The Giving Tree- Leaf Crowns

I can hardly resist a good book! And it’s even better when it elicits some good discussion! The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein fulfills both of those needs. It’s a sad, yet sweet, book about the relationship between a tree and a boy over the course of their lifetimes. There’s an unexpected depth to this book, so you might want to preread it, especially if you’re unfamiliar with Shel Silverstein.

In his youth, the main character of our book uses leaves from the giving tree to make play crowns. That was the idea we ran with for this project! The materials we used were cheap and easy to find: paper grocery bag, tape, glue, scissors, and of course leaves. (I was easily able to make 4 crowns from one paper bag.)

The instructions are equally simple:

Cut strips from the grocery bag long enough to fit around your head(s).

Glue the tape onto the grocery bag strips sticky-side out. Leave a border of grocery bag on either side of the tape. This will help prevent hair from getting stuck in the tape.

(Double-sided tape probably would have been ideal here, but I didn’t have any so I just used masking tape. I used my fingernail to lightly press the tape into the glue and it was actually really easy. No tapey-gluey mess! No trip to the store needed!)

Leaf hunt time!

The tape worked double duty in allowing me to easily secure the crowns to the boys' heads. We decided to do this as a collaborative project, so all of the boys hunted leaves and put them onto each other's crowns. There was quite a bit of discussion necessary to get each crown made to the wearer's satisfaction. I do so love giving these brothers the opportunity to work together :)

Because this was a group project my youngest was also able to be involved, when we could catch him….

Insert play (& cuteness) here!

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Sticker Slap! – Counting Game

Dude and I have been playing this fun little game for the past couple of days. I’m not sure he’s realized it yet, but he’s also practicing his math skills!

All you need to play is two (or more) sets of cards with increasing numbers of stickers on them. I made mine with two different colors of cardstock so they’d be easier to sort for the next game. And if your child is anything like mine there WILL be a next game!I only did the numbers 1-10 for now but you could easily go higher.

For the game each player takes one color of card and places them face down (in random order) in a pile in front of them. On the count of three, each player turns over a card, puts it in the middle of the table and then tries to be the first to slap the card with the most stickers. If you’re first you take both cards and put them in your discard pile. The person with the biggest discard pile at the end of the game WINS! Super simple, but being able to both race and slap has made this a big hit with Dude. It’s great counting and greater than/less than comparison as well.

This was one of the bonus ideas in our Shoe Box Learning Centers: Counting book.

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Simple Fun! - Watermelon

I just love watching my children explore the world around them. You can call it play, or learning, or exploration, or some other fancy term that psychologists probably have, but really in their eyes it's just FUN! With this in mind I recently gave each of my boys large pieces of watermelon and small spoons. I then sat back and watched what happened.

There was some sensory exploration.

Some thought that went into how best to handle this rocking food

Some attempts to copy the skills of those in the know

Some successes at taking advantage of this sweet fruit

Some trial and error

Some conclusions, "My teeth cut better than the spoon."

And plenty of these :)

Here's to a messy, fun filled summer in 2011!

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Rainbow Craft & Outdoor Activity

Over the course of the last week, we've been combining some outdoor fun & fine motor skills practice to come up with this crafty rainbow!

Here's how we made it:

   

First you'll need to get paint chips in each color you want on your rainbow.

Cut them into small pieces.

Now hide them for your child to find:

Maybe in a flower bed

Or in the pockets of a backpack

(all those zippers make for a great workout for strengthening little hand muscles and working on coordination)

Or outside

Or in a Sensory Bin

(This is our Bugs Sensory Bin for May, still going strong.)

Or around some favorite toys

Or in left over Easter eggs

(another great activity for little hands)

Or maybe all of the above!

(You could also sneak in some counting practice if you dare.)

   

After you find each of your colored treasures, let your child add them to a piece of paper with colored lines in the shape of a rainbow.

We did this over the course of several days, which worked great for my son because he never would have had the patience to make this collage in a single day.

Here's Dude's finished product. (sorry about all the glare)

You could also easily add some cotton balls for clouds, but this is going to be the cover for our Rainbows Lapbook so we choose not to.

Pretty cute, don't you think!

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Photo Scavenger Hunt- Rainbow Style!

Yesterday we went on a scavenger hunt, but not just any old scavenger hunt. To make this more fun I handed over my camera and told Dude to "Find me a rainbow!"

(insert enormous toddler smile here)

Here's a cropped version of what he found:

To say my son loved this activity is an understatement! I don't think I know a child who isn't always eager to get at Mama's camera, and my guy's no different.

He actually took this job quite seriously, but still had SO much fun running around spotting things!

Here are his original photos:

He had a blast doing this and I love being able to go back and see things from his perspective. 

It was so funny to also find close up pictures of his face, toes, and of course he also snapped a nice SUPER duper close-up of the bird poop on the fire hydrant :)

You can find more of our Boredom Busting ideas by clicking HERE and scrolling down.

And if you like what you see, don't forget to follow or subscribe so you don't miss out on any of the FUN! It's going to be a great summer!

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