Airplane Carry On

A few of the things we are packing in our carry on

We are planning our vacation and I am getting some things together to keep us entertained, not only on the airplane, but also during our down time at the hotel.  I think the hardest thing for kids on vacation is that they miss their toys, so we have to have entertaining and lightweight things for the kiddos to do all vacation long.

Here are some of the things my five year old and I put together this afternoon for our carry-on.

1.  Spot It! - One of our favorite family games!

2.  UNO - Another favorite!

3.  Crayons and Pencils

4.  Doodling Sheets - I printed these adorable doodle sheets from Artful Adventures.

4.  Dogs at Work Coloring Book by Michelle Nelson - Thank goodness it is small.  Every coloring book I looked at at the store is over $7.00 and has a gazillion pages!  This coloring book isn't too big, teachers about jobs, and also has collector cards for us to play with and read on the plane.

5.  Usborne Activity Cards: 100 Things for Little Children to do on a Trip - These cards are reusable and come with a marker and eraser.  My son hasn't played with these before so they will all be a "surprise" for him.

6.  iPad - Games, TV shows, and movies!  After full days at the beach we definitely need the kids to be able to sit down and relax with some technology.  The condo TV never has the stuff they like, so thank goodness for iTunes!

7.  Super Hero Figures - They are small enough that we can bring a few with us and it will give the boys something to play with in the condo.

8.  Sunglasses and Hats - We have to be prepared for the sun right when we get off of the plane!

9.  Beach Bump Game - I printed this game out HERE.  I also packed dice for the game.

10.  Food - Baby food and utensils, snacks (goldfish, pretzels, bananas), some sort of candy for landing (usually M&Ms) and cups (empty of course until we buy something at the airport)

10.  Patience - I usually don't pack enough of this!

Oh!  And of course BOOKS!  Paperback are the best because they are lightweight!  My son has a new favorite book right now that is thick and heavy.  I have a feeling it will be packed in our suitcase rather than our carry on, but you never know!

One of the books I remember reading when I was little is We're Taking an Airplane Trip by Dinah L. Moche .  The copy of this book that I have says it cost $1.25.  This shows how old this book is, and out of date considering how much airline travel has changed since I was little.  No matter how outdated it is though, it is such a fun book!

In We're Taking An Airplane Trip two young children fly on a plane by themselves to visit their grandparents.  It follows the children through security, to the plane, and off of the plane.  The pictures show different areas of the plane and cockpit and even label them.  I remember loving the pictures when I was little and wishing that we flew on an airplane the same size so we could watch a movie just like the kids did!

I asked my mom to bring this book over this week so I could read it with the boys before we go on our trip.  My three year old loved the picture of the jumbo jet.  He pointed out that the diagram of the airplane doesn't have a roof.  Yes, that would look strange to a three year old...just one more thing to point out while reading!

There are many airplane books that you can read before going on your own airplane trip, I just find it so much more enjoyable to share books that I read when I was little!

Garden Book Collection

Here is a collection of the garden books that we have read and the activities to go along with each book.  Be sure to check out our Facebook page for more great book ideas and activities!

If you like simple paper plate projects, 

read My Garden

and

 make these patterned paper plate sunflowers.

If your kids like to get dirty, 

read Jo McDonald's Garden by Mary Quattlebaum

and

go on a worm hunt or make a paper plate robin!

If you love to plant flowers,

read Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

and

plant a rainbow of flowers!

If your child is learning about opposites,

read A Garden of Opposites by Nancy Davis

and

create your own garden of opposites with coffee filters and cupcake liners!

If your child loves to paint,

read The Imaginary Garden byAndrew Larsen 

and

paint your own imaginary garden.

If your child enjoys searching for things or is learning to count,

read In My Garden by Ward Schumaker

and

practice counting while going on a bug hunt.

If you like going on outings with your child,

read Curious George Plants a Tree

and

take a trip to a garden or arboretum and then try some fun Curious George printables!

To check out more of our book collections click HERE.

Play Dough Crossword Puzzle

We have started our summer reading with the book The Ant and the Grasshopper by Katie Daynes.  Both of my sons are reading it and my first grader has been reading it on his own every night.  

The Ant and the Grasshopper by Katie Daynes is an Usborne First Reading Level One book.  The Ant and the Grasshopper is a retelling of one of Aesop's Fables.  In this story, the ant works hard all summer long to gather food for the winter while the grasshopper plays.  By winter, ant is warm and has food to eat, but grasshopper is cold and hungry. Ant invites Grasshopper to come stay with him and Grasshopper promises to work hard next summer.

The back of this book has puzzles to complete after reading.  The reader is supposed to match words with pictures and find differences between two pictures.  My son loved the puzzles the first time we read.  He also did a great job reading it on his own because this story is told in such simple sentences.

