Crafts Archives - Page 16 of 20

20 Easter Activities for Kids

March 25, 2013 By Deirdre

With Easter less than a week away I thought I would share with you some Easter themed activities for kids. They include crafts, foods creations and learning moments that you could do at your house. None of these kids Easter activities is really complicated to make and they were all were fun create. Most of them could and should be created by your kids!

Easter Activities for Kids

Floral centerpiece made with a tissue box.Crowing rooster Easter centerpiece made with an egg carton.Paint chip easter basket looks woven due to the paint chips.White glove rabbit puppet is a great way to used old gloves!Pencil eraser stamping a paper Easter egg.Paper plate easter bunny that is is cute and easy to make.Tin foil Easter egg is so pretty when completed.

Easter lamb food creation lunch

Bounding Bunnies Bento with cheese rabbits.

Sneaking carrots lunches with grilled cheese rabbit sandwich lunch and a lunch with carrot cream cheese.

Practicing number writing in salt and making a carrot dip are both exciting ways to learn.

True Meaning of Easter Rocks activity

12 Ways to Learn with Plastic Easter Eggs that are fun!

Easter Story Cookies with a guide as to how the Easter story fits into each step and ingredient.

Legend of the Dogwood Tree Craft Chalk Bunny Hopping Activity

Three Easter Chick Learning Activities

For more Easter activities for kids please check out my Easter Crafts, Snacks and Activities Pinterest board.

Deirdre is a stay at home mom. Prior to staying home she worked as an elementary school teacher and technology integration specialist for over twenty years. She hold an Early Childhood degree and a Masters in Developmental Reading. She is the blogger behind JDaniel4’s Mom, a site focused on sharing ways to learn and grow beside your children.

St. Patrick’s Day Activity Round Up

March 16, 2013 By Deirdre

Whether you are looking for a St. Patrick’s Day craft, game or learning activity, I think you will find a wide variety to choose from in this post. There are 15 different activities that come from nine different blog posts displayed in the collage. We had a wonderful time creating, learning and experimenting to create this posts. I hope you will too.

St. Patrick’s Day Activity Collection

The counting objects in books activity, hair gel letter practice bag and the paper plate emotions spinner. ( He is the third activity in the third row) All came from a post called St. Patrick’s Day Activities: Part One.

The three sensory activities at the end of the first row all came from a post called St. Patrick’s day: Part Two. We had the best time digging for shamrocks and stone potatoes in the the third activity in that row. Then we made a thatched roof house out of play dough and straws. Finally we transferred sticks using chopsticks.

The first three activities in the second row come from a post called Science for Kids- Experiments with Green. We painted with a magnet and a paperclip, painted with homemade chalk paint and made a borax shamrock.

The fourth activity in the second row is a watercolor rainbow my son painted to go along with a St. Patrick’s Day story I wrote. The post was called. Walking on Watery Way Toward Treasure.

The last activity in the second row is one my son and I did at the grocery store. I called the post Seeing Green at the Grocery Store. We had the best time looking for green foods that match the paint chip we brought with us.

We dyed carnations green and orange to match the colors of the Irish Flag in a post called St. Patrick’s Day- Read.Explore.Learn. You will see the fun vases we used in the first picture in the third row.

The goat puppet was made for a post called {An Irish Tale} King Puck- Read.Explore.Learn. King Puck is a festival in Ireland. During the festival a goat is selected to be the king for the year.

Creating a trap for the leprechaun was a blast. My son loved creating pulley and decorating an old clementine box.

Painting with ice cubes was an adventure that I shared in a post called Coloring for Kids: Ice Cube Rainbow Painting.

If you are looking for a special St. Patrick’s Day snack or lunch, I shared a post called 8 St. Patrick’s Day Snack and Lunches. I hope you will check them out.

An Irish Tale – King Puck Learning Activities

March 15, 2013 By Deirdre

King Puck I had never heard of the King Puck Festival in Killorglin before. JDaniel and I learned about it together when we read the book King Puck. The festival takes place every year in August. One of the highlights of the festival is picking a local goat to be King Puck for the year. In this Irish tale a lonely farmer has no one to talk to but his goat. He not only talks to his goat, but he reads to it as well. He reads the same books over and over again. He soon tires of the tale as do the fairies that gather to listen to him read at night.The fairies decide to do something to help the farmer and they cast a spell on the goat. The spell allows the goat to talk. The farmer is so happy to have someone to talk to.

