With Miss K strapped and sitting on my hip, I ready myself to pick up Mr Two Year Old (E) from creche. As I negotiate myself around children, prams and parents I overhear the following conversation.

Mum 1: How are you?
Mum 2: Oh… a bit stressed.
Mum 1: Why? What’s happening?
Mum 2: It’s Book Week and we’re a bit stressed about our costumes for the Book Parade.

I breathe a mental sigh of relief. These two mums have kids in Primary School. My eldest twins are still in preschool. Phew! No need for me to worry about costumes for the Book Parade. I want to express my relief with these two mums, but Mr Two Year Old (E) spots me and makes a bee line for my knees. (He loves to tackle me right in the knees…. WHY?!)

Little did I know that preschools also celebrate Book Week with a Book Parade, where children are encouraged to come dressed in their favourite book character…. (WHY?!)

Okay, just to clarify things; I think it’s great that preschools celebrate book week and have book parades where children are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite book character.

I also think that no-sew costumes are awesome.

Here’s our fun no sew costume for lovers of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Materials: craft foam (red, yellow, green, purple, purple); hot glue gun; elastic; scissors.

Method:

Cut out the various shapes for the mask. Green and yellow circles for eyes; purple antennas; and red semi-circle for the face.

(At first, we made the mask with a full red circle, as shown in our original post over at KidsActivitiesBlog.com. The full-face caterpillar mask looks more like the caterpillar from the book, but Mr N found it cumbersome and, in his own words “wanted to speak”. So, we promptly made it a half-mask with a semi-circle instead of a circle.)

Using the hot glue gun, join all the various pieces together. With super close supervision, I let Mr N and Mr M have a go with our low-temp hot glue gun. This was fantastic – here they were making their own costumes for the Book Parade! Now there’s a family tradition I’d like to keep up.

With all the pieces of the mask glued on and secure, make two small slits on the side of the mask. Thread some elastic through these holes and secure it so it fits well when the mask is worn.

Pair this no-sew hungry caterpillar face mask with a green top and green pants and you’ve got yourself a Very Hungry Caterpillar. No sewing required. So easy that kids can make it too. Awesome.

N & M: 4 years, 3 months
August 2012

The post The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Quick No Sew Costume by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Fort with Fairy Lights

 
N&M  just got their new beds on the weekend. It was such a great structure for our fort.

 
I strung up our fairy lights underneath the top bunk  and hung a blanket over the side to make an entrance for their fort.

 
What an invitation to play! A fort, fairy lights and a dimly lit room.

 
Of course, the invitation to play was keenly embraced.

 
Children morph into who they want to be within their pandora’s box that is the fort.

 
N&M called the fort their “cave”. They didn’t want to call it their castle because they didn’t have a princess in it, (they looked and looked but couldn’t find her). So their fort became a cave.

 
N changed into a dragon. “ROAR!”

 
Where there is a dragon, there needs to be a dragon slayer. It’s biblical.

 
M’s weapon of choice was a gun. The gun had flashing lights which added some extra fun in a dim cave.

 
Forts open up a child’s imagination. I’m not sure what it is about the make-shift shelter, but forts in their various ingenious designs create walls of security for play.

 
Long live the humble play fort!

N&M: 3 years, 5 months

November 2011

This post was shared in the following linky parties:

Today at Play

It’s Playtime 

Living Life Intentionally TGIF 

Play Academy

Sunday Showcase

Crafty Moms Share Sharing Saturday

No Time for Flash Cards Link & Learn

After School Party

The post Fort with Fairy Lights by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.