The last bit o' penguin fun!

Here's the last bit of penguin fun that I have up my sleeve. What could it be? I like to call this "Funky Penguins" art!



What you need:
*black paper
*white and yellow paint in small amounts in a cucpake liner or squeeze bottle
*splat mats and cover ups
*white and/or yellow glitter
*cupcake liners or construction paper in yellow & white
*glue or glue stick
*scissors
*chalk (optional)

scrumdilly-do it!



Gather yer supplies. Each kidlet will use one piece of black paper. Have your wee ones (or you, if they are a bit small) fold paper in half creating a crease down the center. You can do this in either direction but width wise will leave you with a bit more room for the paint to ooze. Next up, your kidlets will drip or squeeze bits of paint on one side of the paper near the crease. Kind of like that old fashioned butterfly art we used to do as kids only we're using white and yellow paint. Once they've dripped to their hearts' content have them fold the paper back in half and rub a little to spread the paint. This part can get messy so have fun!



Open the paper to reveal their masterpieces and add bits of glitter to the wet paint.



Set aside to dry. Once dry your wee one's can cut out a penguin shape, add eyes, beak and feet using scraps from the black paper and a cupcake liner or construction paper for the beak and feet. Use a glue stick or glue to stick everything on and VIOLA, funky penguins for everyone!

Penguin inspired collage

So, have ya hunted through yer casa for penguin colored supplies? The easiest project to do is to make a penguin inspired colalge. This is one all kidlets can make. It is pure creativity. Check it out!



What you need:
*black or white paper or white paper plates
*glue
*black, white & yellow crayons, chalk, paint, and/or markers
*odds and ends in the penguin colors like felt, fabric scraps, tissue, pipe cleaners, glitter, etc.

scrumdilly-do it!

Set out yer splat mats, cover up any must cover clothing, roll up sleeves and have a go!


If your wee ones lile a lot of paint nd glue, go for some sturdier paper. Paper plates are awesome for this. Set their collages somewhere safe fro drying. Once they are dry you can transfrom them into many things! Refrigerator art isn't the only thing. Frame them, hang them, cut them up for more fun. Let your kidlets guide you and have fun!

Chalky Birds

Okay, so, Penguin Day was yesterday and I am late with some penguin inspired projects. I am so sorry for that and I have some projects about to be done but for now I leave you with Chalky Penguins! The nifty thing about penguin inspired art is that you don't need too many colors and in looking for what you have on hand you just may come up with something completely original and super duper fun! To start all you have to do is go on an art supply scavenger hunt and search your household for black, white and yellow. The possibilities are endless! You could even send your kidelts on the hunt with guidelines, of course! Fabric scraps, paper, newspaper, paint, crayons, dried pasta, rice, black beans, pip cleaners, tissue...see what I mean. Today's project utilizes those fun and chunky bits of sidewalk chalk that are laying about. I don't know aboutany of you but when we have a new box of sidewalk chalk in this place, the blues and pinks and greens get snatched up right quick but the whites and yellows usually sadly linger in the bottom of the tub. Pull them out, shake them off and have a go at some Penguin drawing.

What you need:
*chalk (any color will do but white & yellow are perfect for penguins)
*black paper

scrumdilly-do it!

lay out black paper
lay out chalk

Have a field Day!

If you are super industrious you can make your own sidewalk chalk. If you're feeling click happy you can check out my newest kaboodle list!

April 25 is World Penguin Day!

Pips in Paris..., originally uploaded by aldine.

Sooooo, tux it up peoples! I'll try and get some nifty art/craft fun up for ya but for now here's a book list and a link or two...

Penguin Dreams
Pingu
Draw a Penguin Ed Emberley style
Tiki the PenguinPenguin in Japan
Your Personal Penguin sung by Davy Jones
live Penguin Cam
Wonderpets

Loose change

It's raining outside this morning and I think perhaps a nice indoor, quiet, no mess art activity would be great for today. Still have a pile of nice shiny coins from earlier this week? Do they still smell like ketchup? Well, dump out your coin purse, jar or whathaveyou and have your wee ones make some coin rubbings! You could do this on regular printer paper and cut for cards or you can try this using large sweeps of paper to make custom gift wrap or you may even want to do this with tracing paper and turn their art into suncatchers of a sort. The thinner the paper the better the rub!

what you need:
*crayons from the bottom of the box sans paper
*thin paper like printer or notebook in light colors
*coins of all kinds
*splat mat, plastic tray, cookie sheet or cardboard
*masking tape or your favorite sticky stuff
*play-doh (optional)

scrumdilly-do it!

