Have a Blueberry Day!

Blueberry season officially opened for us this week! I love taking the kids u-picking. It’s such a fun way to spend the morning and we usually end up with something in their buckets (whatever didn’t make it into their mouths)
If you live in an area where blueberries grow, check www.pickyourown.org to find a u-pick farm nearby. If not, there are still lots of fun activities to do with blueberries!

I decided to make it a whole Blueberry Day today.

  

• I pulled out Jamberryby Bruce Degen and Blueberries for Salby Robert McCloskey. I love both of these books and we have read them over and over with the kids.
• Go Blueberry Picking! … My daughter was definitely a Little Sal today. She ended up with 4 berries in her bucket after picking for half an hour. She would pick, pick, pick, then eat, eat, eat. TIPS:
  1. let each of the kids have their own bucket to fill
  2. go early in the morning. It gets too hot later to enjoy picking with kids.
  3. bring a water bottle
  4. NOTE! If you can’t go blueberry picking, grab a package of blue pom-poms, hide them around the house, give the kids a bucket and let them go “blueberry picking” in the house!

   

• Narration and Art … I’m definitely going to do this with more books. It was so fun to hear the kids retell the story and see their illustration.
  1. Read Blueberries for Sal (my kids know this one well. We’ve read it many, many times).
  2. Then ask the kids to tell you the story.
  3. Type the story they tell you & try to get it word for word.
  4. Print out their story and let them illustrate it. I’m going to keep these in a binder with the other stories we will do.
  5. I also love this idea from Delightful Learning to use pom-poms and blue paint to make blueberries on their page. (images from Delightful Learning)

Blueberry Counting Pail

1. Need 10 large blue pom-poms & a little tin pail (try Target’s dollar spot!)
2. Print out the word strip and number cards (cut them out). Apply a small piece of magnet to the back of each number card.
3. Attach the word strip to the outside of the tin pail. 

TO PLAY:

1. choose a number card and place it in the blank square.
2. count that many blueberry pom-poms and place them in the tin pail.
3. dump them out, choose a new number card & repeat!
4. If you’d like a simple paper version, go here to print out the pail worksheet, number cards and blueberry counters!

Snack Idea:

• fresh blueberries
• blueberry parfaits 
• blueberry crumble … click the links for yummy recipes