Sunday, September 5, 2010

B is for Bat Craft

After reading Margaret Read MacDonald's retelling of one of Aesop's fables (click here, to find our review of the book), we talked about whether a bat is a bird, or a mammal. In the story bat switches back, and forth, between jerseys marked with an "A" for the animal team, or a "B" for the bird team - a natural lead into an alphabet craft.

I gave the girls each construction paper letter B's to glue onto the middle of another sheet.

Then, they added google eyes, and pompom noses.


So far, their efforts only looked like B's with personality, but not bats. I asked the girls what was missing, and happily, they answered "WINGS!".

Because bats are m...m...mmmmamals, and not b...b...birds, I had them use the sides of black crayon pieces to shade in letter M wings.

E (age 5), was right on it, but C (age 4), needed more help to understand - turning the M's to make them fit on the B, like wings, confused her, and she wasn't sure about shading with the side of the crayon. So, after her first, "strange" wing, I helped her shade it in, and then drew an M on the other side, for her to shade over. That worked.

Then, she used a white crayon to add teeth on the bat, a few white moths for it to eat, and her new, fancy signature.

She can print her name, but right now she's entering into a very creative, writing phase.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

7 comments:

Ticia said...

We go through those writing phases as well

Christy Killoran said...

I really like this craft. The idea of using the Ms on the side for mammal is very clever. We have that book. I'll have to find it.

maryanne @ mama smiles said...

What a cute bat!

Brimful Curiosities said...

Isn't it fun when kids try out new ways of doing things. My daughter is still enjoying making up words and asking me what it says.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I love C's pretend writing - very creative indeed. The craft looks super cute too.

Unknown said...

I just posted about how cool bats are. We found one in our attic. Have you all been to a maternity bat cave?? Very fun!

http://fromchapelhilltochickenville.blogspot.com/2010/07/theres-what-in-my-attic.html

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Very fun. We're going to venture into the letter-as-object genre this year with my littlest, so thanks for the inspiration!