Hostess Gifts & More for Summer Parties

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Have you been looking for a gift to bring a hostess of a summer party? Or perhaps for those hard to buy for people? One of my favorite places to check out is Shop gifts under $25 at The Grommet. The Grommet is a company that helps launch new products onto the market. Usually it is the inventors/creators of the items that they are helping. The gifts are unique and new. Check out some of these great ideas from the gifts under $25 at The Grommet. 

Fruit Exploration: Watermelon with a Quilt

Watermelon always makes me think of summer time. It is so fun to eat a slice in the hot weather. Hazel loves watermelon just like her namesake! My grandmother use to eat watermelon every day and Hazel would love to as well. Needless to say she was excited to explore one. She pulled out her magnifying glass and checked out the rind.

Then we flipped it over so she could explore the inside. She touched both and recorded it all in her fruit journal.

Then of course we enjoyed some sweet watermelon!!

"Citrullus lanatus5SHSU" by Shu Suehiro - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Did you know that watermelon originally came from the southern part of Africa? Or that it is a berry? It is a berry with an extra thick rind according to Wikipedia. It is loosely considered a melon. It has a smooth exterior usually green and a juicy interior that is usually pink but can be yellow, orange, or white. It contains 91% water and 6% sugar by weight and is high in vitamin C. The rinds are also edible, but most people do not eat them. Although pickled rinds are popular in several places.  (Source) Next to tomatoes watermelon has a high level of lycopene which is important for cardiovascular and bone health. It also contains citrulline which scientists are discovering  new things about how it helps your health. They have also discovered that all parts of the watermelon, not just the pink flesh, are packed with these nutrients. (Source)

We have been enjoying books about watermelons or at least that mention watermelons. Both Watermelon Wishes by Lisa Moser and Icy Watermelon by Sandra Fria have wonderful Latino appeal. Icy Watermelon is in both English and Spanish on each page. Fruits of India by Jill Hartley adds more multicultural appeal. It is a very simple board book. The Pinkalicious book and Ned's New Home only briefly mention watermelons.

For a craft we decided to make a watermelon doll quilt. I found this pattern in one of the children's quilt books I had out from the library, but forgot to write down which one it was before I returned it. Sorry!! I still need to add the seeds to the slices and layer, quilt and bind it, but for now Hazel is enjoying it as a summer cover for her dolls. I am going to use black buttons as seeds. The instructions said black buttons or draw them on with a permanent marker. I loved this square since it was simple and showed an easy method to do half square triangles. The book gave the measurements to cut in three different sizes for the square. We did the small one since she wanted to do multiple squares. Of course when it came time to sew she wanted to play and not sew, so I pieced it on my machine.

We could not decide which fabric to use for the inside flesh, so we used two. The black and white plaid with cats represents a tablecloth. It is truly a perfect summer quilt. I added the watermelon fabric (which I think Hazel may have picked out at some point) to sash and border the squares. 

For more ideas on watermelons check out:

• Watermelon Books and Activities for National Watermelon Day
• My Fruit Pinterest Board

Watermelon Books & Activities

Now watermelon says summer to me. I love watermelon and so does Hazel. It is one of the few fruits Steve will eat once in awhile. My grandmother, Hazel, ate watermelon every day in the summer. August 3 is National Watermelon Day. So to celebrate we have been reading some watermelon stories, did some watermelon activities and of course ate watermelon. We planned to make a watermelon craft, but ran out of time today.

Our first book is Watermelon Wishes by Lisa Moser. This is a wonderful story about a boy, Charlie, and his Grandpap. They plant some watermelon seeds. Charlie tells his grandfather that he hopes they will grow a wishing watermelon. All summer the grandfather tries to guess what Charlie's wish is while they are off doing fun summer activities. When the watermelons are finally ready to pick, Charlie chooses the wishing watermelon and finally reveals his wish. It is a touching story about a special relationship.

The next book is Fruits of India by Jill Hartley. This is a board book that shows pictures of different common fruit found in India. On the last page they identify all the fruit in English. The covers are including as part of the book. It is a simple book, but it was neat to see fruits we did not know.

The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli is a humorous story of a crocodile who loves watermelon and one day swallows a seed. It is very cute and all of the fears of what might happen if you swallow a watermelon seed goes through the crocodile's mind. He is scared enough to almost swear off watermelon. 

Watermelon Day by Kathi Appelt is a wonderful story about a girl who lives on a farm. She helps her father with the watermelon patch. Every day she asks him if it is a watermelon day. On watermelon days they have relatives visit and there are games of softball, relay races, apple bobbing, Mama's peach ice cream, and Uncle Ike playing his banjo and then of course ice cold watermelon (they choose the biggest one that morning and put it into the cold lake to get it cold). These are her favorite days in the summer and she is anxious all summer for their to be one. Finally the day arrives and all she can think about is the ice cold watermelon. It is another wonderful story about family times and fond summer memories.

Finally we are sharing One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge. Now this story is about a sister and brother who are planting their garden. It is a counting book and the only mention of watermelon is the one watermelon seed and picking ten watermelons. All the seeds and plants that they plant go through the numbers one to ten. Then they harvest by tens. The final thing they harvest is the corn which is popcorn so in the winter they turn the corn into hundreds and thousands of pieces of popcorn. It is a fun book that helps teach counting.

Another fun book that involves someone planting watermelon seeds is Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu. Although the watermelon is minor roll in the story. I posted about it here.

The two activities we are sharing are not my own. The first is one that we got from a story time at the library. It went with a Donald Crews book, Ten Black Dots. We will share some other activities with this book for the Virtual Book Club for Kids later in the month. (Donald Crews is our author this month.) For this activity the kids colored a half of a paper plate green to be the rind of the watermelon. Then they glued on a piece of red construction paper that was cut to fit inside the rind. Next they counted out ten black seeds/beans. The game is to play with a friend. The friend chooses a number between one and ten and the child needs to put that number of seeds onto his/her slice.

Our next activity came from Making Learning Fun. It is Roll-a-Watermelon. I cut the rind from green construction paper and the slice from red  paper and then the four seeds from black. 

There are many more watermelon ideas at Making Learning Fun as well including math and literacy ones. Plus there are the great ones that have been shared at Sharing Saturday recently. 

From Little Bins for Little Hands--Click picture to see post

• From Little Bins for Little Hands: Wonderful Watermelon Rice Sensory (See picture above)
• From Little Bins for Little Hands: Wonderful Watermelon Sensory Play & More
• From Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: Watermelon Scissor Skills and  Paper Plate Craft
• From Gift of Curiosity: 9 Books about Watermelon (Some of the ones I have listed and some others.)
• From Gift of Curiosity: Watermelon-Themed Math Activities for Preschoolers
• From Gift of Curiosity: Watermelon-Themed Alphabet Games 

How did you celebrate National Watermelon Day? Hazel and I also checked on our watermelon plants in our garden and saw some baby watermelons. Plus we wanted to make a watermelon dress for one of her dolls, but we went blueberry picking today with friends and that took much of the day. So she is hoping we can celebrate National Watermelon Day again tomorrow or some time this week.