This activity was the first one so far I’ve bought any specific supplies for. I was contemplating red, white & blue pony beads, but could only buy gigantic packages…and let’s face it, how many red, white & blue pony bead necklaces can two small girls make?!? So when I found somewhat smaller packages of red, white & blue buttons, I decided it was time to introduce Carolyn to a needle and thread.
Button necklaces are pretty simple, you just thread the string through two holes of each button and slide them down – they’ll sort of naturally alternate which way they face off the string to make a reversible strand. As simple as they are, though, Anna was not quite ready for stringing buttons on her own, so we worked together to make a necklace for her. And I had some magnetic clasps in my stash so the finished products could be (slightly) safer.
Since I knew Anna wouldn’t be able to string buttons with a needle and thread, I had other plans for her to play with the buttons. I wrote her name on construction paper with glue and had her stick buttons on it.
Then Carolyn wanted to glue some buttons.
And then we traced some cookie cutters for other shapes to glue buttons onto.
And when all was said and done, we managed to use up almost all of those red, white & blue buttons, but it took them most of the afternoon. That made buying buttons totally worth it!