Balloon Pit Sight Word Hunt

 

Juliette is so excited about learning how to read.  She is recognizing many different sight words so now I am looking for fun ways for her to practice them. 

We had a bunch of balloons leftover from Emily’s Lego Friends Birthday Party which I gathered into the corner to keep them away from Clara and that is when this idea came to me!  Since Juliette is an active child I knew she would love this fun way to hunt for her words.  I took 5 balloons and wrote one of the sight words we have been working with on each balloon.  Then I told her what word to find.  She loved pushing around all the balloons looking for the ones that had words on it, and she was even more excited when she found the word she was looking for!!  We will definitely be playing this gave many more times since it was a big hit.

Be sure to check out my Sight Word Board on Pinterest

What fun ways have you used to practice sight words with your children? 

If you have a post about sight words be sure to add it to the linky then check out the other great activities that have been linked up.   I can’t wait to check it out!!

Exploring Alternate Canvases ~ Sticker Balloons

I love giving the girls alternate canvases to work on.  It is a great way to have them think out of the box and use materials in different ways.

Balloons and Stickers are two things that almost every child loves so for this open ended art project I put the two together and the girls had so much fun with it.

The little kids (21 months – 2.5 years) placed the stickers all over the balloons. The older girls (5 years old) turned them into people.  They made eyes, hair, a mouth, teeth, a nose and even a bow to go in the hair all with the different shaped stickers.

After they finished their creations it was fun to use the decorated balloons to play keep it up.  They tap the balloon trying to keep it from touching the ground.  It was interesting to feel the difference between a plain balloon and one that is covered in stickers!

Science Fun ~ Mysteriously Inflating Balloon Experiment

When I saw this experiment on The Artful Parent I knew that I wanted to try it with Emily and Juliette.  They both love balloons and I thought that this would be a fun way to see them getting inflated.  I made a few changes to how the experiment went based on the comments to Jean’s post.

First, I got everything ready…all I would show them was the balloon.  They were all so excited to see what would happen.  I filled the water bottle with about 3 tablespoons of vinegar and then I used a funnel to fill the balloon with about 1 tablespoon of baking soda.  I put the balloon on top of the bottle being careful not to let the baking soda mix with the vinegar. 

After each child had their balloon set up I counted to 3 and let them hold up the balloon so that the baking soda would mix with the vinegar.

Very quickly the gas that was produced when the vinegar and baking soda mixed filled up the balloon.

It was funny to see the different shapes that it made!

Juliette’s balloon got the largest out of the three.  They all wanted to try it again, but we were out of balloons.  I guess we will have to add them to our shopping list and try it again.  It was definitely a lot of fun!

Summer Fun List ~ Water Balloons

We were able to cross water balloons off of our Summer Fun List!!

The kids and grownups had so much fun getting wet and keeping cool on a warm summer day by tossing water balloons around.

   Daddy, Aunt Jennifer and Mommy filled up lots and lots of water balloons, with the help of the kids too.  We were actually able to fill their blue step 2 sink up to the top.

On the run with a full water balloon!

Emily and our neighbor tossed the balloons to each other waiting to see who it would soak.

My favorite picture from the day was Emily’s Cousin trying to break a water balloon over her head :0)