Caterpillars, Cows, Cats & Crabs: Crafts for Letter C


Letter C is the time when you can really start creating with little ones if you are following through with a kind of letter of the week format.  They are now beginning to expect that their time with you results in an amazing creation that they have somehow personalized into their very own.  Followed up by a story or some sort of learning time that highlights this new thing they have made with their own hands. 

We can't disappoint them now!  We have created this fabulous Letter C Craft Packet to cover four letter C crafts that will come in so handy for students of later aged preschool through the 1st grade. 

Let's begin with our Crab Craft:


This little guy utilizes either a stamp pad or fingers dabbed in paint for his legs.  The only trick will be ensuring that the paint from student fingers only ends up on our specially made beach image, and not anywhere else.  (A box of handy wipes after paint use does the trick!)

I have such a fun story to recommend for this Crab Craft creation.  It is Bill Peet's Kermit the Hermit.  It is a longer story, and will be best for students who are age 5 and older, but the imagery is engaging and the little blue crab gains our empathy early on.   If you have younger kiddos, I'd recommend Eric Carle's A House for Hermit Crab.

Next, let's look at our Cow Craft: 


This sleepy-eyed fellow is a perfect follow up to any of Doreen Cronin's Click Clack Stories.  One of our favorites is Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type.  The version of this read aloud that I found for you here, would work excellent for classroom viewing:



If you would prefer a Duck Craft as a follow-up to this fun story, I would also recommend our Letter D craft packet, which has a fabulous duck craft included!

All of our craft packets include both a black and white version and a color version for easy printing of your preference. 


We couldn't let the Letter C go by without creating a craft that included our favorite character, our very own Glimmercat.  But to those who aren't familiar with her, this craft can be simply a fun cartoon cat, white with gray spots.  This one turns out best if students use a slightly thicker paper: a light card-stock would be best!


As you have noticed, we like to recommend great children's stories for read-alouds with our crafts, and also included in our Letter C craft packet is our recommended Book List for these crafts. 


And last but not least, let's look at our Caterpillar Craft: 


Every Letter C Craft packet should have a good quality caterpillar craft included because caterpillars are so fun to learn about and discover.  My students have always loved making patterns with their pom-poms as they glue them onto their spaces, and cutting out the Caterpillar eyes and feet gives them some delightful hand-eye coordination to work on.

Check out one of the above suggested books for Caterpillars (Waiting for Wings and Ten Little Caterpillars)  for some great follow-up read alouds. 

Be sure to check out our Letter C Craft Packet in our store!  Happy Crafting!

Butterflies, Bats, Buses and Bears! Crafts for Letter B


Sometimes, you just want to pull out an easy craft to round out that Kindergarten lesson.  Or, maybe you read one of my favorite Mo Willem's children books, "Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus"...



And you were wishing you had one craft more to help make those little ones relate that much more with the pigeon.  I mean who doesn't wish they could drive a bus once, right?


We love this latest packet of our Letter B crafts and we can always come up with suggestions for how to use them, even if you don't need to teach the Letter B anytime soon!

For instance, let's say it's getting close to Halloween and you need a friendly Bat for kids to create...Voila! we have that for you.  Look how cute he is!


Or, it's Spring semester : time to teach about the life cycle of the butterfly, and you'd like to have your kids color in their own butterfly wings on a butterfly craft, but drawing them out sounds a little challenging.



We have you covered!

Since for several years I worked in the public sector as a Children's Librarian, I can't imagine these crafts without a good Children's Book read-aloud to go along with it.   So I've also created, a book list of recommended titles that includes some great stories that are perfect for reading out loud to little ones.



Hopefully, some of these books will be new ones to add to your own library.  Personally, I think you can never have enough good books.


We try to make sure that all of our crafts are doable by little hands and each one has been kid tested and approved.  This more challenging bus craft, shown above, might require a little assistance when it comes to taping it together, but what better way to practice all those excellent hand-eye coordinating skills then letting your students try?

We also make sure that all of our crafts have their black and white counterparts, so you will find a version that can be hand-colored in each of the crafts in our packets. 


Perfect for your Reading Literacy activities after a good bear story, our Bear Craft is a simple cut and paste.


And each craft has a spot for writing student names, so that these precious completed projects will make it home in the backpack they were intended for!

Check out more of our Craft Products in our Store!



You can find our printable B Crafts Packet ready to be purchased and downloaded today!

Apples, Astronauts, Ants and Alligators! Crafts for Letter A


There is no doubt about it:  crafts are an undervalued part of the education process for young children.  And yet SO important!  Those little hands still need opportunities for hand-eye coordination and those little minds delight so much in the ability to create things.  Using a craft to connect the dots between a letter/sound or a read-aloud story, take that learning to another level.  So while the temptation is to put craft-making on the shelf, I'm trying to remember that it is an all important facet of the daily process. 


Our latest Craft Packet tries to keep in mind the types of crafts that can be most easily implemented in the classroom, as well as keep them fun and entertaining for children.  Not too difficult, but still challenging those little hands with using scissors, and working in letters when appropriate. 

Above, in our Ant Craft, we use the Letter A to make the Ant's lower set of legs.  Children draw in the letter A before gluing on pom-poms to form the body.  It's a perfect follow-up to learning the song, "The Ant's Go Marching":


 ...or reading a favorite children's book about Ants. 

In fact, here's my recommended children's book list for letter A, perfect for reading out loud and perfect for introducing apples, astronauts, ants and alligators to little ones!



Our Alligator Craft will challenge those small hands with extra cutting, but it is a very rewarding finished product to little people who still see paper creatures as a kind of new toy. 



We love pairing this guy up with the story "Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator" by Mo Willems (see our Book list above). 


Apple crafts are a dime a dozen, but we suggest having students poke a little hole in their apple that their finger can stick through.  A little happy face drawn onto their "worm" finger will make their face light up with smiles. 

One of our favorite science videos is "Cat in the Hat:  Space is the Place".  


 There's no better way to follow up Nick and Sally meeting an Astronaut then to let children put themselves in space with the awesome photo craft. 

All of our crafts are also available in black and white, so if you want them to practice coloring their crafts to make them truly their own, that possibility is there:


Feel free to look at our Letter A Craft Packet in more detail in our Store.  This is a printable packet, requiring glue, tape, scissors, printing ability, and little else.  You can check it out here today.