• HOME
  • ABOUT
  • TERMS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

I Heart Crafty Things

  • KIDS CRAFTS
    • ANIMALS
    • OCEAN CRAFTS
    • INSECTS
    • BIRDS
    • PAPER PLATE CRAFTS
    • CUPCAKE LINER CRAFTS
    • BOOK INSPIRED CRAFTS
  • HOLIDAYS
    • VALENTINE’S DAY
    • GROUNDHOG DAY
    • ST. PATRICK’S DAY
    • EASTER
    • EARTH DAY
    • MOTHER’S DAY
    • FATHER’S DAY
    • FOURTH OF JULY
    • BACK TO SCHOOL
    • HALLOWEEN
    • THANKSGIVING
    • CHRISTMAS
  • SEASONAL
    • WINTER
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
  • Kids Activities
    • FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES
    • SENSORY ACTIVITIES
    • PRESCHOOL GAMES
  • Shop

November 2, 2011

Acorns Everywhere!

  • Share
  • Tweet

Luke and I spent some time this afternoon re-creating a scene from the children’s book Acorns Everywhere by Kevin Sherry.

It’s a fun story about a squirrel who hurriedly hides his acorns in the ground because winter is coming. When he is finished hiding them all, his tummy rumbles from hunger and he suddenly realizes he can’t remember where he hid all the acorns. There aren’t many words in the story so it’s definitely more toddler/preschool level. The illustrations really tell the story well though, so not much need for more words.

We’ve also read the story Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert this week. It’s about a rascally squirrel who is up to all sorts of tricks during summer time in the city. He digs and eats and zips and hides, but when he sneaks inside an apartment window, a little boy comes up with a nutty solution to get him out.

To make our craft I started by finding this free squirrel template at All Kids Network and printed it out 8×10 size and made sure to click the option to make sure all of the picture fit in the dimensions (it made it a bit smaller which was what I wanted). The original template has eyes and a nose drawn on it but I wanted to make my own so I opened it up in Paint and erased them before printing it out. I don’t think it is really necessary though because the paint and things I added probably would have covered them up anyways.

After cutting out all the pieces we painted them using a pom-pom attached to a clothespin. Not only do my kids think it’s fun to paint this way, but by dabbing it with the pom-pom it gave it more texture looking more like fur on the animal.

I forgot to get pictures of how I made my acorns but I simply used the acorn in the template to trace 10 of them on brown construction paper. Then we used dark brown paint to paint the tops of them. I drew a light pencil mark at the top so Luke knew where to stop painting.

While the paint was drying we assembled our layered background. I started by cutting a large hill out of light colored green paper and glued it onto our blue construction paper background.

Then I created another smaller hill in dark green construction paper. It was the same width of the blue paper so it made it easy. On one end of it I also cut out a section of it just like in the book where we could bury some of our acorns.

Only glue half of the dark green hill onto your paper at first so you can see where to glue on your acorns inside the hole.

After gluing down the acorns in the hole, glue the rest of the hill down.

Next we used some brown paint to paint a tree on top of our hills, just like in the story. We also cut out some orange leaves and added them to the tree, along with a couple acorns.

At this point our squirrel’s were all dry so we glued all the sections together and glued it onto our background page. We also glued the rest of our acorns on the page, including one in the squirrel’s hand.

Lastly, we added details to the face. We could still see the smile outline from the template so we traced it with a black marker. For the nose I cut off a small piece from a black pom-pom and we glued it on and then we glued on a googly eye.

Luke insisted on having a red squirrel.  It’s his favorite color so of course I didn’t resist and it turned out so cute!

Happy Crafting!!

Linking up to THESE Parties.

  • Share
  • Tweet

Related Posts

  • "Acorns Everywhere" Sensory Bin

    I was super excited to pick up Kevin Sherry's book "Acorns Everywhere" from the library…

  • 15 Fabulous Fall Tree Crafts

    Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons...the cool, crisp air, the fun activities…

  • Fall Bucket List

    I finally got our Fall Bucket List finished. I made it similar to our Summer…

Filed Under: Uncategorized 19 Comments

« When Life gets in the way of crafting….And a cute Haunted House Picture Craft
Paper Plate Turkey »

Comments

  1. Little Wonders' Days says

    November 2, 2011 at 11:44 PM

    This is a super cute craft! We enjoyed both of these books during our squirrel theme week too.

