Book & Craft: Strawberries

We love combine a good picture book with a simple craft - in fact that is how the Kids Crafts on Red Ted Art first started out. Since then we are much more focussed on the crafting. But every so often I do like to "go back" to our roots and share  a book and story.

This is actually a little craft we probably did about 2 years ago! Red Ted would have been around 3yrs old and Pip Squeak just a year or so.

We read "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" - all about the little mouse trying to protect the big strawberry from the hungry bear (who actually never makes an appearance). You can read more about the book and a a little Toddler Bear Craft we made over on Red Ted Art! But you probably know the story already anyway. I digress.

Apart from the Toddler Bear Craft, we also made a little strawberry craft - super tactile and simple. And the kids just loved getting stuck in:

We read the story. Then I cut out some strawberry shapes and got out some pumpkin seeds left over from our Halloween Pumpkin Carving session.

Pip Squeak LOVED playing with the seeds, whilst her brother got sticking.

Our finished and drying strawberries.

They will now make great cards to send Granny and Grandpa through the post!

I think these make a great class room activity for toddlers and preschoolers!

Maggy Woodley writes at Red Ted Art, Life at The Zoo and Theatre Books and Movies! And has her first craft book coming out at the end of March. Check out her affiliate store for Red Ted Art, The Book.

Two Valentine's Crafts to Try Out

Hello!

I am so pleased and honoured to be part of this fabulous Pre K + K network of bloggers and part of this wonderful website producing such a fabulous range of invaluable resources! My name is Maggy and I blog over at Red Ted Art, where I regularly get crafty with my 4 and 2 year old children. You will find weekly Kids Crafts, as well as more adult focussed tutorials, as I hope to get all age groups more interested in crafts and creativity. Everyone can, in my book! My kids crafts usually combine a story plus craft approach. We love reading in our house and this gives us the chance to explore stories in a different way! So here is a book and 2 crafts for you. As Valentine's Day is only around the corner, I thought it would be a great theme for my first post!

The Book 

 

Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink, by Diane deGroat. Mmmmh, ok, so why did I choose this book? Two reasons, 1) is that Valentine's can be incredibly pink and mushy and 2) because I have a little boy at home and he is rapidly become selective about the type of story that appeals to him. The pink fluffy ones are interesting once (to see if anything good will happen) but he quickly can loose interest. So this one is a nice compromise... The children have been told to write Valentine's cards to each other. However Gilbert is less than keen to write a card to two of his classmates that have been mean to him in the past. So writes them some silly verses and and signs them in the other children's name. He is discovered. He ends up doing the right thing, writing nice cards to the children, who also apologise for having been mean in the first place. Everyone is happy again. My son LOVES the silly (if sometimes not nice) rhymes and that keeps his attention. I think it is great that there is a "moral to the story" and that all ends well. We also love the illustrations, perfect for the preschool readers!

The Craft 
 Today I have a project for you that "evolved". It started off with my 2 year old, getting hold of the paints and saying "Mummy paint face".  Me: "No darling, they are not for your face". She: "Mummy paint feet". Me: "Ok, we can do that tomorrow". Next day (6am) She: "Mummy paint feet now". Me: "?????".

So... once I eventually got up, we painted some feet.

And then some hands... 

   

We painted lots of feet and lots of hands and had paint everywhere. Lots of fun. Then we made some "hand and fingerprint bouquets" (the left one is the 2year old's and the right one the 4 year old's). I think they look a little but like flowering cactuses, but they reminded me of some cards I had made many moons ago for Valentine's. So I decided to make them again. 

Materials: Old Christmas Cards, a heart shaped hole punch (but I made a sample card by cutting the hearts out by hand - I hate it when you need"specialist" equipment to make something), cardstock and glue

I think you could also make these out of old magazines, "old" children's artwork or even heart shaped stickers. You could also make these MUCH larger and make a huge collage - especially if the children are cutting out the hearts themselves. 

    

 1. Cut out/ hole punch lots of hearts. My son ADORES hole punching! Cards can be a little tough, but he loves magazines with their thinner pages... If you are cutting out the hearts yourself, you can incorporate the patterns of the cards you are recycling.

2. Stick onto the card. I always make a "sample" first if I "want him to do something specific"... he likes to copy, as much as he likes "free crafting". I found it helpful to add the glue to the page for my son already. He is going through a stage of not liking getting glue on his fingers. This meant he could just stick on the hearts and that the hearts would roughly stay within a "bouquet shape" - but to be honest, this is a free for all bit and the more hearts the merrier!

3. Draw some stems

   

 4. Add a paper bow. You can draw this too with a big marker pen.  Done! My son loved the card so much, he wants to send it to himself. I hope you liked this little Valentine's craft and that you do have a go and get crafty soon! If you need more Valentines Craft inspiration, do come and visit Red Ted Art - you will find our own Valentine's crafts, as well as great round up of Valentine's crafts from around the web!

See you again soon!

Maggy