Archive for June 2011
Summer is the perfect time to learn and play outside so grab the sunscreen and head outdoors. Kids love water and even if you don’t live near a beach or have a pool you can still let them play and explore to their hearts content. Here are some fun water themed activities like Letter Spraying ( pictured above) to try this summer. 
Color Mixing ( check out his hair in this post , all my fault!)
Angry Birds Water Balloon Game
My son is all about pretend play and we had so much fun yesterday mixing art and pretend playtime as we played Pizza Parlor. I hope this post shows how low key pretend play can be and still be fun . I know that sometimes pretend play can be hard for some parents to get into but when you play scenarios like this one it’s easy to be a customer and the play helps kids try on different roles, get comfy with social interactions and be in control of things they are normally not.
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper plates, sticky back foam, crayons and scissors for the pizzas. The extra props like the pizza box came from our local store and the oven was made from a box, a marker , a sheet of construction paper and tape.
- Start by cutting or having your child cut the foam into pizza toppings. We made pineapple, peperoni, green peppers and olives.
- I made the oven by flipping a box over, cutting one side out and adding some buttons and clock on a sheet of construction paper and taping it on.
- First call in the order
- Start making some pizza – my son started by throwing the dough.
- Add the sauce with crayons.
- Add the toppings.
- Pop it in the oven!
- Into the box and into the delivery car.
We played for a long time calling in different types of pizzas. He never made me pay for my orders saying pizza was free every Monday, Tuesday and all weekend. Now that is my kind of pizza!
Book
Pizza at Sally’s
While browsing through the kid section of the gift shop at The Art Institute of Chicago I saw a fine art memory game that I wanted, what I didn’t want was the price tag, or the extra weight in my suitcase on the trip home. So instead I grabbed a few packs of Art Stickers 
- Gather your materials. You will need some card stock, fine art stickers and scissors.
- Start by cutting your card stock into squares. I made 16 ( 8 pairs) which seems to be a great and manageable number of pairs for my son . Memory games have never been his strong suit so follow your own child’s abilities and you can always add or remove cards as needed.
- Pop the stickers on. I made the pairs match up with card color too as an extra hint for my son since I am trying to encourage him to play this game more without it ending in frustration over not getting it right away.
- All done.
- Flip over .
- Time to play.
- He made a match!
This game was a bigger hit this time than memory has ever been before, not sure if it was the color hint , subject matter or simply the right game on the right day. All I know is to keep trying lessons, games and activities even if they weren’t hits initially.
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Books About Fine Art
Touch the Art: Brush Mona Lisa’s Hair
Katie Meets The Impressionists by James Mayhew is a art fairytale! Katie goes to the museum with her grandmother and before she knows it she is in the paintings and the world of the painters and their families. Katie goes from painting to painting gathering flowers for her grandma and exploring a world on the other side of the canvas. What I enjoy about this book is that it brings the paintings to life for readers and it shares the back story in a way that children can connect to and imagine the possibilities when they go to museums! Of all these books this one held my son’s attention the least. I like to think it’s because he’s not a fan of impressionism, but I think it was simply a little long for his not quite 3 year old attention span. Maybe if Renoir had painted garbage trucks… seriously though this is a fabulous book and worth a read!
Here’s Looking at Me: How Artists See Themselves (Bob Raczka’s Art Adventures)
This idea actually started at Valentine’s Day. Our 3 year old (foster son) wanted to write his name on all of the cards for his class, like our 4 year old was doing. The problem is that he cannot write. We are working on it, but that time was not the right time to sit with two preschool aged boys as they wrote out 16 cards each (while keeping the 2 year old occupied and the baby entertained).
So I grabbed a block that had put away because of a choking hazard to the baby and made a stamp for the 3 year old to put his name on the cards. This became so popular that I had to make one for everyone. Here is how I did one for Charley (my 2 year old). Grab a block, any kind will do. You will also need a pencil and puffy paint.
Write your child’s name on the block, but remember to do it backwards.
This is what happens when you aren’t giving your craft your full attention. I honestly didn’t even notice how wrong it was until she went to stamp. Duh!
So now it should look like this.
Grab your ink pad and let your child start stamping their name away.
This stamp is great for those of you that gave your child a uncommon name or a unique spelling, like I did. I am never going to find anything that has “Charley” on it in the stores, especially geared for a girl. Now she has a stamp with her name and her spelling.
Obviously this is great for name recognition. It works well for phonics and letter recognition, too. And what kid doesn’t love to stamp?
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
