Tag Archives: activities

Alphabet Activities & FREE Worksheets for Kids: Letters P-T

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities by

Hello and welcome to the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES post for letters P through T!

Like all of our previous alphabet activity pages, you’ll find letter-themed meal ideas, letter-shaped construction paper crafts, letter sorting activities, free printable worksheets, and so much more!

If you haven’t been to the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES PAGE yet, be sure to check that out in order to see our past alphabet activities and worksheets.

Welcome to LETTER P DAY!

First off, let’s start with a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: Make a puppy, penguin, panda, or pig out of pieces of paper scraps in the shape of a P. (See past alphabet activities for inspiration and examples, such as D is for Dragon.)
  • Letter Sorting Craft: Cut out 2 pelicans (a pair of them) and sort onto them capital and lowercase letter Ps that have been cut out in the shape of tiny fish. You could also cut out 2 pencils out of construction paper and sort letters onto them. (You can print capital and lowercase letters in a simple font like Arial, or you can draw them neatly. See this example for D is for Dolphins.)
  • Draw a parrot or peacock and have your Little glue feathers to it.
  • Create a phantom (ghost) out of white chalk on black construction paper. (Which will look kind of like these Valentine Chalkboard Hearts.)
  • Walk a pirate plank by drawing one in chalk on the sidewalk that leads to some grass the Little can jump into, or by shaping one out of painter’s tape that leads to a small ball pit or mini trampoline.
  • Do some finger painting by painting with your palms.

Now for the free worksheets! To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

P is for Pancakes
P is for Pasta
P is for Penguins
P is for Polka Dots
P is for Possum
P is for Potato
P is for Puppies and Pizza

Welcome to LETTER Q DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Quiche
  • Quaker Oats (oatmeal)
  • Quinoa
  • Queso Fresco
  • Quark (type of cheese that’s easier to find in Europe than the US)
  • Quarter Pounder (or make your own burger and give it the McD name)
  • Quesadillas
  • Quail
  • Quick Bread
  • Quince Tart

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: Create a queen, quokka, or quilt out of paper pieces and assemble into the shape of a Q.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: draw or cut out 2 quails or quartz crystals, and sort cut-out capital and lowercase Qs onto them.
  • Play a game of going from one room to another in your house quietly and quickly.
  • Create a quiz out of some of the letters you’ve already learned by holding up letters (possibly puzzle pieces) and have your Little call them out.
  • Make a quilt out of construction paper. Cut pieces of different colored paper into 4 squares or rectangles and punch holes around the outside of the shape. Use yarn to “sew” them together into a quilt.
  • Go on a quest. Perhaps make a scavenger hunt for items in your own kitchen or yard. You can make a map ahead of time to help with the quest.

Now for the free worksheets! To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

Q is for Quails
Q is for Quarters
Q is for Queen Bee
Q is for Queen
Q is for Quick Queen Bees
Q is for Quoll

Welcome to LETTER R DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Raspberries
  • Raisins
  • Red Peppers
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Ranch Dressing
  • Ravioli
  • Ratatouille
  • Risotto
  • Rice
  • Ramen
  • Rigatoni
  • Red Potatoes
  • Red Cabbage
  • Reuben Sandwich
  • Ribs
  • Rice Pudding
  • Red Velvet Cake
  • Root Beer Float
  • Rice Krispie Treats
  • anything Raw or Roasted

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: Make a raccoon, red panda, rattlesnake, or reindeer out of pieces of paper into the shape of a big R.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: Make 2 robots, rockets, rhinos, rays (stingrays or manta rays), rabbits, or rats and sort out some cut-out capital and lowercase Rs onto them.
  • Hold a race where you run, preferably outdoors.
  • Rotate the R. Put out a capital and lowercase R, whether printed on paper or from a puzzle, and when you call out the word “rotate,” your Little can rotate them. Like: “Rotate BIG R,” then “Rotate LITTLE R!”
  • Read your favorite books. Try to find a rhyming book to read.
  • Create a recipe with your favorite foods. Or follow one of your favorite recipes from a cookbook.
  • Use a ruler to measure different objects around your house, especially if you can find objects that start with the letter R (like a rubber ball or rope) or are red.

Now for the free worksheets! To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

R is for Rabbit
R is for Rabbits
R is for Raccoons
R is for Racing Rabbits
R is for Rainbow
R is for Red Rhino
R is for Rhinos and Radishes
R is for Roaming Rockets
R is for Rosebuds
R is for Running Rat

Welcome to LETTER S DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: Make a snake, squirrel, or swan out of paper pieces into the shape of a letter S.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: Draw or cut out two swords, sharks, snails, or stegosaurus and sort onto them capital and lowercase letter S’s that you’ve printed or drawn.
  • Play Simon Says.
  • Sing your favorite songs.
  • Learn to skip stones.
  • Maybe skip while you sing.
  • Make Speckled Shell Stegosaurus hard-boiled eggs, like these Frozen Cracked Ice Eggs.
  • Slither like a snake on the ground. You could trace out a path with painter’s tape in the shape of a letter S if you like. This will be easier on a wood or tile floor. Beware of rug burns on carpet!
  • Make Snail Slime, kind of like the Green Goo and Green Glitter Goo from Letter G Day.
  • Play with a Slinky, and shape it into a letter S.
  • Play soccer, perhaps by trying to kick the soccer ball into an area marked by a letter S sign.
  • Search for shells at the beach.

