I Spy 4th of July Words
Kid Friendly Meals
Memorial Day Picnic Foods Meal
10 Fourth of July Books for Kids
growing & learning with him
By Deirdre
Kid Friendly Meals
Memorial Day Picnic Foods Meal
By Deirdre
My son has always loved to dig in the dirt and play with his construction vehicles. There was a time when he only wanted me to check out construction site themed books out of the library. He loved them so much I made him a construction site themed cake for his birthday when he was three.
Recently we read the book Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen. It is a wonderful story about a road trip to visit grandmother. Along the way a family sees all kinds of construction equipment doing work. There are jackhammers digging holes in the road. Cherry pickers helping worker change light bulbs in street lights. Dump trucks filled with dirt from a job site crossing the road. The family has so many vehicles and construction sites to take in. Reading this book inspired me to create a play dough activity for JDaniel that would involve some of the construction toys he has.
I set up an invitation for JDaniel to explore construction equipment and a job site in a large plastic zipper bag. The bag contained play dough smooshed into a toaster oven tray and several of JDaniel’s construction equipment toys.
He was told that I had it for him and he could carry it outside or play with it inside. JDaniel decided to carry it outside to the driveway. There he spread out the equipment and thought about what to do. After a couple of seconds, he started digging and prying up the play dough with a front loader. Then he switched to smoothing the play dough back down with a roller. The play dough easily flattened out and filled the hole he had created.
Excavating play dough was fun too. Digging holes through the play dough landscape required manipulating the scoop carefully to pick the play dough up.
By Deirdre
We started by simply walking up and down the center of the pathway by placing one foot in front of the other. JDaniel doesn’t usually walk this so it took at little practice.
Walking the pathway backwards was even more of a challenge. When you are looking, back your feet can sometimes step off the path without meaning too.
Trying to walk on the tape down one side of the pathway and back on the other side took a little bit of concentration.
Jumping from one side of the path to the other was easy in areas where the pathway was narrow, but was harder in the wide areas.
Challenging a partner to move down the path in a certain way was a lot of fun. Skipping, hopping, galloping, sliding, and tiptoeing down the path were each offered up as challenges.
Timing which of us could move down the path the fastest and the slowest was also fun. Walking in slow motion inspires one to move the rest of your body in slow motion too. That can bring on a lot of giggles and stifled laughs.
Pretend Play
The edge of the pathway can be lined with block shaped buildings or cardboard boxes from the recycling bin.
Toy cars can race through the maze pushed from behind by people ready to get the checkered flag.
Balls can be rolled through the pathway like pinballs zinging and pinging through a maze.
The pathway can become a waterway for bathtub boats. The corners and dead ends can be inlets off a mighty river.
Learning Activities
Once number cards have been put in place, a child could walk to each number and clap that number of times.
Sight words can be placed along the path. In order to pick up the card the word on the card would need to be read.
Books could be used to fill up all the space on the pathway and they would then be counted.
The pathway could be the home to a giant concentration game. The cards could be spread out along the path. Children could walk up and down the path looking for matches.
Washcloths could be used to fill in the path. They could then be counted to find the area of the path.
What are some other ways we could learning using the zigzag pathway?
This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s blog.
By Deirdre
Three Child Friendly Spring Salads – Children will have fun trying three fun and fresh salads that they can help you make.
By Deirdre
Rosie regrets her mistake when she finds out that Violet has the chicken pox and won’t be able to tend to her plant. That is when Rosie really shines. She is the best she can be and she is the best friend she can be. Rosie sings and tends to both her plant and Violet’s.
You will have to read Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine to see what happens when Violet gets back from being sick. Just know that this really is Rosie’s time to shine.
The goal was to put the three peas that belonged together in the same pod.
When pod had its three pods, it should have an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and an object that began with that letter. I was really pleased to see that JDaniel could match each of the letters quickly and find the right picture for each pod. He did change the game a little, but I will share that story with you next Wednesday. It deserves its on post.
Decorating a Flower Pot
He really wasn’t into painting the afternoon I set out the paint and flower pot. He painted the jellyfishes bell shape and didn’t want to paint the tentacles. I talked him in to doing some if I did some too.
I wasn’t surprised that this pot as a jellyfish them. We read books about them everyday. You may remember I even made him a jellyfish mobile for his room.
By Deirdre
What a Wonderful World was a in a recent collection of books I was sent from Tiger Tales. It is wonderful tale told by a mother bear to her cub. She shares with them that we need to be thankful for each and everything placed on Earth for us to share. This book is filled with thanks to God the simply wonderful world we live in. The illustrations show the bears at the shore, the a field of flowers, in the forest and some much more. I love the warm illustrations. They draw you in and make you want to visit those same places to take them in and offer thanks for them. This wonderful book inspired a multitude of learning activities for children.
I had JDaniel decorate the front of the one of the big bears. Then we punched holes around the edge of two of the bears stacked on top of each other and wove them together.
The bears were lined up on the floor in alphabetical order.
Before and After
I asked JDaniel to find the letters that came before and after a letter a placed on the table. It really made me think about letters.
Match the Letter to an Object
I had JDaniel pick a letter and then find an object in the kitchen that matched that letter. We ended up with a lot of cooking tools. I think we should try this in his room and see what treasures he find there.
