B is for BATMAN!!

The true idea behind playful learning is to take full advantage of your child's interests. That makes learning fun and exciting for them.

Marcus has been very interested in superheros of late, so we decided to make a superhero themed alphabet craft.
Introducing......

B is for BATMAN!!

Here is how we made this craft.

Step 1: Gather your supplies. To make this craft you will need:

• Craft Foam (in black and "flesh" colored) 
• Construction Paper
• Scissors
• Black Paint
• Paint Brush
• Painters Tape

Step 2: Draw a letter B on the craft foam.



Step 3: Cover up the bottom half of the craft foam with painters tape and let your child go nuts paiting the letter B.



Step 4: After the paint dries, remove the painters tape and cut out the letter B.



Step 5: Allow your child to glue the letter B to another sheet of construction paper. Meanwhile, cut out two triangles out of the black craft foam: One small triangle for the ear. Another larger triangle for the cape.



Step 5: Allow your child to add the ear and cape. Voila...A letter B batman! 
 

















For other cool playful learning activities, check out:  
My Delicious Ambiguity
1+1+1=1
Toddler Tuesday at One Hook Wonder

We Play...

...Ballerina!

Here is a Tutu and shorts set that I sewed.

 

To see some other playful ideas, check out Childhood 101!



Warning:  Shameless Self Promotion to follow...

If you have a little girl who would like a handmade tutu, please feel free to contact me.  I am selling handmade tutus like the one pictured above.  They are great for family portraits, dress-up, halloween, and little ballerinas!  Each tutu is sewn by me with tender loving care.  Each one is very soft and luxuriously full.  (Made with nearly 125 yards of tulle!)  The one pictured above can be made for only $25.  Your choice of color(s).

For more info, email Cathy @ AttachedAtTheSeams  Dot Com or leave a comment.  :)

A BIG Thank You!!

This blog was recently given two special honors and I just wanted to say a BIG thank you.

The Ultimate Alphabet Craft Collection was selected by JDaniel4'sMom as one of the top posts of the week. I wanted to give her a big thank you for mentioning me in her blog. THANK YOU! If you haven't already, please go and check out her blog.

The second honor was being the recipient of The Versatile Bloggers Award from Tots and Me. And the Outstanding Blogger Award from Raising Ian.

Both of these awards have four rules...

Rule number 1:
Thank the person who gave you the award.

A huge thank you goes out to Tots and Me and Raising Ian. Again, thank you very much for thinking of me I am very honored.


Rule number 2:
Share seven things about yourself.

1) I used to raise chickens when I was younger and named my farm "Cathy's Chicken Ranch"
2) I love to sew and plan to open up a small online shop
3) I was president of the french club in high school
4) I was president of IEEE in College
5) I love cats
6) I graduated college with a 4.0
7) I have a very hard time thinking of 7 things about myself to add to a list

Rule number 3:
Pass the award onto 15 bloggers whom you have just recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!

1.) Wes, Rachel, and Ella's Family Blog

2.) Barefoot in Suburbia

3.) My Delicious Ambiguity

4.) Giggly Girls

5.) Adventures of Bear

6.) Pink and Green Mama

7.) Delightful Learning

8.) Little Hands Big Work

9.) Academy at Thousand Oaks

10.) Crunchy and Green

11.) Lil Mop Top

12.) A Mommy's Adventures

13.) One Hook Wonder

14.) Natural Ranch Family

15.) Chasing Marcus


Rule number 4:
Contact the bloggers you picked and let them know about the award.

Again, thanks so much!!

What my children are reading...

 Good children's literature appeals not only to
the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
~ Anonymous ~

These are just some of the books that Marcus and Sophia picked out to read this week.  You might notice that some are repeats from previous weeks.  As with most children, when they love a book, they often ask for it again and again. 

Yellow Ball by Molly Bang,*

This is a nearly wordless picture book with gorgeous illustrations.  This is part of my home library.  Although the kids don't bring it to me very often to read.  However, Sophia picked this book out to read this week.  She made up her own story to it which was very cute.







Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
This is a very fun read.  It has very rhythmic text that sounds almost like a song when you read it.  The pictures and text are also very comical so this is a popular title with both kids. 







Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone
Everyone has their own favorites of children's classics.  This is my favorite version of the Three Little Kittens.  The book has very large inviting print with only about two or three lines per page.  The text matches up to the illustrations nearly perfectly.  (It is such a pet peeve of mine when that doesn't happen in picture books!)  This is also a version that can be read over and over again and each time you will discover some new detail in the illustrations.   The first time you read this book the cat characters grab your attention.  However, the page will draw the child's eye to study it and they will probably start to notice new details with every reading.  For example: a family portrait of some distant cat relative on the wall; Mother cats decorative tablecloth with little tiny mouse designs on it;  The pet wind up bird in their dining room;  The various cat "nic-nacs" in their kitchen. etc. etc.   I mentioned before that I am a big fan of Paul Galdone.  This book is one of the reasons why!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff retold by Ellen Rudin
I mentioned before that we all have favorite versions of classic tales.  This is my personal favorite version of the story The Three Billy Goat Gruff.  It is a "First Little Golden Book".  We own the original 1982 version of this title since this is a book from my childhood.  I like this book because it has good text to illustration match.  It also includes lots of repetition.  The troll says the same thing each time a goat crosses his bridge.  Marcus and Sophia love when I read them this book since I do a separate voice for the troll, the little billy goat gruff, the middle billy goat gruff, and the big billy goat gruff. 


 
Come Look With Me:  Exploring Landscape Art With Children by Gladys S. Blizzard
This was a really, really cool book that we found at our library.  The book has beautiful copies of different landscape art from nearly every type of genre.  It includes work from such artists as Pieter Bruegel, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Van Gogh, and Albert Bierstadt.  It also inlcuded a few biographical paragraphs about the artists.  But my favorite part were the thoughtful discussion questions that were given for each piece.  For example, here were the questions for the painting The Starry Night (shown on the cover) and three-year old Marcus's answers. 


Do you think that this scene looks warm or cold?  Why? 
Marcus:  Cold.  Because it is all swirling and swirling like this.  (Shows me the swirling sky with his hands.)
What kind of mood or feeling do you have when you look at this painting? 
Marcus:  happy.
(and the questions go on from there.) 

 
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom,*
This is a regular-repeat-read-aloud at our house.  It is one of the kid's favorite books, and I enjoy reading it too!   We have read it so many times that both kids have the book memorized and even two year old Sophia can recite the verse that goes with each illustration.  The verse in this book is easily repeatable and one thing fun that we do with this book is make up your own Jesse Bear rhymes throughout the day.  We do this often, except we say "Marcus Bear" and "Sophie Bear" instead of "Jesse Bear". 



First Tomato By Rosemary Wells
Every time we pick some tomatoes from our garden, I read the kids this book.  They have started to catch on and bring it to me every time I bring some tomatoes in from the garden.  This is a sweet little book about magical place that Claire the Bunny escapes to when she is having a bad day.  When she is in bunny planet, she can see the day as it should have gone. 






Is Your Mama a Llama?  by Deborah Guarino
This is another repeat from a previous week.   One of the things that makes this book such a great read aloud is that it gives the child a chance to guess what animal is being described.  Children love this and mine often squeel in delight as they yell out the different animal names.   The book is written in a simple rhyming verse.  This simple rhyme really prompts the child to anticipate how the stanza will end and guess what animal is being described.  This is helped further because you have to turn the page to see the last word of the stanza.  Books like this help teach children the concept of rhyming verse. 


Little Lost Kitten by Lois Lovvett

 My mom and I found this book at a library sale.  It is the original 1962 eddition of the title.  We originally bought it because we liked the artwork.  However, the kids found the book and wanted us to read it to them.  The title was OK.  The story is rather dragged out in my humble opinion because the cat runs into to a LOT of other animals before it finally finds the mother cat.  However, books like this make wonderful read alouds before bed. 





