Archive for March 2009
How cute are these? If you think these are cute you are going to be falling all over yourself at the photos on Katherine Marie Photography’s site. Wow. Beautiful and she is crafty too. To see more of this adorable spring craft pop over to her site Katherine Marie Photography. Here is how we tried ( tried is the word to focus on ) to recreate them.
- Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard, paint, glue, paper in yellow for the chick, and pastels for the dots, a paper fastener,marker, scissors, a feather , googly eyes or buttons and some tape.
- Start by drawing an egg on the cardboard with a zig zag break in it.
- Have your child paint this. Try to stick with light colors, we used pretty dark ones and it made our egg look more dinosaur than Easter… Let dry.
- While they are painting draw a simple chick on the yellow paper.
- Add eyes a beak and a feather – I taped the feather on.
- Cut out small circles for decorating the egg- I used scrap card stock.
- When the egg is dry cut out
- Add your glue for the card stock dots
- Add the dots, let dry.
- Poke holes in both the top and bottom egg shells and thread the fastener through.
- Add your chick, again I used tape.
- Open
- Close
Thanks to Katherine Marie for sharing this wonderful craft !
Book !
( Caterpillar wrestling @ 6 months)
Yes you read that right this funky little caterpillar from the book we all know and love ( I read it 3 times yesterday) is 40 years old. Today March 20th is Very Hungry Caterpillar Day . Over the years I have used this for teaching so many things, healthy eating, days of the week, and of course the life cycle of a butterfly! Here are some of our activities you could do to celebrate.
How we are celebrating !
My son and I also love to act out the story with a felt board, ours isn’t being made anymore but you can find one just like it here !
- Gather your materials. You’ll need some cardboard ( if I did this again I would use a paper bag instead of a glossy cereal box , it was hard to glue) , 2 shades of pink tissue paper, scissors, glue, brown paint and a sheet of blue construction paper.
- Start by drawing a bare tree on the cardboard.
- Next have your child paint the tree brown, crayons or markers would work great too.
- While they paint cut the tissue paper into small squares.
- Let the paint dry and hand your child the tissue paper square to crumple. Be warned that for days after my son has asked to crumple many many things around the house.
- Cut the tree out and glue onto the construction paper. I had to hold down the cardboard for a few seconds because of the glossy side not wanting to glue.
- Add glue to the tree top , I flipped it upside down for my son so it was easier to reach.
- Add the blossoms!
Whether you add a few or many it will look beautiful!
“The Falling Flowers” by Jennifer B. Reed is the perfect book for this craft ! I was a little too loud when I found it at the library, my son told me to shhh! The story is very sweet, it’s about a grandmother taking her young granddaughter on a surprise outing in Tokyo. It turns out that she is taking her to see the cherry trees in full bloom just as her grandmother had done with her.
“Suki’s Kimono” by Chieri Uegaki has been on my shelf for years. I really really like this book, the message is fantastic! Suki loves her Kimono, she doesn’t care that her sisters think it’s not cool to wear it to school, her grandma gave it to her and she likes it. I love that she is depicted as confident but not 100% sure of herself, it allows readers to really connect, recognizing those times when we are putting up a brave face even if inside we aren’t so sure. It’s a lovely book!“How do I start?”
I have been asked this question a lot lately, and I never mind answering it. The thing is is that every child is different and the younger the child the harder it is to ask them what they want to do today. So here are some of my most basic activities, most were done when my son was 15-18 months old . For a full list of beginner activities look in the index under Beginners .
Dig and Find ~ Sensory Activity
On day two of our Spring Fling week we are making something everyone loves, butterflies! My son had a lot of fun making this and really took his time. Adding small embellishments like the sequins add a fine motor activity to this project . Learning about life cycles is an appropriate science topic for preschoolers and the butterfly life cycle is a great one to start with. Also make sure to pop over and see a slightly different and very adorable butterfly at
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of construction paper,scissors, crayons, glue,googly eyes and some sequins.
- Start by tracing your child’s hands.
- Next give them the 2nd piece of construction paper and have them draw whatever they want.
- While they create a butterfly habitat or just scribble ( it’s all great practice and creativity!) cut out the hands and lay the thumbs on top of each other. Trim the bottom so it looks like a butterfly glue together. Older children can do this and should do the cutting if they can.
- Glue onto the decorated paper.
- I used a crayon to outline where the body was and some antennae.
- Add the glue
- Add the bling! Start with the eyes.
- Next add lots of beautiful sequins. Picking up these tiny sequins is an awesome fine motor activity,encourage your child to pick them up making an O with their thumb and index finger,not by sliding them off the table.
- Let dry !
“The Monarch Butterfly” by Gail Gibbons is a small book filled with facts about these beautiful and amazing insects. What makes this book a great non fiction pick for your preschooler is that the pictures are so descriptive that even young toddlers can sit ,look at the pictures and have you descibe them without going into the text which is more appropriate for preschoolers. Preschoolers willlove all the facts about these beautiful butterflies.
