Threading and Patterning.

Today we started with a couple of cut out cards Miss 3 brought home from Kindy this week. She wanted to stick them together. I suggested that she punch some holes in the side and turn it into a threading. She suggested threading beads on and started pointing out the patterns she was making so I decided to introduce her to Fibonacci numbers (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,...) and mirror patterning to add to her patterning, she finished it all off with some extra enhancements glued and stuck on top.

The result doesn't look all that impressive, but when you think about all the design decisions, fine motor threading exercises, counting, patterning, sewing lessons and a little bit of semi sidewalk maths thrown in, not to mention it was a very pleasant hour spent in the making, it was actually a super activity.

Weaving

I was looking for some ideas to use for craft at Playgroup. It had to be mess free due to our venue for the week. I melded a couple of ideas, and came up with this:

It's very easy. Cut a circle in a paper plate. Punch holes around the edge of the circle. Tie a length of wool to one hole. Put some sticky tape around the other end of the wool (makes it stiffer and easier to thread). Colour around the edge of the plate. Thread the wool through the holes.

The by product is the circle cut from the middle of the plate. That can also be used  for some more threading and drawing as Miss 3 showed here:

At playgroup the kids (ages 1 to 4) all seemed to enjoy it. Some only wanted to colour, others only wanted to weave. Some even turned their masterpiece into a kite (tied a string onto it).

Sewing Cards

I was inspired by these gorgeous sewing cards on Minieco. I used the cardboard from the back of old Christmas cards. I first made the monkey, to give the kids the idea, and then let them loose. They had a blast. In fact, they enjoyed drawing the pictures cutting them out and punching the holes every bit as much as the actual threading.