We have been learning all about transportation and today we made an airplane.

Here’s what you’ll need: toilet paper roll, paint, something to paint with, small pieces of cardboard for the wings and (not pictured) black construction paper.  Cut slits in the toilet paper roll and insert the wings.

Paint your airplane.

Add some windows by cutting little circles from the black construction paper.  I had Hailey just stick them to the wet paint so we could skip the whole gluing step.

Fly the airplane.  (Please excuse the mess in the background.)

We are still finishing up our transportation theme.  I was really excited the other day because Hailey brought one of her fire trucks to me and said, “This is for transportation.”  So I was excited that she really understood what the word transportation meant.

Our latest transportation project was to make a train, which Hailey has been begging to do.  I got the idea for this on another website and I can not remember now where it was.  If anyone knows please tell me so I can give credit to the other site.

Here is what you’ll need: toilet paper roll or paper towel rolls, 6 index cards, construction paper, yarn, glue, tape, scissors, something to color with.

Have your child color the index cards.

While your child is busy coloring you can cut out some black circles for the wheels and then some other shapes for decorating the train.

Glue the wheels onto your index cards- put 2 on each of 4 of the index cards. 

Add some other shapes for the windows.

For the engine- cut a toilet paper roll into 2 pieces- one 2/3’s long and the other 1/3 long.  And cut out some more black circles.

Here’s a view of the finished train from the front.  I used tape to put most of it together.

And a view from the back of the train.

Hailey loved making this.  When she saw it all coming together her face just lit up with excitement.

Our letter of the week last week was the letter E.

We started out our week with our usual letter paper to decorate.  This week Hailey simply colored the letter E with crayons.  Later I cut it out and glued it onto construction paper and posted it on our refrigerator.  Each week she does one of these for our letter of the week and we always use something different to decorate the letters (colored pencils, markers, water colors, finger paints, etc.)

Then we made this Letter E Elephant, an idea I found at No Time for Flashcards.

Here’s what you’ll need: a large E, an extra piece of construction paper in the same color as your E to make a trunk and an ear for the elephant, something to decorate your E with (we used the dobbers), glue and another piece of construction paper in a different color.

Decorate the E, the trunk and ear.

The finished letter E Elephant.

Then we made this Elmo:

Here’s what you’ll need: An Elmo template printed on card stock, toilet paper roll, red paint, and something to paint with.

Paint the toilet paper roll and the Elmo template red.

Once it’s dry cut out the Elmo pieces and glue them onto the toilet paper roll.

The finished Elmo.

Stop by 1+1+1=1 to see what the other moms are doing to keep their tots busy.  Don’t forget to check back here everyday as I will post about our fall activities, our color and shape activities and our Bible activities.

Our theme for the next couple of weeks will be apples.  So, to kick off our apple learning we went on a trip to pick apples.

Hailey gets a boost up to reach some of the apples up at the top.

Hailey loved picking the apples.  She would pick one, take a little bite, and then move on to the next apple.

Later on that day we made our own apple tree.

Here’s what you’ll need: paper towel holder, paper plate, green construction paper, two pieces of green construction paper cut into a tree shape, paint brush, brown paint, glue, apple stickers.

Put the apple stickers onto the green pieces shaped like trees.  Or you could use red pom-poms for your apples but we didn’t have any.

Paint the paper towel holder brown.

Glue the your green pieces onto the paper towel holder.

Cut a piece of green construction paper to fit on the paper plate and glue it on.

Once the tree dries, cut four slits in the bottom of the tree.  Bend the pieces and glue onto your plate covered with green paper.

The finished apple tree.

Hailey also practiced spelling her name on the apple shaped cards.

We have been reading a lot of books about apples but these are Hailey’s favorites:

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Apple Harvest by Calvin Harris