Thursday, October 7, 2010

Squirrel Lacing Craft


For stART (story + ART) today, we read Patrick Cooper's Never Trust a Squirrel. It's a lighthearted, cautionary tale about listening to parents' instructions, and learning which voices to ignore, in the world. So, we incorporated an element of listening, and following advice, into our craft.

I gave the girls squirrel dot-to-dot's, printed from here. Which, at ages 4, and 5, are still tricky for them, so they had to follow instructions, and pay attention to connect the correct dots. Every once, and a while they zipped ahead, and ran into trouble.



They colored in their squirrels, and glued them onto cereal box cardboard.


Then, I cut them out for them, and punched holes...

...for lacing.


Which again, called for help, and advice, to stitch the yarn through the right side, and the correct hole. Luckily for the girls, and the little guinea pig in Cooper's story, they had someone trustworthy to guide them.

Be sure to check out this week's stART link-up at A Mommy's Adventures, for even more story stretching arts, and crafts.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

12 comments:

Ticia said...

It is so hard to find good simple dot to dots. So going to use this, and then extending it with a lacing activity! LOVE IT!

Unknown said...

I like how you guys made a lacing activity out of a dot to dot worksheet. Fun! Thank you for sharing.

Charlene Juliani said...

You always do such fun stuff. Love the lacing activity!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I like how you extended the dot-to-dots with lacing. The story sounds pretty interesting too!

Butterfly said...

I'll keep an eye out for that book at the library, it looks lovely!

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Great way connecting the moral of the story to the activities! Way to go, mom!

Brimful Curiosities said...

My daughter likes to rush sometimes when she does tasks like dots to dots, too. Tonight she was supposed to draw something with a pattern for school and decided to draw a zebra. As she was filling in her black and white pattern she was hurrying to much and messed it up. She discovered the wonders of white-out, thanks to Mommy.

kewkew said...

It's been a while since I stopped by your blog. I saw your interview over at adventures in mommy-land so I decided to stop by. Glad I did. I never would have thought about turning a dot to dot into a lacing activity. I have the book on hold at my library, as our next letter is S I figured we would give it a shot.

Anonymous said...

Paper rolls or Cereal Boxes. . . .I've been tickling my brain all morning on how to construct a large cardboard Taco. Cardboard would bend. I want curve. . . . I'm going to deconstruct a paper roll, and dig the cereal boxes left from last week's company . . . . . My brain must need more coffee this morning. Glad to have you for suggestions. :)

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Pebblekeeper - I'm thinking craft foam would work better :)

Alexandra said...

Thanks for this. I was googling "squirrel dot-to-dot/lacing" when I came upon this post.

Jackie Higgins said...

This is such a great extension of the lessons learned in the book. Very meaningful craft.