Category Archives: Themes

Mar31

Bunny Ears

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A as a cute little bunny.

A as a cute little bunny.

After the bunny cake was all eaten last week, I was left with the felt and foam ears. We decided to put them to good use making some bunny ear headbands for the kids to wear.

White felt ears.

White felt ears.

We had to make another set of ears for the second headband. L glued the pink foam onto the white felt to make the ears, and then we left them to dry.

Bunny ears ready for gluing.

Bunny ears ready for gluing.

I cut some strips of cardboard and stapled them together to the right size for the kids’ heads. Then the kids glued their ears onto the cardboard band. They placed the base of the ears behind the cardboard at the front of the headband so that the pink foam sections were lined up against the cardboard.

Sticking the ears to the headband.

Sticking the ears to the headband.

Once the headbands were completely dry, the kids placed them on their heads and hopped all around the house just like rabbits.

L being a mischievous little bunny.

L being a mischievous little bunny.

Mar31

The Bear’s Lunch by Pamela Allen

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IMG_8642The Bear’s Lunch by Pamela Allen, paperback picture book, published by Puffin Books in 1998.

When Oliver and Wendy go for a picnic lunch by the lake, they are unaware that a very hungry bear is roaming near by looking for a meal. The bear becomes increasingly hungry, so when it spies Wendy and Oliver, they look like a nice, easy lunch. However, Oliver and Wendy have other ideas.

Pamela Allen books are very popular in our house, and The Bear’s Lunch has been read many, many times. My kids love to do all the growls and roars throughout the book. The story is easy to follow along, and it is great to share with young children up to lower primary school age. This is a fun story with a happy ending that most children will enjoy.

Mar30

Bottle Doll

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A is crazy for dolls of all sizes and shapes. She does a lot of pretend play with them, in particular she likes to give them baths…. which are not always so pretend. She carries them around, takes them on outings, and to bed. A asked if we could make some dolls for craft, so we gave it a go. I remembered using a soft drink bottle to make a doll when I was a child, so we started with making a bottle doll.

The doll's head.

The doll’s head.

We had an empty mineral water bottle that we washed out, and removed the label from. I cut out an oval of pink foam for the doll’s face, and A glued it to the top of the bottle. A decorated her doll’s face, giving her googly eyes, and using a marker to make a mouth and a nose.

IMG_8631I twisted two pink pipe cleaners today to make one long one, and I helped A to wrap this around the bottle to make some arms.

Then A got down to the very serious business of dressing her doll. She decided her doll should be wearing a shirt and a skirt. She chose to make the skirt from red tissue paper and blue honeycomb mesh, and the shirt from gold honeycomb mesh and pink crepe paper. I helped her to poke the doll’s arms through the mesh and crepe paper of her shirt. I held the shirt and skirt shut at the back while A taped them together. She is getting much better at removing tape from the dispenser without sticking it to itself now.

Adding hair.

Adding hair.

Once she was dressed, it was time to “make her pretty” according to A. She didn’t like the bald look her doll was sporting, so she added some curly doll’s hair to the top of the bottle and around her face.

Placing her necklace.

Placing her necklace.

A also used some stick-on gems to giver her doll a necklace, some earrings and a little watch.  She found a thin pink ribbon in the craft box and asked me to make her a bow to place in the doll’s hair too.

Adding the final touches.

Adding the final touches.

As a final decoration, A placed a small blue feather as a pendant on the doll’s necklace.

A made a bed for her new bottle doll beside her own bed that evening, so she would be comfy and warm, and ready to play first thing in the morning.

 

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Mar28

Bunny Cake

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IMG_8719Big L made a round buttercake, and I decided we should decorate it as a bunny. It was iced with plain white frosting andIMG_8711 then covered in dessicated coconut.

Bunny ears.

Bunny ears.

The ears were made by gluing some pink foam onto white felt, and then when they were dry, I attached them to the back of the cake using toothpicks, so they were sticking up into the air.

I used both normal sized and mini marshmallows to make the nose and the teeth. The eyes are half a marshmallow with a mini m&m as a pupil. The mouth is made out of writing fudge, but I had lots of trouble getting it into the shape I wanted as it didn’t stick to the coconut very well. By the time I came to make the whiskers I was a bit frustrated with the writing fudge, so I started looking for something else to use. I thought about using liquorice, but we didn’t have anything, so I compromised and used dry spaghetti. I broke the spaghetti into the lengths I wanted and then laid the pieces down as whiskers.

Everyone was very happy with how our bunny cake turned out, and even happier when they were eating it!

 

Mar28

Monster Masks

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Gluing down some tissue paper.

Gluing down some tissue paper.

The kids created their own monster masks using paper plates as a base. I cut some eye holes, and then they got started decorating their masks. We started by placing tissue paper over the plate to create the monster’s skin. Once we’d glued the tissue paper down, A chose to leave her tissue paper loose around the edge as a bit of a frill. L chose to push the edges of her tissue paper around to the back of the plate and glue it down.

Gluing the edges down.

Gluing the edges down.

The kids used some crepe paper to add fur, felt and foam for horns, mouth and ears. L added a silver tail to her mask too. And then it was glitter glue and more glitter glue. A used lots of glitter glue to create some pretty sparkly teeth that haven taken a couple of days to dry in our damp weather.

