Crafts: V is for Vacation

 

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Learning the letters is such an important step for our children. Creating fun ways to reinforce their memory of the letters is one way we as parents can help them on their journey to become well-educated citizens. In this craft, our children used scrapbooking pictures to decorate the letter V to represent an imaginary vacation trip. 

Materials 

• Construction paper
• Scrapbook paper featuring vacation images
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Crayons or markers
• Vacation photographs (optional)

Steps

1. Gather all your materials.

2. Either pre-cut the necessary components or have your children cut the letter and pieces you will need to include on your craft. 

3. Glue the letter onto the construction paper. 

4. Ask your children to pick out the images they will use on their craft. 

5. Glue the vacation images onto the letter. 

6. Display the craft when the glue is dry. 

You can easily tie this craft into a discussion of an upcoming vacation or looking through vacation photographs from the previous year or years. This V is for Vacation craft could also be used as part of a geography lesson where children would pick images from a specific country to place on their letter rather than just vacation-themed ones.  Personally, we love the geography lessons from Let's Go Geography which we reviewed in 2020. 

Learning About the Letter K: K is for Kings

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Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

When teaching our children about the world around them, it is important that they become familiar with how our country is governed and how other countries are governed. Talking about the letter K with preschoolers is the perfect time to discuss kings and how they are different from presidents. You can introduce many different topics while teaching the letter K to your preschooler, too. Don't forget all the awesome animals from Australia that start with the letter K, such as kangaroo, koala, and kiwi.

Kings

Facts about kings and monarchies to share with your children:

• A king (or queen) rules in a monarchy 
• A monarchy is a form of government with a single leader who rules for his or her life 
• There used to be lots of monarchies throughout the world but now kings and queens are rare 
• A king rules for life and usually his son (or daughter) will inherit the throne when he dies as monarchies are hereditary 
• In Ancient Egypt, kings were known as Pharaohs 
• In Russia, the king was known as the czar 
• Other names for kings include: emperor or royal highness 
• Today, monarchies still exist in several places like the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Morocco, Jordan, and other places 
• Famous kings through history: Henry VIII of England, William the Conqueror, Peter the Great of Russia, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Tutankhamen, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Ramses the Great, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire  

King Paper Bag Puppet

Create a paper bag king puppet with your children!

Materials

• Lunch paper bag 
• Construction paper of various colors (purple, brown, yellow, black, white, tan, pink, etc) 
• Glue sticks 
• White glue 
• Buttons 
• Optional: Sequences for the crown 

Steps

1. Gather all your materials.

2. Either pre-cut the pieces, draw shapes for the pieces and have your children cut them out, or have your children draw the different pieces they will need and cut them.

3. Glue on the face of the king and then glue on the robes of the king.

4. Glue on the mouth and then the beard of the king.

5. Glue on the eyes of the king, draw a nose, and draw a mustache.

6. Glue on the king's crown.

7. Pick buttons for the king's robe and glue them onto your puppet. 

8. After the glue dries, the kings are ready to rule their nation. 

Additional Activities and Ideas to Talk about Kings

• Read about the different kings in the Bible 
• Study about knights using the Hands-on History Lap-Pak Knights from Home School in the Woods (my review is here) 
• Spend time talking about Knights using K is for Knights part of the Blogging through the Alphabet series 
• Watch King George and the Ducky from Veggie Tales 
• For older children, spend time learning about the Middle Ages 
• Study the art of the middle ages using a great resource from Artistic Pursuits Inc. 
• Take the Bible Stories for Kids class on SchoolhouseTeachers.com to learn more about kings from the Bible 

Other Topics 

Australia Animals 

Read about the animals from Australia with several different posts from A Mom's Quest to Teach. Also, check out some of my favorite books about Australia and its native animals.

  

Matching Activity 

Download a copy of a simple matching activity to complete with your preschooler. In addition to this matching activity, you can also use old magazines and ask your child to cut out pictures of animals, people, objects, etc. that start with the letter K and create a Letter K Collage.

Crafts: K is for Kiwi

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On a trip to the craft store in the late fall, we picked up the cutest kiwi plush. It is bright and colorful, not at all like the actual flightless bird, but our daughter fell in love with it. I must admit to falling in love with the soft plush, too.

When I was thinking about what craft to do for the letter K, I was trying to come up with something that I had not seen done. Kites and kangaroos are popular letter K crafts but why not a kiwi? It's the perfect opportunity for our children to make an adorable craft and learn more about this interesting bird from New Zealand.

Facts About Kiwis 

• Flightless 
• Loose, hair-like feathers 
• Strong, powerful legs
• No tail 
• Tiny, almost non-existent wings of one inch 
• Native to New Zealand 
• Can live 30 to 50 years 
• Lays one (maybe two) eggs in each clutch – they may have three clutches a year 
• The heaviest kiwi – the brown kiwi – can weigh 3 to 11 pounds 
• Even though kiwis are about the size of a chicken, their eggs are as big as an emu egg 
• Classified in the same family – ratite – as its cousins the cassowary, emu, ostrich, and rhea 
• Has a highly developed sense of smell 
• Eats grubs, worms, bugs, berries, and seeds 

Materials 

• Construction paper (various colors including brown, orange, and tan) 
• Glue sticks and white glue 
• Scissors 
• Googly eyes 
• Plush kiwi (optional) 

Steps 

1. Gather all the materials. If your children are old enough, they can draw the shapes or cut out the shapes you draw for the craft.

