X Week- Xs and Os Art Project

I've had this general project in mind for a while but it finally took shape during X week.

I placed some stickers on watercolor paper,

then got some liquid watercolors ready. This project could be done with any type of paint, but I like the look of watercolors. I also got some salt out because Trip loves to pour it and salt on watercolors gives the paint a cool look. I was planning to use a coarser salt, but Trip wanted the popcorn salt.

After carefully inspecting the paint,

Trip got to work.

Once he had some paint on the paper, he got to pour some salt on it.

We let our project dry for a while.

Once I carefully peeled off the letters, we were left with a nice painting, done all by Trip.

This project could be done with any letter and could also be fun with any shape of sticker.

X Week- An eXcellent Snack

Our special snack for X week was a simple one of cheese, apple, pretzels, red pepper, dried mango, and mini chocolate chips. Fortunately, Xs are very easy to cut, so I free-handed most of them. 

X Week- Xs in Ice Cubes

This was a super easy activity that ended up being lots of fun. I filled ice cube trays half-full of water, put a foam X in each, and put them in the freezer. Once the ice was set, I added more water to cover the letters and froze them for a few more hours.

Trip was very excited to pour the ice into the bath tub.

Next time, I would probably make lager pieces of ice as these melted very quickly in the warm water, but Trip had fun anyway. He discovered that the Xs stuck to the wall and loved sticking them up, then pouring water over them and washing them away.

X Week- Excavating Xs

Excavating letters could be a great activity for any member of the alphabet and would work for numbers as well. I started by making a batch of cloud dough since it molds nicely. The Imagination Tree has a couple of good recipes, of which I ended up making a hybrid that holds together pretty well when molded:

Glittery Cloud Dough
6 cups flour
1/2 cup baby oil
1/2 cup canola oil
as much glitter as you like

You can use just one type of oil, but I found that the mix is nice. The last time I made it, I only used baby oil and the smell of it was a little too much for me. The mix of the two oils gave it a nice balance, with neither one taking over.

I gathered a variety of Xs and some measuring cups to use as molds.

I filled each mold about half-full of pressed-down cloud dough, then inserted an X and filled it the rest of the way up.

I then inverted the molds onto a cookie sheet.

Once the tray was full of hidden Xs, Trip got to work excavating them.

He started out using his hands, but also enjoyed using a butter knife.

Once all of the Xs were found, he had fun playing with the dough.

We had to get the vacuum out once we were done to take care of a couple small spills, but it was well worth it for all the fun Trip had. Maybe next time we'll do this activity on the kitchen floor or outside.

X Week

Last week, Trip and I had some simple fun with the letter X. Letters like X that appear in so few words are great for weeks like we're having right now. I've had quite a few days of work, Daddy has been out of town, and we've had several other commitments too.

Many of these are activities that could be adapted to any letter and are especially great for less-used letters. I can come up with tons of activities for P, S, and T, but X, Y, and Z are a little more difficult so having some generic activities is helpful. Click on the links to see more about each project.

Trip loved excavating Xs out of cloud dough.

He had a blast watching Xs melt out of ice cubes in the bath tub.

We had an easy snack of Xs.

And finally, we did a little X art project with stickers and watercolors.

Check back next week to find out about our Q week. If you are a new follower, please comment so that I can follow you back!




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