With Miss G being under the weather this week, we’ve spent quite a bit more time at home than usual. This has allowed us loads of time to dress-up, read in our new fairy tale fort, play round upon round {upon round upon round} of UNO, and do all sorts of fun creative projects and activities – one of which was creating this fun magnetic rainbow name busy box.
Thanks to Jackie of Happy Hooligans, we’ve been exploring mirror play over the last few days and absolutely loving it. Mirrors make for an extremely unique playing surface, and adding in some iridescent glass gems takes it to a whole new level.
Even though Gracen has known how to spell her name for a long while now, we still enjoying doing fun name activities every now and then. I set up today’s activity while Miss G was resting, and kept it very simple. 3 trays, each with some play dough and some letter ‘manipulatives’ I collected from around the house. When Grae woke up, she spotted the play dough name practice trays waiting for her immediately and was eager to check them out.
This was a totally impromptu activity that started when Miss G was digging through one of our craft bins and discovered a brand new package of plasticine. Gracen really enjoyed it and it ended up incorporating several great skills – which makes it a win-win in my books. ☺
As suspected, Miss G is enjoying her 6-in-1 shape stamp so much that we decided to make another homemade stamp, this time focusing on the letters of her name.
Back in early spring while hanging out down by the river, we stumbled upon a new-to-us rock beach area begging to be explored. While Miss G enjoyed throwing rocks into the water, I sort of randomly began filling my pockets with particularly smooth, nicely-shaped stones with some sort of craft project in mind (crazy mom alert!) Though at the time I thought we’d use them to create rock bugs or monsters or something of that sort, with Miss G’s recent name fascination, a new project took shape.
It started the other day when Gracen wanted to make something and I really wanted the two of us to get outside and get some fresh air. We pulled out our rocks, some acrylic paints, a couple of foam brushes, and set up a little workspace in the backyard. Grae painted her rock collection all sorts of bright colours, while I painted mine with a couple of coats of plain white.
Once dry, I typed Grae’s name into a word-processing doc, selected a font that is similar to the way I’d like her to print her name (in this case Illuminate – see some of my favourite fonts here), and copy and pasted it using different font sizes just to be sure I had one that would work (in this case the top name, in font size 100 fit my rocks perfectly).
Next, I carefully cut the letters out.
Because my rocks were not collected with a specific project in mind, they were all a little bit differently shaped and sized, so I just took my letter cutouts and matched each one up with a stone as best as I could.
Then, using a regular children’s glue stick, I stuck the paper letters directly onto the painted rocks.
Using acrylic paints again (we went for rainbow colours, because well, we love rainbow!), I painted the rocks. I made sure to use a dabbing motion near / on top of the letters, just to be sure that I wouldn’t get paint underneath them and they wouldn’t move around. Two coats of coloured paint gave really nice coverage and the white paint underneath really allowed the colours to pop.
My original plan was to actually soak the paper letters off in warm water once the paint was dry, but to my surprise, they peeled off very easily. As you can see, the letters certainly weren’t perfect at this point. I also had not yet painted the bottoms of the rocks yet {mostly because I wasn’t sure if this method would be a success}, so I made sure to do that carefully, but next time I’d do it before removing the paper letters.
Next up, I used a flat-tipped brush and some white acrylic to just touch up the letters here and there. This certainly isn’t necessary (Grae thought the rocks were perfect as is), but it was really easy and did make the edges look a lot cleaner.
Lastly, once the white touch up paint was dry, I gave the rocks a once over with Mod Podge to protect the paint from chips and scuffs. I like Mod Podge a lot because it’s water-based and non-toxic, but you could use a spray-on finisher if that’s what you prefer.
Here’s the end result… Bright and colourful and great for both playing with and learning with.
Gracen was so anxious to get her hands on them once they were done, she could barely contain her excitement.
Just for fun, I set them in a tray of sand (mixed up of course) and the little lady immediately began spelling her name.
They’ve been such a hit that I’ve already agreed to make more for both of her middle names, and I have a feeling that I’ll get coaxed into making some for her last name too… Times like these make me wonder why we gave our child a name with 26 letters – hah!
