Sidewalk Chalk Squirt Paint

We recently moved to a house that is in the country and has LOTS of yard and driveway space. Our last house did not have a yard that we could spend time in and overnight we have become an outside family. YAY! I spent so much time outside as a kid, it has been so relaxing and fun to watch Little Bit play in the yard during the day. After dinner she follows my husband outside to dig for worms, go on a treasure hunt or just play. I love that we are raising a child that loves to be outside. 

With a better yard we are trying out new outside play activities. This past week we tried sidewalk chalk paint in squirt bottles. We had painted with sidewalk chalk paint in the past and loved it! The idea came from Growing a Jeweled Rose for using squirt bottles.  

Little Bit loved squirting the paint, making shapes and spraying her feet. Once the paint dries it becomes chalk powder. Little Bit discovered that she could scratch it with a stick and make tiny chalk beads. She had just as much fun with the dry paint as when it was wet. Creating the sidewalk chalk paint was easy. 

Chalk Paint 

Ingredients - food color, water and cornstarch

Directions - mix equal parts water and cornstarch, then add food coloring. 

Check out the blogs listed below and the collection of chalk activities they have.

Other Chalk Activities

Learn with Play at Home

Inner Child Learning

Our Animal Wall

This summer we have learned all about different kinds of animals. Throughout the summer we have created different animals to add to our animal wall. Little Bit has loved making and adding animals. I had planned to make many more animals but we are moving this weekend and that has completely disrupted our daily routine. Because of the move we will need to take down our animal wall.

We have enjoyed our all and we may create a special wall at our new house to show off our art work. Each of the animals were made in different ways. Check out how we made each animal.

1. Bear - I used a print out of a bear and then gave Little Bit small pieces of brown fabric.

2. Snake - Little Bit and I used leaves we found to decorate our snake. Check out my Gail Gibbons - Virtual Book Club Linkup post.

3. Alligator - I cut a mother and baby alligator out of green paper. Then we colored with green and used small pieces of green construction paper to decorate each of the alligators.

4. Butterfly - First, Little Bit picked scrapbooking paper and cut it into small pieces. My Counting in the Garden post has more information about our butterfly.

5.Giraffe - After cutting the giraffe out of paper Little Bit used her finger prints to creat spots. 

6. Hedgehog - this was created at our zoo class, we traced Little Bits hand then cut it out and glued it on to add spikes. 

7. Frog - The frog life cycle was another activity we did in zoo class. Little Bit loved this one so much that she wanted to add it to her wall. 

8. Sheep - This was made at church but I love our simple this was. 

9. Cow - Little Bit found this picture and wanted to add it to the wall. She colored the cow and then asked for it to be cut out and added.


            It was fun to see how much ownership she has taken of the wall. 

Counting in the Garden and Butterflies

 

 

We are currently in the process of moving so we have not had a normal routine at all. We did recently read the book Counting in the Garden. If you have never read this book you should! The illustrations are beautiful and it is a look-and-find counting book. As we read the book Little Bit worked on pointing and counting.
 
We then created the butterfly that you see below with small bits of scrapbook paper. Little Bit was able to practice cutting and using a glue bottle. I love how the butterfly turned out!
 

 

 

With the move I have not been able to do more with the book but I have a few ideas to use with this book.

• Use insect and animals figures or pictures and count out how many are found on each page.
• Create a garden with flowers and plants cut from construction paper and hide the different insects and animals in the picture.
• Create each of the animals and insects.
• Visit a local garden (or your own garden) and look for the animals that were in the book.

 
This is a list of gardening activities and crafts from other blogs.

• No Time For Flash Cards has a list of 23 crafts and activities that focus on the garden.
• Happy Hawkins has cute ideas for felt gardening play sets.
• No Time For Flash Cards has another great idea for practicing patterns and counting.
• Fantastic Fun & Learning as a fun the gardening sensory bin.

 
 

Letter 'A' Activities

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about the letter A. Below is some of the activities we have enjoyed.

1. Letter hunt. Using magnetic letters Little Bit found all the letter As. She sorted through all the letters and pulled out the letter A. We talked about V and how it looks like the letter A. This was a quick and easy game.

2. Bread in the shape of letter A. We shaped bread dough into the letter A. Little Bit loved rolling the bread. We worked on making each sides of the letter were the same size. I used a French Bread recipe that was quick and easy.

3. Letter A tub.

I collect anything that I could find that started with the letter A, this was actually harder than I thought it would be. Our bin had: apron, alligator, apple, Mr Potato Head's arm, and airplane.

4. Letter A cut out.

We used strips of construction paper to make the letter A and then glued noodles to it. Little Bit liked gluing the noodles down and was excited to display her letter A on the wall.

