Letter F: Alphabet Activities for Kids

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities by Rosemary Lynn

Welcome to Letter F Day!

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

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

This F is for Flamingo paper craft is really one of my favorite letters.

It must be a Floridian thing. I have a special place in my heart for flamingos. :)

Anyway, to make this, I cut out a lowercase F ahead of time and some feet, wings, and a beak, then gave my daughter those pieces and a googly eye and let her assemble the bird.

I also cut out that cute itty bitty flamingo in the bottom corner. Just ’cause.

For our letter sorting activity, I cut out two fish and cut out the letters on light blue paper in the shape of circles to represent bubbles.

These flower fingers were inspired by a similar idea I found in a craft book dating from my childhood.

What I did was cut out some green paper to resemble the shape of uppercase T. That “top” of the letter T would get wrapped around our fingers and the rest would function as the flower’s stem.

I also cut out some flower and leaf shapes, and we glued them all together to form our flowers. Then, after letting the glue dry for a few minutes, we taped that “top” part of the T that I mentioned into a circle so that we could slide that part over our fingers.

Of course, the flower petal part of our finger puppets were a little heavy. They drooped a bit, but, really, the girls didn’t mind. It was still a lot of fun for them. To fix that particular problem, though, you could use thicker paper (card stock instead of construction paper) or add a Popsicle stick or something for support.

Now, this F is for Footprints project was a really, really huge hit.

And super simple.

One of my favorite combinations. :)

To make the paint for the footprints, you simply combine 1/2 cup cornstarch with a 1/2 cup of water, and mix it together with a fork. Then drop in a bit of food coloring.

{If you’re using a nonstick pan to make the paint, be sure to mix it with a plastic fork.}

I made two colors in two cake pans, because the cake pan was big enough to hold my kids’ feet. But they were both pretty young the first time we did this – so be sure to check your pan/bowl against your kid’s feet.

Anyway: throw the cornstarch paint container out onto a driveway or sidewalk or deck, let the kids step in the paint and then trek colorful footprints everywhere.

And to really highlight the letter of the day, I made an outline of a giant F on the driveway with painters tape. The girls had fun filling the F with messy footprints.

Oh: and you may need to stir the paint occasionally. That’s why you see my daughter carrying around forks in the photo. The paint IS – technically – edible. But I wouldn’t suggest testing out the taste. Ick!

Okay, okay … this was kind of cheating.

We had some foam frames and foam stickers left over from a birthday party craft … so I just let the girls go ahead and make another frame apiece.

I guess you could get really into the alphabet thing and just stick letter Fs all over the frame, but we kinda just added this into our activities as a fun little project, putting their names at the bottom of the frame and going to town with the flower, animal, and instrument stickers over the rest.

Another option, however, would be to just use the foam flower stickers. Which would also look nice.

This worksheet was really fun for them.

I picked up some feathers at my local dollar store, but they were kind of long. Longer than the letter F if you laid them horizontally on the paper. So I cut them into pieces for this project.

That may have something to do with my OCD, though. You could also just use 3 feathers to make an F.

This is one of the free printable worksheets I made, which you can download at Letter F: Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids. If you have feather stickers or a stamp, you could use that instead, but I find that the texture of the craft feathers is part of what made it really interesting.

As you may have noticed, we live in Florida.

So, coloring Florida’s Flag was a natural for Letter F Day. But you could also do Finland, Fiji, and/or France instead, if you preferred.

Either way, you can get some printable flag coloring pages at World Free Printable Flags, including the Florida Flag.

We don’t actually make Sound Boxes for every letter.

We probably should, but the reason we did it for F is because F is a big letter for us. It’s the first letter of my oldest daughter’s name. So it’s a pretty exciting letter in our house.

Our F Sound Box included flowers, forks, fruit, fish, an F alphabet block, some paper flags, and a Ferrari.

Our Sound Box was inspired by the “Sound Box” books the series by Jane Belk Moncure. They’re kind of hard to find now, so I’m glad I picked up a couple when I did years ago, although you can still sometimes find them on Amazon:

F is for Food :)

We used the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Honey Whole Wheat Bread. You COULD get it on Amazon, which is what I linked to, but it’s kinda seriously pricey, so I suggest checking your local stores first. I only include the link because it helps me to visualize what I’m looking for if I can see it first.

What I actually suggest is – if you can’t find the Goldfish bread in the store – just use fish shaped cookie cutters to make your own fish shaped bread, kind of like when I made Fall French Toast in the shape of Autumn leaves.

This was a simple lunch. I warmed up some frankfurters {turkey dogs count!}, sliced them into three pieces, and formed an F with the pieces on the plate.

Then I added some fruit. A mixture of fruit would have been nice, but the only fresh fruit we had that day was watermelon, so that’s what we ate.

Since we did so many activities for Letter F Day, dinner was also {like lunch} simple.

I threw some frozen french fries and frozen fish sticks on a cookie sheet and baked them up while I made a salad. {A “fresh” salad??}

Anyway, this particular meal is always a hit with my kids, but before we ate it, I made sure to make a game out of searching for all of the letter Fs on the boxes of the fries and fish sticks.

