Cat Craftiness

As much as I like coming up with fun, creative ways to spend time with Annabelle, I also enjoy those mornings and afternoons when somebody else is hosting (i.e. I don’t have to clean up =)).  This week, just because it was fun, our local library invited kids of all ages to a cat themed story hour where they listened to cat stories, sang songs about cats, and wrapped up the catty morning by creating a cat puppet.

What I enjoyed about the morning, aside from the event itself, was listening to the librarian share specific early literacy tips regarding the activities she was leading; for example, the librarian noted that by asking our children to describe the events of a page within a story, we are helping them to develop their narrative skills.  She also explained that the use of puppets and props helps develop children’s comprehension and engagement in a story.

The sad part about our morning at the library, though, was when the librarian announced to the parents that programs, like the cat themed story hour, would no longer continue due to budget cuts in our county library system.  Due to the suffering economy, our libraries will be closed on Fridays and will no longer be able to support many of their awesome children’s programs.  I’ve got to tell you I was so bummed.

But, still, Annabelle and I had fun crafting our cat puppet together.  Below are a few pictures of our cat craftiness:

To get started, the librarian asked parents to help their child fold under the bottom 2 corners of their bag’s base, to create an angled face for the cat.  Parents helped their children insert black pipe cleaners, folded in half, into slats in the bag’s bottom.  Our children added the googly eyes using glue sticks.

After setting up the outline of our cat’s face, Annabelle made zig zagged stripes on her cat’s body.

Then, we added foam stickers to make ears, a nose, and a pink tongue under the flap of the bag’s bottom.

Then, Annabelle made more zig-zagged stripes.  A cat can never have too many stripes, right?

After building her puppet, Annabelle decided to hold him up and have him sing, “Meow!”  just like her cat Toby.

And last, she admires her work, which is often my favorite part about getting to experience the creativity process with her.