Pre School story telling and craft.
I am really interested in involving every
one in sewing and craft projects no
matter how old they are or what their
abilities are.
To this end I have been hosting a series of story telling and craft mornings at one of our local pre school play groups.
I choose a story, usually one the children know well and then work out a craft project based on the themes of the book.
FRIDAY, 17 JUNE 2011
"SPLASH!"
Come on everybody lets go to the beach!
Lets go rock pooling!
Rock pooling is one of our favourite family activities,
so its little wonder that I chose it as the theme for the latest
Flaming Nora story telling adventure.
Do you know this book?
"Splash!" by Henrietta Branford and Rosalind Beardshaw.
Who knows where it came from, or who gave it to us.
I certainly never bought it.
But it has been a firm favourite in our house since the Ginger one was young.
The wonderfully illustrated story of a little girls adventures
on the beach, in the sea, in a rock pool.
Its been quite a while since I last hosted a story telling and craft morning
plus its now wet and gloomy
it seemed a trip to the beach was in order.
The children made blow fish.
I found the template for them on Made By Joel's web site.
Have you discovered Joel yet?
If you have young kids he is a must.
A site packed full for clever and interesting crafts for kids, most of which seem to work perfectly for pre school as well as school age
(delete as your mood dictates) darlings/ monsters.
Jonah was doing "neat"
Jessie did colourful
Jonah became a shark
As did M'pilika
The boys drew up a storm
While Jonah was still neat.
M'pilika blew and the fish whizzed along the line.
We had a huge school of fish
and Jonah finally finished his neat.
And so to the story telling.
The bombshell came prepared for all eventualities
We applied our suncream, brushed the sand from our hair and between our toes
and we JUMPED in to the water
the icy spicy water
the shivery shakey water
from the deep blue sea.
And the children had a right soaking.
before settling down on their beach towels for star fish snacks
On Wednesday 10Th November 2010 this happened
"BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON
A LITTLE EGG LAY ON A LEAF"
Yes people thats right we are talking caterpillar's here.
Very hungry caterpillars to be precise.
Last Wednesday was a cold and clear morning is this sleepy sunny corner of south London.
Who knew what was about to happen?
I thought I knew it all.
Ruth knew most of it.
The blonde bombshell and about 20 odd other little ones had an inkling.
Not so long ago I had an idea, a little idea, a germ of an idea.
It grew, as these things do very very quickly, and became a big fat idea.
I put it to Ruth who runs Tot Spot our local play group, she loved it, lots of mum's offered to make cakes and the lovely Caroline volunteered to face paint.
For some time I have been becoming increasingly interested in the idea of getting really young children to sew.
The youngest I have ever had in one of my classes was only 3.
But then back in september I ran a drop in session as part of the Bermondsey St festival. At which lots of mums turned up with under 3's in tow. I was so surprised at what they achieved, It was an avenue just screaming to be explored by Nora, so I did.
Who doesn't love Eric Carle and his beautiful books?
One evening while reading "The very hungry caterpillar" to the blonde one I realised the solution to my ponderings and musings.
Fast forward to last Wednesday.
The Tot Spot butterfly and caterpillar morning arrived.
The children came dressed up
Had their faces painted
and sewed.
We made caterpillars out of pompoms and oggly googly eyes.
Which the children then used to help tell the story.
Ah yes the story!
That was my favourite bit.
I had rehearsed it on my two darlings, I had planned it, I had worked out what I wanted to have happen when and how.
But I now realise how naive I was!
It started according to plan
but then the children picked it up and made it their own.
Brilliant, a huge gaggle of pre schoolers all crowding in trying to get the closest
shouting out the loudest
waving their caterpillars the highest
eating the most apples, pears, plumbs and strawberries.
And then
And then
And then.
The cocoon.
And then
And then
And then
the butterfly
emerging from the cocoon
(So hard so difficult, all that nibbling wasn't getting any where.
But there were so many willing helpers.)
and flying away.
Hopefully the kids learnt a little bit about sewing,
and I defiantly learnt a lot about children, sewing and story telling.
Such fun.
On 26 Th. January 2011 this happened.
"SUDDENLY THERE WAS A RING AT THE DOOR
SOPHIE'S MUMMY SAID
'I WONDER WHO THAT COULD BE?' "
From "The Tiger who came to tea" by Judith Kerr
Last Wednesday, after a certain amount of last minute panicking over a toy trumpet that used to be in our possession and never used, but when you need it has been thrown away, was the morning of Nora's second foray in to story telling, or as it shall hence forth be known,
preparing to read by learning to sew!
Yes that is still making me laugh, a lot, thanks to my many talented
lion tamer of a mother for that one.
You can see the results of the first here.
I try to pick stories that are well known so the children feel confident enough to join in, but they also have to be simple enough for them to follow, and be able to spark off an idea for a fun fabric based craft in my jumbled mind.
Also there needs to be an opportunity for a big ending.
This time around we were making cakes
for the pre-school tigers to eat during tea.
I was so pleased with how they turned out, simple to make and easy for little ones to understand and only needing a small bit of adult help.
So pleased am I that I shall be showing you how to make them very very soon.
But back to the story telling.
When Sophie's mummy opened the door, it was not the milkman, nor was it the boy from the grocers, and it certainly wasn't Sophie's Daddy
It wasn't even a big furry stripy tiger...
...it was a room full of big furry stripy tigers.
The Tiger didn't take just one sandwich...
He took all the sandwiches on the plate
And then he ate all the biscuits...
and all the cake....
Shock, horror, gasp
he even drank all of Daddy's beer!
Then he said
"Thank you for my nice tea. I think I'd better go now"
In the morning Sophie and her Mummy went shopping and they bought lots more things to eat.
And they also bought a very big tin of Tiger food.....
.... in case the Tiger should come to tea again.
But he never did.
With never ending gratitude to Judith Kerr for being such an amazing and engaging writer.
Thanks also to Ruth and Tot Spot for letting me have my way, again!
and to Caroline, Hannah and Kathryn for the face painting,
and to all the wonderful families who came along, dressed up and made the event so very very enjoyable.
ROOOOAAAAAARRRRR!
Love Nora xxx
MONDAY, 31 JANUARY 2011
CAKE MY DAY!
Well I said I would do it, and this time I really have!
The recipe for making pre-school play cakes,
as featured in "The Tiger who came to tea" storytelling.
Plus some exciting news at the end of the post!
Ingredients:
One length of fleece fabric roughly 28" long by 2" wide
Double sided sticky tape
Length of ribbon roughly 12" long
One button or bead and matching thread
Needle.
Makes one cake. Some adult help and supervision required.
Step one.
Get a grown up to cut the fleece to size. 28" long by 1.5" wide at one end tapering to 1" wide at the other.
(if you want to make a bigger cake you will need a longer strip of fleece, otherwise it will turn out tall and thin!)
Step two.
Stick double sided sticky tape down the middle of the length of fleece and peel away the backing.
Step three.
Carefully roll up the length of fleece starting at the wide end and rolling towards the thin end.
Step four.
Your cake is now made, tap it on a work surface to give it a nice flat bottom.
Step five.
Tie the ribbon round the middle of the cake and tie in a bow.
Step six.
Get an adult to help you thread the needle and sew the button or bead on to the top of the cake.
Step seven.
Put your cake on a plate and await the arrival of a tiger.
