Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Storytime Art - Cupcake Holder Daffodils

It has finally begun to warm up a bit here in MI, we had a really nice day last Friday followed by a rainy weekend. I like rain and listening to it fall against the window panes when going to sleep so I didn't mind, especially since I know all that rain will help our spring flowers pop up and turn our grass a lush green instead of the brownish color it currently is.

Like many Michiganders, I'm ready for spring any way and my St. Patrick's Day unit goes hand in hand with Easter and Spring themes. So I'd already begun incorporating those themes into our studies on colors. Spring is also a good time to bring up Seasons in Michigan because there are normally four definite ones and spring is pretty easy to differentiate for even the youngest from winter.
To bring several of those themes together we recently Read I Am A Bunny. It's a colorful and simply written book about Nicolas the bunny and what he likes to do for each of the four seasons. The pictures are by famed children's illustrator Richard Scarry so it's very well done and a book I think any young child would enjoy. In the spring Nicolas likes to pick flowers and on that page he is depicted in a field of flowers with daffodils shown prominantly in the foreground.It tied in perfectly with the color we were also working on, yellow so we made this cute daffodil out of two cupcake holders - flatten one, yellow buttons, and some paper scraps I cut into stem and leaf shapes. It's very simple and requires few materials, I've made them before with yellow pom poms instead of buttons also. She was probably the most excited about getting to wield the glue bottle by herself for the first time. The control freak in me is trying to let go and allow her more independence, I'm taking baby steps! It took three days for the glue to dry completely.
To finish it up, I added this poem to add to the top of her picture. We sing it with our fingers representing the daffodils, but she has made the connection between the song and the art project we did. She'll go over and point to her flower, where I've hung it up afterward.

5 Little Daffodils Fingerplay
One little daffodil had nothing much to do,
Out popped another one, then there were two.
Two little daffodils were smiling at a bee,
Out popped another one, then there were three.
Three little daffodils were growing by the door,
Out popped another one and then there were four.
Four little daffodils were glad to be alive,
Out popped another one and then there were five.
Five little daffodils were wearing golden crowns,
They danced in the breeze in green satin gowns.

This Friday is our first day going live with ABC and 123: A Learning Cooperative, so I think this will be my last regularly scheduled ABC Learn with Me post on Tuesdays on my personal blog. I will still be sharing activities I do with ER on a regular basis - probably a weekly one at that, but I don't want to be locked into always doing it on Tuesday and Thursday.

If you did a fun activity with your child, remember we want to know and would love to feature it. Email us a link at abc123learning@gmail.com and don't forget to go over to Katie's A Listmaker's Life if you've done a language activity you want to share now on her Mr. Linky!

Here's a new weekly meme that I love cause it's so easy to join in! Show off your talent with us at Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House, on the Totally Talented Tuesday Post! Found her through all the SITS giveaways! Have you headed over to enter yet?

It is also part of Jennifer's The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman, Saturday Showcase. We'd love to have more participation over there, so if you've done a project with your kids please link up over there so we can all share! I have also added it to Sandy at Just for Fun's Friday Book Project.

18 comments:

  1. This is a cute activity! My girls just love to glue-anything. Like me, they are into buttons.

    Now, I have to go to the store and get me some paper cupcake holders:)

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  2. You always have the CUTEST projects! That poem is so sweet, I'll be linking.

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  3. What a cute idea and a great way to get ready for spring!!!

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  4. This is way cute and creative, Katie! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I love paper daffodils! So cute Katie! And that is a great poem, too. I'm going to print that out. Thanks so much!

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  6. This is just too cute. I love it!

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  7. Cute craft! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I love this back ground too. I've been using it for close to a year and am ready for a change. :)

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  8. This is a super cute craft! Harper made one today at her craft/story hour class. They painted the stem using foam brushes and plastic forks to do the grass. They scrunched up tissue paper for inside the cupcake liner, but I love the buttons much more!

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  9. That is absolutely adorable! She did a great job!

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  10. What a darling activity. You have really set the bar, lady!

    As far as thrift shopping goes, Salvation Army on State St. (Ann Arbor) is probably going to be the cheapest for sweaters.

    There's also the Ann Arbor PTO thrift shop on Industrial (Ann Arbor of course).

    Finally, the last of my triumvirate is the Goodwill thrift store in Saline. They're clothing is actually a little higher, but their home goods-type stuff (for things to alter) is almost always priced very, very reasonably.

    p.s. Oops I just remembered a fourth: Value Village (crap, I think that's the name of it) over by the Jackson Rd. (Ann Arbor again) KMart. It's the least visually appealing place to go, but they have the best prices bar none and I've actually found some very useable stuff there (such as an old Scrabble game for like $1.40).

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  11. Cute! I remember making something like that when I was little!

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  12. That is too cute and creative! I so need to do more with my kids (I say that every week..lol).

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  13. I just saw this idea at a preschool I was checking out. I hadn't seen it before, but I was so excited to try it with my daughter. Love the poem!!

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  14. I love the daffodils.
    Muffin cups can be used for so many craft projects.

    Thanks for linking and mentioning Showcase Saturday!!!

    Have a great weekend.

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  15. Wow how creative using the muffin cups...I love this project!
    Its going down on my to-do list for sure!
    Thanks for sharing~
    S J

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  16. I am trying this with my son tonight!! THANKS FOR THE FAB IDEA!! :)

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  17. Thank you for the great idea! My 3's did it this week and I posted it on my blog and linked back to you.

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  18. We thought it Daffodil craft was adorable, so we shared it on our site!

    all the best,
    Sherry + Wendy @ Kiboomu

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