Ariana's Alphabet -- F

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

We've been working on letter F lately. I'm finally taking some time to put this post together.  

F is for Fall.

We went to story time at the library and learned about Fall. She made a leaf suncatcher and sent it to Daddy.

F is for farm.

She colored and made a farm collage. We also went to a farm near Heidelberg over the weekend.

F is for frame.

She decorated picture frames with paint, stickers and glitter. We are sending these to family soon.

F is for finger paints and feathers.

We finger painted pictures and made a feather mask for Daddy to wear at Halloween.

F is for flamingo.

She colored a flamingo picture for Grammy. (I forgot to snap a picture of this)

F is for frog.

We read this cute frog book. We also enjoyed Count Down to Fall and Fancy Nancy.

What letter should be next W, H, P or Y?

I'm linking this post up with:

It's Playtime

Made By Little Hands Monday

Ariana's Alphabet -- K

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

Wow, I seriously can't believe I let myself get so slack on this. With our vacation to the states to see family, the Florida Keys, and then settling back in Germany, taking a trip to Berlin, and getting ready for my husband's deployment we've just had too many other things on our mind to keep up with this but I'm working my way back into it.

We recently did K. We didn't do a whole lot, but we had fun with what we did get to do.

She turned her K into a man with shoes on haha!

K is for kite

We made a kite out of wooden dowels and fabric and tape. It was a thrown together project and you could tell but it was still fun and Ariana had fun running around in the backyard with it even though it wouldn't fly.

K is for kiwi.

Good for a snack.

K is for kaleidoscope.

We made our very own kaleidoscope. I'm posting a tutorial on how you can make your own later this week, so be sure to check back for that!
**That tutorial is now up here!**

K is for kisses

I have a kissy lips stamp and we made a card for Daddy. She covered it in kisses and drew sweet drawings on the evelope  I want him to be the first one to see them but I'll show you her drawing

If you're new to this project, check out the other letter's we've done so far: A, D, X, S, I, and B

Ariana's Alphabet -- A --& first day of preschool!!

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

Yes, I know, we skipped a week of Ariana's alphabet just because of traveling and the excitement of being with family I didn't have time to plan anything. Then we were on vacation. These pictures are from LAST week, oops.

And even more exciting news, Ariana has started going 3 mornings a week to a preschool here. It's great there. Her teachers are so nice and they have art, gym, water play, music, computers, dance, play centers, and once a week the ice cream trucks comes and the kids can buy an ice cream, they love that part! She goes Mon, Wed, Fri from 9-12. Just long enough to get to play and have fun and give Mommy some space too. The first day was more difficult for me than her, so that's good!

We did squeeze in some "A" activities this week.

A is for Aunt Sarah

Ariana has been enjoying her time with my sister Sarah. It's not often we get to see them so when we do, it's a treat!

A is for Apple
These didn't work out as great as I had hoped but we had fun making apple prints on paper with some paint and apples cut in half. And then of course snacking on the ones we didn't use for our crafting.

A is for Alligator

We saw some alligators at Flamingo Gardens this week. They even had a exhibit set up where you could learn some info about them and see skeletons.

A is for Aloha

Her class had a Hawaiian themed week and had a party where they danced and got lei's. We taught her that Aloha was how to say hello in Hawaiian.

A is for Alligator Pie
This is bacially a Watergate Salad recipe, but I remembered making it in like Kindergarden and low and behold my mother had saved the recipe they gave us (she's one of those moms). We whipped this out and made it the other day. The recipe was kinda vague and I'm not sure the measurements were right, but good none the less and Ariana had fun mixing as always!

A is also for Abby Cadabby, Ants and Airplane. 

We colored some A pictures this week and the week before and of course our flight over from Germany we talked about A is for airplane.

Here are some photos from her first day of preschool.

 Classic backpack by the front door pose. Excuse the bathing suit cover up. They had waterplay that morning and it was required. So cute though!

 Walking in for her first day.

Checking out the classroom and meeting some friends. Excuse Mommy, she was looking a hot mess because she rolled out of bed, excited about having some gym time while A was at preschool.


Ariana loves going to preschool and making new friends. She talks about this little boy Logan a lot, it's cute!

xo's

Cat

Ariana's Alphabet -- I

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

This week was letter I and it worked out that it was the week before Independence Day! We had a busy week and didn't feel like we got as much done, but enjoyed it none the less.

I is for Itsy Bitsy Spider.

