Oh Baby! Flannel Burp Cloths Tutorial

Oh Baby! A few of my dear girlfriends are expecting little ones anytime now and since I just got a handy, dandy sewing machine, I thought I would test my new found sewing skills by making some flannel burp cloths that they can use as they are feeding their little bundles:)

Oh Baby! Flannel Burp Cloths

As far as my sewing skills are concerned, I am definitely learning as I am going along.  I took an intro. sewing class that covered the basics. Practice definitely makes perfect so I will most likely be practicing my sewing skills all Winter long! Watch out family and friends, you will probably be receiving some handmade gifts:)  I wish I could say that the burp cloths were my first official sewing project but I made some pillow slip covers last week for my Sister.  It's too bad I didn't snap any photos because the three pillows I made turned out great!

Attached below is the template for these simple to sew burp cloths.  

Flannel Burp Cloth Template 1 of 2 (print/cut 2 copies for end pieces)

Flannel Burp Cloth Template 2 of 2 (print/cut one middle piece)

Supplies (to make a set of 4 burp cloths):

• Sewing thread (I use 100% polyester thread) 
• 1 yard of coordinating flannel (1/2 yard of each pattern) 
• Quilt batting (I use Warm and Natural) 
• Scissors
• Straight pins 
• burp cloth template

I use soft flannel to make my burp cloths.  Using the template,  cut three identical pieces (two pieces from the flannel and one piece from the batting.

Cut 3 pieces from burp cloth template

Layer the two flannel pieces (face to face) and then layer the batting on top. Use straight pins to secure the pieces approximately 1/4 inch from the edge.

Layer flannel pieces face-to-face and then place batting on top

Starting at one of the curved edges, stitch along the pins leaving about a 1/4 inch seam.  It can be very tricky to sew along the curved corners and I find myself stopping my machine and realigning often to be sure the edges are lined up evenly. 

Stitch 3 layers of cloth together along pinned edge

Stitched along the perimeter of the layered cloths (making sure to catch all there layers) until you reach the end of the last curve and stop the stitch leaving approximately a 2 to 3 inch opening. 

Removed the cloth from the machine and turn it inside out so the pattern is now on the outside.  Straight pin in the open edges and return the cloth to the machine to top stitch the remaining cloth closed.  

Turn cloth inside out and top stitch closed

Before gifting, I washed and dried the burp cloths so they would be soft and comfy:)

I tied up each set of burp cloths with a pretty bow and added them to my baby gifts.  My flannel burp cloths are less than perfect but they are very cute and will definitely serve their important purpose of cleaning-up all of the new little ones:)

Flannel Burp Cloths

Flannel Burp Cloths

Lauren

Queen of Hearts Costume

Queen of Hearts and Clark Kent

Happy Halloween! I decided to be the Queen of Hearts for Halloween this year and since I have become quite crafty, I decided to take a chance and make my own costume:)  Tulle is one of my favorites! I use it a lot to make bows for gifts (I will post how to make a tulle bow next time I am wrapping a present).

Inspired by some cute and pretty pricey tulle costumes I found on Etsy, I decided to try my luck at making the skirt for my costume out of tulle.  Tulle is available in a variety of colors, finishes (matte,shinny, glittered) and is very easy to work with.

Supplies:

• 10 to 12 yards of shinny tulle (I used approximately 2 yds. yellow, 2 yds. white, 4 yds. red, 4 yds. black)
• 1 inch wide pajama elastic 
• 1 sheet (12 x 12) red stiffened felt 
• 1 sheet (16 x 16) gold glittered card stock 
• 1 spool of 1 1/2 inch wide red satin ribbon
• Heart stencil or cookie cutter 
• Tacky glue 
• Scissors
• Measuring board or tape measure 

First, I measured the elastic piece to fit securing around my upper torso (just below my chest).  I cut off the excess elastic and I secured the elastic in place by over lapping the ends and sewing across the band.  Remember, you want a snug fit and the elastic is very stretchy so don't worry too much if your elastic piece looks too small, you don't want to be pulling up your skirt all night long.