The easy way would be to toss a handful of coins onto the tray or cookiesheet, place paper over and rub. This is great for kidlets 7 and up. Wee-er ones (say 4-7)may get frustrated with the coins moving all over the place. For them I would add a small ball of play-doh to one side of each coin and have your kidlet pres the mdown onto theur work surface.

The dough should stick just enough to act as an anchor. Place sheet over the coins and tape down the top edge.

Place crayon lenghtwise onto paper and rub, rub, rub away!

Coins, colors and paper can all be shifted and moved about to produce a super nifty picture!

When that gets old, your kidlets may enjoy pressing their coins into the dough to see the imprints they leave. Play the compare and contrast game, sort the coins by likeness, make charts, have fun!

Don't forget to check out my book list and my fun list, they;re all about fun with coins! Happy Friday folks!

Science fun with Ketchup!

What? This is a messy fun activity to do with your wee ones who know not to put pennies in their mouths! You can read all about the science of it here. What could be more fun than being allowed to play with ketchup? If you're lucky, your wee ones will be entertained for maybe thirty minutes. It depends on how many pennies you have, your kidlet and their tolerance for mess and/or ketchup. You can also use taco sauce, lemon juice or vinegar but I think ketchup has the most mess factor which usually equals fun in any wee one's book.

What you need:
*old grungy pennies
*paper towels
*ketchup
*a clean space or splat mat
*cover ups for the kidlets
*a plastic tray, placemat or cookie sheet
*old toohbrush
*soap and water

scrumdilly-do it!


Wash your pennies first so you won't freak out when your kidlets start snacking on their fingers. I like to put all the pennies in a container with a lid, add warm soapy water, seal and shake. Rinse until all soap is gone and viola, clean coins. Kidlets may even like doing this part.

Squirt a bunch of ketchup onto your work surface, add pennies and let them sit for at least 2 minutes to get the vinegar in the ketchup to start working on the copper oxide. Hand yer wee ones a toothbrush and let them scrub scrub scrub away. Toss the pennies back into the washing container, rinse and you're done!



Viola! Clean pennies! If you can get your wee ones into it, and they can read dates, have them sort the pennies by year and make a chart or graph. I've entertained other kidlets by having them use the coins as "blocks". They built some pretty interesting structures with pennies and other found objects. Ooh, don't forget this puzzle for your whole family! Have fun and happy washing!

National Coin Week is coming up

Nickels!, originally uploaded by "Mr. W".

Here's a list I put together just for you. It is chock full of tips for teaching your kidlet's the value of a dollar. It is also oozing with rich illustrated texts! Have a looksie and start saving!

Book lists recap!

So sorry to not have anything new up folks1 I've got midterms and a camping trip coming up so things are extra busy here at the A-go-go household! So, for now I bring to you a list of all my book lists so far. Have fun click click clicking away when you have the time and see if your libraries have any of these super nifty picture books!

Hat Day
Popcorn
Pie one on
Happy Flapjacks
Toothy Reads
Piggeriffic Stories
Puppy Reads
Garden stories
Egg-cellent

Have Fun!

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!

Sorry folks, I have no Easter egg activities to offer you for I feel that it is a bit obvious! What I DO have is a shout out for my favorite childhood book, a listmania list for books and a kaboodle list for fun!


How Fletcher was Hatched
Written & Illustrated by Wende & Harry Devlin
Published by Parent's Magazine Press 1969

This was a book of the month book. My mother somehow managed to set me up with a new book each month that came in the mail just for me! Whoo-hoo! It was very exciting and oh how I loved the mailman when he had a package for me. How Fletcher was Hatched stuck with me for years and years and years. Only a shadow of the story stuck with me but the pictures...THE PICTURES resided in my brain for years and years and years! I couldn't remember the title but I knew it was about a dog that hatched from a giant pink polka dotted egg. One day about 10 years ago I was working in the bookstore when one of my favorite kidelts came in yammering in her thwee yeaw owd voice about the book wid da doggy named Fwetcha and it hit me! I was so excited! Turns out her preschool had a copy and since her family had a hound dog she was really intent on keeping the book but she couldn't because it belonged to the school. Finally, I had the title! I kept my eye out for it and one day I told my favorite librarian customer about it and she came in a week later with the book! For me! I had Fletcher! Then, the day after (I swear!) my mother called to tell me she found my copy with the shoe polish all over the front and my backwards name scribbled on the inside! I now had two copies and could give one to little Savannah!

