Another spider craft! Eric Carle style

We already did a spider craft some time ago using cardboard egg carton. But there's never too many a time in doing crafts right, what's more if they are simply fun and the finished product invited such a beaming pride in your child's face.

We are still on and off in our thematic lesson progress (definitely not proud of that). Still on insects and spiders. I can list off several reasons for that, but honestly deep down I know and have to shamefully admit that procrastination is on top of it. There I've said it!

Ok enough of that and let's get back on track.  We've been reading and loving Eric Carle's works which include The very busy spider and The very hungry caterpillar relating to the current theme. And I've been bloghopping a number of awesome blogs on kids crafts and such, and happened to stumble upon book crafts. These people have such incredible yet simple ideas that always make me go "Why didn't I think of that!".

So I have decided to do a craft based on The Very Busy Spider. Specifically the spider itself. Have you read it to your child yet? Please do! It portrays different farm animals with their sounds asking the spider to play with them. It sure is fun making all sorts of animal sounds with Kakak, even Adik enjoyed it too!

What we used:
Blue crepe paper
Yellow crepe paper
Orange paint
Black paint
Brown paint
Green Paint
Scissors
Glue
Spider template (Go here to download it. I blow it bigger here, another great site!)

1. Paint your papers. Look closely to the picture on the book and choose you colours. We used blue paper painted with greens for the head, yellow paper painted with orange and black dots for the body and yellow paper painted with brown and black for the legs.

2. Let dry.

3. Cut the template and spread glue.

4. Shred the papers and paste accordingly.

DONE!

Little note: Our cat has been bringing in roaches the past few nights. Yes! Roaches! She dug them from somewhere outside and brought them back! EEWW! Abah and I are absolutely terrified not a big fan of roaches. Nothing is worse than a Flying cockroach!! Ok now that's not the point actually. All I had wanted to say is Kakak saw it, went to it up-close, and started shouting "Mama look! It has 2 antennas and 6 legs! Insect!"

Easy Peasy Dragonfly

This is by far the easiest craft Kakak and me had done together.

All you need are:

A pair of wooden disposable chopstick

A pair of googly eyes

Pipe cleaners

Steps:
1. Paint the chopsticks. We used green!
2. Glue on the googly eyes.
3. Tape on the pipe cleaners for wings. Done!

It doesn't matter how easy and simple the things you are doing with your child. The thing that matter most is doing it with them! and do not forget to insert FUN! 

Dyed Paper-towel Butterflies and Flower

Things you will need:
Paper towel
Food colouring
Pipe cleaners

Too bad we didn't have more colours...Only purple, red and yellow.

Focusing on folding up her paper

All by herself! Tadaa!

How to:
1. Take a piece of paper towel and fold it up into a small square. (we fold it up 4 times)
2. Dip it into the colours. (watch the video below)
3. Open up the paper, you can see the paper is dyed and pretty now.
4. Left it to dry.
5. Once dried, scrunch up the middle and tie it up with the pipe cleaner. Done!

We also made a flower using 2 pcs of paper

Working with children, its always important to make all the preparations beforehand. We wouldn't want to 'kill' their excitement waiting. Demonstrate once on how its going to be done, and you will be amazed at how quick they learned.

Pictures and video are not of good quality as forgetful Mama left the camera cable at Grandma's, and so now we have to rely on the Ipad.

#1 THEME : Insects and spiders

Slowly progressing on our first theme. Honestly, our homeschool is not yet in full swing. I wouldn't dare say I am homeschooling my daughter yet. A lot of things to be planned, organized, prepared. I am still feeling bit lost and scattered. There are just too much awesome ideas and superbly creative activities on homeschooling, its both overwhelming and exciting!

Realizing that we will get to nowhere if I were to keep on researching for the best instead of slowly implementing some into action, I have decided to start it off with what Kakak love to do best. ART and CRAFT!

I have decided to go with thematic approach.To me themes are great! We can prepare our lessons focusing on them. It made more sense and the learning feels more natural as the areas of the curriculum link together.

It is, after all, how we, as adults, learn new things. Don't we start at what interest us and branch out from it?


So here are what we have done in summary, will be updating more as this theme is still ongoing:

I dare say that 90% were done by Kakak. We used mostly discarded items, or call them junks if you like. For example, our ladybug's body was made from the take-away drink holder at McDonald's! Its a great way to recycle, isnt it?

I simply love the beam on her face whenever she finishes her projects. Simply priceless.