Fourth of July (Independance Day) Crafts and Activities

I've always loved the Fourth of July. Getting my kids involved in Patriotic decorating and activities is so much fun. I thought that I would share some of our red, white and blue crafts and activities with you.

American Flag: This is so easy. If you have little kids who are not good with scissors yet you will need to do some preparation while older kids can do their own cutting. Provide a piece of white construction paper to work on. Next provide strips (older kids can cut their own) of red construction paper (these are the red stripes on the flag). Let your children glue the red strips onto the white paper (leaving enough space between the red strips so that the white appears to be stripes too). After gluing the strips onto the paper glue a blue rectangle in the corner. Use white chalk to draw stars on the blue paper. Instead of chalk, you could also use foil star stickers if you happen to have any on hand.

Fireworks Art: Provide black construction paper, red, white and blue tempera paint, glitter and sponges. I like to use the round puffy dish washing type sponges but they can be hard to find so you could simply cut a rectangular sponge into a circle and them cut a few jagged edges to make it look more like a firework burst. Let the children dip the sponges into red, white and blue paint and then sprinkle glitter onto their firework.

Patriotic Shakers: Attach a few pieces of red, white and/or blue crepe paper to a paper plate (these will be streamers). Fold the paper plate in half and staple all but a small opening. Fill with dry beans and then finish stapling. I like to put clear tape across the staples so they don't poke little fingers. Let your children decorate the shakers with red and blue crayons or paint. You could also provide star cut-outs or stickers if you wish.

Flag Cake: Simply bake your favorite cake (I just use a cake mix for this cake) in a rectangle pan. After the cake has cooled, cover it with whipped topping instead of frosting. Use fresh strawberries for the stripes and fresh blueberries in the corner for the star area.

Shaving Cream Fun: Provide 3 large cookie sheets. Spray shaving cream on each cookie sheet. Leave one white but add red food coloring to one and blue to the other. Let your child play in the shaving cream. This is very messy but good clean fun. I like to put the kids in their bathing suits and do this outside so that I can just spray everything (and everyone) down with the hose when finished. If you have children who like to put everything in their mouths, you could use the spray whipped topping instead.

Red, White and Blue Bubbles: Fill 3 separate containers with bubble mixture. Leave one plain but add red food coloring to one pan and blue to another. Check out my website to make your own bubbles.

USA Map Floor Puzzle: Cover a USA map in clear contact paper. Cut the map into several pieces according to your child's ability to make a big floor puzzle.

Homemade Popsicles and other Cool Treats

I have been enjoying making Popsicles with my kids this summer. Homemade Popsicles are fun to make and even better to eat.

One of our favorites is what we call Smoothie Pops. We place two bananas (the kids slice them first), a small hand full of fresh strawberries and about 1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt into the blender. After everything is well blended I pour the mixture into Popsicle molds and then freeze them until we are ready for our cool and tasty treats.





I bought my Popsicle molds at Target. Mine make 4 Popsicles and the cost for the molds was $3.99. I like them because they keep the Popsicles from dripping. If you don't have Popsicle molds you could also use small paper cups and Popsicle sticks.

We also enjoy making Banana Pops. We slice a small banana in half or a large banana into thirds. We insert a Popsicle stick into the banana length wise and then cover the banana in chocolate pudding (you can make chocolate pudding or to make it even easier, give each of your children a store bought chocolate pudding cup). I lined a rectangular plastic container with wax paper and we lined the wax paper with the banana pops. We also put colored sugar and sprinkles on the chocolate covered bananas. You could leave them as is or add chopped nuts if you like. I put the cover on the container and placed it in the freezer for several hours.

I remember making all sorts of Popsicles when I was a kid. My sister and I filled ice cube trays with our favorite concoctions. We used toothpicks for the sticks. We also filled the little paper Dixie cups and used Popsicle sticks. One of my favorite Popsicles was simply pouring lemonade into my mold and freezing it. I also used to enjoy making chocolate pudding Popsicles. Many of our Popsicles were simply frozen juice. As simple as it is, we also enjoyed eating plain ice cubes on a stick. You might be surprised how much your children enjoy plain ice. You can even add some food coloring to make it more fun.

Another of my favorite childhood treats was something that my mom made for us. She broke a graham cracker in half and then put whipping cream (Like Cool Whip) on top of the graham cracker. Next she put sprinkles or chocolate chips on the whipping cream, topped it with the other graham cracker halve and then froze them.

Weekly Challenge: Make a Homemade Popsicle or another summertime treat with your children this week. Let me know what you enjoyed.

I'm always looking for new recipes to try with my children. If you have a favorite homemade treat that is great for a hot summer day, please share it with me. You can leave a comment or email me at kim@lessonplansplus.com.

Summer Fun Ideas

I hope that you are having a wonderful start to summer. We've been spending a lot of time outside as we always do in the summer. I like to take activities that we normally do inside and bring them outside. It's fun to think of the backyard as an extension of our house and living in Michigan, summertime is the best time of the year to do that.

I want to get everyone to "think outside the box" and do a few things differently for a fun change. I will share a few things that I like to do with my kids.


