Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

How to Make Coffee Filter Poppy

November 5, 2013 By Deirdre

On Friday I showed you a cork painted poppy that JDaniel made. It ended up being a wonderful flower, but it wasn’t something we could give to Veterans or display in a vase. We created coffee filter poppies for that reason. I thought you would like to learn how to make coffee filter poppies too.

Before you start this craft you may want to read your children a book about Veterans Day. Below you will find some of my favorite Veterans Day books.

Putting the Poppy Craft Together

These poppies are so easy to make. The first thing you need to do is paint two coffee filters. We happened to have a red bingo marker. It was great for coloring the filter red. A few little bingo marker dots paint can go a long way. The filter absorbs the paint and spreads.

It took quite a while for our coffee filters to try. One of us used more than a little paint. If we had used less paint, they would have dried faster. I think they took about an hour to dry.

When they were completely dry, we put the two filters together and then folded the filters in half. Then in half again or into four quarters. I drew a heart shape on the folded filters and JDaniel cut it out. This gave us the poppy petal shape we needed. He did a great job cutting it out.

Then the coffee filter was opened up in a half. JDaniel used the hole punch to create two holes near the fold. His holes ended up a little off-center, but that was okay. I would have put them closer together, but I was not in charge of the hole punch.

A pipe cleaner was then threaded up one of the holes in the filter and through a blue button. The pipe cleaner was threaded down through a second buttonhole and down through the second hole in the coffee filter. The ends of the pipe cleaner were then twisted around them to create a flower stem.

JDaniel then mushed the sides of the flower together into a tight bud. When he let go of the closed bud, it unfolded as a pretty bloom. The flower had pretty folds and a bell-like base.

This poppy will be sent to my sister and brother-in-law who are both war veterans. I bet you could make some to give to someone you know who has served in the military. The flowers will be easy for you to make now that you know how to make a coffee filter poppy.

Building Background

Below you will find a few wonderful books that will explain Veterans Day to your children.
The links below are affiliate links.

More Veterans Day Activities

Cork Painted Poppy

Hands on Counting Activities- Number Puzzles

Building Background

Below you will find some wonderful books about Veterans Day. Your children may not have a lot of knowledge about what a veteran is and why we remember them. Below you will find a few books that explain Veterans Day.

The links below are affiliate links.

More Veterans Day Activities

Veterans Day Craft - Cork Painting a Poppy

Cork Painted Poppy

Hands on Counting Activities- Number Puzzles

Veteran’s Day Activities for Kids

November 4, 2013 By Deirdre

Veteran’s Day is just around the corner on November 11th. It is one of those holidays that is celebrated and remembered or just passing by without people giving it a second thought. We happen to be in the first group of people at my house. My grandfather, dad, sister, and brother-in-law were are or in the military. My father-in-law was too. Remembering the service they and many others have given is really important to me.When JDaniel was three we started visiting the local soldiers memorial in our town. I bring lunch and we talk about they people whose names are displayed on the brick walkways. Without going into a lot of detail about what they were asked to do while giving their service or what happened to them we acknowledge them and all they did.

If you don’t have a memorial near you there are still a lot of things you can be for Memorial Day.

Veteran’s Day Activities

Prayer

You can offer prayers of thanks or supplication for those who have served. I bet they would be thrilled to know that they are being remembered. Simple prayers for their health, families and basic needs can be said by children young and old.

Read Books that Relate to Memorial Day

I shared the book The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans yesterday. It is a wonderful book about a lovely lady who wanted those who served to remember. She lobbied hard to get the poppy to be a universal symbol for remembering Veterans.

The book The Wall by Eve Bunting about a young boy and his father visiting the Vietnam Veteran’s memorial to see the father’s name. This book always leaves me teary eyed.Put Flags Up in Your Yard

Small flags planted in your front yard will remind those who drive your house that there is a special day that is being remembered. The flags may even jog people’s memories as to what holiday they are up for.

Send a Note to a Veteran

If you don’t have a family member that you can send a note to, you can check with people in your church or local retirement homes. There are probably a number of veterans that live near you that would love to get a note or card.

Here are some organizations that will get your notes to veterans:

Operation Gratitude

AMillionThanks.org

Create Poppies to Pass Out

JDaniel and I created a poppy by cork painting. I shared those in a post on Friday called Veterans Day Activity. We also made coffee filter poppies. I will show you how we made them tomorrow. You could display them in your home or give them to a veteran or veterans group.

