Valentine Monster Alphabet and Sight Word Game

Reviewing letters and sight words can often feel like a redundant and boring activity for preschoolers, but it doesn't have to be that way. There are so many simple ways to turn learning about the alphabet into a fun game or engaging activity for kids. This week we made learning fun at home with this Valentine Monster Alphabet and Sight Words Game. It's a similar concept to our Shark Alphabet Chomper Game but with a clever Valentine's Day monster theme. 

Monster Eyes Counting Game Preschool Printable

Using dice is a simple way for preschoolers to practice counting and learn basic addition and subtraction. We used them in our our recent Pumpkin Candy Addition Activity and my daughter loved it, so I put together another fun preschool math activity for her with a Halloween monster theme. In true monster fashion, we used googly eyes for our counting manipulatives. After downloading the monster eyes counting game preschool printable, get ready for some good giggly fun making silly monsters.  

Cupcake Liner Monster Stick Puppets

We can't get enough of monster crafts or puppets lately so we decided to combine them both into these fun cupcake liner monster stick puppets. They make a great Halloween craft for kids and since they are super simple to make, they are fabulous for kids of all ages. Try coupling them with a fun non-scary monster children's book and let the kids reenact the story with their cute puppets.

Paper Bag Monster Puppets

I love, love when we do a craft that is not only open-ended but is one the entire family can join in on. We made these paper bag monster puppets last week and it was such a joy to pull out the craft supplies and sit around the table all together as a family and each of us create our own unique monster. The kids craft stars craft challenge this month just so happens to be monsters, so our fun family craft couldn't have been better timed. If you are looking for a fun Halloween craft the whole family can enjoy, grab the craft supplies, some snacks and enjoy making these silly paper bag monster puppets.

Paper Plate Monster Kids Craft

We like not-so-scary monsters at our house. Scary monsters, forget about it!..but colorful, happy monsters are welcome in my home. In fact, we have several favorite children's books with happy monster characters. I've been eager to use some fun adhesive holographic puffy wiggly eyes that our friends at Craftprojectideas.com sent to us, and creating this colorful Paper Plate Monster Kids Craft was the perfect combination for such fun wiggly eyes. This is that type of evergreen craft that is perfect year round. It's perfect for a rainy day, for family night, a play date or even at school. 

Love Monster Paper Bag Puppet Kids Craft

Have you read the book Love Monster by Rachel Bright? It is such a darling book and is a fun read for Valentine's Day. We have been reading it every day recently and made this cute Love Monster Paper Bag Puppet Kids Craft to go along with it. 

Monster Slime

Welcome to another edition of the 12 Months of Sensory Dough Series. This month is all about Slime. I took a traditional twist this month and since slime tends to remind me and my kids so much of monsters, that is exactly what we created. 

Valentine's Monster Box

I am so excited to show you my Valentine's Monster Box today. I made some for my boys a couple years ago (which we still use each year) and decided it was time to make one for Lila this year. Here are pictures of my boys Valentine's Monster Boxes.

I started out with an empty shoe box, cut a rectangle hole in the top for the mouth, and then completely covered the outside of it with felt. I used a gluegun to attach the felt to the box.

Here is the underside of my lid. I wrapped my felt underneath the mouth and glued it so you couldn't see any edges of the box peeking through.

To make the fur on the monster you will need to buy a roll of Fun Fur. I got mine at Walmart in the yarn section but I've seen it at other craft stores too. They have lots of different colors to choose from. I picked a striped pattern for my daughter's box.

I used a glue gun to attach the Fun Fur to the box. I wrapped my Fun Fur over the top of the box, while adding a dab of glue at each end as I wrapped it. After I had made several rows, I lifted up the Fun Fur and put a line of glue down on the felt underneath it to hold it in place more. I usually put a row of glue in the middle and one on each end. Hope that makes sense.

(Yes, that is a Pineapple in my picture next to my juicer. Can't wait to make me some fresh orange and pineapple juice. haha)

When you get to the opening in the mouth, go ahead and keep wrapping the Fun Fur along the left side of the mouth and down the rest of the box, and then go back and do the right side of the mouth. You can see in the picture below what I mean.

