D is for Dragon

As with each letter craft we always discuss the sound it makes and repeat it a few times. To make this dragon we used some green foam for the triangles and some red tissue paper for the tongue. You can draw an eye or use a googly eye to make the face.

A couple fun books to accompany this activity are:

" Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton is a beautiful book. The illustrations are outstanding and it's a fun classic to introduce to your kids.

" The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch. It's sassy so watch out. There is a great message under it's sassiness! Girls can be strong, can outwit dragons and don't need a man! I love it!!

C is for Cars

Since Xavier is in love with Lightning McQueen and anything else that vrooms or zooms I decided he would enjoy making a letter C with cars. Xavier thought because all the cars were red it was a fleet of Lightning McQueens.



After our craft we headed to the porch for a good old fashioned car wash.



Xavier enjoyed cleaning his cars. First he saw the water. What kid doesn't love water?



Next he lined up all his cars to prep them for washing.



Finally he got to work. Now all his cars are shiny and clean.

A fun song to go along with this activty is:
Vroom! Vroom ! Went the little red car one day,
Vroom! Vroom! Went the little red car!
Vroom! Vroom! Went the little red car one day ,
and they all went Vroom! Vroom! Skreeeeeech!

But we all know cars go ,
beep beep beep beep beep,
beep beep beep beep beep,
beep beep beep beep beep

We all know cars go ,
beep beep beep beep beep
They don't go , Vroom! Vroom! Skreeeeeech!

C is for Caterpillars and Cookies

The letter C is a fun one! We made a caterpillar with large pom poms and pipe cleaner for the antenna.



We also did a little bit of cooking and made some C shaped cookies. Cooking is great even for toddlers. They can help pour the ingredients in the bowl and help mix it all together. We even practiced some cooking as we measured out the ingredients. You can even give them some dough to shape, roll, squeeze, and maybe even sneak in a little bit of a bite. (not that eating raw eggs is good, but hey we've all done it.)

Snacklaces and the Letter S

To help Xavier with some fine motor skills we decided to make cheerio Snacklaces. You can use fruit loops or any other circular shaped food. You can use string or a shoelace to thread your snack on. Since this was the first time Xavier did any type of threading I helped quite a bit, but he definitely loved the end reward.



We made a letter S with glitter paint. Xavier was able to work his hands quite a bit by squeezing the tubes of paint. Then we used a rolling paint brush to spread the paint around the paper a little better.






As Xavier painted his letter S we talked about the sound that S makes. For our final touch we added some shimmery stars.

Fingerpainting

Xavier doesn't typically like to get his hands dirty, but he enjoyed doing this activity. He had a couple paint brushes and he also used his fingers. He didn't paint on the paper for long.





As he got into it a little more he decided he'd start painting his feet. As he painted he would yell, "I'm a dinosaur!" Then he'd yell "I'm a blob!" Then it got even more interesting when he yelled "I'm jumping on the ga gee goo!" So fingerpainting turned into toe painting. Leave it to Xavier to do things his own way. :)



It even ended up on his face. The joys of being a kid. Messes and experimentation are at the core of their learning.

Letter S and sponge painting

Get a sponge and some paint. Draw a letter S on a green piece of paper. Let your child dab the sponge into some paint and then dab it onto the letter S. As he is painting have him repeat the sound that S makes. SSSSSSS. Then add a red tongue and some googly eyes to make a snake.

Train Trax

Supplies needed: a few toy cars or trains, paint, and paper.

Place paint onto a few different plates and "drive" the trains and cars through the paint. Then "drive" the cars and trains onto the paper to make tracks. It's easy and fun!