2. Glue on the letter K.

3. Glue on the body of the kiwi.

4. Glue on the feet - they should stretch to the bottom two parts of the letter K.

5. Glue on the head and beak. The beak should stretch to one of the top parts of the letter K.

6. Glue on the eye. Only one - the kiwi is in profile!

 

 

Crafts: I is for Iron

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What exactly makes Minecraft such an intriguing game to both children and adults? I don't know if I have the perfect answer. The fact that the game allows for such creativity may be one of the reasons. It also inspires our children outside the actual game. They love when I create Minecraft-themed crafts for them to complete such as E for Enderman and R for Redstone. It even encourages trips to sites where people can learn more about mining like Eckley Miners' Village.

Iron Ore

Iron ore is an important mineral block found in Minecraft. When smelted, it becomes an iron ingot which can be used to craft tools and armor. In the real world, iron ore or iron minerals range from dark grey, bright yellow, a deep purple to red. None of them actually have the beige color of iron ore in Minecraft.

There are four main types of iron ore deposits:

• magnetite deposits 
• titanomagnetite deposits 
• massive hematite deposits 
• pisolitic ironstone deposits 

While iron ore is used directly to make items in Minecraft, in the real world the majority of iron produced is used to make steel. (In some modpacks for Minecraft, players will use iron to produce steel.) 

And just what is steel used for? An excellent question to ask your children. Perhaps this will even develop into a great research project! Some of the many uses of steel include the building of automobiles, locomotives, beams for buildings, paper clips, tools, and more. 

This lesson lends itself to examining rocks and identifying gems and precious stones.

How to Make an 'I is for Iron' Craft

Materials 

• Construction paper or Craft paper 
• Scissors
• Glue and/or glue sticks
• Markers or crayons  

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials.

2. Trace a large letter I. If your children are ready, have them cut out the letter on their own.

3. Glue the letter I onto the large construction paper.

4. Cut out small beige colored squares.

5. Glue the beige colored squares onto the letter I to create iron ore from Minecraft.

6. After your project is dry, display proudly in your home.

Learning about the Alphabet: E is for Elephant

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 Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.  

For the letter E, we focused upon Elephant.

Elephants are known as the largest land mammal. There are two different types - African Elephants and Asiatic Elephants. As mammals, they give birth to live young (called calves), produce milk for their young, have fine, coarse hair on their bodies, and are warm-blooded (their body temperature is regulated internally).

Female African Elephant on left; Female Asiatic Elephant on right 

African Elephant Characteristics

• Large ears (they are almost shaped like the continent of Africa)
• Both male and female African elephants have tusks 
• Larger than Asiatic elephants 
• Males are approximately 10 feet tall  & weigh over 12,000 pounds 

Asiatic Elephant Characteristics

• Smaller ears than African elephants 
• High foreheads with two large bumps
• Usually only male Asiatic elephants have tusks 
• Males are approximately 9 feet tall & weight about 10,000 pounds 

Male elephants are called bulls while female elephants are known as cows and young elephants are called calves. An elephant calf is no small baby – it can be 3 feet tall at birth and weigh 200 pounds. Compare that to the size and weight of your children so they can see the difference.

© Aksoys | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Tusks are actually teeth that grow very large. An elephant will go through six sets of teeth in its mouth over the course of its lifespan. Each set of teeth is worn down by the food the elephant eats and each set usually lasts about 10 years. So, an average elephant usually lives about 60 years because it will not be able to chew food after its last set of teeth get worn down.

The large ears of an elephant help keep the elephant cool by acting as more than just a fan. When they flap their ears, the blood flowing through their ears is actually cooled and carried through the rest of the body – thus cooling the entire elephant.

Coloring Sheets

Coloring.WS from DLTK's Elephant Coloring Pages 
There are a variety of realistic and cartoon elephant pictures for your children to color.

Super Coloring's Elephants Coloring Pages 
There is a selection of cartoon and realistic pictures available to print and color.

Easy Peasy and Fun's Free Elephant Coloring Pages for Adults
If you are interested in joining in on the coloring fun, check out these abstract elephant coloring pages!

Projects

Coffee Filter Elephant Craft 

This great craft from Look! We're Learning only requires five materials to create your own elephant to decorate your home.

Milk Bottle Elephants 

These are adorable elephants made using recycled plastic milk containers. With as much milk as we go through in our house, we could make a whole herd of elephants!

DIY No Sew Sock Elephant 

Gather together socks, polyfil, rubberbands, rice or beans, googly eyes, and felt and make your own plush elephant with your children - no needles needed!

Books

Whether you are looking for fictional or factual books about elephants, they are such an interesting animal to read about with your children.

Featured Shape

This week take a look at circles and spheres. On a globe or a map of the world, help your children circle where African Elephants and Asian Elephants live in the wild.

Cut out different sizes of circles and have your children sort them into different piles based on their size - from smallest to largest. Remind them that the largest land mammal, the elephant, started out smaller when they were babies. 

Activities

Sorting Big Es and Little Es

Cut out a variety of upper and lower case Es and es for your children to sort. Since this week we are talking about elephants, which are rather large, it is perfect to draw the parallels between large letters (uppercase) and small letters (lowercase). 

Other Topics 

E is for Enderman 

Do you have a Minecraft fan in the house? Try this Letter E craft that features an Enderman.

Eggs 

There are so many different activities you can do with eggs. Here are a few ideas.

Made with Happy's Plastic Easter Egg Flower Pots 
123 Homeschool 4 Me Collection of 14 Amazing Egg Science Experiments 

Resources 

No Time for Flash Cards' Letter of the Week - Letter E Theme 
World Wildlife Fund's Elephant Page 
National Geographic's African Elephant Page 

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