Easter Hand Stitching {From the Invention Box}


{This Little Project} is courtesy our Invention Box.  We've done some stitching like this before.  But this time we had an egg design in mind as we practiced our sewing skills.


Chenille stems make great kid-friendly "needles" for sewing.  


Just knot the yarn to the looped stem on the back side and the kids don't have to worry about it slipping from the "eye" of the needle.


I used an avocado bag for Jay's stitching and a clementine box wrapper for Kay's.  
Both worked really well.  


Easy and fun--to see the patterns through the materials.

 



Easter Egg Creatures

 
 
Easter time brings out the fun you can have with a {little} egg.

To make {this little project} you need:
eggs shells {insides have been removed)
googly eyes
chenille stems
craft foam
hot glue gun

Designing is the fun part!
These designs are courtesy the talented: Dallin; Jay's art teacher:

Octopus, and Fish:


Alien Egg:

  

Shark and octopus:

I love what a few {little} googly eyes can do for these! 

Displaying them was a lot of fun--not your usual Easter egg creatures, lol!

Little Man Ties {easy remake}

If you like to dress your {little} man up
{this little project} is for you!

I know there are a ton of DIY tie ideas out there for little boys.   
But they still require making the tie. 

These {little} ties are WAY EASIER!

 

These {little} man ties would be perfect for Easter, dressing up like Dad on Father's Day, etc.  

I was wandering through a consignment shop and happened upon a basket of ties. 
I thought: I can chop the end off to shorten this tie and be done with it!

If you put a man's tie on a boy the tail is too long right?  Well, so cut it off and you have your tie.  Done!  I'm pretty sure that most of our hubbys have ties that aren't their favorite anymore.  So now you can give them a new life!

So I bought them ($1 each), had my husband tie a knot in them closer to the front end, adjusted the size for my little Jay to wear, CHOPPED the end off, and hemmed it.

easy!
 
To make these ties {little} boy friendly, we just leave the ties tied.  He just slips them on and tightens them up.  And loosens them when taking them off.  Easy.

Jay was 5 years old when I made these for him and they will last for a long time since they adjust just like Daddy's ties do!

And what do you think I'm going to do with the tails?  I think I'll sew them onto Baby M's shirt to make my two {little} boys match:)


There you go!  A handsome {little} man tie. 
 
Have fun dressing your {little} man up!

Groovy Dr. Seuss MOVES!

(Originally posted at abcand123learning.com)

Today I wanted to share some ideas to MOVE past just reading the  Dr. Seuss books and making a craft.  We're going to be getting off that chair and MOVING to Dr. Seuss!

Each year I get so excited to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd).  It's a wonderful way to celebrate reading and the fun world he created that kids love!

As you know, some children are full-body learners.  My daughter is very much this kind of learner.  Everything makes more sense to her when she can touch it or get her whole body involved somehow.  For the other kids, these activities reinforce concepts they've learned in other ways which is also very important!

One way to get bodies involved is to dress them up!


Here is our Cat in the Hat dress-up that we use for the game you will see below.
 (Link for details of how to make this dress up the kids are making their own hats.)



Dr. Seuss Rhyme Tag
This game is a fun way to reinforce rhyming practice and get the kids moving!

The person who is "it" is the "cat in the hat."  See photo above-

When the Cat in the Hat tags someone the person is "caught" and has to freeze.  The frozen person thinks of a word and says it when another player runs by.  Once someone rhymes a word with the frozen person and taps them, that person becomes "unfrozen" and is back in the game.

You can switch who is it/the Cat in the Hat with a timer or whenever they catch a certain number of kids.



Music + a Book = FUN!  
A little dance party to Green Eggs and Ham adds fun movement to this classic!

Green Eggs and Ham Song


Thing 1/Thing 2 May I? Game 
This is a variation on the classic, "Mother May I?" game.  You could also play this game using the Cat in the Hat dress-up above (so you don't have to make the puppets to play it.)


I wanted to combine the activity we are doing (thing 1 or 2 puppets) with a game to practice our rhyming and this is how we are doing it:

These are the puppets we are using this printable and directions on assembly at obseussed (where you'll find lots more Seuss fun!)

Thing 1 and 2 Game Instructions:
The idea is to use rhyming and Dr. Seuss characters combined with the usual parts of the game.
Hopefully this makes sense!
One child (the mother) stands a the front of the group with their puppet (either Thing 1 or 2).
Each child can ask (the mother) to do something (hop, steps, etc.) while holding their puppet and making it "talk."
The child who is the "mother" at the front uses their puppet to "talk" back to the the child that asked the question.  
The children takes turns asking ways to get to the front, varying the number of steps/ hops. 
 The one to get up to the child in the front first wins.  
If someone forgets to say "Thing 1" when they ask their question or cannot think of a rhyming word, they go back to the start.

It goes something like this:
Using their puppet, one child in line says: "Thing 1, may I take 3 hops?"
Thing 1 (standing facing the other children in the line and using their puppet): "If you rhyme with "ball" you may.
etc.


For those who really like to include movement in their learning, you will also like how we've been learning to do alphabetical order with Dr. Seuss at This Little Project
Have fun finding your Dr. Seuss "Groove"!

Dr. Seuss Day: Edible Scrabble Game

A day to celebrate reading?  We're in!  
 
Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) is one of our favorite holidays and it's always a "treat" to decide how we will celebrate.
 
I love being able to sneak some learning into snack time.  And this year we made a game of it!
 
Playing scrabble with cookie tiles was quite the {little} treat for my kids.  Jay is old enough to manage the point system.  But Jay and Kay had fun making their own crossword puzzles.

 I think Dr. Seuss would agree that eating words is a lot of fun!
 

 
Be sure to check out our other Dr. Seuss Day Food fun!


 
 

Dr. Seuss Day: Muffin Tin Meal



One of our favorite ways to celebrate holidays is with a Muffin Tin Meal.  
My kids think it is the perfect {little} touch.

Our Dr. Seuss muffin tin meal was a hit!
 


From top left to right: string cheese (hat) with red pepper stripes, letter pretzels, green eggs and ham,
red fish-blue fish, oobleck (pistachio pudding), letter cookies

Although we have celebrated Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) for many years, I've never made green eggs and ham!  I thought they would gobble it right up....but they were are afraid to at first!

It took some prodding, but they finally tried it and were surprised that it tasted the same!


The fun thing about a muffin tin meal is that there is just a {little} bit of each kind of food.  

Kids love the variety and the novelty of not having it every day means something so simple can turn the day into something just a {little} bit more special.

Be sure to check out our other Dr. Seuss food fun!





Dr. Seuss Day: Cat in the Hat Drinks!

Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd) is one of our favorite holidays to celebrate!

My kids loved our Cat in the Hat drinks and they are so easy to do!




 The trick to {this little project} is using Dry Erase Washable Markers.

Simple fun.  We're good at that around here.

I love how the milk turns the cat white.  But if you don't want to risk a glass cup, my {little} kids were equally content with a face drawn on our favorite IKEA cups instead--as long as I put a straw in, lol.

 


 
Be sure to check out  more of our Dr. Seuss Food fun!




 



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