Felt Christmas Tree

I had a board book about a Christmas tree to send to my nephew and wanted to include something else, so I decided to make him a felt Christmas tree to decorate.

I made a tree pattern on paper,

then traced it on the felt and cut it out.

Next came the decorations. I twisted red and white pipe cleaners together, cut them into short pieces, and shaped them into candy canes.

Felt ornaments and stars came next.

Finally, I stuck some Christmas stickers on cardstock, cut them out, and glued small pieces of felt to the back.

 

Voila! A Christmas tree to decorate and un-decorate to your heart's content. 

I'm linking up with:

Letters on Hold

My sister and I have a table at a craft fair this coming weekend and Trip is currently sick, so letters have had to be on hold for a couple of weeks. I have been spending the time I would normally use to find, plan, and prepare our letter of the week activities (plus any other moment I can spare) to craft, craft, craft. I have gotten a lot accomplished, but still have aspirations of more things to make this week. My hope is to share some of the things I have made here, but I'm not going to make any promises as to how well I will do at that.

K Week- A Mess in the Kitchen

I thought that it would be fun for Trip to help me make something in the kitchen during K week. A mess was not really what I was looking for, but it's what I should have expected. He was not interested in the actual food part, so he just played around me and took things out of drawers, off the fridge door, out of the sink, and out of the trash can.

We had fun talking anyway while I made these delicious Chocolate-Bottom Banana Squares.

Nothing to do with the letter K other than being made in the kitchen, but these things were awesome!

K Week- Hunting for K

A fun activity for any letter is hunting for that letter around the house (or anywhere for that matter). This week, I wrote Ks on some sticky notes and posted them throughout the house.

There were Ks on doors,

light switches,

walls, drawers, furniture, the castle, and more. Once Trip saw the first one, I encouraged him to keep looking and find some more.

He started taking them down,

and sticking them in other places.

He especially liked putting them on the closet door, but enjoyed just playing with them and carrying them around too.

This super simple game was a successful one and we will definitely repeat it with other letters.

K Week- King of the Castle

A few months ago, I won a Box Creations cardboard castle in a giveaway from one of my favorite couponing and deals blogs, Frugal Living NW. I had been waiting for the right time to put it together for Trip. K week presented the perfect opportunity and he had a blast being the king of his castle.

The excitement began as soon as I started putting the pieces together. Trip could tell he was about to have a cool new hideout. Once the walls were all up, he got right inside to explore. I told him he was the king of his castle, which lead to him repeating, "I da king! I da king!" I made him a paper crown, but he would have nothing to do with it.

The finished castle looks great and went together easily and quickly. It does take up quite a bit of space in the living room, so it won't be out too long, but it will be fun to get out every once in a while. Eventually Trip will be able to color it too.

The castle quickly became a place to play baseball (after sneaking away from the table without getting his face washed!),

to look a pictures and videos on Mommy's phone,

to watch Sesame Street,

and much more.

Thanks, Frugal Living NW for providing us with such a cool castle and a special place to have fun!

K Week- The List

Trip's real name is Kirk, a name that he shares with his daddy and grandpa, so I wanted to introduce him to the letter K. K week ended up being a busy one, making me glad that we were doing a letter that doesn't appear at the beginning of many words and that had some easy activities to go with it.

Our K week fun included:

• playing king in a castle
• some fun in the kitchen (or mostly making a mess!)
• finding kangaroos and koalas in some favorite books
• kicking footballs and soccer balls
• a kiss-covered K
• K pancakes
• hunting for Ks around the house

You can read and/or print my letter K brainstorming list here.

D Week- Dinosaur Matching Cards

I found these cool dinosaur head and tail matching cards from the 1+1+1=1 Dinosaur Tot Pack. I printed them out, colored them, then laminated them for durability.

This activity is a good twist on the matching games we have already done (football and Thomas) and is definitely more of a challenge. Finding heads and tails that match didn't come as easily as finding two trains or two football team logos that are the same. Trip didn't quite get it yet, but he tried and we had some fun making some funny dinosaurs as well.