Securing the Elastic 

Next, I used my measuring board and scissors to cut the tulle into 72 inch x 7 inch strips. This is an  approximation so don't worry about being too precise, you can eye ball it if you don't having a tape measure.  I didn't want my dress to drag on the floor so if you prefer a longer skirt, just cut the strips as long as you like.


Then, I simply secured the tulle strips along the elastic band by folding each strip in half and loop tying around the elastic. The tulle strips should be approximately 36 inches long when folded in half.  To loop tie, place the looped side behind the elastic band and pull the two loose ends through the hole.


I secured the yellow tulle first as a starting point, this is the front of the skirt.  Once the yellow tulle was in place, I added the white tulle strips evenly to each side of the yellow.  I then filled around the sides and back alternating with the black and red tulle.

Loop Tied Tulle

As a finishing touch, I measured the red satin ribbon around the waist, leaving extra length on each side to tie a bow at the front of the skirt.  I folded the ribbon in half to find the middle and pinned it to the elastic waist band at the back of the skirt.  I straight stitched the ribbon to the back of the waist band to secure.  Then I brought the ribbon pieces back around (like a belt) and tied a ribbon at the front of the skirt to the side.

I used my heart cookie cutter to trace four hearts on to the red felt.  After cutting the hearts out, I used tacky glue to secure the hearts down the center of the yellow tulle.

Hearts 

I cut out a crown from the gold glittered card stock and glued, then stapled the two ends together to secure.  I hot glued some hair pins to the inside of the crown.

I completed my Queen of Hearts ensemble by wearing a black long sleeved top, black leggings and kitten heels.  I added earrings and my glittered crown and my costume was complete!

Happy Halloween! 

Lauren

Frankenstein

Frankenstein:)

Frankenstein has arrived! As our Halloween celebrations continues Frankenstein came to school this past week! I found this  pattern for Frankenstein on this awesome blog Life in First Grade.  The blog
features many patterns for projects for early childhood education.  I actually discovered her blog while searching the site Teachers Pay Teachers.  This site is a great resource to buy, sell and share teaching resources.  I recommend checking it out to be inspired!

Frankenstein is a spooky monster!

Again, cutting and pasting activities have been a big hit this school year! My students had an awesome time cutting and pasting Frank and then writing about him and his scariest adventures with his spooky friends!

Frank is the best goblin ever!

 

Each student had to cut out the zig zag lines on Frankenstein's arms and pants.  After the zig zags were cut, each student was given one head, body (shirt), two hands, two feet and two bolts to paste on to create Frank.  The paper body parts were presented one at a time, 2 x 2.  After Frank's body was pasted together, we flipped him over to his front to add five stripes to his shirt, three stripes on each arm sleeve, and two googly eyes.  My students had fun using a marker to draw on his stitched mouth and scars on his face. 

A School of Frankensteins

 Frankenstein is another fun and creative cutting, pasting and writing activity for Halloween focusing on fine motor and visual-motor integration skills.  The kids had a fantastic time creatively writing about their monster friend "Frank" and all of his goblin friends; ghosts, witches and vampires!

Frankenstein Monsters:)

 

Happy Halloween!

Lauren

Witches!

Magical Witch 

Hocus Pocus! Happy Halloween! These magical little witches have been casting spells all around our school!  My students had a blast making these pretty witches for Halloween:) All that's missing is a black cat and a broom!

Little Witch 

This witch is another fun cutting and pasting activity for Halloween incorporating spatial awareness, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control and visual-motor integration skills.

Circle of Witches:) 

Witch Template:

Witch Template (body, arm, leg, hand, shoe, and eye)

Witch Template (head and hat)

First, each student cut out the rectangular shaped body (dress) and circular shaped head of their witch.  After pasting the head on top of the body, they were given two legs, two feet (shoes), two arms, two hands and two eyes. The paper body parts were presented one at a time and pasted in order, 2 x 2.  As a finishing touch, the students pasted the witch's hair (shredded green paper) on top of the head and completed her look with a pointy black hat:)  The students used a black sharpie to draw on their witch's nose and smile.

