Fun in the Sun (Bouquet Event)

For our first Funday Monday ( a group of 3-7 year olds come over to my house for a morning of activities) we had had the theme Fun in the Sun! It was a great theme to start of summer that can have an endless possibility of crafts and activities. Here are a few ideas for a
Fun in the Sun Event for
Sprouts and Seedlings (toddler/preschool and elementary age)...

We started out by singing “You are My Sunshine”. Most of the kids knew the song but some didn’t so we took it slow a couple of times. Then we did our crafts of Tissue Sunshine Window Hanging (adapted from All Kids Network and Morning Sun Rae) and You are My Sunshine Hand Prints (from the Polka Dot Pavilion).  The kids had a great time with the sunshine snacks (one from Mama Jenn). We spent the rest of the time doing Fun in the Sun activities like Balloon Spray Tether, Sponge Toss and water balloons. The kids also enjoyed sponge painting and ice painting!

Sunshine on My Shoulders BOOK

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
John Denver’s Sunshine on My Shoulders adapted by Christopher Canyon	Check out the book from the library, buy it from your local book store or www.half.com (my favorite online book store)	Read the book while discussing summer! Some versions have a CD with it so you can also sing along!

 more books...

  Tissue Sunshine
Window Hanging
CRAFT

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Yellow and orange triangles (about 8-10 per child) Yellow and orange tissue paper Contact paper cut into circles (2/child)	Cut yellow and orange paper into triangles Cut some yellow and orange tissue paper into small squares. I left some tissue in larger pieces so they could rip them into smaller ones. Cut contact paper into circles. I used a lid to trace. You may want to peel off the paper of one of the circles/kid.	1. Peel off paper coating on contact paper. Kids stick triangles around the edges of the circles. 2. Add tissue paper to the rest of the circle. Older kids can tear their pieces into smaller pieces. One kid chose to ball her pieces up which turned out quite neat! 3. Peel of the paper of the other piece of contact paper and adhere on top. 4. Hang in a window!

You are my Sunshine Handprint CRAFT

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Blue paper (write or type You are My Sunshine) Yellow and orange paint Paper plate large enough for hands	Prepare blue paper with “You are My Sunshine” Put yellow and orange paint on plates.	1.Kids put one hand in the paint (yellow at fingers and orange at palm). 2.Place kids hand in the middle of the paper with fingers out. Lift up. Repeat around circle for a sunshine. We dipped the hands back in every 2 or 3 handprints.

Hummus  and Pepper Sunshine

Fruit Sunshine!

Mostly Crackers Sunshine!

 Sunshine
SNACK

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Yellow pepper Hummus Crackers Orange slices Strawberry slices Grapes sliced in half	Cut the Yellow pepper in half and core. Cut one half into slices for sun rays. Spread hummus on plate and arrange pepper for a sunshine Slice the fruit	1. Set Sunshine Hummus out for kids to scoop from. 2. Give each kid an orange slice, scoop of fruit and oranges on their plate and let them create a sunshine. We gave them an example and they went from there with their creations!

More ideas…

 

Spray Tether Balloon (from Family Fun Magazine)!

Sponge Toss (from Family Fun Magazine again!) You can use frisbees
to toss the sponges in or plates like we used.

 Ice Painting
In the sun the ice feels refreshing and is quite fun to paint with. There are may ways you can make ice paint. I happened to have watered down paint in separate bottles (for worm painting - see my post) so I just squirted those into ice cube trays, froze them and viola...ice paint! 

Sponge painting is a fun way to mix colors!

Cut a stencil out of one paper and place on top.
Then sponge paint on top and remove stencil!

Sponge Painting!

 Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Fun in the Sun Event!
Happy Crafting
~Sara and Becky