We recently read one of our favorite books that features several jungle animals.  The kids couldn’t wait to do this fun snake craft, inspired by one of the characters in the book.

Snake Craft

Materials Needed:

• Paper Plates
• Markers or Crayons
• Googly Eyes
• Sliver of Red Ribbon (or construction paper)
• Glue

Cut each paper plate into a spiral, starting at the outer edge and working towards the middle.

Leave a circle of approximately 2 inches uncut in the center.  You can trim this into a triangular shape to become your snake’s head.

For younger children you can lightly draw the spiral shape for them to cut.

Challenge your child to create their own pattern for their snake.  For very young children you might want to try a simple AB pattern.  Older preschoolers could try a more difficult pattern.

Or, you can let them decorate it any way they’d like.

Once the snakes are colored, glue on googly eyes and add a small sliver of red ribbon or construction paper for the snake’s tongue.

Affiliate links have been used below, see my full disclosure here. 

Paper Plate Snake Craft for Trunk Trouble

This craft and book activity went perfectly with one of our favorite picture books,  Trunk Trouble: Jungle Tales.

Trunk Trouble is a cute story about 3 elephants who, in a hurry to get home for dinner, somehow get their trunks all tangled together.

Several animals come along to help them.  One of them is Seymour the snake.

The kids love when I read Seymour’s part, stretching out all the “S” sounds — just the way the book has it printed.  The story always has them giggling, and the pictures in the book are spectacular.

Since Seymour the snake is one of their favorite characters, we decided to make this snake craft to go with the book.

Activity

To demonstrate to the kids just how tricky it would be to have your trunk tangled like the elephants in the story, we played our own tangled trunks game.

Start off standing in a circle.  Have everyone put their hands in the center and grab hold of another person’s hand.

Their arms will look quite tangled.

The trick is to get untangled without letting go.  (This is loads of fun when you do it with a slightly larger group of kids!)

This simple snake craft is fun to make on its own.  It also pairs great with a jungle-themed picture book like Trunk Trouble.

Looking for more fun book activities?

• Simple Activity for the Dr. Seuss Book: The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
• Yertle the Turtle Game
• Rainbow Garland Craft for Princess Rosie’s Rainbows 
• Printable Book Activity for The Three Little Pigs from Pre-K Pages

The post Snake Craft and Activity for the Book Trunk Trouble first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

(This is a sponsored post; I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.  

All opinions are 100% my own.)

Looking for a fun new book to give a child this holiday season?

I’ve got one for you to check out!

In the humorous book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown, Mr. Tiger is expected to act very proper, even though, deep down he really just wants to run wild.  It’s easy for little ones to understand how he feels, especially this time of year when they are so often stuffed into itchy dresses or little suits and expected to sit still and smile for pictures.

Mr. Tiger and all the animals in the book start off dressed in suits and walking only on their hind legs.  My son loved this part, immediately pointing out the fact that, “The animals are acting like people!”

The pictures help tell the story, starting off with mostly browns and blacks, and Mr. Tiger looking so unhappy as he wanders through town in his stiff suit.  

When Mr. Tiger goes off to the wilderness the blue waterfalls are a striking difference, along with Mr. Tiger’s huge grin!

I love the message of this book — that it’s important to be yourself!  Such an important lesson!

Something else that I love is the Mr. Tiger Goes Wild Activity Kit!  You can print out a tiger mask, characters to turn into stick puppets, a matching game, and other activities to go along with the book.  And, if you area planning to surprise a child with this book for Christmas, there are also Mr. Tiger Holiday Downloads!  Around here we like to decorate the tree with things that the kids enjoy — why not a character ornament from the book?

I have to say, there is one more thing the former teacher in my loves about this book.  While the book jacket is decorated similar to the pictures inside the book, there is a surprise underneath.  When you take the book jacket  off, underneath it’s tiger stripes!

I just love the symbolism of that!

It’s just like Mr. Tiger in the book, when he is dressed up all proper.  Underneath he is still himself, ready to taste the freedom of the wild!

After all, we all want to get a little wild every once in a while.

The post Mr. Tiger Goes Wild first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Spring is here!

And that’s the name of one of the books we had fun with this week: Spring Is Here!: A Story About Seeds (Affiliate link).

Ants are the main characters in this cute book.   And what do ants like more than a picnic?

We started our fun by having lunch picnic-style (inside because the temps are still way too cold outside).

Then we read the book.  Three times.

The 3 year-old loved how each activity the ants did rhymed with one of the ant’s names.  He giggled non-stop.  (Good thing we waited until we were done with the red Kool-Aid before I read!)

The book deals with some seeds the ants find and plant.

After waiting patiently, and having plenty of spring rain, the seeds grow into beautiful flowers.

We have our own set of seeds that we have been patiently waiting to turn into flowers.  We measured their growth and made sure they had plenty of water.

Then we hit the great outdoors for a spring scavenger hunt.  I gave each preschooler a picture list of some spring items to find, such as daffodils starting to poke through the ground and buds on the trees.

They had fun hunting for each item on the list.  The toughest one to find?  Bugs.  It was just too chilly to spot many of the little critters today.

What ways have you been welcoming spring?

The post Preschooler Book Activities for Spring first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

But craft time serves other purposes as well.  It’s a fun way to work on fine motor skills and encourage creativity.  It can also be a great way to introduce a new topic for learning.

This paper Mayflower craft is a fun way to introduce the first Thanksgiving to preschoolers.

You may want to check out our other Thanksgiving crafts for kids as well.

This preschool Thanksgiving craft is perfect on its own, or pair it with a fun picture book, like the adorable (affiliate link) One is a Feast for Mouse.

While this paper craft is fun for toddlers and preschoolers, it would also be good for early elementary students.

You may also enjoy these other Mayflower crafts. 

Mayflower Craft

If you are crafting with toddlers, you will want to have the pieces cut out ahead of time.  For older preschoolers you can draw the shapes out for them to cut.

Older students should be able to create the pieces completely on their own.

Draw the basic shape of a boat on brown construction paper and cut it out.

Cut 2 black strips of paper to form your ship’s masts.  To make it simple for young crafters, cut 2 white rectangles as sails.   We made one of our sails slightly smaller.

We added a “Plymouth Rock” for our ship to sail to as well.

Once the parts our cut out, glue the masts to the back of the ship.  Then add on the sails.

To make the water,  cut a curvy line for “waves” on the bottom end of a piece of blue construction paper.

Then fold the bottom 1/3 of the blue paper up and use clear tape on the sides to keep it folded.   This makes a pocket for your Mayflower to sail in.

Finally, glue Plymouth Rock into the corner of the waves.

Have your child stick their paper Mayflower into the pocket of  blue paper.  Now they can sail the boat back and forth.

My toddler had fun sailing his ship back and forth in the “water,” making sure it landed at Plymouth Rock each time.

As the kids played, we talked about how the Pilgrims sailed across the ocean and came to America.

One day when they are older we will talk more about why they came, but for now, this simple Mayflower craft was a good introduction for toddlers and preschoolers as to why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

You may also like these Thanksgiving crafts & activities:

• Simple Thanksgiving Sensory/Small World Play
• Fine Motor Skills Turkey Craft
• Paper Cup Turkey 
• Wigwam Craft for Kids 

The post Simple Mayflower Craft first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.