Later he finds a flier about the King Puck Festival and decides to enter his goat in the contest. You will have to read the book to find out who wins and what the winner selects. I will give you a clue. The winner picks something that will help him read, explore, and learn.

What did we do to explore King Puck?

Sock Puppet

An Irish Tale - King Puck Learning Activities

Puppets are a great retelling tool. I decided to make JDaniel a King Puck sock puppet much like the Fox in Socks puppet I made for him last year. We used it for retelling and acting out the story.Number Sequencing

The goats line up to be judged in the King Puck contest. We lined up goats in number order. I am not sure that there were eighteen goats in the contest. We decided we need to have eighteen goats lines up on our kitchen table.

If JDaniel were older or had a better grasp on numbers, here are some other ways we could have explored number concepts with the goats.

Sorted by even and odd numbers.
Used the goats to make number sentences.
Place the correct numbers before and after the number placed on the table
Created word problems based on the goats

If you like this King Puck activity, here are some more book inspired learning activities:

How to Teach a Slug to Read

Sparky the Fire Dog Book Activities

Booking Across the U.S.A.- South Carolina’s Pick Hungry Mr. Gator

February 25, 2013 By Deirdre

There are bloggers all across the United States sharing children’s books that relate to their state or about a state they are interested in. I live in South Carolina and am going to share a wonderful book with you about animals that live long the Carolina coast called Hungry Mr. Gator by Julie McLaughlin

{Booking Across the U.S.A.} South Carolina's Pick Hungry Mr. Gator

Hungry Mr.Gator is a wonderful counting book that features animals found in the low country of South Carolina. As Mr. Gator slips through the water he finds several groups of wonderful animals to eat. If only they didn’t try to get away or weren’t too high in trees or weren’t on his list of food interests.

JDaniel loved learning about animals that live in our state. He wasn’t familiar with egret and the anhinga. I wasn’t either. It was fun to learn about them together. I also love this book’s wonderful illustrations by Ann Marie McKay. We had a book time trying to find Mr. Gator in each of them.

Both the words and pictures in this book draw you in and make you feel like you are visiting South Carolina.

Exploring the Hungry Mr. Gator

As you may know, I am big on reading books and exploring the concepts in the book. I host a weekly blog meme called Read.Explore.Learn. on Fridays that focus on building a learning foundation by exploring concepts in children’s books. JDaniel and I explored this book in two ways.

Painting a Mr. Gator

First, we worked on creating a Mr. Gator painting. I drew and cut out the gator and JDaniel painted it. I tried to help with the painting, but it ended up being a one-man show.

I think he did a wonderful job on the final product. He was most pleased about creating the color gray. I am not sure why. He just kept sharing that he was painting it all over the gator. I love how he layered colors. In some places he layered a lot of paint and in others he kept to just one or two colors.

Hungry Mr. Gator Snack

Mr. Gator spent the whole book looking for something to eat. I made a Mr. Gator snack for JDaniel to enjoy. It is made of watermelon yogurt (Which for some reason came colored blue in the yogurt tube.), milk and food coloring painted bread, almond slivers, and black olive.

JDaniel chomped this snack down and wanted me to make another one.

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring Hungry Mr. Gator!

Would you like to read posts from other blogs about other states? Here is a list of the other blogs that are participating in the Booking Across the U.S.A. event.

Arizona: Simply Kinder and Think, Wonder, & Teach California: Juggling with Kids and The Outlaw Mom Colorado: Learners in Bloom and Living Montessori NowConnecticut: The Teacher ParkDelaware: Mama MissGeorgia: Fabulously FirstIdaho: True Aim EducationIllinois: Growing Book by BookIndiana: Teach PreschoolIowa: Surviving a Teacher’s SalaryKansas: KCEdventuresKentucky: Chicken BabiesLouisiana: New Orleans Moms BlogMaine: Maine Adventure Mom and Country Fun Child CareMaryland: Picture Books and PiourettesMassachusetts: Mama Smiles Michigan: Play DrMomMinnesota: The Wise Owl FactoryMississippi: Hey Mommy, Chocolate MilkMissouri- Ready. Set. Read! Montana: The Honey BunchNebraska: The Good Long RoadNevada: Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy CraftsNew Hampshire: Growing Book by BookNew Jersey: The Pleasantest Thing New Mexico: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom New York: What Do We Do All Day North Dakota: ND HealthWorksOhio: Smart Chick Teacher’s BlogOklahoma: Herding Kats in KindergartenOregon: Journey of a Substitute Teacher Pennsylvania: Land of Once Upon a TimeRhode Island: Smiling in Second GradeSouth Carolina: Cookies and Kiddos and JDaniel4’s MomSouth Dakota: The Wise Owl FactoryTennessee: No Monkey BusinessTexas: Curls and a SmileUtah: Teach Beside Me Vermont: Burlington Vt Moms BlogVirgina: Once Upon a Story, and The Freckled Homeschooler Washington: Home Learning Journey and Boy Mama Teacher Mama West Virginia: This Week @ Great Peace Academy and Mamas Like Me Wisconsin: Reading Confetti USA: The Corner on Character