Veterans Day Craft- Cork Painted Poppy

November 1, 2013 By Deirdre

Veterans Day is a holiday I have worked on sharing with JDaniel since he was really little. Our family has a number of veterans in it. Even if it didn’t this holiday is important to remember. So many have given their lives, time away from their families, and so much more. It is so important to be that they are shown respect along with being remembered. This year we read a wonderful book and created a cork-painted poppy as one of our ways of remembering.

I was contacted by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh the author of The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans. She asked if I would love to preview a copy of the book. Veterans Day is one of those holidays that is often forgotten, but so needs to be remembered. I responded to her quickly that I would love to read this wonderful book and share it with you.

JDaniel and I raced to open the package containing the book as soon as it arrived. We loved looking through the book’s wonderful illustrations. They are filled with images that share the concepts beautifully.

Young children could easily picture walking through the book if they are not ready for the text. There is a lot of text on some page spreads. The illustrations are just wonderful and carry much of the meaning of the text.

We read every word and by the end of the book, we were both teary-eyed. Moina’s mission to have every American wear a poppy to remember the soldiers is very moving. This is a must-have book for Veterans Day.

What did we do to explore The Poppy Lady?

The weather here has been warm and sunny. After reading the book The Poppy Lady, JDaniel and I headed outside. I had set out paint, corks, and paper to paint a red poppy just like the ones Moina passed out.

Veterans Day Craft - Cork Painting a Poppy and The Poppy Lady

The afternoon sun cast shadows on our workspace. You will see JDaniel’s shadow in the pictures. At first I thought about trying to eliminate them. After looking at them, I realized the shadows are a great reminder of the service the veterans gave to our country. The shadows remind me that the veterans and their service are a part of who we are as a country and as a family.

JDaniel was an enthusiastic painter some of the cork-painted spots were light, but most of them were strong and spattered. The white drawing paper we used did a good job of absorbing the paint and yet it lets the paint color stay strong.

When he finished painting, he went off to play with the next-door neighbor. We needed to give the poppy a chance to dry before JDaniel cut it out. The sun was so bright it didn’t take long for the paint to dry. JDaniel tried to find a spot on the deck where he could cut the poppy out without having the sun in his eyes.

When the cork-painted poppy cut out, we hung it on the fridge. It will be a great reminder of veterans and their service. We will be remembering them in our mealtime prayers in the days leading up to Veterans Day on November 11th.

On Monday I will be sharing a post on several other ways to remember veterans and Veterans Day. I hope you will stop by and check it out.

You will find more Veterans Day craft ideas and lots of other wonderful craft ideas on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of The Poppy Lady. All opinions and thoughts about the book are my own.

Halloween Safety Rules

October 31, 2013 By Deirdre

I shared most of these safety rules last year in a post called Halloween Safety Rules and Ways to Review Them. This post includes a sensory bin and file folder game that I created to act out or review the Halloween safety rules. Both activities require materials that many of you already have a home in your craft closet or toy box. It would be worthwhile to take a moment to visit that post and check them out.

It never hurts to share the Halloween safety rules more than once so, I am sharing them with you again in this post. They have been revised a little and put into Halloween Safety Rules for Kids this year.

The thought was that you could print out the sign if you like and have it up in a place where your family will be able to see and read over a few times. You might even want to have your children explain why they think I put each of the rules on the list.

I bet they will totally be able to figure out why each of them it there. They might even be able to give you an illustration of what could happen if they didn’t follow the rules.

If you haven’t gone over trick or treating safety rules with your children yet, I hope you will take a moment before heading out tonight. If you notice I haven’t included something you think is important, please feel free to add rules to this list. This is just what I came up with.

Make Your Own Halloween Safety Rules

You may have things that pertain to your neighborhood or trick or treating routine that you will want to include. Then feel free to add or subtract any rule that you feel doesn’t apply to your family when you go over the rules.

I hope you have a safe and wonderful Halloween filled with fun, laughter and just a little candy.

Easy Halloween Dessert for Kids

October 29, 2013 By Deirdre

I surprised JDaniel with a sweet Halloween dessert as his afternoon snack last week. He was thrilled to see that he had something special in the fridge waiting for him. It was an easy Halloween dessert to put together for my son. Other children will enjoy it too.

The dessert is made of two layers of kid’s favorites. There was box of vanilla pudding made according to the directions on the box. Orange jello was also made according to the directions on the box and canned peaches were added to the jello.

It took a little while for the pudding and jello to set. The jello took the longest. With JDaniel in school the wait flew by. Had he been home he would have wanted to keep putting his fingers in to them to see if they were ready. As you can see there wasn’t a finger test done on these.

