desktop calendars

I've made some little desktop calendars for 2013. They're pretty fast to make and fun, so I might make more now that I have the templates.

Auggie desktop calendars are up on the Auggie bloggie. If you are a subscriber to this blog or to the auggiebloggie, I'll let you know directly when the February ones are ready. The calendars are a free download and are formatted for standard home computer, iPad 1 & 2, iPhone and iPhone 5 — you can go to the auggibloggie to find them.

auggie mini cards & tags

tag

I was doing some test images today for the auggie printables I made earlier this week — gift tags and mini class cards.

hello, winter

A plate that came home from school this week (the only plate I ever wanted to hug) and a great advent calendar (free printable from mr printable) that my son would love to park a lot of cars around. I don't think I have the time to do it, though ‚ we picked up a playmobil one yesterday as a treat.

Marine alphabet (& a free printable poster)

From the Windy blog — Foggy & Cloud demonstrate the International Marine Alphabet (also known as flag semaphore). You can learn more about semaphore from Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday or read this excellent student project by Susan Laflin.

You may download and print this mini-poster to help you with your messages. This is taken from the inside dust-jacket of Foggy.

Class Valentines (printable)

For you, some small valentines cards to print for your child's class. If you like to put your valentines in envelopes, these will fit into a standard 2.5 x 4.25 inch coin envelope.

There are two sets here. One is a Windy set and one is an Auggie set (with some drawings from Windy in the mix). As always, Windy images are ©Judith Steedman & me — all rights reserved.



Windy Valentines (PDF link for cards):

Shoelace Sewing

Simple shapes with pre-cut holes that your little one can use by sewing around the edges (this isn't a practical sewing project). This activity was originally inspired by a 5-year old boy I spoke to. His kindergarten class has a wooden sewing set which is very popular with the children. Here are instructions and templates so you can make your own sewing set.

This is great for the 3-5 set and is a surprisingly easy craft project to set up.

Windy's Boat

A paper boat for Windy (PDF), from the book Foggy.

Update: you can see photos of the paper boat here.

Robot Paper Dolls

These are very easy to make, and fun! If you know how to make paper dolls, you can do this freehand, using our instructions below, but we've made up instructions and templates with 2 sizes (PDF).

To make paper dolls, just fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise and cut along the fold, leaving 2 long strips of paper. Then fold one of your strips twice into an accordion fold (so you have 4 panels). Then cut out the shape of robot, making sure not to cut the edge of the arm on the fold. You can use a hole punch to make eyes, or draw them on.

Here is a robot shape (click on image to make it easier to see):

We made some mini-robots out of a scrap of silver paper (using a mini-hole punch for the eyes), too. To make a mini robot, you just fold your initial paper lengthwise twice, cut along the folds, leaving you with 4 long strips of paper. Then take one of the strips and fold it accordion-style into 8 sections. Cut the same shape on the top panel.