summer

L is for Ladybug- Craft, Song and Party Ideas

Moms and kids love our Chapters Alphabet Craft mornings!  This month, we are learning about the letter L.  This "Ladybug" craft was one of our cutest!  Did you know that we have all 26 upper case letter crafts and lower case letter crafts on our site?  Here are other "L" crafts too!

 

 l is for ladybug alphabet craft

 

Materials:

Red and Black construction paper

Googly eyes

Black bingo dabbers

Glue

 

Instructions:

1.  Precut the red "L" and 2 black semi-circles (cut a circle in half) for the kids.

2.  Glue the Red L onto the full black sheet of construction paper.

3.  Glue on black wings to look like the ladybug is flying.

4.  Gets kids to add on the eyes.

5.  Use Bingo dabbers (found at the dollar or party story) to make the dots on the Ladybug.

 

Do your kids love Ladybugs?

1.  Plan a Ladybug Party

2.  Read some fabulous bug books

3.  Teach numbers with Ladybugs

4.  Make the ultimate bug catcher

5.  Check this Ladybug board on Pinterest

6.  Sing this silly Ladybug song;

Sung to:"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

 Lady Bug, Lady Bug
 she landed on my nose
 I went “kerchoo!” and
 off she flew!
 Her body is round with
 big black dots,
 My mommy told me
 they're called spots.
 Lady Bug, Lady Bug
 she looks really neat
 With her bright red wings,
 And tiny black feet!

 

Thanks to Paula from momstown KW for this idea!

Posted by momstown team on 01/23/2013 - 18:28
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Super Alphabet Rocks

alphabet rocks

 

At momstown we’re always looks for ways to tuck a little literacy and learning into the day. Even the most basic of experiences, like looking for rocks at the beach, can be turned into ways to read.

 

One of our favourite TV shows is Super Why on Kids' CBC- it’s both entertaining and has great reading lessons. The super characters read and spell out words during the show and it’s not unusual for my kids to be yelling the words and letters at the screen.

 

Super why rocks 2

 

This summer, in the attempt to avoid the “summer slide” after kindergarten to keep up the precious reading skills my son acquired, I knew I had to get creative. He loves books but loves to be read to, no so much to read himself.  I have to trick him into reading and Super Why always does the trick.

 

I decided to take a lesson from Super Why and work on the Spelling side of reading. And with a medium that he’s not used to using for reading: Rocks!


I made Andrew his own Super Alphabet Rocks or “Andrew’s Alphabet” from a bunch of rocks we collected from the beach during our summer vacation. Perfectly sized, each rock is a letter and is used to create words or sentences.

 

This is a super parent resource project that requires only 2 things – rocks and a permanent marker. I created this for my son as I thought the size of the rocks were too small for his new printing, but if you had a child comfortable with printing, they could make their own set.

 

Each rock has a capital letter on one side and its lower case equivalent on the back. We created a full alphabet with a few extra vowels and other common letters to ease any potential frustration of not being able to find another letter.

 

So far, they’ve been a hit. Each morning, we pull out the Rock Alphabet to spell his name and a he picks a new word of the day to spell out. Ironically, after his word of the day, his interest is peaked and more words are attempted.

 

momstown rocks

 

Perfect!  Super Why to the rescue with this inspiration for our new Reading resource!!

Posted by momstown mama on 07/11/2012 - 12:59
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Keep "Track" of Summer Reading

One of the best ways to minimize summer learning loss is to encourage kids to continue to read during the summer.  Since many kids are motivated by charts that allow them to visually see their progress and success, I wanted to create some form of chart that we could use to record our summer reading at home.

 

Most of the books we read are picture books, so it needed to be able to accommodate a large number of books. It also needed to big enough to have an impact, have space to write the names of the books on it, and be small enough to fit in a limited space. The result is our "Summer Reading Train":

 

 

Made entirely of shapes, the train is also a great way to teach preschoolers about circles, triangles, rectangles and squares.  Older preschoolers can even practice their scissor skills by doing the cutting.

 

To make your own Summer Reading Train, you will need:

  • construction paper in a variety of colours
  • yarn
  • scissors and a glue stick
  • stickers (optional)

1. Make the Engine of the train:

 

 

(a) Cut a large red rectange. Glue a smaller red square on top of the rectangle, creating a lying down "L" shape. 

(b) Cut a small yellow rectangle out of yellow construction paper, and glue it onto the small square to make a window on the engine.

