What is cuter than a waddling little penguin? I can’t think of too many things. With the cold weather moving in, we are starting to look towards our winter crafts and we just love this interactive little guy. This adorable paper plate waddling penguin will surely delight your little ones, while they craft and then play. A free printable penguin template is available below.
My daughter is getting into the Easter spirit. We made some Easter printables a couple of weeks ago & she loved coloring & painting them, especially the eggs. She has been drawing up a storm lately & her main subject has been Easter eggs.
We had a lot of plans for this weekend. My daughter had a birthday party for one of her best friends & we were throwing a Super Bowl party at our own house. Unfortunately, a case of the sniffles changed things a bit. Mai had a nasty cough & a runny nose, so we stayed in our jammies all weekend. She may have been a little under the weather, but it did not slow her down any. She was still running around like crazy. I wanted to get her to sit down & relax, so we sat down & did a quiet & simple activity together.
We cut the center of a paper plate out.
Mai loves using the paper hole punch, so she was excited when I gave it to her & let her punch around the inside & outside of the paper plate. I started it & showed her where to punch so that it didn’t clip just the edges.
I punched the outer edge of a paper bowl because that was a bit too tricky for her & then poked the bowl through the center of the plate and glued it into place.
We used a yarn needle to sew the bowl & plate together with yarn & then to sew lacing around the edge of the plate. I showed my daughter how to use the needle under & over, under & over. She skipped some holes at first & would ask me for help when it would tangle, but eventually she got into the groove & was able to do it perfectly without any help.
We had so much fun with our project that we made several.
She enjoyed the sewing so much that I wanted to see if she would enjoy weaving as well.
I took a paper bowl & cut around the edges like shown.
The weaving was similar. It weaved over & under, over & under between sections.
My daughter was not interested in weaving. I finished the weave myself. We glued the woven bowl into the center of another paper plate & then punched more holes around the plate for sewing.
She liked this hat the best of all. We had fun sewing our hats, sniffles and all.
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Lately, we have been reading a larger than usual amount of books. My daughter has a lot of new books that she wants us to read together and then of course all of her old favorites that she still wants to hear every day. One of those favorites is Miss Spider’s Tea Party. We read it almost every day.
As we were reading a few nights ago, my daughter asked if we could make our own Miss Spider, so yesterday, that is what we did.
What you will need:
Paper plate
Paper bowl
Yellow paint
Black, yellow & red construction paper
Black pipe cleaners
Markers
Glue
Directions:
Paint the paper plate & bowl in yellow.
Dab yellow paint onto 8 black pipe cleaners.
Cut out spots & a jagged stripe for Miss Spider’s back out of black construction paper & cut her hair out of red.
Glue the spots & stripe on the paper plate.
Cut a triangular nose out of yellow construction paper. Glue the hair, nose & googly eyes to the bowl. Draw on a smiley face & eyelashes.
Mai pointed out that Miss Spider also has white freckles on her face & she grabbed a white marker to add those on too.
Glue the pipe cleaners in place for legs. I used a glue gun for the legs. (Operate caution when using a glue gun. Not recommended for small children.) Glue the paper bowl head to the paper plate body. Mai wanted hers to look like Miss Spider on the cover & I chose to make mine like one of the illustrations inside the book.
My daughter also reminded me that Miss Spider needed a cup of tea, so we cut 2 cups of tea out of construction paper too. Mai was so excited about her finished Miss Spider.
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I am half Vietnamese. When our daughter was born, it was important to me that to be able to teach her a little bit about that part of her culture.
That is why I love family gatherings & holidays with my family. She gets to enjoy the food, listen to the language & observe the traditions. Next month, we will celebrate the Lunar New Year. We will welcome in the year of the monkey.
If you are born in the Year of The Monkey, you’re said to possess characteristics such as curiosity, cleverness, and mischievousness. You are also considered to be a bit of a practical joker.
To learn more about the Chinese zodiac animals, check out Chinese Zodiac Animals.
Since we love paper plate masks, we decided to add another to our collection.
Paper Plate Year of the Monkey Mask
Sketch out the shape of your monkey’s face.
Paint inside the shape with a light brown and paint outside the shape in dark brown & let dry.
When the paint is dried, cut ears out of construction paper, glue the ears and googly eyes onto your plate. Draw in your nose & mouth. Glue a Popsicle stick to the bottom of your mask.
We added a few festive embellishments to our monkey using a silver marker.
Mai began her monkey the same as me, but then decided that my monkey needed food instead and painted a plate of bananas with Nutella. The monkey was grateful.
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We have been working on teaching Mai time lately. She has recently learned her months and weeks and now we have been working on the hours in a day. A couple of weeks ago we made pendulum clocks. They were a lot of fun to make together and they have been a fun way to teach her how to tell time. With New Year’s coming up next week, time is on the mind still, so we decided to make clocks again. This time our clocks are ready to party.
