A is for...

This summer, I decided we'd "adopt" a letter of the alphabet each week. I've been very slowly planning activities, crafts, snacks, Bible stories and a Bible verse to go with each letter. 

Last week was the letter "A", and admittedly, I got so excited about the activities and crafts meant to teach and develop fine motor skills... that I totally forgot about our "A" Bible verse - "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:11  Hey, even moms mess up and forget what's really important! So we started off our "B" week better :)  I'll post those pics at the end of the week. 

So what'd we do for "A" week?

We made apple prints.

And then had apple snacks.

The kids loved this. Nathan was so excited after nap time to see that his painting was dry - he went running to greet Daddy (after work) with his painting in hand to show off!

Another day we painted egg cartons. Faith, of course picked pink. And she amazed me with the patience, concentration, and detail she painted with! At just 2 1/2, she did really well! This was the first time she painted with something besides her hands (at least outside the bathtub - but bathtub painting is a post for another time - we love that activity, too!)

Nathan, surprise, surprise, picked yellow paint.

He is getting better with learning a pencil grip better. This was good practice.

After our paint was dry, the kids selected colored pipe cleaners 

and we turned their egg cartons into ants. They adored their ants.

Days after the craft, Faith was still carrying her ant everywhere she went.

Another day we made applesauce.

Nathan carefully learned to use the peeler/corer/slicer.

He liked cranking the apple slicer. But he didn't like that Ruth was equally as interested! He was rather annoyed... this would have been an ideal time to review that Bible verse of the week... had I been in the right mindset. Lesson learned.

After Nathan helped peel & slice apples, 

Faith added the sugar, water & cinnamon.

Then we let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Time to mash, mash, mash! The kids liked that part :)

But I think they liked the eating part even more!

It was awesome applesauce! Yummy!

On Friday, we made letter A alligators.

We started by coloring out letter "A"

Then the kids glued their "A" down and added triangle cutouts I made. They counted the triangles as they made eyes and teeth for the alligator.

Then we sang "Thank you God for making me" - 

since the "gators in the swamp say 'thank you Lord'" :)

The kids don't know the song well... so they mostly just gave me silly looks ;)

The kids are proud of their alligators! We'll have to find a place to display them and see if we can't make a character out of every alphabet letter as our summer of ABCs progresses. 

Nathan is doing great recognizing letters and telling me what they sound like. Faith still gets a bit confused (but she is just 2 1/2!). I have to try not to chuckle when I ask her "what letter does 'apple' start with?" and she replies "ah, ah, alligator!" :)