Matryoshka Dolls and Blocks

One day we talked about folk art in Russia, which of course had to include matryoshka dolls. A great resource was this fascinating book we found at the library, which tells about how these dolls are made, and shows many variations. Of course we also loved The Littlest Matryoshka---such a cute story!

Sam and I wanted to bring some matryoshkas home from Russia for the children, but at first we didn't find any we really liked. Then Sam liked the painting on these dolls pictured above, which were sitting out in one store we went into. There were five of them out, and when the saleslady saw us looking at them she came over and opened the tiniest one to reveal another. And then another and another, and I thought there could not POSSIBLY be any more, but then there were TWO more! The littlest one was so tiny I couldn't even believe it. Of course we had to buy it. I just love tiny things. And things that HOLD tiny things. I think everything should have a tinier version of itself inside it, actually. Wouldn't that be cute?

It was fun to have a real one to look at while we learned about them. (This is Abe's hand, by the way.)

Here are a couple matryoshka crafts we didn't do, but they looked fun:

Matryoshka card

Stacking cone matryoshkas

And this is funny: nesting phones

I also thought that the children should have a few domed blocks to add to their collection. (I wouldn't hesitate to call our blocks the #1-played-with toy around here. This being the case, I'm more willing to spend money on them than on other types of toys!) I love seeing what they build!

St. Basil's Cathedral

The Taj Mahal (not Russian, but onion-domed)

Baba Yaga Huts

I love Russian folk tales, and I've always loved Baba Yaga! I think my friend Rachael taught me that it's supposed to be pronounced "BA-ba ya-GA" [rather than "BA-ba YA-ga,"], so that's how we said it. There are tons of Baba Yaga stories. Her little hut on chicken's legs is always my favorite detail. So spooky! We listened to the piece from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition ("The Hut on Fowl's Legs") while we made our huts.

I couldn't find anyone else's ideas online about how to make huts-on-chicken-legs, so I just had to make it up as we went along. We used little boxes from my gift-wrapping cupboard, taped on folded-paper "roofs," wrapped the boxes in paper, and then stuck pipe cleaners through for the legs. A couple of the houses actually stood on their legs, but most didn't. That was okay because the children mostly wanted to hop them around and make them "walk," so they didn't really need to stand up. We cut little doors in the side, and the children drew scary skulls on the fence around the house, or Baba Yaga peeking out the window, or whatever they liked.