Now for the free worksheets! To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

S is for Seagull
S is for Shark
S is for Sheep
S is for Sheepdog
S is for Snail
S is for Snakes
S is for Soccer
S is for Stegosaurus
S is for Submarine
S is for Swans

Welcome to LETTER T DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Tomatoes
  • Tamarillos
  • Tangerines
  • Tangelos
  • Toast (perhaps this Tropical French Toast or this Teddy Bear Toast)
  • Tortilla
  • Tacos
  • Teriyaki
  • Tempura
  • Tofu
  • Tabbouleh
  • Turkey (roasted, sure, but what about turkey cookies?)
  • Trout or Tuna
  • Tagliatelle (a type of pasta)
  • Texas Toast (my kid’s favorite garlic bread)
  • Tatar tots
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Tarts
  • Truffles (one of my favorites is this Ginger Cookie Truffle)
  • Tiramisu
  • Taffy
  • Toffee

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make a tyrannosaurus rex, tiger, turtle, or train out of paper pieces into the shape of a letter T.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: print, draw, or cut out two trees, teapots, tomatoes, or tacos and sort onto them capital and lowercase letter Ts.
  • Put on some temporary tattoos.
  • Play toss with a tennis ball.
  • Do some of your alphabet activities inside of a blanket tent in your living room, or a camping tent outside.
  • Set out some letters, such as from a puzzle, and have your Little touch them as you call them out. Like, “touch the T! Now touch the G!”
  • Teach each other how to do something new, like signing the letter T in ASL or BSL, or how to do the yoga pose for turtle.
  • Tap out a thunder tune by mimicking the sound of thunder on a drum or upside down pots and bowls.
  • Have a tea party along with some alphabet cookies, especially cookies shaped like the letter T.
  • Tear up some paper to create a letter T by gluing the pieces onto some construction paper.
  • Create a tower out of cardboard boxes or blocks. Make pathways to drive toy trucks between the towers. Or make the tower in the shape of a T and drive the toy trucks around it.

Now for the free worksheets! To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

T is for T-Rex
T is for Tanks
T is for Teapot
T is for Teddy Bears
T is for Tigers and Tomatoes
T is for Trains
T is for Trimming the Tree
T is for Turtles

That’s it for today!

Be sure to subscribe so you get a notification of my next post.

Don’t forget to Pin the images on this page to Pinterest to help you find it again!

Check out the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES PAGE to find a list of all of the letters.

And please share with me on Facebook if you have any photos of you and your Littles enjoying your alphabet days!

Have fun!

Alphabet Activities & FREE Worksheets for Kids: Letters K-O

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities, free worksheets & printables by

Hello and welcome to the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES post for letters K through O!

If you haven’t been to the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES PAGE yet, be sure to check that out.

Our “Alphabet Day” suggestions include food and meal ideas to incorporate, crafts, physical activities, and the free printable worksheets that I created. Each letter has its own section!

Like all of our previous alphabet activity pages, you’ll find letter-themed meal ideas, letter-shaped construction paper crafts, letter sorting activities, free printable worksheets, and so much more!

And while I said in my announcement email that I lost most of my photos, I do have a few, so I’ll include them here.

Welcome to LETTER K DAY!

First off, let’s start with a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Kalamata Olives
  • Ketchup
  • Kale
  • Kefir
  • Kimchi
  • Kabobs
  • Kiwi
  • KitKats
  • Key Lime Pie

And here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make a kitten or koala or king out of paper pieces glued together to make a giant K shape. (See past alphabet activities for inspiration and examples, such as D is for Dragon.)
  • Letter Sorting Craft: draw or cut out 2 kites or keys and cut out capital and lowercase Ks to sort onto the kites. (You can print capital and lowercase letters in a simple font like Arial, or you can draw them neatly. See this example for D is for Dolphins.)
  • Knit: make K shapes with yarn or knitting needles. Possibly teach the child how to knit.
  • Knock: draw a capital and lowercase K and have them knock on the “big” or “little” K, or you can write out a few words that start with K instead for older kids to knock on when you say them out loud, like know, keep, kind, kitty.
  • Kick or Keep: put out a line of balls or other objects, have the child stand behind each one and announce “kick” or “keep,” so that they kick the object away or leave it alone. This is probably best done outside. You could also just Kick the balls. Taping a cut out K onto them gives the Littles somewhere to aim.
  • Knight: dress up as a knight in shining armor.
  • Tell Knock, Knock jokes.

