Archive for October 2009
Sandpaper Pumpkin
This craft was inspired by a follower on twitter, her son has a visual disability and she asked me if I have any crafts for children who had similar disabilities. I was embarrassed to have to say no. I started gathering supplies , brushing up on my early childhood special education and brainstorming crafts. I will be including more crafts and activities specifically geared towards children with special needs in the coming months. I would love to hear from other parents with requests! When a child has lost some or all of their vision the importance of other senses becomes heightened. Today we focused on touch but also sound with this Halloween craft.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 sheets of sand paper, we used one very fine sheet and the other was large and rough. Orange and green paint, a black marker, scissors and glue.
- Start by drawing or having your child draw a pumpkin on the sandpaper. We made a separate stem but you don’t need to.
- Finger paint the pumpkin. My son was shocked to feel the sandpaper. ” This weird paper mama, it tickles.” You can imagine my happiness hearing that , that was the point. To feel , describe it and explore.
- While they finger paint draw the jack-o-lantern face on the 2nd piece of sandpaper.
- Hand your child the black marker and have them color the face . My son did not like this at all, it wasn’t easy to color on the sand paper and it’s roughness jiggled his hand.
- Cut the face pieces out.
- Cut out the pumpkin.
- Add glue
- Spread the massive amount of glue wher eyou need it! Pop on the stem on the pumpkin
- Glue the eyes , nose and mouth on.
- Let dry.
Reader Book Reviews !
“Shy Mama’s Halloween” by Anne Broyles sent in my Lynn. This book tells the beautiful story of a Russian family that recently settled in the United States and experiences its first Halloween. The mother, a naturally shy woman, speaks little English and is understandably hesitant about the idea of mingling with goblins and ghosts. She helps to make her children’s costumes, but leaves the task of trick-or-treating to her husband and the children. When her husband is too ill to take the children, Mama leaves her fears behind and takes the children out… read the complete review.
“Ten Timid Ghosts” by Jennifer O’Connell sent in by Janelle . The favorite Halloween book this year at our house is definitely Ten Timid Ghosts
Thank you Lynn from Chronicles of an Infant Bibliophile and Janelle from Brimful Curiosities for sending in these reviews and allowing me to share them with my readers. If you haven’t seen their blogs, please pop over they are two of my favorite for books!
I was asked tonight where I find inspiration and I answered everywhere and that is the truth. My son is so into car models right now, it all started with him noticing the H on a friend’s Honda and slowly it’s developed into a chorus of ” Honda! Chevy ! Audi! BMW! Toy-woda!” every time we drive anywhere. I decided to harness that and work in some phonics. To say he had a blast is a massive understatement.This would make a great group project too!
- Gather your materials. You will need a car magazine , some craft paper( or any large piece), a marker, some crayons, scissors and a glue stick.
- Start by drawing a road on your paper.
- Add the alphabet with your child, have them tell you what’s next after you write each letter if they are able.
- Hand them the crayons and have them decorate the road- we kept it simple with grass, yellow markings and black for the road. There is no wrong way to do this.
- While my son did that I ripped some pages out of the magazine looking for different makes that start with different letters (Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda…) If your child is able to have them search . My son refused to let me do this alone, but he was searching only for Hondas.
- When I had enough I cut the cars out more carefully.
- While I did that I handed my son some of the discarded pages for him to practice cutting too, his cutting skills aren’t fine tuned enough yet and if I had given him a car to cut out, it would have been pure frustration , but he felt included by cutting the scraps.
- Time to glue them on.
- Choose a car, identify it and identify which letter it starts with. If your child needs some help here is what I did. My son had issues with was I for Infinity. When he did I repeated the sound and said ” like Igloo” by giving hints he was still able to figure it out himself which for most almost 3 year olds is key to their pride. With children who are not identifying sounds yet, tell them which letter it starts with and have them find it on the page.
- Find the letter on the page.
- Add glue
- Add the car.
- Repeat with all the cars.
- When all are glued on go through them again and label them with their names.
- After I taped it to the wall he picked out a car for me, a Mercedes! Good boy!
Song
Little Red Car is one of my most viewed song videos click here to watch it !
Books!
“The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race” by Stan and Jan Berenstain shouldn’t be overlooked. Both my son and i really enjoy this book from the ever popular series. It’s a good story about being persistent and they sneak lots of learning into the rhyming text. Colors, opposites and more can be reinforced by this retelling of the classic tale of the tortoise and the hare.
“Everything I Know About Cars” by Tom Lichtenheld is hilarious! I grabbed it at the library today knowing I would need some car books to pair with this activity and didn’t preview it at all. All I knew is that it was a book about cars I had never read. At nap when I finally opened it with my son in his car Pjs- I realized it’s very long, and probably more approriate for 4+. I didn’t put it down though because after reading this on the first page I was hooked :
A collection of made-up facts, Educated Guesses and silly pictures about Cars, Trucks and other Zoomy things
The author had me at zoomy things. My son only made it through the first few pages, but I couldn’t wait to open it back up after he was asleep. The book takes the readers through the history of cars ( totally made up) , the basics of road trips, kid designed cars … and ends with a tutorial on how the reader can draw their own made up car. I really liked this book and plan to buy a copy for my 4and 7 year old nephews who will love the humor ( yes some of it is pottyish but still fun) and the illustrations.
