Water Paint Go outside on a warm summer day with a bucket of water and paint brushes. Let the children paint on the sidewalk with the clear water. The picture will stay for a while, but slowly dry away so they can start all over with another creation. Wallpaper Pictures Let the children cut out shapes and pictures from wall paper books. Have them glue their designs to construction paper. Worms Have the children pretend to be wiggly, crawly worms. Have them slide across the floor. * Observing Worms Set an earthworm on top of some soil and have the children observe it. How does it move? What color is it? What does its skin look like? What does it feel like? What does the worm do? Explain that the earthworms hatch from eggs that are inside a cocoon. An earthworm's face has just one feature: a mouth, with which it eats soil and decaying plants. Near the opening of the worm's tunnel, little piles of digested food, called castings, can be seen. Worms Help Us Tell the children that one important job a worm does is to mix up and loosen the soil. This makes it easier for seeds to sprout and grow. Show the children a bucket of firmly packed dirt. Explain that this is what our dirt would look like if we didn't have worms. Would it be easy or hard for the seed to grow in this dirt? (It would be hard.) Now, let your children pretend that thier fingers are worms. How could they loosen the soil? Let the children take turns wiggling their fingers to loosen the dirt in the bucket. While they work, have them sing the following song. Sung to: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" The worms are mixing up the soil, Up the soil, up the soil. The worms are mixing up the soil So we can plant our seeds. The soil is loose and all mixed up, All mixed up, all mixed up. The soil is loose and all mixed up, The seeds are growing well. Earthworm Walk Take the children out to find earthworms. A great time to go is after a rainfall when many worms come out of their tunnels and crawl around on the dirt's surface. You may want to bring several magnifying glasses and use them to look at some of the worms up close. Earthworm Movement Help your children notice how worms move. They scrunch their muscles up and the stretch them out long. Then let the children practice moving like worms. Since worms sleep during the day, and come out at night, turn out the lights and ask your "worms" to move all around. When you turn on the lights, have the worms pretend to sleep. Turn out the lights again so your worms can do their important work. A simple but fun art project to go along with your watermelon day is to give each child 1/2 of a paper plate. I used small torn pieces of construction paper- green and red. Have them glue green paper around the crinkled edge of the paper plate then fill the center in with the red. After eating your watermelon save some seeds to glue onto your paper plate melon. These are cute and look very realistic. Wheaty Wonders •1 C. White Flour •1 C. Whole Wheat Flour •4 Tsp. Baking Powder •1 Tsp. Salt •1/3 C. Oil •3/4 C. Milk Have the children help measure and mix the ingredients. Divide into 20 parts and have the children kneed the dough for about a minute. Have them press the dough flat to about 1/4 inch thick. Place butter in an electric skillet heated to 350 degrees. Place the dough patties into the skillet and fry on each side for about 4 minutes, until brown. Server with butter, peanut butter, honey or jelly. WHALE WATER SCOOP MATERIALS Clean plastic gallon milk jug Permanent marker Scissors Turn the gallon jug onto its side so that the handle is at the top. With the marker, draw a mouth shape on the base of the jug and extending partway up the sides, as shown. Cut along the lines with scissors, creating a widemouthed scoop (a parent's job). Using the marker, outline the edge of the mouth and add eyes and a blowhole. * For "w" how about watermelon slices made from paper. Use two circles one light green (cut it larger) and one red. Glue the red onto the green and then have the children glue watermelon seeds to it!! They really look like a watermelon slice! look at wallpaper Eat a watermelon. talk about the weather Weave: weave strips of paper together wood: use wooden popcicle sticks to make the letter w and glue on paper worms: dig up earth worms and examine them! "W"--those pasta "wheels", or wire, or wrappers (like from some kind of food) For the letter W, how about glueing on Watermelon seeds. W- let the kids eat a piece of watermelon; have them save the seeds on a paper towel and then show them how to rinse