I love monster crafts and so do my kids. My daughter is all about googly eyes right now and since she has stopped putting everything in her mouth I am excited to let her use them. This monster craft was a blast to make and I have some tips to make sure that there is ample alphabet learning involved too. This is the 15th post in our popular Alphabet For Starters series which is all about playing and learning letters in fun simple ways.If you are looking for a more traditional approach to letters we have our Letter Of The Week series as well.
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper, scissor, contact paper, foam letters ( ours are stickers but I left the backing on ) and googly eyes. You might also want some painter’s tape to keep the contact paper on the table.
- Start by folding your paper in half and cutting out a monster shape. Then cut the middle out .
- Peel the backing off the contact paper and place it sticky side up on the table. Place the monsters on it.
- Invite your kiddo to the table and create! As you can see she was instantly interested.
- As she chose letters she naturally named them or asked what they were called. At this point she knows all her uppercase letters but will still ask me sometimes. Usually I say some outlandish thing like ” It’s Mama!” and she will say ” No you Mama, dis is W! ” I only do that if I know it won’t confuse her. She giggles and it’s a game where she gets to be the smarty know it all which for a toddler that gets bossed around by pretty much everyone including a smarty know it all brother it’s a nice feeling to have.
- Picking up the googly eyes off the flat table is tricky and I placed them like that on purpose, it forced her to really use those fine motor skills to pick them up and place them on the monster. I loved that she put one in the inside of the Q!
- At one point she asked me to do it so instead of just packing up or doing the craft myself as per her request , I grabbed a few letters and said ” Which monster do you want to put the P on? ” That was enough for her to keep going. Don’t push it if they are done though. I could tell she wasn’t done just wanted to tackle it together.
- Once your monster ( or monsters) are done you can simply cut them out and display or sandwich them with another piece of contact paper.
- Display. I love that one of her monsters spells out rad , a word I use way more than I should !
Sandy says
This looks fun! Perfect for my little one. 🙂
Maro says
Great idea! I love it! I will definitely try it!
sara says
Hello,
I did this with my daughter yesterday. She really got into it. My question is, how do you coax your little one to put the materials inside the monster, butterfly, or other shape you are working with? My little lady put some letters in the monster but mostly around the monsters. It was also our first time doing and activity with contact paper so I know she was doing some exploring of that material too.
Anyway, thank you for your blog. It has helped me tremendously!
Sara
admin says
I would let they put them in or out but as you are starting it you could say something like ” Let’s fill the butterflies wings with colors. ” Or ” The monster likes to eat letters can you put some in his belly?” to make it fun and playful and so it’s not a matter of a right or wrong way of doing something.
Sabrina says
Something I will have to try. My daughter loves putting things on contact paper. The PJ’s she has on are my daughter’s favorite PJ’s.
Allison McDonald says
We call them ” Birdy Cozies” but they are getting a little snug here 🙁