August- Camping week 1

We set up our dramatic play area much like a campsite. We had a tent, campfire, roasting sticks (with cotton balls glued on the ends) a box of graham crackes (ok, an empty box) some cardboard squares and brown paper squares. The kids made their s'mores over the "HOT" fire.

We then made smores using graham crackers, marshmellow fluff and dipping chocolate. The children added the fluff to the cracker, and dipped it into the chocolate.

We had a camp-out as well. We set the tent up in front of a camping movie, and the kids brought sleeping bags and ate s'mores.

Another craft we did was "In my sleeping bag..." We decorated our sleeping bags, added a photo and had a writing prompt. Some of the kids answers were hilarious.

We made 3-d tents using paper and crayons.

And, a s'more craft. We used cardboard, a roll of white paper and chocolate colored paper.

We made a camping backpack out of a paper grocery bag.

And painted our binoculars using toilet paper rolls.


Now that we have all of our camping supplies- next week we're discussing animals that we see in the woods! (AND WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT.....)

Ocean week 3

This week we're talking about sea life.

We made handprint mermaids. This turned out really fun. The best part of the day was watching "The Little Mermaid"

Next we talked about coral, sea sponges and other plant life in the ocean. I really wanted the kids to grasp the understanding that sponges "drank" water. So, I gave them a bowl of water and a sponge and they watched how the sponge absorbed the water. They really loved this!



Later, we sponge painted coral reef using a variety of paint colors. It looked really cool against the white wall!



Last but not least, our scuba people. This project turned out hilarious! We had the kids paint their scuba people and added their picture to the face. Parents, and kids really enjoyed the end project.

Ocean week 4

This week we talked about different things we may see when we go to the Ocean. We made our sandcastles out of sandpaper. We cut a bunch of shapes out and just left the kids "build" their sandcastles.

The kids enjoyed making paper plate boats. We painted a paper plate with several colors, and let them stamp sea creatures of their sail. They also added a life preserver.

We decorated paper plates to make sea shells. We used epsom salts to give the sea shell a crystal affect. They sparkle in the light!



Our most difficult project yet. We had the children add strips of paper to the base of the lighthouse. Then we had them crunch of aliminum foil and add it into a cup. The bottom of the lighthouse we painted blue (for the ocean). These turned out adorable, but were a lot of prep work.



Good-bye Ocean. It turned out SO beautiful and the kids LOVED it. But July is over, and onto August we go. It's a busy month.