Showing posts with label Kid Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid Crafts. Show all posts
In the spirit of Halloween, and trying desperately to believe that it's fall despite the 90 degree temperatures, I made Sweet Girl a felt jack-o-lantern to play with on our flannel board. I wish I were good enough to free hand it, but I am a terrible freehander. I have ruined enough projects to know that by now. Instead I used patterns that I found online. I just cut them out and pinned them to my felt and cut them out again.


I made three sets of faces for Sweet Girl to play with. I was worried she wouldn't recognize what they were since they are funny shapes, but she actually picked it up without me having to really explain it to her. For the most part the faces she made didn't exactly resemble faces, but the most important thing was that she had fun.




With the start of preschool and Husband back to work (He works in education so he has the summers off. It's so nice!) I have been having a hard time fitting in Mommy and Me School. We still do activities and we play and go on outings, but it's hard to plan a specific activity and do all the things to make it blog worthy. I don't know how you working moms do it. I'm having to learn to let some things go and just do what I can do. With that said, here is our Mommy and Me School activity from yesterday.

Sweet Girl and I loved playing with the contact paper for our contact paper fall collage on Monday. I started thinking it would be fun if we could somehow make it into an apple tree. I have been wanting to start doing some apple activities to celebrate fall. I just wasn't sure how to make it work until I saw this cute pumpkin window cling from Kids Activity Blog.


To make my tree I cut out a treetop from green construction paper and then just cut out the center and replaced it with contact paper with the sticky side facing out. Then I taped on the trunk and stuck it on our back door. I cut apples out of green foam, I would have preferred red, but I had green on hand.


Sweet Girl loves apples. We talked about apples and pretended to eat them. We talked about green. I swear someday she will know her colors! We also counted them. When Sweet Girl counts she says "1,2,3,5,6." I don't know what happened to four, but we are working on it. 

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Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! 

This week Sweet Girl and I are celebrating the book Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator by Mo Willems. He is one of my favorite authors. He has written  the Knuffle Bunny books, the pigeon books, the piggie and elephant books and many others. His books just crack me up. His characters are so funny. The pigeon books are definitely my favorite. Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator is a nominee for Utah's Beehive Book Award. This story is so funny. Amanda's stuffed alligator is alive and they play together and surprise each other.

For our first activity we made a thinking cap. In this story Amanda's stuffed alligator needs to think about different things, so he puts on his thinking cap. I folded our thinking cap out of brown paper that I got at the dollar store for another project. I pulled out crayons and a pack or sparkly stickers to decorate with.


Playing with stickers was a great activity for developing fine motor skills. I really had to hold myself back when the stickers got stuck in Sweet Girl's fingers. I did help out a few times, but mostly I let her figure it out. Because the stickers were textured we got to talk about bumpy and smooth, as well as talking about what the pictures were.


Sweet Girl had so much fun decorating her hat, but she was not about to wear it. Every time I put it on her head she immediately pulled it off. This is the best picture I got of her "wearing" her hat. Oh well.


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The start of preschool is just a couple weeks away, and I am busy trying to make sure everything is ready. Our first unit is all about apples, so I made these apple bean bags to go along with it. Sweet Girl has already tested them out so I know they are super fun. After I finished them she placed each apple into a separate tupperware container. Then she put them into a bowl and then back in the containers, then she moved the containers around. It all looked very methodical, but I was not following very well.

These bean bags are very simple to make even if you don't sew well, and they are perfect for fall which is creeping up on us very quickly.

Here is what you need:
Felt- I found sheets at Walmart for $.23 each
Matching Thread
Filler- I used some leftover popcorn kernels I had
Apple Template

1. I cut a 5 1/2 inch apple template on my cricut. I'm sure you could easily find a picture online that would work. Then I pinned and cut out my felt apples. In this picture the stem and leaf are still on. Before I cut out the felt I just clipped the stem and leaf off and cut the out in brown and green felt.


2. Pin two apple pieces together with the stem and leaf pinned at the top.


3. Sew around the edge. I back stitched over the leaf and stem to make sure they would stay in place. Leave an opening to pour in the filler.


 4. Add the filler until it is as full as you want, but don't overfill or you won't be able to sew up the opening. Stitch up the opening.  You can turn it inside out before this step to hid the edges, but I don't mind the edges showing. I did trim them a little to make sure both sides met up perfectly.


Let the playing begin!

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This is our last paint week activity. It has been a fun week. We will still do painting projects in the future, and maybe even another paint week, but for now here is our grand finale! I saw this post for Bubble Bath Paint just a couple days ago on Just Another Day in Paradise, and I knew we had to fit it in this week. Sweet Girl loves playing in the tub. It is probably her favorite time of the day.


