Fourth of July Activities

Happy 4th of July!  I finally got around to doing some fun activities with the kids to celebrate Independence Day.  Sit back, read, and enjoy!  Hopefully you'll find something fun to do with your family.

Activity 1: Noisemakers

                                                                     
Have fun making these 4th of July noisemakers. Peanut is shown above with her festive horn.

 Materials: party horns, star stickers, ribbon, pom poms, glue

Little Man working hard on his noisemaker. ( with a little help from Momma)

Sunshine Girl making lots of noise!  She did a great job decorating her horn.

Activity 2: Painting with Marbles

The kiddos seemed to really enjoy this activity.  We were experimenting to see if our paintings would look like fireworks.

 Materials: Red and Blue Paint, Wash bin, 2 marbles, 2 Ziplock bags,

and white paper

Directions:
1. Tape a white piece of paper in the middle of a wash bin.  Be sure to tape on all 4 sides.
                  
2.  Fill two Ziploc bags with paint.  Next, put one marble in each bag. Squish around to get paint on the marble.

3. Drop the marbles onto the white paper. Move the wash bin around so the marble rolls paint over the paper.  On the painting below, we tried squeezing a little bit more paint on the paper to see what would happen.  (Just a thicker affect with the lines.)

Activity 3: Sensory Bags

With the left over paint bags, I created a simple sensory/drawing activity.  I taped the bags closed so that the paint would stay inside.  Next, I demonstrated for little man how to draw shapes and letters and then erase. 

Activity 4: Exploring Ice Cubes

Little man watched as I put the ice cube tray in the freezer. I showed him the water in each star.  He also enjoyed playing with the colored ice cubes before I put them in the freezer.  He was surprised to touch and feel them when they were frozen.  He squeezed the cube and said.. glass.  I explained to him that the water inside froze. 

After discussing states of matter- preschool style, I gave little man some time to explore with the frozen cubes. He even enjoyed playing with the melted ice and transferring the water back and forth.

For more 4th of July ideas, visit The Activity Mom!  I shared a few toddler ideas over there today as well. 

Well, that's all folks.  For now, anyways!  Have a safe and fun holiday!

Happy 4th of July!

Jen and family