mother's day brooches part 3

mother's day brooches part 2

See what I mean? Gorgeous! I would totally wear one of these. I should make one for myself.

 

The bling came from my jewelry junk drawer. Craft store beads, sequins, woold balls, costume jewelry that had been dissasembled, you name it! I grabbed a couple of handfuls from the drawer and popped them into a bag for us to work from at school. I dumped the whole happy mess onto one of our trays and passed out empty applesauce/mini chobani containers for the kiddos to select what they wanted to add to their flower. Once they had their selections and I was ready for them, they came over to the hot melt glue table. Some of the children can handle the glue gun, others need/want help. We plopped a puddle of hot glue onto the center of the flower then we dumped our cup of happy onto the whole shebang. We ended up with some amazing bits of goodness. Before they added their bling, I had glued pinbacks to the backs of the flowers. When everything was ready, the children wrapped up their pins by rolling them in tissue paper and placing into a small bag. That day we also had a school function in the evening and it was so delightful to see all of the moms show up with their pins on!

mother's day brooches part 1

This year for Mother's Day I wanted to try something that could be worn outside of Mother's Day and landed on a painted floral pin.

I cut our a variety of flower shapes in different sizes with the idea that the children would select their pieces, smallest to largest...staple them together, then add paint before blinging them out with all sorts of sparkly goodness. This last unpainted flower was my sample. 

We used liquid watercolor to paint the flowers. I demonstrated how to wet the flower by submerging it into a tray of water. A few of the kiddos really got a kick out of that part, so they would paint their flower, submerge it to rinse it off, then paint again.

They came out even better than I had imagined! I think my favorites are of the flowers that got rinsed multiple times. The layers of color are so pretty. Stay tuned to see how they all turned out! I can't remember if I got photos of the children adding their bling or not but I do have final product pics!

the return of our pan pipes!

I think the children had more fun cutting the straws and watching them fly, than making their pan pipes. We forgot to plug up the bottoms, though we did pop some play dough in a few (which was super fun to blow out, of course). If you decide to make these, you can find the diy here. I recommend using masking tape as the washi tape peeled off a few hours later.

mother's day gift wrap

For Mother's Day, the kiddos made sweet Sculpey trinket dishes and watercolor painted wood tags all wrapped up by their own hands. How sweet are these?

make a button board

More like a button pillowcase...I used two cloth napkins from our local craft store, but you could just as easily use a solid color pillowcase....hand stitch a variety of buttons to the cloth, insert cardboard, cut out felt shapes (don't forget the buttonholes,) and you're good to go! This is great for fine motor work and button practice!

we made snow globes

Because, you know.....sunny California.

This week we read the book Snow by Uri Shulevitz, we talked about weather, temperature, snow, ice, seasons, winter, and more. There were pompom snowballs to explore, glittery orbs to discover, a mirror box to explore symmetry, and books with photos of snowflakes. We made faux snow aka clean mud, tape resist snowflakes, wintery colored paintings, and these happy snowglobes.

The children brought in jars, poured the water, added the glitter (and discovered that too much sparkle made it difficult to see their happy snow globe selves), and selected their decorations. I took the photos the week before, and manned the glue gun the day of. They really loved looking at them and sharing them with their friends and family. Idea came from Our Best Bites blog. Ya gotta love folks who share, thank you!

press here collages

Another year, another group of awesome collages inspired by the book Press Here. I wish I had photos of the set up (it was a provocation), but the kiddos jumped right in and I had no time to grab the camera! I had the materials at the art table all pretty and laid out but I think it was the glue stick that drew them in. Either way, our collages are up on our art wall making the classroom an extra cheery space!

For more Press Here inspiration click here, here, and here! Have fun!

did I tell you about the time...

I painted up some baskets for Skip to My Lou Click here for the details!

make a butterfly matching game

For this super easy matching game you will need to plan ahead to source out your wood discs. I've purchased discs from Amazon, Michael's, and etsy in the past. Stickers were found at a local craft store but you can find them here (I should probably sign up for an affiliate dealio).

