Fireworks and Yankee Doodle: 4th of July Crafts for Toddlers

For the first craft we made fireworks! Well, at least the non-explosive kind :) I found the idea for that here. It was really easy. We just took 4 baking cups (the kind you bake cupcakes in) and flattened them out then used different colored markers to make them colorful. Then we glued the cups onto a black piece of construction paper. After that we took glitter glue and spread it around with our fingers so the fireworks would be sparkly.

The next craft was a little more mommy involved. In my attempt to be festive, I've been singing the boys "Yankee Doodle". Scientist thinks the part about the macaroni is just hilarious, and asks me to sing it to him over and over. So I thought it would be fun to do a Yankee Doodle craft. I had Aaron make both boys a paper hat out of newspaper. (I don't know how, but you could probably Google search for instructions.) Then the boys painted their hats. In order for this to be festive, I only gave them the option of using the red, white, and blue paint. :) When that was dry, I put a line of glue around the bottom of each hat and the boys (Sponge had a lot of help from me) stuck macaroni all around the bottom. Then we glued some feathers to the top.

I was really happy with how the hats turned out. It was kind of a stop and go project. We painted one side of the hats, then had to let that dry so we could flip them over to paint the other side. Then we let that dry, glued one side of macaroni, let that dry, then the other side. And finally the feathers. But it was worth it, and it took a good part of the morning, so in my mind it was a success. We'll see how long the hats last, and how long I find random macaroni noodles strewn about my house. :)

Here are some things we (but probably mostly I) have learned about Yankee Doodle the last couple days.
Lyrics:

Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.

Chorus:
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.


Father and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Gooding
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

Chorus

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there were a million.


Chorus

Also a few interesting things from Wikipedia:

"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the origin of which dates back to the Seven Years' War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut.

The song's origin is unclear. Traditions place its origin in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War. It is believed that the tune comes from the nursery rhyme Lucy Locket. One version of the Yankee Doodle lyrics is "generally attributed" to Doctor Richard Shuckburgh, a British Army surgeon. According to one story, Shuckburgh wrote the song after seeing the appearance of Colonial troops under Colonel Thomas Fitch, Jr., the son of Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch.

As a term Doodle first appeared in the early seventeenth century, and is thought to derive from the Low German dudel or dödel, meaning "fool" or "simpleton". The Macaroni wig was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became contemporary slang for foppishness. The implication of the verse was therefore probably that the Yankees were so unsophisticated that they thought simply sticking a feather in a cap would make them the height of fashion.


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S Day: S is for Sssssssnake!

I was very grateful to have the letter S this week. It just seems so easy compared to the last couple of letters I've had. Usually, for letter day we focus on a couple of different words that start with S, but today I only wanted to use one. Snake. I like the snake word, because not only does it start with S but snakes say sssssss, which is the sound the S makes, and I thought it would be a good way to help the boys associate the letter and the sound.

We started off reading the book Snake Stew by Tami Hunt. It's about a garden snake who tries to steal some eggs from the cook and ends up in a pot of boiling water and has to figure out how to get back home. It's a cute story and has lots of fun rhymes. But what I like about it is that any time the snake says a word ending in S, the S is dragged out. For example, the snake talks about moving through the graSSsssssss. And so on. So the S's really stand out and so does the S sound.

For our next activity, I dug down deep to a song from my preschool days called Sally the Swinging Snake by Hap Palmer. It's a fun song, and while you sing, each kid gets a piece of yarn that is their very own snake, and they have to make the yarn do the actions that go along with the song. Here are the lyrics:

1. Sally The Swinging Snake
Words and Music: Hap Palmer


Chorus:
Sally the swinging snake
She does the shimmy shake
She loves to rock and roll
Feels that rhythm in her soul


Sally can you swing from side to side?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you stretch out long and tight?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you curl up in a ball?
Sally can you jump up high and fall?


Repeat Chorus


Sally can you crawl in a small space?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you crawl all over the place?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you quickly vibrate?
Sally can you make a letter shape?


Repeat Chorus

The boys had a lot of fun with their Sallys and liked making her do the different actions, I think it kept them interested in the song for a lot longer than they would have been just singing it.

