Wednesday, February 11, 2009

WFMW - "V" Crafts

Tot School
We've been having fun with "V" in alphabet school this week! These are the crafts and activities that worked for this 22-month-old.
Writing "V." I have been loving my dry erase markers! I can scribble all day with those things! Or half the day, and erase the other half. And "V" is now my second favoritist letter to write (after "O")! "Down, up" - that's all there is to it!

Vest. We made a vest out of a brown grocery paper bag! I colored with my markers, and I had Mommy trace my hands and feet over and over on it. Then I cut a fringe all around the bottom as Mommy held the vest for me. Way cool!

Vases. We took two glass jars, took the labels off (oil works great to get them off), and then painted them!

Then Papa bought some flowers for us to put in them. Aren't they pretty?
Vowels. We did a couple of drills through the vowels again. I get some of them mixed up, still, though I can ALWAYS recognize the "O"! It's been a while since we focused on them - not much since I was just a baby and vowels were the only sounds I could make! And we watched the vowel and V stuff on http://www.starfall.com/.

Valentine's Crafts. We had all kinds of fun with Valentine's crafts! I LOVE hearts...
Conversation Candy Hearts. I took a small box of those candy hearts and sorted them out by color. Mommy had put colored clothespins on empty yogurt containers, and I put the right hearts in the matching clothespin container - with a little corrective assistance from Mommy... But I did pretty good all by myself!

Then I put them very carefully onto a rainbow sheet! I have very good hand-eye coordination, Mommy says... We talked about gluing them down, but it was much simpler just to place them down without the glue.

One box of candies wasn't nearly enough to fill the whole rainbow, but it was just about the right amount for little me.... Now comes the important part - cleaning up and putting the candies back in the box!

Tissue Suncatcher. It's been a while since I've made any suncatchers - tissue paper torn up and put onto a contact paper shape, then a mirroring contact paper put on top of it. For this one, we tore up pink and red tissue paper and put it on a LARGE sheet of contact paper. Then Mommy covered it with another large piece of contact paper and cut heart shapes out of it (heart shape from a cookie cutter). Then she cut holes in each heart and ran a ribbon (bought in after-Christmas sale) through the hearts to make this garland. Pretty, isn't it?


Sticker Cards. I LOVE stickers. Especially pink heart- & butterfly-shaped ones! Here I am making a card with them...
Stamp Cards. I LOVE rubber stamps, too! We got a red and a purple stamp pad, and I went stamp-crazy with Valentine shapes! I even stamped the stamp pads directly onto my paper!

Chocolate Fondue. What's Valentine's Day without some chocolate fondue? We dipped strawberries, bananas, cut up cereal bars, and graham cracker pieces into chocolate fondue and yogurt! I loved using my fondue stick. And my favorite combination? Scooby Doo graham cracker dog bone dipped in chocolate and then vanilla yogurt...

Play Doh Hearts. I have been loving my play doh! We got some heart cookie cutters - used for several of these crafts, but mostly for making pink play doh hearts!
Dancing. What would Valentine's Day be without some romantic music and dancing? Here I am teaching my cousins' doll how to dance. And Mommy and I have been listening to Top of the World by The Carpenters each morning while we eat breakfast!
Salad Spinner Heart Art. We dropped some paint onto heart-shaped cards cut from a cereal box. Then we spun them in a salad spinner. This was my first time using a salad spinner - I got to learn how to pull the string out quick and then let it back in again so I could pull it again!
The hearts would have been a little more dramatic with more paint. We have these paint brushes with paint in them - that's all the paint we have at the moment, and they really haven't been working for me - I still haven't figured out how to squeeze the paint out. What we need is some BIG bottles of tempera paint that we can pour into bowls for our projects.
Felt Sewn Heart. Mommy bought this felt heart kit with holes already punched into it and a big plastic needle for sewing with yarn. It was my first sewing project - after making ziti bracelets last week, Mommy decided it was time, even though the whole project was a little advanced for me.

I did pretty good, though! Mommy held the hearts together while I pushed the needle through the hole she pointed out to me (great hand-eye coordination again...), and then pulled the needle and yarn out the other end. I must have done at least a quarter of the stitches myself over a 3-day period! Oh - and my doll helped me do some of the stitches.

Here's the finished project:
1 Corinthians 13. Here is a fun way to learn 1 Corinthians 13 - all about the ultimate love! Mommy printed out heart printables from Totally Tots. I helped color them, and then she cut everything out and just scotchtaped little magnet pieces to the back of each one. She hands me one heart at a time and I get to put it onto the fridge as we talk about what the heart says. Check out the printables link for other ideas on how to use these!

Heart Stamping. Here was another use of our heart-shaped cookie cutters! We dipped them in paint and stamped them onto pieces of paper, which we can make cards out of later. I helped Mommy with the one on the left, and I did the one on the right all by myself!
Hugging Heart. We made a hugging heart using a cereal box. Mommy cut one big heart shape and 2 little heart shapes out, plus two strips to fold zigzag. Then I colored the hearts and she taped it all together. See my face on the big heart? I am now a face EXPERT!
There are lots of Vs we didn't get to - if it wasn't for Valentine's Day we might have had more time, but we've been plenty busy! Missed:
  • vacuuming (don't check out our carpet right now!),
  • vegetables (I DID eat some, but we just didn't get a photo of it!),
  • vet (none of my animals were sick this week),
  • vote (so far the vote in this house is always two to one against me...),
  • volcano (too much time to get that paper mache thing built), and
  • valley (too muddy to make one out of dirt).
Now we're doing a U-Turn for "U" activities next week! Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!



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15 comments:

ShEiLa said...

check out your eyelashes Esmé.

love all of those looking down photos where your lashes get shown-off.

that is one of the first things i noticed about my oldest daughter when she was born. 5 fingers, 5 toes, and look at those lashes.

ToOdLeS.ShEiLa

Bran said...

I LOVE the heart magnet sayings! What a cute Vv week! We are doing Vv this week and I forgot all about vases! Guess we'll have to get them out and put some flowers in them tomorrow!

Lynn said...

What amazingly fun projects! I loved the vest. And the sun catcher. And the fondue :) You are one creative mama.

Sandra said...

Now those are super fun projects, how cool :)

Andrea said...

I love how you always make learning so fun! :)

bernthis said...

Phoebe and I will be making heart shaped cookies and going to a Valentine party. All girls of course.

Anonymous said...

Oh my! What a crafty person you are!

jess said...

Esme, I have been reading your blog for a while. You are a very talented writer for your age. :) Also, you're pretty darn cute.

I have the Love Zimbabwe button up on my blog. Glad I can help.

Claremont First Ward said...

Wait......does this mean you are almost done with the alphabet?

Jen @ One Moms World said...

You all have been super busy. How did she like the fondue? My girls would absolutely love doing that. Gives me an idea for Saturday night too. She is soooo smart with her letters. Great job!

Damselfly said...

OK, how clever are you to find a way to get to V just in time for Valentine's Day?! Great ideas as usual.

dani said...

e, you are a girl after my own "heart"!!! i "love" ALL your "V" projects... especially your vases and your felt heart:D
love, dani

Anonymous said...

Oh Esme you and your mommy have a LOT of great ideas. We're heading into a holiday weekend...and I don't Z to get bored with me so we may have to try some of these. Thanks for the ideas!!! And I think you look adorable in those little black shoes!

Jody said...

I just discovered all of your letter inpired crafts/activities. I can't wait to look at them all to get ideas for my little ones. Thanks for sharing them!

CristyLynn said...

You and your mommy are always so creative! Look like yet another really fun week!