Alphabet Wall: Making…Z for Zoo

This craft is quite uniquely Singaporean, in that, the material used for the background of the letters is the zoo’s souvenir shop paper bag packaging. Personally, I think it’s really nice to be able to pay tribute to the fantastic design of the packaging, and recycle the paper bag in a meaningful way as well. 🙂

You will need the following materials: Artblock sheet, Singapore Zoo paper bag (or coloured paper and assorted pictures of zoo animals), scissors, glue.

1. With the scissors, trim out an uppercase Z and two letter O’s from the paper bag. I tried my best to maximize the number of animals I could get from the bag on top of cutting out the letters.  The whole bag was used to make two sets, one each for DS and DD. I also added some more animal pictures salvaged from an old sticker book.

2. Paste the letters onto the artblock sheet.

3. Paste on the animals…and you’re done.

Alphabet Wall: Making…F for Farm and Fence

December has a knack for being one of the busiest months of the year, for completely inexplicable reasons. I mean…it’s supposed to BE a holiday season.

When I think holiday, I think relaxation, slowing down the pace, lazing with a book.  But no no no, here I am rushing around like a madcap, cramming work deadlines, missing mealtimes, getting home late…arrgh. I can’t wait to go on leave.

Fortunately, we had this drafted up and ready in a drawer, for these kinds of busy weeks, so we pulled it out.

You will need the following materials: Some uppercase letter F’s cut out from coloured paper, (scissors), crayons, artblock sheet, glue.

1. Ask your child to draw his or her favourite farm animals on the artblock sheet. For a younger child, you can ask him or her to pick his or her favourites from a book and draw it for him or her.

2. After they are done, apply glue onto the letters and paste in a row, to form a fence.

DD's

DS's

Alphabet Wall: Making…Y for Yacht

Y is for Yellow Yacht! I was so pleased to find everything in shades of yellow in the art drawer, for this craft. 🙂

You will need the following materials: Yellow and blue construction paper, yellow tissue paper, yellow crepe paper, white artblock sheet, ice cream sticks, scissors, glue.

1. Cut out the following to make up the parts of the yacht: sails from the tissue paper, an uppercase letter Y from the crepe paper, the base of the yacht from the yellow construction paper, and a wavy sheet from the blue construction paper for the sea.

2. Paste the blue sea onto the artblock sheet.

3. Next, paste the base of the yacht. Follow with the sails.

4. Paste on the letter Y.
5. Apply glue following the writing strokes of the letter Y. Paste on the ice cream sticks.  (Whereas DD pasted the sails first, DS chose to paste the sails on last.  I used this picture to show that the order of pasting really doesn’t matter too much. What’s important is that they remember the letter.)

Alphabet Wall: Making…U for Underground, Underwater

This makes a good sorting exercise and resulted in some good cooperation by the siblings, at least until the colouring part of the activity, where each chose an individual piece to work on. But I like how that also results in some variety on their Alphabet Walls (yes, we have two, on the wall by each of their beds, showcasing their work.) 😀

You will need the following materials: Coloured paper in various shades (we chose yellow, blue and brown), white sheet of paper, ink pen, scissors, glue, crayons.

1. On the white sheet of paper, draw an assortment of land and sea creatures which live underground and underwater. Alternatively, you can print these from images off the internet.  (Believe it or not, I’m lazier to set up the printer than I am to sit and copy off an image with pencil and ink it over…).
2. Cut these out with the scissors and set aside.

3. On a coloured sheet of paper, cut out two block uppercase letter U’s. These need to be wide enough, so that you can paste a sheet of blue/brown paper on the inset for your underwater/underground scene.

4. On the back of the first letter U, paste on a blue sheet of paper. Paste a brown sheet on the back of the second letter U.
5. Now you’re ready to sort the land and sea creatures.

6. When satisfied, paste on with glue.

7. Colour when the glue has dried.

Alphabet Wall: Making…L for Ladder

The working days have been looooooonng and I have been trying to catch up on a massive sleep backlog.

Days like these call for simple alphabet craft. Not that I like to slacken but I’d rather keep the momentum than create yet another backlog for myself to catch up on.  😛

You will need the following materials: Coloured paper, artblock sheet, marker, scissors, glue.

1. With the marker, draw a block uppercase letter L on the artblock sheet.

2. From your coloured paper, cut out two long strips for the frame of the ladder and several short ones to make the rungs.

3. Apply glue on the vertical part of the letter L, and paste on your ladder.

4. Colour in your ladder or add details, as you wish. 🙂

Alphabet Wall: Making…K for Keyboard

In my childhood, I remember creating a replica of the piano keyboard (yup, all seven octaves 😉 ) by drawing out the white and black keys and colouring them in with colour pencils on multiple sheets of paper taped together in a long strip, so I could have a “portable piano” to practise on when away from home on a vacation to my grandparents’ home in another state.