After that we colored and cut out "Springy Snakes". I found the template for this activity on the San Diego Zoo website. It's really easy, all you have to do is print it out on cardstock and cut out the snake. I did one for Sponge too, to keep him occupied while the big boys colored theirs, and I think this picture of him shows the template the best.

Scientist was thrilled with his finished project, he kept running around going "Spring! Spring! Spring!" and making the snake spring up and down. I think once he's done playing with it, we'll hang it up outside so the wind can do the springing for us.

After the kids ran around with their snakes and got some wiggles out, we sat them down at the kitchen table and gave them each a different color of playdough and had them roll out playdough snakes. After they got the hang of the snakes they took it upon themselves to make other kinds of animals too, and even though most of them didn't start with S, we didn't mind letting them be creative. :)

After that we had "Chocolate Snakes" for snack. It's a no bake cookie recipe I found online. Originally, I was going to have them help me make it, but I didn't think we'd have enough time. As it turns out, I'm glad I made it by myself before hand....the recipe has a 1/2 cup of honey in it, and it was a sticky mess! If you're interested here it is:

Snake Refrigerator Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:


•1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
•1/2 Cup Powdered Milk
•1/2 Cup Honey
•1 Tbsp Cocoa
•1/2 tsp Vanilla
•1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts
•1/2 Cup Raisins
•Mini M & Ms


Preparation:

Combine the peanut butter and the powdered milk until blended. Stir in honey, cocoa, vanilla, nuts, and raisins - in that order. Roll your mixture into small snake shapes. Add 2 mini M & Ms for eyes. Attach the Mini M & Ms with peanut butter. Place the snakes on wax paper on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator until very firm.

It probably wasn't the best tasting snack we've ever eaten...but the kids enjoyed it. Especially because I let them put their own eyes on.

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Mixing Colors

 I've been wanting to try this experiment with Scientist for awhile now, so I made a bunch of red, yellow, and blue ice cubes using food coloring and froze them. But things kept coming up and we never got around to getting them out. Then the other day we went to the library and by chance, Scientist picked out a book called Blue Goose. It's about animals that paint their farmyard different colors while the farmer is away, and it talks about mixing two colors together to make a new color. Scientist loves the book, and asks to have it read to him all the time. So I decided it was time to pull out the ice cubes. We did red and blue first, because those are the first colors they mix together in the book. I put a red ice cube and a blue ice cube in a plastic sandwich baggy and taped it shut (I didn't have any zip locks). I gave one bag to Scientist and one bag to Sponge. They played with the ice cubes while they melted, and then I pointed out how when the ice melted the different colors mixed together to make purple water.

I didn't know if it would be over Scientist's head or not, but he really caught on quickly. Now, whenever we read the book and I ask what color you get when you mix red and blue, he says purple every time. And I think he really does understand the concept, instead of just spitting out a memorized answer. We only did red and blue, because of attention span, but another one of these days we'll try out yellow and blue, and red and yellow to see what happens. :) Also, I think once we've done all the different variations in ice cube form, we'll mix paint to solidify the concept. Anyone know of anything else you can mix?

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Shaving Cream Paint

I decided we'd do some finger painting so I could try something I've been hearing a lot about lately. That is to mix your poster paint with shaving cream. There are various reasons for doing so....it makes your paint last longer (as in because you only have to use a few drops each time), it gives kids a new texture to work with, it takes away the awful smell of the poster paint, it makes the paint easier to clean up...are the reasons I've heard, and I wanted to give it a try. So I put some shaving cream into two different bowls and then added just a few drops of poster paint to each, one orange and one blue, and stirred it up with my finger so the shaving cream and paint mixed. Then I gave one bowl to each boy. For Sponge, he gets a little wild, so I taped his piece of paper to his high chair tray so it couldn't go anywhere.

