Story Time and a Jam Sandwich Craft

My kids are too stinking cute. I love their creativity and eagerness to dig into any project and give it their own unique touches. Several times a week Roo will ask to make a craft, similarly several times a week Harper will raid our craft closet and take off with anything she can reach... We now know they like to craft; if you add a good story into the mix it quickly turns from like to love.

A few weeks ago we checked out The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord. I thought this would be a fun book to check out, it also seemed like a good way to explain wasps to Harper and give Roo a reminder to avoid them!

I also hoped that a story about a giant jam sandwich and a cute craft would inspire my son to try something new. Something he has been adamant about not trying, jelly and jam!

                                                                  

In the story, 4000 wasps descend upon a town. They are quite a bother but the townspeople roll up their sleeves and get to work making one giant wasp trap jam sandwich!

The kids found the book entertaining. Roo was not sold on the idea of jam at all. He said "That's not good. That's sick." He was pretty determined that he wouldn't like jelly, nor jam. 

Up next we made Jam Sandwiches. My kids go CRAZY for paper food crafts. Like drop everything,  We are making a sandwich!? From paper?! Will there be glue sticks involved?

Getting ready, supplies needed

I cut 2 slices of bread shapes in off white paper

I cut 2 slightly larger slices of bread shapes in brown paper

I offered my kids red finger paint and paint brushes

Of course, glue sticks were needed.

Baby Wipes... You will want these!

Instructions

I gave each kid a brown slice of bread and a glue stick

They smeared glue around the brown paper and topped it with the off white paper

That was pretty satisfying to the kids. They really like to glue things!

They were thrilled to see the finger paint and paint brushes!

I told them to paint the jam on their toast. They agreed this was pretty great. Glue and paint after a story? It couldn't get much better!

This was a great activity for the kids. They always want to help me cook, so to create their own food craft was a hit. 

After the story and the craft, I made a peanut butter and jelly for Harper, Roo came in and watched me spreading the glob of jelly around. With a very serious face he told me "That is sick. Bleck. No jelly for me please. I will have honey."

I love that kid. He is definitely a guy who knows what he wants. 

You also might enjoy this Paper Cookie Craft idea for preschoolers.

Easy Yoda Puppet

May the 4th is right around the corner and Star Wars fans will love this super easy and cute craft to add a little force fun to the special day!

                                        My son Rolf, is the biggest Star Wars fan ever.

He loves to play with Star Wars action figures after school! I wanted to add something fun to his daily Star Wars play and I made something cute and easy to delight him!

This is so easy, all you need are 2 ovals of green paper, a circle of green paper, a popsicle stick, 2 googly eyes and some glue.

Begin by gluing the oval ear shapes to the large circle of paper.

Next glue those onto the craft stick.

Add the eyes and draw on a smile.
There you have an easy Yoda craft puppet!

Shiny Happy Pumpkin Craft

I know it is early into the month of September. I get it, it is still summer technically, but you guys... I can't resist making some awesome pumpkin crafts with my kids!

Today, we were ready to jump into the fall theme of things, so we surveyed our craft supplies and made these Shiny Happy Pumpkins! My almost 3 year old loved these large sequins and thought they were beautiful! I have to admit, this is the shiniest fall craft we have ever made, they do look happy too!!

To make a shiny happy pumpkin you will need:
A Paper Plate
White School Glue
Black Construction Paper
Scissors
Large Sequins in Brown, Burgundy and Orange

Apply glue to the paper plate, be generous!

Start filling in the plate with the large sequins. This is a great fine motor activity for kids of all ages! The sequins stick together and working them apart is great for little fingers!

As you fill in your plate, cut eyes and a mouth for your shiny happy pumpkin. With glue apply the facial features to the sequined plate.

And there you have a Shiny Happy Pumpkin!

Making Sandwiches with Harper {Kids Craft}

A few days ago, Little Miss Harper wanted to help me make lunch. I love her eagerness to help and her interest in learning. But, on this particular day, I wanted to keep her busy and out of the kitchen, as I was in the middle of a project.

I asked her if she wanted to make paper sandwiches while I made lunch, it sounded appealing to her! I had a collection of paper sandwich fixings ready for an occasion like this. I found a yellow glue stick to imitate mustard. Harper was all set to make sandwiches!

To prepare for this activity I had previously cut the following shapes from construction paper

bread shapes  white paper
red circles for tomatoes
squiggly green leaves for lettuce
yellow squares for cheese
brown circles for meat

You will need a glue stick. Red or Yellow is fun with this paper food craft, like ketchup and mustard!

As you can see, this activity is completely basic. Construction paper and glue. I offered Harper ample supplies for building sandwiches. To keep her busy and having a lot of fun!

She began by adding mustard to the bread and adding tomatoes.

Next up was cheese! 

Harper was completely into this craft. She loved making sandwiches. She added layer upon layer, happily crafting while I made lunch!

My kids both love a good paper food craft! If I find myself with a few extra moments and a pack of construction paper I make little craft bags for occasions like this day.  They are always a huge hit with my kids. They have enjoyed making paper cookies, paper pizzas and paper jam sandwiches. These are the best kind of kid food crafts in my opinion because they are virtually mess free and they are really a lot of fun!

Pizza Craft for Kids

My kids love to eat, they love to play with pretend food and they love to craft. Hmmm. I wonder where they get this from? I love to eat, pretend to eat play food and I love to craft. These are my kind of kids!

Every day Roo asks me these 3 questions:
"Mom, are you making lunch?"
"Mom, are you making dinner?"
"Mom, can we make a craft?"
Miss Thang always offers her 2 cents with "Eat Mom?" "Craft Mom?"

A few weeks ago I had a package with the cute little crinkly pieces of paper inside it, like the stuff you fill a gift bag with. I was just about to toss it in the trash when inspiration hit. This would be the perfect base for a craft my kids would want to gobble up!

To start off, I grabbed yellow, white, green and red paper that was left over from another craft we made, I cut simple strips of yellow for cheese. Simple circles for pepperoni, I made little curved green peppers and the hardest shapes was the white mushrooms.

I cut out quite a few of each. I knew the kids were going to LOVE this craft and I want to be able to repeat it again this winter. The extras I placed in baggies and stashed away for later.


I offered the kids some of each topping, including those crinkly little strips of red paper. They each got a paper plate.

To begin we generously applied glue to the plate, then we added our sauce.

Plate with sauce

Next we added cheese.

Cheese Please!

Then we started to add our toppings. This was a ton of fun for everyone, including me.

Green Peppers

The works! See how cute my mushrooms are!

And there you have it! We made fun pizzas from recycled materials. This was really a simple craft that both the almost 2 year old and the 5 year old enjoyed. You will have to stay tuned as this idea has spawned other pretend food crafts!