For all kinds of other fun ways to create with rocks, visit my friend Sam’s rock craft page here. She’s the rock craft QUEEN and her projects are always gorgeous!
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It may sound sort of strange seeing as I spent 7 years teaching kindergarten and grade one before Miss G was born, but very rarely do I sit down with Gracen with the intention of teaching her something specific. At 2 and 3/4 years old, I truly believe that she does all of the learning she needs {for now} through playing, going on adventures, and reading books. The exception to this is when Grae takes the lead… In that case, I’m more than happy to follow along.
Recently, she’s become very interested in “drawing words”. It started off with random words like ‘swing’ and ‘tall’, and then it became focused solely on her name. There’s been a whole lot of ‘How do you draw my name again, Mama?’ and ‘Mama, can we play another name game today?’ this past week, so that’s just what we’ve been doing… Exploring her name in fun, hands-on ways. All of these simple activities are things I’ve done with my students in the past and Grae has thoroughly enjoyed each one.
Stamping – We are lucky to have alphabet stamps, but you can easily make your own by adhering foam letter stickers onto cork tops or bottle caps. Right now, I set out only the letters needed for her name {along with a piece of paper and stamp pad}, but to make the activity a little more challenging, you can include extra stamps too.
Magnetic Letters – I particularly like these wooden ones by Melissa & Doug, especially because the set includes both upper and lowercase letters, but any sort of alphabet magnets will do (you can even make some using scrabble tiles or foam letters). I simply set out the required letters in a bowl next to a magnetic board, and let Miss G play.
Computer Typing – This activity is extra special in our house since we really don’t let Gracen use our computers yet. I simply open up a blank word document, select a good clear font, make it nice and big, and let Miss G choose the colour. Then she goes ahead and searches out each letter on the keyboard. Today as she was about to hit the ‘G’, she asked, “But Mama, is this going to be a capital G? Because my name needs a capital G.’ After getting over my surprise, I taught her how to use the shift key and that was that.
Felt Board Name Game – Since my days in elementary school, I’ve always loved felt boards and felt board games. Though you can purchase pre-made felt boards and felt alphabet pieces online, you can very easily and inexpensively make your own. Here is my felt board tutorial and my felt name game tutorial {along with a collection of my very favourite fonts}.
Duplo / Lego Stacking – Depending on the size of your collection, you may want to write the letters of your child’s name straight onto your Lego or Duplo to create a permanent and lasting game. Or, if you’re like us, you can print the letters on sticker dots or labels and then attach them to the pieces. This activity is always a huge hit and I especially like it because it can be done both horizontally and vertically.
Salt Printing – This one is one of my absolute favourite ways to have kids practice their printing. In the classroom, I always keep a stack of colourful plastic plates filled with a layer of salt for practicing printing. The students use their finger as a pencil, then simply give the plate a little shake to erase the letter and practice again. In this case, I used a rectangular serving tray and provided Gracen with an example of her name on card stock in front of her. (P.S. How amazing is that bed head?!)
Chalkboard Water Painting – If asked, I have a feeling that Gracen may say this is her favourite name game to date. To set it up, simply print the name on a chalkboard (using chalk of course), and give your wee one a paintbrush and some water to paint on top of the lines. As he or she paints the letters, they will ‘disappear’, which is always fun!
Highlighter Tracing – This is probably the simplest of the bunch. I print Gracen’s name and she traces over it using a darker marker or pencil. We pretend the highlighter lines are the road (or racetrack) and the marker is the car, and of course you want to keep your car on the road!
Letter boxes – While I prefer to teach beginners how to print their names on plain, unlined paper, some munchkins, Miss G included, enjoy having a little more structure than that. Creating two sets of boxes, your sample letters on top and blank ones directly below, gives many the ability to focus on one letter at a time with the goal of filling up all of the boxes by the end.
So that’s that! Gracen’s been enjoying these name activities so much that we’ve done almost all of them multiple times. I know I’ll be asked for new ones in the very near future, so as of now, I’ve got ideas that use spaghetti, clothespins, rocks, cookie cutters, beads, blocks, and bean bags ready to go, but beyond that, I may have to get Googling. ☺
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