Arts-N-Crafts: A Handmade Storybook (with sight words)

Arts and crafts time is always a fun time for me and my little miss. I guess, what makes it fun and more interesting is because I'm a newbie crafter myself so we're both learning on our activities as we go along. When I plan an activity however, I am not targeting to develop any particular skill. I'm mostly into the fun factor of it...and later on would just realize that we in fact touched based with a certain skill (was that fine motor, wow nice. or hand-eye coordination maybe? great job, mom!).

Now that my kid is a preschooler, I told myself to plan activities that would relate to her class's current lesson well mainly for practical reasons (it will save us some review time during the school week) and also to eternally ingrain in her the idea that LEARNING is A LOT of FUN. So I try to sneak in bits of school stuff into crafts time so it becomes sort of a review as well without her realizing it. 

This last quarter, the kid is already expected to read sight words and a few 3-letter words (CVCs - consonant, vowel, consonant is what that means. I've been seeing that acronym on several review materials but only learned what it actually meant just recently. See, I'm learning a bit or two in this preschool adventure as well). I had a light-bulb moment the other day while we were reviewing for her oral exam on CVCs. While I was listing down the words, I thought it might help her remember if I drew a picture next to the word (I am a lousy illustrator but thankfully, my kid never complained about my drawings). And true enough, within an hour she mastered all 10 words. So I thought, it might be a great idea to introduce the other sight words to her in the form of a story book. 

The proud author of BABY BEAR GOES TO A PICNIC

I initially intended to do the story book by myself and maybe just enlist the kid's help in the cutting and pasting process but this project turned out to be 80% all hers, and 20% (even less as I'm thinking about it now) mine. I merely did the cutting of the paper and binding (and maybe half of the storyline because she eventually changed it to her own version), everything else was her doing. 

The materials we used here, we all had on hand. In fact, they were mostly scraps from previous projects that we did. 

- Cardboard (for the cover) cut in half

- Bond paper/typewriting paper, cut in half

- Googly eyes (2 pairs)

- permanent markers

- newpaper/magazine cut outs

- string

tools - scissors, glue, puncher

I'll let each of the story book page speak from this point on. 

The sight words that we utilized in this activity were - I, a, an, on, to, am,she, the. This activity got me all worked up, now I'm raring to do more of these storybooks with the little miss. It was surprisingly very easy and it didn't only help hone her cutting and pasting skills but it also engaged her interest because she was able to put her drawing skills to good use as well.

Showed her the proper way to spread glue and she was beyond thrilled.
Oh to be a child and worry about petty things.

super thanks Tita Rache and Coco for the card-making crafts set. sulit na sulit sa amin

Engrossed as engrossed can ever be.

Bound.

Page One: I AM BABY BEAR.
Notice that baby bear is holding a cup of coffee. That's how addicted to coffee I am. My daughter always thinks of bringing me coffee. Haha. (this was the same page that prompted me to write this status in Facebook: "About to finish with our art project for today. But she still wants to write more. So i dictate the letters for I AM A BABY. midway she stops and declares Im tired. So I tell her its okay you can stop, no pressure. But she glares back and tells me: HINDI PWEDE! Gusto ko PRESSURE!!!" (I think that she thinks pressure is a privilege that I am taking away from her just because she doesn't want to finish writing anymore)

Page Two: SHE IS MY MOMMY BEAR. 
Behind her is a drawing of a coffee maker. She also wanted to write: "She cooks pancakes" but  didn't finish it.
Pancakes turned out to be a rather long word to write for her.

Page Three: TODAY I AM GOING TO A PICNIC

Page Four: FOOD IN MY BASKET

Page Five: FRIENDS I MET AT THE PICNIC

My Original Storyline that didn't make the cut. That is a chicken, yes, I'm a super lousy illustrator.