Scrolling Puppet Theater

So Hazel has been asking to make a puppet theater for a long time. We just have not had the time. The other day she asked if I could help her with a project. She described the project and I knew she had gotten the idea from an episode of Curious George (or Georgie as Hazel likes to call him). To see the episode on YouTube click here. (As you can see in the picture above Hazel and her best friend went to see Curious George last spring at the Curious George Store in Harvard Square.)

In the episode Curious George went to see the opera, Hansel and Gretel. He went because his friend, Betsy, got the chicken pox and could not go. Hansel and Gretel is Betsy's favorite opera. George loved it and he got the idea to do a show for Betsy. He finally came up with a scrolling show. Hazel wanted to put on Cinderella in a somewhat similar way, except she wanted to use her figures but have the background scroll. 

I had a UPS box that I had saved for a craft. I cut a hole in it and opened the tabs on both ends. One end was already open and the other I cut a slit to slide the paper in. We also happened to have a broken wooden dowel, so I used that. I glued and taped it to each tab. Then we put paper towel tubes on the dowel pieces. I took Hazel's scroll paper from her paint easel. It was a little big so we had to cut the piece in height. She drew her scenery with a little help from me on the castle. Then we taped it to the paper towel tubes while feeding it through the box.  Now she enjoys acting out Cinderella with her figurines.

Have television shows inspired your child to make a craft? What shows? Curious George is great for getting kids to investigate and think about things. I recently heard on the news that kids who read and watch Curious George tend to do better in math and science. Don't know the facts from the study though to know if it is valid.

Teddy Bear Picnic & Butterfly Party

Last week we went to a Teddy Bear Picnic run by recreation department of one of the towns near us. Hazel's best friend lives in the town and his mother told me about it, so we met them there. It was really cute. They had different stations with crafts and a few first aid stations. The first station we saw was a face painting/tattooing station. They had tattoo markers and drew designs on the children. The next station was to make a teddy bear purse out of a paper plate and a cut paper bowl (see two pictures below). Then there was a teddy bear mask station and a teddy bear clock station. They also had a first aid station. Here we had Ducky repaired since he had a small hole in him. Then they had a teddy bear check-up station where they weighed and measured and listened to the teddy bear's heart. Hazel brought my old teddy bear that I got when I was born. She calls him Teddy. At both of these stations they gave the children forms to say their teddy bears were healthy. They also gave a band-aid. Ours had teddy bears on it. They also had a station to make fruit cereal loop necklaces and finally a teddy bear treat station. The treats are gummy bear and Teddy Grahams. Sorry I forgot to bring my camera to the park, but at least you can see all our different crafts.

After going to all the stations, the kids played on the playground and we had lunch. It was a fun day!

The next day we had our butterfly party where we also asked people to bring cans of food for Hunger Action Month. I shared the invitation previously. We spent the morning decorating our patio and then of course it started to rain, so we quickly moved things inside.  We did not decorate as much inside, but we had our butterfly candle holders, butterfly frames, butterfly lantern and a few paper butterflies. We gave each person a frame and candle holder as well as a goody bag with butterfly bracelets, magnets and erasers. We also gave butterfly noisemakers and talked about how it worked like the butterfly's proboscis. We also read two stories, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. The girls also played pin the antennae on the butterfly. I drew a butterfly on a piece of posterboard and Hazel decorated it. Then I drew antennae on construction paper and wrote each girls' name on one and we put a piece of tape on the back. We did not blindfold them since Hazel is very afraid to be blindfolded. We also had several crafts for the girls to make. 

They made butterfly bracelets with pop beads. We had butterfly beads to string, but no one wanted to do this. We made lollipop butterflies with a lollipop and a cupcake liner. Finally the one the girls loved the most was decorating foam and paper butterflies. We gave them crayons, glitter glue and stickers. The glitter glue however was the big hit. Finally the rain stopped so we went outside. The girls were going to put on a show, so two of them put on their butterfly wings, but then Hazel spilled her colored bubble stuff and was upset that I didn't have more pink. (I bought three bottles on clearance at Michaels that week.) She is mad in the picture that she couldn't have more right away. I blocked her friend's face since I did not get permission to post her picture, but she was having a great time playing. Overall it was a fun day!! Plus I cleaned out my cabinets so we have a whole bag full for the food pantry.

