R Stuff

So, I'm a little behind in updating the blog. This is for a couple of reasons. One, I lost my scanner and need to get over to my mom's house to scan. The other reason is that round about U Week, Talmage lost enthusiasm for the project. I didn't want to push him into it--I wanted it to be fun and not a chore--and so I lost enthusiasm for updating the blog. But cute sister-in-law Sarah linked the blog to hers, so I feel the time has come to finish ABC Stuff. Also, Talmage was reading words last night (as long as they are composed of letter sounds that sound like what they are supposed to) and so his excitement for letters has been rekindled.

The real problem? While we did stuff for P through V Week, I've forgotten a lot of it. So I'll do my best to recreate it, but the books in particular are probably going to suffer.

Activities

Rooster.

I wanted to find a rooster that was distinct from a chicken and a turkey. This is where I got the vision for this project, and I tried to make a template to mimic these shapes, but it kind of exceded my photoshop abilities:



So in the end, I just eyeballed the shapes using the above picture as my guide, and ended up with the parts to make this rooster:

Insert picture here.

In the end, I think that this was one of the projects that involved more grown-up cutting and little toddler involvement.

Rainbows.

We took a pyrex plan and filled it with water. Then we used a small mirror and propped it up at an angle. We positioned the mirror so that the sunlight hit it and then observed the rainbows on the wall.

We talked briefly about how a rainbow is light shining on the rain, and then we used watercolors and painted "rainbows."

My rainbow:



Talmage's rainbow was a little more free:



Red painting.

I mixed three colors of red. We painted. Voila:



R treasure hunt. rake, rattle, recycling bin, roses. The treat was Rolos.

Q Stuff

For books, we searched the catalog for quilt, quail, and quiet. We didn't find any we LOVED, but Quiet Bunny by Lisa McCue wasn't bad. When we looked for letters, I pointed out that Q is always followed by U and together they make the kwa sound.

Activities.

Quilt.



We talked about how quilts are like a puzzle and they are made up of little pieces that fit together to make a blanket. I showed him the gorgeous quilt Gail made for Tyler and me when we got married. Then we made our own paper quilt with pieces from this template and this template.

Quail.



I looked at several pictures of quail and improvised a paper bag puppet. The essentials were the black feather on the head and wings. Talmage painted the bags brown and I added the details. And, of course, googly eyes.

Simpler puppets work better for Tal, but with Q, I didn't have many options.

Question Game. Tyler would like credit for this idea.



I created these templates.

The back of the cards:



Front with one set of animals:



Front with second set of animals:



Then I printed the images on yellow paper, cut them out, and laminated them.

We then played a game where one person puts a card on their forehead, animal side out, and then they have to ask questions to find out what kind of animal they are.

It was a big hit.

Treasure hunt. queen, quilt, quail, question game, quarter. The treat was Hershey's Kisses. I know. It doesn't start with a Q. An internet search gave me Quench Gum and I thought of finding the mystery flavor Dum Dums with question marks on the wrapper, but I ran out of time.