Crafts Archives - Page 19 of 20

Read.Explore.Learn.-Special Christmas Trees

December 16, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I am featuring two very special Christmas books this week about Christmas trees. I love them both.

The first is called The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown. It is an amazingly moving book about a tree that is dug up every winter just in time for Christmas to be taken to a little boy who is bedridden. When Christmas is over he is returned to the woods to grow and wait.

The tree looks forward to making this special trip be part of the celebration while the seasons come and go.

One year the man doesn’t come and the tree starts to worry and dislike the now frozen world around him. As Christmas nears the man comes with the whole family including the little boy walking on his own.

The tree gets to celebrate Christmas in his home this year bedecked with berries, apples, and cookies!

The second book is called Night Tree by Eve Bunting. One Christmas Eve as a family sets out into the woods to find a tree.

When they find the perfect tree, they decorate it with popcorn, apples, sunflower seed balls, and tangerines for the animals that live in the woods to feast on. They spread breadcrumbs beneath the tree as well as nuts and apples.

After the decorating is done the family spreads out a blanket and sings songs while sipping on hot chocolate.

When they finish, they pack up their things and leave the tree for the animals to enjoy!

Both of these books have wonderful illustrations and messages. I hope you get the opportunity to read them both during the Christmas season.

What did we do?

Decorated a JDaniel’s Tree

When JDaniel was six months, old my husband planted a tree for him. It is still small and so it is easy for JDaniel to help decorate.

I strung together a cranberry garland for his tree and JDaniel created decorated pinecones with peanut butter and bird seeds.

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn, Let’s BEE Friends, La La Home Daycare and It’s Playtime.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Joey and Jet in Space

December 2, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie into children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

JDaniel loves to have me read Joey and Jet in Space by James Yang to him. It doesn’t contain many words, but it is filled with amazing pictures.

Joey and Jet start the book floating in space exploring together. Jet sees his bone floating by and chases it. Joey is visiting with a boy in a floating space room and doesn’t see him disappear.

Joey spends most of the book asking spacecraft, robots, and satellites if they have seen his dog. He doesn’t seem to be anywhere.

Finally, he hears the squeak of his dog and heads towards it. Hooray! He finds Jet and just in time for Mom to call over a satellite to them to tell them it is lunchtime.

When you get to see them with Joey’s mom, you find that they have been playing in his room the whole time. The whole story is just in Joey’s imagination.

What did we do?

Created a Mosaic

I bought the My First Sticky Mosaics: Transportation for JDaniel to do on the plane trip we took for Thanksgiving. He wasn’t that interested in doing it on the plane but enjoyed working on the rocket mosaic when we got home.

Rocket Launching

JDaniel made this plastic cup rocket in science class at preschool. We have spent a lot of time at home launching it over and over again.

Supplies

Paper Rocket

Two Rubber Bands

Two Plastic Cups

Directions:

1. Color picture of a paper rocket.

2. Place Four Slits in one of the plastic cups. Each pair of slits will be across from the other.

3. Tie a knot at the end of a piece of rubber band thread it through the first slit.

4. Pull the rubber band across the cup and place the slit on the other side of the cup.

5. Tie a knot in the band.

6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the remaining band.

7. Place the cup with the rocket and rubber band on top of the plain cup and push down.

8. Watch your rocket fly.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Veterans Day

November 11, 2011 By Deirdre

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

It has been really hard to find books on Veteran’s Day to share with you this week. I have already shared the two books that are in my library system and on Amazon.com. I made the decision to teach JDaniel about the American flag instead of focusing on Veteran’s Day.

We found The American Flag by Elaine Landau at the library. It is chockfull of facts about the flag and its history. What held JDaniel’s attention in the book was the pictures. We picture walked our way through the book.

When JDaniel asked questions about the flag, we searched for answers in the book. He has just started to say the Pledge of Allegiance in preschool and had a lot of questions about it. It was fun to hunt for the answers.