Disclaimer: Links to Amazon in this post are affiliate links.

{Chinese New Year} Snake Activities

February 9, 2013 By Deirdre

There are so many way to create and explore snakes. I wanted to share with you some of the snakes we have made to celebrate Chinese New Year and several from other wonderful blogs. Not all the post in this round up at related to Chinese New Year, but they are all snake activities.Plastic Easter Egg Snake

JDaniel has a great time threading ribbon through some old plastic Easter eggs. Many had holes in the top and the bottom already. (They came that way. I’m not sure why.) I made those holes large enough for JDaniel to thread ribbon through. Other needed me to create a whole in them.

Paper Shape Snake

JDaniel created a wonderful shape snake out of parallelograms, squares, and triangles ( I know I shared this in the Chinese New Year post yesterday, but he really did a great job on it.)

Diamond Back Snake

3 Dinosaurs has a wonderful diamond back snake that would be fun to make for Chinese New Year.Jello Snake Activity

Many children think snakes are slimy. This wonderful activity from The Imagination Tree is called Snakes in Slime. Kids love playing in this snakes in jelly snake activity will confirm this belief. They will have such a great time playing in the slimy goo.Decorated Play Dough Snakes

Cathy James of The Nurture Store shared these wonderful Chinese New Year playdough snakes on The Baby Centre.Noodle and Paper Snake

This wonderful snake came from a post on Wildlife Fun 4 Kids called Eight Great Ways to Appreciate Snakes.

Snake and Other Zodiac Yoga Poses

Carrots are Orange has a wonderful post on yoga poses called Culture and Yoga Poses for Kids. It would be such fun to crawl like a snake or pose like a fire-breathing dragon.Marnie also wrote a post for the Kids Activities Blog called {Color &Easy} Chinese New Year Activity for Kids that features a ribbon snake activity. I think it would be as much fun to make the activity as it would be to play with it.

No Time for Flashcards featured this cool snake craft in a post called Snake Craft- Chinese New Year. You will find more fun crafts for kids on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest.

16 Valentine’s Day Activities For Kids

February 4, 2013 By Deirdre

I have shared quite a variety of Valentine’s Day crafts, activities, and snacks over the past few years. There are many others coming up soon. Before I share them I thought I would share with you 15 Valentine’s Day ideas I really like and have shared with you and one new one. That gives your 16 Valentine’s Day activities that you can look over and try before Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day Activities

Crafts

Hand Print Paper Card Pouch

JDaniel and I made this pouch for Valentine’s Day last year. It held his Valentine’s Day cards. I don’t think I shared this on the blog last year. I found it when I was sorting through some crafts we did. I love that his little hand print is the stem for the flowers that he made with stickers.

Hearts on Ribbon Bookmark

We made a bunch of these to give to JDaniel’s teachers at school. I cut slits in felt hearts and we threaded them onto some pretty Valentine’s Day ribbon. I folded the ends of the ribbon behind the hearts at the top and bottom and stitched them to the back.In the past we have also made the following crafts:An R2D2 Valentine’s Day Card Holder

Valentine’s Day Cards

Heart Shape Doile PrintsSalad Spinner Valentine’s Day CardsActivities

I hid plastic hearts all around the yard for JDaniel to find I called it looking for love. Each contained a small piece of candy. He was thrilled to find that out.

We have also done the following Valentine’s Day activities and food creations:

Montessori Style Valentine’s Day ActivitiesTransformed His Play McDonald’s into a Post OfficeFished for Alphabet Letter on HeartsCreated Heart Shaped Flowers and a VaseTangram Heart ActivityValentine’s Day Sensory BowlLEGO Heart PuzzleFood Creations JDaniel had this for breakfast last year. We made the granola together and then I used it to make him a special heart-shaped treat.Here are some special lunches I have made for JDaniel with a Valentine’s Day theme:Pink Food Filled Muffin Tin

Heart Shaped Empanada Lunch

Chocolate Dump Cake with RaspberriesI hope you enjoyed checking out our Valentine’s Day ideas. There will several new ones shared later this week and next.

