Pie in the Sky

The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous so I knew my Doodlebugs would enjoy recreating these little birds using our painted paper from last week! 

The story tells of a little girl and her father waiting for cherries to grow on their tree so they could make a delicious pie. It describes the stages the tree goes through and it is told in a wonderful rhythmic voice :)

After listening and looking at the pictures they were given bird templates and told to make a picture of a bird on a cherry tree branch.

Collage art is always a hit with my Doodlebugs because they get to do two of the things they love most in the world... cut and stick! Cutting is especially important for some key reasons: 

• It improves hand eye coordination 
• It develops tiny muscles in the palm of the hands that are also used for writing, painting, holding a toothbrush or spoon and pulling up pants! 
• Cutting also improves bi-lateral coordination (where both hands are doing different tasks... one hand moving the scissor while the other is holding the paper) Tracing from the template develops this too by the way... you would be surprised how hard it is for some kiddos to trace around a template if it means holding the template down all on their own. 

So there are lots of reasons to forgive the mess and get excited that they are excited about cutting too! It means they are growing up and becoming more independent :) There are always lots of proud exclamations... "Miss look how good I am at cutting!", "Auntie, I can cut all by myself!" LOL Concentration so intense that tongues are sticking out of their mouths and they don't even realize! 

Aren't these Doodlebugs precious?  Take a look and see what I mean.