Kid painted mason jar banks are the perfect Family Dinner Book Club craft for A Chair for My Mother!
It's time for another Family Dinner Book Club craft - one of my favorite projects that we do each month! This month, we are reading a wonderful Caldecott honor book with a truly heartwarming message, and we created some cute painted mason jar banks to go with it. These banks can be adapted to any age, and are really useful to help kids learn about saving money. They make great gifts too!
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Family Dinner Book Club: A Chair for My Mother
This month we're reading Vera B. Williams' classic picture book A Chair for My Mother. In this award winning book, we meet Rosa and her family, whose home was destroyed by a fire. Rosa, her mother, and grandmother save their coins to buy a comfy chair for their new home. A Chair for My Mother is a wonderful story about family and also helps kids to learn the value of saving. Just like Rosa's family saved their coins in a jar, we created special jars to save our coins too!
As always, the Family Dinner Book Club is more than just a book inspired craft. It is an entire experience to help you share a book with your family! Be sure to visit my co-hosts, Jodie of Growing Book by Book and Sarah of Chef Sarah Elizabeth too. Jodie will give you book based conversation starters & service projects, and Sarah has a mouth watering menu for you too!
As always, the Family Dinner Book Club is more than just a book inspired craft. It is an entire experience to help you share a book with your family! Be sure to visit my co-hosts, Jodie of Growing Book by Book and Sarah of Chef Sarah Elizabeth too. Jodie will give you book based conversation starters & service projects, and Sarah has a mouth watering menu for you too!
Kid Painted Mason Jar Banks
These mason jar banks are reminiscent of the jar that holds Rosa's family's coins, but with a special touch to make it unique. This is a simple process craft that you can truly make your own! To make mason jar banks, you will need:
- Clean, empty mason jars
- Multi-surface paint. I used this brand which worked great and was easy to clean up.
- Assorted paint brushes
- Coin Slot lids (or card stock to make your own)
Make sure that your jar is clean and dry. Set out a jar along with an assortment of paint and brushes and let your kids create!
You can encourage them to paint in any style they would like. The key is to allow them to enjoy the process of creating art and allowing them the freedom to express themselves. We had a lot of fun mixing colors and painting our jars both inside and out!
Their designs were pretty abstract, but I got into the spirit too and painted a pink pig on my mason jar. Perfect for a piggy bank!
When you're finished, allow the paint to dry thoroughly. Then replace the center of the lid with either a coin slot insert or create your own. Simply trace the lid insert onto a piece of card stock, cut out, and cut a slot in the center. Now you're ready to start saving your coins, just like Rosa and her family.
Complete Your Family Dinner Book Club Experience
And be sure to share your Family Dinner Book Club photos with us on Facebook. Or share them on Instagram with the hashtag #FamilyDinnerBookClub (be sure to tag me @sunnydayfamily too)!