Hand Print Leprechauns

I love hand print crafts and when I saw these cute Hand Print Leprechauns on Pinterest, I knew I had to try them with the girls.

I painted their fingers with orange paint  for the beard and their palm with peach  for the face and then added a little orange where their hand met their wrist for the hair.   Then they made their handprint of the middle of a piece of white card stock.

To decorate him, they glued a green square and rectangle on the top for his hat and added a black rectangle and a yellow button for the band.

 

To decorate the border we made shamrock finger prints.  Just dip your finger in some green paint and make three finger prints close to each other.

Emily also used some green heart stickers to make shamrocks too.  Then she used a green marker for the stems and gave him a smiling face with a black marker.

 

Emily’s Handprint Leprechaun

 

Juliette’s Handprint Leprechaun

Juliette enjoyed these so much that she talked about making them all day and told everyone we saw about them!

Pattern Block Pictures

Emily and Juliette always ask to use our wooden pattern blocks, but then get frustrated when the pieces will not stay still for them to work with.  They slide all over the table and the girls end up walking away from them after a few minutes.  So, when I was cleaning out a cabinet and found a roll of  rubber drawer liners I immediately thought of the pattern blocks.  I had a long piece so I cut it in half and gave each of the girls a mat to work on. 

The pieces stuck to the drawer liner and the girls had so much fun making all different designs with the pattern blocks. 

After more than half an hour this turned into…

  …a beautiful flower with a butterfly and sun.  Emily couldn’t wait to show me her masterpiece.

stART ~ Lots of Dots

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

 

This week we read Lots of Dots, by Craig Frazier.  When I saw this book at the library I knew it would be perfect for a stART project!This is a simple book with a catchy rhyming text that makes it so much fun to read.  The bright colors against the white page makes the illustrations pop adds to the enjoyment of this book.  Both Emily and Juliette enjoyed reading it with me.

For our art project I knew right away we would be using our Dot Stickers.   I gave Emily and Juliette large and small dot stickers and had them use them to make their own dot illustration inspired by the book.

Emily working on her Dot Project

Emily told me this picture was of our family by our car.  The large dots are the wheels and the small dot is the horn. 

Juliette has fun putting the dots on the paper.  Emily gave her the pencil so she could draw too.

Juliette’s finished dot picture 

stART ~ Peek-a-Boo Christmas!

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week I took our large collection of Christmas books out and we have been enjoying reading them together.  Both Emily and Juliette liked lifting the flaps in Peek-a-Boo Christmas!, by Marie Torres Cimarusti.  This is the same author as Peek-a-Moo! one of our favorite story time lift the flap books.  In this fun Christmas book you have to guess which Christmas character is hiding behind each flap.  At the end Emily asked where the angle was.  I said there was not one in this book but we could make our own Peek-a-boo Angel.  So that is what we did for our project.

 

Emily said she wanted a pink Angel so I cut one large triangle and 2 smaller ones out of pink construction paper for the body and 2 arms.  Then I cut a large circle and 2 smaller ones out of white for the head and hands and finally a yellow oval for the halo.

Emily glued the Angel together leaving the ends of the arms un-glued.

 

She added a face with a marker.  When she was all finished she decided that her Angel needed legs too.

She folded the arms up over the face…

… to play Peek-a-Boo with her Angel.

Emily’s Peek-a-Boo Angel

stART ~ Cookie’s Week

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read Cookie's Week, by Cindy Ward.  This is another one of Emily’s most requested books to read at bedtime.  It is a simple story about the naughty things, like knocking a plant of the window that a cat, named Cookie does each day of the week.  This book is wonderful for teaching many different concepts such as cause and effect as well as days of the week.

For our art project Emily told me that she wanted to make a cat.  I thought that it would be fun to make a shape cat since we had a shape themed Muffin Tin Monday at the beginning of the week.  It is always fun when we are actually able to tie everything together really nicely like that :0)

First I cut out all the shapes and had everything ready for Emily before we started.  I cut out:

• 1 Large Black Oval
• 2 Black Triangles
• 2 Smaller Pink Triangles
• 2 Small Black Ovals
• 1 Large Black Circle
• 1 Small Pink Heart
• 1 Large Black C Shape

Emily listened to my directions to find the shapes that we needed.

Then she glued them together.  I gave her very general directions and let her place things where she thought they would look best.  When I cut out the shapes and had it waiting for her I actually had it laid out differently.  I love how she made hers look though :0)

She drew the face with white crayons…

 

…and colored in his fur with brown, grey, black and orange crayons.

Here is Emily’s Shape Cat.  She said his name is Jay Jay, just like Aunt Jayme and Uncle Jonathan’s cat.

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Shapes

This week for Muffin Tin Monday the theme is SHAPES!  Emily absolutely loves when her food is cut into different shapes.  I have a growing assortment of cookie cutters and am getting very good at free handing other shapes with my kitchen shears.  I have to admit I also love how special food looks when it is cut into a different shape than it usually is.

