With our country’s birthday just around the corner, I thought a holiday post was in order. Since our family spends this holiday at the lake, I will keep this one brief.
I decided to only select 2 books this week and do a craftivity to accompany each story. The two activities this week should take less than 30 minutes each. The two books are Daniel’s First Fireworks by Becky Friedman and The Night Before the Fourth of July by Natasha Wing.
Daniel’s First Fireworks by Becky Friedman
This one was an easy choice! We don’t watch a ton of television at our house, but my daughter LOVES Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. We watch one episode of this before bed every night. I hate to admit, but I actually love this show too. It teaches great lessons and the song are annoying catchy.
A few weeks ago my daughter heard fireworks and they really scared her. This book/episode really helped me talk to her about being scared and what to do when you feel scared. We haven’t made it to the Fourth of July weekend yet, but I’m really hoping this book and our conversations have prepared her at least a little. It could be a rough couple of night for sleep, so wish me luck!
For our activity, we made a fireworks painting with straws. I took 6 cheap bend straws that I had in the pantry and taped them together. She simply dipped them in blue and red paint and stamped them on white paper. Super easy and she loved it!
The Night Before the Fourth of July by Natasha Wing
I love the “Night Before Books” for pretty much every holiday. This is a cute story about a family planning for the Fourth written with rhyming lines. It is age appropriate for toddlers and something that they can relate to. It is also very similar to how our family celebrates.
To go along with this story we make a festive necklace using a shoestring, blue beads, and cut up red paper straws. All things I had at home already. This activity went extremely well! We talked about patterns and my daughter worked on her fine motor skills while threading. She is very proud of her necklace and will be wearing it to our Fourth of July parade.
I hope everyone has a fun, safe Fourth of July and is able to enjoy some quality family time!
Love the straw stamp idea!