It’s fairy week on NurtureStore! We celebrated my daughter’s seventh birthday last weekend with a fairy party, with lots of fairy-themed food, crafts and play. I have some lovely, simple-to-do, full-of-play ideas to share with you this week, starting with today’s idea: how to make a fairy!
How to make easy shadow puppets
Use this guide on how to make easy shadow puppets to make your own puppet show.
How to make shadow puppets
21 ideas for world book day
Are you going to celebrate World Book Day with your children on 1st March?
It’s a worldwide celebration of children’s books and reading and marked in over 100 countries around the globe.
Books are such a fun springboard in to all sorts of activities, crafts and play. Here are our favourite World Book Day ideas for you to try.
21 World Book Day Ideas for fun with your kids [Read more…]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas: butterflies
Following on from yesterday’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas for caterpillars, today we have a selection of butterfly crafts.
The designs are all very simple again, making them easy for very young children to try.
Working with the idea of butterflies gives the opportunity to talk about symmetry and with older children you might want to encourage them to focus on creating matching patterns, as part of a more mathematical activity.
With young children though I think the main purpose behind these crafts is to invite them to enjoy the colours and see what patterns they can make – so I wouldn’t worry about strict directions about making sure both sides match.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas: butterfly printing
This idea is a childhood classic – painting on one side of a piece of paper, folding and squishing the paint, and then opening it up to reveal your butterfly.
I particularly love this technique because it’s open to all children – even babies. Everyone can join in: finger painting, smearing colour around, making hand prints, using brushes or sponges to apply the paint. And my kids really love the surprise reveal when the final pattern is peeled open and revealed.
Two tips I’d share:
1. It might be hard for the children to understand the idea of painting at first on one side of the paper only, and you won’t want to pester them all through the activity to stop painting on the other side. If you fold the paper over so the side to be kept clear is underneath and only the side that needs painting is presented to them (see above), then they can go for it, applying the paint wherever they like, without any restrictions. When they’ve finished you can fold it the other way to make your print.
2. I’d do a demonstration of the folding and squishing first before using their own art work – some children can be very upset if they think you’re spoiling their design, so best for them to be happy with the plan before you try it.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas: butterfly mobiles
These twirling butterflies were inspired by an idea Amanda created for Make and Takes. Amanda’s children made ladybirds, but I think they’re also beautiful with a butterfly design, and the kids can paint, pattern or collage any design they choose.
Make and Takes has a step-by-step guide to assembling them.
A tip I’d add: if you laminate the pieces of card before assembling them they’ll withstand a little rain so you can have them twirling in the garden.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar craft ideas: peg butterflies
We used a wooden clothes peg to make a butterfly mobile: here’s our step-by-step guide showing how we made it.
The best children’s books ever
These are the best children’s books ever – well according to the NurtureStore panel of book critics. Today is World Book Day and to honour the occasion I thought I’d share with you our very favourite books – and see if you agree with our picks. It’s so hard to put together a definitive list of course but these are the books which hold a very special place in our heart.
Dogger by Shirley Hughes is a tale of love, loss and how to be a fabulous big sister. It tells us what happened when Dave lost his favourite toy dog and how big sister Bella saved the day. This book made me cry when I first read it to B, when I was pregnant with L and B was just about to turn into a big sister herself! We haven’t come across a Shirley Hughes book we don’t love and this features her amazing illustrations, depicting a family and school life which is so familiar.
I’m sure you all know Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and it’s in our top picks because it’s the book we especially love to read out loud as it gives plenty of opportunity for great character voices as well as dramatic resonance.
Can You Catch a Mermaid by Jane Ray is a moving tale of a lonely little girl and a very hard decision she has to make. It’s all about friendship and features Jane Ray’s beautiful illustrations. B has a real love of mermaids so this is her top pick and I like it because it can be read on different levels: it has a happy ending and also leaves you thinking about unanswered questions long after you’ve finished reading.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is the first book I ever read to both B and L and so has a very special status in our family. It’s a real classic and a fabulous springboard into learning about caterpillars and butterflies, numbers, days of the week and so much more. I’ve used this book in so many different ways with the children I work with and it just had to be in this selection.
I loved the My Naughty Little Sister series by Dorothy Edwards when I was little and I think it’s a real joy to share a childhood favourite with your own children. Some of the things my naughty little sister gets up to make B gasp, andw e also love the book because some of the stories remind us quite a lot of a little sister we know.
B is now at the stage where she can read chapter books independently and she’s delighting in discovering lots of new-to-her authors. Roald Dahl is a master story teller but I’d forgotten just how well crafted his books are. Fantastic Mr.Fox is the first of his books which B came across and I often find her fast asleep at night, clutching this book in her hand.
So this is our pick of the best children’s books ever. What’s would be on your list?
More World Book Day ideas.
How to make a bookmark
Following on from our post about World Book Day ideas, here’s a suggestion for a World Book Day craft. And the perfect craft for World Book Day has to be a bookmark, right? We often make bookmarks when we’re giving someone a book as a birthday present, and they’re so easy to make you could even get busy and make one for all your friends, to hand out on World Book Day this Thursday.
How about a bookmark with a tab to sit on the page in your book. We made ‘I love books’ hearts but the design is easy to adapt so you can customise them to suit the person you’re giving it to, or match the book you’re giving. Draw a rectangle shape with your motif on the top, decorate and then use a craft knife to cut out the bottom of the motif to make a ‘hook’ to go over the edge of the page.
Using binca / aida cross stitch fabric to make bookmarks is a good option for children too and a nice first step to introduce some sewing. You can have the children draw out their design on a piece of paper first, or just give them a needle and thread and let them freestyle.
How old do children need to be before they can sew? Well, the binca material is thick, which makes it sturdy enough to work as a bookmark and easier for the children to hold, and because the square holes are large you can use a child-friendly big blunt needle and a thicker thread. My four-year-old needed help threading the needle and tying knots, but was determined to do her own thing when it came to stitching. My eight-year-old managed her bookmark all by herself, designing a butterfly and sewing on some buttons as an embellishment.
Another super easy idea for a homemade bookmark is to draw a design with pencils on card, laminate it for strength, punch a hole and add a ribbon.
happily shared with Get Your Craft On and Mad Skills Party and Making Monday Marvelous and Preschool Corner and Upcycled Awesome and Kids Get Crafty