The White House Craft for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

January 18, 2013 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.This week we read The White House by Karen Latchana Kenney. It is a fun booked filled with facts about the White House for young readers. We learned that the walls of the house are sandstone and to fill the tiny holes builder’s sealed them with white paint.

The White House Craft for Kids- Read.Explore.Learn

While the book shares a lot about the White House’s history, many of its pictures feature the Obama family. One of his daughter is shown walking the family dog in the Rose Garden and the whole family is shown on a page that talks about how it is an office and a home.

JDaniel and I enjoyed reading The White House and learning more about it.

What did we do to explore The White House?

Model of the White House

We have a lot of stryofoam that I saved from Christmas present packaging. We glued to it black construction paper windows and Popsicle sticks that we had painted white. I glued a piece of white foam paper to the back of triangle at the top of the house.I think it came out really well!

Patriotic Popcorn

JDaniel and I made red, white and blue popcorn to snack on during the inauguration. shared how we made it in a post I shared yesterday.Patriotic Wand

It is always fun to have a wand to swing around during parade. A patriotic parade calls to a patriotic wand. JDaniel will be able to play with this wand during the parade associated with President Obama’s 2nd Inauguration.
A simple paper cone decorated with stars and ribbons seemed very patriotic.

If you like this craft, here are some others you may like too:/h2>

Bald Eagle Craft and Experiment

Patriotic Wind Sock

Painted American FlagHow have you explored books this week?

New Year’s Eve Craft- Noise Maker Shakers

December 29, 2012 By Deirdre

Recently we had the little boy next door over to play. I thought it would be fun for he and JDaniel to make New Year’s Eve craft. We are calling them noise maker shakers. They had the best time trying to decide what to add to their bottles to make them look nice and make a lot of noise.

Here are the supplies we used to make our New Year’s Eve craft:

one bag of mixed beans
muffin tin
chopsticks (optional)
empty water bottles
sparkly pom-poms
sparkly pipe cleaners
sparkly ribbon or rickrack

How did we make our New Year’s Eve craft?

New Year's Eve Craft- Noise Maker Shakers- Sorting Beans

Before the boy next door came over I had JDaniel sort the mixed beans into groups in a muffin tin. While he sorted them, I talked to him about how the size of the beans he would add to his shaker would determine the sounds the shaker made and the space that they took up in the water bottle.

I had JDaniel use a pair of his chopsticks to move the beans from the bowl to the muffin tin. He needs to work on his fine motor skills related to holding a pencil and holding chopsticks works on those same skills.

JDaniel was very interested in what each bean was called and what we would use to make. I told him that the the chickpeas were used to make hummus and the kidney beans were used when we made chili. We decided to try using all the beans that we didn’t use in the New Year’s Eve noise maker shakers to make the soup recipe on the back of the bag of beans.

When the little boy next door arrived, they both dug into the beans and the pom-poms and started adding them to their bottles.

JDaniel’s bottle didn’t have a flat bottom. It kept wiggling around. I gave him a silicone cupcake liner to put his bottle in. It seems to help him keep the bottle vertical and less frustrated.

As both boys added beans and pom- poms to their bottles, I reviewed the need to not fill the bottle with too many beans if they wanted their noise maker shakers to make loud noises. We also reviewed what each type of beans was.

When it was time to add the pipe cleaners, the boy next door went with the curve the pipe cleaner before adding it to your bottle. JDaniel went with the jam the pipe cleaner into the bottle approach. The pipe cleaners were supposed to represent streaking fireworks. I guess that there isn’t a wrong way to display fireworks.

After placing caps on their shakers, the boys selected the ribbons they wanted on their bottles. Neither boys has mastered tying bows so, I helped them out. JDaniel wanted his ribbons at the top and the boy next door wanted one at the top and one at the bottle’s middle.

I think they did a great job on their New Year’s noise maker shakers. It was fun to tie learning into creating them.

More New Year’s Eve Craft Ideas:

New Year’s Eve Countdown Ball

New Year’s Eve Party IdeasWhat kind of noise maker will you use to celebrate New Year’s Eve with?

