Letter U Crafts and Activities

U guessed it game
Items needed:
* you and your kids
* various household items

Help your children with their visual skills by playing  You Guessed It. Make it as simple or complicated as needed based on your child’s level but start with things like:

“I see something on the table that I can drink milk from. What is it?” Then when they guess the right answer, say “You guessed it!” More complex you guessed it questions could be, “I see something that rhymes with red and is in your room. What is it?” etc.

A fun after dinner game using colors too!

Underwater picture
Items needed
* paper drawing made by your child
* ziplock bag
* blue hair gel
* tape

After your child has drawn a picture, fill a ziplock bag about halfway full with blue hair gel. Spread the gel in the bag so you can make it somewhat flat and tape over the top of the picture so it looks like it is “underwater”. Or you can even get little plastic toys and decorations and put them inside the baggie with the gel to make a more 3 dimensional picture.

Utensil mat
Items needed
* Plain white or solid colored vinyl placemat
* Permanent Marker
* Fork, knife and spoon

This is an excellent activity to help children learn to set the table. Lay the fork, knife and spoon onto the placemat where they would normally go. Trace around them, making it obvious in your drawing what each utensil is. Allow the permanent maker to dry and then for every meal use these placemats and help your child put the actual utensils in the correct place for setting the table.

Letter T Crafts and Activities

Create a texture board
Items needed
* Firm board (wood or foam mounting board works well)
* Various items with texture: Velcro pieces, flannel, cotton balls, sandpaper, plastic, rubber cement, etc.

Attach the various texture items to the board firmly. Have the child touch each one with fingers and describe how it feels. After they’ve identified all the textures, put a blindfold on and have them feel and guess which item it is. You can also make a texture box by putting various items into a box with a hole in the top and having the child reach in and feel the item and guess before they pull it out to see if it’s right. This is a fun way to learn what things feel like and learn about identifying.

Teddy Bear Tea Party
Items needed
* Kids
* Teddy Bears
* tea
* tea cups
* snacks

Invite some friends and their teddies over for a little tea party. Make tea (with lots of milk and honey or sugar if needed) and serve snacks and cookies. Play classical music and wear fancy hats to make it even more special!

Letter R Crafts and Activities

Color a Rainbow

Items needed:
* Paper
* Crayons in: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet

A great way for your little ones to learn the colors of the rainbow in order is to have them remember the silly name Roy G. Biv. Talk about how each letter in the name represents the colors and then have them draw a rainbow and color it using the colors.

Rubbing

Items needed:
* Paper
* Leaves, or other objects in nature
* Crayons

Take your leaf or other object and put it under your paper. Rub your crayon across your paper using the side of the crayon. The object under the paper will show up in your crayon design.

Sock Rabbits

Items needed:
* A white tube sock
* Glue
* Buttons (optional)
* A rubber band
* Felt
* Fabric markers
* Cotton ball
* Stuffing
* Cardboard (optional)
* Scissors
* Wire (optional)

Draw a rabbits face on the center of the sock. If you are using buttons, glue those on for the eyes. Cut a circle out of your cardboard and put it at the bottom of your sock. This creates a stable base. Next you are going to stuff your sock rabbit so that it is full up to where the ribbing in the sock starts. Now wrap the rubber band around the area where the stuffing stops. Fold the top of your sock over the rubber band, creating a hat for your rabbit. Cut a hole on each side of your hat. Cut two rabbit’s ears out of your felt and glue them so that they stick out of the holes in the hat. Finally glue a cotton ball at the bottom for your rabbit’s tale. Wire makes great whiskers!

Letter Q Crafts and Activities

Q-tip painting
Items needed:
* Paper
* Qtips
* washable paints
* Styrofoam egg container or other small cups

Painting is always fun but painting with Qtips makes it extra special. You can use your qtips to draw letters and numbers or to paint in the pictures in your coloring books! Pull the cotton off the end for a completely different “pen” with your paint.

Make a Quill Pen
Items needed
* Ballpoint pen
* Long feather
* Masking or scotch tape

Talk about how a long time ago people used feathers and ink to write with. If you want use some washable paint and dip the feather end into it or just tape the feather to the end of a pen or pencil and write like they did. Kids love it! Do several pens of different color in with different color feathers. This is a great and simple activity to encourage early writers.

Family Quilting
Items needed
* Paper
* markers, crayons or other decorations
* scotch tape or hole punch and string/yarn

Have each member of the family decorate a 4″x4″ square of paper anyway they’d like but all squares must include the family member’s name and date they decorated the square. Tape the squares together like a quilt and then tape the whole quilt onto a larger piece of colored paper or cardstock. Alternately, punch holes on each side of the squares and “sew” the squares together with yarn or string and then tape to a background piece. Make smaller quilts like this to use in the family scrapbook. A family quilt is a nice way to involve far away family members in a project too, just have them mail you their square.

Letter P Crafts and Activities

Pasta Pencil Holder

Items Needed

* Pasta
* Glue
* Paint
* Glitter
* Floss
* Ribbon
* Frozen juice containers

Anything goes for this one! Paint, glitter, glue on to “pencil cup” shaped item (try frozen juice containers) for a great desk accessory for any proud parent or grandparent.

Puzzles

Items Needed

* Cereal or snack boxes
* Child’s “portrait” type picture
* Glued
* Cardstock

Cut interesting shapes out of items to form puzzle. Also try cutting portrait pictures into the same shape so you can mix up a face for fun!

Princess Fun

Visit JustPrincessThemes.com for lots of princess fun and games.

Prince/Princess Crowns

Items needed
* Gold or silver cardstock
* Or fun foam crowns (available at craft stores)
* Stickers, glitter and sticker jewels

Have the child decorate the crowns with the glitter, stickers and jewels.  Use a barrette to fasten the crown on her head if needed.

Paper Towel Pictures
Items needed
* Paper towels
* Food coloring

Cover your work surface well with newspaper as this is a wet activity.  Lay your paper towel on the newspaper and have your child drop drops of food coloring onto the towel to make a pattern. Allow to dry.

Paper plate masks
Items needed
* Paper plates
* Markers or crayons
* Small hole punch
* Scissors
* Rubber bands

An adult should cut eyeholes into the paper plates and punch two small holes on opposite sides of the outside of the plate. String a rubber band through each hole to wrap around child’s ear when the mask is done.  Have child decorate the mask with markers and then wear.

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