Sports Theme
This Super Bowl trophy also known as the Lombardi trophy for those in the know (my husband filled me in) was the biggest hit with my son. It’s super easy to make and the perfect center piece for a family Super Bowl party this Sunday. Oh and in true No Time For Flash Cards fashion I managed to throw in some letter recognition too !
- Gather your materials. You will need a rectangular box that will stand on it’s end, some cardboard, aluminum foil, tape, scissors and sticky back foam letters , a small sheet of sticky back foam and a marker.
- Start by drawing a football on your card board .
- Cut out. I had extra card board so I made three and taped the layers together.
- Wrap in foil. My son loved this step. Don’t mind his police dress up clothes, he is rarely not dressed up as something.
- Cut your sticky back foam into one long strip and 3 or more longer ones.
- Pop them on.
- Wrap the box in foil. I secured it with tape.
- Tape the football to the box. I taped the box flaps into an arch and taped the football to that so it is on an angle like the real one.
- Scatter foam letters on the table and have your child find XLV. We chatted about roman numerals ( clock numbers- we have a clock with roman numerals) nothing too in depth but enough to explain what they are.
- Pop them on.
Practice your celebration!
Who are you cheering for on Sunday?
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He Shoots, He Scores!
I like doing less structured activities in my Friday posts, not just because Friday is usually a free play all day kind of day for us but because as I have said before and will keep saying the vast majority of the day should be free play. Listen to them play, ask questions , look for learning opportunities but let them lead! This came out of our family obsession with the Canada Vs. USA Olympic Hockey game. We took our son to the Olympics and we watched China VS Slovakia in women’s hockey and he is in love! He made this game up, I just polished it ( I added the tape for nets 
).
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper towel rolls, a ball, and some painter’s tape. You will also need an area that can be used as the ice. So anywhere with breakable things is not a good choice! We played outside on our porch, and in our foyer ( with breakables moved to the dining room first.)
- Make your nets on the floor with the tape. If your child has more than a very very basic understanding of the game you can make creases, blue lines and a red center line too!
- We kept our game incredibly simple. Get the puck into the goal. That was it. We played for what seemed like forever and I had to bribe him to go inside.
- I like to use games like this to promote sportsmanship and was delighted to see my son get as excited when I got a goal as when he did!
Have fun and now that weather is getting nicer – get outside even if you are still in your PJs !
Start by cutting out the middle of small paper plate, and punching 6 holes on each side of it. Older children can do this with little or no help.
Next wrap a small amount of tape around the end of the ribbon to make it stiff and easier to thread through the holes.
Next thread the ribbon through the holes, I secured the ribbon with tape so it wouldn’t slip through. 
Tape down the other end when you are done as well and put it aside for now.
While your child is threading the ribbon, or after if they needed help ( my little guy needed some) draw a bat on the cardboard with a marker. 
Have your child color it to their hearts content. 
Cut out. 
Tape the baseball to the bat.
- Gather your materials. You will need 1 brown paper grocery bag, some newspaper, a stapler, some white paper, glue , scissors and brown paint or markers.
- Draw two footballs on the grocery bag, do not cut out.
- Have your child color or paint the foot ball brown. Let dry.
- While they do that , cut out 2 thick stripes , one think line and 6 short rectangles out of the white paper . These will be the laces and bands on the ball. I have a bunch in the photo because I had two little men making footballs!
- Hand your child some newspaper and start crumpling it into balls. Both boys were not into crumpling the paper, which surprised me, maybe they are still young, older kids love it, just watch out a few newspaper balls normally end up in the air!
- Time to glue, I usually put the glue on so my son knows where to put
the laces and bands.
- Cut the football out and start stapling, don’t staple it all the way though.
- Stuff the newspaper in
- Now staple it all the way!
Books!
” T is for Touchdown : A Football Alphabet” by Brad Herzog is a beautiful book that will delight even those of us who are never happy to see football season start. I admit even being an anti fan this book was fun and really full of information that even a football scrooge like myself can appreciate. Also it’s easy to read simply the letters and look at the pictures for little ones and has genuinely interesting blurbs for each page for older children.
This post from February seemed perfect for the nasty weather we have today.
Have a great weekend and remember a new post will be up Monday!
Block Basketball
- Gather your materials. I used soft blocks, with my 15 month old because they are easy to grab but don’t roll away. With little guys rolling balls can be frustrating if they roll away as they are trying to make a basket. Bean Bags are great for this too!
- Get something to be the basket, I am using a small clean garbage can because my son has a slight obsession and he was in heaven , also it’s light and easy to handle. Laundry baskets, buckets and even just a target on the floor works too.
- Start playing. With little guys simply fill and spill , while they are handling a certain color label it for them, encourage them and toss some in yourself! Practice taking turns , it’s a great side lesson.
- For older children the sky is the limit, You can ask them to pop in a certain color, or even give them riddles to figure out. Like ” can you throw the bean bag that is the same color as mommy’s shirt?” Also you can grab a tape measure and see if you can make a basket at 1 foot away, 2 feet away…3 feet away! Or even just see who can make the most baskets in a row!
** This is a great group or circle time activity, although I would not throw the blocks or bean bags at circle time. You can have the children take the colors out, or put them in and identify them as they do. You can also use other objects that follow your curriculum such as different models of sea life or shapes! The sky is the limit and kids love this type of activity so much they forget they are learning! **
