For this week's Mac Kid Mini-Lesson, I chose the book If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff. Like her other books, this one presents a great lesson on cause and effect, riddled with fun and humor. Kids of all ages love this book, and it led to great discussion about examples of cause and effect in our own lives.
This week's craft was a balloon pig, and they LOVED it! Here's what you will need:
Materials:
- Pink Balloons
- Pink Card Stock or Construction Paper
- Scotch Tape
- Black Permanent Marker
This craft was wonderfully simple, and because I was working with a group of children I prepped quite a few things in advance, such as blowing up the balloons and pre-cutting the ears and legs of the pig. I gave each child a small, inflated balloon, two ears, two legs, and a black marker. I showed the children how to fold back a small flap on the ears and legs to provide a surface that could be taped to the balloon pig. Then I encouraged them to decorate their ears and legs however they wished. As the children finished decorating their ears and legs, I distributed strips of scotch tape and showed them how and where to tape the ears and legs. I assumed they would all use the balloon knot as a nose, but that was not the case! Some wanted it to be the tail, others thought it was a belly button, and still others decided to make it an anatomically correct boy pig! No judgment here - lol! The last step was to decorate the pig's face, which proved to be similarly creative as no two pigs looked anything alike! It was a great activity, and kept the kids very busy while I cooked up a batch of - you guessed it - pancakes!
