Baby Moses Books and Craft

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Last week in Sunday School, Hazel learned about Baby Moses. After our fun with Noah's Ark, she asked to hear more about Baby Moses and about Moses. There are not as many picture books on Baby Moses or Moses for that matter as there is for Noah's Ark, but we found some at the library.

We are making our way through the books. We started with the ones that are just about Baby Moses. The Wee Sing book has a Baby Moses song in it. 

Hazel's Baby Moses Craft

They made a Baby Moses paper craft in their Sunday School class, but I wanted to find a fun one for us to do. I consulted my Baby Moses Pinterest Board for ideas. I found this cute one over at The Art of Being Mama: B is for Bears, Blueberries and Baby Moses. I had some walnuts around, so I cracked them for their shells. Then I found the small peg dolls I bought ages ago when I ordered a variety pack from Amazon and we went from there. Here are the supplies you need to make our Baby Moses craft and you need glue. I forgot to put it in the picture. Sorry!

 The first thing we did was to draw a face (I added some hair as well) on the doll and then wrap it with a scrap of fabric. We glued the fabric onto it and glued it into the walnut shell.

 Then I cut a circular shape from blue felt and some reeds from green felt. We glued the walnut shell to the blue felt and the reeds around it.

My Baby Moses Craft

 Here is a view from the side. I am thinking of adding a string or ribbon to put on Hazel's seasonal tree in her room.

I know her Sunday School class is going to continue with the Moses stories, so we will probably be doing some more as well soon! Plus we have more Noah's Ark crafts and books to do.

Sharing Saturday 13-41

Thank you to all of you who shared with us last week! I once again am apologizing for not visiting. My life has been a bit crazy lately. But the ones I did visit were amazing, so I hope you take the time to go be inspired!! There are many wonderful Halloween ideas there as well. We had a three-way tie for most clicked, so I'm skipping right to a few favorites of the ones I checked out.

1) From Vintage Celebrations: Witches Broom Lollipops

2) From We Made That: DIY Owl Mask

3) From Ingspirations: DIY Lift-the-Flap Alphabet Book

4) From LalyMom: Fine Motor Activity Dashboard for Kids

5) From Doting on Deidre: Family Time: The Peninsula Fine Arts Center Why Art Matters Especially for Young Boys

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-002.jpg" /></a>

From Your Hostess:
This week we shared a lesson and play on Noah's Ark, another Korean Cinderella, a wonderful Blogger Opportunity through Little Pim, Christmas Crafts for Kids book review and giveaway, some Halloween and autumn decorations and the third book in the Miss Mingo series.

Our current giveaway ends Wednesday!

Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharing%20Saturday" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-150_zpsba88f805.jpg" /></a>

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 

 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

Flamingo Friday--Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

We missed Flamingo Friday last week, but this week we are sharing the last of the Miss Mingo series book. Today it is Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm by Jamie Harper. We have already shared Miss Mingo and the First Day of School and Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill both also written by Jamie Harper. The best thing about these stories is you learn a little something about each of the animals in them. In the first day of school book we learned that flamingos eat upside down and in the fire drill we learned that flamingos like to be in large groups so the predators stick out.

Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm is about Miss Mingo taking her class on a field trip to climb to an observatory at the top of a mountain. Of course the weather changes drastically during the climb. It goes from heat to rain to snow.  The lesson about flamingos in this book is their ability to stand on one leg to conserve heat and they face the wind or rain. I wanted to learn more about this, so with a little research I found a bit more. When sleeping the flamingos stand on one leg and face wind and this stops the wind and rain from penetrating their feathers. (Source: Sea World)

Another interesting fact is that their mating season is tied the rainy season. The less rain there is the less likely they will mate. In years where there is no rain, the colony will not mate at all. (Source: Flamingos World) A fear of global warming is that it is effecting the amount of rain and this may endanger flamingos. (Source: Flamingos World)

So that is our Flamingo Friday. Hope you will come back and share at Sharing Saturday!

Decorating for Halloween & Fall

Have you entered my new current giveaway?

This past weekend we made a very easy Halloween decoration. Our decoration was inspired by the DIY Halloween Tissue Ghosts I saw over at Shindigz back when I was doing a review for them. I happened to find the tissue paper bells on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop and I think I paid something like a dollar for all four. Then we took a piece of black construction paper and cut out eyes and mouths. I let Hazel cut her own and then we glued them on.

