Archive for August 2009
- Gather your materials. You will need a piece of yellow and a piece of black construction paper. Some contact paper, gold sequins, glitter glue, glue , markers and scissors.
- Start by drawing ( or tracing) a star on the yellow paper. Draw some tails too.
- Have your child color the star and tails with markers.
- Cut a small piece of contact paper, peel the backing off.
- Add sequins to the contact paper.
- Squeeze some glitter on.
- Fold in two and press. Cut to size. I made this large for my son to add the sequins to , but then had to cut it so small to fit inside the star. I’d make a larger star next time.
- Cut the star and tails out . Cut the center of the star out, make sure the hole is big enough to show off the glitter but not too big so there are any gaps.
- Glue the glitter packet on the paper.
- Glue the star over it and the tails on. Let dry.
Books!
“Our Stars” by Anne Rockwell is another wonderful non fiction book from this author illustrator. The book shares the most basic facts about stars with the reader as well as more complicated facts about constellations, comets and meteors. I love that the facts are shared pretty independently on each page, so if something is above your toddlers head you can simply skip that page, until they are . The illustrations are fun enough to grab attention but detailed enough to help explain the facts being presented.
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I know some of you have already sent your children back to school, or started your homeschooling year. In our area we have a few weeks left before we send our kids back, put away the slip and slide and start packing lunches once again. So I am holding onto summer as long as I can with this project, I love this one because watermelons are easily recognizable for even the youngest learners.
- Gather your materials. You will need green and pink(or red) paper, some black paper, a hole punch, green marker, scissors and glue.
- Write a large wide upper case W on the green paper.
- Have your child color the W with a dark green marker.
- Cut a strip of black paper and grab the hole punch. Help your child punch a number of holes. Make sure to gather the punched holes.
My son needed a lot of help with this but wanted desperately to do it. Set aside.
- Layer your W and the pink paper and cut .
- Trim your pink W by about a centimeter along the bottom edge.
- Glue the pink W onto the green W
- Add the punched holes for seeds.
Let dry.
Books
” Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Ehlert is an alphabet book extraordinaire! Wonderful paintings of fruits and vegetables seem ultra simple and it is but somehow the way the author has pieced this simple book together is brilliant. Maybe it’s that children learn about food at the table multiple times a day and feel proud being able to identify not only some of the letters but some of the pictures too! From a teaching standpoint I love that there are both upper and lower case letters on each page! This book will grow with your child, and beware it will also make you
hungry!
“One Watermelon Seed” by Celia Barker Lottridge is a counting book that takes the basic 1, 2, 3 to the next level. The book follows a brother and sister as they plant their seeds 1-10. After the watermelon, pumpkins, tomatoes and more are fully grown they count their bounty! This time counting is done by 10s ! Of course my son’s favorite part wasn’t the counting instead he noticed the different bugs and garden critters on each page. I liked the end of the book where there was a page devoted to allowing the reader to see what the outside and inside of these fruits and vegetables looks like.
When my son was starting to use sippy cups I was scared, there was so much information about BPA ( Bisphenol A ) and it’s harmful effects and presence in baby bottles and sippy cups. I was up every two hours nursing my child and no matter how many times I tried to figure out what was safe I kept buying new cups only to find out they were on the do not buy list! Then I found Zrecs . I am forever in their debt for helping me make better choices. This isn’t a shopping blog, and they are not in it for the free stuff, they are consumer advocates I trust! Their Zrecs Guide To Safer Children’s Products has replaced Consumer Reports as my first stop for making good choices for my family, check it out and see why!
” Anno’s Counting 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!
“Mimi’s Book of Counting” by Emma Chichester Clark is a cute little book about a Grandma and granddaughter counting things in their every day. The counting is simple and easy to follow along with but what makes this book standout for me is how sweet the bond between the generations are. My son loves this book, one of his grandmother’s goes by Mimi and so we make the Grandma in the book Mimi and the little monkey becomes my son. I like that we are counting while also celebrating a special bond in my son’s life.
“Counting Wildflowers” by Bruce McMillan is a simple book but it stands out for me because it not only has 20 circles on each page that fill up as you count flowers on each page. The reader can count the blooms, and then count again with the circles , all the way up to 20. When you are trying to reinforce a skill like counting repetition is your friend. Simple but great.
“One Duck Stuck” by Phyllis Root looks like an everyday book , but inside you will find a brilliantly repetitive storyline, that promotes teamwork, and mathematical skills! Count along with your child as a slew of animals try to help this duck get out of the muck! My students a few years ago were nuts about this book and yours will be too!
“Mouse Count” by Ellen Stoll Walsh is another gem from this author illustrator. In this book the mice outsmart a hungry snake and save themselves from his belly. In the meantime the reader counts along as the mouse are caught and put in a jar , then again when they escape. The simple illustrations are so effective and my son loved this book.
While brainstorming for back to school activities to do I was focusing on “school” and this came to mind. I grabbed the paint and rolling pin and my son came running. I am not sure my son knows that a rolling pin is a kitchen utensil but I do know he loves painting with it. This is a long project we did it slowly over the whole day. It would be great for a group or classroom too!
- Gather your materials. You will need a large piece of white paper, a few pieces of any other color construction paper, a marker, some bubble wrap, a rolling pin, paint ( blue and any other colors you want), glitter paint, glue, scissors, tape, a bowl, spoon, and googly eyes.
- Start by mixing your blue paint with the glitter. We used glitter glue but plain glitter will work as well.
- Finger paint it on the large piece of white paper. I showed my son how to make long finger “waves” to make it look like the ocean and we did that for a long time.
- While they finger paint, draw a bunch of fish on the other construction paper. I drew the fish because I wanted my son to know what he was painting but with older children I would have skipped drawing them and focus on getting cool prints and cut out the fish free hand once they were dry. For a toddler though a concrete obvious drawing of what we are making is important.
- Wrap the bubble paint around the rolling pin bubbles out.
- Pour some paint on a large plate or mat . We used multiple colors of paint.
- Roll your wrapped rolling pin in it.
- Roll it on the paper with the fish.
- Keep going until your whole “school” is painted. Let dry.
- When the fish are dry cut out.
- Glue onto the ocean
- Add googly eyes and let dry.
School of Fish
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