Randy the Raindrop

Adventures of Randy the Raindrop

Randy the raindrop lived in a cloud
the heat from the sun made him big, strong, and proud!
He got bigger and bigger until one day – Oh My!
He fell through the floor of his house in the sky!
Randy was scared, then he noticed more raindrops falling,
“Hey Randy, isn’t this fun?” they were calling
Then onto a leaf with a splash Randy fell,
and what happened next is a strange thing to tell.

Randy was made up of water, you know,
a part of him went to help the tree grow.
The rest of him went into a puddle so round,
then the sun came out and shone on the ground.

The sun warmed Randy and he started to change,
He became water vapour – My isn’t that strange?
Little drops of water, too tiny to see
Floated into the sky- yes that was Randy!

Randy’s home once again was a cloud in the sky,
He was a raindrop once more, but then by and by…
The sun made him bigger and bigger and then….
He fell through the floor of his house once again!

(This is from one of my Mailbox magazines)

Umbrella Painting

In keeping with the theme of Spring I did an Umbrella Painting project with Hailey yesterday.

What you’ll need:

• -paper plate cut in the shape of an umbrella
• -card stock in the shape of a J for the handle
• -finger paint
• -smock
• -a place set up to put the project to dry when you’re done

Let’s get started!

Hailey had never finger painted before, so she was a little unsure of touching it at first.

Soon she was enjoying herself.

Finally she really got into it and got both hands covered in paint.

While Hailey was painting I kept a little dialog going with her.  I started out with some simple questions like, “What are we making,” “What color is this” etc.  And then I moved on to some more open ended questions.  Open ended questions are important because they enhance your child’s language.  Rather than a simple answer they have to think about their response.  Some good open ended questions to ask might include “What does it feel like,” “Why do you think the red and yellow turned orange” and “What do you see.”  With a toddler you aren’t going to expect complex answers but you are still helping to expand their vocabulary and thinking skills.

Hanging the pieces up to dry.

The finished umbrella.

Tags: finger painting with toddler, free toddler activity, umbrella craft, umbrella painting

April Ideas

I try to do other things with Hailey, besides the crafts that I take pictures of to share here.  So, I thought I’d give a brief summary of the non-craft activities we have done or that I plan to do with Hailey this month.

• I created cards with pictures of adult and baby animals on them.  Then we matched up the babies with their mommies.
• We are going to plant some grass seed and take pictures as it grows.  (It’s still been a little bit chilly here, but hopefully we can start this in the next couple of weeks.)
• Play matching and sorting games with these umbrellas.
• I have a Randy the Raindrop story that I am going to use on a flannel board (that I still need to make).  I’ll take pictures of it when I actually do it.
• Make dice with farm animals on them.  Then sing “Old MacDonald” and roll the die to see which animal we will use for that verse.



• Raindrop writing- practice the letters in Hailey’s name using these raindrops.  The reason the raindrops are white is that is the color I am focusing on this month.

 That’s all for now.  I’ll be back to share more ideas as I come up with them. 

Tags: activities for april, farm animal activities, free toddler activities, matching, sorting, srping activities

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Today we worked on making a kite that will be the right size for Hailey to be able to use.

What you need to make the kite:

• construction paper
• crepe-paper streamers
• yarn
• stapler and tape
• glue
• scissors
• hole puncher
• markers, crayons, stickers, stamps

Directions:

• Have child decorate a piece of construction paper using markers, crayons, stickers, stamps, etc.
• Glue or tape the crepe-paper streamer to the side of the paper that has not been decorated.
• Roll paper into a tube shape and staple it in place.  I then put tape on it to add extra reinforcement as well as to protect Hailey from getting cut on the staples.
• Punch four evenly spaced holes on the tube, on the opposite side of the streamers.
• Thread two eight-inch lengths of yarn through the holes so that they crisscross and then tie them in place.
• Then tie one end of an 18-inch piece of yarn around the center of the crisscross (I did not use an 18-inch piece of yarn, I used a much shorter piece)

Adding some stickers to her paper.

Coloring her paper

“Look mom, I colored my hand too!”

The kite when all finished.

When we have a day with some nice weather we’ll take it outside to try it out.  I’ll be sure to post some pictures of it.

Tags: free toddler activity, kite