L is for Lollipops and Lambs

I kind of giggle every time I think about the fact that I chose lollipops and lambs for the letter L.  I don't know why, but it's just funny to me.  I keep picturing lambs frolicking with lollipops in their mouths.  Weird, I know.

Lola the Lollipop Fairy is super cute.  Kate and Reagan both enjoyed reading it several times this week.

 Kate is thrilled whenever I mention looking at anything on the computer.  We looked at pictures of lambs.

 I traced Kate's hand on black construction paper and added some glue to the "palm".  She added cotton balls and a googly eye to make a lamb.

 She liked that craft so much that she actually made a second lamb.

 Kate is REALLY INTO stacking right now.  She stacks blocks, books, toys, and of course the stacking pegs.

 I prepared a make your own lamb snack for Kate.

 At first, she wanted NO PART of putting the marshmallows on the plate.  Oh NO, those marshmallows went directly into her mouth.

 Finally, she added one.  Then she ate it!!!  But, eventually (she was probably stuffed) she made her lamb.

 And then she ate it!

Painting Like Birds

Today I hosted a story hour at a local coffee shop.  I have been hosting this coffee shop story hour for just over a year now and I really enjoy doing it.  I'm a bit sad that I will only have one more story hour (the end of April; if you are local, contact me for details) before I take a break for a while.  R is graduating from preschool in May and then it will be summer and then we will have a new baby, so I had to take a break from hosting.  I hope that the coffee shop will find someone to take over the story hour, and I also hope to do it again in the future.

Our story hour theme this month was birds.  We began by reading three books:

Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming begins with seven eggs hatching one spring morning.  All seven of the baby birds open their mouths wide and cry for food.  Mama bird works hard to get food for each of them, and once she finally manages to get them all fed and napping in the nest, they wake up crying for food again.  The exhausted Mama bird says, "It's Daddy's turn to fly." and we see an illustration of the Daddy bird resting on a branch.  I thought the whole book was cute, but the end really made me laugh!

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard is the story of a bird who wakes up grumpy, and because he is too grumpy to fly, he decides to walk.  Along the way, other animals join Bird on his walk and eventually he forgets all about being grumpy.  I think this is a great book for curing a case of the grumpies!

Our last story hour book was Birds by Kevin Henkes.  I love anything and everything by Kevin Henkes, and this is one of our favorite books.  We have used it more than once for book projects and it's a book that we like to read over and over again.  It's simply about birds and it's a fun way to work on colors, sizes, and more.

As you know, birds do not have hands and fingers, so we had to use our imagination to think about how birds would paint.  I have done this activity with my own children several times, and it is inspired by a page in the Kevin Henkes book mentioned above.  With the sky (blue construction paper) as a canvas, I told the little birds (children, there were no real birds in attendance at the story hour) to dip their feathers (craft feathers) in paint and go crazy.

R can never resist putting her fingers in the paint, and before I knew it every child at her table was finger painting (actually it was more like whole hand painting).

It's okay though, they had fun and enjoyed creating their art.  That is all that matters.

Thank you to all of my little friends who listen so well and always create works of art.  A huge thank you to the moms, grandmas, and caretakers who bring their children and help me clean up!  Last, but not least, a super huge thank you to Cuppers Cafe for hosting us each month and for providing free drinks and cookies for all of the children!

I am linking this post to stArt (story + art = a great start) at A Mommy's Adventures.  Click on over there to find more art projects inspired by books.
   

Shadow

Today we read Shadow by Suzy Lee.  This is a mostly wordless book about a girl playing in a dark attic.  Her imagination comes to life with the click of a lightbulb.  The black and yellow illustrations are brilliant and we just can't stop looking at this book.  Each time we pick it up, we find another detail. 

I could not resist doing some simple art with C and R after reading this book.  I began by googling blank paper doll template and printing up one that I found.  I don't know exactly where I got it, but they are easy to find.  I then traced the template onto manila construction paper and black construction paper and cut one of each out for C and R.

C and R colored the manila paper dolls to look like themselves.  Then they glued them onto the top half of a large piece of white construction paper and drew a background. 

Once they were happy with their drawings, they glued their shadows onto the bottom half of the construction paper and added other shadows with black crayon. 