5. Cheez-It letter hunt.

Scrabble Cheez-Its make letter hunting easy, fun and tasty.

4th of July Fun

We have been having lots of 4th of July fun his week, yes I know it is only Tuesday. We decorated the house and have been reading our 4th of July books. Little Bit is very excited to see all our family and the fireworks. Check out what we have done so far to celebrate.


Pom-pom Fireworks

We used pom-poms to create fireworks with paint. This was a quick and easy art project. I found the idea on the blog Sense of Wonder. We used small and large pom-poms the smooth ones and ones that are spikey. Little Bit dipped the pom-poms in paint and then touched them to the paper. We love finding new ways to paint.


4th of July Wands

 

 We are making fun wands for the girls in our family. They are simple to make and look so cute! We used: wooden dowels, screw eyes, and various ribbon. I was able to get all the supplies at Wal-Mart in the craft section. I was able to screw the screw eye into the dowel by hand. Little Bit then practiced her scissor skills and cut the ribbon. Next, she threaded the ribbon through the screw eye. When it was time to tie the ribbon I looped it and Little Bit pulled it tight. That is it, so easy. This fabulous idea came from the blog Buggy and Buddy.

 
4th of July Sensory Bin

Materials in our sensory bin:

• blue, red and white pom-poms
• red, white and blue necklets
• red, white and blue popsicle sticks
• blue star ice trays
• red, white and blue lays (cut apart)
• American flags
• red, white and blue glitter stars

Cookie Cutter Stars

This is another fun way to paint. Little Bit loved this, as you can see in the picture. We used three different size star cookie cutters and blue and red paint. Little Bit liked that she could stamp inside the big stars with a little stars. She also explained to me that when you put red and blue together it makes purple. This idea originally came from the blog No Time For Flash Cards.

Counting with Stars

Gift of Curiosity has a free 4th of July packet you can download with lots of fun activities inside. Little Bit loved counting the stars and finding the number they matched. Check out the packet, there are many different activities: puzzles, counting, letters, patterns, cutting, tracing, etc.

 

Noah's Ark Activities

 

 

 Noah's Ark

 

Little Bit and I have been reading, playing and learning about Noah's Ark for the past few weeks. This fit into out animal theme summer perfectly. I created a background and cut the ark out of white paper. Little Bit loved cutting strips of brown paper into small pieces of "wood" to glue to the ark. We covered the ark with the strips of "wood" and put the ark on the background.  

 

We added foam animals to complete our ark. Little Bit found two of each animal and put them next to each other around the ark. This is our finished ark.

3D Noah's Ark

I found a printout that makes a 3D ark when folded. It was printed on cardstock so that it would hold up. Little Bit colored it, then we cut and glued it together. The 3D ark can be found at Sunday School Kids.

Noah's Ark Book

We used the books below as we talked about Noah's Ark. There are many other great books available but these books were the ones that our library had and best fit our needs.

 

4th of Juy Activities

 

4th of July is a fun holiday for us, it is a summer holiday with fireworks and it is just a few days before Little Bit's birthday. We are planning lots of fun things to celebrate the 4th of July this year. Below is a list of the activities, books and sensory play that I found with a 4th of July theme.  

 

 

Montessori Activities for 4th of July

 

The site Gift of Curiosity has a post that includes several activities such as sorting, matching, and fine motor skills. We will use several of the activities.

 

 

 

Pom-Pom Fireworks

 

Sense of Wonder has a fun art project using pom-poms to make fireworks.

 

 

 

 

Cookie Cutter Star Art

 

Not Time for Flash Cards uses star cookie cutters as stamps, this is so simple and fun.

 

 

 

 

Footprint Flag

 

A fun, messy, and patriotic art activity from Coffee Cups and Crayons.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sensory Bins

 

Shaving Cream and Fireworks

 

4th of July Sensory Bin

 

4th of July Sensory Tub

 

July Sensory Bin and Playdough

 

Animal Footprints

 

 

I found this fun animal print activity on the site Teach Preschool. We used different animal figures based on their feet, paws, or hooves. We discussed what each animal's feet looked like and how they used them. Little Bit liked the beaver because the tail made a mark like the feet.

 

We are having lots of fun learning about animals. Check out my previous post to see what all the fun things we are planning to do this summer with animals.

Summer of Animals

 

 

Footprint Art

 

 

We spent the morning painting with our feet. This was an easy activity that Little Bit LOVED! My husband cut a box so that it would lay flat on the ground. I added a little paint to a few bowls and Little Bit had at it.

After painting with her feet for a while, Little Bit decided to use her bat, knee and fingers. The best part was watching her run around with paint on her feet.

I modified this activity from an activity found on The Imagination Tree blog.