Week 1 Review

We had a fun busy week.  We did our letter A activities on Monday and Tuesday because the rest of the week was busy with storytime on Wednesday, her new music class on Thursday and gymnastics class on Friday.  The weather was nice on Saturday so we had a family outing to Boulevard Park.  Here's a recap of some of our activities:

Rain Painting

The website where I got the idea said it didn't work as well when it was raining hard, so we did it when it was drizzling.  Yeah, that didn't work so well either.  It didn't do a whole lot when it was raining, but Riley had fun stomping in puddles with her rain boots and twirling her umbrella.  When I checked on the art a few hours later it looked a little better since the paper was soaked.  (Note for next time:  do this activity when it's raining harder.)

Before:

After:  (Sorry not sure how to rotate the image yet.)

Letter A Search

Round 1: 
I created a couple sheets with the letters A mixed in on the page and laminated them (to easily wipe off and use in the future.)  We started with the dot paints and after 30 seconds she decided it was more fun to dot all of the letters and not just the A's.  So then I tried washable dry erase markers, where she would color on the A's only.  This lasted a little longer, maybe 1 minute, before she decide to start coloring all of the letters and tracing her hand.  Since the idea was letter recognition and she just likes coloring the letters, I think I'll create a page of just the letter A for her.  This activity lasted all of 5 minutes, so it will be a good activity to keep her busy if I'm doing laundry or something for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Animal and Bug Shadow Match

This didn't go along with the A theme, but I thought Riley might like this activity since her favorite Kindle game is matching the shadow puzzles.  I found some free printables on Pinterest and laminated the pages to make them more durable.  I was right that she loved this game, BUT it took her less than a minute to finish matching them and then she was done.  So all that work for just a minute of activity.  Ugh!  Oh well, I'll keep it on hand for the future.  The nice thing is I can easily put these in plastic bags and use them on roadtrips or when traveling since they don't take up much space.  I just need to come up with an idea to modify the activity so it keeps her attention a little longer.

Bananagrams Letter Sort

I took our Bananagrams game and tried to adapt it for Riley.  I've seen people doing different activities with this game so I thought I'd make something up.  I put the different letters in an ice tray and had her sort the letters.  This lasted for maybe 5 minutes before she decided to line up all the letters and pretend they were trains.  She has a big imagination and loves pretend play,  so I played along.  We lined up all the letter A's into a train and pushed it along the table.  Then she lined up the other letters to make trains.  She ended up playing with this game for about 45 minutes which was great! 

Apple Smiles

Boulevard Park

We enjoyed the nice weather at Boulevard Park on Saturday, where Brian had coffee and Riley and I had hot chocolate.  The tide was really low so she wanted to play on the beach instead of the playground.  It was a fun day!