P is for Peacock

I'm beginning to love the peacock (along with the rest of Pinterest and the world). All those rich colors just beg to be incorporated into a fun craft.

To make our peacocks, we started out with coffee filters, blue & green food-coloring, water, and an old medicine dropper. I love this activity with little ones and have used it before to make fall leaves. Once the coffee filters were dry, I cut out some simple shapes for the peacock's body and let the girls assemble their birds.

To make A's tail, I simply folded the filter asymmetrically in half and then again in thirds. I then made the mistake of giving her an entire bottle of elmers glue. (I HIGHLY recommend using a glue stick with this project.) I also took the opportunity to teach her how to write and upper and lowercase P.

To give E a bit more of a challenge, I cut out feathers from the filter to let her create her own unique peacock.

I love what she came up with!

Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson

Larry LOVES being in the limelight. He just knows this book is going to be FANTASTIC because it's all about him! But as more and more animals weigh in on what the story should be about, Larry becomes increasingly annoyed. How dare these characters steal his spotlight! He wishes they would just go away. But when Larry gets his wish, he learns that being alone in the limelight is a lonely place to be.

My girls and I love this clever little story with its cast of quirky characters. The illustrations are equally as quirky but also lovely. Our favorite page contains a gorgeous illustration of Larry in all his glory with shiny foil highlights.


Disclaimer: Limelight Larry was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tales Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review.

ABC Scoops

Thanks to Ronald Reagon, July is National Ice Cream Month and we're celebrating all week long with ice cream crafts and activities. Today I whipped up this simple matching game for A as we continue to work on her ABC's.

I google-imaged "cone" and "ice cream cone scoop" and found this great cone graphic as well as a template for a scoop. I printed off a bunch of the cones and cut them out, writing a lower case letter on each one. For the scoops, I used Photoshop to fill in each one with a fun pattern. (Squidfingers.com has some fabulous patterns for free.) You could always just use the template to trace and cut out of scrapbook paper, though.

Eventually I'm hoping A will be able to match the upper and lowercase letters, but until then this is working great for letter recognition. She might just know all her letters by the time preschool starts!

P is for pretty, patient, petite peas!

Can you tell the pea is doing yoga? I think he at least looks fairly at peace, which is more than I can say for myself these last few weeks. But they have been productive... A is potty-trained, our offer has gone through the initial stages of approval with the seller's lender, our house is listed and we've had a lot of interest in it.

And I even made it to the library this week! One of my favorite finds was a book I've been meaning to check out for ages:

LMNO Peas

by Keith Baker

 

How can you resist such an adorable title? Inside, it's just as cute. Little green peas dot every page, showing off their amazing alphabet skills. The A peas are acrobats and astronauts; the B peas are builders, bathers, and bikers... etc. Each page features a large letter surrounded by talented, alliterated peas. My girls love it, and I have to admit I also find the little green guys ridiculously charming.

So we pulled out the paint for the first time in weeks to create our own alphabet pages.

I cut out construction paper letters: E for her initial, and P to teach my littlest a new letter of the alphabet. She absolutely flat-out refused to learn it. She wouldn't say it, wouldn't remember it, and let me know in no uncertain terms that she had no interest in me quizzing her about it. I'm hoping the knowledge sunk in anyway. She did enjoy painting fingerprints all over the paper, as did her big sister.

When it was dry, E and I had a blast bringing the peas to life with an ink pen and some e-words like:

and of course,

and my favorite (which I drew)...

It turned out to be a fun little project, and it felt so good to do something creative again with my girls!

Alphabet Secret Agent

Our theme this week is Secret Agents! This afternoon, Special Agent E received this important message:

(Forgive me the hat... I didn't have a fedora.) E was thrilled to receive her own special assignment and spent over an hour running around the house and yard looking for objects beginning with each letter of the alphabet. I gave her an old iphone to take the pictures, which thrilled her even more. Halfway through, she asked to see our children's dictionary to help her come up with ideas for different letters. I was impressed with everything she was able to find! (A is for "animal," btw.)

When she'd finished her mission, she received two thumbs up from her handler! What more could a secret agent want? :)

Agent A To Agent Z by Andy Rash

It is not easy finding picture books about special agents, so I was excited to find this one. Agent A is given the mission: find the agent who's unofficial, the one not using words with his initial. He goes through the alphabet of agents, each doing secret-agent-y things starting with his particular letter. All of them pan out... all, except Agent A that is!

The illustrations are cartoony, using dark colors that I think would particularly appeal to little boys. While this is an ABC book, it's larger vocabulary is not geared toward toddlers, and I'd recommend it for older preschool and up.


I'm linking up to:
- Milk N' Honey's Monday Shareday
- ABC & 123's Show & Tell 
- Nurture Store's Play Academy 
- We Play @ Childhood 101

Watermelon Math

How many seeds does each watermelon have? How many when you add the sets together? Cutting out the watermelons proved to be a great exercise in fine motor skills; adding up the watermelon seeds helped practice math and penmanship.

