Story time - crafts and fun with the Hare and the Tortoise.

Last week we did a few crafts all around one story, Hurry up and Slow down, a version of the well known story the Hare and the Tortoise. As I mentioned, I have been finding free time at home one of the times I can feel disengaged when the boys are throwing their toys around. One of the things I have done to be more connected and mindful with them is to focus on a theme for the week around one of the books we have been reading. 

This last week it was Hurry up and Slow down, and all the crafts were around the Hare and the Tortoise. I used Pinterest to get ideas of what crafts we could do together, aiming to:

• Keep it simple
• Remember to use craft ideas that seemed applicable to their stage of development so that we were set up for success.

I've found it really useful having some ideas ready to pull out when we are at home, especially on days where we didn't have any other activities planned. 

This week we have:

• Hare and the tortoise potato stamping: I simply cut a potato in half and used a felt tip to draw a very simple shape before cutting with a knife around the shape. Because I put the paint onto the potato it limited the amount of mess that was about but we all had fun.
• Hare and the Tortoise colouring pages: I found these on the internet,and when the boys got bored of the structured sheet we simply used a plain piece of paper.
• Hare and the Tortoise - being a tortoise: I sellotaped 4 pieces of card together, drew on some shell shapes and then put some rounds of parcel tape on the back and stuck them to the back of the clothes. Whilst this looked super cute, it was probably the least successful - N had a go but J just pulled his off and sat playing with the shape! It was still fun to try out!

I've started saving some of the ideas on a story time craft board on Pinterest- do feel free to follow :)

Would love to hear what stories you are reading and any crafts you do with your little ones.

This week we will be reading Peek a Boo Zoo (although most of the peekaboo bit doesn't work as the ears got pulled off!)