WFMW - "M" Crafts

Tweet

Pin It

We have had a most marvelous time during "M" week! Here are the crafts that worked for this 17-month-old baby this week.

Me. This was by far my favorite activity of the week. Mommy had me lie down on wrapping paper and traced around me. Then she cut out the shape and taped "me" on the wall for me to color.

My very favorite part was being traced! I insisted that we trace my doll, too. And every time we went into the craft room, I pulled out the wrapping paper and lay down on it so Mommy could trace me!

Moon. I have a great sense of order! Mommy cut out a moon and some stars out of yellow paper and put double-sided tape on them. Then she gave them to me to stick onto a black sheet of paper.

I started out like Mommy showed me, but that disorderly arrangement of stars really got to me! So I pulled off all the stars and then carefully stacked them one on top of the other on the moon. Much more organized, don't you think?

(Mommy's worried that I'm trying to improve on God's design of the universe. Not really, but I don't think He'd have a problem with me straightening up my own little corner, would He?

Monkeys. I have LOTS of stuffed monkeys! We organized most of them on my bed, and Mommy encouraged me to lie down with them so we could play "Where is Esmé?" I wasn't too excited by that - I am much smarter than a monkey, but I DO like playing with my monkeys and feeding them and making them kiss.

Maraca. OK, this is more fun than it looks. We tried at first to make a paper plate maraca by painting and folding a plate in half, putting DRY beans in it, and then stapling it shut. Only we didn't have paper, so we used a plastic plate, and the staples didn't hold.

So we took a plastic vitamin bottle, painted it, and filled it with beans. (Once again - DRY - the cooked ones don't work! Mommy said so!) Then I got to shake it around to make cool sounds! We played lots of "M" songs while I shook my maraca.

Moses. One day we did Moses stuff. I colored pictures about Moses, and we sang songs about Moses. Here I am pretending to be Moses in a basket in the bulrushes. Only I wanted my dolls and Woolly in with me, too!

We made a lamb (to represent Moses' shepherding years) from a craft kit with pipe cleaners and pom poms, etc. Except mainly Mommy made it and I tore it apart over and over. Bad idea. No matter how cute those craft kits are, they don't work so well with kids my age . . .

Money. We practiced counting with money! I like money! Especially US dollar bills. For some reason the colorful South African and Mozambican bills with animals on them just aren't as much fun!

Mitten. Mommy cut out a giant mitten from wrapping paper and taped it on the wall. Then I made hand prints on the wrapping paper with tempera paint - putting my hand "inside" the mitten!

Macaroni Art. To do this one, you put some tempera paint into an egg carton - a different color in each egg spot. Then you put some dry macaroni in each spot and mix it around with a paint brush to get the macaroni covered with paint. That's lots of fun.

It's even more fun to take the macaroni out of the paint and put it onto a piece of paper to dry. Cuz that's when you get paint all over your hands.

Then finally when the paint is dry, you cover your art surface (we used the inside of a small box) with glue. And you carefully put each macaroni piece into the box. This requires Mommy's help when you get too distracted to finish it.

Oh yeah - that concern of Mommy's that I'd try to eat the macaroni? Not a problem. Macaroni looks too much like real food. I'd rather eat things like buttons or google eyes.

Macaroni. Speaking of macaroni, I do eat the cooked stuff! Here I am eating chili macaroni. Yummy!

Mangoes. We have lots of baby mangoes falling off the trees in our yard, so I have been practicing my counting with them.

And I LOVE eating them. Here I am eating frozen pieces of mangoes - just like that. Nothing added or mixed in with them. Yummy!

So there you have it! Now we're trying to figure out "N" ideas that don't involve cutting off your nose or choking with a necktie. Any ideas out there?
----------------
If you have a post or link related to "M" Activities for toddlers, link up here!