Celebrate National Lollipop Day

I’m all for celebrating silly holidays any time of year, but I think it’s especially fun to note these days in the summer, even more so when they are food related.

For reasons I’m unsure of, July 20 is National Lollipop Day, so let’s celebrate with some sweet science and a few printables (not to mention some lollies to eat).

Want to make lollipops from scratch? Steam Powered Family has the recipe, just be aware you might need some special equipment like a lollipop mold and a good candy thermometer. Also be really careful with this one and little kids because hot sugar can burn.

Rock candy is sort of lollipop adjacent, though they take a few days to make while the crystals grow. Get the how to from Happiness is Homemade.

With or without a mold you can also make your own lollipops out of Jolly Ranchers or another hard sugary candy, which is a lot easier and faster to do with littles (and safer, too, because you can melt them in the oven). One Little Project has the lowdown on how to make these.

Whether you make them yourself or buy them, you can also do some experiments with lollipops. Make predictions and observe how lollipops dissolve with this experiment from Fantastic Fun and Learning, or paint with lollies with this idea from No Time for Flash Cards.

How about some lollipop themed crafts? I love this simple lollipop ornament project from Happy Hooligans. They’re so colorful and easy to make and would be great for your holiday tree, or use them in a pretend play sweet shop.

Or cut our a paper spiral and use it to decorate a paper lollipop, as in this one from 10 Minutes of Quality Time (the spiral printable is included). I also love the perler bead lollies from One Crazy Mom. You can make these a solid color or stripes, or use all those mixed up beads to make a totally random design.

Round out your day of lollipops with some printables. I found lollipop coloring pages at The Art Kit Blog and Twisty Noodle (that one’s a color by number) and dot coloring pages at Free Preschool Coloring Pages. You can also do a lollipop color matching activity with this cut and paste printable from Mama’s Reflections.

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Fun Outdoor Games for Fourth of July and Summer Events

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

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