Baby Le Xin

Monday 24 December 2012

Christmas Craft #4: Making A Christmas Tree

I was really motivated to make lot's of Christmas Crafts with Le Xin in December but it was a pity I fell very sick in the middle of the month and so I could not craft with her as many things as I've planned. The worst thing was I didn't even manage to celebrate my birthday with her at all. Lying on the bed flat with fever and flu. Sobz sobz.....how sad :( 
 
Initially, I planned to make a 3D Christmas tree made from materials collected from our nature walk on Christmas Day. Sadly, even on Christmas Day, I was down with stomachache. Fortunately, I still managed to do a small 2D Christmas tree with her and I've gotten her to collect some materials from our outdoor visit at the Park where the materials were later kept in our mini Atelier :)
 
Here are some of the photos taken.....please note that certain captions do not represent her actual thoughts or the things she said......as usual if she really did say certain things they will be in red font!
 
I printed out a Christmas Tree template for her to paint...so she applied some gluestick on a drawing board to paste her template
 
Waving her brush, she started painting the tree.....
 
She continued painting till her tree was covered with green paint.....When I asked her What colour should we use for the pot below? She pointed at it and replied I want blue.......How boring Mummy was, I thought she was going to choose brown :p We left the painting aside for it to dry...
 
Time for outdoors! I said. Would you like to collect some materials at the park today? I asked and she nodded her head and replied Yes... Then I asked again Would you like to use something to store your materials? She looked up and kept quiet for a moment, so I suggested What about your Christmas Bag? She immediately went to her dramatic corner and picked up the Christmas Bag that I bought for her at Daiso.Then I took a photo of her holding her bag before we left. Aww~ I know I mad about taking photos of her every now and then but I can't help it. She was just too cute in her outfit that day!
 
For some reasons or so, I felt Le Xin looked very tiny in a big park whahaha :)
 
Hmmm......what should I put inside?
 
Hooray, I spotted some twigs!
 
Let's keep the twig first...
 
Le Xin continued to pick up lots of twigs as she went for her stroll when I asked What about dried brown leaves, do you want to pick them up too? She shook her head and replied I dont want leaves I want this as she showed her bag of twigs to me haha so I need to respect her wish and allowed her to continued exploring the park by picking the twigs which she preferred.
 
When she became bored of collecting the twigs, she passed the bag to me and said Mummy carry this... Wow.... now she knows how to bully her mummy right?
 
The next day, it was time for us to continue our Christmas Tree. Firstly, I helped Le Xin to cut out the outline of the tree and she was fully in charge of the decoration.....
 
She helped herself with the glue stick.....
 
Refining her fine motor skills while she was pasting the materials she chose....
 
I recalled how she used to struggle  pasting her glitter stickers but not anymore....her fingers could handle them now haha:) good job my friend!
 
Wondering why this image looks so blur? Le Xin was actually dancing with her Christmas Tree!
 
Somehow Le Xin just felt that there was a need for her to tilt her head when I said Let's take a photo of you and your Christmas Tree!.....Funny girl :p 
 
Le Xin looking at her Christmas Tree and I asked her,....Can you remember what materials did you use?
 
Alright that's all folks....enough of me posing here and there :p
  
A simple 2D Christmas Tree which all toddlers can do, I only guided her where to paste the star which I cut out from a piece of felt material... :) Crafting Projects done by Le Xin and I often reflect my intention of wanting to be part of her learning.....
 
I value my interaction with Le Xin that is why I focus on the way I conduct each and every activity with her.....Everytime we revisit the various learning experiences by reading the blog entries on Ipad I would say something such as That's what we did the other day, can you remember the Chirstmas Tree created by us? Hopefully such words like "we" and "us" will help Le Xin to understand that Mummy is delighted  to be involved in her learning, definitely not doing things for her......but with her :
 
I would like to end off this post by sharing the importance of displaying children's work. Be it in a school setting or at home, everytime when you put up a child's work, it naturally turns the exhibit as a tool for dialogue. The display pannel with children's work gives a strong visibility to learning and teaching. As children and adults look at the display, they revisit, reflect and explore the different ways of creating something. It's like evaluating what else can be done or how can we do it another way. Processes of thoughts such as analysing, observing, interpretating, problem solving, and questioning might just take place and that's sooooooooo important. It's not just about what you ought to do but it's also about how you can learn to make connections, how you can find answers and best of all how you work with the next project after you have gain prior experience in your previous work.

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