This was a pretty dessert, but also super, super sweet.

Why is it called “Fairy Fudge?” Well, I named it for Fairy Bread, which is a slice of white bread covered with butter and colorful sprinkles. But what we did here was make white chocolate fudge and cover IT with colorful nonpareil sprinkles. My kids LOVE sprinkles.

The fudge pictured above was from a rather unsuccessful recipe {waaaay to sweet and not the right texture at all}, but I’ve come up with my own recipe for Vanilla Fairy Fudge which is SO much better!

Okay – that’s it for Letter F Day, except for my Letter F: Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids, of course!

And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to see my latest posts!

Have fun!

28Oct2014

Fall French Toast

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

French toast is one of my favorite breakfast foods.

I’ve made it so many times that I usually don’t measure things, but I made sure to for this recipe. :) Either way, tho, feel free to adjust the measurements.

And this time, I changed things up by making it more autumn-themed. Great for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or fall in general.

I cut up the bread with leaf and acorn cookie cutters and used plenty of vanilla extract and cinnamon in the egg mix. Of course, you could substitute {or combine} it with almond extract, if you’d like. {If you’re looking for something a little more fruity – check out my Tropical Almond French Toast!}

The shapes were fun for the kids {and me} but if you don’t want to go to the trouble of cutting out them out, you can still make this french toast with normal square slices of bread.

Stale bread always works best for french toast. Fresh/soft bread tends to fall apart once you soak it in the egg mixture, and the stale bread is much easier to cut with the cookie cutters.

I didn’t have any stale bread, tho, so I laid out the bread pieces I was going to use on the counter the night before. Let it sit uncovered and not overlapping for the best results.

I used regular sandwich bread. A few slices of white and a few of wheat. I happened to have them both, and I loved the combination of colors.

For each slice of bread, I got 3 medium or a combo of 3 medium and small leaves and acorns. The extra bread can be used for croutons or breadcrumbs.

I used the Wilton Leaves and Acorns 9-Piece Aluminum Cookie Cutter Set, which you can see here:

Once you have your leaves and acorns cut out {you could also do this step the night before if it’s something you don’t think you can accomplish in the morning before your coffee kicks in}, then whisk together the other ingredients in a bowl.

Melt some butter on a griddle or in a large frying pan. Dip the bread pieces in the egg mixture, turning to coat both sides and allowing to sit for a minute so the bread soaks everything up.

Look at all that yummy cinnamon!

I stopped using my hands to lift the bread from the egg mix and transfer it to the griddle years ago. Too much breakage. And messiness. I use a fork for large slices of bread, but I used two for some of the more delicate leaves here. Didn’t want them falling apart.

Cook them for a few minutes on each side, until browned.

I suggest dipping a few pieces at a time and transferring them all to the griddle at once, so you have a couple of batches cooking at once.

When they’re finished, you can either transfer them directly to the serving platter, or put them in a oven safe dish in an oven that’s been preheated to a low temperature to keep them warm.

I served these with just maple syrup {see photo below}, but you could also sprinkle on some powdered sugar or some Cinnamon Sugar.

Fall French Toasts {with leaves & acorns}

Ingredients:

10 slices stale bread
1 cup whole milk
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The bread is easier to work with if it’s stale, so if you only have fresh bread, leave it out on the counter the night before.

Cut leaf and acorn shapes from the bread slices. Use a combination of white and wheat for more color variation. Reserve remaining bread pieces for breadcrumbs or croutons.

Preheat a griddle to medium heat (about 350°F).

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Melt some butter on the surface of the hot griddle. Dip the bread pieces in the milk mixture, turning to coat both sides, and lifting with one or two forks so that the shapes don’t break apart. Place the bread on the griddle.

Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Serve immediately, or keep warm in a low temperature oven.

Serve with maple syrup, and optionally with powdered sugar or a cinnamon sugar mix.

**********

And click here to print the free PDF version of the recipe: Fall French Toast

Enjoy!

22Jan2014

Tropical Almond French Toast

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Tropical Almond French Toast Recipe

First, with the polar vortex turning everyone’s blood to ice, and now with this “bombogenesis” upon us, I decided to metaphysically warm up with a tropical breakfast.

I took my Homemade Bread and turned it into Tropical Almond French Toast, based off of the Coconut-Almond French Toast with Tropical Fruit recipe from a January 2014 issue of Woman’s World, but with a few changes.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Here are some of the ingredients I used, although I forgot to put the coconut in the photo. Anyway, the french toast gets its amazing almond flavor from the almond milk and almond extract.

The coconut is added before you cook it, and the diced fruit afterwards, as a topping. I used bananas and mango mixed with some brown sugar and lime juice, but you could add in just about any fruit here that you like, or whatever’s in season. I found this to be a good combination, especially because the banana and mango were flavorful but still mild enough to allow the almond and coconut flavors to really shine through.