Here is what you need:
1 C Clear Baby Shampoo
3 1/2 T Cornstarch
Food Coloring

Mix shampoo and cornstarch together. Separate into however many colors you want and add food coloring. Super easy!

I gave Sweet Girl a sponge brush to paint with.


 She was so excited about her new bathtub toy. 


After awhile she was finished painting and wanted to clean up. She emptied what was left of the paint into the bath water. It got very bubbly and very murky looking. She had a great time playing in the bubbles and scooping and pouring water. I think this bath lasted almost 45 minutes. I love watching her have so much fun exploring.


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Okay, this may be my longest post yet, but it will all be worth it in the end. Before we left on our big trip to the other side of the country, I was frantically searching for toys to entertain Sweet Girl on the plane. I was terrified of her screaming and then we would all get kicked off the plane. I found a mini Magnadoodle (worth every penny of the $3 I paid for it), a notebook to draw in, a few books, her foam play makeup. I just needed on more thing, and I Spy Bag. I have always wanted to make one, so I searched for a good tutorial. Sew Easy Lemon Squeezy had the best I Spay Bag tutorial. I loved it! I made just a few alterations.

Here is my disclaimer. I am not an amazing sewer. I have never written a sewing tutorial before. I tried to write out what I did in a very clear way, and hopefully the pictures help. If I forgot something or it doesn't make sense, please be kind in asking for clarification. Don't make me cry. Thanks. Here goes.

What you need:
1/2 Yard of fabric- Probably even less, but better safe than sorry if you make a mistake and need another piece.
1 Piece of Plastic- I used a page protector.
Thread
Rice
20ish Small Objects- I found some of mine at Target in the dollar section and some in the button section at Joanns. These were the most expensive part, so watch for sales or coupons.

Step 1: Measure and cut out your pieces. 
The two 10x8 rectangles are the front and back. The 10x6 rectangle is the pocket on the back. The 20x 4 rectangle is the purse strap. I had to make this into a purse because Sweet Girl loves purses, plus it would make it easier for her to carry around.


 Step 2: Cut out the window and clip the corners.
Measure to find the middle point of one of your 10x8 rectangles. You will be making a 6x4 rectangle to cut out to make the window. From the middle point measure up 2 inches and down 2 inches, then 3 inches out to each side. Go ahead and draw right on your fabric because once it is cut and sewn you won't ever see it. Cut out the rectangle you just drew.


In each corner of the window you just made, measure 1 inch diagonally, and clip. Fold those new flaps backward and iron them down.

 

Step 3: Prep the back pocket.
While the iron is out, take the piece for the back pocket and fold it our twice, each time about 1/4 of an inch, and press it into place. Set this aside for a minute.

Step 4: Sew the plastic into the window.
You can use whatever plastic you have around the house. I just used a whole page protector because it's what I had. Pin on the full page to the back side of your window, you'll cut it down to the right size after it is sewn.   Sew twice around the window to make it extra sturdy. Cut off the extra plastic.

 

Step 5: Sew the pocket onto the back piece.
  Sew down the fold that you ironed down in step 3. Sew the pocket onto the back piece along the sides and the bottom, leaving the top open. I added a pocket for a marker by sewing a straight line down from the top of the pocket all the way to the bottom.

 

Step 6: Sew the Handle.
This step is totally optional. You can have a perfectly lovely bag with no handle if you prefer. To make the handle, just fold the piece in half with right sides together, and sew all the way down the side, leaving the ends open. Then turn the piece inside out (I always hate this step on any project. It's a pain.) Press the handle with an iron to give it a nice finished look.


Step 7: Sew this whole thing together.
Pin the front and back pieces together with the right sides facing in. Pin the ends of the handle into
the top where you want them to go. Than handle itself will be on the inside of everything.  Sew Around the top, 1 side, the bottom and half of the other side. Pull it right side out through the opening you left on one side.


Step 8: Fill it up!
Before I put my objects in I took a picture of them to print off and laminate. This is the check off sheet for what Sweet Girl needs to look for. I like this better than the list because it will probably be a few years before she can read, and this way she knows what to look for and can play independently (eventually I mean. She still isn't quite sure what to do with this besides carry it around and shake it.) 

I put in about 20 objects and then just added the rice until I thought it looked like enough. For an older child I would have added more, but I didn't want it to be too heavy for Sweet Girl to carry around.

Step 9: Sew it up and play!
Sew up the open edge. I added a flower with hot glue to make it extra girly. Time to Play!
 

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