Today was a hot one, and of course we spent part of it at the pool, but we also spent a little bit of time reading a great book about America and doing a little red, white, and blue project! I knew we needed to fit at least one Fourth of July project in before Wednesday!
Good Night America by Adam Gamble is a wonderful book that visits all different parts of the United States. It starts the morning at the Atlantic Ocean, crosses the country throughout the day, and ends the night in outer space with the astronauts. The book quickly touches on the Grand Canyon, my favorite tropical islands, the Golden Gate Bridge, Everglades, and Niagra Falls!
While we read Good Night America, my boys looked at one of our maps of the United States. We found many different places and things on the map, from the Mississippi River to the deserts, to the Statue of Liberty. My six year old was VERY excited about locating different places. My three year old just liked to point out the oceans.
When we were done the boys started cutting small pieces of red, white, and blue tissue paper so that they could make a little sun catcher of our country. I printed out an outline of the United States, cut it out, and traced a rough outline onto contact paper.
My six year old filled the country in with red, white, and blue and then cut it out. We did talk about red, white, and blue being the colors of our flag, and when my son asked why those were the colors, I even learned something new. Did you know that there really was not reasoning behind the colors of the flag, but there is symbolism in the same colors on the Great Seal? Yippee for learning something new every day!
We hung it up on the patio door when we were finished. Notice my three year old's product is not pictured....he didn't want to make one today. He was more interested in puzzles!
When my six year old was done, he wanted to use some red and blue glitter, so we printed another outline of the US and wrote USA with glue. He sprinkled it with glitter and was very proud of his creation.
Although my three year old wasn't interested in red, white, and blue crafts, he was interested in red, white, and blue food. So he helped me cut some apples and strawberries to put in our patriotic fruit salad! The first time he cut off the top of the strawberry he was so excited and screamed, "I did it!" I love it when he is excited in his abilities to do new things!
YUM! This was the perfect snack after swimming on a VERY hot day! Can you tell I went grocery shopping today?
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Here are our other posts about books from the Good Night World Series.
I love all the ways you explored red, white, and blue. How wonderful that he knows where the oceans are!
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