Little Books for Little Cooks ~ Crushed Rainbow Ice

Crushed Rainbow Ice

Enjoy a fun rainbow colored crushed ice treat on a warm summer day!

The Book Before You Cook…

Elmer and the Rainbow

by David McKee

Summary: Elmer, the patchwork elephant, and the rest of the animals are concerned when they realize that the rainbow has lost its colors. Wanting to help, Elmer searches for the end of the colorless rainbow so that he can give it his own colors. Follow along to see what happens if he gives the rainbow his own colors.

When It’s Time to Cook…

You’ll need:

• rainbow colored drinks (for example: Gatorade or Kool-aid in colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• ice trays
• plastic bags
• hammer
• clear glass or clear plastic cup
• straw

To Make:

1. Pour each of the colored drinks into ice trays and freeze.
2. Place each set of colored cubes in a separate plastic bag.
3. Use a hammer to crush each bag of cubes.
4. Pour each bag of colored crushed cubes into the glass/cup in the following order: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, then red
5. Add a straw and enjoy!

Little Books for Little Cooks is a monthly feature that focuses on creating some edible fun with your little one.   We will share a fun book to read with your little one along with a cooking activity to do that ties in with the featured book. Sometimes there may be actual cooking involved…and sometimes just fun!

Treats 4 Your Tot

Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!

• USA Road Trip…ends 7/17/11 {tomorrow}
• Backyard Bug Science Kit…ends 7/20/11
• Go Anywhere Booster Seat…ends 7/20/11
• Prince Lionheart Balance Scooter…ends 7/22/11
• Evenflo Carseat…ends 7/26/11
• Go Anywhere Booster Seat {another one}…ends 7/27/11

Bolded are items we personally own and love!  If you are hosting a TOT friendly giveaway you are free to leave a link in the comments section!

In My Heart ~ Psalm 148:1-5

Praise the Lord {Psalm 148:1-5} is #2 from Seeds of Praise.

Full Page Verse Printable…

Verse Mini Book {which could also be cut into mini flash cards to have kids put the verse in order}… 

Copy Work Tracers {print & cursive} 

Copy Work Sheets… 

Full Verse Coloring Pages…

Seeds Family Worship printables here!

Visit the main Seeds Family Worship Printables page here.

Visit Seeds Family Worship to learn more about their ministry here!

Simple verse cards from Seeds, and also a verse memorization checklist can be found here on their site!

Once Upon a Book ~ Froggy Plays Soccer

Froggy Plays Soccer by Jonathan London

Summary: This is a fun little book about Froggy at his soccer game. He tries to remember to NOT use his hands…except to slap high fives!

Bible Verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Matching: The boys used the Sports Balls Grid Game along with our Education Cubes for a fun matching game. We used the Sports Balls insert cards in our cubes. They rolled the cube and then covered the same ball on their grid using their puff ball magnets.

Literacy & Fine Motor: I printed the Letter B (for balls) Alphabet Do-a-Dot from Childcareland.com. Rather than using markers, we used sports stickers. They put one sticker in each of the circles.

Counting: The boys used the Soccer Grid Game along with our Education Cubes. We used the soccer counting insert cards in our cubes. They rolled the cube, counted the soccer balls on the cube and then covered the same number of balls on their grid using their puff ball magnets. This is a fun way to work on counting and 1 to 1 correspondence!

Stamping: The boys used some paint and a square foam sports stamp to create a sports collage.

Painting: I found a soccer coloring page for the boys to paint. I used a marker to add dots into the parts of the ball that were to be painted black.

Outside Fun: We gathered some of our balls. We sorted them by size, shape, and color. We put them in order by size. We counted them. We had fun kicking, throwing, and rolling them around the yard.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!

Little Hands-On abc's and 123's ~ Sort and Count

 

Once your child can count (with one-to-one correspondence) at least to 3, you can start playing a "Sort and Count" game with him.  Gather a few different items, varying in number from 1 to 5 (or 3 if your child only counts reliably to 3).  Have your child sort the objects, then count how many are in each group and add the number tag to the group. You can also play with random numbers (for example, 3 of something, 7 of something else, and 2 of another thing).  Here is a fun example with our breakfast.

 

Unsorted fruit.

Sorted.

Counted and labeled.

 

 

You can see how I set up the same activity, but with pompoms, on a tray for Bear when she was much younger.  Here (scroll way down) it is set up with farm animals and Gaddy Nipper crayons.