(c) Cut out a yellow triangle and glue on top of the train to make its smoke stack.  Cut out and glue an orange rectange to the front of the train.

(d) Cut two large circles, and one small circle out of black construction paper, and glue onto the large red rectangle to form the wheels of the engine.

(e) If desired, cut out a narrow strip of construction paper, and glue it to the side of the engine below the window.  If desired, write the name of your train on the strip.

(f) Draw the face of the engineer on the train, or use a sticker (a cut out picture of your child would be adorable).  In our case, a monkey is driving the train, since our educational theme for the month is "circus".

(g) Use a hole punch to punch a hole at the back end of the train, just above the wheel.  You will use this to link up the train cars.

 

2. Create the cars for the train:

(a) Cut addictional colours of construction paper into rectangles that are the size of the large red rectangle that forms the base of the engine.

(b) Cut out additional large black circles.  Glue two circles onto each rectangle cut out in step 2(a) to form the wheels of the cars. 

(c) Punch a hole in the lower left and right corners of the each car.

 

3. Assmeble the train:

(a) When you have  finished reading a book, write the name and author of the book on one of the cars.  Cut a piece of yarn, loop it through the hole in the engine and the hole in the left corner of the car, and knot.  Continue to add additional cars each time you finish a book. 

 

4. Display your train!

When you are finished, you will have a train that folds up neatly to store on a bookshelf or fridge.  Here's what the train looks likes folded from the front:

 

 

From the back, you can see the cars of the train stacked on top of one another:

 

 

Any time you like,  you can stretch the train out to its full length to see just how far you have come on your summer reading journey.

Posted by momstown Teach on 07/05/2012 - 19:01
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How to Avoid Summer Learning Loss: The Totally Outstanding Points Book

Studies suggest that kids lose between one and three months of learning over the summer.  The good news is that parents can minimize summer learning loss by ensuring that kids stay engaged in reading and other educational activities over the course of the break.

 

This does not mean that kids need to be spending hours a day completing worksheets or reading textbooks though.  Learning can take place in the midst of all sorts of fun activities, from adding up the cost of an order at the ice-cream shop to writing a postcard to a friend. 

 

I usually received a small gift from my parents at the end of each successful school year, and it is a tradition that I have continued with my nephew.  I try to choose gifts that are fun, but also foster learning and the grow our relationship.  One year, part of his gift was a journal. As we passed it back and forth between our houses, we filled it with notes and other messages to each other. Another year, his gift was a set of books on Greek mythology. We read out loud to each other over the phone, and it lead to many interesting discussions and fun extension activities.

 

He is 8 this year, and loves Lego and watches, so a Lego watch an easy choice for a portion of his gift.  It will encourage him to learn to tell time on an analog clock, but I also wanted to include something in the gift that encouraged him to practice writing (handwriting is still a bit of a challenge) and documented who he is right now.  It had to be fun too.

 

I created the "T.O.P. (Totally Outstanding Points) Stuff" book.  Outside, it is a notebook covered in duct tape:

 

 

Inside, it is filled with personalized "top 10 lists" and other funny questions for him to answer:

 

 

I have customized the questions in it to his interests, but you could easily change some of the content to suit your own kids' tastes. 

 

Here is a list of some of the questions and prompts I have included:

  • The 10 best games to play:
  • The top 5 flavours of ice-cream:
  • The five words I say the most:
  • 5 things other than a ball that bounce:
  • 10 things you should know about having a little brother:
  • 5 awesome things you can make with Lego:
  • 10 cool things you can do with a balloon:
  • 5 things I would do if I was invisible:
  • 5 foods that I never want to try:
  • 10 best parts of being a teenager:
  • 5 places I would love to visit:
  • 10 things I wish my parents would let me do:
  • 5 science experiments I want to try:
  • 5 best ways to spend a summer day:
  • My 10 favourite things in my room:
  • 10 cool things I wish I had in my room:
  • 5 things you could use to attach two pieces of paper if you didn't have tape or glue:
  • 5 words I always seem to spell wrong:
  • 10 words I know in another language:
  • 5 cool tricks that I can do:
  • 10 ways to bug mom and dad on a road trip:
  • 5 places I don't like to go:
  • 10 funniest jokes:
  • 5 super-powers I wish I had (in order of most to least wanted):
  • 5 things I could write with if I didn't have a pen oe pencil:

With a journal of Totally Outstanding Points like this to fill out over the summer, your kids will have the chance to practice handwriting and spelling, develop their categorization and critical thinking skills, and explore their creativity. There is something about lists that makes them less intimidating than other forms of writing. Younger kids can participate by dictating the answers to you, or by drawing.  Older kids can add pictures and other elements of personalization to their journals as well. 