them off. glue on the "W" W- cut out a "W" from wallpaper samples; or, use wallpaper sample 1x1inch pre-cut squares to fill up the W-shape. W- use an uppercase "W" in white construction paper as the teeth of a walrus! W- glue on frosted mini-wheats (cereal) onto the "W". I suggest that particular wheat cereal because the kids will love to eat this as a healthy snack! W- use white cutouts of the letter for this project. place as many little jars of colored water (use food coloring) as you can out for the children. provide cotton swabs or cotton balls and tell the children to make their letter "w" all Wet (and beautiful!) W- give the kids chenille things (I still call them "pipe cleaners") and googly eyes, and lots of other imaginative doodads. tell them to make a pet/monster/whatever that has Whiskers using the "W" anyway they want. I had a bunch of fake fur samples in different colors- ask your cloth store for remnants. W- make a wheelbarrow from a laundry scoop and two black buttons/circles. add some dirt and and a gummy worm! W- use the "w" cutout from green or yellow construction paper as the Worm body. let the kids go crazy with fingerpaint, doodads, etc. you could even hide the worm in green grass (fringed green art paper)! W is for wishes...make a wishing well and let the children toss coins (we use poker chips for coins at our school) into the well and make a wish....have an adult write down the children's wishes and secretly send those home. Parents might have a fun time fulfilling wishes of their children. (I would love it, I know.) W is for water...spray water on W after they have been sprinkled with powdered tempra or chalk dust. --On a warm day go outside and paint with water ---Wallpaper pictures ---Pretend to be worms ---Make a wishing well Use any kind of empty canister that does not have sharp edges wrap with paper write several upper and lower case w's on it Tape 2 pencils or craft sticks for roof suport Cut a sq. piece of paper fold in half and glue to supports . you could put in pictures of things that start with w ---Glue walnut shells on a large W ---Wind ---Wheels ----Spiders web Another idea for W is wood. I usually do this project a couple times a year. Gather as much "odds and ends" wood as you can find. Make colored glue by mixing a little tempera paint (powder paint works too) with white glue. Cover your work table with plenty of newspaper. Give each child a carboard base to work on. Let the children make WOOD SCULPTURES. Use paint brushes with the colored glue. Let the children glue wood pieces together. The neat thing about this, is that the children don't have to paint the sculptures because the glue already has color in it and the children can see where they have put glue. The glue will keep for a couple of days if it is covered. Glue will wash out of paint brushes with hot water. Use many different colored glues at once. *Wheelbarrel Planter Need: Laundry detergent scoop 2 plastic milk jug lids 6" length of ribbon potting soil flower seeds (seeds) craft glue water Glue a milk jug lid to each side of the scoop to form the "wheels". Allow the glue to dry. Tie the ribbon to the handle of the scoop. Fill the scoop with potting soil, and plant the seeds. Sprinkle the soil with a few drops of water. You can have the child make these planters as gifts. Enjoy! *Ww Art Activities Water Paint Go outside on a warm summer day with a bucket of water and paint brushes. Let the children paint on the sidewalk with the clear water. The picture will stay for a while, but slowly dry away so they can start all over with another creation. Wallpaper Pictures Let the children cut out shapes and pictures from wall paper books. Have them glue their designs to construction paper. Movement and Games Worms Have the children pretend to be wiggly, crawly worms. Have them slide across the floor. Alphabet Appetizer Wheaty Wonders 1 C. White Flour 1 C. Whole Wheat Flour 4 Tsp. Baking Powder 1 Tsp. Salt 1/3 C. Oil 3/4 C. Milk Have the children help measure and mix the ingredients. Divide into 20 parts and have the children kneed the dough for about a minute. Have them press the dough flat to about 1/4 inch thick. Place butter in an electric skillet heated to 350 degrees. Place the dough patties into the skillet and fry on each side for about 4 minutes, until brown. Server with butter, peanut butter, honey or jelly. Wacky Wednesday Have watermelon slices and count the seeds when finished Make pussywillows (use Sugar Smack cereal for the pussywillow) Paint with watercolors Great time to talk about the weather