Quiet Book - Dinosaur Page

Kellan LOVES dinosaurs, so I was searching for a dinosaur page on Pinterest that inspired me and hadn't really found anything.  Then I found one for sale on Etsy with an incredible amount of detail.  To buy the page would have cost $128!  So I took elements I liked from that page and made my own page.  My idea for the learning and activity to go with this page is to learn that the type of dinosaur was an herbivore and make his long neck movable, so he could eat the plants and fruit surrounding him.  There's also a surprise lift a flap to show dinosaurs hatched from eggs.  I also tried to make the background Garden of Eden like.

To make the dinosaur's neck movable and bendable, I cut out two dinosaur shapes and sewed them together and sewed a large pipe cleaner into the neck.  Then, when attaching the dinosaur to the page, I just sewed around his body and left his neck and limbs free.  

If you're thinking about making a Quiet Book - an assortment of felt will help you get started!

Quiet Book - Snowman Dress Up

Since I was giving this gift at Christmas, I wanted to include either a Santa or Snowman page and I settled on Snowman. I came up with a dress the snowman concept and made a bunch of hats, scarves and a few ties for the snowman to wear. Here was the planning phase:

I just copied and pasted hats I found online to use as templates for my hats.  I knew I wanted the hats to look super cute and realistic, so that meant a lot of detail work and hand-sewing.  I made a polka dot tie by adding French knots (first time doing them) and it turned out so cute!!!

Then I ordered really wide Velcro and made the entire snowman out of Velcro. Then I used stick on Velcro dots on the back of the hats and on the closet page.

For the background, I made snow on the ground and a few pine trees.  I made an adjoining page with shelves to store the hats.

For this Project you'll need: 

light blue felt sheet

white felt sheet

dark green felt sheet

brown felt sheet

colorful felt scraps (for the hats)

orange scrap (for the carrot nose)

wide Velcro

sticky back Velcro dots

needle and embroidery thread

sewing machine

Two small black buttons (for the eyes, optional)

snowflake brads (optional)

                                                 

If you're thinking of making a quiet book, an assortment of felt will help you get started!

Memory Tray

When my whole family gets together, I like to plan activities that we can all do together.  I was searching for "games the whole family can play" and came across this game - Memory Tray - which was called a parlor game.  The instructions are simple: 

Everyone can look at the tray for 1 minute and then they get three minutes to write down everything they can remember.  The person who gets the most items wins a prize!  

The setup takes a bit more work.

1. Find a large tray.  Mine is from Target, several years ago - here is a similar one for sale from Target and here are a few cute ones from Amazon:

2. Find 30 small, unique items that can fit on the tray (See Ideas Below).

3. Cover the tray with a tea towel.

4. Gather paper (I created a numbered list page), pens and prizes and make sure you have a timer ready.

                                    Ideas

Rainbow rock                             Balloon (not inflated)

Large Lego brick                        One playing card (like the 8 of hearts)

Marker                                        Necklace

Googly eye                                Game piece

Rubber band                                Hair Brush

Fork                                            Dice

Penny                                           Toy car

Globe                                            Glasses

Egg                                                Scissors

Nail polish                                    Candy

Shaped cookie cutter                    TV remote

Fake food items                            Tea cup

Photo                                            Sponge

Block                                            Sprinkles

Chap stick                                     Paperclip

Coin                                             Credit Card

Christmas wrap bow                    Animal toys

Straw                                            Glue

Bouncy ball                                  Highlighter

Plant                                                Paint

Foam heart                                    Comb

Leaf                                                Q-tip

Xylophone                                    Quarter

Ring                                            Dryer sheet

Christmas ornament                    Potato peeler

Book                                            Marker

Pencil                                            Crayon

Highlighter                                    Nail Clippers

Battery                                            Dental Floss

Bookmark                                        Play dough

Bandaid                                        Toothbrush

Quiet Book - Cover

I hadn't found a place yet to put a crane or dirt mover or trash truck - all vehicles Kellan enjoys - AND I knew I wanted Kellan's name on the cover - so I pictured a crane lifting one of the letters into his name and I loved the idea.  I made my template in Word, like usual (just piecing together the different elements I envisioned with shapes or graphics I found online):

Then I cut out the elements and tried to figure out the mechanics of the crane.  I had a larger brad and I ended up using that.  I also sewed pieces of felt together for the movable crane piece, to make it sturdier.  The stick on felt letters I had were a bit too big to fit on the page, while making the crane make sense, so I cut the letters down slightly - you have to be all about problem-solving!  One other thing to note on the cover is the center of the tires, I used a silver, textured leather, which I had scraps from another project.  Any chance you have to add depth or texture in a Quiet Book makes a big impact and definitely adds visual interest.

If you're thinking about making a Quiet Book - buying an assortment of felt is a great place to start!