Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Mrs Honey's Hat: Activity

Since embarking on our 5-a-day-books challenge, I've been wanting to do some sort of game/activity/art that can make a connection with one of the books we've been reading. As always, I have loads of ideas, but have been short on time.
When we actually wrangled some time at home, Eden and I decided to make our own version of Mrs. Honey's Hat, based on the book of the same name by Pam Adams. In the book, Mrs Honey has a new hat with lots of pretty things on it. Each day of the week, she goes somewhere different (the park, a cat show, the beach) and an animal/bug takes one thing off the hat and leaves something else behind (e.g. a hermit crab takes the shell and leaves some seaweed behind). 






Firstly, I drew (roughly) and cut out pictures from coloured paper of each item on the hat - both the original hat items and the replacement hat items. Then, we made the hat. Paper hats are incredibly easy to make! Newspaper works really well, but I didn't have any to hand, so we used some butchers paper instead. If you don't know how to make a paper hat, here's some simple instructions:


Start with a large piece of rectangular paper, and fold in half lengthwise. The length along the fold needs to be large enough to go more than halfway around your child's head. 
With the folded side at the top, fold down one corner towards the middle, leaving  about  5cm (2") or so at the bottom.
Do the same with the other corner.
Fold up one side of the strip of paper at the bottom. 
Then turn over and do the same on the other side, to form a brim.  Now, you're all done!
I drew (roughly) and cut out the shapes of the items on Mrs Honey's Hat, and grabbed a tube of Clag paste.
Then, with our paper hat in tow, Eden and I grabbed some crayons and got decorating...








Once the hat was all crayon-ed out, Eden got busy gluing the shapes on. As she glued, I told the story from memory, pausing in places so she could fill in the gaps. She didn't miss a single cue. Looks like the 5-a-day-books challenge is having an effect!




Eden decided that one side of her hat was the 'Before' hat, and the reverse side was the 'After' hat. So here is the 'Before' hat...


The 'Before' side has all the original items: feathers, cherries, a shell, flowers, lace and a bow.
And here is the 'After' hat...


The 'After' side has all the replacement items on it: bubblegum, eggs, seaweed,  a bell, cobwebs and fishbones.
The hat now serves as a great visual cue for telling the story from memory. I wore it today and Eden told me the story in her own words, and nearly got the order of events right. She came pretty close, which I think is impressive for a newly-minted three-year-old!
I hope this inspires some of you to find activities/art, etc which can help your child to make more meaningful connections with their favourite books!
Thanks for reading! ~ L.

9 comments:

  1. What a great project to go along with your book! I am so glad that you were able to join in and link up to stART :)

    ~Michelle @ A Mommy's Adventures
    www.amommysadventures.com

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  2. Your hat is SUPER cute!! Thanks for Linking up to TGIF! See you next week,
    Beth =-)

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  3. Thank you both, and I'll see you both next week at stART and TGIF! :D

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  4. I haven't made one of those for so long. What a great idea to tie the book into a fun activity. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness.

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    1. Thanks Brooke, paper hats are more fun than I remember them. I'm looking for an excuse to make some more! See you at Monday Madness!

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    2. Thanks Brooke! I'd forgotten how fun paper hats could be, and now I'm looking for excuses to make them! See you at Monday Madness! :D

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  5. How fun!! It is always great to tie the book in with a craft/fun activity. Thank you for sharing it at Sharing Saturday!

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    1. Thanks Carrie, I'm hoping it'll give her positive associations with the books we're reading. Thanks again! ~ L.

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  6. I love your ideas. I am sure kids love the story and making their own hat!

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