Q is a tough letter to build a single theme around, but we thought of a super fun one--Queen Elsa! One of Sweet E's current favorite ways to make believe, is to ask, "Do you wanna build a snowman?" Then she, as Elsa, makes it snow and we pretend to build a snowman together. So this was the perfect theme for her! Keep scrolling to see what we did this week, or click on one of the links below to revisit similar themes from the past!
Q is for Quack - 2015
The Letter Q - 2014
Introduction to the Letter Q
We began with a simple page to introduce the shape of the letter Q.
Sweet E traced the letter, stamped it, and poked it with a giant pushpin.
Then she built it with playdoh. She's getting really good at forming letters all by herself!
Craft - Elsa's Crown
I found a cute template for Elsa's crown on the internet, and invited Sweet E to color it, then glue on some royal gems!
She's actually very careful with glue!
Cute!
Prewriting - "Snow" Tray
I placed a piece of blue cardstock at the bottom of a small tray, and filled it with coarse salt (and some glitter). Then I printed out some snowflakes with different prewriting strokes on each.
She had to flip through the snowflakes, and draw the shape in the "snow."
Some of these were challenging!
But she's mastered the circle!
After going through each snowflake, she just played with the salt for a bit. She loved this new texture!
Pattern Blocks + Counting
For this activity I printed out this free page from Fun Learning for Kids. I colored it in to make it a little easier, then I attached a little clip and brad to it to create a spinner.
She flicked the spinner to determine which shape to place on the snowflake!
Together we finished the whole thing!
Then I asked her to count up how many we had of each shape, and wrote it down.
Sensory + Problem Solving - Ice Rescue
For this activity I froze some colored water the night before, into a sand bucket and our snowflake ice cube trays. I did the castle in three layers, and stuck an Anna toy in the last one! Then I set the ice out with the salt from our previous activity, warm water, a squirt bottle, a dropper, and some assorted tools.
Sweet E (and Little M&M) were eager to get to work saving Anna! Sweet E started off spooning on lots of salt!
They stacked the snowflakes, which later fused together into nice ice sculptures!
Sweet E tried the squirt bottle next, while Little M&M used the dropper!
Soon there was a hole through the middle of the castle roof, and some of the gems started to become loose! So they grabbed the tools!
We could even see Anna in there!
This activity inspired a lot of pretend play too, as Sweet E made Elsa talk to Anna!
"We're coming, Anna! We're going to get you out!"
The entire excavation only took about 20 minutes on this hot summer day.
Gross Motor + Alphabet Review - Throwing Snowballs
For this activity, Sweet E donned her Elsa dress (a hand-me-down from big sister Honey Pot). She had to throw snowballs at the letters, and tell me which one she hit!
She had so much fun!!
Especially when I asked her to "do the magic, do the magic" like in the movie. Remember how I said this is one of her favorite games? To be Elsa and make it snow? Look how happy she is!
Sensory + Fine Motor - Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
Well, obviously, we had to build a snowman! First we made a brand new batch of homemade playdoh, and left it white for our snow. Then I provided Sweet E with some snowman pieces that came with a slime kit from a couple years ago.
We built so many different snowmen!
Even a melted one, lol.
Rolling the dough into balls is so great for strengthening those hand muscles!
She wanted to do it again and again.
And in between each snowman, she'd play with her extruders and knife and assorted tools.
Is this a snowman too? 😂
Color-Matching + Fine Motor - QTip Painting
I found a great set of free printables from Fun Early Learning that had every letter of the alphabet for QTip painting! So I took the Q page and added some Elsa clipart to keep it in theme. Then I colored in all the little circles, and invited her to paint with QTips by matching the color!
She had to stay very focused for this activity--those circles are so tiny!
Plus, scanning the entire image for just one color at a time, was a great new skill to try.
We couldn't do a Q week without some QTip painting!