Simply Made ~ Pool Noodle Bead Games

It's summer and pool noodles are everywhere...Let's make some games!

Materials:

• Pool Noodles (I purchased mine for $1 at the Dollar Tree)
• Clothesline or small rope  that will fit in the hole of the pool noodle. (I found a synthetic clothesline at the Dollar Tree)
• Box cutter or Serated Knife
• Total Cost: $5 (I purchased 4 colors and the clothesline)

Directions:

~Using a box cutter or serated knife, cut the pool noodle. My pieces ended up being approximately 1.5 inches wide.

 

~Depending on the skills you'd like to work on with your tot, use a permanent marker to write on the pieces. I made an ABC set and Numbers 1-20 set. You could also leave some blank and use them for patterns.

 

(Just a side note about my thinking process for the Numbers 1-20 Set: I had 4 colors of pool noodle beads. Instead of mixing up the colors, I chose to make them in sets of 5. For example, Numbers 1-5 are red and Numbers 6-10 are blue, etc. I thought this would be easier to pull the numbers I needed to use with my kids and would help visualize skip counting by 5's. I was thinking ahead, and not being random.)

Games to play:

• Lace the "giant" beads on a piece of the clotheline or rope. (Motor Skills)
• Lace the beads in ABC order. (Motor skills & Literacy)
• Lace the beads in Number order. (Motor skills & Math)
• Lace the beads to spell words or names. (Motor skills & Literacy)

 

 

I bought 4 colors of pool noodles and ended up with a ton of beads! Partner with a friend and share the wealth! Happy Summer!

Touch, Feel, Learn ~ Sprouting Peanuts

It’s time to explore the world around us and have some fun watching peanuts sprout.

We are critter lovers so if you come to our house you will find a large jar of raw peanuts in the shell by the door.  They are not for you to munch on ~ sorry!  They are for the squirrels, who often come up and bang on the door for hand outs.   My son wanted to know what happens to the peanuts that the squirrels bury and forget about?   We decided to sprout some peanuts and watch what them grow.

You’ll Need:

• glass container
• raw peanuts in the shell
• cotton yarn (white or cream)
• scissors
• plastic wrap
• water

What You’ll Do:

Fill the bottom of your container with pieces of yarn and wet it thoroughly.  Let the kids shell the peanuts and drop them onto the yarn. 

Cover the container with plastic wrap and place it someplace sunny.  Make you check your yarn daily to make sure it is still damp.  The great thing about sprouting peanuts is you don’t have to wait long to see something happen.

Day 3

  Day 5

  Day 15

Once the peanuts start to develop leaves you can remove the plastic wrap.   We are going to let our plants get a little bigger than plant them outside in the soil ~ hopefully we will have a few peanuts to harvest in a couple of months. 

Touch, Feel, Learn is a fun feature that focuses on science and nature activities for little ones.  Click here to see past Touch, Feel, Learn ideas. the

Treats 4 Your Tot

Here are some more cool giveaways for tots/moms of tots, check them out below and let us know if you win something we told you about!!!!

• USA Road Trip…ends 7/17/11
• Dropper Stopper…ends 7/14/11
• Oh Katy Cloth Diapers…ends 7/14/11
• Prime Time Pool Toys…ends 7/15/11
• Build a Dream Play House…ends 7/15/11
• Go-Go Babyz Infant Cruizer Travel-All…ends 7/15/11
• Little Tikes Garden Center… ends 7/15/11
• Melissa and Doug Sand Toys…ends 7/15/11
• Kidz Travel Mate…ends 7/15/11
• Cubbie Cup…ends 7/16/11
• Toddler Bed…ends 7/17/11
• Wooden Child’s Cleaning Set…ends 7/19/11

Bolded are items we personally own and love!  If you are hosting a TOT friendly giveaway you are free to leave a link in the comments section!

In My Heart ~ Psalm 63:1-4

Better Than Life {Psalm 63:1-4} is #1 from Seeds of Praise.

Full Page Verse Printable…

Verse Mini Book {which could also be cut into mini flash cards to have kids put the verse in order}… 

Copy Work Tracers {print & cursive} 

Copy Work Sheets… 

Full Verse Coloring Pages…

Seeds Family Worship printables here!

Visit the main Seeds Family Worship Printables page here.

Visit Seeds Family Worship to learn more about their ministry here!

Simple verse cards from Seeds, and also a verse memorization checklist can be found here on their site!