Letter W: Watermelon: Craft, File Folder (numbers), Watermelon Moon Sand

Watermelon Craft: I found this Watermelon Craft on Counting Coconuts. I cut two letter W's - one red and one green out of construction paper. Easton dipped his finger in black tempera paint and made seeds on our red W (see first picture below). When the paint dried, we glued the red W onto the top of our green W, making our letters resemble a Watermelon. Then, we glued our watermelon onto a piece of white card stock (see second picture below).

Watermelon File Folder: I printed and made our Watermelon File Folder from Preschool Printables. To make this more fun, I hid the watermelon pieces (with seeds) around the room. Easton found a watermelon, counted the seeds and placed it on the corresponding number.

Watermelon Cloud Dough: I found a tutorial for Watermelon Moon Sand on Growing a Jeweled Rose. However, I bought the wrong kind of sand, so this didn't work for us! I improvised and decided to try a version of Watermelon Cloud Dough. Our cloud dough was more pink than shown in the pictures, and next time I'll try to make it more red. All you do is mix the first four ingredients together with your hands. Add more oil if the dough doesn't stay together in a ball. Here's what we used:

• 4 Cups Flour
• 1/2 Cup Baby Oil
• 1 Packet Watermelon Gelatin - we loved the smell of watermelon while playing. I wonder if watermelon kool-aid would work better?
• Red food coloring - I used red liquid watercolors to make the dough pink. 
• Black Beans - we used these as the seeds 
• Stacking Cups - these added a lot more fun to our play!

 

I love bringing things out in steps with sensory bins. I feel like it allows children to explore longer. We started with only the cloud dough. When Easton was ready for something new, we added the stacking cups. When Easton was ready for something new, we added the watermelon "seeds."