At the beginning of the month I was a super lucky guest post-er for Color Your Summer on Delia's blog. My color was blue and although I tossed around a good many ideas for this post (one of which you'll see later) I finally went with this one because it really got the kids involved. Here it is in case you missed it!
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Summer is all about time with family, right? Kids are home from school, the sun stays up well into the evening, it's warm and bright... it's the perfect atmosphere for fun with kids! So let me give you just one more summer boredom buster.
We'll begin with our craft. Let's shnazzy up a little notebook, shall we?
You can buy these cutey patootie tiny memo books at Walmart for around 30 cents. Can't go wrong there. But they're a little bland. All you need to dress them up is:
Now, let me preface this by saying that you can, obviously, just put the washi tape on the notebook and - Ta-da! - you're done! BUT, if you're like me and know that boring black notebook showing through the tape will bother you TO NO END, then here's an easy solution.
2. Fold the two pieces around the notebook, so the ends are tucked inside the front and back covers.
3. Make sure you don't fold the paper around the notebook with the notebook OPEN, like this. If you do, the notebook won't shut.
4. Slip the notebook out of the paper. It will look like this.
6. Now, measure out 6 more pieces of washi tape to the same length.
7. Place the first piece at the top of the paper, from spine out to the edge.
8. Be sure the tape overlaps the top of the paper. Fold this down over the back of the paper and smooth out the tape on the front.
9. Do this with the rest of your tape pieces, making sure to line up the stripes so they look like one continuous stripe down the cover.
Note: Do this on both sides of the spine and leave the spine tape free. It's easier to work with shorter pieces of tape.
12. Spray the entire back with spray adhesive.
13. Line up the spine on your notebook with the spine in the paper.
14. Lay the back cover down, fold the flap over and press down firmly. Do the same with the front.
So, what are we going to do with our handy dandy notebook? Well, we're going to have a handy dandy scavenger hunt, of course!
The theme? "Getting the Blues".
2. Help your child cut out the pictures and
3. tape them into their notebooks!
Then you can write what each item is underneath the picture. We had 5 general categories of items:
Shapes
"Wearable's"
Everyday Things
AND
I also threw in a few "abstract" ideas:
The pictures are taped into the notebook with washi tape. There is one blank page after each picture page to use later.
Now you just need to go on your "Getting the Blues" hunt! Take a walk. Bring your notebook to the store or library. Take some time. Remember, everything you find has to be blue!
When you find something blue, just check it off with your marker!
And then, take a picture. Later on, you can print your pictures out and tape them onto the blank page after the corresponding item.
There are so many things I loved about this activity. Of course, your kids will be learning on a very basic level... what is blue - in all of its shades and hues?
What is a rectangle? A circle? Spots? Plaid?
It also teaches less concrete but still important concepts.
How to look at things in different ways and think outside the box:
Do you see a blue circle or just the letter "o"?
How to be more aware of your surroundings. How to observe and pay close attention.
And the kids? Well, just thought it was all kinds of fun!
They even begged grandma to come along, and pointed out that the sky was a particularly nice shade of blue that day.
Your kids will also love looking through all the photos you took while on the hunt. What a great reminder of some fun things you did together during the summer!
We have big plans for red, yellow and green now.
1 comment:
i LOVE this idea!! it's so cute! and the kids look like they had so much fun!!
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