” Truck Driver Tom “ by Monica Wellington is one of my son’s picks. The story is simple, Tom and his puppy drive produce from the farm to the market and see the country side and much more along the way. The best part of this book are the fun bright and detailed illustrations, there is a wide variety of trucks, cars , emergency and construction vehicles! Also it’s a great lesson about how our food gets from the farm to us. This author is one I have only discovered since becoming a mom and really wish I had been familiar with her while I was teaching, her books are perfect for 2-5 year olds.
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Basket of Apples
Sometimes I think of kids craft and in my mind it’s simple, when in reality it’s not. This is one of those crafts but I still wanted to share, we had fun doing it but it was definitely a mom and little man joint effort, I helped with almost every step. All the steps were worth it though, he was so proud to show off his” tricky art ” to his dad when he got home from work. If you are looking for a more toddler friendly apple craft try this or this or this .
- Gather your materials . You will need 1 sheet of plain construction paper( or paper grocery bags would be awesome too),1 sheet of orange construction paper , some green paper, red, brown and green markers (crayons or paint would work as well), popsicle sticks, glue and scissors.
- Start by drawing some apples ( yes those are apples) on the plain construction paper.
- Have your child color the apples.
- While they color draw a basic basket on the orange paper, leaving room under for the grass. This is just a guide for your child. Cut a strip of green for the grass, set aside.
- When they are done cut the apples out.
- Have them make cuts along the green strip to make grass, do not cut all the way through. I folded it in half to make it easier for him to hold it .
- Time to glue.
- Add a line of glue on the bottom for the grass.
- Add the grass.
- Add glue to the basket.
- Add the apples.
- Add stems and leaves with a green marker
- Add glue for the sticks.
- Add the sticks, let dry.
Books!
” Apple Picking Time” by Michele Benoit Slawson was not what I was expecting , it was so much more. I was expecting a basic book about picking apples at an orchard. This book is anything but basic, it’s dreamy and while reading it I almost felt as thought I was back in time when a whole community would come to a stand still for something like apple picking. The protagonist is Anna a little girl who works hard in the orchard along side her parents and grandparents . She isn’t as fast as her parents, but with hard work and the support of her family she reaches her goal and fills a bin! I loved this book, I didn’t even try to read it to my son, he simply wouldn’t sit long enough. The text is long and I would suggest it for preschoolers and up.
“I Know It’s Autumn” by Eileen Spinelli is much more age appropriate for my son and other toddlers. The book is a simple look at all the things that tell a small child that Autumn is here. Pumpkin muffins, apple picking, cooler weather, hayrides and more all signal that the summer is gone and the fall has arrived. I like this book because there will be something a child will relate to and be able to identify with. I also love that the family is biracial and there is no mention of it at all. It’s nice to see and I wish more books were so non challant about representing all kinds of families.
“Apple Farmer Annie” by Monica Wellington is another instant favorite in our house. My son loves this author and I like how simple but informative this book is. Your little reader will learn about the basics of what happens at an apple orchard , but you can take it further if you want. On many of the pages there are chances to learn more, like the page about sorting and classifying, where there are apples ready to count 1-10, and sorted by colors. I love the last page that says that Annie is so happy to have her own apple farm. I loved that message and think it’s a lot more powerful than some may think, women on farms in most books are “farmer’s wives” and I love that there is no one but Annie doing her own thing.
Go Apple Picking !
Check out pickyourown.org
to find local pick your own farms near you!
Monster m !
Monsters have kinda taken over here at No Time For Flash Cards, first Saturday’s awesome book post by Carrie Anne now this monster craft ! I can’t take credit for this though, I again asked my son what letter he wanted to do and after shooting down his P for .. well let’s just say he is potty training and I am sure you can guess. We settled on m for monster! Scroll down for more fun alphabet activities !
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of construction paper , some colored foam ( or more paper would be a ok), some fun paints ( we busted out the art daubers because they dry fast), scissors, glue and a marker.
- Start by writing a lowercase m on one piece of construction paper.
- Have your child color / paint the m.
- While they do that cut the paper or foam into horns, teeth and eyes.
- I made the eyes because nap time was already overdue when we realized we needed to do our letter of the week, and I didn’t want to push the specifics. Normally I would have had my son do this with help instead of doing it for him. Always adjust activities to your child’s specific needs/ abilities.
- When they are done painting the m cut out.
- Add glue to back of the m
- Slam ( or gently pat) the m on the 2nd piece of paper.
- Add the teeth
- Add the eyes
- Add the horns, and let dry.
More Alphabet Activities To Try
Discovery Boxes
This is a picture of a T discovery box from 2008
A great way to introduce a letter of the week to your child is to fill a box with items starting with that letter.The best part about this activity is that you use things around your house, and you can use it for letters, colors and shapes!
Letter of the Week Stories
This is a fun activity for older preschoolers, I had fun doing this with my PreK class a few years ago! What you do is write a short story leaving blanks for your child to fill in with words starting with the letter of the week. The results will make both of you giggle, and your child will be learning too!
Here is an example :
Yesterday I went walking down the street and I found a _________ , I couldn’t believe it! My mom said I couldn’t keep it . Instead she let me go to the store and buy a _________ but there were none left! The man at the store sold me a ________ instead! I thought it smelled funny , so I went home and on the way home I found three ______. what a funny day!
Check Out This Blog !
I have had the greatest pleasure getting to know Jenny while working together as OfficeMax Moms on their A Day Made Better campaign and have to make sure all my readers know about her blog Jenny On The Spot. It takes a lot of talent to make someone laugh, and even more to do it without cursing or using shock value. Jenny On The Spot is hilarious and touching and I have utterly enjoyed reading every post whether it made me laugh or cry.