Happening in September here at Crafty Moms Share

It is another busy month here at Crafty Moms Share. September is National Sewing Month. We are helping promote the Waverize It! Facebook Contest sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics. To do this, I made Hazel a ukulele case so she can take her relatively new ukulele anywhere she wants to. She has already played at our public library and Trader Joe's Store. She has been asked to play at school and church as well. She loves playing it. You can learn more about it all here including some videos of her playing.

September is also Hunger Action Month. I am joining a group of wonderful blogging moms to help No Kid Hungry try to end hunger for our local children. My first step was to put together some story time food drive ideas and I sent them to local libraries and preschools. I hope someone is using them. You can read about them here and feel free to use them or send them to people as well. We also hosted a butterfly party where we asked guests to bring a can or two of healthy food for our local food pantry. Stay tuned for more ways we are helping and please accept my challenge to help in your local area as well!!



September also is the month of the first anniversary of the amazing group of bloggers Multicultural Kid Blogs. Stay tuned for more events to celebrate this as well.

September 15th to October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month. I am joining some of the bloggers in Multicultural Kid Blogs to celebrate this as well.

Around the World in 12 Dishes is "traveling" to New Zealand this month. Hazel and I have already started enjoying some New Zealand stories.



View Larger Map
The Virtual Book Club for Kids is continuing for another year. There are a few changes. This year the blog hop will begin the second Monday of each month and there is a change in who is hosting. This month's author is Bill Martin, Jr.

 Hosting the Virtual Book Club for Kids this year are:

The Educators' Spin On It -  Toddler Approved  -         3 Dinosaurs - Learn~Play~Imagine -  Crafty Moms Share - Reading Confetti  - Inspiration Laboratories - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Kids Yoga Stories - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Ready-Set-Read - Boy Mama Teacher Mama  

I hope you will join us for all of these fun-filled events this month!! Plus we will have our regular events--Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Flamingo Friday, Sharing Saturday, Math Lessons, and Virtual Flat Stanley!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--a Moroccan Snow White

While we have been in Africa for awhile with our Snow White stories I thought I would share one from Morocco too. Again this is a story that I have not shared with Hazel as it would definitely scare her.The story is called "The Jealous Mother" and I found it translated in English in Moroccan Folktales by Jilali El Koudia. 
 

Source: Google

Now for a bit about Morocco. Morocco is a country in Northern Africa. It joins Spain and France as the only countries to have coasts on the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The official name is the Kingdom of Morocco. The Arabic name translates into The Western Kingdom or The West. It is often called these as well. The capital is Rabat, but the largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a history of independence unlike the other countries we have been sharing lately.

Source: Google

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco has much power including the power to dissolve the parliament. His decision also overrides the parliament if there is a contradiction. 

Morocco has the coastlines and many mountains as well as the Sahara Desert. Needless to say the climate varies greatly. Morocco is also the only African country not in the African Union. (Source)

Now my experience with Morocco is very limited. I met a Moroccan man who claimed to instantly fall in love with me and want to marry me. He invited me to come meet his family in Morocco. I did not go. However several people warned me that if I did there were very strict things I needed to know about traveling as a single woman there. This made me look up some information on women's rights in Morocco. In 2004 the parliament tried to improve women's rights. What they passed included a man not being able to take another wife without his wife signing off on it. In 2006 a royal decision granted women to be able to pass their Moroccan citizenship to their children (previously it could only be passed by the father). In 2009, women were granted the right to divorce without their husband's consent. (Source) Needless to say it sounds like they still have some work to do there.

Now onto our story. Similar to the version from Algeria, the Morocco version has a beautiful mother who talks to the moon. The moon tells her that the child in her womb is more beautiful and of course the mother gets jealous. The mother has the trusted midwife bury the baby as soon as it is born and to replace it with a puppy dog. The mother paid the midwife a great deal of gold to do this. The midwife produced a puppy, but she took the girl away and secluded her inside her own house and took care of her. 

The husband of the beautiful woman was ashamed when he saw God had given them a puppy dog and threw the dog away. The midwife raised the baby as her own and named her Lalla Khallalt El Khoudra. She grew to be very beautiful and people would compare any woman's beauty to that of Lalla. Her birth mother heard of her and asked the midwife to send her over to help her untangle her ball of yarn. 

