Read for the Record: Shape Quilt

Later this morning we're going to be Reading for the Record with some friends. Before that happens, I'm off to work in my son's preschool classroom. Hopefully I have enough energy afterwards for celebrating!

I absolutely love this paper quilt from Creative Connection for Kids... so since the sincerest form of flattery is imitation (right?) I decided to try this out as part of our Read for the Record celebration. 

Materials Needed: colored paper, scissors, popsicle stick, tape, picture of Baby Llama, glue, stickers, and markers.

First I grabbed some wooden skill sticks and a picture of Baby Llama and I taped the picture onto the skills stick.

Next I cut up different types and weights of paper into 2x2 squares.

Then I printed out my quilt template. (This gives younger kids a little bit more structure to their quilt. You could also just have them glue it wherever they want... just depends on what works for your class/kids)

I used my glue and the cut up pieces of paper to cover my quilt template with color. I cut some squares into triangles and some into rectangles.

Once everything was glued down, I added some stickers. I used all of the letters from my name, plus some Halloween stickers. I'm going to let the kids go to town on the stickers and I'll also have crayons/markers available for them to use to design their quilt squares... and the border. Mine looks pretty boring.

Once the quilt is done I can use my Baby Llama puppet to re-enact the story. He can climb under the blanket or sit on top of it or he can sit up and yell and cry... or whatever else he does in the story.

During/After we create this project we can...

- talk about shapes (sizes, types, number of sides, etc.)

- discuss characteristics of the shapes and stickers

- talk about the colors and patterns we find on the quilt

- talk about alphabet letters and names (if you include letter stickers =)

- count the number of shapes and the sides of the shapes

- talk about emotions felt by Baby Llama

I loved using the skill sticks generously provided for free by Craftprojectideas.com because they are a little different than normal popsicle sticks. I love the grooves on the sides for building and creating. My son loves them because he likes to feel them with his fingers. I am planning to give each kid a Baby Llama stick puppet to hold while we read the book tomorrow. Hopefully the new sticks and cute little Baby Llama puppet will help the kids want to participate in the story.

Are you Reading for the Record today?

If you are, share anything fun you are doing in the comments or on our Facebook page.