Story Blocks {Sugar Bee Crafts}

I am almost in denial that summer is on its way out. How can this be possible?!

There are only a few more weeks of Summer Camp left!

But you can keep enjoying Summer Camp posts whenever you'd like. They are listed and linked in my sidebar. Enjoy!

A warm welcome to the fabulous Mandy from Sugar Bee Crafts!

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Hi everyone!! So excited to be here for Summer Camp!! I'm Mandy, from over at Sugar Bee Crafts. Here's the whole gang on our recent vacation:

I enjoy all things crafty and have lots of DIY and tutorials on my blog. I even have a link party on Tuesdays so I can see your craftiness - then I show off a bunch of you on Wednesdays. You might know me from a few of my fabulously popular posts (click picture to check them out!):

You can see more projects in my new Tutorials Page, so check that out as well.

For my crafty take on a book, I chose Good Night Gorilla. I think we got this book because my husband went to school at Pitt State, whose mascot is a gorilla. And it's such a fun book!

See, we love it:

This book doesn't have a lot of words, which is why we love it so much. The gorilla sneaks out the other animals, so we add in all sorts of commentary ("do doh de doh" while walking, etc). It's like we turn the book into a story of our own. So I thought a perfect craft would be story blocks.

You'll need:

--1x2 board cut into blocks

--paint

--xerox copies of a couple pages

--mod podge

First, sand your blocks. You don't have to do this if you buy craft blocks, but I'm cheap - a whole board is only a couple of dollars and can make over 20 blocks, so I buy that and cut blocks.

Paint whatever color you want. Let dry.

Then, on your color copy, trace around the block onto which picture you want. Then cut slightly inside your lines. I cut out all the characters in the book.

Then, paint mod podge on a block (#1). Set your picture on it and rub it down. Then mod podge over the picture to seal it on (#2). It'll dry clear, so don't worry about that.

Then play with them!!

I got the gorilla, had him grab the keys, with the mouse and the balloon following him (because that's what they do), then they set up to let out the giraffe:

More fun playing with the blocks - -she's holding the gorilla and having him scoot all the other animals to another line:

Thanks for having me and my Goodnight Gorilla Story blocks! If you want a slightly different take on storyblocks, check out my Dr. Seuss Activity Blocks (there's a different game on each side)....

See ya over on Sugar Bee Crafts!

Comments

Brandy Miller says

August 5, 2011 at 7:47 am

Cute idea! We have a few books that have minimal words. What a great idea to make blocks.

Michele @ The Scrap Shoppe says

August 5, 2011 at 7:51 am

How fun!! Goodnight Gorilla was one of my son’s favorite books when he was a bit younger. I look forward to sharing it with my new little one some day. I love these little blocks to help tell the story and play at the same time!

Krista says

August 5, 2011 at 11:11 am

adorable! This would make a cute shower gift too! From a elementary teacher’s point of view…..books make the best gifts.

Bree says

August 5, 2011 at 4:57 pm

We love that book too! Do you follow the balloon through the whole book? Those blocks are awesome. I love that you can use them for sequencing too!

Kristyn says

August 5, 2011 at 5:39 pm

So SUPER cute! Love the idea! 😀

Michelle says

August 7, 2011 at 12:19 am

O.K. Seriously Love the Ghost Dress. I am in thinking mode on how to make this for Cambrielle in larger form. SOOO cute…

Kayla says

August 16, 2011 at 1:53 pm

We just LOVED these story blocks and featured them at our blog, Preschool Lesson Plans, as an early reader learning tool! Here’s the link: http://preschoollessonplans.info/1197/homemade-story-blocks/. We were certain to give idea/photo credit, as well as a link to the original post/Sugar Bee Crafts, but we’d love for you to take a look at it! If there are any problems, we’ll be sure to take the feature down.

Thanks so much!
Kayla Johnson

Jessica says

September 14, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Wow!!! I’m totally in love with this lesson! I’m doing it myself using “If you give a mouse a cookie” book! LOVE IT!!!

Pamela says

October 15, 2011 at 9:31 am

I’m attending PSU right now for a teaching degree. I was looking for something “different” for my Language lesson, not the typical Flannel board or puppet. This is soooooo perfect… I know that they have seen this book there! But I’m going to use it for a different book.. THANKS so much for sharing!~

Story Blocks {Sugar Bee Crafts}

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