Halloween Window Decoration

I hang up a skeleton in my kitchen window that lights up from the kitchen light in the evening. My nephew loves it, so I told him we could make one for his window that is similar.

Items needed:

-wax paper

-orange paint and a paint brush

-scissors

-an optional item is glitter

Lay out some old newspaper on the table just in case the wax paper has a tear in it.  Then lay out a long strip of wax paper.  I squirted some paint onto the wax paper and the kids painted the wax paper. Believe it or not, but the kids spent 20 minutes painting the wax paper.  I then let them sprinkle some glitter on the paint.  It took about 2 hours for the paint to dry.  Depending on the kids ages, either they can cut out a pumpkin shape or you can help them with it.  If you want you can even cut out a mouth and eyes.  These look great taped to your windows, you can see them during the day and night they create a spooky silhouette.

Happy Halloween

Fall Craft / Greeting Card

So of course it's been a while since I have posted anything fun, mostly because I have been busy.  Today  I am going to post two great fall art projects.

The first one is a great leaf shadow art project.  As you are out taking a walk with the kids, search for a variety of leaves.  Out here in Arizona our leaf selection is limited, which is why we pretty much used small leaves.  

Have the kids tape some of their leaves down on a piece of paper and then place another piece of paper on top of the leaves.  The paper they place down on top of the leaves can be any color, however white works the best.

Then I gave the kids fall crayon colors, of course the kids can use whatever they wanted.  As the kids look the sheet the leaf pattern will begin to show up, very clearly including all the veins of the leafs.  You can then have the kids write a special note to a loved one and then let them mail their special greeting. Such a great art project and fall greeting card as well. 

Fun Summer Birdhouse

My nephew has been wanting to make a birdhouse for a while.  So I wanted to create one where he could paint it and yet it could withstand the summer temps out here.  So I saved a gallon water container and let him paint it.  

While it was drying, we went and picked a twig from outside.  When it was finally dry I cut two larger openings on each side where the bird seed could go, and then I cut two smaller holes right below the larger opening so that the twig could go right through.  The twig would become the perch for the birds.

And then to finish it,I attached a small chain to the lid of the water container, of course if you don't have a small chain, rope or even a strong ribbon will work.  Such a great project for kids of any age, and if you don't have any birdseed around the house the neighborhood birds will love some day old bread.

Easy Father's Day Craft

I did something really easy with the kids this week.  At the bottom of some white printer paper the saying, Happy Father's Day 2013.  Then my nephew painted his palm and placed it on the paper, this would represent a trees branches.  Then he took some brown pain and painted a trunk.  The next day my niece did not want to paint, instead she used color markers and made a "rainbow".  When it was completed I placed the finished picture inside a magnetic picture frame, which I purchased at Walmart for $1.00.

This is an easy gift idea from the kids, and one where a dad, grandpa our uncle can hang anywhere and enjoy year round.

Happy Father's Day!

Easy Sock Puppet Craft

I wanted to create something fun today that inspired the kids imagination.  So I came up with sock puppets, and the night before got a whole bunch of art supplies together that that the kids could use, such as yard, buttons, felt, markers and so much more.

I put a piece of cardboard inside the sock so any glue or marker would not go through.  I cut a slit in the top of the sock as you can see above.  When the kids are done decorating the sock cut an oval piece of cardboard, fold it in half and glue the sock to the cardboard.  This will be where the kids make the mouth move.  The inside of the "mouth" can be colored or glue some felt on it (see picture below).

The kids had a good time working on this and they spent about 30 minutes decorating it.  Depending on how much glue you use, it could take up to 4 hours to dry.

Butterfly Craft For Spring

Spring is a great time to explore nature with the little ones, and after a walk exploring nature why not let the kids learn about the life cycle of butterflies and make one to remember their nature walk.

I printed out a butterfly life cycle chart that kids could color, after we talked about the life cycle I let the kids color a coffee filter, which would become the butterflies wings.  It's up to the kids, but the wings can be colored with paint, crayons, markers or even chalk.  Then attach the wings to a clothespin.

Something fun that I did for my niece and nephew was that I got an empty toilet paper roll and used that as the butterflies cocoon.  Without the kids knowing what I did with the empty toilet paper roll, I placed the finished butterfly in the roll and wrapped it in paper.  We took another walk outside and talked about the life cycle and tried to find some butterflies, when we got back inside, I let the kids find the cocoon and open it to find their finished butterfly.

Such a great learning experience for kids of all ages.  Happy spring.

Easter Craft

Today I made a great project with my niece and nephew, and all the items I needed were already in my house.

Supplies:
A paper plate
Cotton balls
Glue
White Paper
Scissors

You take one paper plate and fold it in half, the you let the child put glue all over the fold part of the plate. Then the kids place cotton balls on the glue. You can use a template for bunny ears, or you can draw out two ears, cut out three circles to represent the rabbits tail, an eye and a nose, the kids can color these. After the glue has had time to dry, the kids can attach the ears, tail, eye and nose.

This can be a great project for kids to do on Easter Day, with supplies you already have in your house.

Make Your Own St. Patrick's Day Early Reader Book

There is never a bad day to be creative, and holidays are a great time to teach little ones about different holidays and traditions. St. Patrick's Day is very close to Easter this year, so today I worked on an early reader book with my nephew who is almost four years old. During the week we talked about shamrocks and Ireland, and today I found a great book that we could read together after he colored it. I wanted to share the site that I got the book from, as they have books for every season that any child would love to work on.

You can view this great site for a variety of different printable books: http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/patrick/index.htm

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Groundhog Day

A fun little project for kids. I printed out a little story about Punxsutawney Phil and had my nephew read the story with me, we then drew lines from the word to the part in the story that it matched up to. And then a fun coloring sheet to top it off, great way for little ones to learn about this weather predicting groundhog.