When the jello and pudding were ready, I placed them one layer at a time into a pretty bowl. Between the layer of jello with peaches and the pudding layer I added a few more peaches. I thought it would add a little more texture to the dessert.

After adding the pudding layer, I placed a pumpkin made of Halloween sprinkles on top to dress the Halloween dessert up. How did I get the pumpkin shape? I placed a small pumpkin cookie cutter on top of the pudding and then added the sprinkles. A toothpick was used to move a few of the sprinkles into place.Snack is not usually a sweet dessert, but it was fun to surprise JDanel with this easy Halloween dessert. It was super easy to put together. Maybe I will have him add the layers of the dessert to the bowl himself next time.

You will find more food creations like this Halloween dessert on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.What do your children have for snack after school?

Decorating Your Yard For Halloween

October 28, 2013 By Deirdre

Our yard already had several Halloween themed items in that that have been there for a while so, decorating our yard for Halloween didn’t take a lot of work. We dressed up one area. Another area had an old friend come back to join it. This was a lot of fun. I bet you will like decorating your yard for Halloween too.

Decorating Your Yard for Halloween- Pumpkin Growing In A Pumpkin

On our deck we have the pumpkin growing in the pumpkin. It has gorgeous pumpkin leaves growing out of it. The pumpkin itself has started to rot and even had a little mold growing on it for a short time. I sprayed the pumpkin with a mixture of oil of clove and water. The mold totally disappeared after I wiped the pumpkin down and it has never returned. The pumpkin has developed some cracks and a hole. It seems to have age a lot in the last week. The pumpkin remained whole and unblemished for several weeks.We have decided it looks eerie and very Halloween like. JDaniel heads out in his pajamas every morning to check on it. He has really loved this project despite the fact the pumpkin isn’t holding together

The pumpkin will be given a little more time to just be his rotting self. Then we will be moving the whole pumpkin into a large orange container. Until then the temperature here has finally started to drop at night. We will need to start covering the pumpkin to keep him warm.

Decorating Your Yard for Halloween-Spider Web Trellis Spider

Last summer JDaniel helped me create a spider web trellis for a humming bird plant. Due to our mild summer and warm fall the plant is still growing and green.It never grew flowers. Maybe it will next year.

To get the spider web trellis ready for Halloween we made it a spider crawl through its tendrils. We took a random plastic lid that no longer base that it went on and glued a piece of a black garage bag material into the center of it. I used an Exacto knife to trim the extra bag material off. Then we placed a bunch of yellow circle stickers onto the lid for the spider’s compound eyes. A brown marker was used to give the eyes pupils. Black pipe cleaners were taped the back to give the spider legs. Someone at my house loves tape so, the legs will stay on for a long time.

The spider isn’t waterproof. We will have to bring him inside when we don’t want to have him visit the trellis. He will live in the garage when he isn’t visiting so, JDaniel can get him out whenever he wants to.

Decorating Your Yard for Halloween-Milk Jug Skeleton

Last year we created a Halloween craft called Milk Jug Skeleton. The skeleton was created so that its various parts could be separated and put back together again this year. I used paper clips to connect almost all the areas along with fishing line.This year we were able to reuse the same paper clips. We needed to use new fishing line to connect the head, chest, and hips. To store it last year the fishing line was cut and throw away.

JDaniel has been asking to have him hanging in the front year for awhile. He was thrilled when I said that it was finally time.

This year he helped me put the paper clips in place. It was great fine motor work.

What Else Will Decorate Our Yard?
We have also added three pumpkins to the front steps that are waiting to be carved. We carve them the day before Halloween at our house. Each will receive happy face with fun eyes. Adding happy faces is another tradition at our house.Decorating your yard for Halloween doesn’t have to be expensive or hard to pull together. We have simple decorations that we can use from year to year. Well, not the pumpkin itself, but the idea of growing a pumpkin. Making decoration that can come apart and be stored is really important to us. We have a small house with very little storage.

More Halloween activities and crafts can be found on my Halloween board on Pinterest.

How to Make a Despicable Me Minion Costume

October 27, 2013 By Deirdre

I need to figure out how to make a Halloween Despicable Me minion costume for JDaniel. He decided this summer after seeing the first Despicable Me costume on a neighbor’s DVD that he wanted to be minion. I started looking online for costume ideas when he announced that this would be his costume to look for minion costume ideas. I found a couple of them and pinned them to my Halloween Ideas board.Early this fall I started to look for the costume components. The overhalls were easy to find and were a great deal. I looked and looked for long sleeve yellow t-shirt or hooded sweatshirt. I couldn’t find one online or in any of our local stores. While I was on the hunt for them, I did come across a short sleeve t-shirt for $3 at Walmart. I decided that we would have to go with it. All of the hat examples I had seen on Pinterest were yellow knit hats. I couldn’t find one anywhere. I did find a yellow baseball cap at Academy Sports. It would just have to do.

