We read the story of the Little Red Hen today. The kids enjoyed it. We made this red hen craft when we were done with the book. (Remember, I work with toddlers, and I let them do as much by themselves as possible.)
Supplies Needed:
Pattern pieces (right click on pattern pieces below and save to your computer. Open - print)
White cardstock or construction paper
Red, orange, yellow, and black paper scraps
Circle hole punch (optional)
Red crayons, markers or paint
Cut out your pieces as indicated and glue the head and wings to the body. Before gluing the other pieces, have your child(ren) color or paint the head, body, and wings red. Once dry (if using paint), glue the other pieces on. I didn't do a pattern piece for the wheat, but if you want, just add some little circles or torn pieces of yellow paper to represent the wheat that the red hen planted. As I went through the craft, we talked about the story.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you are enjoying the craft projects with your kids or group!
The Little Red Riding Hood project takes a little more time than the usual craft, so plan ahead if you want to do this one. I got this idea from here: http://www.ehow.com/video_4433528_finger-puppets-little-red-riding.html There are lots of finger puppets here including Red Riding Hood and the wolf. I did not follow the wolf directions, and I changed Red a little. I drew my patterns out, and you can use them if you wish. Just right click and save to your computer, open and print. I used supplies I had on hand, so you can do the same - change to fit what you have. I used red felt, peach/skin colored felt, beige felt, black felt, light blue felt, brown doll hair scrap (you can use yarn), google eyes, permanent marker, Aleene's craft glue (or similar). For the wolf, I used a gray fur I had in my stash, but beige, brown or gray felt would work just as well, google eyes and glue. Follow the directions in the video link to make the puppets. The kids really love these (even if the wolf was huffing and puffing and blowing grandma's house down during dramatic play - lol).
We are back in the routine after almost a week out due to an ice storm! (Sorta!) We are continuing our fairytale theme since we missed a few days. Today, we read the story of Cinderella. We continued our centers from last week but added a computer center. It's a slow process, but they are learning to use the computer mouse, and today they got to read an interactive Cinderella story online and follow directions for clicking on things in the story. We also created this glass slipper above. It's a lot cuter in person because the glitter really shines and shimmers. To make this, use the pattern below (right click and save to your computer - print out) and cut out the slipper from wax paper. Glue that to black paper with a watered down glue mixture and spongebrush. Then sponge the glue mixture on the shoe and sprinkle the glitter on - easy peasy!
Next, we worked on name puzzles (name and letter recognition). I have a Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter. I think this is the coolest toy in the world and a necessity. I bought mine for about $149.00 on sale locally, so I am sure they can be found for that price or cheaper. It has so many capabilities, and I only use it for simple stuff - but I still love it. If you don't have this toy, you can do this with MS Word or Publisher. I just typed in the names with an Arial font and printed the outline, and then I cut out the letters with cute paper. I let the kids do this without any help, and I was surprised at how well they did. After they finished, we talked about the letters and the names, and they colored a picture on their papers. 
Next, we had to make some magic wands - Bippity Boppity Boo! These are also easy peasy. I cut out stars (with my Silhouette digital craft cutter - but you can cut by hand - I'm lazy). We used some ribbon from our collage stash, popsicle sticks, glue and glitter. I used the hot glue gun to put the ribbon the sticks, and then they picked their color and glued to the stick, spread a glue/water mixture on the front (less water is better - they curl - see!) and sprinkled on the glitter. Then they let their imaginations run wild turning things into whatever they wanted.