The story is about a hound dog named Fletcher who fears his mistress doesn't love him anymore because she keeps playing with the new baby chicks. He runs away and runs into two beavers who build an egg around him so that he could win back Alexandra's adoration. Suddenly there is a giant pink egg in the middle of town! Oh what fun! This story is so delightful and the good news is I have a copy for giveaway! If you are interested, leave me a comment and I will put yer names in an egg and see who becomes the owner! It could be you!

Ceck out this nifty sidewalk chalk activity from skip to my lou Have a great holiday weekend folks!

How's about some gardening fun?

Someone out there in the big wide world has declared April National Gardening Month so why not take advantage of it and have yer wee one's grow something!

You can pick up seed packs just about anywhere these days. From the supermarket to the dollar store to one of the big box "we sell everything" stores, seed packs should be easy and inexpensive to find. You can even throw a garden party if yer wee one was lucky enough to be born in the spring. So many ideas, where shall I start?

*sprout an avocado pit (and yer kidlets can make some guacamole also!
*egg carton garden
*sprout some beans
*eggshell gardens

Or if you would rather go with something a bit more fruitful you can purchase small strawberry or tomato plants for yer wee ones to nurture and grow. One single strawberry has never tasted sooooo good! Now is a good time if you are in the states. I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to geography but I am sure there is something out there for every kidlet to grow no matter the amount of sun you are getting unless of course the sun is hibernating for you right now. For you I have included a list of excellent and fun picture books.

If fruits and vegetables are not up your alley, you can always grow flowers. Pick an easy to grow variety like violas or cosmos. Violas are perfect for little pots on the windowsill. A windowsill garden would be perfect for your tot! They even sell teeny tiny pots that she or he can paint and decorate. A handpainted pot with a custom pack of seeds makes for a beautiful gift for a family member at this time of year. You can purchase small envies from a specialty paper store or you can make your own with this template here. Turn your wee one's artwork into a custom pack of seeds! See? Too many ideas!

You can take your kidlets out to see public gardens in action. From Museums to Community Gardens to your neighbor's front yard, I am sure there is no end to the plantlife in your neighborhood! Don't forget to make a masking tape bracelet to catch all those pretty leaves and petals that have fallen to the ground!

And to top it all of check out this kaboodle list for more garden inspired fun! Thank you for stopping by!

Make a classroom quilt!

Or a family quilt, you decide whichever works for you!



My good friend and Reggio educater Julia put together a classroom quilt to be raffled of at her preschool fundraiser. She had each kidlet in her class art up a square that she then pieced together to make a wall quilt. This is more awesome than awesome! The coolest part is that all the documentation on how they worked on their quilt will also be included in the prize! Isn't that neato keen?

You can do this at home! All you need is some fabric, fabric scraps, ribbons, glitziness and a lot of Aleene's tacky glue! You can use a series of small squares are very large squares. You can stitch them together however you want or you can leave it up to yer kidlets as to how THEY want to piece it. You never know what they will come up with! Check out these details:

Afikomen envie!

If you have less time and/or supplies, here's an Afikomen envelope project that you can do with what you have on hand!

What you need:

*large manila envelopes

*crayons and pens

*adhesive of your choice

*scissors (whichever style is age appropriate for your kidlet)

*magazines that kidlest can cut up

scrumdilly-do it:

Lay out your supplies and have your wee ones go on an alphabet treasure hunt! Write out the letters that spell AFIKOMEN on a sheet of paper. Pass out the scissors and magazines and let them have a go at it! 

Once they have cut their letters out they can arrange them on their envelope and glue when ready. They can then add any other razzle dazzle they like. 

Viola! A custom made Afikomen envelope!

