Watermelon W
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.
Mindy Lockard Etiquette says
Yummy! Thanks for this great end of summer activity. Love it.
Tima says
I just discovered your site, and have been doing alphabet art all summer with my son and his mates. We have W later this week. Might give this a try. Thanks
Trisha says
Hi,
I agree, Eating the Alphabet is a wonderful book. My son wasn't so interested when I showed it to him at the library, but perhaps the toy dinosaurs there distracted him. I'll try again.
Thanks for the paper plate mask suggestion in your other blog. I wish I had thought of that before trying to make one out of construction paper the other day.
Blushing hostess says
Yes, this is a great idea, thank you for thinking of it… Aanother great afternoon project for Twinkle Toes from blogland!
passions and soapboxes says
This looks like a really good craft and nothing says summer like watermelon.
Allie says
Glad you guys like it- it's very fast and perfect for a hot day when they don't want to sit but need to come in for a rest !
Allie says
Oh Trisha – I am glad you like that mask. The paper plate is awesome cause it's sturdy too.
jyl (Mom It Forward/#gno) says
Will you pretty please come and move into my house for a few weeks and me my kids mommy? LOL! You are sooooo cute with this kind of stuff!
Infant Bibliophile says
That's so cute. We tried One Watermelon Seed when he was younger and he didn't like it (but way too young). I did, though, and I think I will try it again now that he likes to count and we have a garden. We made a watermelon out of a paper plate one day and he was thrilled, so I think I'll try this idea soon! Thanks as always. 🙂
The Redhead Riter says
I love the Eating The Alphabet book. I love children's books. I still have all of Alyssa's…it feels like a library LOL
The Redhead Riter says
Oh! Congrats on the nomination. Love your blog. REALLY love your title because I am a TOTAL fan of flashcards…was that too geeky?
The Book Chook says
I loved the look on the little guy's face when he was trying so hard with the hole punch!
oneofthoseblogsonthethemeof says
he looks so grown up today! must be the collared shirt.
Katie says
this is quite possibly my favorite. So simple but such good impact. I've lost our hole punch, so I cut little teardrops out of brown. Little O kept saying "watermelon seeds, watermelon seeds, spit spit spit."
Joan says
You can also glue real watermelon seeds to your W. I know now it is hard to find watermelons with seeds in them in the stores these days but if you can after letting all of my preschoolers try a watermelon I had them glue the seeds to there W. Great aesthetic while they are looking through their ABC books.