Homemade Bird Ornaments – Read.Explore.Learn.

December 7, 2012 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.This week we looked at the book Merry Christmas, Merry Crow by Kathi Appelt. It is wonderful tale of a crow who is constantly gathering treasure or bits of junk. Where ever he flies, he find something a ring, string, garland glimmering and so much more. Just about anything can be a bird ornaments.

Homemade Bird Ornaments - Read.Explore.Learn.

By the end of the book he has decorated a tree in the park for the other birds and everyone who stops by the park to see.

How did we explore Merry Christmas, Merry Crow?

Ornaments for Birds

Orange Shell Bird Feeders

This tree in our front yard is the favorite resting place for many birds. JDaniel and I decided it was was the perfect place to hang our orange shell bird feeders.

I hallowed out three oranges by cutting off their tops and scraping out as much of the pulp as possible. JDaniel thought it could have been in little cleaner inside, but wasn’t interested in scraping.

He enjoyed filling the oranges up with birdseed after I have attached colored twine to the oranges. At first he keep the oranges in the black tray to keep to birdseed from going everywhere. After I short time, he decided to hold the oranges and do a forwards scoop into them.

The forward scoop idea actually did a great job of keeping the seeds from spilling out. It looked cool too.

Bird Seed Ornaments

Every year JDaniel and I try to make bird seed ornaments and every year some fall apart before getting outside to hang on a tree for the birds. This year’s ornaments is made of suet and birdseed.

We started by gathering everything we would need. There was suet, birdseed, cookie cutters and straws. We started by melting down the suet a little. Then we mixed the suet and the birdseed together.

After stirring the birdseed and suet together, we molded the mixture into holiday shapes by putting it into cookie cutters. JDaniel used a spatula to push in as much as we could into each cookie cutter.

Once each ornament had been formed, we put it on an oiled foil covered cookie sheet to dry out. A small piece of a straw was pushed into each ornaments to make a place to put a ribbon through later.

Finally I put ribbon through hole and we hung the bird ornaments on a tree beside our house.

Here is wonderful posts from last week’s link up:

School Time Snippets share this amazing unit based on the book Little Nino’s Pizzeria

How have you explored books this week?

Christmas Around the World- France

December 4, 2012 By Deirdre

My mom’s family is from the Breton area of France so, when I was asked what country I would like to share as a part of the Kid Blogger’s Network’s Christmas Around the World celebration I decided to focus on France. Other than making a butter cake called French Cake during the holidays my family did very little that passed out the French holiday traditions my great grandparents may have had. JDaniel and I headed to the library to look for books that would help us learn more about how the people of France celebrate Christmas. We found a wonderful book called Christmas in France by Kristin Thoennes. It is a book filled with wonderful photos and lots of information about traditions related to Christmas in France.

Christmas Around the World- Exploring French Traditions

Yule Log

We learned that in the past many people in France burned a yule log in their fireplace . Today they eat a yule log shaped cake called a buche de Noel.

JDaniel and I decorated a store bought chocolate roll cake with candy petal and berries I made out of Starburst candy to create our yule log.

Christmas Presents

JDaniel was thrilled to learn that in France Pere Noel comes twice. He brings small packages of candy and treats on December 6th and also on Christmas Eve. During his stop on Christmas Eve, he lives games, toys, and candy in or around shoes left near a fireplace or creche.

I think he might want to visit France next December just experience to Father Christmas stops.

CrecheThe link below is an affiliate link.A creche is a nativity scene that displays the birth of Christ. A creche hold figurines or santons. Santons in France are made of terra-cotta clay. The look like people and animals

We have a Willow Tree nativity scene made of the the people and the animals, but we don’t have an creche for that set. We do have wooden creche and nativity set from Bethlehem that my in laws brought my husband. Both sets are usually kept out of JDaniel’s reach. Some of the wise men were cracked last year.

This year I decided to buy him his own set to play with. It doesn’t have terra- cotta figures as a french set might. His is made of Lego like pieces and is called Tales of Glory Nativity Playset.

Christmas Crackers

We read that children in France make Christmas crackers. The crackers are papers filled with candy that are pulled open.

We decided to make some of our own using tissue paper to create cylinders. JDaniel painted the tissue paper with cotton balls. He made a wild modern design of streaks, spots and blobs. After placing the candy in toilet paper rolls, we wrapped them with the tissue paper and taped them closed with scotch tape to keep the candy from leaking out the sides. Then I tied at each end with rick rack.