My Heart is Like a Zoo - stART project

This week we used the book, My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. I saw this book mentioned on a few different blogs and decided it would be a great Valentines Day project. After reading the book, I asked Bekah which animal she would like to make as a craft. She chose the lion (I think because it's on the cover of the book). So, I cut out all the parts we would need and Bekah glued them together to make the lion.

After making the lion, Bekah then decided we should make the owl, so we did. Then she decided we should make the frog, so we made the frog. And finally, she thought the crab would be fun to make, so lastly, we made the crab. We've really enjoyed this book and making these cute animals together.

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

Stickers and Shapes

Bekah has always loved playing with stickers, so when I saw this idea, I was excited to do it with her. However, it got lost in a pile somewhere and didn't get pulled out until now. This great idea came from Muffin Tin Mom and didn't require much work on my side at all!

I already had star stickers on hand, but you can really use any small stickers to do this project. We just printed out the shapes (you can even draw these free-hand) and Bekah put the stickers around the outline of the shape.
Simple and fun!

MuffinTin Monday - Shapes

Happy Monday! For today's Muffin Tin Monday, the theme is Dr. Seuss. As you can see, we didn't go with the theme today. Instead, we did a shape muffin tin. Bekah really loved her lunch and we got to use her snowflake muffin tin for probably the last time this year.


In her tin, she had, square cheese nip crackers, circle peanut butter and jelly sushi (see how to make this below), American cheese triangles, semi-circle tomatoes, a round orange, and a rectangle brownie. I made these brownies the other night and they were THE BEST. We got the recipe from Cooking During Stolen Moments. They are seriously the best brownies I have ever had!

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

To make the peanut butter and jelly sushi -
Cut the crust off of one piece of bread.
Roll the bread out using a rolling pin.
spread with peanut butter and jelly.
Roll the bread up and cut into pieces.
Enjoy!

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree....

Bekah and I made these cute heart Christmas trees to start off our Holiday season. Again, I'm not sure where this idea came from. If you know, please notify me so I can give them the credit. Thanks!


We used foam sheets, but you could also use construction paper. I cut out 3 hearts (small, medium, and large.) I used this oppertunity to talk to her about size order. Next I gave them to her and helped her glue them together to form a Christmas tree.




She then went to town putting on the ornaments (sequins).


She had so much fun doing this that she made two more. Yes, that is a black and a yellow tree....why not, right?!

Rectangle Bat and Shape Searchers Game

Bekah has really taken to Blues Clues videos lately. She really likes the video Blues Clues Shapes and Colors. After watching it last night she was going around the house looking for shapes (especially rectangles for some reason!). I was really excited when I found this cute craft for us to do that uses all rectangles.
This is our rectangle bat.

Please excuse the excess amount of glue. It hadn't dried yet when I took the picture! In the right hand corner I wrote -
1 Large black rectangle
1 medium black rectangle
2 small black rectangles
2 tiny orange rectangles
2 teensy-weensy black rectangles
1 FLAPPING FLUTTERING BAT!
You could also add 2 small white rectangles for fangs, but I wanted a friendly bat without teeth!

After making our rectangle bat we played a game of shape searchers (inspired by the Blues Clues video).
I cut a square, rectangle, circle, oval, and triangle out of colorful foam.

I then put them in one of Bekah's dress up purses (any bag will do!). Bekah would close her eyes and pull out a shape.


We would search around the room looking for the shape she pulled out.
The easiest shape for us to find were the circles. I was surprised she noticed this circle on her smart cycle.


We had a tricky time finding triangles. We found this one hidden in with her play food.


Squares were also easy to find. Especially when you have a huge black one in your family room!


Can you see the oval in her kitchen sink?


Here's a nice big rectangle that was easy to spot!


We had so much fun playing shape searchers. She's already asking to play again. I think this time I will add in some new shapes. Diamonds, Octagons, Crescents.....

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.

Shape Sorting

Bekah loves those foam stickers, so one rainy day we picked some up at the store and I immediately thought of this idea. Unfortunately, I realized when we got home that they were not stickers. That was okay, though, we practiced using glue. She really enjoyed doing this and was so proud to show her Daddy.

I divided the piece of cardstock into 5 sections for each shape (heart, circle, triangle, square, and rectangle. I then put all of the shape pieces into a bowl and let Bekah sort them. She had a lot of fun doing this. It was a simple and very inexpensive project.