Aloha Summer!

My preschooler was totally in to Moana as a two year old- I mean, to the point where he would correct me if I called him by his name by saying, “No Mama, I Maui!” He even had the Maui scowl down…and Maui’s giant hook…which he slept with! hahaha My current toddler hasn’t seen Moana yet, but with the start of summer break upon us, I thought now was the time to introduce it to him along with a week’s worth of fun Moana/Hawaii themed art and learning activities to go along with it! I know Moana technically doesn’t take place in Hawaii but on the fictional island of Motonui (which may or may not be based on the real island of Moto Nui off the coast of South America), but I figured it’s all in the region of the Pacific Islands so I went with it. Anyway! Make yourself a Dole whip, grab your lei, hop in your canoe and let’s set sail with Moana!

–Dole whip and movie day: To kick off our Moana week I made Dole whips- a traditional Disney World treat that includes tropical pineapple and coconut flavors that are oh so island-y! We enjoyed them while watching Moana and wearing our leis! To make the Dole whips I blended a can of Dole pineapple, 1/2 a can of coconut cream (the unsweet kind), and a tablespoon of sugar. Then I put the mixture in a gallon Ziplock baggie and laid it flat in the freezer for about an hour and a half until it was solid. I took it out and smooshed it around to soften it a bit, then cut the corner off the baggie and squirted it into some fancy cups for eating.

–Tropical flower color sort: I disassembled a few silk leis (you can get them at the Dollar Tree right now!) and had my little sort the flowers by color.

–Sea creature count and clip: I actually made this for my preschooler, but my toddler was hanging around watching and showed interest in the activity so we did the numbers 1-7 together too! He counted the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 accurately by himself, and I helped him count the bigger numbers. Then he found the numbers at the bottom himself and clipped them! So to make the activity I cut out some squares of card stock and stuck fish stickers on them to match each of the numbers 1-10. Then I wrote 3 number choices at the bottom of each card (one being the amount of sea creatures on the card.) I had my little count the creatures and clip the correct number. I got this from Life Over C’s last year and just pulled it out of the closet for this week’s lessons!

–T is for Te Fiti: I printed a letter T do-a-dot page then decorated it with a picture of Te Fiti and had my little make the letter T with a dot marker as we talked about what the letter T looks like.

–Kakamora bowl craft: My littles painted the puffy side of some paper bowls brown then added scary faces, arms and legs to make fierce kakamoras!

–Heihei hand and footprint art: I used my little’s hands and feet to make Heihei! Their feet were his head/neck (yellow or orange with red toes for his comb) and their hands were his tail feathers. I did the footprint first, added the body, then did the handprint and finishing details.

–Shaving cream ocean sensory play: I filled a cake pan half with sand and small shells (I just used the cloud sand I made for Star Wars week but any sand will do!) and the other half with shaving cream. I mixed some blue and green food coloring in the cream to make it look like the waters of Motunui and set it on a large beach towel for my littles to play in!

–Moana coloring page: I printed this Moana coloring page from Crayola’s official website- I love that they have free printable coloring pages!

–Supply/shopping list:

• paper bowl or plate
• shaving cream
• blue food coloring
• sand
• toy ocean creatures
• silk leis
• fish stickers
• clothes pins