Hetty's 100 Hats

We did this project when we were learning about the letter H. I have to admit, I ended up being the one to make the hat, but I do think Bekah thought it was pretty neat that you can make a hat out of a piece of newspaper.

Hetty's 100 Hats is an adorable book by Emma Dodd. It's about a little girl who starts collecting hats. She is determined to have 100 hats. At the end of the book, there are directions included to make your own newspaper hat. Bekah really enjoyed this story, but did not want to wear her hat. Oh, well!

stART Project - The Mitten

One of our favorite books recently has been The Mitten by Jan Brett. I found this adorable printable from Jan Brett's website that we had so much fun with.

Bekah colored the animals and I cut them out.

After the animals were colored she wanted to color the mitten.

We used double sided tape to attach the sides and top of the mitten. Then, as I read the story Bekah would put the animals into the mitten.

She had so much fun with this craft!

We also had fun doing this mitten activity that I found at childcareland.com
It follows the Brown Bear, Brown Bear idea. I had Bekah call out what colors would come next and choose that color. For example, "Red Mitten, Red Mitten, what do you see?" "I see a yellow mitten looking at me..." and so on until all the mittens are looking at me.


You can see what others are doing for their stART project at A Mommy's Adventures.

stART - The Poky Little Puppy

Lately Bekah has LOVED the book, The Poky Little Puppy. We were recently at the library and even discovered a Poky Little Puppy video. We've only watched it a few dozen times so far! Since she's been so drawn this this book we are using it for our stART activity over at A Mommy's Adventures. stART is: a story = art = a great start!

I found the activity we did at Homeschool Share. It's like a little booklet that you make by gluing in the pictures of what the puppy smells (sees, tastes, hears, touches) and what you can smell (see, taste, hear, and touch). I thought it was a great idea to go over our five senses as well as enjoy a book she loves...well, Bekah got tired of this quickly. I think she just wasn't in the mood for one of mommy's "great" ideas! She did some of it with me and perhaps we'll finish it later.

All that's needed is the printout from Homeschool Share, scissors to cut out the pictures, and glue.



Bekah wanted to circle the pictures and color some in, so I let her. (Don't you love the hat!!!) We were playing dress-up before this.

Here's what we got done. I just noticed that she just fell asleep on the couch, so she was probably just tired.

Pinkalicious Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Monday! Today is not only Muffin Tin Monday, it's also my birthday! I was excited to see that the theme for today at Her Cup Overfloweth was children's literature. I love children's books! One book I've heard a lot about lately has been Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann. As soon as I got it from the library last Thursday I knew this was the book we would do our muffin tin on.


In her muffin tin, Bekah had, a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese, pea pods (in the book, the little girl turns pink from eating all the pink cupcakes and has to eat green food to turn back to normal), a pink egg (made by soaking a hardboiled egg in beet juice), a pink cupcake (of course), strawberry applesauce, raspberry kabobs, and raspberry lemonade.

Here's my silly girl sticking her peapods into the applesauce!


And, as for my birthday, here's my present from Bekah. She picked it out with Grandma! Haha, our dog thought the piggies were toys for her! She kept chasing my feet!

You can learn more about Muffin Tin Monday at Michelle's blog.

Wheels on the Bus

This week we are participating in stART over a A Mommy's Adventures. stART stands for a story + art = a great start. Our book craft this week was Donald Crews' School Bus. Bekah was excited to find out that her cousin goes to school on a bus. We decided to make a shape school bus to go along with this book.
I cut out all the shapes ahead of time. A bus shape (without wheels) out of yellow paper, two small orange triangles (for the headlights), 3 blue squares (for windows), 1 red rectangle (for the door), and two black circles for the wheels.

Bekah glued them where she wanted and then we fastened the wheels with brass fasteners.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

You can learn what other book crafts were done this week over at A Mommy's Adventures.

