Pants With Nobody Inside Them

This is an activity my class did last year, but I never posted about it. It was during our Dr. Seuss week, which is probably happening in many centers and schools right now in honor of his birthday on March 2nd. I read the book, What Was I Scared Of? and then gave the kids a cut-out of a pair of pants. They had to first decorate the pants any way they wished, then draw a picture to go with the pants.

At the top of their papers I wrote two lines from the book ("I saw a pair of pale green pants, with nobody inside them!"), but I changed "pale green" to whatever the kids wanted to call their pants. We had tomato pants, rainbow pants, ghost pants, blueberry pants and flower pants, as well as others. It was a very fun activity! During group time, the kids came up and described their pictures to the class.

I'm not sure why I didn't blog about this last year when we did it. I think I had thought of ways to do if differently so I was waiting until this year when I could do it again. But since I'm not in a classroom this year, I decided to share this instead. Maybe it will inspire you!

Valentine Whale

Here's what my little group of kids made for Valentine's Day!

First I cut out a simple cartoonish whale shape, without the tail, and glued it to a big piece of white paper.

(I would recommend construction paper, but I didn't have any. I used pieces cut from a roll of paper, which is why it's taped down on the corners.) I then used the kids' handprints to form the tail.

When the paint was dry, I put a heart sticker at the top of the whale to indicate where the blowhole was.

(Sorry about these horrible photos. I never remember to bring my camera so I have to use my phone for pictures.) The kids added more self-adhesive foam hearts (given to me by CraftProjectIdeas.com!) above the whale.

Then they added a big wiggle eye and drew a mouth.

I wrote the words, "Whale you be my Valentine?" by tracing over printed words because I don't have great handwriting.

The crinkled paper is yet another reason to use construction paper. I really wish I had it for this craft. The little one's handprints were a little tricky to get right, but it's still cute!