What did we do?

Visited a Memorial

Our local veterans’ memorial is across the street from JDaniel’s school. I decide to take him for a picnic after school to the memorial. We had a great lunch and talked about the flags that are flying there.

Flag Lunch

JDaniel had a Veteran’s Day muffin tin over the weekend. He loved building his own sandwich with the stripes.

Create a Frame

JDaniel and I went to our first Home Depot workshop on Saturday and put together this Veteran’s Day picture frame. He had the best time hammering and painting. I think we will go back next month.

Halloween Traditions Link Up

October 24, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to the Halloween Traditions Link Up! I look forward to visiting your posts and taking in your Halloween costumes, Halloween foods, Halloween crafts and traditions or memories.

There are link ups below for your posts . Each family friendly or child related post linked up will need to have a Halloween Traditions badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Halloween Traditions Link Up. Please don’t link up more than two posts for each area.

Here is the badge:

This link up will be open from Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd

Halloween Costumes

Halloween Recipes

Halloween Crafts

Halloween Traditions and Memories

Please take a moment to visit some of the other links after adding yours!

Halloween Party Ideas- Crafting a Pumpkin Salad

October 6, 2011 By Deirdre

I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween craft with food. JDaniel and I headed to the Fresh Market salad bar and I had him select foods he would like to try. We would use those foods to create a Halloween salad.

We ended up with a variety of foods. Some were brand new and others were old favorites.

I placed all the ingredients in an ice cube tray and showed him how to create a pumpkin face using some of the ingredients in orange pepper slices with celery stems.

The tray contains edamame, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, red cabbage, yellow squash, fried wonton strips, mushrooms, celery, uncooked corn, carrot shavings, cauliflower, pineapple, raisins, and cheerios. This Halloween salad was a fun way for JDaniel to try new foods.

Then he started to create faces of his own while taste-testing the ingredients. JDaniel said that the wanton was filled with many holes that looked like many eyes. I thought that was a great idea.

He didn’t finish everything. We ended up wrapping the tray with the remaining food up with plastic. JDaniel said he wanted to do it again at dinner time.

I was happy to see that he tried many of the new foods. The chickpeas and wantons have become a new favorite.

This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, It’s Playtime, Adventures-In-Mommyland and will be linked to my Halloween Traditions link upon October 27th when it starts.

P.S. The Halloween Traditions link up event will include four link-ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts, and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link-up that begins Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd.

If you like this Halloween activity, here are some more Halloween activities to explore with your children.

Halloween Bat Craft

Halloween Number Puzzles

Read.Explore.Learn.- Baby Brains and Robomom

September 30, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

This week we looked at Baby Brains and RoboMom by Simon James. This book is just wonderful. Baby Brains is a super-intelligent baby that can spell “Good Morning Mommy” with blocks as a newborn. He loves to work on the computer, do experiments with his chemistry set, and design new inventions.

Baby Brains tries to invent things that will help his mom. He invents a self-rocking cradle and motorized stroller, but his mom is still tired.

Baby Brains decides to invent a robot to help mom and dad.

Mom and Dad are thrilled when RoboMom makes breakfast and does the dishes. RoboMom tries to give Baby Brains a bath and change his diaper, but Baby Brains prefers mom or dad to do it.

By the end of the first day, RoboMom starts to have smoke coming out of her head. This system malfunction leads to nuts and bolt being served at breakfast and Baby Brains being washed with the dishes. Later Baby Brains hung out with the wash. Baby Brains calls out for his mom and she comes running.

RoboMom explodes just are Baby Brains in unhung from the laundry line. Being a mom is just to much for her.

That night the family does their chores together.

Baby Brains ends the book by inventing a RoboMom 2 that just vacuums.

I guess you can’t replace a mom with a robot.

What did we do?

Cardboard Robot

We decorated a cardboard robot. JDaniel decided to place some things on him rather than glue them so he could decorate him all over again.