Decide on how many pairs you want to make (I did 12 as I only had 24 discs) and get to sticking. Make sure you have 2 of each image.

That's it! I have found that stickers stick best to wood base as is. They stick a little less when the disc has been painted. You can also go over the disc with a coat of mod podge but so far these have stuck and the children know they are not to get wet. I've been gifting sets like this to the kiddos in my life for eons! There have been butterflies, owls, halloween stickers, colored dots, rollerskates, and so much more!

9 butterfly centers for home or classroom

Happy Spring! We're about to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in our classroom so I was reviewing what we did last year as I worked on next week's lesson plan. I was super happy with what we did last year so thought I would give all y'all a reminder in case you need a little inspiration! Happy planing!

*beaded caterpillars: you can set this up photos of caterpillars, beads, and pipecleaners or you can challenge your kiddos to create a caterpillar pattern!

*butterfly memory/matching game: i just finished making a pretty butterfly matching game but last year we used this one which came from a helpful blogger. you can make your own game or find one online like this or this.

*dot marker butterflies: this set-up can be enjoyed any number of ways depending on where your kiddo is developmentally. dot markers are a plus but you can use paint and sponges, crayons, or watercolors.

*butterfly magnet play: i made this last year and have no in progress photos for a diy post. i purchased butterfly stickers from Michael's, i think they came from the Martha Stewart line, and added magnet tape to the back. I then painted up some green paper a la Eric Carle and adhered it to a metal pizza pan for a happy little bit of magnet play.

*stacked wooden caterpillars: i blogged about this one last year and the children had a lot of fun making their own caterpillars. they were quite proud.

*magnetic chalkboard butterfly: another favorite from last year. maybe this year we will utilize the felt backs or maybe I'll find some neon chalk!

*The Very Hungry Caterpillar button snake: I did not make this but there are a few diys out there like this or you can find one on etsy like this.

*bubble wrap butterflies: this project works best on a wall or easel and can be used many times over before discarding. wipe down the painty goodness with a sponge or damp cloth and the next kiddo is good to go!

*chalkboard butterfly: i did not make this at all but lucked out when i found it last year at Michael's. i'm not sure if they have them this year or not. check out your local craft store or amazon (this one might work).

diy color sorting gift set

I whipped up this adorable color sorting set for a dear little back in January. It can be used in a number of ways and packs a pretty punch.

I found these sweet wood tags at Michael's for $1.99 for a set of 10. I purchased two packs to make the color set worthwhile. After rifling through my fabric stash for happy fabrics I picked out four prints and matched my paints to them.

To paint the shapes, set out some wax paper, grab a brush, and give each side a coat or two, allowing dry time between coats. Takes less than half an hour to dry. I aimed for a color wash so used very little paint.

The sorting mat was made by cutting rectangles from each piece of fabric that measured about 3"X6" each. Use a sewing machine to stitch each piece of fabric together in a row, iron each seam flat as you go. Place finished patchwork right-side up and lay a neutral piece of fabric over the top, pin and trim. Bring to sewing machine and stitch around three sides. Turn right-side out and iron flat. Fold in the edges of the open side and iron flat. Put the whole shebang back into the sewing machine and give it a all a zig-zag stitch around to add a bit of decorative flair.

To make the bag, I used this project. Use a piece of fabric that is about 12"X8". If you want the bag to have the happy bit of patchwork on it, fold the fabric in half before stitching into a bag and randomly stitch fabric scraps into a happy pattern.

For presentation, roll your mat up, pop it into the bag along with the wood shapes and give it away! Enjoy! I hope this inspires you.

pin the tail on the lion {and the little red bird}

The children in the preschool loved playing Pin the Tail on the Lion after we read The Lion and the Little Red Bird. They spent a lot of time retelling the story, choosing their favorite tail and playing many different versions of their game. My co-teacher painted up the lion on large white paper and I assembled the birdie from paper in our scrap bin. The tails and lion were oh-so-carefully covered in clear adhesive shelf paper so that we could enjoy him again next year with another group of kiddos.

bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish!

