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.
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.
If you are a regular reader, you know I'm a big fan of {little} projects because I can get them done. And this no-sew ruffle pillow certainly qualifies!
I love making pillow covers because it's so fun to be able to switch over monthly decor in a snap.
So, I picked a fabric and wrapped it around my throw pillow to determine how much fabric I needed.
It should overlap at least an inch in the middle on the back.
Then I found the center of the front and started "drawing" my ruffled heart with this darling gingham ruffled trim from Hobby Lobby.
I love it because it is ruffled down the center so both sides are ruffled! I also love it because it was $1.50 for 3 yards and I didn't need nearly all of it.
I just pinned around the original size of the heart to make sure I liked the size and then used hot glue between the pins to hold it in place.
Then I took out the pins and glued under those spots too.
I used the pins to pin the next layer/section of the heart and repeated the hot glue and pinning until I made it to the middle.
It's a stretchy trim so be careful not to stretch as you go.
The heart is in the center of the fabric like this:
Now to turn it into a pillow cover you just fold back the 2 side edges to hem (either use hot glue or sew). Then put the heart facing your pillow (inside out) and wrap it around to determine the size (like at the first) and then pin the overlap. Remove the pillow. And then either hot glue the top and bottom edges or sew them since it's a nice straight line! :) Then turn it right-side out and stuff your pillow inside!
Easy. Done. I told you it was a {little} project ;)
I've shared our family's favorite Blessing Mix before. It's a treat we love to give to family and friends. This year I made a printable to go with it.
I finished {this little project} weeks ago but with all our baby preparations and being on partial bed rest I haven't shared it here. Luckily, we can be thankful all year long :)
This is what it looked like at our house after everyone brought home their trick-or-treating loot.
It's waaaay too much candy. So our tradition is that the first thing we do is take 5 favorites out and dump the rest of everyone's candy into a bowl and sort it by color.
The kids record the number of each color on each colored paper. My kids had two nights of trick-or-treating so we did this twice-recording the second number on the underside.
Then we compared by graphing all the colors from one night to the graph the kids made of the second night. The graph happens the day after, of course. For the record, the first night had more candy overall.
{little} Ellie also sorted the candies by size and shape later on (no photo). I love using something that they care about to do learning games with. Finishing with a treat is the part that they love!
But my favorite part of {this little project} is that since everyone's candy is in one bowl it isn't really anyone's. So it lasts a lot longer and no one eats too much. We were just finishing last year's bowl when it was time to refill it for this year!
I always like to do some body awareness for my kids at this time of year when skeletons are hanging all over the place. When my kids realized that they have skeletons and that they are the part of their body that made it so they could move they weren't so scary :)
Below are some movies and activities that I have used in the past to help them to experience and learn about the bones in their bodies
This little movie will get you started at looking at where your bones are:
If you want to learn the "real" names of the bones, my niece sings a song with the different bones ( to the tune of Macarena) that will help you can learn some of the real names of the bones. Click Here and it will take you to the movie. She doesn't point to each bone in the movie--but you can while you sing it!
This next music piece (In the Hall of the Mountain King) is fun to dance to at this time of year. The first part of the music is so quiet that you can hardly hear it. Start with everyone in a circle and tip toe your skeletons around as close to the ground as you can. As the music grows louder and faster you can grow taller and walk faster and faster around the circle.
Kids LOVE this game and it's a great
way to teach about dynamics and tempo in music as well as a fun way to
explore the idea of their bones moving while they dance/run around.
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg (from Peer Gynt).
This is a famous classical piece about skeletons dancing around. What kinds of shapes can you make with your skeletons while you dance around?
Dance Macabre by Saint-Saens, a french composer:
Some other Fun songs for learning about bones:
Use the hokey pokey with the names of the bone instead.
I used a "funkin" and our bucket of parts to do some toy "repurposing." All three kids are big fans of the results of our "pumpkin head" toy.
And judging by the fact that the parts are constantly being switched out and there's a pile of "parts" on the floor, {This Little Project} was a success. Here's a look at our {little} pumpkin fashion show. There's something extra fun about dressing up a pumpkin "in costume" at this time of year.
