[Crafts] Alex Toys - Paper Bag Puppets

Both kids got off school after lunch today, so I let them entertain themselves with a box of paper bag puppet craft kits from Alex Toys.

While Isabelle needed plenty of help from me, Ian could do the work all by himself.  Since Isabelle could not finish hers/lost interest to finish them, Ian gave his assistance and finished up the rest of it all.  The box contained 5 puppets, and it took them about 2-3 hours to complete.

And now, my boy is targetting at another box of craft kits in my stash...

[Crafts] What A Craft-ful Day!

With both kiddos at home today, we spent some time doing art and crafts again.


We took out the colouring book and started colouring away.  As usual, Isabelle was not very interested in colouring and scribbled away on the paper, whereas her brother attempted to colour as best as he could.  As he requested, he selected a few pieces of his artwork to be pinned onto the wall.

And this is my work...

Next, I fished out the foam sticker craft that I had purchased from a Popular Expo fair a long time ago.  Ian enjoyed doing this, and did it mostly on his own and with some interruption from his little sister who kept stealing pieces of the stickers away.

And this is the completed work...

In the afternoon, we recreated the rainbow craft activity that I had done with Ian way back in 2010.  I had thought that this would be easy enough for Isabelle, but she only had patience to complete the first 3 bands while I completed the rest for her.  This time round, I did not have to help Ian at all - except to draw the outline of the rainbow.


And there!  Ian's work is on the left, and it is much, much better than the one on the right.  I am pleasantly surprised at his effort to paste everything so neatly and orderly.  And he insisted to draw clouds too.  (On the right, look at Isabelle's attempt to imitate the clouds too!)

[Crafts] September 2013

We found some time to do crafts together, at last!  The lazy me decided to remake one of the old creations that Ian and I had done way back in 2011.  (See the old post here.)

I cut out the shapes for the heads, legs and tails.  This time round, I let Ian do most of the work thereafter, while I occupied myself with helping Belle. 

Can you guess whose work is which? 

Answer: Ian did the one on the left.

We also managed to recreate the paper plate bunny this month.  (See the old post here.)

Ian got to draw the eyes and mouths for Isabelle (on the left), following what I did for his.

Crafts: August 2012

This project was a school assignment that had to be handed in for Ian's Show-and-Tell session in October.  The theme was sculptures of places of interest in Singapore.  Hence, we decided to make the Singapore Flyer, the Esplanade, and Hubby used the leftover plasticine that we bought specially for this project to make a sculpture of the Marina Bay Sands.  For the landscape, we used up 2 cans of expired playdohs (too sticky to be used).  I mixed the blue and yellow to make the green land, and blue for the river.

Ian helped with rolling up the paper strips to make the capsules, and attached them to the flyer with the sticky dots from my scrapbooking stash.

To finish up the project, I made Ian write out the names (with my help, of course) of the sculptures and labelled them.

Crafts: More Craft for March 2012

Recently, I had started to teach Ian how to tell the time.  So, using a little spare time we had after dinner, we did a simple clock using a paper plate and some bits of paper.  Ian got to practise his number writing skills by writing the hours of the clock on the bits of paper, and then he glued them onto the plate (with guidance).  And then I helped by wrapping up the rest of the clock.

Crafts: Projects for February-March 2012

We did 2 easy crafts during this short period!

#1 - Cat In The Hat

As it was Dr Seuss birthday, and Ian had been briefly obsessed with this book, we decided to do a quick and easy Cat In The Hat craft on one of the evenings after school.  Ian got to cut out the stripes and pasted them onto the background.

#2 - Ian's Monsters

Ian had been reading a few books on monsters in the past, and most recently, Ed Emberley's Glad Monster, Sad Monster.  Hence, I decided to let him do another quick and easy craft on one of the weekday evenings when we were running out of ideas.

