Alphabet Train Kid's Activity!

Today was a great day to try out one of the DIY activities that we have been looking at.  I have been wanting to try the one that is called the Alphabet Train!  I though that it would be a lot of fun and also a great learning experience for my son Liam.  It is really easy to do and requires minimal supplies.  You generally just use things around the house and the possibilities are endless.  You could come up with all kinds of different combinations if you played it 100 different times.  This took up about an hour to an hour and a half of our time go through the letters and looking around the house (mostly Liam's playroom and bed room) for stuff that we could use. 


Supplies:
 26 Sheets of Construction Paper (any paper will do)

Items from around the house that start with all of the letters in the alphabet!  

Directions: 
Draw Letters onto the paper and lay out the paper in a "train"!  Now go around and find the items that match up with the letters.  (We also added Letter flashcards so that it gave my son the opportunity to match up the letters from the flash cards with the letters on the paper and give him an idea of where to go from).  I would try to think of things around the house and send him in search of them!  This was so easy and so much fun!  I definitely recommend it to anyone with a child that likes to do things associated with the alphabet and it provides for a wide age range.

Set out the letters into a train, which can be quite fun

 Add the flashcards

Now go around the house to find stuff to place on each paper 

 Now you have the train all set up and you can go back through the letters for fun & learning

 Here are the items we used for each letter in case you are needing a place to start! 

A is for Apple, Asparagus, Airplane

B is for Butterfly, Bubbles, Binoculars, Book

C is for Crab, Car, Carrots, Camera

D is for Duck, Dog, Dolphin

E is for Elephant, Eeyore, Eyes

F is for Firetruck, Farmer, Fork, Flashlight

G is for Glove, Ghost, Glasses, Giraffe, Gas Station

H is for Hat, Helicopter, Hippo, Heart, Hammer

I is for Ice Cream

J is for Jack-in-the-box, Jam, Jack-o-lantern

K is for Kite, Key, Knife, Kale

L is for Lamb, Lion, Leaf, Lotion

M is for Mouse, Milk, Mouth, Moon, Monkey

N is for Nest, Nose, Nut

O is for Owl, Octopus, Orange

P is for Penguin, Phone, Pumpkin, Panda, Pear, Pepper

Q is for Quilt, Queen

R is for Rainbow, Rooster, Rabbit, Radio

S is for Star, Snake, Shark, Seahorse, Sun

T is for Train, Tiger, Tea, Tambourine

U is for Umbrella, Unicorn

V is for Violin, Van, Vacuum, Vitamin

W is for Whale, Whistle, Wasp, Worm, Watermelon

X us fir Xylophone

Y is for Yo-yo, Yogurt

Z is for Zebra

DIY: Children's Activities Part 3

With Liam being on doctor's orders to stay home until Monday, we have already enjoyed two days off together and we are going to need some fun projects to keep us busy for the rest of the weekend.  We will definitely be engaged in one or more of these activities!  I have been wanting to do the alphabet train one for awhile now, but we also will pick and artsy craft as well :)  Please submit any and all suggestions to me!  We love to stay engaged in all kinds of fun new activities!

Alphabet Train

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I absolutely love the idea of this one!  It is both fun, time consuming, hands on, and a great learning experience!









Supplies:
Paper
Alphabet Letters (Of you can just draw your own letters onto the paper)
Items from around the house that start with all of the letters in the alphabet!  

Directions: 
Lay out the paper in a "train" and add the letters!  Now go around and find the items that match up with the letters.

 Salt Painting

This is a great and easy way to have a fun painting time at home with not too much of a mess.  I have seen a lot of people try this and similar things out in the past and have been wanting to try it with Liam since he is totally into creating different works of art. 







Supplies:
-Construction paper/cardstock
-Paintbrush and/or medicine dropper
-Colored water (we used about a tablespoon of water with 6-7 drops of food coloring)
-Salt
-Glue
-Little bowls for colored water



Directions:
Have your child draw a picture with glue.Then sprinkle the glue with salt.  We did this on top of a piece of cardboard, but a baking sheet will work well too. Next have your child take a paintbrush or a medicine dropper and drop colored water, one drop at a time onto the salt.
Some tips: Make sure they lightly touch the salt with the brush.  It also helps to have a bowl to clean the brush in between colors...otherwise you lose the colors start blending together and you lose the vibrant colors because they become murky. 

Jello Ocean Bath

Borrowed from growingajeweledrose.com

 

 

 Messy activities in the bath are such a fantastic idea.  You get to be all messy and yet you don't have a huge mess to clean up!  Also if the mess is too much, just rinse it out and then wash your child up as they are already in the bathtub playing!  Liam loves the bathtub anyway, so I know he would love this activity!










Supplies:
4 Boxes Blue Raspberry Jello
Small bag of Smooth Round Stones (Such as used for candle accents)
Variety of sea life toys

Directions:
Let the jello set up.  Put it into the bottom of the tub and add some warm water to make the bath warm enough to play in.  Add the stones and toys and let them get in and have a ball.  This makes for a great sensory and learning experience! 