When the birth mother saw the girl she was overcome with jealousy. She gave the girl the ball of yarn and told her to walk until it was untangled. The girl ended up in the land of ghouls. Her mother cut the yarn when she guessed Lalla had walked that far. Lalla could not find her way home and night had fallen. When she saw all the strange creatures in the land she guessed she had entered the land the midwife had told her about and she was afraid she would be eaten alive. She hid herself in a thatch roof. The house that she chose to hide in was one of seven ghoul brothers. They had a slave to cook for them. Every morning the ghouls went out to hunt and the slave remained to prepare their food. The slave heard something on the roof and saw the beautiful woman. Lalla begged her for food and drink. She gave her some but advised her to stay hidden from the owners. Lalla repeated this every day. She would join the slave and help her prepare the food and then hide herself again. The brothers noticed a difference in the food. They wanted to figure out what was happening, so they had the youngest brother stay behind hidden to see what the slave was up to. 

The youngest brother stayed hidden, but saw the slave and Lalla cooking together. Then he jumped out. Lalla was scared, but the brother was kind and gentle and when he looked in his eyes he fell in love with her. The next day the brothers held a wedding ceremony for them. With the presence of Lalla all the brothers were happy. Lalla took over the care of the brothers. The slave became neglected, but she made Lalla promise her that they would always share everything equally.

One day Lalla tried to wake the slave to share a bean with her. Since the slave pretended to be asleep, Lalla put the half bean away, but it was lost when she tried to find it for the slave later. The slave was very angry and took revenge later by putting the fire out. Lalla had to go to a neighbor to ask for fire. She went to the ghoul next door, but he insisted on cutting her for the fire. She allowed him to do it and she dripped blood home. The next day he followed the blood to her and forced her to allow him to suck her blood from her finger or he would eat her. He did this every day.

The brothers began to notice the changes in their food and in Lalla. They did not understand why she did not seem happy when they showered her with gold, silver and jewels. The youngest brother stayed home to find out what was happening. He saw the neighbor come and drink her blood. He waited for his brothers and they decided they would all stay home the next day. They captured the neighbor, and set to kill him and then turned on Lalla for allowing him to visit. She wept and told them the whole story and they threw the slave into the pit with the neighbor and set them on fire. 

Awhile later a salesman who is referred to in the story as a Jew came selling his wares. Lalla came out and chose some and then gave him a large bag of silver and gold. She asked if he every knew a certain tribe and he said he did and she sent a message to her mother through him.

A few months later, he was with that tribe and her birth mother was purchasing things from him. She paid with a few balls of wool. He made a comment about how she did not pay like Lalla and the mother asked for more details since she was her mother. He told her how she was like a queen to the ghouls. The mother ran to  find a gift to send to Lalla and she wrapped a ring in a cloth and asked the salesman to give it to her next time he saw her.

In two months the salesman returned to the land of ghouls and saw Lalla. She bought some of his wares and he gave her the gift her mother sent telling her she suggested she put the ring under her tongue. She said she would and after the salesman left, she did. She became in a deathlike state and the ghouls came home that evening and found her frozen in the spot. They were so sad. They built her an attoush (a sofa like thing) and put it on a camel. The camel was told to go everywhere and stop for no one unless she heard her code name which was Naala or a shoe. The camel rode everywhere and eventually wandered into a kingdom of a rich and famous sultan. His guards told him about the camel with gold and silver on it and he wanted to catch it. The camel outsmarted the guards, but an old woman promised to get it and then lost her shoe and the camel stopped when she heard the woman yell about her shoe. 

When the sultan saw Lalla, he fell in love with her. He had his physicians examine her. When they found the ring under her tongue, they removed it and she slowly came back to life. The sultan married her. She however never forgot her seven ghoul brothers. When the camel had healed after all the walking, Lalla made plans to return. She waited until her husband would be gone for the day and she left, but the guards saw her and the sultan told them to follow her. The camel however once again outsmarted them. Lalla returned to her griefstruck brothers and they were all happy again.

Now part of what I like about this story is that the heroine does not stay with the sultan and goes back to where she was happiest.

For my little ukulele player...

Have you heard about the Waverize It! Facebook contest over at Jo-Ann Fabrics? I have been waiting to tell you all about it. Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics have joined together to celebrate National Sewing Month and Waverly's 90th Anniversary to bring this amazing contest! To help advertise for the contest Jo-Ann's sent me two yards of Waverly fabric to make something outside the box. Well I thought the perfect thing to make would be a case for Hazel's ukulele. Now I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, since I have not shared about her ukulele yet here. 

