Pre-Writing Activity

Plate ART

I threw out the uppercase A-R-T in the title of this post because even though my friend and I had a blast decorating plates with our kids, the following images do NOT show plates that you can eat from or really even wash. They will be on a plate stand in the kitchen most likely 😉

My friend Allie and I are both 24 weeks pregnant, we both have a two year and a half year old, and we both have a one year old (this was not planned by the way). So, we have had a sleepover this weekend to let our crazy worlds come together for a few days. It has been so sweet, and funny, and crazy of course. We decided it would be fun to let the little ones do an art activity together.

We found some pefect small, white melamine plates at Target and purchased some colorful sharpies, we headed back home to let our little ones decorate away. (PS – we learned the hard way that the bamboo melamine plates we found at Big Lots were a NO GO! Just trust me on this one.)

My friend Allie can write really cutesie and I can NOT write cutesie at all so she personalized all of the plates for us. Thanks Allie ! 🙂

We threw aprons on the little ones and let them color on their plates….

Then, we threw aprons on the one year olds and let them color on their plates (without their names on them), and we found out that this actually worked better to write the name AFTER coloring.

This next low-quality shot is just showing that I traced my little ones’ hands on the back and wrote the date.

I had originally intended to make dinner plates, but it didn’t quite workout that way. And after researching melamine and the process of making dinner plates, I was even more happy with the final product as a keepsake. We wanted a fast and funky activity to do so this was perfect for the weekend. But I found this if this is your kind of thing….. http://www.ehow.com/how_6913770_paint-melamine-dinner-plates.html – I’m sure I’ll make this happen in the future too 😉

Once again…here are my two kiddos plates…..up close and personal:

I am happy with the way they turned out!

February 24, 2013 by Jessica | 5 Comments

Complete A Story, Letter, or Poem

When I was little I loved mad libs because creative writing was a favorite past time of mine and madlibs allowed me to play around with silly writing topics and ideas that were fun to read to others. They were great for learning parts of speech as well.

But today, I want to encourage you to get your little one to “write” stories, letters, or poems by filling in the blanks of incomplete sentences in their own way.

My sister shared the following poem that my brother completed years ago before mad libs even existed. It is different from a mad lib because you don’t choose the words beforehand; you fill in the blanks of incomplete thoughts which is more age appropriate for little ones.

Here are a couple Fun with writing templates for you; made by me:

My Pet

All about me

February 13, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments

Writing Readiness

If you have determined that your child may not yet be ready for writing activities, then I want you to allow your little one to have a lot of practice simply doodling or coloring to gain control, coordination, and strength in their hands to write.

Playing with playdough and various other fine motor skill activities will get your little ones READY to write by developing the necessary motor skills.

I have my little two year old make likes and circles on paper when he is coloring and writing but he likes to attempt to trace so I made this:

A VERY basic activity for pre-writers who are not yet ready for tracing defined shapes and figures.

Pre-Writing Template