Since the bells had strings and the bottoms had the round ball that would ring the bell, we hung them on our chandelier to greet anyone who comes to our front door. Since we were hanging them, we skipped the tulle as well.

I guess we did a good job since Steve thought I had bought them that way. We also hung the extra spider web we had leftover from our various crafts and added the big spider we used at Hazel's nursery rhyme birthday party for Little Miss Muffet.

We also went on a wonderful nature walk around our neighborhood. We of course took our wagon (to carry everything and in case Hazel got tired) and a bag to collect things. We some saw fun mushrooms. We thought this one might be a fairy bathtub or pool.

And here is a fairy village.

The colors were also beautiful on the walk.

The trees have been so wonderful this fall. The colors are so vibrant.

We were collecting leaves and such and Hazel picked up a stick and started putting leaves on her stick. She decided it was a leaf stick. It came out beautifully and we have it sitting in a glass jar on our table now.

We planned on making more, but haven't made it out there yet.

But in the jar it looks like a flower. We love it! How are you bringing nature in to celebrate the season?

Christmas Crafts for Kids eBook Review & Giveaway

Ok, I know Halloween has not happened yet and I am one of the first to complain about the stores having Christmas things up too early. However, I have the opportunity to review and giveaway a wonderful ebook by Beth Gordon of 123 Homeschool 4 Me called Christmas Crafts for Kids. One of the things I love about this book is it is written to help you keep Christmas and family in Christmas and not get into the commercialism of society. It is wonderful to help children focus on what really matters during the holiday season.

In this amazing book, Beth has a children's book for each day of December before Christmas. She also offers an alternative book in case you do not own or cannot find a copy of  the suggested book at the library. I was able to find one of the suggested books for each day at our local library if I did not already own it. Then she has several crafts and activities to go with each book (or day). These crafts and activities include things you can do as a family or one parent can do with a child or children. There are crafts, snacks, and activities including some charitable activities.

One book she shares is The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry. This is a scratch 'n sniff book, so I do not recommend getting it from the library. (We did, and all the scratch 'n sniff spots were used up.) One activity Beth suggests with this book is to make a plate of seasonal scents. We used what we had in the house (or outside for the pine needles) and did not stick directly with her suggestions. We also made a gingerbread cake for the scent and to enjoy. On our scent plate is a branch from an evergreen tree, peppermint extract, orange extract, cinnamon on a cotton ball and cloves. Hazel loved smelling this plate and continued to do so for several days (until I got rid of it).

Another story we used was The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg. This was the alternative book and the suggested book was J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman, but we could not get it from our local library and could get The Legend of the Candy Cane. I am so glad we found this book. I love the message behind the whole story and it gives all the legends of the candy cane I have heard in one story (J-shaped for Jesus, shaped like a shepherd's hook, etc.) and it has the overall message about sharing them with the story of Jesus. It will be added to my must read every Christmas list. Along with many wonderful candy cane crafts, Beth suggested this wonderful snack of apple and banana slicing shaped as a candy cane. Hazel of course loved it since she LOVES fruit.

Another book is Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry. One of the many wonderful suggestions to go  with this book was a straw Christmas tree ornament. Hazel and I had a great time making these. We used the supplies we had already, so we did not have a gold sparkly pom pom for the top and our pom poms were a bit big, but we like it anyway. There were other crafts, snacks and an activity to go with this book.

So that gives you a bit of a sample of what Beth has put together. She offers you 24 days of books and activities as well as one alternative day in case you do not like either choice or cannot find either choice of her suggested books. Some of the books are focused about the religious meaning of Christmas and others are not. I know I plan on doing more with this great book once December comes. I hope you will take the time to check it out and enjoy your holiday season!

Now Beth has offered me a copy of her e-book to giveaway. Since it is e-mailed, it is open worldwide!! So here is your chance to win Christmas Crafts for Kids, just do as the Rafflecopter asks to enter and follow my Giveaway Rules (except it is open worldwide so you do not have to be in the USA). If you do not want to wait for the giveaway to end, you can purchase it for $9.99 here. (You can also buy a print copy there for $24.99.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway