Our Literary Summer: Week 3 - Summer Wonders

This week, we read Summer Wonders by Bob Raczka.  Summer Wonders is a simple, fun book that illustrates everything most of us remember about summers from our youth and everything we hope our children will experience from skipping rocks and swimming at the beach and pool to drippy ice cream cones and clear starry night skies.

Here is what we did this week:

Ice Cream Dough from Play Create Explore

The recipe calls for conditioner but in my rush to get errands done, I ended up with shampoo, but we gave it a go and it worked just as well and smelled super-yummy since I used coconut shampoo.

Shaving Cream Paint Ice Cream Cones

Mix shaving cream with some white glue and whatever color you like and when it dries it stays puffy!

Ice Cream in a Baggie

Be ready to do a lot of bag shaking, it tends to be a bit much for the little ones, though, as you can see, they really try hard!

YUM!

We broke out our Alphabet Rocks and worked on spelling our names and letter matching.

Constellation Art

Bear didn't quite get the concept of connecting the stars, but it's cute anyway!

We also played with Kinetic Sand, which isn't exactly like beach sand, but it's totally awesome.  If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it.

Our song this week was Down By the Sea by Red Grammer.  I love, love, love Red Grammer's music.  It is upbeat and fun with a great message, and it's adult-friendly, so you won't get sick of hearing it over and over in the classroom.

Next week is week 4 of our 'Summer and Sun' literary theme!

Under the Sea with Swimmy!

I absolutely adore Swimmy by Leo Lionni, not only because the story is one of resilience and courage, but also because the artwork is just stunning.

Inspired by my recent vacation at the beach, I dove headfirst into a week of under the sea adventures all inspired by Swimmy.

At this point, I must confess that I may also have chosen this book because of the watercolor illustrations and the fact that it's the end of the year and I'm pretty much out of every art supply except my handy liquid watercolor.

We started off with some very ambitious sea anemones, which got more complicated as the week went on and could even be more complicated if you have the time and the kiddos have the patience.  

Our first attempt was just the anemone, partially invented by my artsy husband when I told him I wanted it to look 3-D.  

By the second attempt, I decided we should wet on wet watercolor the paper first to give the anemone somewhere to reside.

Next I did a lantern-type design to make the bottom of the anemone stick out from the paper.  These had to be glued and allowed to dry before the final step.

Finally, we used yarn soaked in a thin water/glue mixture to create the tentacles.

If you have older children, you could expand from here and add sand or rocks to create the sea floor or even add some happy little clown fish. :)

One of my favorite illustrations in the book is the picture of the jellyfish.  I had high hopes that with more wet on wet watercolor, we could come close to the original.

Not too shabby, if you ask me!

Sometimes, we create projects that I really regret sending home before taking a picture of all of them together - this was one of those projects - they were all unique and equally beautiful!

The third project I had planned was never completed, but while perusing the local grocery store, I came across some awesome fish stickers and picked up a few for my Parent's Night Out kiddos.

Back to that good ole watercolor!

And the little ones all went home with their very own fishbowl!

What are your favorite ocean-themed books?  I love recommendations!

Summer Vacation and an Anniversary

Each year, we spend a week at my Mom's beach house in North Cape May, NJ.  After we all left the nest, Mom decided to retire to her little beach cottage, which she has since renovated into a warm, inviting year-round home.

Two years ago, on July 1, 2011, Josh and I were married on the deck of this little beach cottage and we're lucky enough to spend our anniversaries there as well.  We're not much for fanfare, especially over an unexpected wedding we planned in four days that came after a five-year relationship and our first child, so an anniversary at the beach is just right for us.

Although there's not an overwhelming amount of things (besides hitting the beach) to do in North Cape May, NJ, we always manage to find ways to stay busy.  We've visited the Cape May County Zoo 

Monkey with 'Baba', checking out animals.

and the Aviation Museum.  

Last year, we took Monkey on his first ride on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

Monkey and Mama - and Bear on the way!

Because the trip is always during 4th of July week, we get to sit on the deck (which is only one house from the beach) and watch fireworks, which is the highlight of Monkey's trip.  This year will be Bear's first fireworks experience and I can't wait to get some great reaction photos.

 

I'm looking forward to lots of fun beach activities with the boys and to sharing them with you when we return!

* Happy Summer! *