It’s time to celebrate the 4th of July. This year we have visitors coming for the days leading up to the 4th so our reading, arts and crafts will be limited. Oh well. We have managed to read and create a few fun things for the holiday!
Let’s start with our crafts.
Revolutionary War peg dolls–including our founding father Ben Franklin!
What you need:
- Rounded wooden clothespins
- Sharpies
- Cotton Balls
- Glue Gun And Sticks–I like the Martha Stewart one
- Fabric (Optional)
- Construction Paper (Optional)
- Pipe Cleaner (Optional)
Steps:
- Gather your clothespins and give them to the kids to color. We looked at pictures of British Redcoats for inspiration.
- Depending of what sort of person you are making, use the glue gun to add embellishments.
*We made tall bearskin hats for the Redcoats as well. Cut out a rectangle with rounded edges on one side. 
Again, ring the head of the clothespins with glue and glue the flat edge to the head. You will now have an open cone on the clothespins. Insert a cotton ball or two (depending on how tall you want your hat to be.). The cotton ball will make sure the bearskin hat keeps its form and doesn’t collapse. Fold the top in on itself and glue it closed.
*We made “tricornered hats” by cutting out circles in black construction paper. Then you fold up two sides and ring the “head” of the clothespins with glue and slap it on.
*We also made a colonial girl. 
Using fabric scraps we cut out a small circle and glued it onto the head of the clothespins for a bonnet. Then we added a skirt in the same pattern. The Princess finished her off by coloring the shirt, face and hair.
*American Revolutionaries can be colored in basic clothes (because most were citizen soldiers and would not have had real uniforms.) We did add a ‘coon skin cap by cutting a piece of brown pipe cleaner in half and coiling it up. Make sure to leave a little of the brown at the back of the cap for the tail to dangle down. We also hid them behind the trees like real colonial militia.
*Finally, Ben Franklin! 
Rip off part of the cotton ball and glue it on his head for hair. Next, cut out a construction paper diamond and color it how ever you like! It’s going to be Ben’s famous kite! Glue the kite to a pipe cleaner and wrap the pipe cleaner around Ben’s waist. If you want to be really ambitious, like us– just out a key and string it on the pipe cleaner before you tie it around his waist. You will find that the kite causes Ben not to stand up. We fixed this by gluing him to a jar lid covered in fabric.
We also recycled the fairy forest into a battle field for the war!
One of our other activities was a cool internet based decoding game provided by the US Park Service Rangers. You have to figure out a revolutionary war cypher as if you were George Washington! Cinco enjoyed it and I convinced him he was a Revolutionary war spy–Fun and educational.
The Princess also worked a neat 4th of July worksheet set provided by Gift of Curiosity. The pack says it for kids 2 to 7 and does offer various difficulty levels on the activities (matching, mazes, which one doesn’t belong). But it was better suited for the 4-year-old than the 7-year-old. I think it’s a little to simple for any one over 6. But it has great graphics!
The Booky Mom 