Archive for January 2010
Naptime Creation!
It’s been a long time since we made a naptime creation. What that is for those new here are crafts for older kids- older being relative of course. This would be perfect for the 5-8 crowd! Instead of candy, cookies or the plain old paper valentine’s why not make your friends their very own princess wand? This valentine will be used long after February 14th! I chose to make a fringe but you could glue on sequins or plastic gems too!
- Gather your materials. You will need some sparkly sticky back foam, a dowel, a hole punch,double stick tape, some ribbon, a marker, scissors, some fun card stock and a cookie cutter for a stencil .
- Start by tracing the heart cookie cutter on the back of the foam.
- Cut out.
- Punch holes in both foam pieces, make sure they match up!
- Peel the backing off and sandwich the dowel in between the sticky foam.
- Cut the ribbon into short pieces.
- Tie the ribbon onto the wand.
- Using pretty card stock and double stick tape make a gift tag and write a message.
- Tie onto the wand and it’s ready to be given to your fellow princess!
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Penguin Place Mat!
Who doesn’t like penguins? This penguin place mat craft could easily be turned into a plain old paper craft with white paper instead of a paper towel. You can find contact paper almost anywhere these days, both Walmart and Target carry it in my neck of the woods and of course the big craft stores do too! We use these place mats for play dough, crafts and yes dinner time too. Putting out the place mats for dinner is my son’s job so making something new and fun is a great way to keep it fresh!
- Gather your materials you will need 1 sheet of black construction paper, a sheet of paper towel ( paper will work too),contact paper, some glue, silver and blue sequins, 2 googly eyes, an orange marker, scissors and some white construction paper.
- Start by drawing an outline of a penguin with the marker on the black paper.
- Cut out and glue onto the paper towel.
- Add glue for the sequins.
- Add the snow – the sequins! This is awesome for fine tuning those fine motor skills. Those sequins are tricky.
- We had no orange paper so instead I had my son color this white piece to use for the beak and feet.
- Next cut out the beak and feet from the colored paper.
- Add the eyes.
- Add the beak and feet.
- Let dry - I didn’t because daylight and my ability for ok photos was fading fast in my cloudy sky town! But you will want to to avoid globs of glue stuck under contact paper.
- Measure your contact paper to fit – you will want to sandwich the place mat between 2 sides of a long rectangular piece. Peel back only half the backing , place the place mat face down on the sticky side. Doing it this way will prevent big bubbles and wrinkles on the front.
- Peel the rest of the backing off the contact paper and press to sandwich the place mat. Press firmly to seal.
- Trim the edges and voila!
Books !
Tacky the Penguin 
Penguin Dreams
I wasn’t going to post this for another week but my little man loves it so much that I couldn’t help but be excited to share. Sensory tubs are a fun way to include holiday themes in your house without putting up a million decorations. I like using natural things in sensory tubs if possible and the combination of the two beans is perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Edited to add that I just discovered that there has been issues with dried kidney beans being toxic as few as 4-5 beans ingested could cause stomach upset and more please replace the red kidney beans in this sensory table with red lentils.
As always watch your children carefully even older kids you think may be past the “mouthing” stage may still put things in their mouths.
- Gather your materials. You will need a large pan , plastic tub or Tupperware ( FYI I bought a cute red one from Walmart for $1.43 but liked how the beans looked in this better so I returned it , but had to share how low cost it can be!). You will also need some dried red lentils, dried navy beans, some heart glitter and foam hearts.
- Add the beans and lentils into the pan. Let your little on play for a bit. Then ask if they want to make it even cooler?!
- Add the sparkly hearts and foam.
- Dig in and play!
Remember that sensory tables and tubs are messy. Be prepared to use the dust buster, or broom a lot. Our rule is that ooops spills are accidents ( and we have a lot of those!) and you don’t get in trouble for accidents. If you spill on purpose you get one warning then the tub is put away until tomorrow and we will try again. It’s worked for us and kept both of us from getting too hung up on messes and focusing instead on the activity at hand.
Books!
Check out these reader favorites sent in last year. Do you have a favorite Valentine book? Leave the title in the comments!
by Diane deGroat . This book was one of my favorite stories to read for Valentine’s Day when I was an elementary librarian. In deGroat’s story, a class of assorted animals are assigned to write Valentine poems for all of their classmates. One student, who had been picked on by some of his classmates, uses the Valentine card-exchange to send rude messages to the bullies. Ultimately, the classmates apologize and rewrite their poems, reminding readers of the value of kind expression.
Sent in by Amber @ Librarianism Chronicles
Sent in by Amanda@ Going Green In Gainsville
Gossie
by Olivier Dunrea. This a wonderful story about a sweet little gossling and her favorite red boots. The images are simple and yet filled with rich detail; the text is rhythmic and engaging. You and your little one will enjoy following Gossie on her adventures as she shares with you all the ways she loves to wear her red boots until one day she can’t find them. Gossie’s experiences with her boots will help teach your toddler about the notions of backward, forward, uphill, downhill, etc. As if that isn’t enough, this little gem ends with the a terrific example of sharing and friendship when she finds them on her friend Gertie. My almost two-year old daughter loves it and I love it as well.Sent in by Chris @ Momtonic
I Love You This Much
Sent in by Andi @ Memories Are The Scraps Of Life
by H. Werner Zimmerman. It is a humorous little story about Alphonse, who wants to paint a valentine for his mouse friend. It is a great story that promotes participation from the kids, and helps them to identify different shapes. My girls love to read it over and over again!
Sent in by Karen @ Growing With The Girls
Jaguar J
My son really wanted to make a jaguar – as in the luxury car, for the letter of the week today, but I have my limits. I have no clue how to make a car look like a lowercase j. I need to take my own advice and remember that the act of creating and talking about the Jaguar j is the lesson, not if 40 out of 50 people can tell exactly what it is. As long as your child can you are golden!
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of construction paper ( yellow and brown),small piece of red paper, scissors, glue, googly eyes, and marker.
- Start by making a lower case j on your yellow paper.
- Have your child color the j if they want. I was very interested to watch my son write a j on it instead of simply scribbling. I love watching kids learning evolve.
- While they do that cut out spots and ears from the brown paper ( I used just a small strip from the top so I could still use the rest of it for the backing later.
- Cut out a nose and mouth from the red paper.
- Add glue, maybe not as much as we did.
- Add your spots.
- Add the eyes, nose , mouth and ears!
- Let dry.
- Cut out and glue onto the remaining brown paper.
Books
Jungle Party
by Brian Wildsmith is a cautionary tale about a python and it’s tricky ways. In this book the jungle animals are tricked by a python into having a party with him, only to end up in his belly! Luckily a wise elephant is there to help and the animals get the last laugh. I liked this book although after about half way my wiggly 2 year old started loosing interest. I don’t think it’s the books fault, it’s just a little long for such a young audience. For slightly older kids this is a great book for making predictions about what will happen next.
Deep in the Jungle
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So rarely do I find blogs to share just when they are starting. Luckily I know the cooking mama behind Frosted Fingers . The blog is new but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it, so polished and she already has regular features like Menu Monday and Thirsty Thursday where she puts down the sauce pan to get everyone a little sauced up! The food she makes is realistic for families with young kids, because she has 3 little taste testers and we all know kids don’t lie to protect our feelings!