We made itsy bitsy spiders using pipe cleaners, bottle caps and googly eyes. It went with our "I" story this week and she loved reading it to her spider. We also sang the song all week long!

I hot glued pipe cleaners on the bottom of recycled bottle caps I'd been saving and then let Ariana glue googly eyes on them. They invaded our backyard. 

I is for Independence Day.

We celebrated Independence day by going to a carnival on base! Cotton candy, bumper cars, pony rides, ferris wheel, funnel cakes and more! We wanted to stay for fireworks but it doesn't start getting dusk until about 10 pm here so that didn't happen. Maybe next year.

I is for Ink Blots.

Using some watered down acrylic paint and cut up poster board, we made our own ink blots. A few drops of each color on the paper, fold it in half and when you open it up you have a pretty design. 

Ariana wanted to do this all day long. I cut up 2 large poster boards into about 16 pieces and she had a ball doing this! She would even tell me what each picture looked like. We had a tree, mask, bug, dog etc.

I is for ice cream.

We made homemade chocolate ice cream using this recipe we found online. We added mini chocolate chips to ours right before adding it to our ice cream churn. So yum! I think we should add mini marshmallows next time too!

I is for ice.

We had some left over ice from making our ice cream so we let her play with it. Using salt, food coloring, and some of the watered down paint we had left over from earlier in the week ink blot project,  she had a blast mixing and pouring and making ice soup haha!

I'm linking up with:
Made By Little Hands Monday
It's Playtime!

Ariana's Alphabet -- B

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

This week we learned about the letter B. We didn't do as much coloring as previous weeks but we sure did a lot of crafts and a great variety of B activities.

B is for Butterfly

See how we made these Coffee Filter Butterflies on Craft and Crave!

B is for Bowling

We went bowling as a family this week. Ariana does pretty good for only her second time bowling and only being 2 1/2. She beats me already!

B is for Banana Bread

Ariana and I had a good time baking up some yummy banana bread. I'll have to share the recipe one day! Yum!! She loved helping mash the bananas and mix everything together!

B is for Buttons and Box

We had fun painting a little box (thrift store find) and gluing buttons on it. It's perfect for her dress up bracelets she just got.

B is for Beach.

We pretended to spend a day at the beach (in the backyard). This week we created her a cheap sandbox. An under the bed box and sand - perfect! We played with sand and water and even had a beach snack. This was really colored sugar, gummy rings, teddy grams, gold fish crackers, and crushed graham  crackers on top of pudding. She loved it!

B is for Blood, Bubble Baths and Books

We watched Daddy give blood this week. She indulged in a few bubble baths and we totally scored at the thrift store and got 12 awesome books for $2.50. Muppet babies, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, a few Golden Books and others in practically new condition. Have I told you how much I love our book selection at our thrift store! Best place for getting cheap children's books!

In case you are new or missed it before, be sure to hop over and check out the other letters we've featured so far: D, S, & X . Be sure to come back to see how we celebrate learning different letters each week!

xo's

Cat

I'm linking this post up with:

Fun For Kids Friday

Made By Little Hands Monday

It's Playtime

Ariana's Alphabet--X

Note: Ariana's Alphabet was created out of my need for more structure and learning while playing and creating together with my 2 1/2 year old. Each week we will explore a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate different activities along the way that go with our letter of the week. See other letters we've done by clicking the Ariana's Alphabet label highlighted in blue at the bottom of this post.

This week we learned about the letter X. I think you'll be surprised with all the things we came up with.  

X is for X-ray

I made a light box/xray box. Using an under the bed storage box, I filled it with Christmas lights and darkened the room. I had printed off x-rays I found online and we had fun looking at them with our light box. We learned that those are pictures of your bones inside. We even put one of our snails on the box to see if we could see through him. It didn't work but it was fun. Later I covered these papers with clear contact paper to make them more durable so we could play with them longer.

X-rays we looked at: Hand, Frog, Snake, Fish and Turtle. These were easy for her to determine what they were just by looking.

X is for Xylophone.

We made a water Xylophone out of glasses and different amounts of water. We had fun playing with that and listening to the high notes and low notes. It was fun trying out different objects to hear how they changed the sound.

X is for "X marks the spot"

I made some paper X's and hid them around the backyard for her to find, like a hunting game. She loved this game and we played it no less than 10 times. It went along with a treasure map (marked with X) we colored, and the fact that one of her X's was a treasure--a new coloring book.

We made our own x-ray using black construction paper, silver paint, and Q-tips for bones. 

This week we're focusing on letter B!

xo's

Cat