A bit of an old craft today - some spring-themed bunting we made to decorate Daughter's bedroom.
Since The Girl got a bit older, she seems keener to draw than before so I was about to post some of the ways we've found to display her artwork when I realised that I hadn't even posted the thing we were going to be replacing on her walls.
We started off by folding yellow and green sheets of ("landscape") A4 paper into quarters along the bottom - depicted by the black lines in the pic above. This was to make it easier to mark the triangle shapes that you can see in the shaded sections. By doing it this way, you get 3 triangles per bit of paper.
As I said earlier, we took some of the shapes from Daughter's shape sorter - the flower, rabbit and oval (egg) - to give the bunting a spring feel and used them as stamps.
While the paint was drying, we tidied the paint away and set up the sewing machine. The Girl was 22 months when we made this and sat on my lap, working the 'back stitch' lever on my Frister and Rossman when I told her to. In this way, we stitched all the paper to a length of old lace I had. Alternatively, gluing the paper to string would work just as well - we did it this way because Daughter really wanted to use the sewing machine
And this is what we got:
Since The Girl got a bit older, she seems keener to draw than before so I was about to post some of the ways we've found to display her artwork when I realised that I hadn't even posted the thing we were going to be replacing on her walls.
This is a very easy and adaptable thing to do - as I said, we made this bunting in the spring but it would be easy to replace our rabbit, flower and egg stamps (stolen from a shape-sorter and unceremoniously dunked in paint) with topical motifs. You could use dry leaves in Autumn, pressed flowers in summer paper-cut snowflakes in winter - anything you can think of really.
As I said earlier, we took some of the shapes from Daughter's shape sorter - the flower, rabbit and oval (egg) - to give the bunting a spring feel and used them as stamps.
While the paint was drying, we tidied the paint away and set up the sewing machine. The Girl was 22 months when we made this and sat on my lap, working the 'back stitch' lever on my Frister and Rossman when I told her to. In this way, we stitched all the paper to a length of old lace I had. Alternatively, gluing the paper to string would work just as well - we did it this way because Daughter really wanted to use the sewing machine
And this is what we got:
I'm going to make this in various other seasonal guises throughout the year. I'm a bit of a hippie at heart and love to celebrate the passing of the seasons - particularly the different colours, scents, tastes and textures. There are some lovely books out there which cover the seasons and weather - here are a few of our favourites. Some are for older children, some for younger - it's a good idea to have a look in your local library to find some for your child's particular level of understanding.
The year as a whole
The Year at Maple Hill Farm - by Alice and Martin Provensen
Brambley Hedge - by Jill Barklem (particularly Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Stories, though all deal with nature and the wild world to some extent)
Weather by Jan Pienkowski - Added for the introduction of basic weather vocabulary
Elmer's Weather by David McKee - Added for the introduction of basic weather vocabulary
Morning Boards - a great idea for introducing weather, months of the year and basic seasons. We made ours with printable magnet paper and I'll share some pictures of it soon.
Spring
Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer - Reader's Digest
Summer
Rosy's Garden - Satomi Ichikawa
The year as a whole
The Year at Maple Hill Farm - by Alice and Martin Provensen
Brambley Hedge - by Jill Barklem (particularly Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Stories, though all deal with nature and the wild world to some extent)
Weather by Jan Pienkowski - Added for the introduction of basic weather vocabulary
Elmer's Weather by David McKee - Added for the introduction of basic weather vocabulary
Morning Boards - a great idea for introducing weather, months of the year and basic seasons. We made ours with printable magnet paper and I'll share some pictures of it soon.
Spring
Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer - Reader's Digest
Summer
Rosy's Garden - Satomi Ichikawa
Skir the Fox - Andree-Paule Fournier
The Snow Queen - H.C. Andersen
Just so you know, I'm linking to Abebooks/Green Metropolis these days. It's a personal choice, and no judgement on those who'd rather have brand new books, but second hand are cheaper and the range available is practically infinite.
Do you have any recommendations for seasonal books?
Do you have any recommendations for seasonal books?
Shirley Hughes has an Alfie book about weather, and there is a seasons book too. She's a little small still for Shirley Hughes but they were my favourites by far - gentle, old-fashioned, beautiful drawings.
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