I love the way they came out! 

I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.

Jello Stickers for Valentine's Day

I remember reading about Jello stickers quite a while ago.  I bookmarked the idea and forgot about it until I saw Jello stickers made over at Almost Unschoolers around Christmas time.  Again, I made a note to try it and this time I remembered.

These Valentine stickers would make a great addition to homemade Valentines, and they smell really good too!

First, I googled printable Valentine stickers and printed up a few sheets on regular copy paper.  You don't even have to print stickers though.  You can use drawings made by your children or cut pictures out of coloring books or magazines.

Then, I made the Jello paint/glue with a recipe from Free Craft Unlimited.  We used cherry Jello, but any flavor will do.  I mixed 1 TBSP of jello powder with 2 TBSP of boiling water.  Then I put the paint into two cups for C and R.

They painted the back of their stickers with the Jello paint/glue.  They also dipped their fingers into the paint quite a bit for taste testing.  Their fingers were red, but other than that, there was no mess.  I made real Jello with the remaining Jello powder and we waited for the Jello paint to dry.

Once the paper was completely dry, we (mostly I) cut out all of the stickers.  Then C and R thoroughly enjoyed licking their new stickers and arranging them on paper.

I was really surprised that they stuck as well as they did!  We are already planning on doing this again with shamrock stickers and Lime Jello!

I definitely recommend this activity; it's easy, fun, and a great sensory activity!  What a great activity for exploring the senses - you can see it, smell it, taste it, and touch it.  If only it made noise, hmmmm... you can swish it around in the cup and listen to it.

It's a good thing Natalie commented about this being science because my scatterbrain forgot to link to Science Sunday until she mentioned it!  Head on over there for cool science experiments for children!

Cookie Cutter Painting for Story Hour

I hosted story hour at the coffee shop this week.  We had a great time!  I began by reading three books:

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall was a big hit with all of the kids.  It is a very cute book about how love is like different zoo animals.  Each page features a different animal created out of heart shapes.  C and R did book projects based on this book last week; you can see that post by clicking here.

The Best Thing About Valentines by Eleanor Hudson is a sweet rhyming story about making, sending, and giving cards on Valentine's Day.  This is a great book for preschoolers.  They especially love to see the messes made by the characters making the cards, and the cards that are dropped in the delivery process.  I think it's funny how much little kids like to laugh at chaos and disorder in books!

Our final book was Henry In Love by Peter McCarty.  We have a boy named Henry that comes to story hour, so a few of the children found this particularly funny.  I think this is the sweetest book about a boy named Henry, a girl that he thinks is just fabulous, and a blueberry muffin.

After reading, I gave each child a large piece of white construction paper, a heart shaped cookie cutter, and red glitter paint.

They had a great time putting the cookie cutters in the paint and stamping the shapes all over their papers.

They shared really well too, trading for different sizes and styles.  

Once again, we had a great story hour!  Thank you to all of the moms for attending and helping!  Thank you to all of the children for being great participants!  AND a very special thank you to Cuppers for providing a great space for story hour, and for providing free hot chocolate and juice for the kiddos!

Last, but not least, I want to wish my little friend, A, a speedy recovery.  She was unable to attend story hour this week because she had her tonsils and adenoids removed the day before.  We all missed her!
 

My Heart is Like A Zoo - Valentine Craft

We are currently enjoying My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall.  Each page of the book features a different animal created out of heart shapes with a description about how the narrator's heart is like each animal.  The heart is eager as a beaver, steady as a yak, hopeful as a hungry heron fishing for a snack, etc.  It's a wonderful book, perfect for all ages, and perfect for a Valentine's Day craft project.

C and R each chose their favorite animal from the book and we recreated the animals with construction paper.  I cut out the shapes and they assembled them by looking at the animals in the book.

R needed a little help, but C was able to do this on his own.  He could have cut out the shapes too, now that I think of it.

R recreated Frightened as a rabbit:

C recreated bothered as a bull with a hornet in its hair:

Now, of course, they want to make all of the animals in the book!!!  I am not sure that I am up for that, but we might make a few more.

I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.  Click on over to both sites for more great ideas.