The kids had a good time with it. And I will say that most of the above mentioned reasons to mix your paint with shaving cream, I found to be true. I used less paint on this project than when we do straight finger painting, the texture turned out really cool and 3-D which I really liked, after mixing in the shaving cream I could not smell the paint at all which I hate the smell of and it usually takes over my whole house whenever we get the paints out, AND my favorite part of all...the mess was a cinch to clean up. Sponge got paint all over my kitchen table, his high chair tray, himself, his onsie, and in his hair, and just rinsing all those things with water took the paint right off, no scrubbing whatsoever. My real only "concern" is that I'm not sure this mixture will ever actually dry all the way. I might have to spray it with hair spray to keep the "paint" in place, but that wouldn't be too bad.

Pirate Crafts

During the summer months, instead of story time, our local library does craft time for kids 12 and under. Today they had the kids make these adorable pirate hats and pirate hooks. I thought they were so cute and easy that I would share them.

To make a pirate hat all you need is a piece of black construction paper, a white crayon, and some tape. Turn your paper the long way and cut about an inch think strip off the bottom. Then on the rest of the paper trace this shape:

and using the white crayon, color in where all the white parts are, or designs of your own. Then cut it out. Next tape the inch thick strip to either side of the front of the hat so that it fits the child's head. Done and done.

To make a pirate hook you'll need 1 pipe cleaner, tin foil, and a large plastic or paper cup. Make a square out of tin foil that's as long and wide as the pipe cleaner is long. Lay the pipe cleaner on the edge of your tin foil square and tightly wrap the pipe cleaner in tin foil. Poke a hole in the bottom of your cup and feed the tin foiled pipe cleaner through the hole. Bend into a hook shape. Leave enough on the inside of the cup that the kids have something to hold onto.

My boys had such a fun time doing this project. And both were able to help making it to some degree (Scientist my 2 1/2 yr old obviously could do a lot more than Sponge my 1 yr old.) and they loved the finished projects even more. In fact, they wore them all over town while we ran our errands today. :) But I think these ideas are simple as easy enough for a wide age range of kids. They would make great Halloween costume ideas, a good activity for letter P, or just for some fun an old day.


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R Day: Robots, Rowboats, Running Races, Rice Cakes

To start off R Day, Suzy read the boys a fun touch and feel book called Rusty Robot. It had lots of great R words in it that the boys got to pick out as we read. (Not to mention that reading starts with R.)

Then we talked about row boats and sang Row Row Row Your Boat. Suzy had saved diaper boxes for each of the boys and made oars out of the top, so they each got their very own row boat. First the boys got to tape pieces of water to their boats, so it would look like they were floating. Then they got to decorate them using markers, crayons, and stickers.

Here's Scientist in his completed rowboat. I tried to get him to hold the oars the right way, but he insisted on holding them that way.

Suzy even made a rowboat for Sponge so he wouldn't feel left out. He loved it! He especially loved being aloud to decorate it with markers. He got slightly carried away and also decorated himself and Scientist pretty well with a green marker. :)

The next activity was running a relay race. We went outside, and Suzy put one full bucket of water in the walkway and then by the stairs she put an empty bucket. She gave each boy a cup. The goal was to fill the cup with water from one bucket and then run to the next bucket and dump the water out and then run back for more water. This was the kids' favorite activity. They would have kept playing all afternoon if we would have let them. Once one bucket was empty, we'd have them switch directions and use the other bucket (which was now full) to fill their cups.

Sponge and K enjoyed watching the older boys running back and forth. Sponge tried to run with them for a little while, but gave up on that idea and decided to just stick close to Mom, and splash his hands in the bucket of water.  

Our cute little relay racers

To finish up R Day we had Rice Cakes for a snack. All four kids were thrilled.

Dryer Sheet Box Entertainment

Found another Sponge appropriate activity today, that only took about 3 seconds to put together and provided a half hour or more of entertainment. I took an empty dryer sheet box and cut a round hole in the lid, just big enough for a ping pong ball to fit through. Then I gave Sponge the box and a few ping pong balls (you can buy a 6 pack of ping pong balls at Target for $1.98 and they make great toddler toys) and showed him how to drop the ping pong balls into it, and then how to open the lid when he wanted to get them out. He played with that, and I folded laundry. It was a beautiful compromise.