I cut out random shapes, and let Ian create his own monster based on his creativity.  Unfortunately, he was a little lost and in the end, I did a "monster" on the right, and he attempted to imitate me on the left.  He tried to write his name on his monster but had gotten the letter "a" wrong.  Well, more practice on letter writing for him!!!

Crafts: Project for September 2011

It had been a super long hiatus from doing crafts with our little boy.  Since we were keeping him at home away from school due to his fever over the weekends, I found some time to repeat a craft that we had done before - a rocket!  I helped him cut out the construction paper and put some double-sided tape on it, before allowing him to paste over the toilet roll.  I also helped to make the cone at the top and secured it for him with a craft glue.  Ian had some fun sticking the leftover stickers from the mosiac crafts as a decoration for the rocket.

Mosiac Fun

I introduced Ian to the world of sticky mosaic crafts (Alex Little Hands - Pretty Things) recently and to my surprise, he could do it without much help from me - when he opened up the package, he already knew to match the shapes and colours of the stickers to the cardboard.  However, he lost patience along the way, and was playing around with the stickers, until I joined him in doing the craft to arouse his interest again. 

Crafts: Projects for January 2011

Paper Plate Frog - Yet another froggy craft - we did it on a whim because Ian was begging to make a frog again.  This time, we made a different version from the previous one that we did last month, with a small pocket to hold things.  Firstly, I cut up a paper plate into half, and let Ian paint one and a half paper plates in green.  When the paint was dried, I let Ian paste the eyes and helped him paste the tongue and 2 paper plates together.

Rocket - Since we did not have any towel roll on hand, we used 2 toilet rolls to make the body of the rocket.  Ian got to stick the 2 rolls together using scotch tape.  Next, I cut out a piece of construction paper and let Ian stick them to the toilet rolls while helping him to hold the parts together.  Then, I made a cone for the top of the rocket and also cut out triangles for the "stand".  Ian enjoyed playing with the rocket for a few days, until Daddy made him keep it in his box of crafts. :)

 

Hand-print Flowers - I traced Ian's little hand onto a piece of construction paper and cut out the template and also a small leaf.  Then, I let Ian stick the flower and leaf onto an ice-cream stick.  As it was a simple project, Ian demanded to make a few more flowers, so there they are...

Shoes - This craft was created from a book of punch-out templates.  It was super easy - just stick the strap onto the "sole".  

Paper Plate Crown - Ian actually painted the paper plate in December, but as our pen knife was missing, we never got to complete it until we bought another pen knife this month.  I helped Ian cut up the middle of the paper plate and showed him how to bend the triangular part upwards.  He was not very interested in it though.  For this craft, I got to use my scrapbook punches - Mickey Mouse and heart.  Ian attempted to punch a heart shape, but he did not have enough strength to press it down.  I pasted double-sided tape onto the back and let Ian stick the punch out shapes onto the crown.

Crafts: Projects for December 2010

Paper Plate Pig - Yet another piggy project we had done together, after the disastrous 3D one that we did a few months ago.  I had also wanted to remind Ian the effect of mixing white and red colours.  Ian painted the 2 paper plates, after which I traced out the ears, nose and legs for him to cut out.  When the paint had dried, I showed him how to paste the parts together, and helped to draw the eyes and nostrils, and put on the tail.

Paper Plate Frog - I had originally intended to make a crown with Ian, and since there were some leftover yellow paint afterwards, I mixed a little bit of blue paint to turn it green.  I wonder whether this mixing had registered in Ian's mind, as it was not our first attempt?  Ian had more fun with painting yet another paper plate.  After the paint had dried, I traced out his little hand and did the cutting as it might be tough for him.  He got to paste the legs and eyes, while I helped him with the chenille stem as it was tricky to make it stay in place. 

