Craft project #5: homemade stick puppets

These little stick puppets are so simple and versatile, and the girls have had so much fun with them. The great thing about these is that you can make them out of just about ANY character. Just photocopy any picture of a character or animal, let the kids color and/or decorate them, then let them cut the picture out. Tape a tongue depressor or barbecue grilling stick to the back of your picture. Then, glue a heaver piece of paper or card stock to the back of that. Then you have instant puppets! Here, we made royal puppets and a castle backdrop out of old cereal boxes we painted, cut, and glued together. In the other picture, Elizabeth Ann is holding some scarecrow puppets we made to learn about Autumn. These could be adjusted for any season or story, according to whatever character pictures you have on hand or what story you want to tell. You could also photocopy coloring book pages and make stick puppets out of those pictures. One year, for Maggie's birthday, she had an Elmo party, and we made these simple stick puppets out of pictures of Sesame Street characters. Lots of possibilities. These little puppets become treasures for the girls, and I can only throw them away if I do it in secret.

Craft project #4: Nature collage

Part of the fun of making the nature collage was taking the nature walk that preceded it. We just took a short walk around our neighborhood. On the nature walk, the girls took little baskets and collected bits of nature around them. It was a good chance for me to learn a little bit more about the plants I see here, too, as our helper explained several that had been unfamiliar to me before. It was pretty neat to get to see the unique things the girls were able to add that we found lying around...like banyan tree leaves and coconut hair. They took a lot of pride in arranging their collages just right.