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The Book We Love
We love Little Critter in this house! And since we were headed to Grandma’s house for the summer, we thought it would be fun to involve her in our book club! Perfect for a quick read, but still having some great adventures, like a quick day trip to the beach!
The Activity We Did
“I built a sandcastle just for Grandma, but a big wave came.”
Mayer, M. (2006). Just Grandma and Me. New York, NY: Random House.
Painted Rocks
You Will Need:
- Smooth Stones (we used river rocks from Grandma’s yard)
- Acrylic Paint
- Paintbrushes (or just let your kids use their fingers)
What To Do:
Let your imagination guide you! Take a stone and paint it your favorite color. Paint your favorite cartoon character. Color it like the beach, or the desert. And then gift it to your grandparent, for them to remember you by!
Another idea: Hide the painted rock at your favorite park for someone else to find. Brighten someone else’s day!
The Food We Ate
“We went to the beach, just Grandma and me.”
Mayer, M. (2006). Just Grandma and Me. New York, NY: Random House.
Handmade Ice Cream
You Will Need:
- Milk
- Vanilla
- Sugar
- Ice
- Kosher Salt
- Sandwich Ziploc Bags
- Gallon Ziploc Bags
A variation on this recipe, we used regular milk instead of half-and-half, because that’s what we had! The perfect summer treat to cool off, but also a great way to keep little hands occupied. Essentially, put the milk, vanilla, and sugar in a sandwich bag. Put the sandwich bag inside a gallon bag with the ice and salt the ice. Then shake and mix the bags until it becomes ice cream!
Making ice cream from scratch in small batches has been a life-long activity for me, it seems! When I was little, we would do it at church activities, rolling coffee cans back and forth across the gym floor with the ingredients inside. When we were first married, Brandon and I would throw the Ziploc bag back and forth across the living room. I feel like one of my next purchases might be this ice cream-making soccer ball though, so then my kiddos can make ice cream for me!
Other Fun Ideas
“I flew my kite instead.”
Mayer, M. (2006). Just Grandma and Me. New York, NY: Random House.
Spiral Kite
Kites at the beach! Always something fun to watch while I’m ignoring the water. This printable is more for at-home weather, but a great way to encourage your kids to run out some energy!
Other Activities
Some other fun resources for the book, and other crafty ideas that we didn’t do… yet.
- Readalong Video: From Oceanhouse Media, go ahead and have the story read to your kids from YouTube! No animated pictures, but it does have the pictures from the book!
- Video Game: Made for Windows back in 1992, explore the book with Little Critter in his video game! While you’re on the Classic Reload site, check out other old computer games, like Oregon Trail!
- Book App: Moving into the current era, Little Critter has an app that works with this book too! Designed for the iPad, it looks very similar to the computer game, but with on a more up-to-date platform.
- More Activity Ideas: These ideas seem to skew towards older grandparents, possibly great-grandparents if your family is younger, but a great resource!
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