French Toast

Just like my usual french toast, I took day-old bread and dunked it into a mixture of milk and eggs and flavoring. The bread needs to be crusty and dry to absorb the liquid. If it’s fresh bread, the liquid will only cover the surface instead of absorbing. You’ll know for certain it was too fresh if you have a bunch of milk mix left over after soaking all of the bread. The best way to get the right consistency of bread is to leave it out, with the slices spread out, at least overnight.

coconut on french toast

After letting the bread soak in the milk mixture for a minute, turning it to ensure even coating, gently pull the bread out of the milk. The bread will be heavy with the milk, so be careful to support it.

Just before placing the bread on a greased griddle, sprinkle it with some sweetened coconut. Then, lay it coconut-side down on the griddle and sprinkle coconut on the side that’s facing up. The coconut is an important step because I love the sweet, crispy crust that it forms toast.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Let the french toast brown, then flip and brown on the other side. Make sure the bread cooks long enough that it cooks all the way through. At least 3 or 4 minutes, or longer if your bread is thick like mine – you don’t want gooey egg on the inside when you’re eating it.

Tropical Almond French Toast

Once the french toast is done, put it on a plate and top with the fruit mixture. I suggest a wee bit more fruit than what’s pictured here. I didn’t want to overload it for the photos, but I added more while eating it.

Also, a slight sprinkle of powdered sugar over the top adds a nice balance of sweetness, as does a drizzle of honey, which also adds a little extra moisture but functions as a substitute for syrup. You could use maple syrup if you prefer, but I like how the honey blends with the fruit.

Tropical Almond French Toast

If you cut the slices of your bread thick, then one slice should be enough per person. The leftovers freeze well, but also keep in the refrigerator for awhile.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Tropical Almond French Toast

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond milk
6 large eggs
4 Tbsp packed brown sugar, separated
1/2 tsp almond extract
8 to 10 thick slices day-old bread
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 mango, diced
2 bananas, diced
1 Tbsp lime juice
confectionary sugar
honey

Whisk together almond milk, eggs, 2 Tbs. brown sugar, and almond extract in a large, shallow bowl.

Dip bread into mixture for about a minute on each side, allowing bread to absorb the milk. Carefully remove bread from bowl allowing excess liquid to drip back into the bowl (use a fork or spatula to prevent tearing if it’s become too soggy) and sprinkle each side with coconut flakes.

Place bread on a greased, flat skillet or griddle over medium to medium high heat. Cook until browned, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, mix the mango and banana pieces with the remaining 2 Tbs. brown sugar and the lime juice.

To serve, place French Toast on a plate and top with the fruit mixture. Then sprinkle powdered sugar over top and drizzle with honey.

(Note: you can use just about any combination of fruit you like, in addition to or in substitution of the mango and banana. Also, you can substitute maple syrup for the honey, if you prefer.)

*****

And here is the FREE printable PDF: Tropical Almond French Toast

Roaming Rosie Signature

28Oct2013

Pumpkin Streusel French Toast Recipe

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

After carving up my pie pumpkin for the pumpkin seeds, I baked it, covered in foil, at 350 degrees F for an hour. Then I scraped out the roasted pulp.

But what do I make with my fresh pumpkin?

French toast, of course!

I found a few nice recipes online, including this recipe from Cooking Classy. But, in the end, I changed around a few things, so I’ve posted my own printable PDF for the recipe I used (below).

It was a big hit. The mild pumpkin flavor paired well with the maple syrup. The interior was soft and moist, but with a crunchy, sugary streusel highlighting every bite.

I usually make my French toast with slices of bread on a griddle, but I needed something easy for guests, so something that could be made ahead was a huge plus.

I made both the french toast and the streusel topping the night before, storing them separately in the refrigerator until the next morning.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

The pumpkin puree, eggs, and milk were whisked together with the sugar and spices.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

I made my casserole with Challah bread. It’s an egg bread, but you could use any bread you wanted, really. I often make french toast from wheat bread or homemade bread. You could even try cinnamon raisin bread.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Cut the bread into one-inch chunks.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Layer half the bread in a greased pan. Slowly spoon or ladle the milk mixture over the bread, covering every piece. Add the rest of the bread, and the rest of the milk mixture.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Then, refrigerate it for 2 hours or overnight.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

I couldn’t find my pastry cutter, so I used two knives to make the streusel topping. That was also stored – separately – in the refrigerator until the next day.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Before baking, it sat out for a half hour, to bring it to room temperature. You know it’s done when it’s bubbling around the edges and the topping looks deliciously crunchy.

Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Doesn’t that look amazing?? Tell me that doesn’t look mouth-watering … I dare you!

Seriously, though. You should check out the photo with the maple syrup again. Yum.

Whipped cream is another great option, but I forgot to buy heavy cream, so I couldn’t make it. Didn’t miss it, though. You could eat this without any toppings and still love it.

Anyway, here is the printable PDF recipe:

Pumpkin and Streusel French Toast Recipe

Enjoy! :)