Picnic Placemat- No Ants Allowed!

This is not a normal blog post for the Pruitt family, but since I will be Lucy’s “teacher” next fall (We don’t know much about the preschools around Aiken so instead of keeping the 2 day a week schedule she’s been on this year, we are opting for a Mother’s Morning Out 1 day, gymnastics and/or dance, and a Pray and Play group at church until we are more acquainted.), we will be doing lots of this sort of thing so I thought I would share with those who are interested.

The idea came to me about 5 minutes before a therapy session began and I almost didn’t do it because my theme for the week was not about picnics or anything related and I’m just too much of a planner to change my preschool therapy session including a craft 5 minutes before a session. I was slightly impressed with my LIFESKILL of flexibility and am so glad I took the risk. This craft turned out precious and took up the entire hour!

You will need…

Red construction paper, white paper cut into blocks, glue, laminate/contact paper, a laminator, and scissors

Because my preschooler has never actually seen a red and white checkered table cloth and didn’t know what a placemat was (kids these days!), I had to explain the concept. He caught on quickly.

Glue the white squares onto the red paper in a checkerboard pattern. (To use this as a reinforcer activity, have the student say a target sound, follow a direction, name items in a category, etc. before gluing on a white block.)

Go through a magazine with your child looking for food. I cut out the food for my student since we were running short on time and because I didn’t have safety scissors which he reported he is only allowed to use.

Have your child glue his food onto his “table cloth”.

Laminate. FYI: Make sure your construction paper isn’t too long for your piece of laminate or you will have to cut off part of your student’s gigantic piece of cake and disappoint him slightly.

Warning: All of this food may spur a discussion of bodily functions that you otherwise may not hear about. Beware of learning about your student’s brother’s green poop!

Suggestions: You can use this activity for a variety of purposes. For example, have the student sort the food by food groups before gluing them on his placemat, describe a food and have your student choose and glue foods based on your description, or have the student arrange the food on his “table cloth” in a logical order as if he were serving a meal. (I like the last one- sequencing skills and hosting skills all rolled into one!)

Reasons why I like this craft:

1. July is National Picnic Month (who knew?!) and I fully intend to have lots of picnics so this will be a fabulous craft to take along with us. Hopefully it will prevent a repeat of the “sitting on the jelly sandwich in brand new white shorts” incident from last weekend.


2. My student’s mother informed me after the session that her sweet little guy happens to be a picky eater. I found this surprising as he was very enthusiastic about his food choices for his placemat and told me repeatedly how much he wanted to eat them. All of them! I got to thinking- Research shows that children need to be exposed to foods up to 20 times before they will consider them edible so, perhaps, by choosing foods that are less than appealing for little ones in this craft, maybe (just maybe) they will be a little more apt to trying them after repeatedly seeing them on their fun placemat. It may be a stretch but it’s worth a shot, right?


3. I have this obsessive/compulsive need to read/look through absolutely every catalog and magazine that comes into our home. Cover to cover. Even the ads. (I told you OCD!) I feel someone has put a lot of hard work into this creation and I need to at least see what’s beneath the cover. Usually once I look through them I throw them away, but I always feel bad about it because I know I should really recycle them. This craft gives me a purposeful way to recycle.

Which leads me to…

Pruitt craft rule 1: If it doesn’t serve a purpose its clutter!

I’m just not a fan of useless crafts. How many pictures of scribbles can 1 refrigerator really hold? I’ve kept some of Lucy’s “artwork” from preschool in a folder with the date on it. I have plans (when’s Lucy’s older) of her and I creating an art book with digital pictures of her artwork or creating framed pictures of the same thing. I’ve put painted paper plates on plate stands as decoration in the kitchen. When we move into our permanent house (whenever that may be), I’ll hang some artwork in her playroom. If I can’t do something constructive with it, I don’t keep it.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more crafty creations this summer and in the fall.