Little Cubbies

This week at Camp Anderson we celebrated the four seasons. My almost six year old, Sadie, came up with the idea for this theme. At first, I must admit, I wasn’t too excited for it. But, after a little creative planning, the theme came together easily and the kids had a blast with all of the activities! We explored a different season each day, Monday-Thursday, and we celebrated summer for an extra day on Friday because we all love summer!

Fall Activities

• Seasonal Stickers – I found these really cute seasonal sticker scenes from Oriental Trading. The kids started off each day this week creating a scene with stickers. This pack includes stickers and scene pages for all four seasons. Peeling and sticking stickers is great fine motor practice for the younger kiddos, and the older kids enjoyed being creative and making beautiful scenes.

• Wooden Pumpkins – The kids had a great time painting and decorating wooden pumpkins. I bought them from Oriental Trading a while ago, and I can’t find the same exact ones that I purchased. These jack-o-lantern ones are cute, if you’re looking for something similar.

• Fall Snack – Looking for an easy fall-themed snack? Slice up some apples and serve them with store-bought caramel dip. Yum!

• Trick or Treating in July – Why not?! We read The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan & Jan Berenstain and had the kids put on their favorite costumes. Then we surprised them with a little trick or treating in July! There were four adults in the house (my husband, my mom, my sister and me), so we each took a small bowl of candy and went to different rooms in the house. The kids each got a brown paper bag with their name on it and went “trick or treating” to all of the different rooms in the house. It was so simple, but they had so much fun!

Winter Activities

• Instant Snow Sensory Play – If you haven’t tried instant snow, you’re missing out. This stuff is so much fun to play with! You just add water, and the white powder puffs up into fake snow that is “snow much fun” for all ages. If you want your fake snow to feel cold, pop it into the fridge for a little while before playing with it. This isn’t edible, so I wouldn’t recommend this activity for little ones who still put everything into their mouths.

• Make Your Own Mugs with Frozen Hot Chocolate – These DIY mugs were perfect for our winter themed day. The kids all decorated the paper lining for their mugs, using markers and winter stickers. After decorating the mugs, we made frozen hot chocolate to put in them. To make the frozen hot chocolate, we blended hot chocolate mix, water and ice in a blender. We then scooped the frozen hot chocolate into the kids’ mugs and topped them with whipped cream. So easy and the perfect way to celebrate winter on a hot July day!

Spring Activities

• Ceramic Flower Pots & Planting Activity – The first thing that comes to mind when I think of spring is flowers, so I knew we had to incorporate planting into our spring themed day. The kids had a great time painting these ceramic flower pots and then planting sunflower seeds in them. We used acrylic paint so that we could leave them outside without worrying about the paint washing off of them. My girls are so excited that their seeds are already starting to sprout!

• Watercolor Bugs – Painting with watercolors is such a simple and fun activity. These watercolor bug cutouts were a great addition to our spring themed day. The kids all enjoyed this activity so much that they each made several bugs, and my nieces brought a few home to do later!

• Spring Snack – We made these adorable chocolate covered strawberry ladybugs as a fun spring snack. To make them, just dip strawberries into melted chocolate and add edible candy eyes.

Summer Activities

• Painting Sea Shells – We canceled our trip to Florida so, unfortunately, we won’t be collecting any real shells from the beach this summer. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t bring the beach to our home! Painting sea shells is a fun and easy activity that is fun for all ages. You can use sea shells that you’ve collected from the beach or you can buy them.

• Jello Beach Cups – To go along with the summer/beach theme, Nana made these for the kids. They were, of course, a huge hit! To make them, simply make blue Jello and let set in the fridge. Then sprinkle on graham cracker crumbs and top with gummy sharks or Swedish Fish.

• Summer Picture Frames – These wooden picture frames will be the perfect keepsake to help us remember our “quarantine summer”! The kids used markers to color the picture frames, and we took individual pictures of each child that we will print out and put in the frames. The kit includes magnets that you can put on the back of the frames so you can hang them on the fridge.

• Snowballs – This was the perfect Friday treat to end Seasons Week! To make the snowballs, we put ice in the blender until it was a shaved ice consistency. This works best if you shave the ice in small batches. We added a couple scoops of shaved ice to a cone cup, topped it with flavored syrup, and added a little vanilla ice cream. Then we topped the ice cream with more shaved ice and flavored syrup. It was a rainy day on Friday, and the kids were cooped up and being a little crazy. As the ate their snowballs, you could hear a pin drop they were so quiet. Well, okay, you could also hear some slurping of the snowballs…haha! We enjoyed the few minutes of quiet until the sugar kicked in and they were even crazier than before.:)

I hope you have fun trying some of these ideas with your kids! Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be back next week with Rainforest Week ideas and activities! Stay safe & healthy. xo – Holly