I really loved my “portable piano” and would fold it away carefully after each practice session.
This craft sure brought back happy memories of making that “portable piano”. I wonder whether it’s still tucked away in a shelf somewhere in my parents’ home… hmm.

You will need the following materials: White and coloured paper in a shade of your choice, black craft foam, scissors, marker, glue.

1. With the marker, draw a block uppercase letter K on the coloured sheet of paper.

2. Cut out some white and black keys from the white sheet of paper and black craft foam.

3. Apply glue on the straight spine of the letter K, and paste the keys on accordingly. (We used a toy keyboard for the kids to refer to).

4. Colour or decorate the keyboard if you like.

Alphabet Wall: Making…D for Dog

You will need the following materials: Art block sheet, marker, paint (in a colour of your choice), sponge, scissors, glue.

1. With the marker, draw a block uppercase letter D on the art block sheet. Also draw a dog’s head, front paw, and hind leg.

2. Prepare the paints. Dip the sponge in, and I don’t think you need to tell your kids what to do next…just maybe, where 😉 .

3. Leave to dry. When the paint is dry, cut out the letter, and parts for the dog.

4. Paste on the letter D in the centre of a new art block sheet. Paste on the dog’s head, front paw and hind leg. Oh, and tail. Done!

Alphabet Wall: Making…N for Net

It’s a Wednesday night and we’ve got a spare hour before bedtime. Anyone up for some fishing? 😀

This is a combined waterplay and alphabet wall craft activity. So you’ll need the following materials:

Part 1: Cardboard, cellophane tape, scissors, sieves or small fishing nets and a basin.
Part 2: White and coloured paper, double sided tape, netting (we cut ours out from an old laundry net bag), scissors.

Part 1
1. Cut out some fishes from the cardboard. “Laminate” the fish by covering over with cellophane tape. This will help them last longer for the waterplay.
2. Fill up the basin with water, dump the fish in, and have fun catching them with the sieves or fishing nets.

3. When you’ve caught all the fish (many times over! 🙂 ), pat them dry. Place a small square of double-sided tape on the back of each, and you’re ready for Part 2.

Part 2
1. While the kids are busy fishing, cut out a block uppercase letter N from the white sheet of paper.

2. Place double sided-tape on the top, bottom and sides of the coloured paper, and the top, bottom and sides on the reverse side of the white sheet of paper.

3. Using the N shape as a template, paste the fish onto the coloured paper.

4. Remove the double sided tape from the coloured paper, and place the netting on top.

5. Next, remove the double sided tape from the white sheet of paper, and place the letter N on top. Done!

Additional Ideas:-

If I was to try and build a theme around this, I’d possibly…

1. Bring the family out on a morning field trip to Qian Hu Fish Farm…
2. Do this waterplay and alphabet wall craft when we get home…
3. Make roti jala and curry for dinner! 

Sigh.  Now, I’ve succeeded in making myself hungry, at midnight no less, for my mother’s out-of-this-world roti jala and curry…  😛

Alphabet Wall: Making…N for Numbers

When I did this a year or more ago with DD (click here), what I sought to achieve was mostly just to show her what numbers in general looked like. As in, 100, 156, 3, 5, etc are all numbers.

It however was not very effective, and I believe it was really because the number 156 in front of her, would have been akin to putting Wingdings font in front of someone, i.e. it meant nothing to her because the numbers she was able to identify at her present stage of development were the single digit ones.

So this time round, I limited the numbers that I cut out, to 1 through 10, and tried to keep the fonts easy to read and consistent.  And I think it went a lot better. 🙂

You will need the following materials: Numbers cut from old magazines, marker, art block sheet, glue.

1. With the marker, draw a block uppercase letter N on the art block sheet.
2. Apply glue, and let the children call out the numbers as they paste them on.

Alphabet Wall: Making…A for Aeroplane

This craft is purposely intended to be simple and not too detailed, as you may need to, or want to, make multiples of it to withstand the kind of play it’ll probably undergo. Ours already started getting blunt noses, way before their first test flights. 😉

There’s something rather therapeutic in making many paper aeroplanes together and sailing them back and forth through the air, not to mention it’s great for expending excess pre-schooler energy after a structured craft time. 🙂

You will need the following materials: White A4 sheet of paper, coloured paper, scissors, double sided tape.

1. With your scissors, cut out a slim uppercase letter A from the coloured paper. Attach some double sided tape on the back.

2. Fold a paper aeroplane with the white sheet of paper.

3. Paste on the letter A and we’re done!

4. Whizz on away!

Ours is a really basic paper model, but here is a link  I found, to some really fun sounding experiments in paper aeroplane design and aerodynamics, for kids of all ages(yeah, you and me included!).