(Forgive any blurriness in the photos – these were taken waaaay back when on one of my first digital cameras, and the previews looked pretty good on those one-inch screens!)

Now for the free worksheets!

To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

Most of the K worksheets are about fine motor control, but the Kangaroo and Kin one includes pictures you can cut out so that they can be sorted by size.

K is for Kangaroo and Kin
K is for Kangaroo Kisses
K is for Karate
K is for Kitten Knitting
K is for Koi
K is for Kooky Kites

Welcome to LETTER L DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Lemons (possibly these easy lemon cookies)
  • Lemonade
  • Limes
  • Leeks
  • Lettuce
  • Lasange
  • Lamb
  • Linguine
  • Lentils (possibly in soup)
  • Lavender (possibly in tea or shortbread cookies)
  • Lychee
  • Ladyfingers
  • Leaf-shaped cookies

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make a lemur, lobster, lizard, lion, or leopard out of paper pieces glued together into a giant L shape.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: Ladybugs on Leaves or water drops on Lighthouses– cut out small red bugs (or just red circles) and put a big “L” or small “l” on each. Cut out 2 leaves and label each with a big “L” or small “l” so they can sort the ladybugs (or ladybirds, depending on your location). Or cut out or draw some lighthouses and use letters on blue paper to sort the “water drops” onto the correct lighthouse. Or both. Really, you can do as many of these as you have time to make.
  • Make Lemon-scented homemade play dough
  • Leap like a lemur or a lion, possibly from L to L after drawing out Ls with chalk on the ground
  • Lick a lollipop
  • Make lemonade.
  • Laugh at each other’s jokes
  • Do a Leaf Rubbing. Place some leaves on a hard surface, cover them with paper, and rub over them with an unwrapped crayon.
  • Launch game: set up a line of toy cars and “launch” them on command (3,2,1 … launch!) at a target, possibly an “L” cut out of paper.
  • Any type of lace craft. I let my Littles just paint on the lace as a sensory activity and to explore the patterns it would make.

Now for the free worksheets!

To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

For the Lace worksheet, I found some cheap lace at the dollar store to let them cut up and play with as well as glue down on the paper. And for the Lush Llamas, they pulled apart some cotton balls to glue down. These were great for sensory play.

L is for Lace
L is for Large Lemonade
L is for Lions That Look Like Lambs
L is for Lively Lizards
L is for Lollipops
L is for Loopy Ladybugs
L is for Lush Llama

Welcome to LETTER M DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Mango
  • Molasses
  • Maple Syrup (great with pancakes – or maybe mango french toast!)
  • Milk
  • Mozzarella cheese (possibly in some Manicotti)
  • Macaroni
  • Meatloaf
  • Moussaka
  • Mushrooms
  • Mustard
  • Mackerel or Mahi-Mahi
  • Meringue
  • Macaroons
  • Mints
  • M&Ms (see the printables below)

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make a monkey, moose, mouse or macaw out of paper pieces in the shape of a giant M.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: Mud! Cut out two uneven circles of brown paper to represent mud puddles, and cut out capital “M” and lowercase “m” pieces for your child to sort into the two puddles. Or cut out 2 of the above-mentioned animals and sort the letters onto those. Sooo many options!
  • Macaroni craft: make something out of gluing dried pasta (macaroni) to paper in the shapes of a giant “M,” or make a necklace out of stringing dried pasta onto yarn. Consider coloring the macaroni with markers.
  • Map Making: make a map of your house or backyard or bedroom. Any type of map will do – simple squares and squiggles are great. For some more examples, see this “mystery map” we made.
  • Practice Mindfulness with Meditation.
  • Go on a Merry March! Create a giant “M” out of painters tape if indoors or out of chalk if outdoors, and march back and forth over that. (Kind of like our Footprint activity.)
  • “M is for Music and Mountains under the Moon.” Okay, sometimes I just picked a lot of words that start with the letter (especially if they’re relatively easy to cut out) and let my Littles make their own … wait for it … mural. (See photo below.)

Now for the free worksheets!

To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

Two of these worksheets require M&M or very similar candy. And for the Marshmallow activity, I did provide a bag of mini marshmallows. You could substitute dot markers for marshmallows, I suppose, but there are plenty of worksheets without any candy if you prefer to avoid it.

M is for M&M Patterns
M is for M&Ms
M is for Marshmallows
M is for Matching Milk and Muffins
M is for Mermaid
M is for Monkey Maze
M is for Moose
M is for Motorcycle
M is for Mouse Mayhem

Welcome to LETTER N DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make a newt or narwhal out of paper pieces in the shape of an N.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: cut out 2 pieces of paper in the shapes of nachos or novels or bird nests, and cut out capital “N” and lowercase “n” pieces to sort onto them.
  • Take a nap.
  • Navigate Nature by taking a hike. Perhaps in your neighborhood.
  • Make your name out of dried noodles. You can glue them to a piece of construction paper, or just sculpt it for fun.
  • You can also make a Noodle Necklace out of dried pasta and yarn. (There’s a repeating theme here with the macaroni and pasta and noodles, but what can I say? I’m Italian. I always have it in the house.)
  • If it happens to be winter, you could sing Noel.

