Canada Day

Holiday Activities

Make a Flag for Canada Day Craft and Celebrate with Friends

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This week the US President, the Canadian Prime Minister, and the Mexican President had a Three Amigos meeting. Today, make a flag for Canada Day. Amigo means friend, and the meeting was to support friendly ties of the three countries that make North America. July 1st is Canada’s national holiday. This year, that holiday is a Friday. July 4th, Independence Day of the United States is a Monday. That makes for a double long weekend of celebration. If Mexico only had a holiday now, we could celebrate across the continent for a week.

make a handprint flag for Canada Day craft

The Canadian flag is two red bars on each side of a white background with a red maple leaf in the center. These are the steps:

1. To make a flag, use a sheet of thick white paper, 8.5 by 11 inches. Turn it on the side, the long way.

2. The paper will be a bit too tall for a flag rectangle, so if little hands are old enough for scissors, they cut off about an inch and a half. Big hands can measure and draw them a line.

3. Fold over about an inch on the left side of the white rectangle and tuck it underneath. This is for gluing to a stick.

4. The sides of the flag can be two red rectangles, the same height as the flag and about 3 inches wide and glued on, or kids can paint the sides in a bright red color. **Leave about an inch on the left side of the white paper to turn over

5. Drawing a maple leaf isn’t easy for kids or even adults. Instead of a maple leaf, kids can use their hand. Put some red paint on a flat plate or plastic container lid. Kids dip in a hand, palm down. They can carefully make a handprint in the middle of the flag, spreading their fingers wide apart like the points on the maple leaf.

As an alternative to red paint, adults can help kids trace around a hand with fingers spread and cut it out. This gets glued in the middle.

6. Glue the bit of white paper rectangle to a flat stick or chopstick to be a handle to hold.

No matter where you live, it’s fun to make a flag for Canada Day. Canadians will be eating flags and waving cake. Oops, I mean eating cake and waving flags, don’t I?

Holiday Activities

Cooking with Kids: Fruit Roll-ups #1

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Ready to roll out the holiday fun? Here are some fruit roll-ups that you can make with kids for a tasty and colorful treat.

July is the first whole month of summer, and it starts with July 1st Canada Day and the July 4th Independence Day in the US. On both sides of the border there will be fireworks, campouts, family, friends, fun, and food. Kids can help make some of the special food too.

cooking with kidsI wasn’t sure if we would find a treat that was as easy to make and fun to eat as the watermelon pizza from last year but these fruit roll-ups are another great idea. They are simple, yummy and easy to do.

cooking with kidsTo make, spread some soft cream cheese on a flour tortilla. Next, rinse and drain some raspberries and then sprinkle them on the tortilla. For easier rolling, flatten the berries so they don’t roll out. Carefully, roll the tortilla, tucking in the ends.

cooking with kidsPlace on a tray and leave chilled until ready to serve.  To show the red and white for Canada Day, cut the roll-ups in half. This also makes them easier to eat.

cooking with kidsWhen cooking with kids, there are so many more ingredients than just the ones in the recipe. Sequencing is a higher-order thinking skill and in this recipe, doing the steps in the right order is important. Math is involved. As kids sprinkle on the raspberries, count them together. Do all the roll-ups have the same number, or do some have more? Tortillas are round making them a circle shape.

Children, just like grownups, like to feel that they matter. When we include children in preparing food that others enjoy, they feel valued. By their efforts, they are contributing to taking care of others. These are critical social skills.

You can make these roll-ups now, and then do them again in 3 days. Any guesses as to what will be red, white, and blue?

P.S. Here’s the watermelon pizza that was so good.

Cooking and Baking, Health and Nutrition, Holiday Activities

Cooking with Kids: Watermelon Fruit Pizza #1

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Cooking with kids is an awesome–and tasty–way to combine fun, learning, and family time, plus encourage healthy eating. This watermelon pizza is a great way to celebrate the start of summer!

cooking with kidsAccording to the calendar, Summer starts June 21st if you live in the top half of the planet, but in North America the first big summer celebrations happen in July. Depending on which side of the 49th parallel you call home, that’s either July 1st or July 4th. If your family lives close to the border you might even celebrate both holidays for double the fun. I love when I find a recipe that’s yummy enough to make twice and this watermelon pizza is another double: delicious and easy.

First, cut the watermelon into triangle slices. Grownups need to do this part. Using a picnic or plastic knife, kids can slice a banana into circles. Now for Canada Day, kids place the banana circles on the watermelon triangles, just like a pizza.

There’s even some math fun. How many circles fit on 1 triangle? Are there more slices of bananas or more pieces of watermelon? Some kids will answer there is more watermelon because the watermelon pieces are larger than the bananas.

Watermelons were more fun to eat when we could have contests for spitting the seeds the farthest but trying to keep the banana pieces from sliding off are almost as much fun. It’s impossible unless you turn the slice and eat it like a pizza.

Check back for Watermelon Fruit Pizza, Part #2 in 3 days when we do this again. Question: We’ll need another color. Can you guess which fruit we might use?

Cooking and Baking, Holiday Activities

K-K-K Kindergarten Readiness and C-C-C Canada Day

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I first thought of doing a k-k-k kindergarten readiness and C-C-C Canada Day post using letter sounds but then I saw this terrific idea for a summer dessert. What could be better to blog about than something tasty to eat afterwards? This combines learning and fun to the max! This cooking with kids activity is … Continue reading K-K-K Kindergarten Readiness and C-C-C Canada Day →

Holiday Activities

Readiness for Kindergarten – Canada Day for Kids

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July 1! That means that summer has begun. Today is a holiday in Canada. Just a quick look thru the local newspaper shows a list of activities for communities of all sizes. Participating in a fun activity can very well be a readiness for kindergarten learning time, too. While you won’t find learning to balance play and … Continue reading Readiness for Kindergarten – Canada Day for Kids →