Minecraft Crafts

Did you know that back in the summer of 2014, when my coworker and I first started offering a Minecraft program, we initially planned to offer Minecraft crafts along with the computer game? We had thought that kids would naturally migrate between playing on the computer and doing a fun craft. And we were so. dead. wrong.

(Granted, we had also thought that offering the program once a week every other week would be sufficient. We were dead wrong there too.)

For the past two years, I have more or less kept the Minecraft craft idea on the back burner. Kids just weren’t interested in crafts when there was Minecraft on the computer in front of them.

But then I thought…hey, what if I offered this program on a different day and time than our usual Minecraft program? And what if I advertised the program as being just crafts with no computers at all?

Well, it turns out that kids are interested in Minecraft crafts. (Just as long as there’s no computer to distract them.)

Here’s what I did:

Paper Folding Minecraft Creeper:

Supplies:

Template
Scissors
Tape

Children cut out the template, fold in the appropriate areas, then tape it all together. This was a slightly time consuming and a little bit difficult craft. Most kids did just fine, but there were a few kids who really needed help with this one.

P.S. You’ll notice that I have glue sticks in the picture. Glue sticks don’t work so well. Use tape.

Minecraft Creeper Wristband:

Supplies:

Bright green duct tape (pre-cut)
Permanent markers
Velcro

I had all the duct tape pre-cut so that kids wouldn’t have to use adult scissors. To make the wristband, kids placed one piece of duct tape on top of another piece of duct tape. They then used permanent marker to draw their designs. Lastly, they added velcro to the ends of the wrist band (one piece of velcro on one side, and the other on the other side).

This one was slightly easier, though some kids did have trouble handling the duct tape.

Minecraft Coloring Pages:

I added this at the last minute when I realized that both of the other crafts are more for older kids, and I wanted to have something that young kids could do too. I did have a few 3 and 4-year-olds show up to the program, so it was nice to have this available for them.

A Few of My Favorite Themes: Apples

Fall themes are my absolute favorite themes, so I’m hoping I can post a couple of these within the coming months.  However, seeing as I have little to no time to work on blog stuff at work (and my life outside of work is pretty busy too), I honestly think that I’ll be lucky to post more than 1 favorite theme this season.  But we’ll see…  Maybe the stars will align or something.

I’m also changing up how I do favorite themes.  I’ll still post a PDF of my favorite books like usual, but I’ll also be posting PDFs of any flannelboard templates I make.  As for crafts, STEM, and other storytime activities (including rhymes), I’ll be providing links to those at the end of the post.  I want to be sure to credit others, and I think providing links is the best way to do that.

So, here we go:

Apple Books PDF:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Apple Flannelboard Templates:

Click the images to be taken to the PDFs of the flannelboard templates.  The first image is for the flannelboard rhyme, “Five Little Apples” (Credit).  The second image is for the “A-P-P-L-E” flannelboard song (Credit).  The second image will take you to a previous post of mine — scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the PDFs of the apple images.  To make the flannelboard, print out the apple images, tape or glue them to construction paper, and then tape or glue the letters to the other side.

 

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Apple Crafts, STEM, and Other Activities

