Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten Can Craft

Books become even better when you pair them with fun activities!

See what we did to go along with this month's Monthly Crafting School-Related Book Club theme.

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My bloggy pal Hilary over at Raising Fairies and Knights started a fun Monthly Crafting Book Club - a challenge to create activities to go along with some of the most beloved children's books.

We had some great fun last year (see links at the end) and have continued the fun this year:

January - Ladybug Girl Addition Bugs
February - Giraffes Can't Dance Roll-a-Dance Die
March - How Do Dinosaurs...Social Skills Game
April - The Very Hungry Caterpillar Box
May - Unique Nature Creations
June - Pinkalicious-Inspired Collage Art


This month, our little group isn't sharing the same book, but the same theme: Back to School!

It's hard to believe that summer is over already, but kids around here head back into the classroom after the calendar flips over to August.

It was easy to choose which school-themed book Gv and I would focus on, as this is a favorite of ours:

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

It's a fun little alphabetic alliteration book that shows how both Miss Bindergarten and her students are getting ready for the first day of school.

I knew right away that Gv and I would use a fun printable from my classroom for a book-related activity after we read the story together:

I added the "pre" since Gv's just 4. She wrote "GV," then drew a lunchbox (pink circles with the gray handle) and then a red apple, orange peach, yellow banana, green "quinoa fruit" (G & I think that's a cross between a kiwi & quinoa), a blueberry and a bunch of purple grapes. Oh, if only her real lunches were this healthy...

But we weren't done after all that fun, so we decided to create our own pencil holder like Miss Bindergarten has set up on her desk at the end:

This pencil cup grabbed our attention, of course, because of the rainbow stripes!

I'd had several ideas for this craft project, like decorating a can to look like Gv (using yarn for hair and googly eyes), or wrapping it with a page protector and then creating a set of cards for all the student animals in the book, which could be switched out each week, depending on what letter was the current star in "school."

Then I'd thought about slipping a picture of a classroom into the page protector, giving Gv one of these markers and letting her draw in the items the classroom needed all around the outside (which she could then wipe clean and do over and over again).

G had the great idea of having her draw in school-related items that begin with each letter of the alphabet, which is right up my alley.

But, ultimately, Gv took things in her own direction.

Give kids ideas to get their creative juices flowing, then step back and watch what they create!

We covered the top of a clean can with tape (I just used blue painter's tape, but of course this stuff would be way cuter!), then we measured off the height of the can from the bottom edge of a page protector and cut off the excess.

You'll want to run the lower half of the tape edge around the outside of the can, then snip all around the top part of the tape so that when you fold it inside, it can go around the curve. If you look closely, you'll see that we did this backwards (snipped sections show on the outside instead of the inside), but it all worked out.

Next, tape the sheet protector onto the can (open side on top), but leave one end hanging loose, to make it easier to slide the paper in.

Line up one edge of the sheet protector along the height of the can and tape it down. You can wrap it around and tape the other end once you've decorated the background paper.

We then measured and cut a piece of card stock just a bit taller than the page protector (to make it easier to grab and pull out in the future) and Gv went off and decorated it in her room.

I was surprised to see that she'd used stamps. I assumed she'd go with markers, but she said that she wanted to make it rainbow-colored like the one Miss Bindergarten had and she knew I had rainbow stamp pads.

Plus, she had the idea of covering it with all the letters of the alphabet and since she doesn't care for writing yet, she knew she could use my letter stamps to do it.

We slipped her sheet into the page protector (easier to do before you tape the second end onto the can), filled it with pencils, and we were set!

She can still use a marker to add designs later, or we can switch out the background when we want a change.

We might even go ahead and tailor the design to match our Latticed Learning themes each week!

It will be interesting to see what backgrounds we end up changing this to, but in the meantime, Gv had a ton of fun creating her own pencil can to get ready for (pre)Kindergarten!


Do you have a little one who will soon be getting ready for Kindergarten (or some other grade in school)?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Check out the other amazing crafts that my fellow bloggers came up with for this month.

Come back next month and see what crafts and activities we come up with for our next theme, apples. Join our Facebook Group HERE to participate.

Want to see all the great book activities from last year? Just check these out:

January - Animal Action Dice Game for the book Barnyard Dance
February - Cause & Effect Box for If You Give a Moose a Muffin
March - an alphabetical scavenger hunt for Dr. Seuss's ABC.
April - handwashing fun to go along with The Piggy in the Puddle
May - 5 Little Monkeys Fold 'Em Up for Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
June - pinecone princess & Cozy Sweater Warrior Paper Dolls for The Princess and the Pony
July - lantern craft for Curious George Goes Camping
August - mini backpacks & dress-a-doll fun for Froggy Goes to School
September - pumpkin fun for It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse!
October - monster shape-sort bags & other crafts for Have You Seen My Monster?
November - cozy paper quilt for Bear Stays Up for Christmas
December - snowflake activities for Millions of Snowflakes

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