One of my friends shared a similar craft her son brought home from preschool with me and I fell in love with the idea. I was pleasantly surprised that there was very little rice on my floor after the craft and my son loved finishing art time with a yummy strawberry smoothie!
- Gather your materials. You will need some heavy weight construction paper or cardboard ( I am using a cereal box) , red markers or paint, some green paper, glue , scissors and some rice. We used forbidden rice, it’s black, but any rice , dried beans or seeds will do!
- Draw a simple strawberry shape on the cardboard.
- Have your child color or paint the strawberry. Let dry if you are using paint.
- While your child colors, cut out a stem from the green paper.
- Grab the glue! My son is always excited when I let him loose with the glue. Put it all over the strawberry.
- Add the rice, do not just dump it on, encourage your child to pick up the rice one and a time. You’ll sneak in a great fine motor workout for your little one.
- Add the stem and let dry.
” 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!
“The Little Mouse, The Ripe Red Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear” by Audrey and Ron Wood is a fantastic book that children adore! The story not only unique in that the narrator speaks directly to the mouse , it’s illustrations will enchant your child’s imagination and make the most overtired parent smile. The little mouse is trying to keep the strawberry away from the bear, and his adorable attempts to hide it make my son laugh every time! Great book!
~Additional Activity~
When teaching about any sort of food, I always try to work in ways to cook, taste and play with it. Nothing beats the real thing but it doesn’t have to be a fancy meal. Today we made super simple smoothies !
teachingtinytots says
cute pic at the end! we love little mouse, red ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear!!!
great strawberry!!!!
Angell says
Hi Allie,
I love your site. You do such a great job with doing things with your son every day. I know you used to be a teacher and I was wondering if you plan on homeschooling him? Just curious.
Allie says
Thanks!
Angell, I don’t plan on homeschooling my son , I am actually excited about waving bye to him on the bus so I can go back to school ( as a teacher) some day! I do have many friends homeschooling and I love helping them on their journey.
Clemencia says
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I love your blog, is there a way follow your blog but not on tweeter or subscribe by e-mail? thanks for the awesome ideas
Sunshine says
You are sooooo creative! Thanks for this darling idea.
Allie says
Clemencia – you can follow me on blogger so that on your dashboard I pop up on your “Blogs I Follow” . I’ll see if there are other ways too.