The big costume element we needed to create as the minion hat. We had several of the items needed already at home. A couple were purchased at our local five and dime.

Minion Hat Materials

1 yellow hat
1 Pringles container
1 styrofoam ball
1 yard of 3 inch black ribbon
a black marker
an Exacto knife
a roll of foil wrap insulation tape
a needle
black thread
3 black pipe cleaners

How did we make the hat?

Cut one section off a Pringles container. The section needs to be 3 inches long.
Cover the section with the foil insulation tape on the outside and cover the top edge of the section with tape.
Push the styrofoam ball into the section. It may take a little push.
Draw an eyeball on the styrofoam ball that is facing out.
Cut slight curve on the bottom the section that will be facing the baseball hat to match the curve of the hat.
Cut a horizontal slit on each side of the foil covered section to create a place to put the ribbon through. My slits were about 2 1/2 inches long.
Thread the ribbon through the slits. Try to make sure that there is the same amount of ribbon on both sides of the foil covered section.
Using black thread and the needle sew tiny stitches through the ribbon and hat. Make sure you pull the ribbon tight before adding the next stitch. I sewed a couple tiny stitches in, knotted the thread and then cut it. Then I moved to another section off ribbon until I got to the back of the hat.
When you get to the back of the hat tie a bow with the remaining ribbon.
Cut the pipe cleaner in half and fold them in half.
Put the folded sections of pipe cleaner through each of the air vents in the top of the hat. Twist the folded area and bend it to the left to create an anchor inside the hat. (The anchor will hold each of the pipe cleaners in place.) Spread the pipe cleaner hairs apart on the top of the hat for a more dramatic effect.

Done?

I truly believed I was done with the costume when I took JDaniel outside to take the pictures for this post. JDaniel informed me as I took the pictures that I am missing the triangle on the overhalls. I will try to work on creating one before Halloween, but for now I have figured out how to make a Despicable Me minion costume that I think looks done.

The costume was missing one other thing. Do you see it in the picture? We were missing a banana. Minions love bananas! JDaniel rushed inside to get one for his costume.

What are you and/ or your children wearing for Halloween? Will one of them be a Despicable Me Minion?

Halloween Craft- Button Pumpkin Face

October 25, 2013 By Deirdre

How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? out of the library. From the book’s cover I really didn’t know if it would be about two boys growing a big pumpkin or something else. I asked JDaniel to predict what the book was going to be about based on the cover. He thought it could be about growing pumpkins too. After we read the book, we did a Halloween craft I know you will love.

When we started the book, we found that book shares various places in the United States big pumpkins could visit. We traveled to a hot air balloon festival in New Mexico, to Vermont to see pumpkin boat races, and to Mount Rushmore to name a few. It was fun to see giant pumpkins side by side monuments and landmarks.

There is an area in the back of the book that shares a couple of facts about each place. We haven’t taken out a map to find each state and where the landmark is in each state yet, but I think we will.

What did we do to explore the book?

Halloween Craft

We made a button pumpkin face. Last year I bought a bag of colored buttons. (We have used them over and over again for learning games and crafts.) We sorted through the bag to find all the green buttons. The green buttons would be used to create the pumpkin face.

Then I pulled out come pipe cleaners and some orange grid circles. ( I found the orange circles at a dollar store in the houseware area. I think they were supposed to be coasters)

We tried arranging the button in various ways on the circle to create different eye, nose and mouth designs. Different sized buttons created very different looks.

When JDaniel found a face that he liked, we worked at adding one facial at a time. A section of pipe cleaner was threaded through two of each button holes. The ends of the pipe cleaner were then poked through the holes in the grid. Threading the pipe cleaner into the button holes wasn’t easy. It ended up being a tricky fine motor activity.

When the pipe cleaner was through the holes, the circle was turned over and the ends of the pipe cleaner were twisted and flattened. The eyes and nose buttons were put in place using this technique.

For the mouth several buttons were placed on a pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner started at the bottom of the first button and continued being pushed up and down through the buttons’ holes until several buttons were on the pipe cleaner. Both ends of the pipe cleaner were pushed through the holes nearest them when we placed the mouth on top of the circle. JDaniel created little hooks at the ends of the pipe cleaner to hold them in place.

