Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Making Tracks

Making Animal Tracks Books
 We have been busy introducing different kinds of Animal Tracks to the children.  Winter seems like the perfect time to look at Animal Tracks and add a little something extra to our classroom.
I got the Montessori printable from Montessori for Everyone .  They have some great free printable and we have come back to these time and time again.  The animal tracks books are for second year children.    Children need to be able to handle scissors and paper cutting successfully, how to print heir name and use the a glue stick.  First year children are doing a lot of practical life exercises and sensorial work that help to develop that hand and prepare the child for more complex work in their second year.

 I've been wanting to add some Animal Tracks stamps to our collection for years.  I haven't been able to find exactly what I wanted so after giving it a lot of thought I decided to make my own.  I had Shawn, cut me some 2x4 blocks from wood we had in the garage.  Next I used some thick left over yoga mats and cut out the shapes of the tracks and hot glues them onto the wooden blocks for stamping.
 I really love how these came out and they stamp beautifully!
Deer Track

 I made a set of six based on the printable that the children are using in the classroom to make their animal tracks books.
 We added these new stamps at the art table with some acrylic paint.  I had some left over canvas fabric from another project and we  had the children stamp the fabric.   I went the extra mile to sew a simple hem at the top of each piece of fabric so the children can slide a stick in and use it as a hanging.
 The printing turned out so well, now as you can imagine all I want to do is make wood block stamps!