Turn an Old Glove in to a Story Mitt for Kids – Craft Project

Usually the life of a glove ends when you get ready to go out one day and you can only find one. The other has mysteriously vanished, never to be found again.

A glove on its own is useless. You can’t even donate it to a second hand store. Now you can take that glove and turn it in to a craft that your kids will enjoy (plus keep it out of the garbage for a little longer).

How to Make a Story Mitt

You will need:

  • a glove
  • velcro
  • foam animals, letters, numbers or shapes
  • depending on the type of foam you buy, you may need craft paper and scissors

The point of a story Mitt is to offer a visual aid to kids when you are telling a story. Little Bird loves the song “5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” so I wanted to create a story mitt with 5 monkeys on it so that we can play along as I sing the story and as each monkey fell off the bed, I could easily remove one from the glove.

Directions:

  1. Attach one side of the self adhesive velcro to the glove. It is best if your hand is in the glove when you attach the velcro so you can see where it will line up when the glove is on your hand.
  2. Attach the other side of the velcro to the foam animal (or shape, etc).
  3. Now you can add and remove your foam shape when you need.

The extra step I had to do was because the foam I used had a removable backing. Before Step 2 (above) we removed the backing and stuck the monkeys on a piece of scrapbook paper. I cut their shapes out (so the sticky backing was covered), then attached the velcro to the back.

Note: You can make your story mitt by sewing your foam on to your mitt, but then you limit yourself to just that story, song or lesson. By adding velcro to the backs of your foam, you can change between a song and counting, etc just by removing the current foam and adding a new one.

This was such an easy craft and my daughter who is just over 2 1/2 years old was able to help with a lot of it. She would have been able to help with all of it, but I could only find foam with a sticky backing, so I had to take over when the scissors came out.

So in the end, I found further life for my one glove, and the rest of the items were really cheap. I found a small foam monkey set for $3 (plus Little Bird used all of the left overs to create her own pictures), and the velcro was under $2. This is a great craft that you can do with a toddler in under 15 minutes (if there is no sticky backing).

Other foam ideas you can try on your mitt:

  • counting
  • story time with various animals
  • “Old McDonald Had a Farm”

Also, instead of foam, other items can be used. The great part about precut foam is that you can do this with a younger child and not worry about scissors or glue, etc.

*This post was made possible by a grant I received from Mom Central to inspire parents to recycle their old clothes in to new items for their kids. I used this grant money towards the purchase of a sewing machine and although this project did not use the machine, I find it falls in to the same category of recycling old items.

Found in Kids

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Judith Aug 16, 2013, 4:17 pm

    Love this idea, Sheri! What a fantastic way to upcycle a glove in a crafty way, and so much fun for Little Bird!

    • Sheri Landry Aug 18, 2013, 3:33 pm

      Thanks Judith. The girls really loved it.

  • Loukia Mar 21, 2011, 1:08 pm

    What a fun idea! And congrats!

  • Mrs. Shopper Feb 28, 2011, 3:02 pm

    Congrats, on winning the grant with your story. Your monkey glove can be used for the song , “Five Little Monkeys.” I use a kids trampoline and have the kids sing the song while they are hoping and taking turns on the trampoline. Don’t forget the glove.
    Mrs. Shopper

  • Betty Feb 14, 2011, 10:20 am

    Great idea and I am sure Baby Bird had fun helping to create this mitt.

    • Sheri Feb 14, 2011, 10:32 am

      She had a lot of fun. I lost her a little while I had to cut out the paper, but then she came back around. I was also adding and subtracting how many monkeys were on my hand last night and asking her to tell me how many were left and she got it right every time. Such a smart girl!

  • nadine Feb 13, 2011, 10:34 pm

    Awesome idea! I will have to try that! We buy the stick on velcro at dollarama and it’s pretty good. Looks like a fun craft idea.

    • Sheri Feb 14, 2011, 10:31 am

      Thanks, we used the stick on stuff too. Worked so well and if the backing of the foam wasn’t sticky, Little Bird could have done it all on her own.