Every summer I give the kids the challenge to read 100 picture books. The boys are so excited about this and love to mark off the books they read on our chart. Sometimes we need some new ideas for books, so today I thought I'd share 100 of my favorite picture books for summer! I've personally read through all these books and can recommend all of them! Hopefully you can get some new ideas for reading! This list contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for details. These books are great … [Read more...]
Can You Read 100 Books? Summer Reading Challenge!
Summer is just about here! While we take a break from our school routine here, we do a lot of reading! I wanted to create a fun way to challenge my little ones to read, so I came up with the challenge to read 100 books together this summer. I also created a chart to track the books we read. On this chart, there are 100 colored circles. After we read a book together, we will either put a sticker on the circle, mark it with an 'X', or stamp it with a Do-a-Dot marker. I also created a … [Read more...]
4th of July Sensory Bottle
I can't believe it's the last day in June and I haven't shared our sensory bottle of the month yet! Today, I'm sharing our 4th of July sensory bottle. Not only does this look patriotic, but this bottle is a great way to teach about density! Here's what I used in the bottle: 1 plastic Voss water bottle (found at Walgreens, gas stations, and TJ Maxx) 1/2 cup of corn syrup (with blue food coloring) 1/2 cup of vegetable oil 1/2 cup of red lamp oil (found at Michaels) glue to seal … [Read more...]
Soap Foam Sidewalk Paint
You may have noticed that we really enjoy playing with soap foam at our house! It's so fun to play with...it's soft, squishy, fluffy, and is easy to clean up! Today I'm sharing how to play with soap foam on the sidewalks. This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for more information. Let me tell you how easy it is to make this! Here's what you need: food processor, blender, or quick stir pitcher (we used a Pampered Chef one, but here is an alternative) dish soap … [Read more...]
Soap Foam – Calm Play Activity
Have you ever made soap foam before? It's one of our favorite activities to do during summer. It's super simple to make and my kids love playing with it. Today I'm sharing my recipe of how to make soap foam with an extra ingredient to make this a calm play activity. This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for more information. Here's what you need for this activity: 2 tablespoons of dish soap (one without a strong scent) 1/4 cup of water food coloring (I used gel food … [Read more...]
Dragonfly Craft for Kids
The last insect we are learning about this summer are Dragonflies. My kids are always amazed when they see a dragonfly hovering around. I can't blame them...they are beautiful and fascinating creatures! So today I'm sharing our dragonfly craft for kids. Here's what you need: pipe cleaners (any color) beads 1 pom pom foam sheets glitter paint Start by painting the foam sheets. We used glitter paint, but you could just paint on glue and then add glitter. While the paint is … [Read more...]
Glowing Firefly Craft
We’ve been studying bugs and insects this summer and one creature my boys have been so interested in lately are fireflies! They really are fascinating insects and it’s been fun to see them outside glowing in the summer night. Starting out, we read The Very Lonely Firefly, by Eric Carle. Although this is a fictional story, it still has facts about fireflies in the book. Plus it’s just a cute story to read! After reading, we made a firefly craft to talk about the parts of a firefly. Here’s … [Read more...]
Fizzy Ice Stars
We LOVE the 4th of July! This week has been quite busy since I’ve been taking a preschool science class, but we did manage to squeeze in a fizzy science experiment for the 4th of July! This activity is very simple, but a great science activity for little ones! Here’s what you need: star ice cube tray (found at The Dollar Store) 1 cup water food coloring 1/2 cup baking soda bowl of vinegar dropper tray To start, mix 1 cup of water with 1/2 cup of baking soda. Then add a … [Read more...]
30 Outdoor Gross Motor Activities for Kids
Summer is the perfect time to work on gross motor skills outdoors! Today I am sharing a round-up of outdoor gross motor activities for children. Here are 30 fun outdoor gross motor ideas! (Click on the links below to take you directly to the post with more details!) Number Recognition Play from Danya Banya Walk the Word Phonics Game from Coffee Cups and Crayons Sum Splat! Learning with Water Balloons from I Can Teach My Child Hula Hoop Games from Learn, Play, Imagine Gross … [Read more...]
Ant Craft for Preschoolers
This week we are learning about ants! My kids are obsessed with ants. Anywhere we go, they shout out when they’ve found an ant. And of course, they like to squish them! To start our week of ants, we made a very simple ant craft. This craft teaches them that an ant has three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), antennae, 6 legs, eyes, and mouth. The ant craft requires only a few steps and supplies. Here’s what you need: 3 sections of an egg carton 4 toothpicks (if your child can’t … [Read more...]