Well little Norah and I officially did our first toddler craft together! This one was full of sensory play as well and it is the ideal craft for very young toddlers as it is mess free.
My littlest is 15 months old, and while she is MY baby, she seems to be moving into that amazing phase of toddlerhood rather swiftly. She has some very large feelings and expresses them in some very large ways. This little miss of ours is a big ball of sunshine and brings our home so much joy! So we are taking these big feelings with soft loving hands and hearts.
It is such a beautiful thing to watch my older children relate and empathise with little Norah. We have been teaching her some baby sign language since she was quite small, so she can communicate her wants and needs quite well. That doesn’t mean, however, that she can always get what she wants.
The other day she wanted so desperately to go out and jump on the trampoline. Unfortunately it was very cold and very rainy, so we were not going out. It was lovely to watch my big boys empathise with her and try to explain that we would go outside to play on the trampoline as soon as it was dry out. This was very hard for our little Norah to take.
After a good long while of empathising, it became clear to this Mama that we would need to move onto toddler meltdown tactic number two … distraction.
I had thought of this fun little sensory craft to do with my boys when it occurred to me that this sheep craft would actually make an ideal toddler craft.
AND it would make an ideal distraction toddler craft.
It did! AND it did!
For this sensory play craft we made a Woolly Sheep!
Side note – did you know we had Woolly Sheep? We have two very sweet little sheep names Mabel and Poppy. They are like little puppy dogs and are so much fun to have around. They are Southdown Baby Doll sheep (you should get two …)
For this toddler craft I loosely cut a fluffy sort of cloud shape out of some contact paper. I always have called this contact paper, but recently I learned it is also known as clear shelf paper or clear shelf liner. We buy it at our local dollarstore.
I then drew a very simple sheep face on paper and stuck it in the middle of the contact paper. My eldest daughter came upstairs just at that moment and asked me what on Earth that was (?!?!) After she guessed a caterpillar head (?!?!?) I suggested she draw a sheep face for me, since she is a touch more artistic than her Mama.
I then popped Madeline’s sheep face on the contact paper and taped it up to the wall.
Then it was Norah’s turn! She took cotton balls and dotted them on the contact paper. Little bits stuck to the sticky paper and pretty soon the contact paper turned into a woolly sheep.
This craft was nice and easy for Norah to do. She loved sticking the cotton balls on to the sticky paper. I was sure to really tape that contact paper to the wall so it wouldn’t pull up when she was pushing the cotton balls into it. I decided to do this on the wall as I figured it would be easier. It is also a great opportunity to do some vertical surface work – a great way to strengthen her little arms.
This craft turned out very cute and was a great way for us to spend a rainy day.
I hope it turns out to be a fun one for you and your family as well!
Thank you so much for reading,
xo
Sarah
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