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Cute & Easy Crafts for Kids

Kids Get Crafty: Winter Scene (for Calendar – January)

As you may have read, we are planning to do a Calendar at the end of the year for 2012, based on pictures, crafts and paintings that we made throughout 2011. So, after seeing these lovely Christmas Scenes over at Ik Zie Ik Zie and Mermaid’s Creations, we decided to have a go. It was a joint effort (Red Ted is not quite 3), but I believe we did well as a team. Red Ted is so pleased with it, he wants it by his bed. A photo will go into the calendar! Older children can do this all by themselves! We will also make a calendar with Pip Squeaks colourful efforts. It will be a great way to see her progress throughout the year!
As I usually join in with the stART projects over at A Mommy’s Adventure, I always bring a book too. Today, however I have a poem about a little robin.
The robin is a symbol of winter and Christmas in the UK (the UK Postie used to be nickednamed “robin” for his red uniform, later robins became a symbol for bringing Christmas mail and now frequently feature on UK Christmas cards). Also… whilst we were growing up, we used to have a Robin visit our garden to pinch some of our milk that the milkman brought and left outside the back door: it would peck at the lid and drink the cream off the top.

The Poem

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree,
Up went Pussy-Cat, and down came he,
Down came Pussy-Cat, away Robin ran;
Say little Robin Redbreast: ‘catch me if you can!’

Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a spade,
Pussy-cat jumped after him, and then he was afraid.
Little Robin chirped and sang, and what did pussy say?
Pussy-cat said ‘Mew, mew, mew’and Robin ran away.

This rhyme suggests a belief that if you injure or harm a robin bad luck will befall you.

Hurt a robin or a wran
Never prosper boy or man

(Source: BBC)

The Craft

I really want to have a go at the “Four Seasons” with Red Ted – the same (ish) scene once every 3 months. Trees are fabulously representative of the 4 seasons – with its bare branches, buds, leaves and autumn leaves.. so the tree forms be basis of our picture. We then have the robins as explained above (though you usually only find one – I believe they are very territorial), followed by our first proper experience of snow!

Materials: White paper, black/ brown paper for trees (though you can paint one on), paints, bubble wrap for snow, brushes & scissors

1) Paint a background – we chose a blue sky and white snowy ground – surprisingly Red Ted was “ok” about leaving the bottom part white. Often he wants to paint all of it! In this case you could cover it with masking tape.

2) Cut out a tree for the child to stick on – I cut 4 identical trees for our scenes later in the year (yes, that’s how accurate I am being… crazy me). You can of course paint a tree or make a collage tree out small bits of paper. Glue on the tree

3) Make snow: we painted the bubble wrap and pressed it on – Red Ted LOVED this bit

4) Robins: My thumbprint for the base and Red Ted’s for the Red tummy! This time it was a little harder to persuade him NOT to paint everything red. So our robins are joined by one cardinal!

5) When all dried, add a little eye and beak – I did this under Red Ted’s supervision

Lean back and admire! (UPDATE A  YEAR LATER: here is the full Four Seasons together)

Pip Squeak also got to paint and here is her effort

Lucky for us we were given the Once Upon an App Bird App for review a while back – it actually features a robin and a cardinal, so we had a look at this again too!

Comments

  2. Catherine says

    What a gorgeous picture. I love the thumbprint robins – great teamwork! We’re big fans of bubble wrap painting in this house too, & of course popping some of the wrap as we go 😉

    Reply

  5. Jill says

    The winter scene is gorgeous! I love it. I finally linked up one of my fun food fridays just for you. Sorry I didn’t link them up sooner. I thought it had to be something that just kids made. My bad! I’ll happily link them up from now on.

    Reply

  6. Red Ted Art says

    Hi Jill! Fabulous to have you on board! And yes “for Kids” is more than welcome too!! Thank you.

    Thanks for the lovely comments everyone – I agree, bubble wrap printing rocks and is a big favourite in our house!!

    Reply

  7. KateS says

    I love this idea of doing a piece of art every month of the year to make a calendar at the end. Planning on doing this with my 13th month old through the year – she’ll need a bit of help over the next couple of months but will then be well on her way to creating her own masterpieces! I love the idea for the robins in this art – it’s something my daughter will be able to do. Thanks for a great idea!

    Reply

  8. Red Ted Art says

    I will be making two calendars – one with Red Ted’s art and one with Pip Squeaks – so don’t worry, even if every month is “just” a colourful page, that will still be a LOVELY keepsake!

    Reply

  9. Esther says

    I love the idea of calendar! May be I can also try that with CJ. The Robin painting rocks. We also did Bubble printing to paint pebbles on sand. Thanks for the poem(new to me)!

    Reply

  10. Esther says

    Sorry Maggy! I tried to link up a different post – gift wrap to rescue and ended up linking the flowery pockets one. Is it possible to delete that link! sorry once again.

    Reply

    • Red Ted Art says

      Hi Esther – when I go into my Linky Dashboard it doesn’t show up? Very strange!! I am not sure why.. sorry.. 🙁

      Reply

  16. Janelle says

    Your artwork also reminds me of the nursery rhyme:
    The north wind doth blow,
    And we shall have snow,
    And what will poor robin do then,
    Poor thing?
    He’ll sit in a barn,
    And keep himself warm,
    And hide his head under his wing,
    Poor thing.

    The robins in your picture must be very brave to face the cold winter weather!

    Reply

  19. Red Ted Art says

    Aah that is so sweet! Thank you for sharing that cute poem!

    In the UK it doesn’t get so cold, so the Robins do ok!!

    Reply

  30. Michelle@ A Full Cottage says

    Hi Jill’
    This is my first visit to your site. I love the tutorial what a great idea. I can’t wait to try this with my 4 and 6 year olds. I also really like the poem. We don’t see robins around here until after the snow melts, infact they are our first sign of spring. My kids always like to keep out a watch for them and be the first one to spot one that year.

    Thanks so much for sharing.
    🙂 Michelle
    PS: I found you from Happy to Design Sunday Favorites party.

    Reply

  31. Jennifer says

    The calendar is adorable! When I taught preschool we used to make calendars for the parents using the kids fingerprints and hand prints. I don’t know why I haven’t thought to do that with my little guys!
    Jen
    Scissors & Spatulas

    Reply

    • Red Ted Art says

      Wednesdays – ie. Today! And it is open Wednesday – Monday! Do link up more than one post if you have missed the link up in the past! Look forward to seeing you!

      (PS it will be in the Headline and then the featured section until the link up closes!)

      Reply

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