Once you have looked at the video below, you will see that we have been working on this post since April! So, the strawberry came first and then the book. With summer upon us, we have all just experienced the wonders of spring. I wanted to capture some of this for Red Ted, so since April I have been photographing the development of three little strawberries.
Editing is not brilliant, neither is the sound overlay (you can hear Pip Squeak shuffling around)- I am learning!!!
Red Ted loved watching the process:
– I showed him when the petals fell off (the blossom is insaminated)
– I showed him where the fruit was developing
– We looked at the green strawberries and how
– they turned green and then, quite suddenly
– an orangey red appeared, it got deeper and deeper until we had
– a beautiful, delicious looking red strawberry.
Throughout this process Red Ted learned to “wait” (our “wait” sign language sign was in constant use) and he never touched one. Now that he has tasted the forbidden fruit, it is like the floodgates have opened and he can’t stop… and there I was, so proud of his “restraint”. Still, we have had fun.
I wanted to combine this with a book about “growing” (and reviewed some books on the garden here). I finally bought this little strawberry book – The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear, by Audrey Wood, Don Wood. We love strawberries, Mice (Pip Squeak) and Bears (Red Ted) in our house and I had seen it reviewed by A Mommy’s Adventure over on her (the original!!) stART projects. The book is about a little mouse that sets off to pick a strawberry, the narrator reminds the mouse that the Big Hungry Bear also loves a big red ripe strawberry and that the mouse must do something to avoid the bear from coming… Very sweet. We loved the illustrations and the way the “reader talks to the mouse”. What I found at the end of the book, was that Red Ted kept “looking for the bear” (which doesn’t actually make an appearance in the book), so I decided that the bear would be our craft project! We did it with one of his friends that was visiting:
1) Materials: Paper, Scissors, glue, crayons and “things to stick” – we had glitter, fur, flower shapes (salvaged from some wrapping paper).
2) I pre cut teddy shapes.
3) We let the children loose with glue and stuff to stick and colour. Red Ted loved the glitter (thank goodness we did this outside) and also the google eyes.
4) I used a couple of the teddies to make greeting cards for Granny and upcoming friend’s birthdays. Red Ted even drew a “strawberry” in Granny’s card!
Variations: use paints and water. Just crayons or felt tips. Use coloured card or paper.
For more Kid’s Craft look here or here.
What others are reading
Hooray for Fish – Footprint Fish for Kids
How to… make seedling pots!
Kids Crafts: Making Mini Books & Garden Journals
How to… make a Paper Envelope
Kids Crafts: Grass Heads
story + art = Great Start – The Jolly Postman & Simple Postcards
Pop Up Chick Card for Toddlers to Make
Kids Get Crafty – Robot Cards & The Robot & The Blue Bird
Fabulous pictures – well done to Red Ted for waiting *big round of applause*
The strawberries look delicious 🙂
Unfortunatey those were the yummiest of all, now they don’t get a chance to get hat red, as littl hands find them much earlier! But he is enjoying it! And he does share too (sometimes). x
Fabulous post! How excellent that you got the strawberries ‘growing’! Brill video!
It tested my patience as much as Red Ted’s!
bless… funnily enough my sad little strawberries plants from last year in a hanging basket produced 3 very small but delicious little berries which my 3 children enjoyed last night! Wish I’d taken a picture now worth all the waiting….
Next year? 😉 x
How cool is that video? Mia liked the bears and I have to agree with doing glitter outside no matter how paper you put it gets everywhere.
Video isn’t working for me 🙁 (Not your fault – something in our weird linux set up that happens on a regular basis) but wu-hay (or however you spell it) MORE GLITTER! Sometimes as a mum I think I really ought to invest in some glitter stocks! (our stART also involved lots of glitter!)
on no! how annoying, here it is on you tube? http://www.youtube.com/redtedart#p/a/u/0/KlKVBjt10pw
Heading your way now to check out glitter fest!
Maggy x
Now that our strawberries have ripened, I put that book on hold too. Very cute bears!
I really like the video. What fun! Strawberries are big at my house. We will have to check out this book.
Those teddy bears are adorable all hanging up like that! And kudos to Red for waiting on those strawberries. My kids eat them straight out of the garden as soon as they see them. I have yet to actually pick any of them.
Oh, red ted could only wait for the first strawberry, once he strawberry tasting floodgates were opened – no stopping him! He eats white ones too. 😉
Such a good post 🙂
Thank you!
We love this book too… and what a great idea to craft the bear who never appears! 🙂
Super cute! What a great book extension, too! 🙂
Watching things grow is so amazing. Tornado Boy isn’t quite so crazy about our tomatoes though (I love them!). Maybe we’ll try strawberries next.
Cute project. Red Ted does such a great job crafting.
Our tomatoes are so behind, I think be making Green Tomatoe chutney again if they don’t hurry up and grow!
Your video is great. What patience you have.
I’m very thankful you are linking up these posts to Feed Me Books Friday. Please be sure to leave a link back to my blog when you participate to help let others know where to find more great children’s books as well. Keep up the great posting.
We grew strawberries this year too – wish I had documented the process a little more, but we’re still getting blossoms so I guess I could start now. Smart way to “add” the bear to the story!