Now for the free worksheets!

To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

These N worksheets include one that has the child place nickles on the circle, to help with motor control, but you could also fill those in with dot markers, of course. For the Newspaper one, we ripped up tiny pieces to then glue into the N shape. Always fun to make a mess. For the Numbers worksheet, I happened to find number-shape stickers at my dollar store – don’t forget to check the mail and office supply section!

N is for Nachos
N is for Narwhal
N is for Newspaper
N is for Newspaper Matching
N is for Newt
N is for Nickels
N is for Nimble Newts
N is for Numbers

Welcome to LETTER O DAY!

Here are a few suggestions of fun food you can make or incorporate into meals:

  • Oatmeal
  • Oat Milk
  • Oranges
  • Omelet
  • Onigiri
  • Okra
  • Orzo
  • Onions
  • Onion Rings
  • Orange Chicken
  • Octopus-shaped Hot Dogs or Biscuits
  • Olive Oil Cake
  • Oatmeal Cookies (like these Lemon Oatmeal Cookies)
  • Oreos

Here are a few activities you may want to try:

  • Letter Shape Construction Paper Craft: make an octopus, owl, orangutan, ostrich, or otter out of paper pieces into the shape of an O.
  • Letter Sorting Craft: cut out 2 paper orchids, overcoats, oysters, or oak trees and cut out capital “O” and lowercase “o” pieces to sort onto them.
  • If you live by a beach, visit the ocean.
  • Observe what happens when you drip olive oil into a bowl of water with a dropper.
  • Make some more of the Green Goo from Letter G Day and let is Ooze through your fingers.
  • Learn outdoors by moving your “office” outside.
  • Make a flower out of onion paper peels.
  • Do an Ocean sensory play bath. This is one of my all-time favorite activities, and the Littles loooved it. If you don’t have a tub, you could always make a sensory bin inside a bucket or container.

Now for the free worksheets!

To get them, simply click on the links listed below this preview:

For the Olympics worksheets, you can cut out the rings from the 2nd worksheet and let your Little match them with the 1st worksheet. For the Ocean worksheet, I happened to find animal-shaped stickers of ocean dwellers. Your Little, as always, could draw their own animals instead, or perhaps cut some photos out of an old magazine.

O is for Ocean
O is for Olympics part 1
O is for Olympics part 2
O is for Orange
O is for Oranges
O is for Ostrich Path
O is for Ostrich Trace
O is for Ostrich
O is for Otter

That’s it for today!

Be sure to subscribe so you get a notification of my next post.

And thank you SO MUCH for your patience as I took (ahem) a while to finish posting these worksheets.

Don’t forget to Pin the images on this page to Pinterest to help you find it again!

Check out the ALPHABET ACTIVITIES PAGE to find a list of all of the letters.

Please share with me on Facebook if you have any photos of you and your Littles enjoying your alphabet days!

Have fun!

Alphabet Activities UPDATE (and more free worksheets!)

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities by

Well, hello there! It’s been a while, huh?

Yeah, sorry about that.

Here’s the thing: many years ago I was having a lot of fun making these Alphabet Activities to share with everyone while doing all of these fun activities with my own Littles:

I is for Island Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie
H is for Handprint Hedgehog free printable alphabet activity worksheet from Roaming Rosie

Then, my computer crashed.

And we all know to back up our stuff, right? Of course we do. But do we always remember to?

Sigh…

So I lost a LOT of photos that I’d transferred to my computer. It wasn’t just Alphabet Activity photos I lost either – it included other recent photos of my kids and other projects I’d been working on. And I was also smack in the middle of a really messy divorce. It was a rough time.

Then … life took over. Things got busy. The kids got older.

And I kinda gave up.

But I am OBSESSED with the alphabet (is that a librarian thing?), and this was always one of my favorite projects. I even managed to find most of the worksheets that I actually HAD backed up.

I decided to reopen this project. Why not, right? It’s never too late.

Okay, my kids are admittedly too old to photograph doing toddler and preschool crafts, BUT I can still post the worksheets. I can even offer some ideas and make suggestions similar to what you’ll find on my original posts.

What I did decide to do was combine the rest of the letters. I used to make 2 posts per letter – one of just activities and one of the worksheets – but there isn’t a good reason to do that now.

I’ve planned out 3 final posts to wrap up this project: Letters K-O, Letters P-T, and Letters U-Z.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing all the free worksheets – and I’m kind of excited about it!

Be sure to subscribe to my emails so you’ll be notified, and to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest so you get the updates.

It’s been a long road, but it feels good to know I’m still on my way.

A Collection of Christmas Crafts!

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by

Welcome to my blog!

Here is a list of different crafts my kids and I have done during the winter holidays. Some are just for fun, and some make great homemade gifts!

Plus I snuck in a couple of edible ones…

This Life-sized Cardboard Gingerbread House will always be one of my favorites!

This Felt Fashion Christmas Tree was surprising easy to make and had such a big impact!

These Birdseed Christmas Ornaments are bird-friendly and look so lovely in the yard.

These Glitter Dinosaur Ornaments are flexible (pick any animal you like!) and add pizazz to the tree.

We make a new batch of these Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments every few years. They last quite a while, but I love the way the house smells when they’re baking! Plus, we try out new shapes each time.

These Paper Cone Christmas Trees are perfect for little hands to keep busy with something you can proudly display!

You could also make snowflakes instead of Crystal Snowmen – or sparkly circular ornaments.

For littles who love paint, these Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Ornaments are about the easiest craft to set up. Hand them markers for

Strictly speaking, this is something that I do for my kids as a surprise, but if you prefer, you could involve your littles in making their own Snowy Reindeer Feet.

The great thing about Rice Krispies treats are that they are so malleable. Which makes them perfect for these Decorated Rice Kirspies Treats Christmas Trees!

Add some sparkle to your winter baking with these Elf-Sized Chocolate Chip Confetti Cookies!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list! Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of them – or share with me on my Facebook page.

Happy crafting!

Mystery Map & Backyard Treasure Hunt

Posted in activities for kids, books & book reviews by

Mystery Map Treasure Hunt 1

Our Mystery Map and Backyard Treasure Hunt was so much fun!

This is a great outdoor activity, and while it’s still quite hot outside as I write this, fall is coming. (Please hurry!!)

When I did this with my girls, I actually drew the map. I love maps, and I love floor plans, so for me it was astounding fun to create a layout of the backyard. Another option, however, is letting your kids make the map. Or make it a collaborate effort. It really depend on the ages of your children.

My main goal here, however, was the treasure hunt, as opposed to the map making. The latter, of course, is a great activity too, but instead of making the map, I had my kids navigate the one I made. With the goal of finding treasure!

I got some new small toys (in this case, Tsum Tsums mini plush) and hid them inside some large-sized Easter eggs. Then I hid the eggs outside, handed the kids the map, and let them loose.

Mystery Map Treasure Hunt 2

The instructions I had given them were to search the yard and make marks on the map to assist in the search.

Essentially, their mission was to mark off on the map each time they found an egg, and to cross off sections they searched which did not contain eggs.

Mystery Map Treasure Hunt 3

As you can see below, I included everything from a bird bath to the tree swing on my map, but it doesn’t have to be that detailed. Unless you’re obsessive like me – then go all out!

My kids decided to use the two colors of markers for different purposes. They chose purple to circle the places where they found eggs, and pink to cross off the places they looked that were egg-less. I’d let them know there were four eggs, so they also knew when to stop.

Then they got to open their treasure eggs. So the hunt was fun, the treasure was exciting, and I was happy because they were outside in the fresh air. Wins all around.

Mystery Map Treasure Hunt 4

No backyard? No worries! This can also be done inside (drawing couches and tables instead of trees), or you can head to your local park. If you’re planning a treasure hunt in a public place, however, you may want to hide vouchers of a sort that they can trade in for eggs, so that your kid can still find something but you don’t have to worry about someone else walking off with the treasure.

And, of course, y’all know I’m gonna talk about books if I get the change, right??

This was a project we did awhile ago (what can I say – it’s been a weird few years *shrugs*), but I got excited when I found a recent picture book that goes along with nicely with this type of activity. 

Publisher: Anne Schwartz Books (2022)

The Boy Who Loved Maps by Kari Allen and G. Brian Karas is such a fun exploration of map making!  It follows two children through the process of making a map of their neighborhood – and also exploring different places around the neighborhood – so if you’re already making a map of your backyard like we did here, this book makes a great visual for kids. 

It has some educational backmatter to help you describe map making to kids, and it can give them ideas for drawing their own. Plus, it’s also an adorable story! The language used to describe their environment is nothing short of magical. I definitely recommend reading it.

You can get it at your local library or here:

The Boy Who Loved Maps on Amazon

The Boy Who Loved Maps on IndieBound

I’d love to hear about any similar activities that your family has done!

Happy Treasure Hunting!

Roaming Rosie Signature

July 4th Fireworks Painting and Cookies

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by

July 4th Fireworks Painting Activity and Iced Cookies with Roaming Rosie

Happy Fourth of July!

This year, my kids and I did a painting activity and a cookie project that mimicked fireworks.  First, we stamped fireworks with toilet paper rolls, and then we baked some chocolate cookies and iced them in patterns to represent bursts of color.

