X Day: X Marks the Spot

My friend Suzy is a pure genius. She came up with some awesome X day activities for the kids. X is the toughest letter, and she did such a good job with it. I was very impressed, and the kids really enjoyed the day too.

To start out, she showed the boys a letter X and talked about the sound the letter X made. She handed each boy two cut out letter X's and explained that by using the shape of the X you could make different kinds of pictures such as a person or a butterfly. The boys got to glue their X's to different paper, and then use markers and crayons to turn their X's into a person and a butterfly.

I don't think Lincoln totally grasped the concept of using his X as a person's body, but his person did come out looking like a person jump roping, even if it was completely unintentional. :) He did get the concept of the butterfly right off though, and was excited to use the tooth pick as the body. He did ask me to help him draw the flower for it to sit on, but other than that the rest of the coloring was done by him.

After that we did a wiggling activity. Suzy found a video that showed the letter X moving around to music on Youtube (seriously, what would we do without Youtube?). She showed the boys how to spread their arms and legs apart and use their bodies to be X's. She had them walk as X's, jump as X's, and dance as X's. They thought it was hilarious, and asked to do it again and again. In fact, the first thing Lincoln asked me when we got home was if I would turn on the X movie so he could dance. Ivan and Kaitlyn even got in on the dancing, although they didn't really do it as X's. Everyone had a really good time with this activity.

For the last activity Suzy took us on a treasure hunt, because, as you know, X marks the spot. :) She had X's hidden all around, and each X had a clue on it. Something like, "This is where you eat dinner." And the boys would have to find the next X under the kitchen table. Or, "This is where you hang your coat." And the X would be in the coat closet, etc.

The last clue was, "This is where your mom bakes cookies." The boys went into the kitchen and looked in the oven and found their treasure.

Cupcakes! In the shape of an X of course. The boys then got to sit down again at the table, and decorate their cupcakes with frosting. Then Suzy gave them rope Twizzlers and they got to make a big X on their cupcake. And as always, they liked eating the cupcakes best of all. :)

Lincoln's X got a little top heavy and therefore looks more like a cross between an X and  K, but it's the idea that counts right?

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