Welcome to our Weekly Whimsy feature, where imagination takes flight! Each week, we will bring you a fun mix of hands-on activities designed to spark creativity and imagination, while fostering learning through activities focusing on literacy, movement, STEAM, and motor skills. We will also provide fun-filled recipes that encourage your child to lend a hand in creating and enjoying fun and *usually* healthy treats. To top it off, you and your child can groove to our specially curated playlists that connect with the weekly theme, perfect for moving, connecting, and enjoying the magic of music together.
The beginning of this summer marked a pause in my K-12 teaching journey to be at home more with my two boys. With that pause came the realization that I knew I wanted to put my creative and teacher energy into something fun and educational for them. Hopefully, your kids find as much fun as mine have been having with these fun and simple activities! Feel free to alter or adjust the activities and recipes to meet the needs of your children and family.
Join us on this whimsical journey of discovery and play!
TRANSPORTATION WEEK!
TRANSPORTATION Playlist on Spotify!
.Activities
Activity #1: Airplane Sensory Bin
Sensory Bin: I feel like the term "sensory bin" always sounds so fancy and intimidating to put together, but they really can be super simple! This airplane sensory bin was just made with cotton balls for clouds, a yellow pom pom for a sun, airplane and helicopter toys that we had, and some star and moon shapes that we had too. Feel free to use your imagination and find things around your home that could be transformed into sky/airplane theme, and that will help build your child's imagination too! If you feel like you are missing something, cut it out with construction paper or mold it with pipe cleaners or play dough!
Benefits of Sensory Bins:
- Enhanced Brain Development: Sensory experiences stimulate the neural pathways of the brain which promotes problem-solving, emotional development, language development, and more.
- Imaginative Play: This activity encourages kids to use their imagination! They can pretend to be airplanes, make sound effects, take on roles like pilots or passengers, or even tell stories! This all fosters creativity and even early literacy skills.
- Fine Motor Skills: Sensory bins help to develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination which is important for many tasks.
- Language Development: When children participate in imaginative and pretend play, especially around a new theme, they naturally begin to use new and different vocabulary and boost their communication and vocabulary skills.
- Math Skills & Concepts: Math concepts are taught through play such as quantity, size, shape, sorting, categorizing, and counting objects.
- Emotional Regulation: Sensory play can have a calming effect and help children regulate their emotions.
- Social Skills: Sensory bins can help build empathy, sharing, cooperation, and turn-taking if played with others.
- Learning about the World: An airplane-themed sensory bin can introduce kids to the concept of travel, different cultures, and geography. They can learn about airports, airplanes, and destinations, expanding their understanding of the world around them.
Activity #2: Toy Sort & Sensory Imaginative Play
AIR, LAND, WATER
Grab a cup of coffee people- this one was Macaroni Mama's favorite as far as being able to sit back, relax, and watch the kids play!
1. Set up simple air, land, and water stations. For the water station, I grabbed a storage bin and filled it with water and drew chalk waves around it. For land, I drew a chalk road and ended up adding train tracks later. While doing this, my son and I talked about what you might find on land and he added answers like "a red stop" or "green trees", so we were sure to add those to our drawing also. For the air station, I just pulled out the airplane sensory bin, but without the airplanes and helicopters, from our activity above.
2. Grab a good mix of transportation toys and put them in a bucket or container, ready for sorting. Make sure that all of the toys that you use have the ability to get wet in case they accidentally end up in the water. The water station was my son's favorite, and even though he knows for sure that a fire truck belongs on the road, he kept saying, "No mama, firetruck goes in the water!" Some things don't always go as planned.
3. Talk to your child about the differences between things that go in and live in the water, the land, and in the air. Talk about different types of transportation and what types of transportation might belong in each type of environment. Discuss- would any type of transportation be able to go in more than one area? We had a float plane, so that one worked for us, but probably usually wouldn't.
4. Allow your child to practice sorting and categorizing the toys on their own. Praise them tons and guide them as needed! Engage and ask questions along the way!
5. After the toys are sorted, sit back and relax- you've put in the work! Now it is time for them to enjoy their sensory spaces and to play. I have a feeling your kids will love them too!
Activity #3: Carwash
This is a fan favorite at our house, for both myself and the kids! It is tons of fun for them and inspires long moments of independent play. It is also easily adaptable for indoors or outdoors to enjoy throughout all of the seasons.
