preschool corner
Halloween Black Cat Mask
Black cats have always been one of my favorite symbols of Halloween. It’s not a mystery why.
We’ve got our own fuzzy black cat that calls our house her home. She’s not a bit spooky or scary. In fact, she’s often silly and sweet.
Black cats are a lot fun for kids who don’t like all the scarier parts of Halloween. This black cat mask is a fun Halloween craft for your preschool and elementary kids.
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Supplies Needed:
Black fuzzy craft sticks (pipe cleaners) – 3 per mask
How to make a Black Cat Mask
Draw a couple of simple pointy ears at the top of your paper plate and cut along your lines.
Also, cut two eye holes so you can see out of your mask.
I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to do any cutting before painting the mask. Also, depending on the ages of the kids doing this project, an adult may need to do the cutting before sitting down to make this craft.
Once you’ve created your cat shape, use the black paint to paint the front of the mask.
The front of the mask is actually the bottom of the plate. You’ll want the plate to curve inwards toward your face.
After the paint is dry, or almost dry, glue on a button for the nose.
Cut three pipe cleaners in half for your whiskers. Glue all six whiskers next to the nose, three on each side.
Letting the glue dry under the pipe cleaners is by far the hardest part of the mask. If you pick up the mask or move it around too much, the pipe cleaners will fall off while the glue is still wet. The best thing to do is to just walk away for awhile!
If you need a quicker drying time, consider using a low-heat hot glue gun to attach the nose and whiskers.
Once your glue is dry enough to move the mask around, glue a craft stick to the bottom of the mask so you can hold it up to your face. Let it dry for a bit and soon your mask will be done.
This Black Cat Mask is a little bit spooky, a little bit silly, not one bit scary, and very sweet. Your kids will love making one and playing with it later.
You may also like one of these fun Halloween Crafts:
Tulip Letter Match Game
This spring-themed Tulip Letter Match game is a fun way to help kids learn their uppercase and lowercase letters. I’m all about keeping learning fun at home and turning something into a game is the easiest way to add that element of fun. All it takes is a few supplies and a little bit of time to create this simple game.
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Supplies Needed:
Two colors of construction paper
Scissors
Marker
Thin cardboard (recycled cereal box) for template
The game is very simple to make. I started out by making a quick template of a tulip with some cardboard I found in my recycling bin. I wanted all of my flowers to be the same size and tracing a template was the easiest way to achieve this. I traced 26 tulips on each color of construction paper and cut them all out. (The cutting took the most time out of the whole process.)
Next, using my marker, I wrote the lowercase letters on one color of tulip and the uppercase letter on the other color. Once you’re finished it’s time to play!
Ways to Play:<
Place them all face-up on the table. Encourage your child to match each set of letters.
Make it a little more difficult by only laying out one set of letters. Leave the other set in a pile and have your child pick up one letter at a time from the pile. They need to match that letter before moving on to the next one.
Place all the letters face-down on the table. Flip over two tulips at a time, one of each color. Play like you would a standard memory game and try to find matches. This is a perfect way to play if you’re looking for a little one-on-one time with your preschooler.
This game was so easy to make and cost me nothing. Not bad for some fun ABC time!
The Three Snow Bears: A Compare and Contrast Game
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One of the most read books in our house over the past month has been The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett.
The Three Snow Bears is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the classic fairy tale, The Three Bears, except this story takes place in the Arctic with polar bears and a young Inuit girl named Aloo-ki.
To extend the story, we decided to play an easy-prep game where we compared and contrasted The Three Snow Bears with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Before reading the stories, I prepped the game.
I took three sheets of construction paper and labeled them at the top. One was labeled The Three Snow Bears, another was labeled The Three Bears, and the last was labeled Both Stories.
I then took 15 index cards and wrote down several elements of the story. Some were specific to one of the stories and some were elements of both stories. I’ve listed the elements below.
The Three Snow Bears
Boots
Igloo
Aloo-ki
Dog sled
Polar bears
The Three Bears
Chairs
Porridge
Goldilocks
Cottage
Brown Bears
Both Stories
Papa, Mama, & Baby
Beds
Too hot!
Just right!
Bowls
Before playing the game, read both The Three Snow Bears and a traditional version of The Three Bears (we like Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall).
Once you’ve read the story, hand your child one card at a time. Ask them to determine whether it came from one of the two stories or if it was in both stories.
Have them place the card on the correct sheet of paper. That’s really all there is to it.
This is a simple game, but it helps with reading comprehension as well as learning how to compare and contrast two different stories.
For more learning fun:
Download and print the Goldilocks and the Three Bears mini book at Scholastic.com. Let your little ones color the pictures and put together the book. (Plus, you can use it for this activity if you don’t already have a copy of the book!)
Make a mural all about The Three Snow Bears. Jan Brett’s website has all the pieces you need. Print, color, cut, and create your own mural about the story.
Tell the story with props. Learn Create Love has a free, printable storytelling set for Goldilocks & the Three Bears. Turn them into puppets and let your child tell the story.
Easy Fingerprint Strawberry Craft
Miss Preschool and I recently read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood and wanted to make a craft to go with the book.
We decided to make these simple fingerprint strawberries.
My motivation behind this craft was to create a project that would give Miss Preschool some scissor practice.
Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.
Supplies Needed:
Red construction paper
Green construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Black paint
Small piece of felt
Before beginning I drew a simple strawberry shape on the red paper and the leaves and stem on the green paper. My strawberry shape almost took the whole sheet of red construction paper.
Miss Preschool started by cutting out the strawberry shape and the leaves with her scissors.
We then flipped them both over so you couldn’t see the lines I had drawn. (I drew in black marker to make it clear where she needed to cut.)
Using a glue stick, she glued the leaves and stem onto the top of the strawberry.
I took a small piece of felt and put it on an empty lid. I added some black paint and blotted it a bit to get rid of any big clumps. We used this like you would a ink pad. Miss Preschool stuck her finger on the paint, then used it to add her fingerprints all over the strawberry.
We filled up the strawberry since we were using her fingerprints to mimic the seeds.
In the end, we had a simple project.
But we accomplished our goals of cutting practice and supplementing our book.
Remember, craft projects don’t have to be complicated to be fun (and look good)!
What’s the last simple craft project you and your kids have done?