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Friday, December 16, 2011

Kids Craft (#3)



This is a great activity to do in November for Thanksgiving.

Materials:
1. Construction paper
2. Brown tempera or finger paint
3. Feathers
4. School glue
5. Googly eyes
6. Markers

Instructions:
1. Paint child's entire palm brown.
2. Have child stamp hand on paper to make a print towards the bottom of the page.
3. Put glue lines on the fingers-not the thumb.
4. Place feathers on the glue.
5. Put two dabs of glue on thumb an attach googly eyes.
6. Let dry.
7. With a marker draw on the turkey's feet.

Age-2 years and up.

Developmental components:
Small motor skills- placing the feathers on the glue is a great use of fine motor skills.

Kids Craft (#2)




Ingredients:
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 pkg unsweetened Kool-aid (just the
dry koolaid, don't mix it into juice)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
1. In a bowl, mix flour, salt and kool-aid.
2. Stir in water and oil
3. Knead with hands for about 5 minutes.
4. Store in ziploc bag for up to 2
4. months.
5. Use like playdough.
6. Smells wonderful and takes on the color of the koolaid.

Tip-Using red, purple, and blue Kool-Aids work best. If you want it to smell like a particular scent and it isn't a very vibrant color of kool-aid add a few drops of neon food coloring to the water before mixing. Sometimes the playdoh can look a little dull if you use grape Kool-Aid-Add some Purple Neon food coloring to it if you find this to be true.

Developmental Components:
Fine Motor-Great use of those fine motor skills occurs while kneading.
Large Muscle-Pouring the ingredients into the bowl as well as stirring everything together works those large muscles.
Math-Measuring and counting lets your child explore math.
Social/Language-A great activity to do one-on-one or with a group of children.

Age: I would suggest doing this with ages three and up. You can do it with a two year old if you really want to but I would suggest just letting them pour in the stuff with your help.

Have fun creating!

(Picture instructions coming soon)

Kids Craft (#1)


Here is a cute Snowman ornament that is fun to make and great for a gift to parents or grandparents. I made these with kids ages 2-4 years old but this would be a great craft for elementary students as well. With a little help from an adult, of course. Hope you enjoy.

Materials:
Popsicle sticks
White tempera paint
Ribbon for scarf and hanging ornament
Black and orange card stock or construction paper
Markers
Assortment of buttons
School glue

How To:

First, have your children paint the popsicle stick white and let dry.
Have your child cut out a hat for the snowman and a nose for the snowman.
Let your child pick out 3 buttons from your button collection.
After the paint is dry, draw two eyes and the mouth.
Then glue on the hat and nose.
Let your child glue on the buttons.
Let dry.
After all of the glue is dry tie a piece of ribbon under the mouth for a scarf.
With a hot glue gun, glue some ribbon on top to hang ornament (ADULTS ONLY!)
Write child's name on back with the year.

Let the children glue the buttons, nose, and hat wherever they want. Of course it is a snowman, but part of the fun is letting your children design their own snowman. It doesn't have to be perfect and the more jumbled up it is the more personalized it is. These make great gifts for parents and grandparents. I wrapped the kid's ornaments in tissue paper and then placed it inside a clear Christmas treat bag. I tied some curly ribbon on top and made a quick tag for it. It's a super quick and simple gift but adorable and will last for years!

Developmental Components:
-Great fine motor exercise! Dealing with all of the little tiny pieces is great for working those small motor skills.
-Social/Emotional-Great time to talk about snow, snowmen, and all things winter. The child can explore emotion by drawing the mouth either happy or sad.
-Creativity/Art-Using paint, glue, and markers lets child express themselves in a creative fashion.

Hope you enjoy this cute winter project. Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Long Time Gone

Well it has been a while since I have put anything on this blog and to be quite honest I has just been getting out of the blogging world. That is all about to change though because I am back at it in full force! I plan on posting a blog at least once a week. My blogs will focus on paper crafting and children's art ideas and projects.



One of the really cool things that I have been doing lately is making cards for a non-profit organization called "Operation Write Home." The organization collects handmade cards from men and women across the United States and sends them across the world to our troops. The cards are then written in by our troops and sent home to their loved ones. To learn more about it please check out www.operationwritehome.org or check out the OWH blog at http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org.

Here are a few images of the cards that I have sent over: