story + Art = great stART – Shapes That Roll & Monster Cards
We recently received our “Shapes That Roll” book. One of the other wonderful mummy blogs reviewed it in one of their stART projects, but I have to confess – I cannot remember quite who it was! Sorry. Would have loved to have linked back to you.
Anyway. It makes for a great Monster Craft for Preschool!
Shapes That Roll, by Karen Nagel & Steve Wilson. Reading age 4 yrs- 8 yrs. Read together age 1.5yrs – 3.5yrs. The book is ADORABLE! At first I thought it would be nice “shapes” book to have, but it is much more than that. It is lovingly illustrated and printed in the most high quality manner, which makes all the difference. It even arrived with tissue paper between every page (which will come in handy in one of our craft sessions). We are guided through the book by Square, Circle and Triangle, who show us all about “Up” and “Down”, “Here” and “there”. About how some “slant” and “some don’t”. Which you can “roll” and which you can “stack” and where we find shapes in every day life (a house or a fruit or a star). And this only the beginning… so lots of fun. Lots of colours. Lots to discuss. Nice shiny bits too. We love this book. And much more than I expected!
To our craft activity. Another simple one and easy one to do at home in small spaces:
Monster Greeting Cards.
Shapes: I cut out lots of shape – I let Red Ted choose which colours and shapes. I had some different textures – corrugated card and foam to make it a little different.
Sticking: Red Ted then did lots of sticking. On the last one he discovered it was fun to stick shapes on top of each other. We then added google eyes. Whilst doing the sticking we talked about the shapes and it’s colours.
Drying: Red Ted insisted that we dry it on our “art washing line”. It did mean that everything shifted a bit, but I let him, as he was “so proud” of his work and he apparently really enjoys his washing line. So on they went.
Making up the card: I cut out monster shapes, using Red Ted’s google eye placements as a rough idea for a head and then we stuck them on some re-used card (We cut down some old ring binder dividers with my guillotine – Red Ted’s favourite bit).
Now Granny is going to get another card through the post! Hurray!
I do love this little monster activity! If you are looking for more shaped based activities that are also great for fine motor skills, try these math geoboards too!
In the meantime here are some more great Monster Crafts for Preschoolers:
