School Time Adventures

We enjoy going on hikes as a family so for the 4th of July weekend we decided to explore a new place, Maple Canyon. Our hike didn't last too long but we did see some great stuff!

My Adventure Kerrs

Crossing the bridge

Right next to the log bridge were hundreds of butterflies. 

Here is just one I was able to take a pic of.

We stopped to have lunch on this log and found a lot of big ants working!

Little Rue loved finding ants all over this log.

Can you see the ants?

As we crossed back over the bridge we found this.......snake skin!

After the hike we went over to Great Grandma and Grandpa's for some more fun:

Checking on the bees.

Feeding the fish in the pond.

We finished our really great day by watching the fireworks at night! 

This was Rue's first time to watch fireworks and she loved it!

Since this week we were talking about A for America, celebrating our nations birthday, I thought it would be appropriate to teach the Pledge of Allegiance.  As I began searching for a catchy tune to help preschoolers learn the words I found really slim pickings. So I began to think of all the songs that usually get stuck in my head...well EVERY Sunday when I hear the children at church sing, "Scripture Power" I come home singing it for the rest of the day. As I began to sing good 'ol scripture power I was quite pleased that the tune and rhythm worked really well with the words of the pledge. I then went on-line to print out pictures that corresponded with the words, laminated them, and glued some felt on the back.

(If anyone would like me to send the file with the pics I would be happy to do so!)

 I pledge Allegiance, to the Flag, of the United States of America 

And to the Republic for which it stands, One nation under God

Indivisible, with Liberty, and Justice for all. 

(I thought teaching the children about justice threw shaking hands and making things fair 

seemed a little easier than explaining the pic of Lady Justice.)

Here is our Pledge of Alligiance song with River putting the pictures up on the felt board. I have never uploaded a youtube video before, but I thought it might be easier to hear how I was singing our "Pledge of Allegiance song" while River put up the pics.

This was a really easy flag to make with preschoolers. As soon as the first person was done marching around the room with their flag it really encouraged everyone else to hurry up so we could have a parade!

The materials you need:

*contact paper ( I used Clear Laminate)

*red and white streamers

*blue poster board

*white paint

*a star stamper

*a 3/16 inch wooden dowel cut in half (so about 18 inches long)

I measured the width of the contact paper and realized that
3 small stripes and 3 long stripes could fit.

The star stamper I made by cutting a nice piece of wood from the
firewood pile into 7 wood chips.

I cut out a star from of this rubber-foam shelf liner and hot glued it onto the wood chip.

Then stamped out stars onto the blue poster board with white crayola washable paint.

(The kids didn't get the stars as exact...more like a burst of chaotic fireworks.)

As the paint was drying, I told everyone that we were going to learn a new song called: 

"That's My Flag" from Brite Music  I Have A Song For You series, 
About Seasons and Holidays.

"See it waving there, that's my flag; Blowing in the air that's my flag. 

For I live in America and that's my flag....How proud, how grand,
how tall it stands. THAT'S MY FLAG!"

I grew up listening to brite music as a child!  

It's so fun to teach the children the songs I learned and loved.

After the stars were semi-dry it was time for more flag fun.... Contact Paper!

The bottom piece of contact paper was about 18 inches long.

The top was about 22 inches long.

This clear laminate kind of contact paper was really forgiving, which was great especially when the kids thought it wasn't possible to fix really crooked stripes. 

This is how River's turned out!

Once the wood dowel is on the contact paper remember you have about 4 extra inches in the top piece of contact paper to secure the dowel in place. Any extra you can just wrap around to the back. Once the top piece of contact paper was in place I had the kids push really hard to smooth it out like a steam roller!

Getting ready to march around with their new flags!

You gotta love the dog joining us with the baby in the background!

 We even had a jeep in the backyard they were able to hop in. It was a great parade! 
 Happy 4th of July!



I will post later the fun way I taught the preschoolers the Pledge of Allegiance ...my son has been wanting to the the activity like 3 times a day.

Here is the post..we even made our first youtube video