    Reply
  2. Jen @ Creating with the J's says

    November 3, 2011 at 12:26 AM

    Love it! Projects like this definitely make me miss teaching! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. TerinAleah says

    November 3, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    I'm a new follower! ๐Ÿ™‚ I love your crafts!!
    http://terinaleah27.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  4. Michelle says

    November 3, 2011 at 1:51 PM

    Wow! That's an awesome re-creation! Your blog is very cute. Very happy to have found it! Thanks for hosting the hop. And please forgive me for this. . . but, I think you and your kids might like it…I have a giveaway going on for a personalized Wooden puzzle right now. There are some really cute ones I think you and your kids would enjoy. Stop by if you like!

    Reply
  5. Rose says

    November 3, 2011 at 4:42 PM

    So cute. And I love the painting idea.

    Reply
  6. Dorie says

    November 3, 2011 at 8:29 PM

    Turned out great! I like the layering of the pieces, something my youngest would like to do – assemble the picture.

    Reply
  7. maggy, red ted art says

    November 4, 2011 at 1:45 PM

    Oooh what a cute squirrel, I love how you layered the picture. Really fun.

    Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

    Reply
  8. Lorie says

    November 4, 2011 at 9:39 PM

    Adorable! Love this!

    Reply
  9. LocalFunForKids says

    November 4, 2011 at 11:50 PM

    Thanks so much for linking up with ' Fun for kid's Friday. That little squirrel is absolutely adorable!

    Reply
  10. The Outlaw Mom says

    November 5, 2011 at 3:57 AM

    So cute! I love this layered and colorful idea. Thanks for sharing ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  11. Beth (www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com) says

    November 5, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    Cute, Cute, Cute! I wanted to invite you over to link up at my TGIF Linky Party – http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties
    Beth =-)

    Reply
  12. Lori @ La-La's Home Daycare says

    November 5, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    Very very nice! My kids don't know when to stop painting,hehe! I just let them go.

    Thanks for sharing on the Holiday Kid Craft Link Up!

    Lori

    Reply
  13. Michelle says

    November 6, 2011 at 1:20 AM

    This is so cute! Love the acorns and squirrel! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  14. Carrie says

    November 6, 2011 at 2:05 AM

    I love it, Rachel! We have been reading The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri and this will be great to go along with it as well. Thank you for sharing it at Crafty Moms Share!

    Reply
  15. Happyscrapper42 says

    November 6, 2011 at 3:08 AM

    Very cute. I hadn't read either of these books but now I want to just so we can do the craft.

    Reply
  16. JDaniel4's Mom says

    November 6, 2011 at 7:45 PM

    I really love this craft. I will have to look for the books.

    Reply
  17. Justine says

    November 7, 2011 at 1:25 PM

    Love those books! The picture came out gorgeous! I also really like the idea of painting with a pom pom. I never thought of it, but now I can't wait to try it! My little guy adores painting!

    Reply
  18. Aimee from Classified: Mom says

    November 7, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    I love this idea- I just pinned it on Pinterest! Thank you for sharing this with us on The Sunday Showcase

    Reply
  19. Rebekah says

    November 9, 2011 at 3:40 AM

    Adorable squirrel!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR THIS WEEK

  • The Winter months are a great time to learn about Arctic and Antarctic Animals and there are so many fabulous children's books to accompany learning about them. Here is a round up of awesome Arctic and Antarctic Animal Crafts for Kids. Best Winter Animal Crafts for Kids
  • Two Valentine paper gnome crafts laying side by side on a pink background with heart stickers scattered around. Valentine Gnome Craft

I Heart Crafty Things is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Copyright I HEART CRAFTY THINGS © 2021 ยท Website Design By Jumping Jax Designs