American Flag and Fireworks

It was too buggy and muggy to play outside, so I figured I'd burn off some of the crazy energy by sitting down for a craft. My three year old recently expressed interest in cutting paper and using scissors, so I figured that today was as good as any to give it a shot.

For the American Flag project, you'll need: plain white paper, blue and red construction paper, glue sticks and safety scissors.

I did most of the cutting and pre-cut out the red stripes for the American flag, the white stars, and the blue rectangle. You'll notice that the construction paper is longer than regular plain paper- that's when I gave Hank the opportunity to cut.

I showed the boys how to glue on the blue rectangle in the top corner, and how we were going to make stripes that matched an actual flag I had on the table. They noticed the pattern of Red, White, Red, White which made the process a bit easier.

Henrik noticed that the red stripes were too long when it came time to attach them, and that's when I used a marker to draw a line on the Red Stripes where he could cut so that they would fit on his flag. He got so excited with the scissors and cut most of the stripes in half. Oh well! It's not about making a perfect replica!

 

Once the cutting was done, I showed them how to put glue on the stripes so they could stick them on the white paper. It didn't work that well, instead, I decided that we should just cover the entire white piece of paper in glue. It got pretty messy.

When we were all covered in glue and paper, we added the stars. The boys were pretty amazed that they were able to make their own flag to wave around. You could probably attach the flag to something for them to wave it, but we stuck ours on the cabinets. Theo needed a lot of help with the stripes but was able to do the stars by himself. I covered the whole blue rectangle in glue so it would be easier for him, and he loved it.

 For the Firework Project, you'll need: Black or Brown Construction paper, Construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, and stickers. I took a bunch of different colors from the construction paper pack and pre-cut very thin strips of paper, like, half a centimeter. I did this several times until I had a rat's nest of stringed confetti paper for the boys to glue.

We then covered the whole piece of brown (I didn't have any black left) construction paper in glue. I then let the boys go. They got pretty fancy with it and instead of laying each piece on the paper, they layered and curled the strips so that the fireworks popped off the page! I thought they looked great!

We then added some star stickers to any space that was left empty, just to add a little flare, and fireworks happen at night so we were probably going to see some stars.

 

Fun With Foam

We were on our way to my in-laws when my oldest son asked to build something with his Chief. While driving, I quickly and out of no where decided I had the perfect project! I remembered that my FIL had some foam blocks lying around last time we were there. He used those foam blocks as seats for the boys when he took them for a tractor ride, and I knew that we could put them to good use.

I asked Chief if we could use those foam blocks, some golf tees and a hammer. He instantly knew what I wanted to do. And we had a blast!

To do this, you could use any Styrofoam from any packaging or from a cooler, foam for flower pots or even fabric foam. Pretty much it just has to be soft and sturdy enough to hammer something into it.

We found that regular hammers were too heavy for the boys to use, but it's easy to find smaller hammers at any craft or hardware store. Good thing Chief had a smaller hammer on hand! 

As you can see, there were about 200 golf tees in that bag, these were free, but golf tees are inexpensive and are often available at garage sales. 

The boys also got to play with pliers and practice taking the tees out of the foam. It was just as much fun as putting them in! As you can see, it was hard for Henrik to do one handed, but it's still a great project for kids because they are using real tools to get a task done. Here you can see we put in the tees in the shape of their names. They hammered them in and recognized the letters and eventually read their names! 

And once you remove the tees, you can start all over again! And again, and again and again! You can make different patterns or ask your child to organize by color, the options are really limitless. 

This was also a great project for the boys to do because it encouraged them to be hands on with their grandparents. And there's not much better than that. 

Welcome!

Thanks to a very hardworking friend, I was able to get this additional blog set up so I can share more with you! This blog will allow me to share lesson plans that I've created from my Pre-School lesson plan for my boys, as well as the ability to share projects, crafts and activities that I do throughout the day.

I can't wait to get started, and I can't wait to hear how you like these projects. I'm not a Super Mom, I'm just a mom that likes to have structure, activity and fun mixed into each day. I hope that you'll be able to do some of the projects with your kids and I hope that your kids enjoy them as much as mine. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions, I can always use new ideas to help me get through each day.

Enjoy!
Abbey and the boys