All you need to make {this little project} is: a drill a funkin (it's a fake foam-like pumpkin from a craft store) and some parts. I used the smallest funkin I could find (it's from Joanne's) because it was the closest size to the potatoes that the parts originally went to. But I think a bigger pumpkin would also work, you would just drill the holes a little farther apart. 1- Drill the holes. Then check to see if the parts fit in. I had to wiggle the drill bit to get just a little bigger hole to make it fit just right. If it's too tight it isn't fun for the kids since they have to work to hard to play with it. This is the eye, nose, and mouth placement: 2- Drill a hole in the top as well as the bottom of the pumpkin for hats and feet/shoes:
This photo shoes the ear and arm holes on the right side of the pumpkin. The three are the front of the pumpkin.
Then let the kids have fun dressing up your {little} pumpkin! I love all the fine-motor practice Ellie is getting while she plays with {this little project} It's quick and easy to make. And now is a great time to get these "funkins" on sale! If you don't have a bucket of Mr. Potato Head parts sitting around. You might try using the parts that you can buy that are similar to the ones we used for our kid-friendly pumpkin decorating:
Last week I was helping the young women at church learn to made these quick and easy pumpkins.
The fun thing about {this little} pumpkin patch is that no one will guess that inside each {little} pumpkin is a roll of toilet paper!
Since I had so much fun making pillow slipcovers with bandanas I decided that my {little} pumpkins would look cute dressed up in a bandana too!
I made them to go in our music room. Halloween matches the piano so nicely ;)
Here's what you need to make {this little project}
a bandana (or fat quarter of fabric) or repurpose-see below
a roll of toilet paper
Ribbon (about 15 inches)
a sheet of newspaper
a branch/stick
A bandana is a really great size for these pumpkins. And a fat quarter works great (18x22") too. But actually, when I worked with the young women we made these by repurposing shirts. A t-shirt, an orange sweater, black velvet, etc. They turned out really fabulous with a lot of different textures!
Just cut your shirt to be about 18"x22".
Now, on to how to make a toilet paper roll pumpkin!
1- We did a little bending of the toilet paper roll to disguise it. Under the roll is a piece of newspaper. The bandana is under that. The side you want to see on the outside is facing down to the table.
2- Starting with the shorter sides, pull up parts of the newspaper and fabric and stuff it inside the middle of the toilet paper roll.
3- After the shorter sides are in, stuff the longer sides in.
4- After all the paper and fabric is inside, stuff your stick/branch (or dowel) inside the roll to help hold the fabric in place.
5- Then tie a little ribbon around the stick.
That's it!
These also make fun {little} gifts. I took a bandana one to a friend yesterday and she loved it. She was so surprised when I told her what was inside :)
Now you can go make your own {little} pumpkin patch!
At our house, there seems to be a lot of "changing my mind" going on.
Last summer I shared my "change your mind" headbands that I made for Kay. It's been a life saver!
Now that I have two girls that need hair goodies, I just made some more things that we can "change our mind" with that they can both use. And they both LOVE them!
My two girls and they like to wear their hair differently. Kay is a headband girl. She's {little} miss independence and she can put a headband in herself. So that's just about all she will wear.
Ellie has cute {little} curls all over her {little} red head and a bow clipped in gives her a darling 1930's baby look!
What's a Mom to do?
I don't want to make double the hair goodies!
So I made something they can BOTH wear.
I took my bows (more about where I got the bows later)
and I hot-glued a small piece of elastic on. I glued just the two edges down.
It's just the size for Kay's headband to slip through.
OR
Just the size for me to put an alligator clip through the loop and clip it into Ellie's curls.
Now, about those cute chunky bows. I got a rainbow of them for the girls to share at one of my favorite girlie websites. I want to share the website with you (I'm not affiliated in any way) because they have such inexpensive and FUN girlie things, from dress ups, to hair things, to leggings.
And right now there is a sale (through July 22) for 25% off your order (use code FUN25). And shipping is always free with orders over $20---which I love!
I also love their {little} leggings. I just had the cutest photos of Kay and Ellie taken with their lace leggings and the headband bows and bow clippies from {this little project} in their hair.