Bewitched:) 

I can definitely recognize the personality of each student shining through the little faces:) 

Witches Casting A Spell! 

 

Witch Song: 

Five Little Witches 

(author unknown) 

Five little witches (hold up five fingers) standing by the door.

One flew out (flying motion with hand)

And then there were four.

Four little witches (four fingers) standing by a tree

One went to pick a pumpkin (picking motion with three fingers)

And then there were three.

Three little witches stirring their brew (stir) 

One fell in

And then there were two (two fingers).

Two little witches went for a run (run with fingers) 

One got lost

And then there was one (one finger).

One little witch, yes, only one (one finger) 

She cast a spell

And now there are none (make motions as if to cast spell and then put hands in lap).

Halloween Matching Boards: 

I made these matching boards this school year and I was lucky to find a variety of matching games from different resources on the web.  

Jack O' Lantern Matching
(preschoolprintables.com)

Spooky Alphabet Matching
(www.kindergartenkiosk.blogspot.com)  

Pumpkin Patch Matching
 (www.filefolderfun.com)

Happy Halloween!

Hocus Pocus! 

Lauren

Leaves and Trees

Rainbow Trees



Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down... Fall has arrived and for the past few weeks my students have been welcoming Fall in many fun and festive ways! The leaves on the trees are Falling down all around our school and leaves are probably one of my favorite things to incorporate into treatment activities because there are so many ways to discover their beauty.  My students are always excited to explore the different shapes and vibrant colors of red, yellow, orange and brown, the textures of soft, rough and crunchy and the smells of nature:)

Exploring Fall Leaves

If you have time, you can venture outside and find a variety of leaves that have fallen from the trees outside or make a visit to the store to buy some fabric leaves.  Fabric leaves are great because they are easy clean-up and can be re-used for many Fall seasons to come.  I dump the leaves in a large water table (a bucket or tray would work well too) so my students can explore and play in the leaves, feeling the different textures and scents.  You can even hide different manipulatives in the leaves, such as plastic farm animals or bugs, sensory balls or other fidgets to find.

Exploring Fall Leaves

My students love to jump and roll in the leaves too! The kids love jumping on the trampoline or bouncing/rolling on the therapy ball while the leaves fall overhead.  With facilitation for safety, the students are able to reach to the ground for the leaves, pick them up and then watch them fall.  My students love parachute activities so it is fun to take turns sitting in the middle of the parachute (on top) with the leaves all around and as the parachute moves the leaves swish and swoosh all around. While laying on top of the parachute the students can roll side to side in the leaves. These sensorimotor activities are not only fun but also encourage peer interaction, body awareness, gross motor coordination, balance, motor planning and sequencing.

Some Fall Favorites:

Autumn Leaves 
(sing to the tune: 'London bridges')

Autumn leave are falling down, 

falling down, falling down

Autumn leaves are falling down, 

falling to the ground.

Pick them up and watch them fall, 

watch them fall, watch them fall

Pick them up and watch them fall,

it's so much fun! 

The Leaves on the Trees 
('The Wheels on the Bus') 

The leaves on the trees are falling down,

falling down, falling down.

The leaves on the trees are falling down, 

all through the town!

The leaves on the trees go swish, swish, swish

swish, swish, swish

swish, swish, swish

The leaves on the trees go swish, swish, swish

all through the town!

The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch

crunch, crunch, crunch

crunch, crunch, crunch

The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch

all through the town!
 

