Sock puppets!

I recently read a post on the forum I'm a part of that asked "What can I do with all these unmatched socks?!"  One suggestion was to make sock puppets out of them.  Then today the kids were watching Blue's Clues and the answer to the game of "What does Blue want to make?" was a sock puppet.  In typical fashion, my kids latched on to this idea and so an activity presented itself.  

I knew right where a few unmatched socks were, I have a small stash of buttons, needle, thread, and some yarn as well.  Now of course my kids are a bit young to be sewing (or maybe not, but I chose not to let them) so a lot of the project fell to me.  They each chose a sock, 2 button eyes, and some yarn for the hair.  And then I got busy sewing. 

So I may not have taught the kids anything with this activity, but they were exposed to simple sewing with a needle and thread.  I count that as a good start.  :)  When everything was sewn on, the kids said that a mouth was missing.  Well it just so happens that I have plenty of Sharpie markers and here was a part of the project THEY could do.  I put the puppet on my hand and let them draw the mouth of their choosing. 

I think J was trying to mimic his puppet's facial expression.

And here is my hand modeling R's puppet.  (The lighting is horrible, sorry about that.  I personally liked the scraggly black yarn hair on hers.) 

The big kids had fun playing with their new puppets the rest of the day.