Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Celebrating the 4th

With the 4th of July being on a Wednesday, we did a lot of celebrating last week!  We had family picnics and fireworks and all kinds of fun at home too!  I love it when we have a family day, although it did feel a bit odd having my husband home on a Wednesday.


fireworkscraft

Who knew pipe cleaners, paint and glitter could be so much fun?

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I originally found this project on pint.erest then clicked on over to this blog to read the instructions. but basically, you just twist your pipe cleaners into a little handle and spread out the ends until it kind of looks like an octopus.
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Then you let the kiddos stamp to their little hearts content!  Or at least what I did.  My secret to keeping the table clean is a garbage bag. Yup.  I just slap one down and squirt the paint right on the bag. 

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He added a little glitter to the paint while it was still wet and it dried right in place.  After we glittered up the fireworks, I shook off the excess glitter onto our garbage bag paint mat and just picked up the four corners and wrapped it up.  That made the whole glitter and paint clean-up a breeze and we were out the door to the next Independence Day event!

One of our other activities last week was reading How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA by Marjorie Priceman.  While we read, we had Ethan’s electronic map of the USA by our side and he traced along our journey with his finger, noting what each state along the way is known for.

How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A.



After we read the book, we got our ingredients together and we made a cherry pie.

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While our pie was baking, we looked at some more of our Independence Day related books and talked about the US flag.  It was a really fun project.  An added bonus to being fun was we did a little geography (talking about the states), math (measuring the ingredients), history (the US flag and America’s Birthday), sensory play (making the dough for the crust with our hands) and art!

But really, even with all of that, what 4th of July would it be if we didn’t at least have a few small fireworks?  We were not under a burn ban, but it has been so hot and dry in our region, we were a little afraid and only set off a few fountains on the pavement and a few sparklers.  Of course, this was after a picnic and pool party!

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What about you?  How did you spend our nation's birthday?

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Linking up!



1 comment:

Tim and Carissa Wix said...

I love reading your posts. :-) We MOVED on independence day this year! It was a very memorable way to celebrate! There are so many significant things about the fourth. My nana's anniversary, my "sis'" birthday, several other anniversaries, so moving felt right!