 

I am excited to give both gifts to him tomorrow! How do you keep learning alive over the summer?

 

Posted by momstown Teach on 07/04/2012 - 01:05
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12 Creative Ideas to Host a Lemonade Stand

Here come the lazy, hazy days of summertime.  Also a popular time for the kids to get “bored”. It helps to have a few activities to suggest up your sleeve, preferably a few multi-task activities to spread out through the day.

12 tips for lemonade stand

Holding a Lemonade Stand is just that kind of layered activity. It takes a little bit of preplanning to move it from a 10 minute experience to a daylong neighbourhood memory.  Having a lemonade stand should be inexpensive to run, reuse as much as possible from around your home and be a great project to do with your children that also has a ton of hidden learning within it. Not just a boredom buster but a brain teaser as well!


Basic Set Up needed for a lemonade stand:

  • Cups – disposable or plastic reuseable. Disposable is easier but less green, up to you, just avoid anything breakable.
  • Use a pitcher that your child can easily pour out of or one of those jugs with a spout.
  • Paper towel/ wet wipes for spills (there will be many!)
  • Garbage can (I almost forgot this and we certainly needed it!)
  • Mint from the garden or ice cubes are a bonus
  • Signs / Chalk board for prices, menus, lemon fun stuff!


Our 12 tips to take your lemonade stand from sour to sweet!

 


creative sign making
1. Create and Decorate
Plan ahead and get your kids busy crafting for your stand. By no means must it be Martha Stewart / Pinterest worthy, but some creativity is both fun and good for the lemonade business. The more organized and pretty the stand looks, the more likely people will stop to congratulate your child on their creative venture. And the more pride they will have in the experience
A couple lemon ideas momstown had:


Bright Paper Plate Suns  - perfect to hand from the stand or behind on the garage.


Tissue Paper Lemon Sign – allows everyone to create their own sign, get personal with their own text and tissue paper lemon.

 

 

DIY signs

 

2. DIY Signage
In a world where we can press PRINT so easily, the handwritten sign is almost extinct. It’s summer after all, kids have the time and still need to practise their literacy skills. Create easy Cardboard Signage from old boxes, give them a fun paint job out back and write on them.  Or pull out the chalk board and have your child write a menu.

 

 

invite a crowd

3. Spread the Word!
Get on facebook, momstown, email or even put up a little flyer in the neighbourhood and invite your friends and neighbours down for a certain time. Even the most keen kid will lose interest if there’s no traffic for their stand. With a little local social media love, our lemonade stand turned into a spontaneous neighbourhood gathering and saw 40 people in an hour. The busier that table is the better and allow all the kids a chance to work the stand.

 

 

dress up
4. Dress up!
It’s always fun to dress up with a theme – dress in yellow, wear yellow and gold Hawaiian leis or crazy hats. Do make sure kids are covered in floppy hats and sunscreen too. Or you could create a mini temporary tattoo table or use yellow facepaint to give all ‘customers’ a yellow lemon on their cheek.  With yellow leis and funky yellow glasses my daughter was crowned the "Lemonade Princess" during our event!

 

 

buy lemonade

5. Serve Lemonade

Uh, obviously.  Don’t stress about this part. Homemade squeezed lemonade is fun but far more appreciated by adults who can sip it slowly in summer cool mason jars. Kids will guzzle and spill at your lemonade stand, don't waste the effort.  Don’t sweat it, just buy the lemonade.

 

 

mix it up


6. Mix it up
A lemonade stand could be in name only with a bunch of line extensions! Coconut Lemonade Gelato,  Lemonade Raspberry Slushies over ice or Tropsicles like frozen Tropicana lemonade in popsicle holders are fabulous lemonade focused ideas which will both delight and surprise your stand customers.

 

 

summer math
7. Hidden currency lesson
Whenever money is involved, it can be a math lesson. This activity is a hidden math lesson in all the fun of lemonade. Make coin organizing easy with a coin sorting activity to split out the different coins. We used a veggie tray to label the coins – fantastic mid-summer brain tease.

