Patriotic Party Play Date: Read, Make, Learn

Talk about the holiday and the significance of it. Ask children to tell you what they know prior to reading.My four year old said, ” Red stripes and red stars are important. America has a flag. That’s all I know.”

Introduce the book to your children. Read the title, the author and the illustrator. During the story ask questions. Encourage them to point out symbols that they see in the books.

After the story, ask them to tell you what they have learned.  Turn back to pages in the book and highlight a few main ideas.

Make:

Kids learn SO much by helping out in the kitchen.  Many of our kids that go to school during the school year may not spend as much time making and baking.  Summer is the perfect time to teach basic cooking skills.  Today, my preschooler and I melted ONE cup of white chocolate chips (adding just a bit of shortening to smoothen it out) and came up with:

Patriotic Popcorn:

Ingredients:
1 package of popped popcorn
A spoonful of melted white chocolate
Red or blue sprinkles.

Directions:
1. Let your child drizzle the spoonful of chocolate on the popcorn and mix.
2. Have them shake the sprinkles on the warm chocolate.
3. Cool (pop in the fridge for faster setting)
4. Serve and eat!

RED, WHITE, and BLUE Berry Blast!

Ingredients:
Strawberries (washed and dry)
Bluelberries
Melted White Chocolate
Wax paper

Directions.

1. Dip strawberries into melted white chocolate and gently swirl.
2. Set on wax paper.
3. When cooled (at room temperature), arrange on a small plate.
4. Top with blueberries and serve.

  Edible Sparklers AKA Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

Ingredients:
Pretzel Rods
Melted White Chocolate
Red Sprinkles
Wax Paper

Directions:
1. Let your child dip and swirl the rods in the melted chocolate.
2. Top with sprinkles while the chocolate is still warm.
3. Set on wax paper to harden (putting these in the fridge will speed the process up)
4. Serve and eat.

PS- this picture shows you how my child’s turned out!  He ate the ones right away that were scoops of chocolate and not “for your pictures mom.”

Party Pecans

Ingredients:
Whole pecans
Melted white chocolate (the end of the bowl!)

Directions:
1. Let your child dip the pecans in the remaining melted white chocolate.
2. Ignore the whining of, do I have to dip another pecan or can I just lick the bowl now?
3. Set the dipped pecans on wax paper to harden (the fridge will speed up the process)
4.  Let your child lick the remaining chocolate from the bowl (trust me, there isn’t much left)
5. Once hardened, put in a festive bowl and serve.

If you are not a white chocolate fan, check out this super cute snack Kim and her kids made:
Patriotic Flag Snack

Learn:

After making snacks in the kitchen, we headed outside for some learning activities.  I usually aim for 3-4 learning activities for each play-date.  This morning we worked on a little counting, movement, crafting.

Counting and Number Recognition:

We made a bunch of stars and the numerals 1-5.  I put a numeral on the table and we counted out the matching number of stars. We used the stars and stripes craft duct tape, but scrapbook paper would also give you the same effect!  No tape, no paper in your house?  Cut up a cereal box and paint or color it first.

Star and Seek:

When the stars were counted, we kept the number on the table and HID that number of stars in the yard. My kids had a ton of fun “star and seeking.” It was a great way to combine math, movement, and being outside!