A First Book of Fairy Tales by Mary Hoffman and Anne Millard,**
If you go up to Marcus and Sophia's room you will see about 20-30 books piled up on their bedside table...and about 10 more scattered about their floor.  These are all books that have been dragged upstairs from our home library.  This is one of the books that has been dragged upstairs.   Before we go to sleep, the kids each take turns choosing a book to read.  This week fairy tales were very popular.  We read the following stories from this book:
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Rapunzel by The Brothers Grimm
Jack and the Beanstalk (a Traditional English Tale)
Sleeping Beauty by The Brothers Grimm
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson
Diamonds and Toads by The Brothers Grimm
The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Anderson

The Tall Book of Nursery Tales edited by Raina Moore, **
This is another collection of fairy tales and fables that we own.  The kids wanted to read The Tortoise and the Hare from this collection.  








* A Before Five in a Row Title
**  A Sonlight P3/P4 Title

To see what other kids are reading, please check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday, and Read-Aloud Thursdays.

A is for Alien: A Unit Study on Space

At the library this week, Marcus asked to get some books out about aliens. 
I did a quick search and found stumbled upon two titles that we really enjoyed.  I ended up turning this into a light unit study.

Updated: 11/10/2010 with more ideas!  

Fun Read-Alouds:

The first book we read was Alien Invasion written and illustrated by 7 year old Benjamin Kendall.

 

When I first checked this book out, I had no idea that it was written by a little kid.  However, I have to say that Benjamin Kendall is one awesome kid!  This book had me chuckling from beginning to end.  It is not outright funny, but it has this subtle type of humor that I found extremely enjoyable to read.
The story was a great one, and Marcus asked me to read it to him about 9 times this week!   I also couldn't get over his illustrations.  I am 30 and can't draw near as well as Benjamin at 7! 


The second book we checked out was Alistair and the Alien Invasion.

 

This was another great find.  The kids both enjoyed this story and I read it multiple times too this week.  This book also had my chuckling.  My favorite part is the illustration of Alistair ironing his socks before he leaves for space.

History:  
For history, we read Aliens are Coming!

This is a true account of the 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast written for children.  This book did a great job describing what life was like in 1938 and role that radio played in society. 


Projects: 
After reading our alien books, I remembered seeing a Alien Letter craft on the blog No Time for Flashcards.  So I quickly pulled out all of the stuff to make it and Marcus made an Alien shaped letter A.
First I drew an A on a piece of construction paper and he painted it.

Without any prompting from me, I noticed that he was just naturally tracing the shape of a letter A with his paint brush.  This is what the "A" looked like when he was finished. 

After that we cut out the A and pasted it to another sheet of paper.  Then we added some eyes, a mouth, and antenna.  It turned out very cute I think!

I then asked him if he wanted to add the page to the alphabet book he is making.    (More about the alphabet book in another post.) However, he said that he wanted to use it to pretend to be an alien.


I told him that we could do better than that...we could make actual Alien Masks!!!  This wasn't a craft project I planned.  I just happened to remember that we had some things on hand that would work for alien masks. This is one of the reasons I like to have lots of generic craft supplies on hand.  Sometimes they make for very enjoyable impromptu projects like this.  And things always feel so much more natural when they are child-led and driven.  As opposed to some huge, planed out thing that I try to get the child excited about doing.

So, what did I have on hand?  

Well, Michael's (one of my favorite places in the world to shop) has this aisle of paint-able items that are made out of very thick and heavy card-stock.  They have full sized swords, crowns, animals, dinosaurs, feet...all sorts of things made out of card-stock.  They usually come in packs of 6-12, and they are fairly inexpensive.  I often stock up on these just to have around the house when I need a craft project for the kids to do.  You can paint them, color them, decorate them with jewels, glitter, decoupage, stickers...you name it.

I actually have an entire bin that is labeled "paper things for the kids to paint".  You can see my stash here.

Well, one of the things that we have are masks.  (You can see them sitting on top in the picture.)  Again, I wasn't exactly sure what I would do with these when I bought them.   I will tell you one thing, I didn't expect that we would turn them into aliens!

This was an open-ended art project that the kids totally made and designed themselves.   I put the following supplies out on the table for them to use as they wanted.