Outdoor: Gather your child's favorite outdoor toys such as cars, trikes, bikes, wagons, or whatever they enjoy! Bringing inside cars or truck toys outside works too! We use shaving cream for fun texture play, whipped cream would work too, or you could just use soap and water to make a fun bubble mixture! Lather up the toys to make everything fun and bubbly. We like to practice drawing fun pictures or letters in the shaving cream before rinsing everything off. Use sponges, rags, and tubs of water, or let those kids go wild with the hose if you are up for it! | Outdoor: The indoor version is inspired by a similar concept, but at our house, the activity itself is a lot messier, and my house ends up a lot cleaner in the end! Win-win, I think? We use small toy cars and set up three stations using cookie sheets or baking pans. There is a station for soaping up the cars with shaving cream or soapy bubbles, a rinsing station with water, and a final drying station with a pan and a towel. Sometimes I wish I could put my sons through the "carwash" after this activity too. |
Activity #4: Craft Stick Airplane
 | I am all about transparency! This one broke after a day or so of playing with it, and it was a little bit tricky to make. We also had to whip out the hot glue to get everything to stick together, which wasn't very toddler-friendly. Some of you caregivers are probably a bit more crafty than I am, so maybe your go at it will be a bit more successful than mine was! On a positive note, my son really enjoyed picking out the colors for the airplane and talking about the different parts of the airplane like the propellers, body, wings, etc. We also talked about concepts like longer, shorter, same, and different when breaking the sticks to make different parts of the plane too. Good luck with this one! |
Honorable Mentions
These adorable airplanes were not made during our transportation week, but earlier this year by our amazing daycare lady! I thought they were too cute not to share as a part of this fun theme.
Shout out to Target Boutique! Mondo Llama came in hot this week with this paint-your-own wooden car kit being only $3! The car is well-built and we really enjoyed this one. Note- this is NOT an affiliate post or ad, I just really like spreading the word about great deals that other people might enjoy too!
Recipes
Cooking with your child is a great way to teach many amazing life skills! By following a recipe, children build their listening, comprehension, and eventually literacy skills too. By practicing measurement, they are building early math skills. They express creativity through decorating and using imaginative thinking when making their creations. If they are cooking with others, sharing and collaboration are important social skills that are built, along with having responsibilities. Finally, patience and delayed gratification are awesome concepts that are taught by waiting for something delicious!
Recipe #1: Airplane in Flight
- Banana
- Marshmallow
- Clementine
2. Slice the other half of the banana in half and assemble to create the wings.
3. Stretch out your marshmallows to create puffy-looking clouds (and prevent choking hazards).
4. Peel your clementine and assemble into a sphere-like sun!
5. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe #2: Fruit Stoplight
- Graham Cracker
- Nut butter of your choice
- Red Berry (We used strawberries)
- Banana
- Green fruit (we used grapes)
- Pretzel rods
2. Slice fruit to a smaller size to create the lights for the stoplight.
3. Place the fruit lights onto the stoplight! Talk to your child about where you might find a stoplight and why it is important.
4. Game* We tried playing red light green light with running and dancing silly in place with red- stopping, yellow- slow motion, and green- super fast. It was funny, more for me than him.
5. Serve the treats and enjoy!
Note: I have seen another take on these using red, yellow, and green M & M's instead. Yum.
Events:
It may be fun to incorporate a special event into your weekly fun! Here are some local events that align with this week's theme!
| 7/16- PJ Trolley Party 7/16- Drop-In Canoeing at Powderhorn Park 7/17 Girls Bike Adventure Club |
FIELD TRIP!
Take a trip around town to bring learning to life!
MSP Aircraft Viewing Area!
Does your little one's excitement soar every time an airplane passes by? If you haven't visited there already, the Aircraft Viewing Area at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport is an ABSOLUTE must-see! It is perfect for any type of weather and it is a super relaxing activity for all involved. Take a quiet drive down a winding road, past tons of cool parked planes, through dark tunnels (which little ones think are super cool), and you will find a very special place where joy and delight certainly take flight.
Pack a picnic, bring a special treat, or just sit back and enjoy the show as tons of airplanes take off and land right before your eyes. There are picnic tables and benches to enjoy. Otherwise, many people choose to sit in or on their cars, opening their tailgates, or enjoying themselves from inside.
A trip to the MSP Viewing Area really does feel like a little spark of magic, especially viewing it through your little one's eyes.
- No entrance fee
- 25 parking spaces
- Picnic tables, benches, garbage and recycling receptacles, security cameras, and lighting
- No alcoholic beverages allowed
- Open dawn to dusk, every day
- Note: There are no restroom facilities or shelter. Please plan accordingly.
Have a magical trip!
Library Books:
With our weekly-themed fun, it has been a fun tradition to head to the library to pick out some books together that correspond with that week's main theme. Here are a few of our favorites this week!
1. From Here to There: Inventions That Changed the Way the World Moves by Vivian Kirkfield
 | 1. From Here to There: Inventions That Changed the Way the World Moves by Vivian Kirkfield |
| 2. The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña |  |
 | 3. The Pigeon That Loves Things That Go by Mo Willems |
| 4. Train Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha |  |
 | 5. Maisy Goes on a Plane by Lucy Cousins |
 | More Ideas: Visit our curated Pinterest board to view more activities that we did, and some we didn't, but thought were awesome! They include free print-ables, more fun craft ideas, delicious recipes, and more! |
