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Ho, ho, ho! Merry summer! We embraced a holiday theme full of cheer and good tidings this past week. We ventured to Santa Claus, IN and back plus had lots of fun creating some mementos for our Christmas in July celebration. Keep reading to see how we kept things festive and fun this summer!
Fun Summer Schedule
Each summer I pick nine different themes. Each theme is broken down by day of the week. Then every day has a focused activity to encourage vocabulary development, language in natural contexts, and create hands-on experiences. Here is the daily schedule we will follow for the entire summer regardless of the theme!
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Cinema Saturday
- Sensory Sunday
Too many other things going on this summer? Don’t stress! Pick only a couple of activities or do it all. Incorporating vocabulary and language into even just one activity can help increase your child’s retention and application of concepts. Most importantly, just have fun together!
Make It Monday
To start the week off, we made handprint holiday wreaths. This was a super simple craft and a cute fridge keepsake! All you will need is green construction paper, glue, a pencil, small red pom-poms, red paint dotter, and any colored ribbon you like.
We traced my son’s hand and made 12 handprints. I let him practice cutting out one of the handprints while I cut the others. We arranged the cut out hands in a wreath shape then I let my son add the glue. Once the hands were glued together, he added the red pom-poms and red paint dots wherever he wanted. Then we added the ribbon at the bottom and hung up the wreath with a magnet!
Take A Trip Tuesday
Most Take A Trip Tuesdays are smaller trips made to local places and typically free; however, we took a road trip to Kentucky to visit extended family. On the Tuesday of our stay, we visited Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana just over the Ohio River from Kentucky. Although this was a out of the norm trip, we enjoyed every second of our time listening to Christmas music over the loudspeakers, chatting with Santa Claus, and riding all the rides!
If you are local to the southern Indiana area, you have probably visited Holiday World! If not, it was the perfect mix of rides, holiday cheer, and FREE soft drinks so highly recommended. That’s right…they had FREE soft drinks throughout the park!!! As it was a heat index of about 101 degrees, we are forever grateful Holiday World. 😅 Be sure to stop by and chat with Santa and take a picture with the iconic Santa statue!
Water Wednesday
For Water Wednesday this week, I found clear, fillable ornaments on Amazon for some fun water play. (I am already getting lots of ideas to reuse these awesome ornaments for other activities too!) First, I put a drop of green food coloring in half of them and red food coloring in the other half. Helpful hint…put the bottom half of the ornaments in a mini-muffin tin! I added a splash of water and put the lids on. Once full, I threw all of the ornaments into a full water table like this one.
My older son enjoyed shaking the ornaments to see the different colors and moving them around in the water. I encouraged him to open the ornaments to see how the colored water dispersed into to the water. Even my 15 month old loved moving the ornaments and splashing in the mixing colors. It was super sweet to see both of my boys playing together so nicely too!
Looking for more fun water play to beat the summer heat? Check out our 5+ Spray Bottle Activities For Kids to keep your kids cool and engaged! 💦
Thinking Thursday
This week’s book was a random Amazon find. (I always try my hardest to shop local, but this particular book fit the theme so well I couldn’t resist!) We read Where Does Santa Go On Vacation? and had fun discussing what we thought Santa’s plans were all summer.
For our paper and pencil activity this week, I found a very cute and FREE color and count Christmas light bulb worksheet from Sue’s Snazzy Classroom on TPT. All you will need is something to color with and a six sided die or spinner. Great activity to target number sense and color identification!
Foodie Friday
Much like last week’s super easy treat, we kept things simple once again with hot cocoa bar for our holiday themed Foodie Friday. Hot chocolate is always on hand at our house and usually the mix-ins are too!
I dug out a Santa Claus mug, some peppermint spoons, and hot cocoa packets. (Bit of a mom fail…I forgot the marshmallows, but oh well there is always Christmas time!) I just heated milk on the stove and let my son mixed everything together. Even though the temp was still in the 80’s, nobody complained while drinking their special holiday drink!
Cinema Saturday
The movie is a staple in our household all year round! It happened to be the first full-length movie my son watched and it has been a favorite ever since. Although in July we had to rent the movie, it is available for free around the holidays. We enjoyed watching this holiday flick as a family (with some leftover Oreos from our Spy Week Foodie Friday) for our Cinema Saturday!
Sensory Sunday
To keep the Grinch love going, we went with a sensory activity versus a sensory bin this week! Mandy and her girls made Grinch Slime as found on the Little Bins For Little Hands blog. ON her blog, she has a great video to watch if you need some more in depth directions! Here are the ingredients you will need!
- 1/2 cup of clear Elmer’s glue
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup water
- Green food coloring
- Green glitter
- Red confetti hearts
- 1 tbsp of saline solution
First Mandy had her daughter mix together the water and glue well. They then added a few drops of green food coloring, the green glitter, and the glitter hearts that were three sizes too small. Lastly, she added the saline solution and baking soda. Her daughter mixed until the slime started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Once it was a nice slimy consistency, her daughter was able to use Christmas cookie cutters to make fun holiday shapes!
Coming up is Rockstar Week so get your drumsticks, big hair, and concert t-shirts ready! And check out our other fun summer themed weeks listed below!
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Even though the temperatures didn’t reflect a winter holiday, we still had a wonderful time with our fun holiday summer activities. ‘Tis always the season for discussing vocabulary and experiencing language! We hope you enjoyed our new Christmas in July traditions and create some of your own. So let the countdown begin…only 163 days until actual Christmas!
Happy holidays, fellow SLPs and mamas!
Talking Mama Bears