One of our Advent
Activities was an M Day. We recently checked out a few moose themed books so I decided we should have an M/moose day. And then this little "letter M antler moose" came to my mind.
1) Materials: regular yellow construction paper and large brown and blue (or color of choice) construction paper , googly eyes (you may be tempted to use big eyes, but as we learned in our moose research, moose actually have tiny eyes on the side of their head and rely largely on their senses of smell and hearing), black marker and glue stick
2)I simply drew a free hand a moose head shape, ears and a capital M. Here's a quick trip- I folded a piece of construction paper in half and drew a large capital M on it, so that when I went to cut it out I had 2 identical M's!
3) Cut it out! We shared in this duty.
4) Glue the head onto the background, glue ears, eyes, and M antlers. (You'll see below that initially our eyes were too close together.)
5) Have your kiddo draw large nostrils (remember they have a great sense of smell) and mouth.
Isn't this guy adorable? I'm pretty crazy about him!
To go along with our M theme and If You Give a Moose a Muffin book by Laura Numeroff we made and ate blueberry muffins for breakfast. We went to the Museum with some friends (this was already on our agenda).
We read several fantastic moose books!
1)The Elusive Moose by Joan Gannij and Clare Beaton is a hide -and -seek -book where you find a moose on each page spread. At the end of the book there is a section titled "Animals of the Northern Lands" which gives a quick factual blurb about each animal featured in the book. This book is put out by Barefoot Books, which I think are great. The illustrations are photos of embroidery and other embellishments.
2)If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff is one in the great If You Give a... series. We love everyone we've ever read. I won't go into a detailed description because I'm guessing you know about these.
3) Moose Tracks by Karma Wilson and Jack E. Davis is a fun silly book. The narrator tries to figure out why there are moose tracks throughout his house and in the end the narrator is revealed to be a moose himself.
4) Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini is a fun Christmas book. The main character is a moose father who has a huge mustache who is going to extremes to ensure the perfect Christmas for his family. It seems everything is going to be just right until they realize he's forgotten the Christmas tree. It's Christmas Eve and there are no trees to be found, so they twirl his mustache around him and decorate him!
I attempted to make "chocolate moose tracks". They were yummy, but awfully messy and difficult to work with, oh well, sometimes that's what you get when you cook on the fly.
We also made this cute moose puppet out of a lunch sack, googly eyes, a yogurt cup, glue, and construction paper. The antlers are Brady's hand prints. I got the idea and instructions here.
It was a fun, or maybe I should say a Marvelous M Moose Day!
As the guests entered the party I had coloring/dot marker sheets for them on the big table we borrowed from Brady's school. About half of the girls went straight back to B's room and changed into dress-up clothes and played with toys. The other half sat down at the table and had a great time with the simple craft projects. Do-a-dot markers are always a huge hit particularly with kids who have never used them and there is no mess. I highly recommend them. (Buy them at Michael's with the 40% off coupon.) 
After some time passed I brought out fruit loops and yarn to make rainbow necklaces. My friend Emily was a huge help with this project. Again some girls were interested and some found Brady's toys to be much more enticing. Brady herself bopped about from room to room for the most part. I knew that at a kids' party the activities may or may not go over well, which is why I kept it simple. As necklace-making was wrapping up I called all the girls in to make pony puppets. Unfortunately no pictures were taken, probably because all hands were on deck for this one. I'll try to post about it soon.
Then we had a pin the tail on the pony game. I drew/painted a big pony on a piece of poster board. And made individual tails out of shiny basket filling stuff (I don't know the correct term). The girls put a sleeping mask over their eyes and were spun around one time before placing the tail onto the pony. After this we had the Birthday cake and other snacks.
Then it was time for the pinata. A pony pinata, of course. Watching a bunch of 3 and 4 year old girls hit a pinata was a laugh riot! Fortunately we had one big girl friend who helped it along; she even knocked the body off the head. But eventually I had to grab it and tear it apart, then sprinkle the candy on the ground. Notice the hanging pony head in the next picture. I was amazed at how calm the girls were while picking up the treats. The next day there was still candy in the carport. We finished up the party by opening the Birthday gifts. (And, wow, was she ever gifted! Thank you, thank you, dear friends!) I think the party had a great balance of activities and free play. It was a fun day!
