Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WFMW - "R" Crafts

I started "R" week off with a bang by painting a red spot on my nose. All of a sudden Mommy and Grandma started singing this funny song about red-nosed rain dears! At least the tune changed when the "Raindrops on Roses" song started. I LOVE Sound of Music songs!

So these are the crafts and activities that worked for this 19-month-old this week:

Red Rectangle. This is the red rectangle I was painting when I decided to give myself a red nose.

Rice Art. Mommy has been avoiding letting me play with dried beans and dried pasta and dried rice, even though it seems lots of other kids get to enjoy this "sensory" experience. Finally she caved and colored some dried rice with food coloring..I had fun running it through my hands. Definite success!
But it was so pretty and shiny I just HAD to taste it! And taste it again. And taste it again. So Mommy grabbed it away from me quick. Then she used double-sided tape to make an "R" shape and poured the rice over it to make a really cool R! Doesn't it look edible to you?
Red Rubbings. We made red rubbings by putting objects under paper and rubbing red crayons over it to bring the shape out. Things like pennies, and leaves, and rubber bands, and stencils.

Of course, I found it much more fun to eat the red crayons. That's why Mommy hardly ever lets me use crayons...
Rainbow. Mommy made this rainbow for me on cardstock and covered it with clear contact paper. While she was working on that, I was painting matching clothespins. She finished off the painting for me.

So now I get to play with this. The idea is to put the right color clothespin on the matching spot of rainbow. But I am still struggling to open up the clothespins - both ends look the same to me. Mommy is thinking of painting the parts to press in black to make it easier.
I sure do like taking the clothespins off, though. Boy, I just rip those puppies off and throw them on the ground!

Rubberband Art. We took four rubber bands and dipped them into paint. Then we put them on a paper and folded the paper in half. We pressed the paper to get paint marks. Very rad, hey?

Of course, we wanted to put those rad rubberbands on our wrists. Who wouldn't? I mean honestly, after a day in the office, check how many rubber bands you've left on your wrist when you're walking out the door. They just sort of creep on there and stay there.

So that resulted in a whole new kind of wrist art. I love bling!

Rainbow Salad. We weren't really big on food this week. But Mommy did make a rainbow salad for me. Doesn't it look yummy? All of the fruits in this salad have their moments when I just love eating them (but then won't touch them at the next meal...)

Rectangle Ribbon Robot. I cut rectangles out of ribbon while Mommy held it for me. It was kind of hard with my scissors, so we tried crepe streamers too, and that was a little easier.

Then Mommy tried to get me to help her make a robot from the rectangles, but I got into the Easter grass and flew around the room pretending to be a robin. So she made her own robot, but it looks more like a squaredancing mistrel to me.Reading. Well, I'm not actually reading, yet. But there is one word I recognize, and that's my name!
I've been playing with the magnetic letters to my name for a while, so Mommy thought it would be fun to trace the letters on paper and then have me put the magnets in order on top of the traced letters.
It was really hard at first. I kept getting the Es and the M mixed up. They look a lot alike if you turn them the right way. But after a week and a half, I'm getting it right!

Leaf Hangings. This was an overlapping week project. While I was busy cutting up paper during "Q" week, Mommy cut out some leaf shapes. Then we put QTip dots on them.

This week Mommy punched holes in the leaves, and, being "R" week, we threaded them onto ribbon, making a leaf Thanksgiving hanging.

Calendar Matching. Okay, we couldn't find a connection to R with this activity, but it was so much fun that we just had to add it as a bonus.

You know those calendars that have a tiny photo of all the inside photos on the back cover? Well, Mommy took a 2008 calendar she wasn't using and cut those little photos out. She also ripped the pages of the calendar apart and laid the big inside photos down in a row on the ground.

Then I took the little photos (fortunately the cover page of the calendar was pretty heavy stock) and matched them to the big photos. This was so much fun! We started with three photos and worked our way up to all twelve. I am a master genius! And when I got tired of matching, I played with those little photos so much that they are about to fall apart!
So if you're looking for a way to recycle your 2008 calendars, this is definitely the way to go... Hey, that's the "R" connection: Recycle!

Regular Routines. With all the changes and packing and stuff going on, we've gotten out of some of our routines, and my sleep schedule has been really messed up. So this week we focused on getting "back" into regular routines on things like eating and sleeping (not that I've ever been all that regular, eating raisins or not...)

And we've added some cool things, like I get to pick out my own clothes from 3 outfits every morning now.

There were some other "R" things this week that we've posted about already: rabbits and reflections.

So there you have it - the "R" crafts that worked for us this week...

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11 comments:

ShEiLa said...

I loved the rainbow/clothespin one the most. I admit Esmé Mommy is the bravest woman I know. Some of the art projects can get very messy but she throws caution to the wind... full speed ahead.

Did I ever mention?
I love your BLOG!!!

ToOdLeS.ShEiLa

Chel's Leaving a Legacy said...

Has anyone ever told your mommy that she's pretty dog-gone creative? You're one artsy baby, too! Wow! :-)

I love the colored rice...very cute.

Gidget Girl Reading said...

great stuff! my LO loves the rice and pasta and stuff like that! love your rainbow game! very bright and pretty!

Michael J. Bennie said...

I loved this. The idea of theming crafts to letters is brilliant...is this original stuff? I hope you're having as much fun as Esme must be having! Thanks for the inspiration.

dani said...

what a fun "r" week, esme:) i think your mommy must be brilliant!!! i love the rainbow/clothes pin game. i wish i were there to play and get messy with you:b
love,
dani

Kristi said...

you are so beyond awesome!!!!!I'm going into your archive to get some alphbet ideas.

Tina said...

that all looks like so much fun. oh to be a child again!

the coloured rice would have been my fave ;)

thanks for stopping by my place and commenting :)

Pam said...

I wish I had just a little of your creativity!

Andrea said...

That rice art R looks really cool. :) Good enough to eat! haha!

Anonymous said...

What cool ideas!!! You are so good to do all of these things with Esme....I'll have to try one of these with Zander and see how it goes. He loves his colors now...the clothespin thing might be right up his alley.

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