On The Go

My friend Annie (check out her amazing blog here!) does fun themed weeks with her kids to help keep them busy and engaged during the summer. I have started doing them with my son and it has been a huge success! He has learned so much from each unit and I realized it has been an incredible time of language growth for him. So, what better thing to do than pass that along to all my speech kiddo's parents, and anyone else that could benefit?? It has been a fun time to bond with my son as well, and I have really enjoyed all the activities- probably more than my son has. :) Our outings have been what we have locally in Glendale/Phoenix. It may be too far for some of you to see the same things we did. But use these posts as a template and research your own places to see in your town. Pinterest is also a great place to find additional crafts, songs, activities, food, you name it! Add to my themes to make them fit your children's interests and needs. Make up your own themes. The opportunities are endless! I want to take this opportunity to thank Annie for introducing me to this whole concept, and seriously, check out her blog. She is amazing!

"On The Go"

The second theme I chose for my son was all about cars and trucks. He is into everything with wheels. Here are the activities we did throughout the week. You don't do them all in one day, you space them out so throughout the week you are talking about your theme here and there, a little at a time.

Field Trips:

1. We drove by the construction site by our library to see what vehicles we could find working and what they were doing

2. We did a truck scavenger hunt. I made this paper for him of all the different kinds of vehicles we could see, the ones I included were:

fire truck

green taxi

police car

city bus

school bus

garbage truck

pickup truck

semi truck

digger

As we were out, we saw these other vehicles that could have been on the list, too!

tow truck

car transporter

delivery van

motorcycle

dump truck

cement truck

ambulance

cherry picker truck

mail truck

You could also do a scavenger hunt focusing on colors, and have them search for a blue car, red car, silver car, etc. You decide what goes on your paper- whatever your child likes and you have a high possibility of seeing!

I put this paper on a clipboard and gave Paul a colored pencil so he could mark off each vehicle as we saw it. He was REALLY excited about it and loved "checking off" each one as we passed it. We ended up at a local cookie shop, because every good scavenger hunt has a treat at the end!

 Checking his list, telling me that the cookie was his favorite thing on our scavenger hunt.

 Waiting for the cookie shop to open. Coyote Oaties in downtown Glendale is AMAZING if you haven't been! All natural and no preservatives, its the "healthiest" cookie out there ;)

Activities:

1. Using car and truck shaped cookie cutters to make play doh vehicles

2. Making the awesome shape puzzles I found on Pinterest- we didn't do this one, but did one similar. 

Check it out here!

3. Fill a container full of dry beans or rice to drive construction trucks in. This one has provided HOURS of entertainment!

Food:

There is a lot on Pinterest, we just did a few things though. We did a hotdog car with zucchini wheels (toothpick to hold them on), and apple grape cars like these. 

But I liked these ideas too:

Songs:

1. Wheels on the Bus

2. Drive My Car - Laurie Berkner

3. Drivin in my Car - Ralph Covert

Books:

We (ok, I) had a blast picking out books from the library. There are so many! We ended up getting a ton, and the ones listed below are some of our favorite vehicle books. Construction Kitties, Dig Scoop Kaboom and The Grumpy Dump Truck were the biggest hits, but they were all great!

Movies:

Paul isn't really into movies much. But he does like Disney's Cars, and we borrowed a few kid documentaries on garbage trucks, construction sites, etc. from the library. There are also a few on Netflix, and he loves Mighty Machines (also on Netflix). These documentaries are his favorite:

Well there you have it! Let me know if you have any questions- and please let me know if you have any other ideas I could add to my theme next year!!