A Book/Movie & A Craft

Sometimes you just need an excuse to watch a movie on a summer day.

Sometimes a long car ride or a little rain can help you out.

Here’s a new one – relax, make some popcorn and watch a movie for this craft.  Well, it’s not mandatory – the book will suffice – but the movie will make you very popular in your house.

I listened to the movie Horton Hears a Who a few weeks ago when my boys watched it on a long car ride. I’d seen the animation before (fantastic) but it was even enjoyable to listen to, with lots of jokes fully written more for the parents than the kids.

If you don’t remember the book, here’s the premise: Horton the elephant (Jim Carrey in the flick) hears a cry from a tiny deck of dust floating in the air.  He realizes that the speck contains a microscopic community called Whoville and its citizens, the Whos.

Horton places the speck on a clover and steadfastly vows to protect it form the many who doubt its existence:  “Of course I will stick; I’ll stick by you small folks through thin and through thick!”

My kids loved the movie and the overall message is repeated enough for the littlest of viewers to comprehend:

    A person’s a person, no matter how small.

I had seen a craft a few months ago on Melissa & Doug’s website blog that I decided to try the next day to illustrate the movie’s more subtle message:

   ”We’ve all got our own little clovers with worlds on them!”

Here’s the set-up:

• assorted pom-poms (some with dabs of dried glue on them – I used a glue gun to make the dabs)

• a bunch of bowls for sorting the pom-pons)

• various science equipment (lab goggles, magnifier glasses, tweezers)

 

 

 

 

 

I showed the boys what a “speck” looked like on the pom-pons and how to find them using their fingers, magnifying glass and tweezers. Then the speck hunting began.

Excellent fine motor work for both my almost 3 and almost 6 year olds.

All done.