Supplies:
1)  Blank card-stock masks (availabe at Michael's)
2)  Purple and Green paint
3)  A bowl of Googly Eyes
4)  Teeth cut out of craft foam left over from our Aligator art project
5)  Craft feathers
6)  Pipe Cleaners  (antenna?)
7)  Paint brushes
8)  School Glue

I love watching my kids at work.  This is one of the reasons I love open ended projects like this.  I love to observe how they each interact with the supplies given.  This is what I observed as they were working with the various supplies:

Paint:
Well, after I laid out the green and purple paint the first thing Marcus did was ask for blue and red paint.  I said, "Aren't aliens green?"  He said, "No, I want a blue alien".  So I gave him some blue and red paint.  Shortly after Sophia said, "I want blue!"  So we had two blue aliens.  :)

Marcus also wanted to paint his aliens mouth red.  However, it gave his alien a very scary look because it kind of looks like blood!  I don't think that was his intention...although maybe it was!  


Eyes:
Marcus made a neat row of eyes on the forehead of his alien.  
Sophia used every remaining googly eye in the bowl to cover her alien.  (Seriously!  She used up the supply of googly eyes!)


Feathers:
Sophia added feathers, but only two, and only to one side of her alien's head.
Marcus didn't want any feathers on his alien.

Pipe Cleaners:
Neither child attempted to use pipe cleaners in their design.

Teeth:
Each child certainly wanted their alien to have lots of sharp teeth! 

After our masks dried we danced around in them and played alien for quite awhile.
Marcus and Sophia also thought it would be fun to jump out and scare Daddy with the masks when he got home from work.  I swear I had nothing to do with giving them that idea!  ;) Poor Doug!

Uh-oh....an alien lost an eye.  Luckly she has many back ups!

Sensory Exploration:
For sensory exploration we played with moon sand.  Moon sand is a great material that even adults love to play with.  It has a really cool consistency.  It is like sand that can be molded and hold its shape.  The con is that it can be quite expensive.  Here is a great moon sand recipe that you can make from home.

To make a sensory box for play, I suggest adding in some minature space toys and astronauts. 














Other ideas for sensory play are to provide white playdough.  (This is my favorite play dough recipe.)  Have your child roll the dough into a ball and use an eraser tip to create moon creators.  For even more fun, put out your miniture astronauts and spaceships and have them explore the moon.  Add rocks (astroids) and have those crash into the planets and smash them.  (Can you tell I have a little boy?!) 


Nature Study:  Make a Lunar Calendar
An easy thing for preschoolers to observe in space is the moon.  Take the kids outside at night and have them observe the shape of the moon throughout the month.  Have them draw the shape of the moon and create their own lunar calendar.  DLTK has a some great ideas that makes it possible for even little kids to re-create the shapes of the moon that they observe. 

Making Learning Fun also has some nice moon sequencing cards that can be used to reinforce your observations. 

Other Science Ideas:
With our local preschool co-op, we took the kids outside and we built a scale model of our solar system using various balls as props.  This really gives the kids an idea of how large our solar system is.  We used a 16 foot wide sun made out of old yellow sheets sewn together.  For the rest of the planets we used various balls that were aproximatly the correct diameter.  If you want to replicate this experiment at home, you can use this cool calculator to determine the sizes and distances of your "to scale" model. 

Math:
We also had some Montessori math items on our shelves this week.

We used star counting cards and mini star erasers. The kids identify the number and then count out the appropriate number of start erasers for each number. 

We also used these rocket counting cards.  With these cards, the child counts the stars and then puts a clothes pin on the correct number.  The kids didn't seem to be very interested in these, so we will probably put these out until they are a bit older. 

Field Trip:
We happen to live near an AWESOME children's science museum that has a space exhibit.  If you don't have something like that, you could take your kids to visit a planetarium.

However, even if you don't have any of those things, how wonderful would it be to just take the kids out at night and star gaze.  Talk about making memories!  How special would it be to stay up late one night and just gaze at the stars together. 



Go-Along Books to Put on the Reserve List:

















Other links to become Attached to:
The  Ultimate Alphabet Craft Collection for the Letter A.
STart (A Story + Art)
Tot School (See what other toddlers are doing)
Preschool Corner (See what other preschoolers are doing)
Paint the Moon with Puffy "Moon Paint"
Making Learning Fun (a host of Space related ideas for learning!)
Kid Soup Space Ideas (this is a subscription only site.  However, you can get a free trial.)  
More Books About Space



Thanks for reading!!