LITTLE SPRING CHICKENS

Oh my gosh! I am sure I'm not the only one who couldn't be happier that it's finally spring. I love the winter and snow and being cozy, but after months and months and months of snow and freezing, I always yearn for leaves on trees and flip flops. 

Plus, I am so sick of wrestling with coats and car seats I could scream. I read an article about how you're not supposed to put your kid in their car seat with a coat on, and after reading it I felt too guilty to ignore it. So since then, I put Kinley's coat on and take it off and repeat for every stop we make. 

Grrr. I. Hate. Coats.

We hosted my little sister's 20th birthday dinner at our house last night. Kinley and I blew up a few balloons for the front porch and went outside to tie them to the banister and she was the happiest little baby with the spring breeze ruffling her hair. When I took her back inside, though, she just stood at the door and screamed, cried real tears, and pointed her little finger outside. She was so sad that I gave in and took her back out on the porch to color Sam's birthday sign. Even Baby K has spring fever! 

So even though the forecast on our security system screen said 30% chance of snow, I decided no matter what we were working on a spring project today. Don't try to hold us down, Mother Nature. It's a waste of time. Out with the cold, in with the dew (just made that up, whaddya think? Haha)

Why not kickoff our spring celebration with a cute little yellow chick day? Kinley had sooo much fun putting this project together, which was probably due, in part, to the fact that she was allowed to stand on a chair again. She is so busy these days, my options are getting limited in the stay-in-one-spot-and-focus department. 

Here is your supply list for this craft:

A full sheet of yellow construction paper

A full sheet of green construction paper

A half or quarter sheet of orange paper (I had a scrap that had already been doodled on)

Pencil

Scissors

Green marker

Glue stick

2 googly eyes

Chick stencil

I made a stencil for you with all the chick parts--beaks, legs, bodies, and wings. I will upload it ASAP. All you have to do is print it out, trace them on your colored paper and cut them out. I did the tracing and cutting while Kinley napped, but if your kiddo is learning to do these things, just let them take over those steps.

You'll need:

2 chick bodies

2 wings

2 sets of legs

2 beaks

I did a cool trick with the legs. Seeing it may be easier than an explanation:

So, I traced the leg pattern with the top of the leg on the crease of a piece of paper folded in half, cut them out, spread the legs apart a little and made a new crease. If you think this is too much, you can just cut two separate legs, I just thought having one piece to stick on instead of two would be helpful with Kinley's super short attention span.

Now, all of your stuff is ready. Let's get crafting!

Step 1. Use your green marker to color some blades of grass on your green paper.

Step 2. Glue all of your chick pieces to the grass paper. I put glue on the backs of everything for Kin and she had so much fun sticking them and resticking them.

The sticking things wherever she wanted was definitely her favorite part. Well, favorite part next to licking the glue off of the googly eyes. Blech.

Here's her finished product:

 

We were so inspired by our chick project, we decided to read a chick book for our mini circle time (just sign language flash cards, singing, and stories.) My aunt Lis sent Kinley some books that my adorable and super smart cousin Henry had outgrown, and this one was perfect for today:

The pictures are adorable and the story is pretty cute, too. It's about all the animals on the farm meeting the new little chick. They each tell him something that's so cute and little about him, and he tries to show them that the things they admire actually aren't cute and little, but so big. Perfect for spring and perfect for reading to kiddos who are in the "I'm not a baby, I'm a big kid!" phase. ;)

Kinley couldn't have been more proud of her abstract baby chick masterpiece! As soon as her daddy stepped in the door, she yelled, "DA!" and ran pointing to the cabinet where her picture is hanging. And when he told her what a great job she did, she insisted on standing on the counter and pointing to each chick part.

I haven't decided if tomorrow will be a flower day or a bunny day or a lamb day, but whatever I choose, it will have absolutely nothing to do with winter...yay, spring!