Happy Hearty "H"

Hello little alpa-buggers! Can you put your hands on your paper plate with an upper-case H on it and the little baggie filled with paper and sticker hearts? Then you will be ready to glue or stick hearts all over your upper-case H."My Heart is Like a Zoo" by Michael Hall is a cute book that shows clever ways to create all kinds of animals out of heart shapes. Maybe you could create some, too, after looking at that book. Not only that, but you can create a heart-shaped snack from a hot dog if you feel like it!

Have a happy hearty day!

Love, Grandma

Gorgeous Glittery "G"

Get ready . . . get set . . . go and find your paper plate with an upper-case G on it and the little baggie with a lower-case g. Inside the baggie is a small bottle of glitter glue. Squeeze it a little to fill in your paper plate G with swirls, zig zags or whatever you want. I tested all the little bottles of glitter glue on my Alpha-Bug, but you just have one color for your bug! After the glitter glue has dried, hang it up with the rest of your Alpha-Bug.While you wait for the glue to dry, read a great book such as "In the Tall, Tall Grass" by Denise Fleming. Then grab a GoGurt and go outside and see what you can discover in the tall, tall grass in your own backyard.

Have a gorgeous great day!

Love, Grandma

Fancy Flowered "F"

Do you feel like making more Alpha-Bug today? Then find the paper plate with an upper-case letter F on the front of it; and find a little baggie filled with flowers and the lower-case letter f. Cover the paper plate F with the little flowers. When you're finished, hang it up with the rest of your Alpha-Bug! Have you figured out where my Alpha-Bug is hanging? Now, just for fun, make a fruit flower. Place a kiwi slice (or any roundish fruit) on the center of a plate. Arrange slices of bananas, strawberries, or other fruit around the center to look like a daisy. Make a stem with little blueberries. . . or be super fancy and make flower pot sundaes to feast on while someone reads you a flowery story like "Alison's Zinnia" by Anita Lobel.

Have a fabulously fun day!

Love, Grandma

Easy Eggshell "E"

If you have enough energy, look in your summer sack for the upper-case E paper plate and the little baggie holding a lower-case e and some colorful crushed eggshells. Ask your Mom to help you cover a section of the letter E with glue. Then stick on the eggshells. Continue until the entire E is covered! If it is easier, you can crush your own clean, dry plain white eggshells between two pieces of waxed paper and then paint them with water colors after you have glued them onto the letter E. All those eggshells have probably made you hungry for an egg, right? Would you like to eat a boiled, fried, scrambled, or deviled egg? Or how about hard-boiled egg mice? If eggs sound ekky to you, maybe you will find something tastier in "Eating the Alphabet" by Lois Ehlert.

Enjoy an "egg"ceptional day!
Love, Grandma

Darling Dotted "D"

Are you ready to do the letter D for your Alpha-Bug? Then pull out the paper plate with an upper-case D on the front of it and find the baggie with a lower-case d inside. You may be wondering why there is nothing but a pencil (which does not start with the letter D) in that baggie. That pencil is actually a dot-maker and this is how it works:

Ask your Mom to pour a thin layer of craft paint onto another paper plate. Dip the eraser end of the pencil into the paint, then press onto the letter D plate. Do this over and over to create polka dots! You can use any color or as many colors of paint as you want.

Isn't that darling?

Go hang it up with the rest of your Alpha-bug and then you might look at the library for a book called "Lots of Dots" by Craig Frazier. If you look closely, you might discover that buttons are dots . . . that wheels are dots . . . that ladybugs have dots . . . and that there are dots all around you!

Look at the grocery store for Dippin' Dots ice cream or make a polka-dot pizza for lunch. Take one small bagel half or one-half English muffin and spread it with tomato or pizza sauce. Slice a hot dog and string cheese into "dots" and top the pizza. Bake or broil in the oven until the cheese melts.

Have a delightful dotty day!

Love, Grandma

Cozy Cottonball "C"

It's time to pull out the upper-case C paper plate from your summer sack and the lower-case c baggie containing some cottonballs. If you're feeling creative, you can color the upper-case C before you glue on the cozy cottonballs. Then hang it up with the rest of your Alpha-bug. Can you guess where my Alpha-bug is currently hanging out?
A nice book to read today would be "A Day with No Crayons" by Elizabeth Rusch. You can find out what happens to a little girl when her Mom takes away her crayons for a day! Then if you're still feeling creative, you could jazz up a summer drink with some cool cubes!

To make cool cubes, put a piece of fruit (strawberries . . . melon balls . . . lemon, lime or orange slices) in each section of an ice cube tray. Pour juice over the fruit and freeze until firm. Serve in a summer drink.

Have a cool creative day!

Love, Grandma

Bumpy Button "B"

Before you begin making the next body part for your Alpha-bug, how about making some banana pops for a little later. While that treat is freezing, find your summer sack and pull out the paper plate with an upper-case B on the front of it. Then pull out the little baggie with a lower-case b inside along with a lot of colorful buttons. Glue the bumpy buttons onto the upper-case B and hang your finished "B" body part next to your Alpha-bug's head and "A" body part.And before you tell your Mom that now you are bored, look at the Gyo Fujikawa's book "Oh, What a Busy Day!" for plenty of ideas of things to do.

Have a beautiful busy day!

Love, Grandma

A is for Alpha-Bug

Welcome to our Alpha-Bug summer craft project! During your break from school, we are going to make a big long bug with body parts from A to Z. Every few days I will post new instructions for each letter of the alphabet plus an activity idea or two. You can earn one ticket for each letter of the alphabet body part you make AND a bonus surprise if you complete the entire Alpha-Bug by the end of summer! So let's get started . . .

Step One:

Find your summer sack and pull out one plain paper plate, one pipe cleaner and two googly eyes. You can use these supplies to make a head for your Alpha-Bug. I made a cute girly bug, but you can make one that is creepy or cute or crazy or anything else you want.

Step Two:

Look inside your summer sack again and find a paper plate that has an upper-case letter A on the front of it. Then find a little bag with a lower-case a inside along with a few random alphabet stickers. Cover the upper-case letter A with the alphabet stickers.

Step Three:

Now your Alpha-Bug needs a place to hang out this summer. Maybe you could hang it on the wall of your bedroom or down the wall of the hallway . . . unless your Mom says "No bugs in the house", then you might have to hang it on the walls of the garage?

Step Four:

You deserve a break after all that hard work. How about a buggy snack like Ants on a Log while you look at a buggy book like ANTics! by Cathi Hepworth.

Have an awesome Alpha-buggy day!

Love, Grandma

P is for Pause

Please pardon me for the long pause in alphabet posts. The problems with my computer have probaby been solved, but you never know considering the technically-challenged pair of people using it. Before my computer pooped out one me, I had plans to do more letters of the alphabet. For now, perhaps, I will just post these lovely pictures.
Grandma's X-Box Shop will be opening again around June 8-9. It may not look or have exactly the same things as before, but it will have a fun summer surprise. It's still possible for you to earn tickets for one more week!

Have a pleasant day!

Love, Grandma