Crafty madness

I tried to do something "eastery" with the girls in my girls' group this week. The plan was to make easter baskets, but make them with yarn. We made a glue mixture that we soaked the yarn in and then wrapped around a balloon to form the basket. I figured it would be a good exercise in coping skills, but that in the end we would have awesome little baskets that I would fill with treats once they were dry. They were supposed to look like this:

They are still on their balloons and drying in my classroom at the moment, but I have a feeling they won't look quite that nice. I remembered doing this before and it seemed much easier. I have my arty girl who is very talented but by being so, made this task a little to complicated. She tried to braid the yarn first, and then wrap the braided yarn around the balloon. It didn't stick too well. My one lovely gal who came in after being sick the day before and all morning, gave up quickly. I let get away with it today, she was sick after all. I must have said, "Make sure you you wrap it around the bottom," and "Remember, this is supposed to be a basket, you need a bottom so I can put treats in it for you tomorrow," five or ten times. In fact, I even let them know at one point I had said that five or ten times. Active listening skills, girls, active listening.

We'll see how they turned out in the morning. I've acquired premade back-up easter baskets, just in case.