•  Everyone knows that worms like to live in apples, so introducing an activity that focuses on worms can add a nice variety to your storytime.  This Wiggle Worms game by Little Family Fun is one of my favorite activities to do in storytime!  It works well with almost any age group, and it’s a good way to change up your regular storytime.
• If you don’t mind a little mess in your storytimes, try this super cute Apple Prints craft from Make and Takes.  While they used Popsicle sticks as handles for the apples, you can also use those nifty corn on the cob holders too.  Or do without handles and let the kids pick the apples up and stamp away.
• Want a cute apple craft, but not a big mess?  I don’t blame you!  This Tissue Paper Apple Craft from Storytime Katie is super cute and doesn’t require any paint!
• Looking to add some STEM to your storytime?  Here’s a whole Pinterest board dedicated to Apple Science!  (I couldn’t just choose one activity, when there are so many great ones on there!)
• You can’t have an apple storytime without talking about apple picking!  This Apple Picking/Finding Game from So Tomorrow is not only a great way for kids to stretch their legs and get their wiggles out, but it also gives the storyteller a breather.
• This Picking Up the Fruits rhyme from What Happens In Storytime is a great sorting activity!  If you want to keep it limited to apples only, you can change it to picking up red apples, green apples, yellow apples, etc.
• A storytime roundup would not be complete without a five little whats-its rhyme.  My favorite is Five Apples in a Basket by Future Librarian Superhero.
• Like to use props in storytime?  1234 More Storytimes has a great prop to use for the 2 Red Apples rhyme.
• And, just in case you missed them, here are the rhymes for the flannelboard templates from above:  Busy Crafting Mommy’s Five Little Apples rhyme (there are many great versions of this rhyme which are linked in her post).  And A-P-P-L-E by RovingFiddlehead Kidlit.

Early Learning Fun: Lines and Measurements

We have an Early Learning Center at my library.  It’s a 2200 square foot room filled with toys and books to encourage early literacy, and it’s a huge draw/asset to the library.  Our intention for this room is for parents and children (ages 6 and younger) to play together and learn together.  My coworkers and I have been tossing around the idea of bringing programming to this room, and we’ve done a few pop-up programs in the room to great success (including a monthly passive programming Letter Play Day that one of my brilliant coworkers arranges)!  This month I decided to do some legit programming in this room to encourage discovery and play among the children and caregivers.  My theme was lines and measurements, and I brought in a few simple activities that we could do together.

How It Went:  There were about 40 people (adults and children) in the Early Learning Center when I came in to start my program.  And I’m pretty sure that none of them actually came specifically for the program.  We were having a drab day with wet snow falling, so I’m sure that everyone who was in the room was there because they couldn’t go to a park.  I made an announcement that I was going to have some activities available for kids to do and that anyone who wanted to participate could, but if they’d rather keep playing, that was cool too.  So in a room of 40 people, I only had 7 children and 2 adults participate in the activities.  Not quite a success number-wise, BUT those who did participate LOVED the activities!  And since this program was on a Saturday, I was reaching kids who don’t normally make it to storytime during the week, so I felt that I was making a big impact.

Click the images below to download the PDF of my Lines and Measurements plan, as well as a few extras that I made for this program:

 

Flannel Friday: Bird Houses!

My contribution to this week’s Flannel Friday is a flannel matching game that works well with a birds, shapes or colors theme!  I swear I saw something similar to this idea on an old Flannel Friday post (back when FF first started), but I’ve looked at our Pinterest page and couldn’t find it, so I decided to contribute mine.

For this matching game, I made several bird houses, each with a different shaped entrance.  Then I made different shaped birds to match with the houses (after much consideration, I decided to color-code them as well).  To play the game, I put the houses up on the board, and then the children help me find the right house for each bird.  The shapes I used were tiny circle, big oval, triangle and rectangle.  If I ever feel up to it, I’ll make other shapes to add to it.

Since this flannel set is shapes based, it was pretty easy to make.  A rough template is below if you’re interested (the pieces are a bit big):

Bird Houses

Katie is hosting this week’s round-up.  And don’t forget to check out our Pinterest account!  And our Flannel Friday website!

Five Little Monsters Template

I originally was not going to make a template for my Five Little Monsters flannel set.  Partly because I’m not all that great at templates, but also because I based this flannel set off of some clip art I found online.  I’m still unsure of the legality of posting a template of someone else’s clip art (even if I made a few changes).  But Caitlin asked so nicely for a template that I decided to go ahead and go for it!  If it turns out that I am infringing on someone else’s copyright, then I’ll take it down.

Now, this isn’t a great template.  I drew it out by hand, and I didn’t have a scanner, so I ended up taking a picture of it with my phone and making a template with that image.  Still, it should work.

Click here for template.