K is for Kangaroo

I made this kangaroo pouch for letter K week. Anya absolutely loves it. She wore it all day and it is still a staple in her dress up wardrobe. Yes, it did involve sewing, but don't stop reading! I promise, it is a no fuss project. It seriously too me 10 minutes to cut and sew this bad boy. If the sewing machine and you are not the best of friends, you can still do this. So, please stick with me and I promise, it will all turn out okay! Just make sure to read the whole post before you write this project off.

For anyone who can sew a straight stitch on a sewing machine or can hand stitch, Here's What You Do:

1. Cut out two identical pouch shaped pieces from brown felt. 
2. (Optional) Cut out a letter K from a different colored felt.
3. Cut two long pieces of ribbon.
4. Sew the letter K onto the right side of one of the pieces of felt.
5. Stack pouch, ribbon, pouch with right sides of the fabric together and the longest parts of each ribbon inside the stack.                                                                        
6. Sew a 1/2 inch border around all sides except the top.
7. Flip right side out.

If you don't want to sew, you could do the same thing with cardstock and glue or a stapler. Happy hopping!

L is for Lion

 Who needs to wait for Halloween to dress up like a lion? Here's a fun deviation from the paper plate lion heads we did last year. Instead of using a paper plate, use a picture of the child. 

Now that's one cute lion!

Here's What You Need:

• 1 X 6 orange strips
• large photo of the child's face
• glue
• scissors
• markers
• construction paper

Here's What You Do:

1. Cut out the child's face and glue it onto the construction paper. For younger lions, draw a circle around the face to give them a guide where to glue the paper strips.
2. Glue the orange paper strips around the face by only putting glue at one end of the strip.
3. Draw a lion nose a whiskers. 
4. Use scissors to carefully curl the strips like you would curling ribbon. 

** Update: If you curl the paper around a pencil instead of with scissors, it gives a more coiffed look like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. I like it much better. 

J is for Jumprope

For any of you out there who was once an 8 year old, or has an 8 year old at home, this post is for you because it is a walk down memory lane!

 

 We had fun jump-roping for letter J week. 

Now sometimes, preschoolers aren't the most coordinated group. So instead of doing over the head jump roping, I just swung it back and forth and Anya jumped over it. The rope never got much higher than her knees.

We had fun singing jump rope songs . . . Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella . . . It was so much fun to try to remember the ones I used to sing in elementary school. Oh the memories!

We had fun counting how many times she could jump over the rope. 

Then we ended with the jump rope snake game. Put the rope on the ground and wiggle it like a snake and try to jump over it without it touching you. 

If you are a solo act (like me) without someone to hold the other end of the rope, just tie it to a table leg and then you only need one person to turn the rope.

Hat Pictograph

 We made these hat pictographs to tell a little bit about ourselves. Each hat was colored in a special way to tell about the person who colored it.

The hat color is their favorite color.
The number of sequins is how old they are.
The pom pom tells their gender.
The bottom part of the hat is colored in a certain pattern to tell about their favorite food.
For a free printable of this paper, go here.

I don't know if you noticed, but our picture is being held up by our fun airplane art holder.

Shape Snowman and 3-D Snow Paint

 We practiced our shape names and used those shapes to make a snowman. Then we used some "snow" paint to give our picture a 3-D effect. 

Creating the snowman is pretty self explanatory  - shapes (3 circles, 4 ovals, triangle, square, rectangle, & scarf shape), buttons, googly eyes. 

To make the 3-D "snow" paint, mix equal parts of shaving cream and white glue. We used cotton balls to apply it so it was kind of bumpy, you can also use a paintbrush