 

Adding a glitter glue nose.

Adding a glitter glue nose.

I added a large pop-stick to the back of the plate to help support the mask, and then another large pop-stick at the bottom of the mask for the kids to hold it.

A adding purple fur.

A adding purple fur.

Glitter glue teeth.

Glitter glue teeth.

When I took photos of the kids using their masks, they growled and roared for me. They also ran out wearing their masks to scare Big L when he got home from work.

L modelling her monster mask.

L modelling her monster mask.

A modelling her monster mask.

A modelling her monster mask.

Mar27

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

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IMG_8648The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, paperback picture book, published by Macmillan Children’s Books in 1999.

A little mouse strolls through the woods, several predators offer for him to join them for a meal. He frightens each of these animals away with his description of the fictitious monster, the Gruffalo, but then he actually meets one. The Gruffalo thinks he would like to eat the mouse as well, but the mouse has a clever idea to escape becoming lunch.

This is a beautifully written and illustrated picture book that is extremely well loved in our home. The kids can recite this story because we have read it so many times. I love it too, and I am always happy when one of the kids choose it for story time. The story is written in rhyming text, and the mouse’s description of the Gruffalo is delightful. It is amusing and original, and not at all scary. It is a wonderful book to share with children of all ages. The Gruffalo is a must have for every child’s book collection.

 

Mar27

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

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IMG_8643Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, children’s paperback, first published by Harper and Row in 1963, this edition published by Red Fox in 2000.

Max is wearing his wolf suit and being a bit naughty, so he is sent to bed without any dinner. While he sits in his room, a forest grows, and an ocean appears, with a boat just for Max. He travels over the water to the land where the wild things live, and rules them, but he is lonely in the land of the wild things and he wants to go home.

This picture book is an award winner, and considered a children’s classic. It is a simple story with plenty of illustrations. Where the Wild Things Are is not my favourite picture book, but it’s okay. As toddlers my kids thought this book was terrifying, mostly due to the drawings of the wild things. Now that they are a bit older, they like this story fairly well, just not before bedtime.

Mar27

Humf is a Furry Thing by Andrew Brenner

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IMG_8650Humf is a Furry Thing created by Andrew Brenner, children’s boardbook, published by Igloo Books Ltd in 2011.

Humf is a little purple monster, and he is also a furry thing, just like his mum and dad. He thinks he might like to be a feathery thing like his friend Loon, or a scaly thing like a lizard, or maybe a slippery thing. But maybe he likes being a furry thing best after all.

Humf is one of our favourite friendly monsters, along with his friends Loon and Wallace. There have been times when the kids have wanted to watch him on TV over and over, until they know the episodes backwards and forwards 🙂 So finding some Humf books was exciting. Humf is a Furry Thing is a sturdy boardbook with colourful illustrations, and a simple story great for sharing with a toddler or pre-schooler (older children can still enjoy Humf too!)

 

Mar27

Monster Horns

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My little monster!

My little monster!

Using some green paper and green cardboard we made some monster horns to wear. I cut the green paper into strips, stapling two together and then placing it around the each child’s head to get the right size for the headband.

Monster horns.

Monster horns.

The monster headband.

The monster headband.

 

 

 

 

 

I cut out some horn shapes from the green cardboard, and then we stapled two horns to each headband. Then the kids used glitter confetti glue to decorate their monster horns. They became very sparkly, and A described her horns as monster tiaras (currently she would like to be a princess when she grows up).

A spreading glitter glue.

A spreading glitter glue.

L adding glitter glue carefully.

L adding glitter glue carefully.

My big monster!

My big monster!

Mar26

Alice-Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey

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IMG_8590Alice-Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey, paperback children’s novel, 281 pages, published by Random House Australia in 2010.

Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones is a precocious seven year old who is starting at her new boarding school, Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies. There is something not quite right about the school though. The headmistress, Miss Grimm, never emerges from her office,  the school cook has never had a holiday, and the Gardner is not allowed to plant flowers. Alice-Miranda decides to set things right, but she must also deal with Alethea, the school bully, and a series of difficult and near impossible tasks set by Miss Grimm as an entrance test.

The Alice-Miranda series is written by the same author as the Clementine Rose series, but these books are longer and more challenging. While this book is probably best for middle primary school children, I decided to read this with my second grader, each of us taking turns to read. She was quite capable of reading it, but we did come across some words that were new to her. We took this as a learning opportunity and discussed these words, and then we looked some of them up in the dictionary. This didn’t diminish her enjoyment of the story though, and she has already begun reading the second book in the series by herself.

As Alice-Miranda is the only child of very wealthy parents who have spared no expense in raising their daughter, she had the potential to be a bit spoilt, and she is quite outspoken, so I expected her to be somewhat annoying, and ergo unlikable, but that actually wasn’t the case. She is very forthright and opinionated, but she was also intelligent, charming, interesting and confident, adventurous, charitable and kind. I found myself hoping that everything would work out for her as we read. The story is well written and interesting, with plenty of description of both characters and surroundings allowing for an immersion in the tale. I really liked sharing this story with my daughter.

Alice-Miranda’s future adventures are definitely on our to-read list!