Star Wars mania has hit my house. The premiere of the new movie is less than a week away and I can’t wait. My husband & I are already planning our Star Wars date night. My daughter is not that much into Star Wars yet, but she is still always willing to help me with a craft, no matter what it may be.
Tie Interceptor
What you will need:
2 Paper bowls
2 sections of egg carton cups
2 sections of egg carton pointed
2 long narrow pieces of cardboard about 14″ long
Gray or silver paint
Black & Silver markers
Glue gun
Wooden skewer
Directions:
Cut your egg carton & cardboard pieces.
Glue the two paper bowls together with the wooden skewer centered in the middle.
Paint all of your pieces. I removed the skewer so that my daughter could paint & not poke herself. (Notice her festive attire. She has been in her holiday dress the whole weekend. She loves being Mrs. Claus.)
Let all the pieces dry. Draw the windows of interceptor with black & silver markers in the center of the bowl.
I slid the skewer back through & the cut two slits into the egg carton pieces & slid it through. Use a glue gun to secure the egg carton in place & do this to the opposite end as well.
Next glue the pointed egg carton end to the center of the cardboard pieces. Bend the cardboard on both ends at about 5″ in. Use a bead of glue in the crease to keep the bend formed.
Squeeze glue into the hole at the top of the pointed egg carton section. Add glue to the top of the section and onto the skewer.
Let the glue dry.
My daughter does not like Star Wars, but did still have fun flying our new interceptor around.
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This holiday season with our daughter has been a fun one. She has a greater appreciation and understanding of the holidays this year & all the magic and wonder in her eyes make my heart smile. This is the first year of her watching the Christmas classics with us. She has enjoyed each and every one. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was on the other day. At first it frightened her because of the Abominable Snowman, but once we explained that he was nice, she loved him.
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Before my husband & I had our daughter, New Year’s Eve was a whole lot different from it is today. We used to have a big New Year’s party every year complete with a New Year’s back drop. Our celebration has changed over the last few years. It is a far quieter evening, but has still remained festive and fun only in a much different way.
Last year we celebrated with friends & the kids almost made it to 11 o’clock.
11 o’clock last year meant nothing to my daughter as she had very little concept of time, but this year she understands it a bit more & we have been working on our time telling skills. With New Year’s fast approaching, it seemed fitting to make a New Year’s clock. It would be a great craft for the holiday & allow us to continue with our teachings on time.
What you will need:
Paper plates (2 for each clock made)
Paint
Markers
Glue
Directions:
Paint inside of the bottom of a paper plate avoiding the outside edges. Let the paint dry.
Use a marker to write in your hour numbers around the clock.
Cut out clock hands. Make one larger than the other.
Push a split pin through the hands & the paper plate. Secure loosely so that the hands move easily.
Cut a pendulum shape & another shape like shown to house your pendulum. Glue the pendulum housing to the back of the clock face. Center it under the 6 o’clock.
Use another split pin to insert the pendulum to the middle of another paper plate.
Glue the paper plates together while avoiding the area that houses the pendulum.
Use your new clock to teach your child how to tell time. Hopefully they love changing the time & moving the pendulum as much as my little girl does.
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I think most of us have heard the story ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’. If you have not, it is a tale of a mouse and a series of events that occurs as a result of him getting a cookie. It is a fun book to read & my daughter just loves it.
We often joke with our daughter & say “If you give a Mai A Cookie”. This joke came up this week. “How about you give Mai 1, 2, 3 , 4 cookies, mama?” Nice try! She did not get 4 cookies, but she did give me an idea for a fun craft & counting activity.
What you will need:
Paper Plates
Construction Paper
Paint
Glue
Markers
Directions:
Sketch & cut a mouth hole out of a paper plate.
Paint your paper plate in brown & let dry.
Cut ears & a nose out of construction paper & glue onto the plate.
Draw in the eyes, mouth & whiskers with marker.
Glue around the sides & top of the back of the plate & glue to another paper plate. Leave the bottom unglued so that there is an opening at the bottom.
Cut 10 circles out of light brown construction paper small enough to fit into the slot on the mouse’s mouth.
Draw chocolate chips on them.
Cut 10 squares of paper & number them from 1 – 10. Mai did such a great job writing out her number cards.
Now you are ready to play your game.
Mix up your number cards & have your child draw one. Have them feed the mouse that number of cookies. Another option is to make the cookies with a certain number of chocolate chips & feed them the cookie with the correct number of chips. Let your child decide which they prefer.
Feed your hungry mouse. My daughter wanted to feed both mice. She counted out the cookies for both mice & fed them both full.
When you have used up all your cookies. Just shake them out of the opening that you left at bottom.
I had a hard time pulling my daughter away from this. She was having a lot of fun with it. She gave both mice their cookies over & over again. And of course when you a give a mouse a cookie, don’t forget, he is going to want a glass of milk to go with it.
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Like ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’?, try the whole series of books.