan nearly froze, and he said to the wolves “Cover me with your tails.”  So all the wolves lay down around him and covered his body with their tails and he soon got warm and slept.

       from a Blackfoot legend

Filed Under: Featured Puppets Tagged With: , , ,

Build Imagination with Activity Blocks by Plan Toys

November 17, 2011
activity blocks by Plan Toys

Activity Blocks by Plan Toys

available at http://www.cowandlizard.com/product/activity-wooden-blocks

  • physical
  • creative
  • logical
  • mathematical
  • set o 9 blocks that are stackable by different textures, sound and colors to stimulate touch, feel and various sounds
  • the set consists of 3 visual blocks, 3 auditory blocks and 3 blocks for kinesthetic
  • the set comes in a cotton bag
  • children will be excited in exploring the 9 blocks which help stimulate their senses helping develop their visual skill, auditory skill and allow them to explore the different textures with their hands, satisfying the needs of children at this age
  • children at the age of 1-2 years are able to pick the blocks out of the bag and put it in again
  • children at this age like to explore, pick things and they can also stack the blocks which help to develop fine motor skill and eye hand coordination
  • parents can teach and involve about colors and mixing colors motivating to do activity together as family
  • this block set can be played together with other PlanToys Unit Block sets to fulfill imagination
Filed Under: Plan Toys Tagged With: , ,
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