Mat Man

Mat Man is an idea that I got from the Handwriting Without Tears book that I used with Joy when she was 3 and 4 years old and really into learning to write her letters and draw. One of the skills in the book is drawing a person, with the correct number of arms and legs, etc. All of my kids when they first have started drawing, drew all their people as heads with arms and legs coming out of them. So this activity was a fun way of helping them remember to draw the 'body' and all the other parts in the right places. There is a song that goes with it..."Mat Man has 1 head, 1 head, 1 head. Mat Man has 1 head....So that he can THINK!" and it goes on and on for all the different pieces . He's called "Mat Man" because he is built with a paper 'mat' as the body but we like to change it up and use different things for his body. Joshua has gotten much better about drawing complete people because of this, but still likes to pull out Mat Man's pieces that I made for him to build with.

Mat Man's body became a book...

 Then a bowl....

 Then Joshua got some clothes to dress him up in. This was his favorite!