Elmer Birthday Cake and Crafts

R has really taken a liking to the 'Elmer' series of books since we borrowed "Elmer and the Rainbow" from the library a few months ago. I asked at the library if they had any others, and the kind librarian put some on 'request' for us, so we have had a steady stream of 'Elmer' books for a while now.

When R was choosing his birthday cake, he asked for Elmer. So I got my husband to sketch a picture of Elmer from the book cover. I made a round cake and used the drawing to cut out the pieces we did not need. I could not make gray icing, so I added plain icing to the cake and made a grid with an icing pen. Then it was a matter of 'simply' colouring in the squares with the different coloured icings. I say simply - because, once I found a method, it was quite simple to do. It was time consuming though, taking about two hours to ice the whole cake.

It turned out quite well, I was really proud of my efforts when it was finally finished.

We have also done a few craft activities:

This is a picture I found on Google and R painted it with Do-A-Dot markers (which R has fallen in love with in recent times)

Another Google picture find, collaged with small coloured squares.

We have done a couple of other things, but I cannot find the photo's. I will update if/when I locate them.

Thanks for reading.

Mrs Wishy Washy

We borrowed Mrs Wishy Washy from the library this week. I had ordered it and had to wait for it to come in from another library. When we went to collect it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a "big book". We had loads of fun reading it, and the size of it was a bit of a novelty for R. The book inspired some of our activities this week.

I put out some dark brown playdough (for mud) and the animals from the book; a pig, a duck and a cow. R loved putting them into the playdough. We talked about the animals 'getting dirty' like in the story.

After playing with the animals in the playdough, I suggested to R that we give them a bath. He was all for this, because he absolutely loves water play. I set out a tub of water with bubbles in it. I also gave him a nail brush and a pig, cow and duck.

He scrubbed the animals clean with the nail brush.

We also did a craft for each of the animals in the book. R collaged splotches onto the cow.

He fingerpainted pink paint onto a pig.

Finally, he collaged feathers onto a duck after decorating it with a yellow Do-A-Dot marker.

We really had a lot of learning opportunities this week from one simple book. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We have recently discovered this book, and we love it!! I was looking for a few activities when I came across these from Totally Tots. We have read the book several times a day for over a week now, and I wanted to find some ways to extend R's interest in the book.

Firstly, I gave R a laminated tree on a cookie tray with our magnetic letters. He added the letters. He explored the letters, placing random letters on the tree. Then I held the book open on different pages for R to find the letters that are on the page. We only have uppercase magnetic letters (the lower case letters are on the birthday wish list!).

The next day, I got out the play dough and cookie cutters to go with this activity. R made the letters, after rolling out the play dough and added the letters to his tree. R really enjoyed this activity and even M joined in, poking holes in the play dough letters (at least he wasn't eating it this time!!). R is a bit over play dough, so when I put it out; I have to include some props that will entice him.

R is beginning to recognise letters. He can now identify A, B, C, D, M, Q, R (of course), S and T.  He sings the alphabet song that goes with the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set. He amazes me each and every day!!

Gingerbread Man Collage

Together, we made a gingerbread man from various craft materials. 

You will need:

• Gingerbread cutout. I folded a piece of paper in half and drew the picture that I wanted, then cut it out and traced it onto a cereal box.
• Brown pencils, crayons, pastels.
• Powdered Ginger - I used cinnamon because I ran out of ginger making the cookies.
• Glue
• Buttons - can use real buttons. I used some card cut with a circle punch, then punched 2 tiny holes in it to make the holes in the buttons. R chose the colour of the button.
• A piece of red paper (I used quilling paper) for the mouth.
• Wiggly eyes.

First, I gave R the pencils and crayons on brown and he drew on the cutout. This didn't last long, because he really wanted to get to the glue.

Then he used the glue to cover the gingerbread man cutout.

Followed by shaking the cinnamon (or ginger if you have it) onto the "man" as he was called by R. The holes in my cinnamon shaker were a bit too big and the cinnamon came out really fast. Shake the man to spread the cinnamon over the glue.

Lastly, R glued again. I gave the directions to put the eyes and mouth on his head, and the buttons on his body. R chose where to place them.

R loved the 'man' and talked about him for many days.

The Gingerbread Man

Over the past week we have been reading the Gingerbread Man (I got a lift-the-flaps version from the library and it has been a big hit). We have done a few activities related to the book, which have been enjoyed.

Firstly, we cooked gingerbread men. These took us ages, but they have been eaten and asked for, for over a week. They have kept really well. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of this as we were cooking.

We made playdough and added ginger into it to create a sensory experience. I also gave R the gingerbread cookie cutters to use with the dough.

I made a gingerbread shape matching game from Preschool Printables which R did easily and lost interest in very quickly.

We made a gingerbread man with collage materials. I had intended this to be a follow-the-directions activity rather than a creative craft.

We did finger painting and I added some cinnamon to it for a bit of variety. R loves anything to do with getting messy and painting, so this was a very popular activity.

 

 We made cookies from collage materials.

Here we put buttons on the gingerbread man cutout. I said a colour and R had to find buttons of that colour, placing them on the gingerbread man.

We made the gingerbread man puzzle from The Gingerbread Baby Lapbook over at Homeschool Creations. Thank you for this great resource. R really surprised me with his ability to put this puzzle together, not having seen it completed before putting it together.

It was a fun week!