Tuesday, September 29, 2009

stART--Ten Apples Up on Top--and yarn apples

stART
I found this new weekly theme at A Mommy's Adventure and thought that "this is something we are already doing"!
What you do, is to share a story with your little ones and then do an art project inspired by the book.
This week we have been enjoying apples, and the especially the book:
For our art activity to go along with this book we made yarn apples.
I saw this at one of my favorite craft sites: Make and Takes. At this site you will find very clear and easily understood directions for these cute apples---much better than I could produce.
All you need for these are:
yarn
pipe cleaners
heavy cardboard
We cut a piece of cardboard about 2 1/2 inches thick. We then wrapped yarn around the cardboard. About 100 times around made a nice sized apple. Cut the yarn off leaving a little tail.
Bend the cardboard slightly to get the pipe cleaner under the top half of the yarn. Wrap the pipe cleaner tightly around the yarn. Make sure to check out Make and Takes because their direction are much clearer than mine.
Repeat this process on the bottom of the apple. Make the top into a stem and add a little green pipecleaner leaf.
On the bottom, tightly twist the pipecleaner and then trim and bend the pipecleaner into the bottom on the apple making a little "apple blossom" spot.
I think we made ten apples in about 15 minutes.
Perfect for the book, Ten Apples Up on Top.
The kids also enjoyed making apples with peanut butter this afternoon for a snack while I read the story for the, uuummmm, 100th time.

We tried to see how many apples we could get "up on top". For most of us, it was only one, and the child that did manage to get 2 to stay on his head, wasn't fast enough to get his picture taken.
It takes a lot of concentration to keep an apple on your head and read a book at the same time, as Luke found out.
They were actually happy to try and keep real apples on their heads, even though this picture makes most of them look like it was agony, or maybe that is just concentration!
Gracie then took over reading and had some of her "friends" help out in the "apples on their heads" role.
Who's is stuffed and who is real?
Seven apples on top seemed to be the record. I think we might need a bigger couch to achieve "Ten Apples Up on Top"

9 comments:

Rhonda said...

Very cute! I love all of it!

Trudie said...

LOVE the pics!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I absolutely love your story stretcher and pictures - how very cute!

Susana said...

This is soooooo good! I LOVE your apples, and we like this book too.

You do the neatest projects each week!

growing and learning by leaps and bounds said...

that is sooo great!!!!! way to go!!! love it!!

Dana said...

Oh my goodness. This is so cute I can't even stand it. I'm logging off right now to go make these with my kids! (Right after I read the directions one more time.)

Michelle said...

Oh wow I love this!!! Those apples are so cute and they are perfect for the story. Your pictures are too cute! Thank you for linking up :0)

SmartPumpkin'sMom said...

I've seen those yarn apples and was about to make them too. They are just so irresistable!
The pics are really cute! :)

Kirsten said...

Thanks for the link - those are great! I think I'll make some for my daughter's kitchen. :)