Hairy caterpillar craft

We take part in a matchbox swop group on Facebook. Each month there is a new theme and those wishing to take part are partnered up. We then fill a matchbox with items fitting the theme and post it to our partners. This month the theme was spring so Annie Rose and I made our box and sent it off. Annie Rose was excited when she opened the one sent to her. They had made the box into a sheep and amongst lots of lovely stickers, activity sheets and even a cute sheep finger puppet was a packet of cress seeds. And so our next craft was born!
You need:
cress seed
Long egg box
Googly eyes
Pipe cleaner
Scissors
Cotton wool
Water

 

I cut a strip off an egg box and an extra bit for the head. We stuck some googly eyes and two bits of pipe cleaner to make the head.

We then stuck it onto the strip of egg box.

 

 

 

Annie Rose put some cotton wool into each dip 

then used her pipette to drip water onto them until they were damp.

 

 

 

She then took a pinch of cress seed from my hand and

sprinkled the seed over the cotton wool.

 

We placed our little caterpillar on the window ledge.

It will be interesting seeing the cress grow and Annie Rose reaction to it.

Then we can eat it in our sandwiches 🙂

Nature Sun catchers

Inspired by something on Facebook Annie Rose and I went off on a petal, leaf and flower hunt. We took a little bowl and went round the garden looking for interesting shaped leaves and petals which had dropped, we did pinch a few flowers too(but made sure there was plenty to still brighten the garden).

 

 

 

 

I took a piece of card, an amazon packet which was perfect as it was already folded like a book, and I cut out a rectangle from one side then use it as a template to draw and cut out a matching template on the other side. I took some good old sticky back plastic blue Peter style and tapped it to the inside of one of the frames so it was like a sticky window. We then place leaves, petals and flowers all over it. I took another piece of sticky back plastic and stuck it to the other side so the sticky side was up,on the inside, again. I then closed the “book”frame up so the sticky sides met each other enclosing our flowery picture. I taped it shut.

It looks so pretty especially when held up to the window. So we hung it from the window handle in Annie Rose’s room.

 

Spring has begun ….I hope!

 

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day here. Felt like spring had finally arrived. Looks as warm  today so I thought I would share some of the spring like activities we have been enjoying.

A few weeks ago we decided to plant some little plug plants out in tubs. We tidied up a little and got two flower pots full of soil. Annie Rose was happily digging away with a trowel in the pots when with a sequel she said ” tared me tared nake!” (Which translated means I’m scared there’s a snake!) So I peered round to where she had backed away from and as she clung to me I burst into laughter. There wrigglyling around on the path was a worm, not even a big worm, but then she’d not really seen worms before. We had been sorting the back garden out and  only a small portion was child proof and last summer she’d spent most time in the garden in her sandpit or paddling pool.  Anyway she got over her fright and we held a few wiggly worms and by the end if the day every mini beast she saw she said “my ave it” with cupped hands held out in front of her. She did get the little fuchsia plants into the pots in the end too, with the help of big brother Jacob.

In the run up to Easter we decided to make Easter nests to give out as Easter gifts. Such a simple task I let Annie Rose do all of it on her own (except melt the chocolate!).She did a great job she tipped the rice crispies into the melted chocolate, stirred them, spooned them mixture into the cases and added the mini eggs. She even managed not to sample any of it, or lick her fingers. You should have seen her face when I handed her the chocolately spoon to lick!

Annie Rose is much more aware of the outdoors now. She spent a lot of yesterday beheading/picking daisies. A few days ago we went for a little walk around the village which is a slow process when a toddler stops to look at everything! We began to notice the different leaves around us. So we picked a selection chatting about size shape and colour as we did.

Sunday saw us strolling in a park where we found lots of feathers so we collected them and brought them home. Annie Rose and I decided to use them to make a bird collage. I drew a bird shape and cut it out. Annie Rose covered it in glue and we stuck on the feathers and a googly eye, it looked really effective.

 

 

Today we are inspired by the bees we have seen more often buzzing round our Muscari. So I cut a kitchen roll tube into 3 prices and we painted them yellow. When they are dry we will stick strips of black paper round them, bubble wrap circles on for wings and of course a couple of googly eyes.

Then as we played outside this afternoon we wandered down the street and looked at the flowers. This reminded me of a craft activity i had all prepped and ready which was perfect for today. So we sat on the door step armed with paper plates, paper cutouts and a glue stick. She needed a little more help with this one but enjoyed it all the same.

 

 

I have so many ideas I want to try based on spring but never the time to do them all!

Of course with all this activity came amply learning opportunities. We reinforced the understanding of 2 items by putting 2 eggs in each nest. We touched on more and less when we put 1 or 3 by mistake. We spoke of colours with painting the bees, making the flower and looking at the flowers growing around us. There was lots of fine motor skills in the painting, sticking, stirring and transferring by spoon. Also much dancing, jumping, skipping and running took place as we went outside to explore.