Wednesday, February 4, 2009

WFMW - "Z" Crafts

We've been zealously zeroing in on "Z" this week! Here are the crafts and activities that worked for this just-turned 22-month-old this week.

Zoo. There was SO much to do with zoo! Here I am creating a zoo with animal crackers and uncooked spaghetti noodles.

I caged myself in like I was in the zoo here at home. I like it when Mommy feeds me popcorn through my cage bars!
And here I am caged up in the pants rack at Ross Dress for Less.
Here I am putting zoo animal stickers on a piece of paper. I am getting really good at unpeeling the backers off the stickers now! Or maybe my nails are just rather long.
Zipper. Mommy showed me how to do crayon rubbings over a zipper. I am finally figuring out how to hold the crayon to do a rubbing, but I didn't do it over the zipper - just over flat surfaces. I DO like zippers though - opening and closing them!
Zig Zag. Mommy drew some zig zag lines on strips of paper and held them for me to cut on the zig and the zag with my awesome scissors. I tried to do it by myself, but I still need help to get a good cut. (And the cutting always goes better when you wear hot pink Lil' Bratz flip flops on your feet, 'specially if you have them on the wrong feet.)
Ziploc Bag. I helped Mommy put together some squeezee bags with beads in them. First we picked out some letter beads - one set with the letters to my name and the letters to "Zimbabwe," the other set just with two beads of each color. We put each set into a separate zippy bag.

Then we squeezed baby oil gel into the bags to make them squishy squashy. After zipping them up, I got to play with them. The idea is to squeeze the beads into place so I can spell words, or so the colors are sorted out. I still need Mommy's help to do this, but it's fun to squeeze them just by myself.
Zebra. We watched zebra movies. I love "Racing Stripes." Here I am watching "Madagascar" with Papa.
And here I am wearing a zebra tail (scarf) that Mommy found at Dollar Tree. Except I kept taking it off and trying to put it on Mommy.

And we made a "Z" with zebra stripes. This took a little ingenuity. First we glued a white "Z" shape to a yellow piece of paper. Then I was supposed to draw black stripes on it, but I was having too much fun with the glue, so Mommy decided to cut out black stripes for me to glue on. But we didn't have any black paper, so she found a picture of a woman in black pants in a magazine and cut up the pants... Then there are google eyes (which I didn't leave on much longer than it took to take the picture) and pink heart stickers for ears.

Zimbabwe. As you know, we've been busy with Operation Love Zimbabwe this week! Here I am sorting through some Zimbabwe dollars. Can you guess how many billions of dollars there are here?

Zeros. Mommy drew 18 zeros (to represent all the zeros in Zimbabwe's inflation rate last year). We counted and I colored them.
Ziti. I threaded uncooked ziti pasta onto pipe cleaners to make bracelets. Mommy was a little surprised at how easy this was for me, since the only other threading/beading activity I did was back in "L" week, when I threaded toilet paper roll pieces onto wide ribbon. But I loved it! And I loved taking the pasta off the pipe cleaner almost as much as putting it on. So Mommy made an activity tray for me so I can do this over and over, like the color and sorting and counting activities we do every week.

So that's what we did! Now we're veering off to "V" this week for Valentine's day. And I adore hearts, so I can't wait!

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18 comments:

Jenni said...

How fun are you? Love all the zzzzzzzzzzs!

Beth Cotell said...

What great ideas! I love the squeezee baggies...very cool!

Debra Kaye said...

Love your Z's Esme...Hugs to you!

Jenners said...

Wow! What a lucky kid you are to have such a devoted, creative and loving mommy! I'm so impressed with all you can do! You are lucky kid!

And tell your mom thanks for stopping by my blog the other day. I think I will be checking back in with your adventures to get ideas for stuff to do with my own kid! He is 4, but it is fun to string ziti at any age!

Rachel said...

I SOOOO wish I were as creative and dedicated as you are!! Your craft projects simply amaze me!!

ShEiLa said...

Love the [Z] stuff.

My favorite photos are of Esmé caged like she is in a [Z]oo.

and

the [Z]ebra design on the [Z] cut out.

ToOdLeS.ShEiLa

Damselfly said...

Impressive! I can't wait to do the zipper rubbing, squishy bead bag and ziti activities! And gosh, I never thought of letting my son use scissors yet, but Esme does so well with it. She's so cute.

John and Lisa said...

Very cute ideas! Thanks!

dani said...

esme, reading about all your zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's are making me very sleepy... not because z week was a boring read (no not at all) but because it is bed-time on the lane, and i was up VERY early this morning:)
g'night, angel!!!
love,
dani

Anne said...

Esme,
Your ziti bracelet is so beautiful! Also I like idea of the ziplock bag filled with baby oil and beads - very sensorial!

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

Esme, I want to come play with you! You and Mommy have SO much fun.

Anonymous said...

I love the Zebra! Too cute. And what a great idea to string the ziti.

By the way Esme- I just love your red finger nails. Just beautiful!

CristyLynn said...

Great ingenuity getting that zebra done! Great ideas, as always!

Unknown said...

Lovely pictures...

Happy blogging,

Toddler Activity

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

Fantastic ideas - you are a super mom! I will have to try the squishy bags and ziti bracelets with my own little girls!

Laura said...

I love all the Z activities you did this week. Once we start working on our letters I may have to come and steal some of your ideas :) Oh and the nail polish is adorable!

Anonymous said...

Esme, this is auntie ann here. just wanting to check in with you that you are learning the 'correct' pronunciation of Z as well as doing all the fun things with it!

An Ordinary Mom said...

Thanks for posting all these ABC activities ... I can't wait to try them out.