Friday, June 3, 2011

Threading Leaves

After all the rainy weather we've had here lately we took advantage of the clear day today and headed out to a reserve. This particular parkland is under the flight path of the planes coming in to land at the domestic airport so the girls had a ball running around, having a picnic lunch, playing on the swings and watching the planes flying low overhead.
We also had some quiet time sitting on the grass making leaf necklaces, both girls spent ages hunting around for leaves they liked and they were able to thread them easily using 'safe' plastic needles.

WE USED:

* leaves and flowers
* child safe needle
* embroidery thread
* scissors

The leaves the girls collected from the reserve.

I tied the embroidery thread to their needles so it wouldn't come loose while they made their necklaces.

The threading was great exercise for fine motor development but I also loved watching the girls exploring the textures, shapes and colours of all of the natural things they found.




Bubble's finished necklace. I tried to get a photo of Squeak's which had a flower on it but they all came out too blurry, she's too fast for me! :-D




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9 comments:

  1. Hi! what a lovely activity!! Thanks so much for sharing
    Angelique
    www.AngeliqueFelix.com

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  2. I just love this! I recently bought some plastic kids' needles for Princess Pea to practice threading (great for fine motor skills development!), and this would be a great way to introduce them!

    Thanks so much for sharing at Outdoor Play! Hope to see you back next Friday too!

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  3. I love creating with nature! They turned out wonderful. Thanks for sharing it at The Sunday Showcase.
    Aimee @ Classified: Mom

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  4. I love this idea! Would love to have my two boys give it a try ...

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  5. This is so creative. We have used tape in a similar fashion to make bracelets but I have never had them bring the sewing stuff out. So smart. And what little kid doesn't love a reason to collect things? Sharing this idea as my feature idea for the week on the outdoor play link up! Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Where did you get the kids' needle? I'd like to have one for threading purposes like this. Henry would love to make a leaf necklace like that!

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  7. Jamie - thanks! The needles are from a local craft shop called 'Riot Craft', they were sold in packs of 20. We use them for all sorts of things! Before we found these though I used to make needles by looping and folding the top of a pipecleaner, not sure how well it would work for leaves though.

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  8. Thanks for this post - I'll have have to look for those needles. :)

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  9. this is adorable! and such a creative way to explore sewing :) definitely going to do this!

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