B is for Blue Bubble Art

We made blue bubble art pictures for letter B week and I have to start this post with a warning that this is a very, very messy project. At least it was when we did it. (You can see the paint splatters all over the table.) We used straws to blow bubbles into a solution and then pressed paper on the top to capture the bubble pattern. 

You can't see the picture as well in the small size, so click on it to see how they turned out. 

 Here's What You Need:

• Newspaper or plastic garbage bags to cover your work surface
• Baking dishes like a pie tin or a shallow casserole dish (I tried to use a cookie sheet, but it was too shallow, so I don't suggest it)
• White paper
• Plastic straws
• Bubble solution (store bought or homemade)
• Paint

Here's What You Do:

1. Cover your work surface with newspaper or plastic. 
2. Mix 1/2 c paint into 1 c bubble solution and pour it into your dish.
3. Submerge your straw into the solution and blow bubbles until they are towering above the rim of the dish. (For younger kids, you can poke a small hole halfway up the straw with a pin to prevent accidental swallowing.)
4. Gently press your paper onto the bubbles and then lift it up to see your pattern. If needed, repeat with the same paper until the paper is covered to your liking. 
5. If you want, you can try it with different colors on the same paper. 

The Gingerbread Man

We had fun talking about gingerbread men and gingerbread houses this holiday season. 

 

We read the gingerbread man book. Then, we made our own running gingerbread men finger puppets. I got the idea from another blogger and liked it so much. 

Here's What You Need:

• empty cereal boxes
• crayons
• hot glue gun
• scissors
• gingerbread man cookie cutter

Here's What You Do:

1. Trace the gingerbread cookie cutter onto the back of a cereal box but make the legs a lot longer and straighter. 
2. Cut out the gingerbread man.
3. Cut out two strips about 3/4 inch tall and long enough to fit around your finger.
4. Hot glue the strips into a rolled tube.
5. Color your gingerbread man.
6. Hot glue one circle to the back of each leg to insert your fingers to make it run. Bend the legs and run, run, run as fast as you can!

B is for Button!

Wow, we did a lot of button activities this week. We did our Corduroy activity found here. 

We also sorted buttons by shape, size, and button holes.

We played button war. Each child started with 15 buttons and then rolled a dice and counted that many buttons onto the table. Whoever had the most buttons got everyone else's buttons. We used a 10 sided dice so that the kids practiced recognizing their numbers at the same time.

The kids also made friendship button and bead bracelets for their teddies before our teddy bear picnic.

Q is for Quick

I'm Quick As a Cricket!

 

After reading this book, we talked about how we have a lot of different emotions and feelings that can affect how we behave. Then, in honor of letter Q week, we tested how quick we can be. The kids each ran around the backyard and I timed how long it took them.

 

Without writing down names, I wrote each time on a piece of paper. Then we ordered the times from least to greatest.We grouped together kids who had the same time. Funny enough, the times were all in order without skipping any numbers. I promise I didn't plan it that way. : ) This was a great opportunity to talk about larger numbers that can sometimes be tricky for little ones.

Q is for Quadrilateral

 A quadrilateral is a shape with 4 sides. We used our pattern blocks to talk about quadrilaterals and we divided the pattern blocks into quadrilaterals and non-quadrilaterals.  I found these awesome pattern block stickers at amazon.com to use for an art project using our blocks.They are especially awesome because they are the exact same size as the actual blocks.

 

The kids made their own pictures using the pattern blocks and then copied the picture onto a paper using the stickers. The kids made (top left in a circle) a flower, a space ship shooting missiles, a flower, a necklace, and a dinosaur.