Books of the Week- Picnic

Eva surprised me with her pick this week but it is a classic.  She chose The Bears' Picnic by Stan and Jan Berenstain.

In this story, Papa Bear leads Mama Bear and Brother Bear on a search for the perfect picnic spot but each spot has it's issues- mosquitoes, trains, crowds and so on.  Will they ever get to eat their picnic lunch?  I thought the humor might be a little above her but Eva totally got it.  She liked the mosquitoes and the lightning the best.

My pick this week isn't actually a picnic book but an alphabet book that our librarian recommended called L M N O Peas by Keith Baker.

This book is adorable!  I am a big pea fan to begin with but this made me love them even more.  The rhyming text takes us through the alphabet introducing us to all sort of peas- electricians, miners, poets, volunteers, even an Elvis pea makes an appearance.  It is beyond cute and so fun to read!

The Ants Go Marching...

Unfortunately most picnics end up having a few uninvited guests- ants.  So picnic week wouldn't be complete without at least one!  To make ours, we started with a piece of black construction paper that I folded into four strips.  I cut along the folds and then took one strip and again folded it into fours and cut.

Eva used her glue stick to put glue at the edge of each of the three fat strips and I formed them into loops.

After three loops were formed, we glued them together.

Finally we glued two of the skinny strips in one loop and another strip in the middle loop to create the legs.  The final strip was folded in half and glued to the top of the empty loop to make antennae.  Eva added a mouth and googly eyes to complete the ant.

I guess this is one ant we wouldn't mind having show up at our picnic.

Mmmmm.... Watermelon

Today we made a craft honoring Eva's favorite summertime fruit- watermelon.  She could eat an entire melon in one sitting if we let her and often we have to wrestle the rinds away from her or she'd eat those too.  To begin, I cut out circles from red and green construction paper (make the green one slightly larger).  Eva glued the red in the center of the green.

To make the seeds, Eva dipped a cotton swab in black paint and dabbed it all over the red circle.

When the seeds had dried, I cut the circle in half so now Eva has two big wedges of watermelon.  I think we may find a way to incorporate them into her Father's Day gifts for her grandfathers.

Picnic Planning

This week we will be focusing on one of summer's great activities- picnics!

Crafts
Placemat- we'll make reusable placemats for eating outside

Ants- no picnic is complete without a few of these visitors

Watermelon- half circles and Q-tips will help us make a replica of Eva's favorite summer fruit

Activities
Picnic in the Park- we'll pack a lunch and head to the park

Cooking
Eva will help make our lunch for the picnic in the park, including making strawberry freezer jam for our sandwiches

Pretend Play
Teddy Bears' Picnic- we'll make a picnic lunch for our furry friends

Songs
The Ants Go Marching
Teddy Bear Picnic
We're Going on a Picnic

Books