It's the middle of summer and boy, is it HOT here in sunny Florida! Even though we've still been having "school time," it's been much more laid back than during our "school year." I've got loads of activities ready to go, but if we don't get around to them one day, I really don't sweat it. It is summer, after all. Plus, I'm trying to make sure Little Guy sees learning as a fun, natural part of life, rather than a boring chore. That being said, here are some of the activities we've been working on during the past few weeks.
We've got some summery, artsy, craftsy activities.
A "stained glass" tissue paper mosaic, painting a wooden lighthouse, summer stamping, and a fishy windchime.
I found some fun, summer time printables over at NickJr.
Which is also where I found this awesome Letter Tracing Pack from Bubble Guppies. I just printed out the pack, placed each sheet in a plastic page protector, and put all the pages in a 3 prong folder. The folder stays in Little Guy's new desk (which we got for 8 bucks!! from a thrift store), and he can take it out and work on it whenever the mood strikes him - which, I'm happy to say, has been much more often than I anticipated.
I don't correct Little Guy's work in his folder at all. I offer encouragement when I see him working, but I want this to be his fun activity so he doesn't feel any pressure about holding the marker a certain way or working in order or any of that stuff.
In case you run across these Grow a Gooey Sea Adventure creatures pictured above at Walmart in the dollar section, don't waste your dollar. We'd had such luch with our Growing Grasshopper that I thought this 3 pack of sea creatures would be a blast. Well, that sure didn't work out. We started out trying the shell, and when we went out to check on it the next morning, it was a gloppy, gooey mess!
Over at 3 Dinosaurs, they have a Beach themed Printable Pack that is awesome! We used some of the tracing pages, beginning sounds pages, and the 3 part cards. We love using the 3 part cards to play "memory" with. Then, I save them to cut up for matching pictures and words.
For a practical life activity, we sharpened this shimmery, blue pencil. I can't tell you how proud Little Guy was of himself when he finished sharpening it without any help from me!
We've also been sorting sea stones,
creating our own ocean habitats with blue moon dough and sea creatures,
and going fishing for some sea life!
And don't forget the most important part of summer:
Here are some of the materials we used during Bug Week:
The Suncatcher is from Walmart (only $1), and I made the bee puzzle using an image from the web and craft sticks. I will post a link at the bottom for the 3 part spelling cards.
You can find the Bug Path Page at 3Dinosaurs. Little Guy absolutely LOVED these pages (there are a couple of them to choose from, or you can print them all off like we did.) 3Dinosaurs is also where I found this little cricket puzzle.
We really love these printables from 1+1+1=1. Little Guy is really doing wonderfully with his beginning letter sounds. I just put the page in a plastic sleeve and he circles the letter with a dry erase marker.
I broke out these 2 sided Number Matching Ladybugs that I had made back when we were learning about the Letter L.
We placed this growing grasshopper in a big bowl and observed how it grew all week long.
Little Guy couldn't resist playing in the water with it every day!
I also created these Bug Counting Games. We rolled the dice, and placed the corresponding number of cheerios on the bugs using a right to left, top to bottom order (which is great for Little Guy to get used to for reading.)
We played using both a Ladybug and a Snail game board.
To finish off our week we made this Worms and Dirt treat.
*Honestly though, Little Guy didn't eat it. He ate 2 of the gummy worms, and that was it. He likes sweets, but usually just a bite. The main fun was the process of making it (crushing up the cookies).
Since we spent the past week learning about butterflies, I thought it would be fun to take a field trip to a nearby Butterfly Encounter. Boy, was it!
When we arrived, the lady at the desk gave us an indentification card so that we could keep track of all the butterflies we saw. Little Guy loved this! He held the card and everytime he'd spot one of the butterflies on the card, we'd high five and cheer.
There were so many butterflies, and beautiful flowers, and the cutest little birds that work as the "clean up" crew (if you catch my drift).
Our favorite area was the place where you could feed the butterflies. Most of the butterflies there just stuck to the flowers, but there was one room where you could dip your finger in a little cup of nectar, touch the butterfly's feet, and it would climb onto your finger. It was so awesome! It was a long while before Little Guy was ready to leave this room!
Here's Little Guy show his new "pet" the rock he found in the parking lot.
When we got in the car Little Guy said that the encounter was a "10!" I think I'd have to agree.
*Lukas Butterfly Encounter is located in Oviedo, FL.
Tickets are $5 per person, and they are open everyday from 9-4.
You can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LukasNursery
Here's what we've got going on during the week of the 4th:
Letter Tile Matching page using lowercase letters and upper case tiles.
I found this set of 3 necklaces at the Dollar Tree, cut them up, and used them to make counters for this number matching activity.
I found some great printables over at 2 Teaching Mommies. They have a printable pack you can download for FREE. There were also a few patriotic printables over at NickJr.com
Practicing sharpening a pencil. I saw this idea on Counting Coconuts and it made so much sense! It never occured to me that Little Guy has never had to sharpen a pencil for himself before.
Patriotic Patterns using red, white, and blue star-shaped marshmallows!
Little Guy loved this activity!
We spent this morning baking some red velvet cupcakes for the BBQ we're attending tomorrow.