The cool thing about this project is utilizing your wee ones hand eye coordination, small motor skills and letter recognition! Don't need to stop at Afikomen. Kidlets can make their very own artists portfolio and hunt out the letters to their name to glue to the front! Kidlets who can recognize letters if not read them can do this also! They will love it and it will give you at least 20 minutes of "you" time! Don't forget to add your pictures to scrumdilly-did!

It's Afikomen time!

Okay, not yet but soon and what better way to protect that piece o' Matzoh than to make a super special envelope/bag for it? I have two styles in the works for you and hope you can use them as a jumping off point for your kidlets. Paper is perfect for the younger kids while sewing would be grand for the older (loose weave burlap can be stitched with a plastic needle!) or perhaps, they can decorate a piece of fabric and you stitch it all together for them.

Afikomen envie number one is made from two sheets of construction paper. You can use any kind of paper you want but this is what I had on hand. It is super easy, can be made quickly and your wee ones will have a glorious time glue glue glueing all kinds of extra bling to their envie. This project allows for creativity, lettering & language skills and small motor skills as they weave their "binding" in and out of the holes they have punched. Good practice for all that hand eye coordination.

What you need:

*2 sheets of paper or construction paper for each envie

*crayons, pens and markers

*glue

*a hole punch

*yarn or pipe cleaners

*extra bits and baubles like glitter, jewels, scrap paper, tissue, etc.

scrumdilly-do it:

Holding the 2 sheets of paper together have your kidlet punch holes around three sides. Using yarn or a pipe cleaner, your kidlet can then weave in and out of the holes to seal the edges together. I used a pipe cleaner for each side which was super easy to just twist off.

Now your wee ones can decorate to their hearts' content. Have them write out the word AFIKOMEN to practice their lettering and all that fun literacy stuff. Set aside to dry.

On the big day, wrap the Afikomen in a cloth or napkin and slip inside the envie and hide. Viola! No crumbs behind those drapes!

More Passover stuff can be found on my Kaboodle list. Plague finger puppets anyone?

Make a Kiddush Cup!

Or rather...decorate a cup! To keep your wee ones busy before Seder time, why not have them decorate their very kiddush cups? You can use any type of plastic cup of your choosing, they come in so many styles. This way you can either go the goblet route or the tumbler route. Me, I went for what was easiest to find. Introducing my kiddush cup!

It is still a little sticky from all the glue but it will dry pretty soon. These cups are pretty much good for one use only so have yer wee ones make a bunch!

What you need:

*plastic cups

*good old fashioned white glue

*paintbrushes and sponge brushes

*tissue paper

*plastic jewels and stickers

scrumdilly-do it:

Gather your supplies and set up shop in a glue friendly are. Use a splat mat if you are overprotective of your furniture. Kidlets can get very creative with glue and you never know hwere it will end up! Have your wee ones tear up pieces of tissue paper to have ready for when their cups are all sticky with glue. Get ready to bedazzle!

There are many ways a kidlet can go about doing this and I would encourage you to let them do it their way. They can "paint" their cups with glue first using a sponge tip brush to cover more are in a single swoop or they can hold the tissue over the cup and paint the glue over the paper, either way works, yay!

Once the tissue is all over the place, your kidlets can add other bling to their cups using stickers or plastic jewels. Once they are done set cups aside to dry and then behold their magnificence! See? Super easy and fun to make! Share pictures of your cups over at scrumdilly-did! Thanks!

More scrumdilly-do pics can be found here and more Passover fun can be found here.

It's time for Passover!

Passover Candy, originally uploaded by pixelchick.

Stay tuned this week for all sorts of Passover inspired projects. To sneak a peek you can check out my brand new kaboodle list! Happy Monday folks! I'm off to school...

For the dogs!

Being that tomorrow is Puppy Day according to whomever it was who really likes puppies, I have compiled both a kaboodle list of fun and a listmania list of doggone good reads for you. I know that there are a great many dog books that aren't on the list but the ones I listed are some of my favorites! Please check them out and try to find them at your local library! For now, here are two of my top faves for funny looking doggie reads. Both are about funny looking dogs and both will delight your wee ones i'm sure of it! While Unlovable is a prettier looking book, give Uglypus a chance. He becomes a hero and a true friend to a boy who couldn't appreciate him in the begining. It's all about not judging one's beauty from the outside.


Uglypuss
Written & Illustrated by Caroline Gregoire
Translated by George Wen
Published by Henry Holt and Co. 1993 (no longer in print)

Unlovable
Written & Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
Published by Henry Holt and Co. 2002

Start your own book club!

