I Day: Ice, Indians, Instraments, and Insects

After a two week break for sickness, we are back on track with letter day. Today's letter was "I" and it was my turn.

To start off we made ice. I gave each boy an ice cube tray and had them fill it with water. I explained to them that when water gets really cold it freezes and turns into ice. We put their ice trays in the freezer while we did all the other activities.

Next, we talked about Indians. Yes, I realize it's politically incorrect to call them Indians, but Native American doesn't start with "I". The boys made Indian headbands out of construction paper. I let them color the bands first (which I had already pre-cut, about two inches think and 22 inches long, 22 inches was just right for a two-year-old sized head, for older kids you might want to go longer) then we sized them to fit their heads and taped it together to make a headband. I had already pre-cut some feathers out of construction paper too. Each boy got 4 feathers in different colors. The boys got to choose where on their headbands they wanted the feather to go and in what order. Then we moms helped tape them in place.


They thought it was hilarious to watch themselves dance around in the mirror and see their feathers flapping around.

Once they had their headbands on we sang and Indian song. The lyrics are below. We only did the first verse today.

One little, two little, three little Indians,

Four little, five little, six, little Indians,
Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians.
Ten little Indian boys.

They jumped in a boat and the boat tipped over x 3
Ten little Indian boys.
They swum and the swum till they reached the shore x 3
Ten little Indian boys.

They all fell asleep in a little tepee x 3
Ten little Indian boys.

After that, I asked the boys if they knew what an instrument was. I explained that an instrument was something you used to make music. I told them that some Indians had a special instument called a rain stick, and whenever they wanted it to rain they would make music with the rain stick and do a rain dance to try and get the rain to come. Then we went back into the kitchen and made our own rain sticks using instructions that I found online here.

This activity required a little bit more mommy help than what I usually like to do, but it was well worth it. The boys loved their rain sticks. We also talked a little bit about insects and how insect was a different word for bug. I gave each boy a sheet of instect stickers to decorate their rain sticks with.

It's always interesting to me which parts of our Letter Days stick the best with Scientist. Today after they were done making their rain sticks they brought them out in the living room and shook them and danced for awhile, and afterwords Scientist looked at me and said, "I make it rain." And he kept talking about how it was going to rain and how he wanted to shake his stick to make it rain. He must have done something right, because I'm looking out my window right now and it's pouring sleet out there. Maybe I should have had them make sunshine and warm weather sticks :)

Just before it was time for our friends to leave, we pulled out the ice trays. The ice had only frozen about half way, but I think the boys liked being able to see both the water and the ice at the same time. They played in their ice trays until they and my kitchen counter were thoroughly soaked, then they seemed to be satisfied. :) I love to watch curious little boys at work. It's worth the effort of cleaning up when they're all done.