 

 

lauren

Expand the Fun at the Lemonade Stand
Your friends all have their lemonade – now what? We have a bunch of super fun ideas to create additional fun and


8. Lemonade Chalk Party: old fashioned driveway chalk drawing, see who can draw the prettiest lemonade “picture” (pun intended)


9. Lemonade Photo “Booth”: Have the kids stand in front of a yellow towel and pose for the camera with their most sour face. To make it more realistic – give them a lemon wedge to suck and get a REAL live sourpuss face!


10. Invisible Ink Drawings: bring a little science into the fun with lemon juice painting or writing. Use a cotton swab to dab away and leave in the sun, then the juice will turn brown and show the art.


11. Lemon Shakers: Great idea for the musical lemonade drinkers – fill empty water bottles with fun yellow items that make a noise when shaken like beads or dry unpopped popcorn. Glue the top down, decorate the bottle and have a lemon shaker parade around the street!


12. Lemon  Bowling: line up the empty lemonade cartons or empty water bottles and roll lemons to knock them down.  Such innocent fun idea for wee youngsters.

 

Enjoy your next Lemonade Stand!

Posted by momstown mama on 06/26/2012 - 23:18
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50 Activities to do with your Preschooler this Summer

50 ideas

I can hardly believe that it is already June, and the end of another school year is just around the corner. Last summer, in order to make sure our family made the most of every day of our time off (and to save our sanity on those summer days that fell somewhere short of halycon) we came up with a "bucket list" of fun activities to try and complete.  Many were simple, free, and the sort of things we would have done anyway, but being able to consult the list when we needed an idea was helpful, and crossing each item off was rewarding.  It was neat to see at the end how many items on our list we had actually managed to accomplish, and to have a reminder of all of the fun we had.

 

Our preschool summer bucket list was such a hit last year that we decided to make another one this year.  Here is our list of the top 50 activities we hope to have fun with this summer.  While I will be spending the majority of time with toddlers and preschoolers, most of these activities could easily be enjoyed by older kids as well.  Tomorrow, I will print off the the list and set A and C to work decorating it:

  1. Camp outside in the backyard
  2. Have a picnic breakfast
  3. Take a surprise trip to a mystery destination
  4. Take a family picture a week
  5. Watch a fireworks display
  6. See a play or concert outside
  7. Go berry picking
  8. Have three virtual vacation theme nights where we prepare and eat food from another country, and enjoy activities such as reading a story and listening to music from that country, playing games from that country, or learning a few words of the language spoken there
  9. Have a mini-Olympics day
  10. Paint outside
  11. Go on a hike
  12. Run through a sprinkler
  13. Try two new fruits, and two new vegetables
  14. Make sun prints
  15. Make a solar oven, and try and cook in it
  16. Throw rocks into the river
  17. Buy a treat from a food truck
  18. Visit two libraries we have not been to before
  19. Make a sandcastle
  20. Roll down a hill
  21. Leave an anonymous treat on a neighbour’s porch
  22. Have a campfire
  23. Watch a parade
  24. Bake a pie
  25. Invite someone new over to play
  26. Ride a roller coaster
  27. Spend an afternoon lying in the grass and reading books
  28. Make nature rubbings
  29. Paint rocks and make rock creatures
  30. Make jam
  31. Play catch outside
  32. Go on a flashlight walk around the neighbourhood
  33. Visit a fair
  34. Mail a postcard to a friend
  35. Make (and wear!) crazy sunglasses
  36. Make giant bubbles
  37. Walk along a log
  38. Learn to say “hello” and “thank you” in two new languages
  39. Learn the names of two kinds of trees
  40. Lie outside on a blanket and look at the stars.  Read about the constellations and try to find them.
  41. Have a wacky hair day
  42. Participate in one community service project as a family
  43. Leave a favourite kids’ book in a public place (e.g. a park bench) with a note for the finder to keep and enjoy it
  44. Make campfire bananas or campfire apples (or both)
  45. Trace our shadows with sidewalk chalk and colour them in
  46. Make popsicles
  47. Paint with ice cubes
  48. Build a fort outside
  49. Make a kite, and try to fly it
  50. Visit four new playgrounds, at least one of which has a merry-go-round

I'll be popping by throughout the summer to share some of these activities as we complete them,  If you have a summer bucket list, or you do any of the activities on our list, I would love to hear about them as well.  Feel free to leave a comment below, or share with us on facebook or twitter.  Happy Summer! 

 

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Posted by momstown Teach on 06/04/2012 - 22:32
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