Sorry for the picture…Its horrible…I know. After we did this project we went and got some delicious ice cream! If you check around you might be able to find a fabulous deal now that summer is ending. We have a local joint in town that is doing .99 cones (2 scoops of goodness) now that school is in. Oh yum. Would it be bad to go daily?
Letter I templates can be found here.
H is for Hippo. The template for this hippo can be found here. You can also print off one that isn’t colored, so your kids can color it on their own.
I found this sweet fish idea here. What an awesome site. J especially enjoyed this one because there are no lines to stay in. He is still learning that you aren’t supposed to scribble. By doing these little craft projects I have already noticed a huge different in Jace’s coloring and cutting skills.
So here is J’s fish…..
Another fun activity to go along with this project is to go to a pet store and check out all the fish. We didn’t do it this time, but we have gone to pet stores for this purpose before and my boys are always amazed at all the different fish.
So my goal to get through the alphabet by the end of summer didn’t happen. My boys officially start school next week. Maybe I can bust out the rest of letters between now and then…..maybe?
E is for elephant! I found a great template for an elephant craft project. Click here to see it. My boys loved coloring and cutting their elephants out. Isn’t the trunk idea so cool? We got a laugh out of the hubster with the finger/trunk. Pretty cool if you ask me.
We also read this classic children’s book….
This is such a fun and quick craft project to do with your kids. It is perfect when teaching your children about mixing colors too.
{What you will need}
cardstock of any color, a coffee filter, washable markers, tape, and a spray bottle.
{Instructions}
Tape a coffee filter onto your piece of cardstock and let your child color the filter. When the coloring is complete, lightly spray the filter with water, hold it vertically and watch the colors run.
H’s (on the left) is a “crazy monster man” (his words, not mine) and J’s (on the right) is a “rainbow O”. How do brothers so close in age who do everything together have such different personalities?
Yesterday we spent some time learning about Benjamin Franklin and making homemade kites. We read this book….
It is such a fun book! I had no idea that he was responsible for inventing so many things!
After reading this book we made some homemade kites in honor of Mr. Franklin. They are so easy to do. Here are some simple instructions:
Supplies needed are:
Yarn, computer paper, scissors, crepe paper, skewer, tape, hole punch, and markers.
{Step 1} Color your paper, or dont’, whichever you would like. My boys like coloring, so we colored it.
{Step 2} Fold paper in half and then fold like this…
About 3″ on one side and 1″ on the other.
{Step 3} Open paper with the folded part underneath like this….
and tape into place on the folded edges that meet in the middle.
{Step 4} Using a hole punch, punch a hole on the back side about 2 inches from top (top is the wider side, bottom is the smaller side). Does that make any sense at all? Oh just look at the picture…that explains it better. Cut your yarn about 3′ long and tie in the hole.
{Step 5} Cut skewer so that it fits from cornor to cornor and tape into place
{Step 6} Cut crepe paper about 4′ long and tape to bottom of kite (the shorter side). And you are done! [My picture won't upload, just know that the finished product is really cool]
We really are slacking on our letter activities. I feel like we have had a super busy summer with little time to sit down and actually do them. NOT GOOD! We got to the letter D, FINALLY!!!
We started by making these fun dinosaurs…..
All you do is let your kids paint a paper plate however they want, and then cut the plate like this….
And then just use some brads to connect the legs and head and you have an awesome little dinosaur for the kidlets to play with. My boys played with them FOREVER!
As far as worksheets go, I found a fabulous new site chuck full of fun ones. You can see it here.
Luckily for you…I already have E all planned out. Now I just have to find some time to do it. Today won’t be that day…we are going to go enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.
It’s been awhile since we have done any of our alphabet activities. We finally got to the letter “C”. Aren’t we progressing right along? (I hope you are sensing the sarcasm here.)
We did a couple of worksheets from this site. Is it a bit much for me to expect my just turned 3 year old to begin writing? He loves the idea of doing it…but just doesn’t seem to get it. H (the 4 year old) on the other hand, LOVES writing.
We also did this fun activity with cotton balls. They loved it…especially J. His is the blue one. Notice that you couldn’t fit another cotton ball on there if you tried. H got slightly bored with the project and didn’t take the time J did. 
We also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (such a fun book) and then made some sugar cookies in the shape of a caterpillar. The boys had a blast decorating the cookies and even more fun when their sugar high kicked in.
Ignore the mess!! I cheated on the cookies and just bought the already made dough. Remind me not to do that again. And the boys 100% did all of the frosting and sprinkles. If you see can see the spots where J full on licked the cookies...well just ignore that too.
We had quite the B day! We began with a bus ride around the town. HA! Who would have thought that riding the bus would be so much fun for little kids? I guess it helped that we are on the up and up with the bus driver. He let the kids play with the microphone, open and close the doors, and even gave them some super yummy cookies! While we were cruising around, we played a great game of “I Spy: Letter B Style”. My kids did great! I had only just shown them what the letter B was while we were waiting for the bus, so I was completely impressed by how well they recognized the letter.
The bus dropped us off at the local library where we stocked up on our limit of books. From there we headed over to a local eatery where they serve some dang good breadsticks. We indulged….a lot…Love ‘em, especially dipped in nacho cheese.
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading books and working on our B projects. I found this cool pattern for bee’s, and then attached a piece of yarn to it so that it can fly. My kids are still running around “flying their bee’s”.
We also did an art project with bubble prints. Here are some super easy instructions:
With our bubble prints we did our letter B that we hang up. We did it on blue paper. Instead of using your bubble prints you could cut out the letter B and glue some buttons or stick some Band-aids to it. I didn’t have either, so we just did the bubble prints. (I know what you’re thinking… what kind of mom doesn’t have band-aids? Especially for a 4 and 3 year old. I should probably invest in some of those.)
We finished out our B day by building with blocks.
I may be biased, but I swear my 3 year old is the ultimate block builder. He does these creations all day long and it seriously amazes me! He does it all without any help too!
B day equalled a complete success!
