Personalized Placemats

Last month I was thrilled to be a Creative Guest on Ucreate with Kids and I wanted to share it with you all.

I’ve become a little obsessed with Connor learning his personal information in case of an emergency.

So I decided to create a placemat that included his full name, our names (parents) and his address.  I also decided to add his birthday because all kids love their birthday!!  (I’ve blurred out the personal information in the pictures but his full name and address are on the placemat)

Now during and after dinner we talk with Connor about what street he lives on and what his last name is.  It has been a great learning tool.

Connor and I worked together to create the placemat that included this important information along with the alphabet and the numbers 1-10.  Since he is majorly obsessed with Super Heroes (can you tell from his shirt), I found spiderweb scrapbook paper and spiderman stickers for his placemat.

These are the materials we used:

• 2 pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper – any design that your child chooses
• 1 sheet of plain white 11 x 17 printer paper
• Alphabet and Number Stickers
• Plain scrapbook paper – white and red
• Coordinating stickers for decoration (optional)
• Double Sided Tape
• Coloring Pages (optional)
• Scissors

Steps to create your very own placemat:

Side 1:

• Cut the  pieces of scrapbook paper to whatever size placemat you would like.  I always make mine 11 x 17 but you can play around with any size you like.
• Take the alphabet and number stickers and stick them onto the paper to create a border.  We first put ours on red scrapbook paper so they didn’t blend in with the black spiderweb paper.  I put the uppercase letters on the front and the lowercase letters with the numbers on the back.  This is where your kids can help!  Connor was so excited to put tape on red squares and stick them to the paper.  It was so much fun to see Connor so excited to learn the letters of the alphabet.
• Print your child’s full name, parent’s full names, address, and birthday onto a piece of cardstock.  I also downloaded and used a dashed print font called Print Clearly so Connor could trace over his personal information after it is laminated.
• Cut the personal information into smaller pieces and adhere to paper using the tape.  Then add some pictures and/or stickers.  I added a recent family picture and a picture of our house.  I wanted Connor to associate the word address with where he lives.

Side 2:

• For the back you can use blank white paper or just use the back of the paper you already have.
• I added the lowercase letters and numbers 1-10 around the edges of the paper.
• Since I was going with the Spiderman theme, I cut out some coloring pages Connor had and taped them inside the numbers and letters.
• Then Connor added more stickers.  He was in charge of taping and decorating.

Your final step is to have it laminated.  Once the placemat is laminated, your child can use crayons or dry erase markers to draw on the placemat.  It can easily be cleaned off later!!

Once your placemat is complete, have fun learning while eating family meals together!!

But wait there’s more…

If you don’t have time to create your own placemat, I’ve created a few that you can print and fill out with your personal information.  They print best at 11 x 17 and you can download them HERE.

You can pick whichever one you like best:)  Just have your child color it, add a few pictures and some stickers, then have it laminated.  (I’m a little obsessed with having everything laminated!)

I hope this inspires you and your child to create your own placemats.