The robot spent the day playing with JDaniel and exploring the world.

Robot Math and More

Homeschool Creations has an amazing robot unit. I printed out several things for JDaniel and I to do together.

We did the robot puzzle.

We rolled a robot die and marked every time we rolled a particular robot on a graph with Cheerios.

There was a fun sorting activity we did.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Potty Animals

August 12, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week two of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- August! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Remember each post you link up counts as an entry in the the August edition of the Summer Reading Challenge. One post linked up to Read.Explore.Learn during the month of August will selected to win a reusable bag and books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

We have been working on mastering the potty for months. I decided it was time for some potty etiquette and checked Potty Animals by Hope Vestergarrd out of the library.

JDaniel will start preschool in a few weeks and needs to work on many of the skills Hope covers the book.

Potty Animals highlights a student that is struggling with a potty etiquette issue and need reminders to do the right thing.

The elephant needs to work on hand washing. The pig waits to long to go. The alligator forgets to lift the seat. The rabbit is afraid of the flush sound so he doesn’t flush. The duck daydreams on the potty while other people need to go. The badger barges in and the anteater forget to close the door. The hippo says she doesn’t need to go and the tiger goes outside. There is also a nap mat wetter and a horrible wiper. This school has it all.

The story is filled with fun rhymes and the cutest pictures by Valeria Petrome.

I hope JDaniel learns from their experiences and remember the etiquette tips it covers.

What did we do?

I decided JDaniel needed to become the prince of potty etiquette. If you are going to be the prince of potty etiquette you, you need a scepter and a crown.

Crown Making

We decorate a premade crown while visiting the The Children’s Museum of the Upstate. JDaniel inisted on wearing it home. True potty etiquette princes have to wear their crowns through the museum and into the car.

Scepter Making

JDaniel threaded ribbon through a paper towel roll and then colored it with crayons. Then as etiquette princes do he waved it.

ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: Activity Ideas from R-Z

I love how the ribbons blurred as JDaniel waved this scepter.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Roly Poly Egg and Letter Work

August 5, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week one of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- August Edition! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Roly Poly Egg by Kali Stileman is cute book about a spotted egg that rolls away when its mama shakes the branch it was laid on. It rolls across a giraffe, is sent flying by an elephant slurp, thrown by monkey are more as it travel back to its mom.

There are lines illustrating the eggs travels past dangers and through fun. The pictures for the animals are really whimsical and fun.

It was such fun to talk about the what ifs and what happened in as we read this book.

What did we do?

We looked at letters this week. The long O sounds in two of the words of the book’s title were the inspiration.

Game with Letters

While cleaning out JDaniel’s bedroom closet, he found this game from his Aunt Michelle. All you really have to do is match the pictures to the words.

Building Letters

JDaniel selected this box of Bristle Blocks as his one new thing from a consignment sale last week. We had fun building letters with them.

Working with Letter Sounds

I was sent the wonderful workbook and CD that works on letter sounds. We listened to the CD and found the songs cover skills wonderfully. JDaniel really like listening to the CD. We ended up taking it in car to listen to while we ran errands. Singing the Alphabet is now a favorite song.

We liked looking through the book and talking about the letters too. When he is a little older, we will work on writing in the answers and continuing to sing the songs.

The activity book has variety of types of activities. There are fill in the blank, circle the answer and more. We talked about many of the pages and activities as we worked through the book.

Disclaimer: I was sent Roly Roly Egg by Tiger Tales to review it and Twin Sisters Productions sent me the Phonic Activity Book with CD. The comments about both books are my own.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Hugless Douglas

July 29, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week four of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- July Edition! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Remember each post you link up counts as an entry in the the July edition of the Summer Reading Challenge. One post linked up to Read.Explore.Learn during the month of July will selected to win a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card. I will select the July winner and announce them next Friday

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Almost every night Jdaniel crawls out of bed and stands on the stair with his arms outstretched. “Mama, I need a hug!” he declares. I give him a hug and walk with him back upstairs.

