Home » Education » Learning Activities for Kids » Cat craft, stories, leaves, and turkeys

Cat craft, stories, leaves, and turkeys

Lily's cat craft

We started off the week with a great science play date at my friend L’s house. L is a former middle school science teacher, so she always has fantastic ideas. This week she had the kids putting various items in hot water and cold water to see how they dissolve faster (and sometimes only, in the case of a square of chocolate) in hot water.

Lily and I made it to the library this week! Not for storytime, but I took Lily to craft time, and she made this very cute kitty out of three craft sticks, two half-length pipe cleaners, and five glue dots. It was the perfect craft for her. She used her usual minimalist style in decorating it. Her kitty is, not surprisingly, named “Pinky”.

Tuesday afternoon was an impromptu 8-child playdate. We had planned to go to the zoo, but at the last minute a nine-months-pregnant friend called to see if I could watch her kids. You don’t tell a nine-months-pregnant friend that you need to go to the zoo instead, so her kids came and played with us as well as the family we had planned to visit the zoo with – for eight kids total, all five and under. All very nice kids, so we had a blast playing with Hexbugs indoors, watching roofers work on our house outside, building leaf piles, jumping in, having leaf fights…

And the weather cooperated Wednesday for a fantastic zoo trip!

Emma's first story

This week, Emma brought home her first story! She is very proud of it, and she has written several other stories since, mostly about a cat and a dog and the various things they decide to do together.

Johnny had a good week in preschool, including their rescheduled Halloween parade. I was busy talking to roofers at the house, and left too late to see his class in the parade. We did, at least, make it in time to spend time with him in his classroom.

Turkeys by Johnny and Emma

Johnny and Emma both drew turkeys Saturday afternoon – aren’t they adorable? We spent most of the day Saturday cleaning up leaves and branches from our willow tree, after hiring a landscaping company to take the largest branches away. There is still a lot to do! Emma, Johnny, and Lily used the leaves from our Japanese Maple to build a fantastic to-scale eagle’s nest (inspired by our zoo trip), which morphed into a gigantic owl’s nest halfway through the afternoon.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

8 thoughts on “Cat craft, stories, leaves, and turkeys”

  1. Lily’s cat is adorable. I think Blakie would love to make some puppies using this idea.

    You aere such a selfless, kind and generous friend to give up your own plans and watch all the children for your pregnant friend.

    Emma’s first story is fantastic. I love the picture and how she wrote it. That made me smile.

    Johnny and Emma’s turkeys are fantastic. So cute.

  2. Grumpy Grateful Mom

    I love her first story! And you are such a good friend to stay home and watch all the kids. It sounds like they all had a blast!

  3. That’s great you and your other friend were able to help your nine-months-pregnant friend by rescheduling your zoo trip. Glad to hear the storm cleanup is progressing – with some awesome nests as an unexpected bonus! And how exciting to see Emma’s story, Lily’s craft, and Johnny and Emma’s turkeys. :) What a terrific, busy week.

  4. I love love love Emma’s first story! I’m taking it to work with me in the morning to hang above my desk.

  5. It sounds like an awesome week. 8 kids under 5 must be a blast to have in the house (and I mean a blast :)). Emma’s story looks wonderful – I love her illustrations.

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top