Santa Claus Hat - A craft that we did out of a whim on Christmas morning.   I thought that it was pretty boring for Ian to be idling on this day and quickly found this neat craft from the internet.  First, I made a cone out of a piece of red construction paper and stapled it in place.  Then, I cut out the face and belt.  Ian got to paste on the face and I helped with the belt as it was a little challenging for him.  We used the leftover cotton wool (since Ian was born) to make Santa's little hat and beard.  He enjoyed pasting the wool onto the face.  It was kind of regrettable that the hat was a tad too small for Ian to wear properly, but that was the largest piece of red construction paper we had at home.  Nevertheless, he loved his new little hat!

Activity Books (Oct-Dec 2010)

For the past few months, Ian has been working on a couple of activity books simultaneously. These are the ones that he has completed between October and December.

Sticker Books - More titles from Usborne, which filled up Ian's time when I ran out of activities for him.

Kumon Workbooks - Ian began working on the book of tracing sometime in August, and finally completed all the exercises in November.  Towards the end of the book, I thought it was getting boring for him to be tracing the paths all the time, and introduced the other Kumon workbooks (Mazes, Alphabets, and Numbers) for him to do concurrently.  He was also working on the little Kumon workbook on pasting for a while before he finally finished it recently. 

Chinese Activity Books -  The first book of mazes contained tracing exercises that were similar to Kumon's.  Ian finished the first maze book very quickly and I let him progress to the next level (bottom picture).  The 2nd book was slightly more difficult.  In comparison to the Kumon's book of mazes, I would prefer to the latter.  In the Chinese version, there were some mazes that had animal characters blocking the path, and Ian had confused them as road blockages.  In these books, Ian had used a pencil instead of a dry-erase marker which he used for the Kumons.

The other activity book (first picture, right) contained punch-out templates of things to make, eg. an elephant, a watch, a bucket, etc.  It was slightly difficult for Ian and I had to help him paste some of the 3D parts and held them until the glue dried.  Ian simply had no patience to wait for the glue to dry.  However, this book was convenient to use when I had no time to prepare for his paper plate crafts.

We are now working on a series of other activity books... till the next time!

Crafts: Projects for November 2010

Yet another lazy month for me... only managed to accomplished 2 pieces of crafts with my dear boy this month.  He has been more engaged in tracing mazes, alphabets and numbers for this month.  Also, this lazy mommy has been using pre-cut craft templates from craft books, and also letting him play with stickers. 


Thumb Print Apple Tree - I cut out a template of the tree and let Ian create the "apples" with his thumb.  A simple activity, but he enjoyed it a lot. 

Paper Plate Rabbit -  First, I drew a centre line across a smaller paper plate and let Ian cut the plate into half.  Then, I traced out 2 ovals on a piece of pink construction paper and let Ian cut out the shape (though I did help him to trim a little).  I drew the eyes and mouth on the bigger paper plate and let Ian stick the pompom on as the nose.  Then, I helped him paste on the chenille stems as the whiskers, and guided him to paste the ears behind the bigger plate.

Crafts: Projects for October 2010

It has been another lazy month for us... anyway, here are what Ian has been doing for this past month...

Paper Plate Fish - We read the book Rainbow Fish and I decided to let Ian create one (the one on the right).  First, he used crayons to colour the fish as he liked, while I helped to divide out a portion for the mouth.  After he has finished his colouring, I let him cut out the tail and he drew the eyes.  I stapled the tail to the body of the fish, then tore out little scraps of aluminum foil that he pasted with glue onto the body of the fish.  We found another piece of paper plate around and he said he wanted to make one more fish, so I let him.  To my surprise, he enjoyed doing this craft which was simple in my opinion.

Frog and Tortoise - I was trying to introduce the concept of mixing yellow and blue paint to get green paint, and to avoid wasting the paint, I let Ian paint the colour onto 2 paper plates.  I had prepared the cut-out legs, eyes and other body parts in advance, and Ian helped to paste the body parts onto the paper plates. 

Pig and Elephant - Ian first painted the 8 paper plates, egg carton, and toilet rolls in pink.  After that, Hubby helped to glue the individual parts together as it was not easy to handle.  This craft was not very successful in my opinion, as perhaps we should have used more plates to make it look more proportionate with the legs.   

