No Time For Flash Cards » Flags

Flag Day and More !

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:01:54 +0000

Guest Post by Shannon

Today’s post is the first of many guest posts by talented bloggers, teachers and moms who have graciously offered their expertise while I prepare for the birth of my daughter . I will still be posting and commenting, returning emails ( as quickly as I can) and be around to answer questions but want to make sure that all of you still have fresh new activities to enjoy! This post is from Shannon a former preschool teacher , curriculum writer and mom .

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We did some fun Flag activities last week since today is Flag day and 4th of July is coming up also. We had fun with the sensory activities and LOVED making painters tape flags. Plus by doing our flag activities earlier then we usually do they get to stay up longer for all to enjoy!

Red, Blue and White play dough: we used our favorite play dough recipe. We also added glitter to the white after they played with it the first time. The recipe is super simple: 1 cup water, 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, 2 TBSP oil and coloring( for this i used sugar free jello! smells so yummy! but you can use food paste or coloring, kool aid or paint.) stir all the ingredients till smooth,cook on med heat till it pulls away from the

pan, cool for a bit, knead still smooth and play!

Red, White and Blue colored rice bin I added 4th of July confetti to it: To color the rice I divided a bag of rice equally into baggies, added red food coloring to 1, blue to 1 and let the other white (to that one i added the 4th of July sequins). Zipped up the baggies and let my 2 girls shake and knead the coloring into the rice. After they were all colored I laid them out onto wax paper to dry. added to our Rubbermaid container and both girls have had a blast playing with it ever since.

Painters Tape Flag:

Need:

white construction paper

painters tape

red paint

paint brush

blue construction paper square

4th if July confetti or star stickers

To Make:

Place painters tape strips on the construction paper.

Squirt Red paint down the center and let child paint the paper red, let dry before removing painters tape.

While the paint is drying let child glue or stick stars on their blue square.

After you remove the painters tape let them glue the blue square with stars on and let everything dry.

I hope you enjoyed some of the highlights from our flag week. If you would like the whole curriculum to do with your kids just go to my blogger profile page and click the email me link. It is filled with super fun, super easy activities using most supplies you already have around the house.

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Shannon blogs at Welcome To Our Wonderland where she share’s books and sometimes activities to go with the children’s books. She taught prek for 11 years and become a stay at home mom 10 years ago when her oldest was born.

Flag Craft!

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:01:22 +0000

We are in Vancouver and loving the Olympic spirit and pride all countries have in their athletes and countries. My son is luckier than most he has two countries and is being raised to love both. We made this Canadian flag craft to cheer my country on, and grabbed our American flag we made and kept ( one of the few crafts I have kept for a long time) to cheer Daddy’s country. No matter what flag you are making remember it doesn’t have to be perfect just have fun!

Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard, red paint ( I had blue because I wasn’t sure if we’d make an American one too), white paper, a roller paint brush, glue,marker, and scissors.
Make two lines to define the red and white sections of your flag.
Add your red paint and start rolling. My son likes to pretend to be a steam roller and loves any craft with this brush!
Keep going, don’t worry if you get some in the middle, you will be covering it with white paper anyway.
Roll your paint on your child’s hand.
Press.
Give them some scrap paper to make more hand prints, this will get some excess off and it’s fun!
Fill your sink and let them play- it’s way easier to get your little one’s hands clean than scrubbing, and they have fun playing with the water while their hand print dries.
When the print is dry add glue.
Add your hand print and let dry.

More Flag Crafts !!

American Flag

World Flags

You May Also Like :

Flag Cupcakes
American Flag Place Mat
Olympic Crafts

4th of July !

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:24:00 +0000

Flag Place Mat

I love making these inexpensive place mats, they really stand up to an amazing amount of abuse,wipe clean and are an inexpensive way to decorate your table for any holiday. One tip, wait until the glue is all dry before putting the contact paper on, I wasn’t patient and the glue squished.

Gather your materials. You will need a piece of paper towel, some red, white and blue paper, a star paper punch, scissors, glue and contact paper.
Start by cutting your blue paper into a square that takes up almost a quarter of the upper left corner of your paper towel.
Cut your red paper into stripes, some long, some short.
Punch stars out of your white paper
Add glue to your blue
Add the stars
Add glue for the stripes and start adding them.
Let dry ( do not skip this step, you’ll get squished glue marks like me, learn from my oops).
Cover with contact paper. The way that works best I think is to place on piece of contact paper on your table , lay the flag face down so there are no bubbles, then sandwich it with another piece. Press hard and trim.

Books!

” How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world” by Marjorie Priceman cost me a total of 15 cents at a thrift store. It is worth so much more than that. This book is a gem! Perfect for older preschoolers who are getting a sense of the world beyond their own home and city, this book takes you on a ride around the world! You follow the little girl to Italy, France , Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica and back to Vermont! As soon as I read this my mind was racing with classroom activities ! I will be posting some soon. I LOVE this book, I just wish I had read it when I was still teaching it would have been so much fun to teach geography with!

“How to Make a Cherry Pie and see the USA” by Marjorie Priceman didn’t disappoint one bit. I was worried after falling in love with the previous book that this couldn’t live up to my expectations. It did! This time she wasn’t looking for ingredients for the pie, but rather materials for her tools. She gathered wood in Washington for her rolling pin, cotton in Louisiana for pot holders granite in New Hampshire for her pastry slab and more. What I wasn’t expecting of this book and loved was how she gathered natural resources and then processed them to make what she needed. I think this is a wonderful lesson about manufacturing and could be used for a launchpad for learning about so much more. Another gem I will be adding to my must buy list.

Naptime Creation: Olympic Activity #2

admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:51:00 +0000

World Flags Banner !

A special event like the Summer Olympics is a great way to get children interested in other subjects like geography. This is a fun way to decorate a classroom or house during the Olympics too!

Gather your materials. You will need color pictures of flags in an atlas or online, some markers, white paper, double stick tape or glue and a long piece of ribbon.
Show your child a number of different flags and have them choose which they want to recreate. I would urge them to choose countries other than their own to do since this is a chance to learn about something new.
Fold the paper , one side will be for the flag , the other to write the name of the country on the back.
Color your flag.
Write the name of the country on the back.
Make multiple flags.
Using double stick tape put one piece at the top by the fold in the paper , and one at the bottom, place your ribbon on top of the tape near the fold. Press down to seal both sides. Repeat this for each flag.
Hang up and show off the worldly masterpiece!

Book!

” Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of The Summer Olympics” by Sue Macy

On my quest for some Olympic picture books at my local library I didn’t find any, but I did find this. A fantastic book for older school age children. There is a lot of text but there is also plenty of pictures with short blurbs that will appeal to younger kids. Do not expect preschoolers to sit for this, but you may enjoy reading it, I found it very interesting and the collection of photos was great!