Red Hat -at Word Family Craft

The fun picture book, Red Hat, inspired me to do a winter-themed word family project. This project will have students make their own red hat with paper lacing while practicing the -at word family. Keep reading to learn how to make one in your classroom!

We have fallen in love with Lita Judge’s book Red Hat. It’s a simple book filled with beautiful illustrations. We were lucky enough to meet Lita Judge this fall at Defiance College’s Storybook Adventure, which inspired me to use the Red Hat in a fun project.

We started by reading the book Red Hat. The kids love repeating the noises the animals make and watching as the red hat slowly unravels. Next, I introduced the craft to them and we practiced the words on the Hat Printable.

This resouce goes well with:

Each student will need a Hat Printable, crayons to color and design their hat, scissors, 4-5 cotton balls, glue, 2 feet of red yarn, a cotton swab, and a piece of tape.

When they got printable, we went over the -at family and all of the words on the hat.

We started by coloring the hat. Some wanted to keep the hat red like the one in the story while others went wild with their own designs. Next, they cut the hat out and glued cotton balls to the top poof. Then they used the hole punch to punch out the circles on the printable.

To lace the yarn, I cut the ends off of cotton swabs to make a “needle”. Then I taped the yarn to the end of the needle. Toothpicks would be an easy alternative if you’re confident the kiddos won’t poke themselves or their friends in the eye!

I tied the end of the string to the first hole in the hat and the kids worked to lace the yarn through the rest of the holes. Once they were all finished lacing the hat, they read the words in the -at word family again.

The red hats turned out adorable and made an easy memory clue for the -at family. Plus, the kids can’t get enough of lacing activities. What’s one of your favorite ways to practice word families?