Cardboard Tube Owls

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I have been saving up toilet paper rolls in hopes of a fun activity to come along to use them up in when I came across this one.  Owls are so much fun and Liam loves playing with googly eyes!  This seems fairly easy and minimal mess kind of activity and I need to use up these toilet paper rolls! 







Supplies:
Cardboard tubes (1 for each owl if toilet paper, 2 owls per paper towel)
Scrap Paper
Pipe Cleaners
Googly Eyes
Felt
Tacky Glue

Directions:
Fold the top of the toilet paper rolls down toward the middle to form the owls ears.
Cut up various scraps of textured and colored paper, pipe cleaners, and felt scraps to use for the craft. Cut the orange felt into little triangles to use for the beak.  Apply glue to the various textured papers and pipe cleaners.  If  you  use Q-tips to dip into your glue it can make a lot less mess with younger children.  Attach wings, textures, beak, googly eyes, and any other decorations you want to use. Beads and buttons would be fun too.


If you would like to see the past DIY activities that we have completed together, check them out here:

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

Activities For Children: DIY Part 2

I am always looking for different fun crafts and activities that Liam and I can do together!  And last month I started a Children's DIY (Do-It-Yourself) blog.  The following weekend, Liam (my three year old son) and I chose one of the activities and made it our own!  Last month we ended up making Meditation Jars!  This was both fun and effective!  This month I want to chose at least one other activity for us to do, possibly on this long 3 weekend we have coming up or any other free time between now and the end of the month!  Here are some of our ideas!  Please submit any of your own ideas! 

Rainstorm

My son is obsessed with whether or not it is raining outside, so I am sure that he would love creating a rainstorm!  What a fun quick and easy activity!











Supplies:
-Drinking glass or vase
-Food coloring
-Water
-Shaving cream


Directions:
Fill drinking glass or vase with water and then top the water completely with shaving cream (clouds).
Then add blue food coloring to the "clouds".  (This works best to concentrate the food coloring in a couple of areas as opposed to singular drops here and there).  You can also add to the fun by adding multiple colors

Alphabet Train

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I absolutely love the idea of this one!  It is both fun, time consuming, hands on, and a great learning experience! 









Supplies:
Paper
Alphabet Letters (Of you can just draw your own letters onto the paper)
Items from around the house that start with all of the letters in the alphabet!  

Directions: 
Lay out the paper in a "train" and add the letters!  Now go around and find the items that match up with the letters.

 Salt Painting

This is a great and easy way to have a fun painting time at home with not too much of a mess.  I have seen a lot of people try this and similar things out in the past and have been wanting to try it with Liam since he is totally into creating different works of art. 








Supplies:
-Construction paper/cardstock
-Paintbrush and/or medicine dropper
-Colored water (we used about a tablespoon of water with 6-7 drops of food coloring)
-Salt
-Glue
-Little bowls for colored water



Directions:
Have your child draw a picture with glue.Then sprinkle the glue with salt.  We did this on top of a piece of cardboard, but a baking sheet will work well too. Next have your child take a paintbrush or a medicine dropper and drop colored water, one drop at a time onto the salt.
Some tips: Make sure they lightly touch the salt with the brush.  It also helps to have a bowl to clean the brush in between colors...otherwise you lose the colors start blending together and you lose the vibrant colors because they become murky.

Kool-Aid Dyed Rice & Pasta

This is a great way for what many people call "Sensory Learning."  It is suggested that you get a sensory bin (any kind of plastic shallow tray or bin) and then you want to have various colored objects of all shapes and sizes and then you child can learn from these things and play with them.  Personally I think that a lot of these things can double as art supplies if you have some glue on hand, to include this project.  

Supplies:
1 Cup Rice or 1 Cup Pasta
1/2 tsp Kool-Aid
1 tsp Rubbing Alcohol
Gallon or large plastic Ziplock bags
Tin Foil
Cookie Sheet

Directions:
Gather your tools and start by standing up and opening your large freezer bag. A freezer bag (and not just a regular gallon bag) is imperative for the dying process because of it's thickness--the bag will stand up on its own and will also hold up better to leakage than a standard bag. Use one bag for each color you wish to make.
First, have your child add 1 cup of rice to each bag. Then, have him or her scoop out a 1/2 teaspoon of power out of each Kool-Aid packet. (Each Kool-Aid packet typically has 1 teaspoon of powder in it.) Pour the powder on top of the rice. For the last step, which is a mama step, add 1 teaspoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag on top of the previous two ingredients.
Seal the bag shut (because I can attest that wet Kool-Aid rice is NOT a fun experience to clean up!) and shake it up (this can be a fun part in the process for the kids to do too)! Let it sit for at least 15 minutes to saturate.
Next, pour the wet rice out onto a tray and get it as flat as it will go so that you can dry it overnight (or for at least 6-8 hours). When I dye rice or pasta, I usually make little tin foil sections in the tray to separate the colors. When it is dry, the rice will be all clumped together; separate the rice grains with your hands. (This is also a fun step for kiddo involvement too!)


* Here is our Meditation Jar Activity: Meditation Jar: Our Attempt
* The Original DIY Children's blog: DIY Kid Activities
* As an added bonus here is the DIY Orange Sugar Scrub from this weekend: Valentine's Orange Sugar Scrub