I thought we were done when the smile was in place, but I was told the pumpkin needed a stem. I decided to take a picture and post it on Instagram to see what other people thought about the pumpkin. The answers came back unanimous. A stem was needed. We threaded a couple of button onto a pipe cleaner and attached them to the top of the pumpkin.

The stem does look cute. JDaniel and my Instagram followers should be happy with how it stands out.

If you like this Halloween craft, you will love the crafts found on my Crafts for Kids Pinterest board.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there.

Disclaimer: This post does contain affiliate links.

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Fall Leaf Craft Owl

October 23, 2013 By Deirdre

The leaves have started cascading down from the trees in our front yard. The yellow, brown and green leaves remind me of the colors of an owl’s feathers. Well, maybe not the yellow. JDaniel and I used some of those leaves to create an owl fall leaf craft.

I grabbed a cardboard box from our recycling bin to use as the base for the owl. It was just the size a wanted for the base and had sections of it that were yellow and white. We could use those later for the beak and the eyes.

JDaniel helped me glue the leaves on to the cardboard owl outline. At first we tried to hold the leaves in place and found that they kept trying to curl up or lift up. The solution to that was to stand on the leaves until the were almost dry. ( I guess we could have put a book on them or something else heavy.)

When JDaniel noticed the little boys next door and their dad doing yard work he lost interest in what we were doing . After helping me add a few more leaves he headed off to help them drag branches to the road. Since I sit outside to watch him anyway, I placed my feet on the leaf craft owl to hold the leaves down. It didn’t take long for all the leaves to be stuck in place.

Later after a lot of outdoor play time we added the owl’s eyes and beak. The eyes and beak had been cut out of the front section of the cardboard box. Eyeballs and an outline were added to the beak with a black marker.

The leaves in the our fall leaf craft owl will curl up and may get a little brittle over time. We didn’t put a coating of water and glue on top of them. It will be fun to see of the craft evolves. If we don’t like how it turns out, we can always make a second owl and add a coat of water and glue to that one.

You will find more fall crafts on my Fall Crafts Pinterest board. You will find another fun owl craft with cup liners and torn paper and an owl hand puppet.

What are your favorite ways to play with leaves?

Top 11 Halloween Books for Kids

October 22, 2013 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

Here are my top 11 Halloween books for kids! We really try to steer away from really scary Halloween books at my house. I like to read to JDaniel before bedtime and scary books make it hard to sleep. This collection is filled with books that feature pumpkins and creatures that are fun. Another focus of this collection of Halloween book for kids is getting past Halloween fears.

The Runaway Pumpkin– When a pumpkin breaks from its vine, it rolls through a farm encountering many of the farm’s animals. This book is written in rhyme. The rhyme seems to speed up as the pumpkin does.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything– Despite having many things chasing her a little old lady on a walk remains fearless. Children will love the unique things that chase her and how she deals with them.

Who’s There on Halloween?– Children will love following the rhyming text to find out just who is there on Halloween. I think parents reading this book to their children will too.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin’s Classroom Series)– This is a wonderful tale of how good things can come in small packages. Sometimes the good things are pumpkin seeds and the package is small pumpkin.

Duck & Goose, Find a Pumpkin (Oversized Board Book)– Duck and Goose search over, under, and all around to find a pumpkin. Children will love following Duck and Goose on their pumpkin hunt.

Shake Dem Halloween Bones– What fun storybook characters have when they attend a Halloween party. This book is filled with rhythm and fun. You may want to get up and dance after reading this book.

Happy Halloween, Mittens (My First I Can Read)– Max is a favorite at our house. He makes my son giggle at his antics. This time Max plots to get Ruby’s treats and he will make you giggle too.

Scaredy-Cat, Splat! (Splat the Cat)– Poor Splat is scared about all kinds of Halloween things. Spiders, scary stories, and costumes are just a few of the things that scare him. This book has a surprise ending. Splat ends up scaring the class he is visiting almost as much as he has been scared.

Happy Halloween, Mittens– Mittens so wants to help get ready for Halloween, but can she find a way that is really helpful. Some of the ways Mittens tries to help just don’t work out. My guy loved seeing what she would come up with next.

Pumpkin Hill I shared this book two weeks ago for Read.Explore.Learn in a post called Planting a Pumpkin’s Seeds in a Pumpkin. It is the story of what happen to a pumpkin that is allowed to rot and leave its seeds behind and its children do too. Let’s just say everyone in town ends up with a pumpkin.

I hope you find a couple of books that you would like to share with the children in your life. Many of the 11 Halloween books would be great for children of various ages.

What are your favorite Halloween books for kids?