To practice some of the words that we were reading in The Ant and the Grasshopper, I made another crossword puzzle like I did for the book Elephants, but this time I made it out of play dough...you can call me crazy!

First, I made my crossword puzzle HERE and measured out the size of the puzzle on play dough "paper" with our play dough stampers.  

I used a birthday candle to help me stamp out the crossword puzzle (it was the right size, and easier to handle than a toothpick).  I couldn't make it too big because I didn't have a LOT of play dough.

My son read The Ant and the Grasshopper to me.  You can't tell here, but he didn't want me to take a picture.

I stamped out the answers on another sheet of play dough.  I skipped a word which kind of messed up our puzzle as we were working, but it still worked out.

The boys were eager to check out the puzzle.  My three year old even gave us one of the answers!

I read the clues to my son and he stamped the answers.

He liked crossing the words out of the word bank as he used them.

Here is our completed play dough puzzle.  Fun, but someone PLEASE tell me how we keep the letter stamps from rolling off the table all of the time!

The Bubble Gum Kid

We spend every Memorial Day morning at a parade pretty close to our house.  We love it and of course the kids love it because they leave with a giant bag of candy and bubble gum!  Yesterday, my first grader was allowed to try bubble gum for the first time.  I think he tried to hide his disappointment after trying it.  He chewed it for about a minute and then was ready to throw it away.  He did the same thing today. He thinks that he is supposed to like it, but he doesn't like it at all and just wants to blow a bubble.  I have told him that bubble blowing is going to take him some time!

While my three year old and baby girl were taking a nap this afternoon my first grader and I sat down to read a few books.  He chose a couple of books that I had picked out at the library about bubble gum, which seemed appropriate after yesterday.

The Bubble Gum Kid by Stu Smith is a rhyming story about a little boy named Billy Bob who loves to chew gum, but doesn't know how to blow bubbles.  The bully in school makes fun of him and Billy Bob ends up getting some tips in blowing bubbles so the bully will leave him alone.  Once he learns he shows the kids at school and blows such a big bubble that he travels across town.  How will Billy Bob come back down to the ground?  The illustrations in this story are just really fun and the ending made my first grader laugh!

After reading The Bubble Gum Kid, my first grader wrote in his new summer journal that his teacher sent home with him on the last day of school.  I told him to write about where he would want to float if he was the bubble gum kid.  He did a great job and drew a terrific picture.  He even kept writing on the next page when he was done with the bubble gum page.

I have a whole binder full of some work that his teacher sent home for the summer.  Today he was excited to work on it, but I wonder how long the excitement will last!

Super Spiders and Insects

Don't ask me why, but my first grader pulled Super Spiders off of the shelf the other night and we have read it many times since!

Super Spiders by Jason Blake is a non-fiction book with fantastic photographs and facts about spiders.  It is a Science Vocabulary Reader from Scholastic and has a table of contents, three chapters, a glossary and comprehension questions.  I also love the photographs with fun facts on them.

We learned many things about spiders while we were reading!  I had no idea that spiders have eight eyes, but terrible eye sight!  My son learned that spiders have 2 body parts and 8 legs, while insects have 3 body parts and 6 legs.  We also learned about wolf spiders, jumping spiders, and my son's absolute favorite, the goliath spider!

Today, we sat down to make some spiders of our own, using the information from our book to help us construct them.

My three year old used an egg carton to make his spider, but he still hasn't added the legs.

My first grader started with an egg carton and black and yellow paint.  He was upset that it looked like a bee, so we started over.

He decided to make a goliath spider and we used paper bowls for the body parts.

We took a break from making the spider and watched a goliath spider video from National Geographic.  We watched the spider eat a mouse and after that my son said, "WOW!  He really is big!"  

While the boys made spiders, my husband made an ant.  It was easy to compare the differences between spiders and insects when we were done with the projects.

My husband and son worked together to add the eight legs and eight eyes.

Our version of a goliath spider.

My first grader even put eyes on the side, just like in the book.

After it dried, the goliath spider started attacking the Skylander's castle!  It makes me happy when the boys can play with their art projects!

Our Summer Leap List includes visiting the giant bug exhibit at our zoo this summer, and this was a nice introduction to bugs before we go sometime this summer!

Be sure to check out our Facebook page if you haven't yet!

Kite Day

A couple of weeks ago our family went to our neighborhood kite fly.  The kite fly has become a tradition of ours and even though the weather was a little gloomy, we still chose to participate.  Last year we won a prize for being there.  Wanting to win again, my oldest son stood in the rain for 45 minutes flying his kite.  Unfortunately, they didn't give the prizes out like they did last year, so there was a little disappointment to get over, but we still had a wonderful time!

Kite Flying with Daddy.

Kite flying before a soccer game!

My three year old had so much fun!

After flying a kite, I came home and realized we don't have any books about kites.  How can that be?  My three year old kept talking about kites after that day, so I made it a mission to find a kite book that was fun to read.  Lucky for me, the kite day in our book ended up being a little wet, just like ours!

Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand is a Bear and Mole Story.  This story is about a Bear who decides it is the perfect windy day for flying a kite.  He gets his friend Mole and they work together to make their own kite.  When they start their kite flying adventure, the weather takes a turn for the worse and their kite ends up crashing into a tree.  When they find the kite they realize that even though it is broken, it is the perfect umbrella for a nest full of baby birds!  Kite Day has the perfect amount of words for my little guy and a lot of the story is told through the pictures.  We had a lot to talk about as we read!  Many words are repeated as the kite flies "Up. Up. Up." and "Away, Away, Away."  My three year old and first grader were reading the repetitive words with me right away!

After reading Kite Day a few times, I thought it was time to make our own kite pictures.  We spent yesterday playing A LOT, so this was a great 30 minute project that calmed everyone down before bed time.  Before bed time projects are becoming a favorite of mine!

Here are the supplies I put out to make our kite pictures.  I also put out a few tracers for the kites.  The idea for the cotton balls was clouds, but I was the only one who included them in my picture.

The kids had a lot of scrapbook paper to choose to make their kites.  My three year old loved the ocean scrapbook paper because it had sharks.

My first grader chose to make a patriotic kite for Memorial Day weekend.

My little guy loved cutting the yarn for his kites.

Here is my first grader's kite.  He used red, white, and blue yarn for the string.

They were anxious to hang up their kites on the back door!  Once my three year old saw his kites hanging up, he made one more kite picture.

I am hoping there will be some more days that we can go kite flying this summer, but maybe this time we will skip the rain!

Summer Reading is Cool

Yesterday my son went from being a kindergartner to a first grader!  When he came home he had a present to open, and I will give you one guess as to what was in his gift bag.  If you guessed books, you win!  We gave him three books, and when I saw this one at the book store, I knew it was perfect since I have been looking for a book all about summer!

Summer by Alice Low is an I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books!  In this charming rhyming book, the kids do all of the fun things that you imagine doing in summer.  They eat ice cream, watch fireworks, ride a Ferris wheel, and catch butterflies.  Many of the things that the children participate in are included on our own summer leap lists!  My son enjoyed this book, and even brought it downstairs this morning to read again right away.  He can definitely help me read this book since there are many sight words in it.  

This summer, we are going to try to keep track of all of the books that we read!  I know that all of the summer reading incentives have you keep track of minutes which is fine, but minutes are hard for my kids to visualize.  I know it is better for them if we keep track of the number of books that we read instead of minutes.  So I brainstormed a creative way to keep track and this is what I came up with.

Summer brings lots of ice cream, so we started our own ice cream cones with a scoop of ice cream for every book we read.  If we read it again, then we are adding a sticker to the ice cream scoop.  I know that we will need to add more cones as the days go on, but it will be fun to watch our ice cream cones grow!

First, I printed out a couple of ice cream cones.  I also cut out a bunch of ice cream scoops.

Tonight, after reading, my son added some scoops to his ice cream cone and smiled the whole time.  His poster is sitting right next to our reading spot in his room.

Here is my first grader's ice cream cone.  Both boys ran to his room before bed so they could add some scoops to his cone.  This is what my first grader has read in 24 hours.  

We will post pictures at the end of the week and throughout the summer to show you how big our ice cream cones have gotten!

How are you going to have your kids keep track of their summer reading?

Last Day of School!

Last Day of School.  Someone was excited!

Today I sent my kindergartner off to school for his last day!  The year went by so fast!  He had such a wonderful time in kindergarten, loved his teachers, and learned so much.  I am so proud of him!

I like to have things to help me remember the year, but I am definitely not into scrapbooking, so when I saw Record a Memory School Years, at the book store a few months ago, I thought it would be perfect for my son.  I knew I would be able to fill it out without feeling like I have to spend forever on it.  When I bought it I bought just one for my kindergartner...oops!

When I got home my husband made me feel bad that I hadn't gotten my three year old and my very newborn daughter a book.  I went online and ordered two more right away. I didn't mean to leave them out, I think I was just in denial that someday all three of our kids will be in school!  I could barely deal with one child in school at the time I bought this, let alone sending the other two to school!  Fortunately, I have packed the other two books away and they will be ready when they go to school!  The books may be ready, but I probably won't be!

This Record a Memory School Years book has a page or two for pre-school through 8th grade.  Each page has just enough info to help us remember the year, add a picture or two, and even lets you record your child's voice each year.  I love that this book has a pocket to hold a few things from the year too.  It isn't huge, so I do have an extra box to save things, but it has just the right amount to look through someday!

My son's kindergarten page was filled with questions about what he learned in school, why he liked his teacher, and who his friends are.  This year he is supposed to sing a part of his favorite song.  We didn't record his singing yet, but he is very excited about it!

Happy Summer!