If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

Rumor has it that today, July 14th, is Laura Numeroff’s birthday! So in honor of this special occasion I thought I’d share what we’ve done with one of our favorite books of hers--- If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff

Summary: A little girl gives a cat a cupcake, which makes the cat want to add sprinkles. From there a mess occurs and the girl and the cat have several adventures which end up with the cat being reminded of sprinkles and cupcakes. 

We made this cat out of a soup can! Isn’t it cute?

We used the cat along with a cupcake poem. We also used the cat for a counting game.  My daughter would roll a die and then “feed” the cat that amount of cupcakes.

We made our own paper cupcakes.

And we made a water color cupcake version.

We had our own cupcake birthday party with our favorite cupcake and cookie toy set.

   
We did some cupcake patterning with cupcake foam stickers and a cupcake pan.

And made some playdough cupcakes too.

We played some of the games and activities from the cupcake unit made by 2 Teaching Mommies.

Of course it would also be the perfect reason to bake and eat your own cupcakes too!  (For birthday printables and ideas check out what we did during my blog birthday bash. There’s a  cupcake and candles game and more!)

You can download the cat craft pattern and cupcake patterns under Letter C.  Harper Collins also has several book activity ideas and other printables on their site that go along with this book.

For more Laura Numeroff book fun, see what Ana from Ingles 360 came up with for the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Happy Birthday Laura Numeroff!

The Very Busy Spider - Letter S

My 3 year old daughter loves to read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Since this week we were studying the letter S, I thought it would be fun to do activities around this book.

Book Summary: This colorful picture book describes a spider's day. Blown onto a farmyard fence, she starts to spin a web. The other animals ask if she wants to play, but in every case "the spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web. (from Amazon)

The first thing we did was re-enact the story by using a big fake spider web and a plastic spider. (Right now is the perfect time to pick these up at stores). We placed our web out on our playset and went over the animals in the story that asked the spider to play. Then at the end we used black hole punch circles to be the "flies" that the spider catches in the web.

Next we made a Busy Spider craft.

Supplies:
6 wooden craft sticks
white yarn
white glue
red fun foam
green fun foam
2 google eyes
1 black pipe cleaner
glue dots
tape
1 piece of heavy construction paper or tag board

First we used Glue Dots to glue the craft sticks down on the background paper. Then we cut yarn into smaller pieces to create the web.

We dipped the yarn into glue and then placed it on the paper. You could just smear glue all on the inside of the frame and place pieces of string.

We created our own Busy Spider out of craft foam. I did have to use a strip of tape on the back of the spider to hold down the pipe cleaner legs. Then we used Glue Dots to place it on the web.

 

Next we did a spider sort activity.  Click here if you would like to download the spider sorting mat.

First I had her sort between objects that were easy to distinguish what were spiders and not: plastic dog, cow, tooth, flag, spiders etc.  Then we moved on to the concept that spiders have 8 legs. We counted the legs on all our plastic spiders. Then I mixed the spiders with some plastic bugs I got at the Target Dollar Spot. We then sorted the spiders from the bugs. This was a little harder for her to do because she had to count instead of just look at the item and see if it was a spider or not.

Then of course we had to do a Do-a-Dot page! We found lots of The Very Busy Spider printables at
Making Learning Fun.

What a fun Letter S week!

For More Book/Craft ideas see:
stART : A Mommy's Adventures
Read. Learn. Explore.
Preschool Corner

Read & Do: My Heart is Like a Zoo

I found the cutest book the other day while visiting the library. When I thumbed through the pages, I fell in love with the bright, simple, graphics and they screamed, "Make me!" So I did. :) I also thought that this would be a perfect craft project for my Glue Dots Summer Bonding Project. Bloggers around the net are creating summer craft projects using products from Glue Dots (Thanks Glue Dots for sending me a sample pack!) You can find even more information on this summer crafting opportunity on the Twitter Moms discussion board or on the Glue Dots Facebook page.

BOOK:
My Heart is Like A Zoo by Michael Hall The simple rhymes and bold pictures wonderful illustrate how love can be many different things, such as eager as a beaver, steady as a yak or silly as a seal.


CRAFT: Silly as a Seal and Jumpy as a Frog.
Supplies:
(Seal)
1 lime green/light green craft foam sheet
1 red craft foam sheet
1 purple craft foam sheet
1 glitter purple craft foam sheet
Mini Dot N' Go adhesive by Glue Dots
Craft Glue Dots

(Frog)
1 dark green craft foam sheet
1 light green craft foam sheet
1 large google eye
1 white or yellow craft foam sheet (for background)
Mini Dot N' Go adhesive by Glue Dots
Craft Glue Dots

What I loved about using Glue Dots for this project was that I was able to make the pieces ahead of time and create craft kits! By using the craft glue dots from the sheets, I applied the glue dot on the back of the foam pieces and left the liner on. I love that I can do this and will be creating more craft kits to have on hand.

We started off making the seal craft. I did occasionally have to help my 3yr. old peel off the liner, but by the middle of the project she had the hang of it.

We had the book open to the page we were making. We looked at the picture and talked about if the heart was over or under the large heart (working on position words). Then we would take our craft piece and do the same.

Then once we had all the pieces together, we used the Mini Dot N' Go roller to apply adhesive to the seal and stick it on the background. My 3yr. old was able to use this roller, but I did have to show her how to push down hard so that the dots stuck. She loved using the roller.

The completed craft! I love how it turned out. I have an altered clipboard in her room that we will hang this artwork on. An easy way to display crafts!

We also went ahead and put together the frog.

Another easy craft based on the book. She was so proud of both projects.

I went ahead and made a template for you. It is half the size of the project we made and will fit on a background of 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 craft foam. Sometimes that size craft foam is easier to find. If you decide to share the printable with others, please link to this post and not directly to the printable. Thanks! :) (See my printables terms of use)



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I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Glue Dots blogging contest to be eligible to receive a $30 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.