Everything was red, white, and blue last week in honor of America's birthday! We didn't set up the shelves as we were traveling some of the week and didn't have as many activities as we have in the past.
Books Looking for Uncle Louie on the Fourth of July by Kathy Whitehead Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet Wong Fourth of July Mice! by Bethany Roberts Happy Birthday, America by Mary Pope Osbourne Red, White, and Boom! by Lee Wardlaw God Bless America by Irving Berlin (illustrated by Lynn Musinger) Hooray for the 4th of July! by Harriet Ziefert
Activities
Color an American Flag
This week, we got out some colored pencils to color with. Little Cutie was interested for maybe a minute and then walked away. She only colored with the red. I tried showing her the blue, but she was not interested.
Yankee Doodle Rhyme
This was our song/nursery rhyme for the week. I found the book by Mary Ann Hoberman to follow along with. It ended up going into much more detail than the traditional version of the song that we knew. Little Cutie loves when we read in a sing-songy voice (usually only where there are rhyming books). She dances to the beat and waves her hands.
Red, White, and Blue Bead Necklaces
Little Cutie loved playing with these necklaces. She put them around her neck. She shook the container. She took them out of the container, and put them back in. She dragged them all over the house. They were definitely a favorite of the week.
Red, White, and Blue Pom Chute
I taped an old paper towel tube to the wall and got some red, white, and blue poms. We started with 3 different sizes, but the large ones were too big to fit in the tube, and Little Cutie put the small ones in her mouth right away, so we just stuck with the medium sized poms. She wasn't real interested in this activity, but we had her attention for a few minutes.
We hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July weekend!
Father's Day was last Sunday, but we continued thinking about Daddy all week long. I decided to do something a little different this week...I didn't fill the shelves. Instead, I brought the activities out when we wanted to do one. We also read some great books about Daddy.
Books The Daddy Book by Todd Parr Daddy Hugs 1 2 3 by Karen Katz Just Like Daddy by Cecilia Johansson Father's Day by Anne Rockwell Daddy Adventure Day by Dave Keane Oh, Daddy! by Bob Shea Driving Daddy by Hope Vestergaard
Activities
Make a Father's Day Card
Little Cutie gets very excited when she sees me get out a crayon and paper. In the past, we tried giving her more than one crayon at a time and it was too overwhelming for her. She loves to color scribble. Unfortunately, she still occasionally puts things in her mouth, so the actual coloring doesn't last very long. Daddy liked his card from her.
Hape Pound and Tap Bench
Daddy loves woodworking and fixing things around the house, so this toy fit perfectly with our Daddy theme. Little Cutie can hit the balls with the hammer pretty well, but can't quite hit them hard enough for them to fall through. She does love to play the xylophone and make loud music!
Laugh & Learn Learning Lawn Mower
Daddy mows the lawn in our household and Little Cutie loves to watch him from the windows. I have never seen her play with this toy as much as she did this week. I showed her how when you push it, the balls spin around in the top. She probably spent more time dragging it backwards around the house, but occasionally went forward. We noticed it works better on surfaces with more traction (like the carpet). She danced when it played songs and we pretended to mow the letters on our floor letter mat.
Bowling
Daddy loves sports, but the weather was too hot in our neck of the woods to get outside, so we opted for some indoor bowling! Little Cutie was more interested in throwing the bowling balls and pins and hearing the noise they made when they hit the tile floor. She didn't play for very long.