Both of these things were done on dark backgrounds to make it look like our paint and sugar fireworks were exploding against a nighttime sky.

Even threw in some glitter (edible and not-so-much) for a little extra spark!

Fireworks Painting with Toilet Paper Rolls and Glitter 1

First up:  the painting project.

We reused some toilet paper rolls by transforming them into stamps.

To make the firework-shaped stamps, cut slits around one side of the cardboard roll, making the incisions about a quarter-inch wide (my kids made a few slivers; don’t aim for uniformity here), and then bend back the strips against the palm of your hand to make the pieces stick out.

I put some red, white, and blue (washable) paint into three small paper plates, and we dipped the stamps into the plates and then pressed them into the paper to make our fireworks.

To get a neat effect, overlap your stamps.

Fireworks Painting with Toilet Paper Rolls and Glitter 2

After you’ve covered your paper in fireworks, sprinkle with glitter for a fun sparkly touch!

Allow the paint to dry before shaking off the excess glitter and displaying your art.

Fireworks Chocolate Iced Cookies from Roaming Rosie 1

These cookies were not only fun to make – they were delicious too!

Just like the painting activity, we used the red, white, and blue colors against a dark background (in this case chocolate) to represent the fireworks bursting against a night sky.

We used the recipe that I made for my Chocolate Almond Mummy Cookies, but I made double the batch of icing.

You don’t actually NEED to double the icing – the recipe already makes plenty – but I wanted to make extra, double, totally sure that we’d still have enough icing if my girls ended up squirting most of it onto the counter instead of the cookies.

It turned out, one batch probably would have been more than enough . . . except that one of my containers burst and half of the blue icing spilled out onto a couple of cookies.

But that’s an anomaly.  (Hopefully.)

Fireworks Chocolate Iced Cookies from Roaming Rosie 2

When you make the icing, be sure to stir it well until there are no lumps and it drips easily from the fork or spoon in thin ribbons.

Not watery – just thin.  If it’s too thick or clumpy it will clog your spout.

I used my Wilton Candy Making Decorating Bottles.  Mine are quite old but they usually work fine only sometimes explode.  (But seriously, this is the first time I’ve had a problem.)  I’ve been meaning to pick up some new ones anyway.  They’re pretty easy to clean and my girls just love using them.

But if you don’t have bottles like these, you could just as easily put the icing into three separate plastic baggies and snip off the ends to squeeze out the patterns.

If you’re using the bottles, I poured the white icing into them and then mixed in the food coloring with a wooden skewer, the kind used for making shish kabobs.  You could do the same with the baggies, or, if you’re not lazy like me, you could put the icing into three bowls and add the red and blue food coloring to two of them, and mix them before pouring them into the containers.

I made the icing while the cookies were in the oven.  You could make it much earlier in the day, but the longer it sits, the more likely to thicken and then you’ll have to worry about mixing in more water or stirring it to thin it again.

Fireworks Chocolate Iced Cookies from Roaming Rosie 3

As you can see, we took the easy way out with these “cut out” cookies:  no cookie cutters.  We just sliced them up with a pizza cutter.  Easy Peasy.  Re-roll and slice again.

(If you’re wondering, that’s cocoa powder sprinkled over the counter to keep the dough from sticking, which you can use instead of flour when making chocolate cookies.)

We made the cookies into rectangles or large squares, all slightly different.  Once baked and fully cooled, I spread some waxed paper to catch the drippings and we all drizzled the icing onto the cookies, overlapping the colors, in a bit of a star burst pattern so that they would kind of look like fireworks exploding.

And, before the icing could harden, we added some white sparkling sugar to add a little extra spark to our cookies and to match the glitter on our paintings.

Again, you can find the cookie recipe on my post for Chocolate Almond Mummy Cookies.

Happy Fourth!

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Grobswitchy Cake: a BFG Recipe from Roald Dahl

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Roald Dahl's The BFG Grobswitchy Cake

We read The BFG by Roald Dahl recently and my kids LOVED it.

It may have been a bit of a trogglehumper to gobblefunk around with some of those propsposterous words – especially at bedtime when my coffee has long worn off – but it was SO worth it!  It was totally whoopsey-splunkers to see my girls burst into fits of laughter worthy of a big friendly giant.

And then, after reading the novel, we took a look at Roald Dahl’s Even More Revolting Recipes (which is a sequel to Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes), and decided to make the Grobswitchy Cake featured in the book, with just a few small changes.

We wound up using walnuts, because my oldest daughter loves them, and we traded out the amber crystals they suggested to use as grobswitches for Cake Mate’s Gold Sugar Cupcake Gems. 

Roald Dahl's The BFG Grobswitchy Cake 2

Now, I don’t know exactly what we did wrong, since baking with two kids can be … distracting … but somehow we had too much batter for our little pan.  I put it in the oven like that anyway, but with some foil below it to catch the drippings.

(And – just FYI – dripped cake is actually kinda fabulous.)