A Color of His Own

In a recent trip to our library we got the book, A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. Bekah has been crazy for chameleons, so I knew she would like this book. We decided to do a craft along with the book.

The book is about a little chameleon who is sad that he doesn't have a color of his own. When he goes on lemon he turns yellow. When he goes into the heather he turns purple. Eventually he meets another chameleon and they decide to go everywhere together so they are always the same color. It was such a sweet book and we have read it over and over again this week.

In our craft, Bekah decided she wanted to put out chameleon friend on a lemon. So, I drew the lemon shape and she colored it in.

Then she colored the chameleon cutout in the same color (we got this from Mailbox magazine, but here's a coloring page you can use. ) We glued the chameleon on top of our lemon. You could put your chameleon on anything your child would like (apple, leaf, etc.)

in our next chameleon craft we used our finger paints. Bekah chose a fingerpaint color and went to town coloring a piece of white paper. She really wasn't sure about the feel of the paint...her expression in this picture is hilarious!

After she had fingerpainted on the plain paper, she added another copy of the chameleon and painted the same color over him. She thought it was funny how he blended in.

We sprinkled on some glitter and let it dry.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

We have recently fallen in love with all of the "If You..." books. The last time we were at the library we picked up "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake."
We decided to do this activity to go along with the story.
First Bekah colored her cupcake.

Then she drizzled glue all over the cupcake.

Finally we added sprinkles and let it dry.

Here's our very blue cupcake.

You can find many ideas to use with this book here.
I was also thrilled to find this site with more activities.

Little Mouse, Little Mouse

We just bought a house and are moving soon, so I've been trying to get Bekah excited about the move. We've borrowed books from the library on moving and one of those books was called "A New House for Mouse", by Petr Horacek. For some reason Bekah was taken with this book as soon as she saw it in the library pile. I remembered a game I had seen in Mailbox Magazine and knew it would go along well with this book.

First I cut house shaped pieces out of different colored felt. You could use whatever colors you have on hand. You could also do this just with paper and not use the felt board.

Put your felt houses on the felt board.

You will also need a cut out of a little mouse. We used the one from the magazine, but you can draw one or use clip art. We then taped a piece of sandpaper on the back of the laminated mouse to keep him from falling out.


Hide your mouse under one of the houses. Say this chant, "Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the (green) house?"

Have your child check under whichever color they pick to see if the mouse is inside. "Hello, little mouse!"

Bekah asked to do this again and again. It was such a fun game to play!

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni

Yesterday was such a busy day for us (we closed on a house we're buying!) that I decided to take a break from letter "I" activities. Bekah still wanted to do something fun, so I turned to something that wouldn't take up too much time. It actually ended up being one of Bekah's favorite activities ever. We had gotten the book Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni from the library and decided to do this activity with along with it.


We read the book together. It's such a cute book about two best friends, little blue and little yellow. When they hug one day something amazing happens....they turn green! Bekah loved it!


We then took a blob of blue paint and a blob of yellow (little blue and little yellow) in a sealed baggie.


Have the friends hug together.


Look! It's turning green.


Bekah thought it was just amazing!

Dog's Colorful Day

Bekah loves books and crafts, so when we have a craft that goes along with a book it's a sure hit. When I saw this craft on Superheroes and Princesses I knew we had to give it a try. Dog's Colorful Day is by Emma Dodd. We were able to get this book at our library, but I have a feeling we'll be adding it to our own collection.


First I drew Dog freehand. He was pretty easty to draw. (Bekah had just woken up, doesn't she look sleepy?!)


Next I found pictures of all the things that give Dog his spots and laminated them. (Sorry, I couldn't get this picture to turn right for me...oh well!)


We then read the book and Bekah added the spots to Dog as the story went on. She couldn't wait to show her Daddy when he got home.


At the end of the book Dog gets a bath, so Bekah wiped off all the spots with her hands. She loved this part!
This was such a wonderful activity!