For a second activity, I cut the circles and glued them to the page to demonstrate fractions. While E dotted the seeds I explained simple fractions and how to write them.

Not to leave the baby out of the fun, I helped her create a W is for Watermelon page. She did a great job gluing the triangles and adding the seeds. Then she had a wonderful time scribbling over the entire sheet and eventually pulling the watermelon off and tearing them into little pieces all over my floor.

But how can you deny that joy to such a free spirit?

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert

This is one of those books you should have on your shelf. It combines the colorful collage art of Lois Ehlert, the alphabet, and a wide variety of fruits and veggies... what more could you want? Not only will your child have her ABC's reinforced, but she'll be introduced to exotic and interesting produce on every page. It's a favorite of our family.


 
I'm linking up to:
- ABC & 123's Show & Tell

Watermelon!

Did you know....

- the watermelon is 92 percent water

- August 3rd is National Watermelon Day

- the Japanese have grown a square watermelon

- watermelon is technically a vegetable

- watermelons are a good source of vitamins A, B6 and C, potassium and fiber

- it's watermelon week on Little Page Turners!


One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge

With the brilliant colors of a summer garden, this gorgeously illustrated book tells the story of Max and Josephine and the garden they plant. They start with one watermelon seed, then plant two pumpkin seeds, and so on until 10. Eventually their hard work and labor produces a rich harvest.

More than a simple counting book, it teaches the concept of counting by tens as well as introducing multiplication. I love the abundance of food that results from simple seeds and the childrens' obvious joy at reaping such a harvest. The text is sparse, but the vibrant illustrations more than make up for any lack in the story.


Watermelon Craft

You can't get much simpler. Draw three half circles of slightly less diameter on green, white, and red paper. (I really need to invest in a compass.) Let your child cut out the semi-circles and glue together, lining up the straight edges. Glue to a sheet of paper and add seeds, either with a marker or by gluing teardrop cutouts from black paper.

Now let them practice writing "watermelon". Didn't E do a fantastic job? This was her second try. She did much better once I gave her some lined paper to write on.

I'm linking up to:
- Silly Eagle Books

B is for Blankie

Now that she's 18 months and starting to talk, I'm beginning to introduce the alphabet to A. Since our theme this week is blankets, I thought we would focus on the letter B.

I've been wanting to try my hand at a taggy toy for awhile now and thought this the perfect opportunity. You could do this with any letter (B is probably one of the more difficult ones). Wouldn't it make a sweet baby gift? Just choose the first initial of the baby's name!

What you'll need:

• A large printout of your letter of choice
• two pieces of scrap fabric (I used some flannel I had on hand)
• ribbon
• scissors
• a sewing machine (I suppose you could technically sew this by hand, but I sure wouldn't want to!)
  

1. Layer your fabric, wrong sides together, and pin your cut-out letter to it.

2. Trim around the outside of the letter.

3. Create the taggies by pinning looped ribbon to the right side of the fabric, facing inwards.

4. Place the other layer of fabric on top, right sides together, so the ribbons are hidden inside. Pin together.

5. Sew around the outside of the letter, leaving several inches open to turn inside out.

6. Lightly draw any holes inside the letter. DO NOT sew these together yet. I made that mistake and then wondered why on earth my fabric wasn't flipping right-side out. Took me 20 minutes to take out all the stitches! (This, after I was getting pretty cocky confident in my sewing skills. Well, I usually manage to keep myself humble.) Cut out the holes.

7. Turn the fabric right-side out.

8. With an iron, press the fabric flat, tucking in the part that has yet to be sewn.

9. Now carefully sew shut the fabric around the inner holes. You might need to go back in and trim up the excess so it looks nice and neat.

9. Stuff with filling and sew shut. You're done! Hand it to your little one or toss it in their crib for a naptime surprise!

A was delighted with her new toy. I told her it was a "B" and was rewarded with a string of "bee! bee! bee!" Then I told her that B says "b" and we had fun going "ba ba ba ba!" Although she obviously enjoyed it, the B was shoved to the side during naptime and she chose to cuddle with her beloved blankie instead.

Books that Celebrate the Blankie

Hooray for Harry by Kim Lewis

This sweet little tale is perfect for a toddler bedtime story. When Harry the (adorable and ridiculously cuddly) elephant goes down for a nap, he discovers his favorite blanket is missing. His friends (a lamb and teddy bear) help him retrace his steps to find the missing blanket.

Not only does the story teach chronological order and re-enforce the idea of friendship, it also encourages creativity as you learn about the many ways Harry played with his blanket. Not to mention, it is just so darn cute! The animals looks so soft and snuggly... forget the blanket - I wanted to take a nap with them!


Kiss Good Night by Amy Hest

Here's another sweet bedtime story that's sure to become a favorite of your toddler. Although the blanket isn't the focus of this story, it is one part of little Sam's elaborate but sweet bedtime routine. The illustrations in this book are warm and tender, the story is repetitive without becoming tiresome, and the ending leads you into kissing your own little ones goodnight. On top of all of this, it has the best opening ever: "It was a dark and stormy night..." :)