Hugless Douglas wakes up in the spring needing a hug. After getting dressed to seek a hug, Douglass finds something big to hug. The rock he finds is too heavy. Then he looks for something big and tall to hug. The tree he finds gives him splinters. He looks for something comfy to hug and he finds a bush. The bush is filled with sheep that don’t want to be hugged.

After much trying on his own, he asks an owl for help. He even tries to hug the owl. The owl doesn’t want a hug either. He finds a rabbit and tries to hug him. The rabbit doesn’t want a hug, but he know someone that does want Douglas’ hug. The rabbit leads him to cave that was his mama’s winter home.

In the cave Douglas finds the perfect person to hug. His mama loves his hugs. She even hugs him back.

We love this story by David Melling. The pictures are filled with humorous animals reactions to being hugged. The owl covered in band aids is so silly. This warm book makes you want to reach out and hug someone you love.

What did we do?

Card Making

We made two special ladies cards this week to let them know that they are special. My mom will be seventy one next week so, we made her a birthday card. I love that he has eyes or are they ears. One way or another I love details in this picture.

My friend Elizabeth’s mom is not doing well at all. She asked if I would send her a note. I was more than happy to write her a note and include a lovely card from JDaniel.

I hope both ladies enjoy their cards. If you get a minute and would like to lift up a prayer for Mrs. Showalter, I am sure Elizabeth and her family would love it.

Disclaimer: I was sent this book to review by Tiger Tales Books.

Read.Explore.Learn.-Dressing Up with Books

July 22, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week three of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- July Edition! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

It has been really hot here in South Carolina. We have spent a lot of time in the house playing and reading this week.

The books I selected to share this week are about pretend play. Jdaniel has been pretend playing for awhile. He has a shelf in the pantry for his grocery store. The couch cushions have been used to make forts, an ambulance, a consignment sale area, library shelves and more.

When I came across No More Cookies by Paeony Lewis and Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn, the main characters reminded me of my little pretender.

No More Cookies is about a little girl and her stuffer monkey who inhale a tin of cookies. Mom tell Florence and Arnold that there will be no more cookies for the week. Florence is shocked. She loves cookies. All she will really need is one more.

Florence and Arnold devise plans to get cookies from Mom.

First they dress up as tooth fairies that need a cookie before they fly home after a night of teeth collecting. Mom gives them apples instead. Which isn’t fair!

Then they dress up as witches and threaten to turn Mom into a frog. Mom loves the idea. Frogs don’t have to do laundry.

Arnold is dressed as a patient who has been in an accident and Florence dresses as a nurse. Mom gives Arnold a bandage.

Finally Florence and Arnold dress up as chefs. Mom still says, “No cookies.” She does suggest making chocolate covered bananas with sprinkles.

Florence decides that they are better than cookies.

Lola Loves Stories is a wonderful tale of a little girl who totally gets into the books she gets at the library to read with her dad.

They read a book about princesses and the next day she dresses as a princess.

Then she and her mom read a book about a journey and the next day Lola pretends to fly her stuffed animals to a foreign land.

She reads a story about friends and the next day she has her friend Ben over for tea.

The story continues with Lola pretending to be a farmer, a tiger, a builder, the owner of magic shoes and Max from Where the Wild Things Are.

I love the imaginations that both Lola and Florence have. They find ways to pretend to be such a wide array of things.

What did we do?

Kids’ Meal Toy Animal Game

JDaniel got this toy in a kids’s meal over the weekend. When you push the button the name of an animal will appear in the window. JDaniel can’t read, but he can tell us the first letter on the animal when it is his turn to select an animal for us to act out.

We played this game in the car on the way back from my mother in laws in Georgia. It was such fun to make noises and flap our arms around as we pretended to be the animals.

Decorating a Robot with Junk for the Craft Drawers