Write the Letter in Salt
JDaniel practiced one to one correspondence by placing the correct number of button on each bear on a card.
Write the Number
Then JDaniel practice writing those numbers in the salt I had placed in a tray.
Shape the Number
JDanel loves buttons. I had him form the number using some buttons I had placed in a cup.
Making Learning Fun with Rainbows
Kids Sensory Learning Activities
Outdoor Activities and Learning Games
What other activities for children could we do with these bears?
By Deirdre
When I was packing for our Spring Break Trip, I found that shoes were what I needed to think about the most. We needed sneakers or hiking boots for hiking. My sister Shell had planned a messy caving activity that would require shoes that could be super messy. The trip included attending Shell church for Easter Sunday. JDaniel doesn’t have dress shoes so, I packed sandals for him. That is three pair of shoes for just one of us. With making shoe choices I my mind I selected the book What Shoes Would You Choose? (Rookie Toddler) to explore this week. After reading the book, we did a number of learning activities with a homemade set of shoe work mats.
Which Shoes Would You Choose? is a really cute book about a selecting the right shoes for each activity. The main character Sherman wear flip flops to the beach, but should he wear them hiking. He wear hiking boots to hike, but should he wear them to play tennis.
We talked a lot about why some types of shoe could be worn to do more than one activity, but others could not. The wonderful illustration in the book by Nancy Cole lead to discussions about different places Sherman visits and plays.
I created a bunch of different types of shoes out of construction paper and glued them onto blank index cards. There were rain boots, hiking boots, flip flops, roller skates, and flippers. We used the cards for each of the activities we did this week.
Find Them in the Book
The first thing we did was look for each of the types of footwear in the book. Once we found them we talked about how my construction paper creations were alike or different from the ones Nancy Cole had drawn.
Where Else Could We Wear Them?
On our Spring Break Trip JDaniel ended up with only two pair of shoes in his suitcase. He had his sneakers and a pair of sandals. I had decided to really scrub his sneakers if they got messy. Sherman probably could have worn some of this footwear other places too.
We made list of all the places each type of shoe on the cards could be worn. It ended up being a great discussion.
Arrange By Size
Some of the footwear I created ended up being really small and others filled the whole card. That is what happens when you cut things out freehand. I asked JDaniel to arrange the cards from smallest to largest.
Color Identification
JDaniel was asked to tell me what color each shoe was and and find something in our kitchen that was the same color. Thankfully I had purchased purple grapes this week at the store. He would have had a hard time finding something purple otherwise.
Land vs. Water
We then sorted the cards into two groups land worn shoes and water worn shoes. It was very interesting to hear how JDaniel worked through this task. He decided that roller skates could be only worn on land and flippers only worn in the water. The rest of the footwear could be worn both places.
JDaniel told me that both pairs of boots could be worn in puddles of water or on land. He did wear his red rain boots most of last spring just because he loved them. He also wore his hiking boots everywhere this past fall and winter. He told me his sneakers have been worn as he walked through puddles and dipped into creeks. If I had said worn on land or in the ocean it would probably have been better.
Initial Consonant
Since JDaniel has started speech lessons, he has been very big into initial consonant sounds. He will announce the beginning sounds of a word he has been thinking of out of the blue.
I decided to have him tell me the beginning sound of each of the types of footwear. Since several of them have more than one word in their name, he got to practice several beginning sounds.
What are some other ways we could have used the footwear cards?
How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three other posts.
Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate link.
By Deirdre
Dot Marking a Chick
Activities Based on the Pout Pout Fish
Brown Bear, Brown Bear Algorithm Coding Sheet
By Deirdre
For more Easter activities for kids please check out my Easter Crafts, Snacks and Activities Pinterest board.
Deirdre is a stay at home mom. Prior to staying home she worked as an elementary school teacher and technology integration specialist for over twenty years. She hold an Early Childhood degree and a Masters in Developmental Reading. She is the blogger behind JDaniel4’s Mom, a site focused on sharing ways to learn and grow beside your children.
By Deirdre
Mother and Father Rabbit really want their son John to eat carrots. His brother and sister eat theirs. They try everything they can think of to get him to eat them. They even resort to having Uncle Bunny come to their house so he can show him much he loves carrots.
There is one problem with that idea! Uncle Bunny doesn’t like carrots either. He hides them in plants and under his napkin.
He is a fun uncle though. He makes baked potato rabbits for the little bunnies to eat. (His potato lacks the carrot ears though. ) He takes them on hikes. He lets them feast on foods that they like.
After their feast, Uncle Bunny heads to the kitchen to eat what is left to eat and all that is left are carrots. He tries some and really likes them. He really does.
I love how this book about two picky eaters ends. What a fun book!
It was so easy. JDaniel helped chop up the parsley and scallion for it and then put it in the blender. He cut them into chunks rather than fine pieces and that actually gave the dip some texture.
We will be making this dip again. He really likes it and I love that he eats carrots with it.
Carrot Number Activity
This activity not only helped he work on forming letters. It reviewed counting skills as well as working with viewing numbers with concrete materials.
I need to confess that he still doesn’t like to write numbers and some are a little backwards. He did like getting to use the chopstick and salt to write them. I think we will be doing this activity again too.