Letter U crafts

We finished up some letter U projects to add to our alphabet books.  Considering how slowly we have moved through the last few letters, this letter seemed like we zoomed right though it!  I got inspiration mostly straight from Pinterest for all these projects.

1. Umbrella

That is her fake smile for a camera face.

 Yep, it's as easy as it looks.  You could use different shapes on the umbrella to work on shapes, or you use one or two shapes and work on simple patterns.  Make them varied colors AND shapes, and you can work on both .  We just made it simple and I let them pick out colors and shapes they liked and do whatever they wanted.  :)

2. UP

(the craft is inspired by the UP movie with the balloons taking the house up and onward to Paradise Falls)

Fun for counting and colors.  

We just drew a house and then cut out different colored circles from construction paper and glued them on for the balloons.  They loved this one.  Probably because we dressed up with an UP theme as a family for Halloween this year.  

3. Underground

Easy, peasy.  It's just some construction paper for dirt and add stickers!

We just learned about trees and roots, so I was happy to see that my 5 year old was listening and put the tree roots purposely under the ground a bit.  My 3 year old just loved putting the bugs and seeds in the "dirt" and the butterflies in the sky on hers.  Fun, fun, fun! 

 I saw a cute underwater picture that was similar except it's water obviously and you put fish stickers.  

U have a happy day crafting now!  ;)

U for St. Ursula

There's not much information about St. Ursula and even most of that is legend, but here are some basics of her story that my little girls found to be very intriguing.

• St. Ursula was a princess, the daughter of a Christian king. 
• She is not to be confused with "Mean Ursula" from The Little Mermaid.  My 5 year old has been telling my 3 year old all week, "No, St. Ursula is nice.  She's a saint.  She's not like 'Mean Ursula'.  She is nice to people."
• Her feast day is in a few days on October 21
• She was allowed to go on a European pilgrimage of sorts (she even allegedly asked the Pope to join them) for a year before she was to be married off. 
• On the way home, she and her companions were killed after she refused to marry a pagan chieftain and refused to renounce her faith. 
• She is the namesake for the Ursuline Order, founded to educate Catholic girls and women. 

So not too much known information, but we have a lovely princess saint for our letter U in the Saint alphabet.  

 

The girls loved decorating a castle and crown for this princess saint.  

You can find some additional information and a prayer here