We’re making Little a parade of letters to go around her bedroom wall. Big has had an alphabet wall chart up since she was 3, and if Big Sister has one…
We could buy one of course, but where’s the fun in that? By making our own we can incorporate lots of other skills and new things to try out, such as using scissors. We’re going to include a sensory element too – having touchy-feely letters you can trace round with your fingers helps children to learn the letter’s form. We’re not working from a – z, as learning alphabetical order will come later. Our focus to begin with is on letters which mean something to Little, and as we’ve been knitting this weekend we’re starting with…
W is for wool
I drew out a ‘w’ on some red paper.
Little has learnt how scissors operate and enjoys snipping away to make random shapes but now I’m encouraging her to try and follow along a line sometimes too.
She applied glue very liberally to her W.
And then we added lots of soft wool onto the glue. We left if to dry and then stuck it onto a piece of card. We’ve not decided yet how we’re going to put them up on to the wall – maybe on a long roll of paper, maybe on a washing line. Any suggestions for us?
How are you introducing letters with your child?
To celebrate St. David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant we have been making daffodil windmills today. I think they look so cheery that they’d be great to make on any Spring day – and a vase of them would make a lovely Mothers’ Day gift. Here’s how we made them. 
You’ll need: yellow card (or card and yellow paint), green card, a egg box, a paper fastener, yellow and/or orange paint, a small paint brush, a stapler, a ruler, a pencil, a pair of scissors, (a craft knife – optional) Start by cutting a square from your yellow card. We only had white card in the house, but as Little is painting-crazy at the moment this wasn’t a problem as we did have some yellow paint. If you are going to paint you will need to paint both sides of the card. 
Cut out the cup part of the egg box – this is going to be the trumpet part of your daffodil. Paint it either yellow or orange, depending on what colour you would like in the centre of your flower. 
Once any paint is dry you need to cut lines into the yellow square of card as shown in the photo below. You can draw the lines using the pencil and ruler and then cut along them with the scissors. 
Now you need to fold in four of the edges, as shown below. Fasten them in place with a stapler. 
Make a stalk for the flower by rolling a piece of the green card in to a tube. Now you’re going to use the paper fastener to join the egg box trumpet, the daffodil and the stalk all together. You can poke the paper fastener straight through the card but you might find it easier to make a hole with either the pencil or craft knife first. You want the hole to be loose enough for the daffodil to twirl around to give you the windmill effect. 
And there you have it – a beautiful daffodil. You could make a few of them in different shades to make a lovely spring bouquet. 
Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog Twinfatuation’s Make My Monday Making the World Cuter Skip to my Lou and Mom Tried It’s Try and Tell Tuesday
These paper lanterns are a great way for young children to practise their scissor skills and perfect for decorating the house in time for the Chinese New Year celebrations on February 14th. Red is the traditional celebration colour in China but as the lanterns look so good you might like to make some in your child’s favourite colour and string them up to decorate their bedroom too.
To make one you will need: 2 sheets of paper, scissors, sticky tape or glue (and pens/pencils if you want to add any embellishments)
Following the above pictures clockwise from top left:
Step 1: Fold one sheet of paper in half lengthways
Step 2: Cut lines along the FOLDED length of the paper, but not all the way to the unfolded edge or you’ll just end up with ribbons. I drew lines on the paper for my daughter to follow. She’s just getting the hang of scissors so this was a great craft to let her make something with the scissors which she could pretty much manage all by herself.
Step 3: Open out the paper
Step 4: Add any drawing you like to decorate you lantern.
Step 5: Roll up the lantern and stick the ends together with sticky tape (you could use glue, but you know my daughter won’t wait for it to dry!).
Step 6: Cut a thin strip of paper from the other sheet and stick it on to make the handle. Then string them up to decorate your room
Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog. where yo can find lots more crafts to explore.
