Letter of the Week....I is for Iguana

© Terry Willson

Just a quick post on our letter of the week!  One of the books we read to introduce the girls to the letter "i" was I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff.  It's about a little boy who tries to convince his mom to buy him an iguana, and has some great and silly illustrations.  We also read Mañana Iguana which is a fun south-of-the-border take on the Little Red Hen.

  



I found an old Ranger Rick magazine (c/o my former schoolteacher mom!) that had some info and photos of real iguanas, so we learned where they live, what they eat, and what they REALLY look like.  Then I remembered that on a recent trip to St. Thomas, my dad had taken some really great photos of an iguana sunning itself on a rock, and the girls were delighted at the thought of Grandad being so close to a big iguana!

© Terry Willson

© Terry Willson

After learning all about iguanas it was time for a project.  I used a Sharpie and drew a quick (and rather amateur...) picture of an iguana on some painting paper for the two little girls (2 and a half and 3) and they used watercolors to bring their iguanas to life.

Side note: It really makes a big difference in how a watercolor painting turns out when you spring for the expensive paper vs. copy paper!  The colors are so much more vibrant and really soak into the paper rather than pooling up on top.

 

We also did this fun little project that I happened upon from Totally Tots when I was searching for "iguana children's books."  So cute!  They used craft foam at Totally Tots but we used construction paper and googly eyes and it turned out great.















Until next time!  Happy crafting :)



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