The 2nd craft was from Chinese craft book with punch out templates.  Ian helped to attach the body parts of the elephant with glue.

Crafts: Projects for September 2010

For this month, I have slowed down the pace of his projects due to some unforeseen events at home.  Here are what we have done...


Sheep - Found this project from the internet and decided to try it out with Ian.  I cut out the head, tail and legs beforehand, and let Ian paste cotton balls on a paper plate.  In case you are wondering, I helped Ian fill in the gaps between the cotton balls that he pasted.  After that I guided him to paste the other body parts onto the body.

Lion - Another simple project... I cut out a yellow circle beforehand, and drew the face.  I showed Ian how to mix the red and yellow paints to get the orange paint for the lion's mane.  He painted the paper plate first and after it dried, Ian made snippets around the edge of the plate to get the mane.  After that, I guided him to paste the face onto the plate.

Hand Prints -  A 'lazy' project!  I showed Ian how to mix white and blue to get a lighter shade.  After that, I gave him the brush to dab on his palms and paint at his free will.

Resources: 
Artists Helping Children - Paper Plates Crafts
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Crafts: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

This afternoon, Ian woke up earlier than usual from his afternoon nap, and so I decided to make a paper lantern with him for the upcoming Chinese festival.

I drew lines on the construction paper for Ian to cut, and then helped him paste onto a paper towel roll.  Then, Ian got to paste some stickers as decoration. 

This was an activity that he enjoyed tremendously...

After he had completed with the stickers, I poked 2 holes and pulled a chenille stem through them as the handle.

I was not able to find a stick around the house for a proper handle, so Ian had to make do with the chenille stem for the time-being.  He played with it for a while, almost destroying the lantern.

When Hubby returned home at night, Ian showed the lantern to his Daddy, and Daddy found a balloon stick for the handle!  Now, it looked better...

We wish a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to followers of this blog!

Crafts: Projects for August 2010

We did more crafts for the month of August...


Rainbow - We happened to see a rainbow outside our window one afternoon, and ever since, Ian started to say "rainbow" whenever we looked out of the window at the sky.  Hence, this project was planned, to show him the colours of a rainbow.  Ian helped with cutting and tearing up the paper pieces, and he got to do one colour a day.  At the end of the project, he gets to paste the cottony clouds on.  He knew all the colours, except for indigo and violet.  This piece of work took us about 2 weeks to complete!

Hand-print Sheep  - A very simple project.  Ian helped with pasting the wool on the sheep.

Sun -  I traced Ian's little hand onto construction paper and cut them out.  Ian painted the paper plate yellow and helped to paste on the hand prints.  This little project has added some 'sunshine' to his room.

Useful reference for Family Crafts.

Crafts: More Paper Plate Crafts (July)

Ian and I did some more crafts using paper plates this month...

Standing Ducky - Ian helped to paint the paper plates yellow, and stick the bill on.  Unfortunately, this craft did not win his favour as he cast it aside.  He still preferred the Ladybug puppet that we had made earlier on.

Butterfly Puppet
I traced the outline of a butterfly on the plate and let Ian colour it with his favourite colours.  Ian preferred this over the Ducky, but his favourite is still the Ladybug. (For an update, the Ladybug is now legless as he had pulled them out.)

Reference:

Crafts for Preschoolers and Kindergartners

Crafts: Paper Plate Ladybug...

A craft project that I have been wanting to do with Ian for a while, since Ian loves the "Ladybug, Ladybug" song that he has been playing from our iPhones.

While I was cutting out the paper pieces for the eyes, body and legs, Ian helped to paint the paper plates in red and black colours. After the paint dried, I stapled the 2 plates together with the legs, and Ian helped to paste the rest of the body parts with some glue.

Voila!  A paper plate muppet for the little boy... and like most toys, he played with it for a while before casting it aside into the 'cold palace'.