For this week’s summer reading theme, we have been loving all things WATERMELON! We played with a super easy, 2-ingredient watermelon “chill dough” that you can read about HERE, and we did some outdoor sensory and fine motor play with “watermelon” ice that you can read about HERE. We’ve read some really fun watermelon-themed books that I will share with you next. I ended up buying most of them because our library unfortunately had zero options for watermelon books. They were all worth the money spent and I’m so glad I got them! Definitely always check your library first though. ;)

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- Watermelon Madness
- This Watermelon is Not Round
- The Watermelon Seed
- One Watermelon Seed
- Down by the Bay

We have been loving following weekly themes this summer and aside from the great books we’ve discovered, and the engaging, themed-activities we’ve enjoyed, we have also loved doing themed activities in our learning journal! If you haven’t heard about this lovely learning tool yet, you're going to love it! Check out our other themed learning journal posts for more inspiration on how we use them:
4th of July-Themed Journal Activities
Zoo-Themed Journal Activities
Ocean-Themed Journal Activities

And here are this week’s watermelon-themed pages! :)

“Ten frames” are a visual learning tool used in early childhood (likely not until pre-k and/or kindergarten) that help children to recognize and compare number amounts 1-10. Typically, when counting with ten frames, you start in the top left corner to show the number “1” by either coloring the box, or putting an object inside. You continue across the top row until all 5 boxes are filled, and then jump down to the box in the bottom left corner to fill the bottom row up to 10.

My original thought for filling our “Watermelon Ten Frames” was to use dried black beans to look like watermelon seeds. Since we ended up using black beans for a different journal activity that you’ll see farther down in this post, I decided to switch it up and use q-tips dipped in black paint- which still look like little painted seeds!

You could also use a black ink pad and have kiddos use their fingertip, their fingertip dipped in black paint, or small black pom poms. I chose to make the ten frames pretty small but you could draw them on a larger scale and use a clothespin clipped to a pom pom to dip in black paint or a black do-a-dot marker to fill in the boxes, too. :)

You can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across the world’s cutest watermelon cups at Target just before our watermelon week. It’s the little things these days, guys. But really- aren’t they cute?! I tried to find something similar to link for you on Amazon but these were the best I could find- they are plastic instead of paper but in my opinion, just as cute. Amazon also has some fun watermelon-themed party supplies (such as plates, napkins, cups, etc.) that could be fun to use for snacks and meals throughout a watermelon theme!

I chose to use them as a way to practice uppercase and lowercase letter recognition with Kade (4). I picked a few letters that look different when written in uppercase vs written in lowercase (ex: “H” and “h”) as these are the ones that we tend to get stumped on more so than the ones that pretty much look the same (ex: “P” and “p"). You could do this on a larger scale with a big piece of easel paper and write out all the letters if you wanted- if you had enough cups. ;) You could choose to just do all uppercase matching, match the letters in your kiddos’ names, sight words, OR do numbers and then dots to count for number amounts.

To prep, I traced the cups using a green marker and then colored the middles in with crayon. I used a black marker to write the letters in the middle of each circle. I chose to use masking tape on the bottom of the cups with black sharpie rather than writing directly on them so that the writing wasn’t permanent on the cups and we could still use them for other things afterward. Here is another way to use this journal activity- I differentiated a bit for my 2-year-old and we worked on simple 2-D shapes!

I drew the same shapes in the journal as I added on tape to the bottoms of the cups, and Tatum (2) worked on identifying the shapes on each cup (with my help), and matching them to the shapes in the journal (also with my help).

To prep this activity, I drew half a watermelon, and used a black marker to write numbers 1-12 on the pink part. I set out two dice for Kade (4) to roll. He rolled the two dice, counted up all the dots, and then had to find/identify that number on the watermelon to cover it! This early numeracy activity provided us with a lot of opportunity to discuss “counting on” from a given number. At this point, Kade can typically tell when he rolls a 6 on a single dice without counting the dots, however, when a second dice is added, he still was tending to start counting from 1. Instead, we worked on starting with what he knows (starting at the number 6 if that’s what he rolled on one dice), and then counting on with the dots on the second dice.

We used black pom poms as “seeds” to cover the numbers, but you could also used dried black beans, black buttons, or even chocolate chips! Get creative with what you have- it can be anything that’s small, dark, and looks somewhat like a watermelon seed. ;) You could also choose to use only one dice depending on the age of your kiddos and what you feel they are ready for.

Ok this one is just funny because I drew the watermelon slices upside down by mistake and if I don’t just laugh about it, I’ll be cringing at how much they actually look like slices of pizza. Aside from that, the activity itself was a hit! I chose to write the letters of Kade’s name in block letters in the center of each watermelon slice but you could write any letters, numbers, or even shapes. You could also spell out a sight word your kiddo has been working on.

I set out a small container of dried black beans to represent watermelon seeds and had Kade fill in each letter. You could also use small pom poms or have them trace over the letters using a q-tip dipped in black paint!

I always try to include at least one pre-writing activity with our themed journal pages so that Kade gets the opportunity to hold and use a utensil. For this activity, We worked on writing slanted lines that form the letter “W,” and talked about the sound it makes at the beginning of the word “watermelon.” I ended up also drawing a dot at the top left showing Kade where to start his marker.

Though it’s great to get a utensil in hand and be physically practicing coloring, tracing, drawing, and writing, the BEST way for preschoolers to enhance their comfort level with utensil grip is by providing them with opportunities to build their fine motor skills. There are lots of fun ways to do this including (but not limited to) peeling stickers or tape, working with scissors, spraying squirt bottles, squeezing tongs and tweezers, and lacing!

We love a good play theme over here and if you feel the same way, be sure to check out these other themed activities for toddlers and preschoolers:
Ocean Activities
Zoo Activities
Bug Activities
Frog Activities
Apple Activities

Don’t forget to PIN these journal activities so you can come back to them for inspiration later!