It’s a pretty typical coffee cake recipe, but with a really beautiful sentiment, since it references how the BFG mixes up dreams:

“It is a little bit like mixing a cake,”the BFG said. “If you is putting the right amounts of all the different things into it, you is making the cake come out any way you want, sugary, splongy curranty, Christmassy or grobswitchy. It is the same with dreams.”

And to explore the story a little more, I suggest stopping by Roald Dahl’s official website.

Happy Baking!

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Tissue Paper Flower Cut Out Cards (Made with Cookie Cutters!)

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Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

This was a neat craft I enjoyed doing with my girls, and the Tissue Paper Cut Out Cards make great presents.

You can give the cards for Mother’s Day, birthday, Thank You cards, or even Thinking Of You cards.

They’re versatile that way, and you can let your kids get hands-on with the crafting.

I cut the tissue paper strips ahead of time by rolling up some colorful sheets of tissue paper into a tube-like shape and snipping off inch-wide pieces with sharp scissors.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

I did do the cutting myself for these flower shapes because I wanted them to have the detailed shapes cut out of the middle of the paper, which is a little hard for small fingers to do.  But they had plenty of fun with the glue and tissue paper.

I used cookie cutters from a couple of different sets, kind of like this Spring Set and this Nesting Set.  We went with flowers because we made this during the springtime, but you could use any shape you like.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Fold a piece of construction or craft paper in half to make your card.

Trace the shape inside the cookie cutter, just like you would use a stencil, onto the front of the card.

Then poke your scissor in the middle of the shape and cut it out of the front of the card.  Or your could open the card and place it flat on some cardboard and use an X-Acto knife to carve out the shape, or let an older kid or teen do it.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Take a white sheet of paper and cut it to fit just inside the cards.

Let your kids slather the white paper with glue or glue sticks, and then lay out the tissue paper pieces in stripes that go across and touch each other or slightly overlap.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Once the sheet of white paper covered in tissue paper strips is mostly dry, slather the inside of the card where the cut out shapes are.

Lay the white paper carefully against the glue with the tissue paper facing the cut out shapes.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Then your colorful tissue paper will show through like this:

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Isn’t that darling?

The recipients were quite charmed, and the girls enjoyed making them.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

You could make these cards for other holidays, too.

You could do Christmas shapes and use red and white tissue in a green card, for example.  Or orange and purple tissue paper in a black card cut with Halloween shapes.

Tissue Paper Flower Cards

Follow me on Pinterest for more great crafting and activity ideas!

Have fun!

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Letter J: Alphabet Activities for Kids

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Letter J Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

Welcome to Letter J Day!

If you haven’t read the Introduction to the Alphabet Activities, you should start there.

Don’t forget to check out the Letter J:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids, too!

Here are all the activities we did:

J is for Jellyfish Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

First, as always, we did our construction paper craft.  But instead of one big letter that we decorated, we did a bunch of little letters.

I had cut out a pile of Letter Js and a rounded top so that my kids could make their own jellyfish with the letters as tentacles.

And googly eyes.  I swear they get more excited about the letters that need eyes…

J is for Jack o Lanters Letter Sorting Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

Then for our Letter Sorting activity, where they needed to separate out the capital and lowercase letters, I went with jack o’ lanterns.

My kids were still kind of little at this point in out Alphabet Activities, so I had cut out the pumpkins and faces ahead of time and all they did was glue the finished jack o’ lantern to the paper before gluing on the letters.

Now that they’re older, I might still have cut out the face pieces but I would have let them make the faces themselves first, probably from a selection of eyes and mouths.

J is for Jump Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

Back to the chalk!

I love that my girls love being outdoors, so chalk letters are great way to get them moving.

I drew a bunch of big Letter Js to represent the word “jump.”  And then we did just that – jump from J to J.

J is for Jell-O Sensory Bin Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

This was a TON of fun for my girls.

The night before Letter J Day, I made a couple of boxes of Jell-O in a big plastic bin and I threw a bunch of toys into it that started with the Letter J.

I didn’t get all fancy with worrying about where the toys would stay once the Jell-O solidified.  I just tossed ’em in.  Most of the toys floated to the top, but they were still partially submerged and, thus, still had to be dug out by little fingers that were eager to get messy.

J is for Jello Sensory Bin Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

We did it outside to keep the mess out of the house, but I suppose you could do it on a tile floor somewhere if you covered it in a tarp or with a tablecloth.

We made a pile of the toys in another bin (the sand castle-shaped container you see at the bottom), and then we rinsed off everything with the hose when we were done.

The toys we used were probably ones I found in the dollar store, but here are some examples of the plastic Jet party favors, craft Jewels, and plastic Jacks that are similar to what is pictured above.

I would check the party sections of your local store for similar items that are sold as party favors, and the craft section for the jewels.

J is for Jelly Beans Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

We did a few worksheets, as always.  There were my typical letter searches and mazes and such, but the jelly bean ones were the favorites of the day.