After putting Fun Fur over the top of the box, I went around each side of the lid and did the same thing. After you are done adding the Fun Fur, it is time to add all the Monster features.

I started with the eyes. Glue down 2 extra large pom-poms for the eyes with a large googly eye in each. Then add a medium sized pom-pom for the nose.

I have to say that my most favorite feature of this Monster box is definitely the jeweled eyelashes. Aren't they adorable???!! LOL  Craftprojectideas has the cutest package of Heart Acrylic Jewels at Walmart and that is what I used. For my boys' boxes I used the same exact jewels, but Luke's had flower jewels instead of hearts. I simply hot glued the jewels along the top of the eyes to make eyelashes.

I also curled two pipecleaners around two fingers and then glued them on the side of the eyes to make fun antennae.

Then I cut out teeth and a tongue out of white and red felt and glued them around the Monster's mouth.

To finish the box I used glitter glue to write "Feed Me" on the front of the box and glued on some more heart jewels. On the boys' boxes I used foam stickers but I didn't have any so I improvised. On Luke's it said "I'm Hungry" instead of "Feed Me".

These boxes have held up sooooo good! This will be our third year using my boys'. We usually have to form the antennae again, but other than that, they are like new. And did I mention how much my kids LOVE them?!! They are so cute!

Happy Crafting!

Storytime & Craft---Go To Bed, Monster!

This week we read the story "Go To Bed, Monster!" by Natasha Wing. I randomly picked this book off the shelf at the library and after reading the first couple pages I knew it was perfect for my boys. Not only do they love monsters but they are the non-cooperative type at bedtime. I also loved how in the beginning of the story they illustrated how shapes could be used to draw pictures. The little girl in the story continues to draw pictures throughout the story to bring things to life to try to get the Monster to go to bed. As you know, I am a huge fan of using your imagination so this book was a huge hit for me.

So the question is, if you brought to life a monster from your drawing, what would your monster want to do before he went to bed? This is what I asked my boys before we set off to drawing our very own monsters. I encouraged my boys to use lots of shapes when drawing their monster and told them I was going to have them point out all the shapes to me when they were finished with their picture.

Both my boys decided their monster's would have fire blowing out of their mouth and that they would want to eat lots of food before going to bed.

This is my youngest's picture below. His monster wanted to eat lots and lots of spaghetti with meatballs. This was a good exercise for him to practice his shapes. He was able to point out that he used an oval body, rectangle legs and arms, circle eyes and triangle spikes and teeth.

And here is my oldest's picture. He has cool funky green hair and he wanted to eat lots of meat before bed.

And for kicks and giggles, and because I love being a kid, I went ahead and decided to showcase you my very own artwork. hahaha

I thought given the state of our poor, rainy weather here in Utah, my Monster would DEFINITELY be wanting an umbrella and would have lots of FUN jumping in all the puddles outside. I know, I know, I'm silly!  :)

MoNsTeR PiLlOw....

I wanted to do something extra special for my boys for Easter instead of the norm....chocolate bunny, plastic eggs, new church outfit....I saw the most awesomest thing ever HERE and I instantly knew it was exactly what I wanted to make. Thank heavens for creative Women like Disney, they are truly my saving grace (especially since I learned how to sew in a straight line from one of her tutorials haha) !!

Introducing the COOLEST felt Monster Face Pillow....

Yep, you heard me...The pillow and all the pieces are made out of felt so they all stick together and it creates the best Mr. Potato Head-like game.

The possibilities are seriously endless...


(I totally learned how to make a collage in Picasa for this post, I love it! haha)

I seriously think I enjoy this thing as much (if not more LOL!) than the kids! It is THAT fun!

And the coolest part is that it has a cute pocket in the back to store all those little pieces.

Now since I'm such an over-achiever (haha totally kidding!) I couldn't merely stop there. I made two more pillows for my cutest nieces in the whole wide World, and designed some mighty fine girly pieces to go along with them.


I just realized my ears are on backwards...LOL...Oh well!

Doesn't it just make you feel like a kid all over again??? You NEED/MUST have one of these in your home. Seriously, I'm SERIOUS!! Go right HERE, right now for the tutorial.