American Girl class: Addy Week 4

This week in class, we talked about the book Happy Birthday, Addy! Addy did not have a birthday, since many slaves did not know the day that they were born. Addy chose a special day to be her birthday, which was the day that the war ended-- April 9!

In the book, Addy received a few surprises for her birthday, and one of them was a jump rope from her friend. We discussed jump rope and "Double Dutch". A few of the girls had done that before. I wished we had time to try it during class!

One of the featured crafts in Addy's Craft Book is a Hobby Horse. (or Stick Horse, as we call them!) The pattern in the book was a little more complicated that the one that we made. Our horse had a man's crew sock for a head! We also used white felt for the ears, buttons for the eyes, and brown yarn for the mane. We bought one 5/8" wood dowel that was 36" long for each girl. We bought a cap for the end of each dowel, which we found at the craft store (actually 2 stores to get enough!) in the wood aisle, they are used for doll heads. We used hot glue to put some of it together, and a needle and thread for the button eyes. They turned out really cute! You can find a more detailed pattern here.

 Sewing on the button eyes...

Putting on the yarn for the mane...

The girl on the right is mixing up the ice and cream for snack in a bag...

 The 2:00 class...

Sewing on the eyes...

Sewing on the yarn mane...

For snack, we made ice cream in a bag. To make it easier on our volunteer moms, and to save time, I had two bags of ice cream for each class. The recipe shows how to make one bag for each child, using ziploc bags. We had this snack because in the book, Addy and her father found a broken ice cream freezer in the trash, and they fixed it. Then they had ice cream on her birthday! This snack was a big hit!

It was a delightful day, fun to celebrate our character Addy's birthday! (and Valentine's Day!)