I wonder why….. (nom, nom, nom)

You can find these jelly bean worksheets, along with others, on my Letter J:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids post.

J is also for Juggling!

So we watched the video above, which my girls love because they enjoy watching kids doing things (plus he’s really good), and then we tried juggling with some light balls we had around the house.

We weren’t terribly successful, except at producing lots of giggles.  :)

J is for Jelly Toast Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

Gotta love jelly toast!

I cut out the J shapes with our letter cookie cutters, then slathered the toast in some butter and strawberry jelly.

J is for Jamaican Jerk Chicken Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

I didn’t want to make a big, complicated dinner in between our projects, so I kept things simple with this chicken.

I marinated a package of boneless thighs in some Jamaican Jerk Marinade that I picked up in the supermarket and threw them on a grill pan.  Easy Peasy.  (Don’t forget to have the Little Ones seek out the Letter J on the bottle of marinade!)

That’s it for Letter J!  Except for the free printable worksheets I made, which you can get here:

Letter J: Free Alphabet Worksheets

I’d love for you to share if you’ve done any of these projects with your little ones!

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest to see my latest posts.

Have fun!

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Letter I: Alphabet Activities for Kids

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Letter I Day Alphabet Activities from Roaming Rosie

Welcome to Letter I Day!

If you haven’t read the Introduction to the Alphabet Activities, you should start there.

Don’t forget to check out the Letter I:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids, too!

I is for Island Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

Our construction paper project was making an island.

The island itself, in the shape of an uppercase I, is cut from brown paper.  I made some little palm trees ahead of time (I free-handed those and they must have been close enough because my daughter knew what they were ;).

They we used some craft sand to represent the beach.  You can sometimes find craft sand in the same place where they sell artificial flowers, or just in the craft section.

We probably should have tried gluing the trees down first, but my daughter was excited about the sand.  We used white glue (not glue sticks) for this project, though, so that helped with getting the palm trees to stick to the sand once the glue below it was dry.

Letter Sorting I is for Inchworm Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

For our Letter Sorting, we made inchworms.

And watched the Sesame Street version of the Inchworm Song:

I is for Igloo Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

Then we tried to make marshmallow igloos.

This particular attempt didn’t work.  We spread white glue all over a Styrofoam dome, and tied to stick mini marshmallows to it.

They fell off.

It occurred to me a few days afterwards that what we should have done instead was to slather the dome in white cake icing (icing is an I word!) and stick the marshmallows into that.  That would have totally worked.  And if I owned a dome cake pan we could have made a cake interior for our marshmallow igloo.

Next time.

Or, you know, you could just turn a bowl upside down and slather that with icing.  There are actually plenty of options.

Either way, I would suggest having a separate (small) bowl of marshmallows available for snacking, to help keep the kiddos from eating the ones for the project.

Especially if you try it with glue.

I is for Icee Alphabet Activity Printable Worksheet

The I is for Icee worksheet is available on the post Letter I: Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids.  I made this one because paint is always a big hit with my kids.

You glue down some course salt or raw sugar and, once the glue is dry, add some watercolor paints.

We used kosher salt which was attached via glue stick.

It’s a fun way to play with texture.  Just make sure you shake off all of the excess salt once the glue is dry and before you paint.  That way you won’t end up with pieces of salt in your watercolor tray.

Oh – and this project is meant to represent an “Icee,” which is a crushed ice drink.  Just in case that’s not a thing where you lived and you were wondering why I spelled “icy” incorrectly.  ;)

I is for Ice Cream Chalk Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

I found this really cool ice cream shaped chalk at the dollar store, so we did some chalk drawings.

We often do practice our letters with chalk, but it was even more exciting this time around.  :)

Chalk Letter I Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

Then, we used our ice cream shaped chalk to trace around some letters we made out of sticks we found in the yard.

i is for ice cream color matching 2

This was a lot of fun, especially since my girls love puzzles.  I still have these in our Folder Games binder.

You can find similar things by doing an internet search, but these are a color matching worksheet with ice cream cones and an insect shadow matching worksheet which I got from Busy Little Bugs.

Letter I Insects and Instruments Worksheets Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

Above are two of the worksheets I made for Letter I Day which are decorated with little foam stickers we got at our local dollar store.

Of course, you could always use any type of sticker or stamp for these, or just make little sketches.

Letter I States Alphabet Activities with Roaming Rosie

This was a map I found on a random internet search.  There’s a very similar one at Free US and World Maps.

First we found all the states that began with our letter of the day, colored them and the letters in the title green, and then my daughter colored the rest of the map however she felt like it.  (We also underlined the “island” part of Rhode Island.)

Well, that’s it for the Letter I Activities!

Remember to stop by Letter I:  Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids to get all of the printable worksheets I made.

I’d love for you to share if you’ve done any of these projects with your little ones!

Follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to see my latest posts.

Have fun!

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