We had a blast making this Touch and Feel City! Young children learn with all their senses and when I can incorporate a sensory element into a craft my son suggested making I can’t wait to share it.  My son plays “City” all day with his legos and when I asked him what he wanted to make for craft time he suggested making ” Daddy’s building” I looked in my craft closet to see what we could make with it and decided to use some felt, sandpaper, foil and foam and turn it into a texture lesson.This can also be used as a shape lesson!

1. Gather your materials. You will need a large piece of paper ( a brown grocery bag cut open and laid flat would be awesome), some construction paper, materials with different textures ( I am using sandpaper, felt, foam and foil) , scissors and glue. Also after we were done I regretted not having my son use crayons or markers to make clouds, perhaps a plane in the sky etc… so if you want to do that it should be the first step.
2. Start by cutting the texture materials into small pieces.
3. Cut the construction paper into various sized rectangles.
4. Glue the buildings onto the larger paper.
5. Glue the texture materials on as windows, as you do this explore how they feel talk about which ones is soft, rough, smooth and squishy. Ask your child to use their own words to describe the textures.
6. Let dry.

One of the best parts of creating with your child is the time you spend together. Parent and tot projects like this Beach Shell Picture Frame  are a special time to not only work together on something but also to practice taking turns something that can never be done too much . Ironically I did this without my son, he was at summer camp all week hopefully practicing taking turns with other kids, and exhausted when he got home. I will be doing this with him when we get back from our beach getaway next week though!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard ( 2x as large as you want the frame to be) , a large magnet , crayons, shells, hot glue gun and glue, scissors , tape and a picture.
2. Start by cutting your cardboard in half, then cutting an opening in one piece for the frame.
3. Tape your picture ( I trimmed mine) on the other half  of the cardboard. Trim the cardboard so that it’s no larger than the frame piece , you don’t want it peeking out from underneath.
4. Have your child decorate the frame with crayons.
5. Heat up the glue gun. When I do crafts that require the glue gun but I want my son’s input of where to place things like these shells I will ask him before I add the glue where I should add it and what I should put on it. At the very least have them choose the shells to add.
6. Glue the shells on.
7. Glue the magnet on the back of the piece with the picture.
8. Glue the two pieces together and let cool.

More Shell Activities

Shell Sorting

Beach Sensory Tub

Over the years we have done many truck themed kids crafts and used them to learn about shapes, practice fine motor skills, pretend play and more! We are off on a road trip soon so I thought I would share some of my favorites with you today.

Shape Garbage Truck

Road r

Straw and Cap Truck

Traffic Light

Shape Fire Truck

Custom Roadway

School Bus

When you find something your child genuinely loves use it! My son adores painting with this roller sponge, he calls it his steam roller and pretends to be making a road on any painting we make with it.  When I suggested we make a magic number painting with it he all but leaped into the kitchen, which delighted me since he has not been as keen about art since the weather has been amazing, really who can blame the kid?

1. Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of light colored paper, some vinyl number stickers, paint, plates and a sponge or roller sponge paint brush. Using a sponge is much easier when you want coverage. This activity doesn’t work well if the whole paper isn’t covered in paint.
2. Start by placing the number sticker on the paper. Depending on your child’s ability you can simple pop them on , or challenge them to make numbers with them. For example say ” Can you make 23? Or 51? ” don’t push it though having fun with learning is the point not quizzing your kids.
3. Pour paint onto the plates.
4. Start painting.
5. I called out the numbers at first for my son to cover with paint asking him if he could find 7 or 4  etc… but then he started to pretend that he was building a road and I sat back and listened to his pretend play.
6. Let dry.
7. Peel off.  As adults we know that the number will peel off and white will be beneath it but at least for my 3 year old it was a fun and awesome surprise – and he even thought it was magic that they were white!

Anno’s Counting Book Big Book by Mitsumasa Anno almost didn’t make it into my library bag. I am so glad it did. This is a wonderful book full of possibilities. There is no text , simple aerial illustrations of a field as it evolves one number at a time. The illustrations fill up quickly and it might take a while to see that you have to classify the pictures on each page to match it with the number on the page but once you do , each page is a lesson!

One White Wishing Stone by Doris K. Gayzagian is a beautiful book. Visually it reminds me of an impressionist painting, the soft beach colors used by illustrator Kristina Swarner are calming and pretty. This is more than just a counting book, there is a story of a little girl at the beach,what she finds and how she plans to use them when she takes them home. It’s so beautifully done that it almost makes me forget how much I hate finding sand in my car after a trip to the beach.

Museum 123 by The Metropolitan Museum Of Art is another simple but beautiful counting book.  What I love about this book is that the number is not on the same page as the onbjects/images the child is being asked to count. Instead a simple question of how many is followed by a painting with the objects, and the next page has a large number. My son loved counting then flipping the page exclaiming ” I knew it , I said that number I was right!” My only complaint is that it only went to 10!

Join in on the  Summer Reading Challenge even  if you haven’t participated yet you can still get in on the action! It’s so simple and all about spending time reading with your kids.  Read 10 books or more with your children each week, fill out this form ( one per child), and you are automatically entered to win not just the weekly Alphabet Crafts eBook but also the Amazon.com gift card giveaway at the end of the summer.  How simple is that?  If your child is infatuated with one book and that’s all you read, not a problem if you read it 10 or more times , it counts! Our goal is to make reading with your child a part of your daily routine ( hopefully the best part!) , not see who can read the most variety of books.

For this weeks drawing for the Alphabet Crafts eBook you need to get your entry in by 12 AM PDT ( midnight tonight) Monday June 26th . Good Luck!