This may be old hat to some of you but just in case I thought I would point y'all to Target's Ready! Sit! Read! book club organizer and generator. It's pretty cool plus you get this nifty backpack and extra goodies designed by J. Otto Seibold of Mr. Lunch fame. The cool thing about Ready! Sit! Read! is that you can print out all sorts of templates for journal pages and lists to help you out. Of course you don't HAVE to do any of that but it's a great jumping off point. You may also want to try your local library or bookstore to see what type of book clubs and storytime programs they offer.

Lookie these goodies I recently received. Bookmarks, stickers and pamphlets...oh my! So, check out Target's Ready! Sit! Read! and create your very own official bookclub. You can't lose! Books are a wonder! Please feel free to ask me for reading recommendations. I have so much info in my head I don't know where to start sharing!



Other online book clubs:
Planet Book Club
Spaghetti Book club by kids, for kids!
Annie's Homegrown Book Club
Children's Braille Book Club

Making GREEN with shaving cream!

Have a blast with this fun science-y activity of color mixing! It can be goopy messy so make sure yer kidlets appreciate a mess and wear not so special clothing. This is best done outside and is perfect for warm weather when you can bring out the hose or squirt bottles for clean up! If you can't do it outside, keep your mixing masterpieces in their plastic baggies and at the kitchen or play table or have your wee ones each use their own cookie sheet or tray. Shaving cream on its own is easily cleaned up. Shaving cream with color may stain so be sure you want to do all this before you start and remember, a little goes a long way! click here to see a larger version of the picture!

Clockwise from the top you too can scrumdilly-do it:

*Gather your supplies, unscented shaving cream (not gel), plastic sealable baggies and food color in yellow & blue or liquid watecolor in yellow & blue. (You can of course use any colors you like but here, we're making green! Oh and you can always find natural shaving cream like Tom's of Maine which has a minty scent. The regular stuff however can be found at your local dollar store.)

*Squirt some shaving cream into a baggie

*Add a drop or two of the two colors, one color on each side of the baggie so your kidlets can see the separate colors. Seal the baggie with as little air as possible so your kidlets can mush it all up.

*Agitate the baggies so the colors get mixed.

*See how there will be patches of yellow melding into the blue making green. Let your wee ones decide how many drops of each color they want. Use poster board or paper to create a graph. Let your wee ones math it out and explore!

*Sometimes the colors leak through, if your wee ones freak out wash hands and all will be well. Though blue is harder to get out than yellow!

*Snip a corner off the baggie and have your kidlets squeeze out the foamy goodness onto a clean washable surface or splat mat. (A plastic tablecloth will work fine and if your table is in need of a good cleaning shaving cream does a great job! Just ask any grade school teacher!)

*Mound it up in your hands for shaping fun. Show it off! Take pictures! Document! Go back to the charts and graphs and see what else your wee ones can write down.

*Most of all enjoy it and squish squish squish away! Once the food color is mixed in with the cream it shouldn't stain your wee one's hands or skin. It disolves easily with water and if they choose to make a painting with it the colors from the cream will stain their paper but the cream will eventually disolve.

Have fun! Check out these other shaving cream activities:
*Marble Prints

*Shaving cream writing

*Shaving cream clouds

*Shaving cream science

*Puff paint

*Tub time paint

A wee bit o' green fun!

Make today a day of green. I'll try to post some pictures later but we're off for a bike ride in 4 minutes so I must type fast! Yikes! Here's a list of green fun you and yer family can try!

*Have a green breakfast! Add a drop or two of food color to your kidlet's milk.

*Make green milkshakes

*Hand your wee one a disposable camera and go on a green scavenger hunt!

*Mix green. Give your kidlet's some yellow and blue paint and have them make their own green! Use different shades of blue and yellow and have some white and black out for them also. Expirement and chart their creations!

*Collect green paint chips from the paint store and make a collage. Or, gather all the green craft materials you have and create something green!

*Serve an all green lunch or dinner. Have the wee ones come up with ideas!

*Make green cupcakes! Check out this zucchini cupcake recipe!

Most of all have fun! I'll post some pics when I get back! Happy Day!

Please excuse me for a moment...

I'm trying to be technical here...
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