As a part of our artist study of Wayne Thiebaud I created a bubblegum machine matching board. The printout came from Paper and the Pea. I printed it out thinking we would use our Dot Markers on it or perhaps practice one-to-one correspondence using stickers but then I spied my markers and laminator and inspiration struck.

We have had our magnetic pompoms for a few years and use them for all sorts of projects. I pulled out matching colors (surprisingly we had no purple) and set this up to see what the kiddos would do.

Individually they will put the pompoms onto the machine every-which-way. Some of the children will color match, some of them will not. Sometimes the gumballs end up in the play kitchen. As a group we sit down and select three gumballs each and place them on their matching gumball. There are all sorts of ways to play!

fun with dyed chanukah pasta

When I found this happy bag of Chanukah pasta at World Market I scooped it up with a whoop and imagined how pretty it would be dyed in all sorts of happy colors. So I took it home and did just that using this method.

The bag itself isn't too large so each color is only maybe two cups or so of noodles. The teal and purple were accomplished using liquid watercolor while the dark blue and the white needed a little help from some acrylic paint mixed with water. The white and blue got a bit more wet than usual in the shaking process so needed a day to dry with a manual flip in between to get both sides.

Once the noodles are all dry there are oodles of ways for your kiddos to play! Use the pasta as a stand in for gelt during dreidel play. Add it to play dough or color sort onto a sorting mat made from printed/solid paper taped or stitched together. Felt will work for a more permanent mat but happy scrapbook paper will do in a pinch!

Stack the pieces! Have a contest to see who can stack the most in a set time. Up the ante by using only your pinching fingers. Grab a pipecleaner or some yarn and string the noodles up for a pretty necklace or bracelet.

Work on math and patterning by creating various patterns with your kiddos. Set up an art table with glue, paint, and glitter and get to it! There are all sorts of ways you can play! Happy Chanukah!

gingerbread men round 2

This year the children whipped up their own puffy paint to paint their gingerbread men and/or houses with. After reading more than a dozen recipes for diy puffy paint I came to the conclusion that the ratios did not need to be exact and that all you needed was salt, flour, baking soda, and a little water (plus liquid water color).

 

We mixed up our paint at circle time. Each kiddo was given a small container and spoon on one of our white plates (I LOVE these plates). Then I talked about the paint we were going to make and how it was a recipe. We've been working on recipes almost every week. The children took turns scooping out their desired amounts of the ingredients and got to mixing.

There were a lot of comments when the children found their paint to be too thick or too thin. After a little experimenting they each came up with their perfect pot of paint.

 

I poured the paint into small squeeze bottle that made it difficult for the children to get all squeeze happy. They really had to work those squeezing muscles!  Even though they each mixed up their own color we talked about sharing the paint with the rest of the class and how we could accomplish that through kind words and questions.

 

While I love the idea of using real candy to decorate their cardboard people and houses (like we did last year) I wanted for them to make something that could possibly be kept without attracting critters. To remedy this I spent one television program using various paper punches and a paper pad of holiday paper from Michael's to punch out circles, stars, and hearts of various sizes.

 

 

The children delighted in their creations and use oodles of thinking skills when they realized their paint would not puff up when we cooked it  (pop into microwave and cook for 20 seconds or so)if it was covered in paper. I loved seeing and listening to their collaborations and discoveries. Some layered circles and told me it was like "Disky" back from when we did our Kandinsky study, while others talked about shapes, size variations, and practiced their one to one correspondence with one paper shape to each blob of paint that they then counted out.

I mean, lookie how happy these creations are (blurry photos and all)! I used a template the mister made for me last year. I need to transfer to the computer so you all can have a copy if ya like.

Also, the clean up was so pretty I had to take a picture of it as well. We kept the paint out and available for the day. Oh my goodness! I just realized the sticky bottles of paint are in a zip bag somewhere in the casa...where did I put them?  I better find them before they get super ickified! Yikes! Enjoy!