Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Elves and the Shoemaker


It has been way too long since I last posted. We have still been learning, creating and having fun but I just haven't taken time to document it on my blog. I have to admit I kinda petered out on the letter of the week crafts and learning. I just lumped the last few letters together as animals the same week we went to the zoo and called it done. I just sort of lost energy at the end of the school year.

This summer I am taking some time to focus on classic (as deemed by me) children's stories and planning crafts and some learning activities around that. This week we read The Elves and the Shoemaker. The girls liked the magical idea of the elves helping out the humans and we had some really fun imaginative play. I had the wonderful role of the shoemaker which means I got to close my eyes and "sleep" while the girls laced up the shoes. I simply cut out a very rough shoe form, punched holes in it and let the girls lace them up. We did this several times and they had a blast and I really did get some good rest time even if I didn't really sleep.

After playing I took the girls into the kitchen and we made footprints on mural paper. I just used 2 old pairs of shoes, dipped the sole in paint and had them "walk" their hands over the mural paper. They had a lot of fun and both chose a different shoe pattern.

We also did some jump counting. Old hat for Lydia but still pretty new for Emma. The idea of "pairs" led to some great practice of jump counting by 2's. But enough about that, now just look at the pictures.


Here are the shoes that the elves had so much fun lacing.

Really diligent work.

Here is a picture of both of the girls prints.

Up-close of the "fancy" shoe print.

Up-close of the flip-flop print.

I really am looking forward to teaching the girls some classic stories and the fun of easy ideas that come from learning them.

Thanks for reading!

I am linking up to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures and to Red Ted Art.
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