Back in June, we were at the Cape visiting my parents and my sister and nephew came up. My sister was dropping my nephew off for his six week visit. Well my sister has started to learn to play the ukulele and she had hers and her son's with her. Hazel loved playing her cousin's ukulele so much. Well my sister had happened to buy a ukulele before finding her son's and didn't know what to do with it, so she mailed it to Hazel. Talk about a wonderful surprise package!! Hazel was so excited!! All we had to carry it around and store it in was the box that it was sent in. Not all that pretty or exciting. I also didn't like to take it to too many places since I didn't trust the box to last forever. However Hazel had other plans. She wanted to bring it to both sets of grandparents and then she had an invitation to play at the library with some of the librarians.  The first week, the librarians forgot their ukuleles so Hazel played by herself. The next week, only one remembered hers, so she and Hazel played together. She happens to be the children's librarian so she tried to teach Hazel a bit. (Note: Since I did not ask permission of the librarians I am blocking out their faces.)

Then this past Monday, three of the librarians brought their ukuleles in. (We had only planned on two, but a third was working at a different time and brought it in since she knew we were on the schedule.)

Oh, and then there was one of Hazel's friends at Trader Joe's (yes, my daughter has friends at every store) who wanted to hear her play, so we stopped there one of the Mondays, but she wasn't there, so Hazel played for other friends there. Needless to say with all this public playing, I wanted Hazel to have something besides a cardboard box to carry it in. Oh, she has also been told she can play at church anytime as well for a service.  Now enters the Waverize It! Contest. (If you would like to hear Hazel play and sing, you can go here.)

Now I had been contacted to see if I would I would like to help promote this contest for National Sewing Month which is September. It is put on by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Waverly Fabrics. Waverly is celebrating its 90th anniversary.  I of course jumped at the chance. They sent me two yards of fabric.

They asked the bloggers to Waverize their lives by making something with this fabric for every day use. I thought a ukulele case would be perfect. Then I thought about what I would want. I wanted it to be padded on the inside to protect the instrument and to be stiff on the outside to protect from banging, etc. I decided to put between the lining and the exterior, quilt batting and plastic canvas. This way the case is fully washable. I also envisioned it having a zipper. I called my sister and talked to her about it and she said to make sure the zipper went around the head of the ukulele, so I did. 

My first idea was to use the box as a pattern, but I decided to be more sophisticated. I traced the ukulele and added a bit for seam allowance and give and used this for the base. I also wanted to give it a pocket so she could store something small like her picks. Then I made a little bag to put the picks in with some of the scraps. I attached a ribbon to it so we can attach it tothe case so she doesn't lose them. She doesn't really use her picks anymore, but my sister sent her some, so she has them. 

I put a pocket with Velcro closure on the front. I also added some iron-on flowers and star to jazz it up for my sparkly girl. 

Now if I had this to redo, I would sew it in a different order. I was not sure which to do first with the plastic canvas as part of the lining. I should have sewn the zipper in first. Oops!! It is a little messier than I had hoped, but it works.

And Hazel loves it!! I used a parachute clip to make the strap adjustable so it can grow with her. I put a flower pin on it to make it work a bit better for her now. 

With some of the remaining fabric, I made Hazel a tote bag so she can bring her music (if she ever officially learns how to play and read music) with her and a little zippered pouch to keep money or a key in. The pouch fits in the pocket on the case as well as on the tote.

Hazel asked what she could use the bag for and I suggested music or library books or to take her toys to Nonni's. Then she got really excited about it.

So that has been one of our main forms of entertainment this summer. Hazel LOVES playing her ukulele. And now she has a wonderful case to take it places. The music teacher at her new school already told her to bring it in when they have music class. Needless to say, Hazel is very excited.

Now it is your turn to head over and Waverize your life. To enter the Waverize It! Facebook Contest, just sew something unique with Waverly fabric and take a picture of it. Then head over to this Facebook page to enter. You can also check out the entries that have already been submitted there. The Grand Prize is 30 yards of your favorite Waverly fabric and a $250 Jo-Ann Gift Card. Then there are nine Second Place Winners who get 9 yards of their favorite Waverly fabric and a $150 Jo-Ann Gift Card. You can get more details here.