Rainbow Tree


My students had a blast creating these magical rainbow trees for Fall.  These beautiful little trees are a fun way to incorporate both fine motor and visual-motor integration skills, including: cutting, pasting, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, counting, and ordinal sequencing (largest to smallest).  The tree trunks were cut from recycled newspaper and each student got to pick 4 to 5 large circles in their favorite colors to cut.  After the largest (biggest) circles were cut and pasted on branches, the medium sized circles and smallest circles were introducted and pasted in place.  For my students working on written communication, they were given time to write sentences about their rainbow beauties:)
 

The Magical Rainbow Forest



Leaf Matching

As I explained in my previous post (Apples), I try to incorporate a lot of  visual-motor integration skills into my treatment sessions, matching, lacing, tracing, connect the dots, mazes, printing, etc. Matching games are a great way to work on not only visual-motor skills but also hand-eye coordination, visual-scanning and discrimination skills and fine motor control.  My students absolutely love matching and I have found it to be an easy to use and adapt activity that is effective in encouraging visual-motor integration skill development.  Of course, I explored the web to find images of leaves so I could make some matching boards.  Unfortunately, I am unsure where I found my images for these matching boards because I made them last year but if you just Google search 'leaf matching' you will find a ton of great images to use with different colors, patterns and shapes. Like I said before, matching boards take a while to make but they are so worth the effort and time because they prove to be a perfect warm-up table top activity and if laminated they can be sanitized and stored for school years to come:)



Leaf Matching

Lauren

Spooky Bats

Bats! 

It's time to celebrate Halloween and we have been making spooky bats all week long! This spooky bat is a fun cutting and pasting activity that focuses on spatial awareness, body awareness, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control visual-motor integration.

Spooky Bat

Each student was given the body and head of their bat and after they cut out their oval shaped body and circular shaped head, they were given two pointy wings, circular eyes, triangular fangs and a moon shaped mouth.  The paper body parts were presented one at a time and pasted in order. 

Spooky Bat 

Colony of Spooky Bats

Spooky Bats

Bat Template:
 

Bat Template



There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat...



Each child attached a strip of black paper with tape on the back so they could fly their bats around the room while singing some favorite batty songs:)

Bat Song:

Bats Are Sleeping

(Sing to the tune 'Frère Jacques')

Bats are sleeping, bats are sleeping,

Upside down, Upside down

Waiting for the night!

Waiting for the night!

Then fly around, Then fly around.

Writing Practice:
For my students working on higher functioning visual-motor integration skills, specifically written communication abilities, we then practiced copying spooky sentences about bats from the board.  Working on attending to margins and applying proper capitalization, letter formation, spacing and punctuation.  My students are very creative with active imaginations! It is cute to read their descriptions of their batty friends!

Writing Practice: Bats! 

Bats

For my younger students, we had fun reading the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro.  She also swallowed an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, and even a wizard!  I joined the Scholastic Book Club  so I have been purchasing some of my favorite stories to include in my treatment sessions:)  Another favorite sing-along story we have been enjoying is The Spooky Wheels on the Bus . We have been enjoying this story while playing with our parachute and other sensorimotor therapy activities, such as hand print bats.

Hand Print Bats:

Hand Print Bat

 My students had a blast exploring shaving cream and black paint to create these furry little creatures.  First my students painted a black circle in the middle of the page, working on painting within circular boundaries and then place two hand prints to create bat wings:) We used a textured paint brush so not only did my students explore the tactile input of the sticky and smooth paint but they also experienced the rough textures and tickle input of the brush on their hands. 

Bat with Hand Print Wings 

This activity is great for students who are tactile defensive and have difficulty in exploring different textures. This activity is also a wonderful way for students to explore their environment throughout touch and sensation.   Once the shaving cream paint was dry, we pasted on two eyes and a mouth with fangs.

Spooky Matching Boards:

I made these Halloween matching games last school year so I am unsure of where I got the images.  I am sure I just Google searched 'Halloween matching' and found the images.  I love this first matching game because as the kids build the spooky characters they are working on body awareness. 



Halloween Body Awareness Matching Game

I also use these matching games to play Go Fish and Halloween Memory with my students:)


Halloween Matching Game



Halloween Characters Matching Game from Family Circle

Halloween Matching

Happy Halloween!

Lauren