When I was trying to decide what I would include in Emily’s Muffin Tin Meal, I realized this was going to be a little trickier than normal since we have not gone food shopping in close to 2 weeks.  Then I remembered the hear shapes waffle iron and knew we had to have a Muffin Tin Breakfast!

Top Row:  Triangle Pumpkin Spice Waffles, Syrup in a circle cup, Heart Pumpkin Spice Waffles

Bottom Row: Star Shaped Apple Slices, Cheerios and Square Shaped Apple Slices

…with a piece of Rectangle Raisin Bread on the side :0)

  I still think it is so cute every time Emily reminds me that she needs a picture with her Muffin Tin.

stART ~ Shapes That Roll

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures so that everyone can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

I added a stART tab in my navigation bar to make it easier to search for past stART projects. Be sure to check it out!! All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

We have been doing a lot of shape inspired art so when I saw the book Shapes That Roll, by Karen Nagel at the library I knew it would go along with all of our art really well.  The bright illustrations and playful rhyming text made this a fun book to  read.  Emily enjoyed finding all the different shapes throughout the book.

Here are some of the fun shape art projects that we have been working on.

Circle Collage

Emily used do-a-dot markers, reinforcements, hole punches, circle foam beads and circle felt pieces.

Triangle Contact Paper Collage

I cut out a piece of contact paper in the shape of a triangle.  Emily stuck construction paper and foam triangles to the contact paper.

Square Tissue Paper Art

Emily painted watered down glue onto a piece of square paper and then added colored square tissue paper, she painted over them with the glue and added more squares.  This gives it a really neat look!

  Rectangle Magic Painting

I used white crayon to write the word “Rectangles” and draw different sized rectangles on a piece of construction paper.  Emily then painted over the whole paper with watered down orange paint to reveal the secret shape picture.

Sorting Fun ~ Circles and Triangles

Cut and Paste Circle and Triangle Picture Sort

Since the Plant and Animal Picture Sort went so well I couldn’t wait to make another one for Emily.  We have been doing a shape study with our Art Group so I thought it would be fun to make a shape picture sort for Emily.  I found pictures of every day objects that were either shaped like a circle or triangle for this activity.

First, I printed out the  Circle and Triangle Pictures(click to download the one I made) and then Emily got to work cutting each one out.  As she was working on it we talked about each picture.  Emily was familiar with all of the pictures.  It is fun to see how excited she gets when she sees things that she likes in these activities.

After Emily cut the pictures out she placed them on the construction paper that I labeled for her and got to work gluing them down.

  Emily’s Finished Project!

 

I am planning on make more of these since they are great cutting and sorting practice and Emily really enjoys doing them. 

What Cut and Paste Picture Sort should I make next???  Leave your ideas in the comments and you just may find in on my next post!!!

Which One Does Not Belong??

We have been working on grouping and these activities are perfect for practicing and reinforcing this important early math skill. 

First, I created a Which One of These is Different worksheet (click on the link for a free download) for Emily. 

She had to find the picture that was not like the others and did not belong in the group. 

First, she pointed to it, then she told me why it was different and then she used her marker to circle it.

Another fun hands on way to practice this grouping skill is to collect a group of items that are all the same and then include one that is slightly different.  I showed them to Emily and then she picked up the one that was different and told me why.

You’ve got to love little people, so many wonderful activities that you can use them for!!  Which one doesn’t belong???

 

I love these links too, they are awesome teething toys, they keep Juliette’s toys off of the floor, and great for grouping with Emily, so which one doesn’t belong??

 

Check out some other great math ideas at:

Lacing Hearts

I made a flower lacing set for Emily in the spring and she really enjoyed playing with it. I usually kept it in my bag to take out when she was getting fidgety at church or while we were waiting at a restaurant or doctors office. So I thought it would be fun to switch it up a bit so I made her a Valentine Lacing Set.

All I did was use my heart cookie cutters to make an imprint in pink, white, red and purple craft foam. I cut them out and punched holes in the centers.

Finally I gave Emily a pipe cleaner with a bead attached to the end and let her lace them on.

I love that we can use this to practice patterns as well as work on fine motor skills. The foam makes it nice and quiet so it is perfect while Juliette is napping or we are at church!

Her Turkey is Taking Shape!

Today Emily made a Shape Turkey with her friend Ryleigh.  The girls had a great time identifying the shape and we were all so excited to see how cute these turkeys came out!

Sarah cut out the shapes and then reviewed each shape with the girls.  Emily and Ryleigh were so excited to hold up each shape the Sarah asked them to find!

The girls glued the shapes onto the paper.

    Emily’s finished shape turkey.

When we were all finished Emily asked what was going on the top of the turkey so Sarah got them some pumpkin stickers to add to the top.  I think it added a nice touch!!