Have art and craft time outside. Bring an easel outside along with paper, washable paint and paintbrushes. If you don't have an easel, attach a large piece of paper to a fence or even a tree.


Make chalk drawings on paper outside. Fill a small bucket with water so the children can make both dry chalk and wet chalk drawings. When they are finished, they can color the pavement with the wet and dry chalk.


Find a shady spot (maybe under a tree) and have story time outside.


Bring some lunch fixings outside and let your children prepare their own lunch outside and then eat on a blanket or at a picnic table.


Fill a child size pool with soapy water, give your children some sponges and let them wash several of their toys outside. When the toys are clean you can rinse off the soap residue with the hose and then let the toys dry in the sun. When I was teaching preschool outside the home, I even brought all of our classroom chairs outside and let the children scrub them clean. It was a lot of fun.

Have a outdoor pupppet show.


Weekly Challenge: Choose one of the activities that I listed or come up with an idea of your own and do it differently than you normally would. If the weather outside does not cooperate with your plans you could think outside the box and even do a typical outdoor activity indoors. My kids loved having indoor picnics in the winter. I would love to hear about your ideas.

Reading and Building Literacy with Children

My children have always enjoyed looking at books and listening to stories. Even as babies, books were one of their favorite things. I want to encourage you to read with your child everyday. I know it's easy for parents to get discouraged in attempts to read to busy toddlers as they are constantly on the go but they are learning and taking in information even as they are standing and playing. They may not appear to be listening but they are actually hearing more than you may realize.

Preschoolers are a lot of fun to read with because they are beginning to appreciate characters in a story as well as the plot. Choose a wide variety of books including picture books as well as more complex stories that are appropriate for your child's developmental level. Reading books everyday is a great way to introduce your children to words that you may not use on a regular basis. When you read to your preschooler, announce the title of the book as well as the author and illustrator. As you read, trace over the words with your finger. Take the time to involve your child in the story by asking questions such as, "what do you think will happen next..." With a familiar story, let your child help tell the story. My children love it when I read part of a sentence then stop to let them finish the sentence.

Another way to build literacy is by pointing out printed words when you are on outings. Point out the words on traffic signs, in the grocery store, at the doctors office, etc. You can even label things around the house to help your child associate words with objects. Show your children that reading is fun and reading is also an important part of daily life. Help your child get excited about reading.

The preschool and Kindergarten years are a great time to begin introducing early reader chapter books. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've found rest time to be a good time to read chapter books aloud. The nice thing about reading chapter books is that they are enjoyable for me and my children. The kids look forward to finding out what will happen next and their imaginations are active.

Many librarys offer summer reading clubs and they often include pre-readers in the fun. Our local library offers a reading club for children birth - 5th grade. The children are given calendar style reading logs with stickers. Children earn stickers by listening to stories, singing songs, etc. The library reading club is another great way to build early literacy. My preschoolers will be participating in our library summer reading club this year.

Weekly Challenge: Start a reading club with your child. You can join your library reading club or do something on your own. It addition to reading aloud to your child some other options are checking out books on tape from the library, singing songs and doing finger plays with your child or even helping your child make a book of her own. Read to your child for a least a few minutes everyday.

I was recently reading the Simply a Mom blog that my friend Hope created and she posted about a cool site called Storynory where you can listen to free audio stories. I thought others might be interested in using the Storynory site as another literacy tool.

Have fun reading with your children this summer!

Summer Fun Activities with Water

We have shifted over into summer mode at our house. The weather is warm and the days continue to get longer. I thought it would be fun to share a few summertime activities involving water.

Bubble Fun
Bubbles are great. You can purchase bubbles or make your own. I often just fill a big plastic tub with dish soap and water and give the kids a variety of "blowing objects". The little plastic rings form milk jugs make great bubble toys. I have a good recipe for bubbles on my Lesson Plans Plus website if you want nice big bubbles. The recipe is about halfway down the page.

Wash the Car and/or Wash Riding Toys.
My kids love doing this. I fill up a bucket with soapy water and sponges and they get everything sparkly clean.

Paint with Water
I give my kids a small bucket (sand bucket size) of water and paint brushes and let them paint the house with water. You can let them paint anything you wish, even the sidewalk. It's great clean fun for your little aspiring artists.

Make Rainbows with the Hose
Spray the water into the sunlight to see a rainbow of colors. It may seem obvious to you but kids are often easily amazed.

Set up a Water Table
I have the Water Wheel Table from Step 2 and my kids love playing with it. If you don't have a water table and don't want to purchase one, you can simply fill a plastic container with water and a few floating toys. Water wheels are a fun accessory and not very expensive.

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Have some fun with water and be sure to teach your children about water safety. In addition to talking to your children about water safety, I would encourage you to sign them up for swim lessons. You could check with your city's parks and recreation department, local health clubs or even community pools to see if they offer swimming lessons. You could choose from a group class or individual swim lessons with a lifeguard. I signed my kids up for swim lessons last week. Our classes begin later this month and my kids are very excited.