Alphabet Match Up activity for kids

I originally found this at Muffin Tin Mom website, and I think it’s quite simple to make, using cheap stationeries, so I decided to give it a try. I did it from scratch in about an hour or so, while the kids were taking their afternoon nap. I already bought the materials beforehand for quite a while now, but I never had the time to do it (or possibly, too lazy to think about it. Hah!).

So, laying out the materials.

A large cardboard in any colour you prefer. I chose orange to make it nice and bright.

A stack of paper. You can use normal A4 paper if you like (or if you’re more cheapskate than me), or buy some nice cardstock like I did. You can even cut up some boxes and then paste the alphabet card on it, to make a sturdier card.

A strip of Velcro, scissors and coloured pens, if you’d like to colour and decorate the cards. I didn’t have time to do any decorating as my kids woke up just as I finished.

I forgot to take photos of my own stickers. Hmmph.

2 sets of alphabet stickers. You can just print out 2 sets of alphabet flashcards from the internet, or buy some, if you like. It would save more time, as you won’t need to cut up the paper or paste stickers. Up to you, really. My kids love stickers, so I decided to buy some.

Ok, let’s start!

This is the fast and easy way to cut up the paper. (I’m racing against time here, remember?) Fold the paper in two and cut it up. Then fold the long strip of paper into four and cut them up. One sheet of paper can produce 8 little cards, just about the size of a flashcard. You don’t want it to be too big, it’ll take up too much space on the cardboard.

As there are 26 alphabets, you’ll need 52 little cards in total. (Did you have to count how many letters are there? Heh.)

Here’s the fun part – pasting the stickers on the cards. Go ahead, it’ll bring out the child in you, I promise! And you’ll understand why kids love stickers so much.

I have no idea why this picture came out vertical like this.  Can someone tell me how to fix this?

Before you start sticking the Velcro on the cards and on the cardboard, I think it’s better to arrange the cards on the cardboard first, just to be sure of the placing. Good thing I did, I couldn’t fit all the letters on one surface, so I had to continue on the back. As you can see from the Muffin Tin Mom, her cardboard is bigger so it could fit all the letters. Or maybe my arrangement is a little off, I don’t know. It’s okay, we’re not trying to be too precise, it’s an activity for kids anyway. Unless you or your kids have OCD.

Then cut up the Velcro strip into small pieces. For people who have never used Velcro before, (like yours truly) you might wonder why there are two strips. One strip is the hairy one and the other is the rough one. They only stick on each other i.e. if you try to stick the hairy piece onto another hairy piece, it won’t stick. So you need to stick the rough ones on the large cardboard and the hairy ones on the back of each little card.

Okay, go ahead and stick them all.

Like I said, I had to continue on the back.

Unlike the Muffin Tin Mom, I forgot to make the small open box the put in the second set of cards. Oh well.

All done!

That wasn’t too hard, was it? ;)

Baby hand prints banner

Courtesy of www.make-baby-stuff.com


I haven't tried this out, but it looks so easy and fun to do! Isn't it adorable?


You can hang this in the baby's room, in the living room or make it a birthday decoration. Or turn it into a personalised invitation or card. The possibilities are endless!


Try it out, won't you?


Materials:

• Paper - heavier is better (like cardstock) and will last longer but even computer paper will work
• Scissors
• Hole Punch - you can also poke holes with the scissors instead
• Ribbon or String - length depends on how long you want your finished banner to be
• Paint - finger paint or other washable paint can be used, but if you are making a banner you'd like to keep for several years, use non-toxic acrylic paint or watercolor paint. When buying acrylic or watercolor paints, look for the AP Certified Non-Toxic seal. Wash baby's hands right away after using the paint and it will come off with a little soap and warm water. However, acrylic paint and professional water color paint (in the tubes, not those cheapie tray of hardened cakes) will permanently mark clothes so be sure to use a smock, bib or have baby paint without a shirt on. Finger paints/washable paints are fine, but over time they will break down and fade so should not be used for keepsake art.

You can either start by stamping baby's hand on sheets of paper (leaving room between to cut out) or you can cut out circles, squares, triangles or hearts in the paper first and then stamp on the shapes. I didn't have time to pre-cut out shapes (my son was ready to go, he loves crafts!) so we just did our hand stamps directly onto big sheets of drawing paper. Once completely dry, we traced an upside down martini glass for the circle shape but you could use glasses, bowls, food containers or large cookie cutters or just freehand shapes like hearts or stars.

Once you have your shapes all ready, use a hole punch to make two holes in your shape, at least an inch apart. Finally, thread your ribbon through the two holes as shown and keep going until your baby hand prints banner garland is complete. Using ribbon (rather than thin string) is ideal because it "holds" the paper circles in place and they don't shift around. You can arrange them overlapping or spread them apart. If you have enough, put two circles back to back so your banner will be double sided and can be hung streamer style across the center of a room. If you don't have enough, you can just hang along a wall.

These are very lightweight and just a bit of tape will hold them up but you could also use tacks and place the tack right through the ribbon for a secure hanging.

Variation Ideas:

For younger babies under the age of one, it may be easier to make a banner out of footprints, as some babies tend to grab at the paint/paper and it may be difficult to get a good clear hand stamp. How many you use depends on how long you want your banner garland to be.

As with all our tutorials, we show the basics as a jumping off point! Some variations of this craft are to use colored paper, cut out the shapes with a pinking shears to have a decorative edge, have older children write and draw on the shapes add "Happy Birthday" letters across the banner in between the handprints, use different shapes other than circles, use foot prints, add glitter or use fabric and do the stamps direct onto fabric with acrylic paint. And so on...have fun getting creative!

Source: www.make-baby-stuff.com