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!

snowflakes a plenty

 

A wee bit of fun on the art table during our week of Snow. Snowflake punches, cupcake liners, stickers, and stamps. Oh the flurry of art that was created at this table!

bows, bows, and more bows...

Our last week before winter break we read Rabbit's Gift. To tie in the literature we had a lot of bow play going on (even though there were no wrapped presents in the book the children talked about presents and what they looked like so bows it was).

 

 

We had magnetic bows to sort and match and bows to count and measure with.

We had a table of boxes and bows to create gifts with which the children thoroughly enjoyed. I must have received a dozen boxes of dinosaurs, cars, acorns, and rubber insects!

painting with holiday bows

We painted with our bow brushes using our tempera paints on fingerpaint paper. The glossiness of the paper gave our paintings a fun bit of shine. The children enjoyed painting with our bow brushes and took it upon themselves not to mix the paint up. I had done this before years ago with the children dipping their bows in paint. I wish I had thought of gluing them to craft sticks but then again it was so long ago you needed to save your popsicle sticks if you wanted some. So happy I found the idea and this pin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i scrumdilly did it!

i have all kinds of fun giftos for the kiddos in my scrumdillydilly shop, check it out and stay tuned for some holiday crafting fun!

Christmas Countdown: Make Mini Wreath Ornaments, Tags & Decorations

Do you remember the phonebook wreath from last year? We're gonna shrink it up a bit and make them itty bitty. These are not just for Christmas, you can make these for any occasion. Who says a wreath has to be for Christmas? We're making ours out of an old phonebook so already, we've broken a few rules so go for it! Hanukkah wreath? Sure! Kwanzaa wreath? Why not? Boxing Day wreath? Bring it on! New Years Wreath? Of course! You choose the colors and the celebration. Have fun!

You will need:
*cardboard (a cereal box will work)
*old phonebook
*glue
*paint (you can use whichever kind you have on hand)
*sponges or brushes or hands if you're brave
*scissors
*pipecleaner, soda tab, paperclip or wire to hang
*cylindrical objects you can trace for a template
*hole punch
*waxed string, floss, dental floss or yarn
*wax paper (to place underneath all that gluey goodness)

Okay, so we're gonna go small with this so send your wee one off on a circle hunt. Explain how you are going to be making mini wreaths and ask your wee ones what shape they see when they look at a wreath. Next ask what they think would work as a pattern to use for their own wreaths. You can totally turn this into an exercise on shapes and patterns. If you do not have the time or your tot won't be too enthused, get a couple of cups from the cupboard and get ready to start. You will want two sizes. One for the full size of the wreath, and a smaller one for the center that you will be cutting out. I used a small glass and a bottle cap.Set up your work space with a splat mat or large sheet of wax paper under it all. Kids & glue equal fun messiness so be prepared! Flatten out the cardboard you will be using and get ready to grab some pencils and trace. Have your kidlet trace around the outer edge of the cup or bowl you are using for your template. Have them center the smaller one inside the larger circle and trace that as well. Repeat as often as you like. You will hopefully want to make more than one.Use the scissors to cut out the larger circles. You child can do this part if they wish. You will need to cute the center circle out as it may require an exacto to extract. The circles do not have to be perfect. The crumpled paper will flesh them out.Once all your wreath shapes are cut, get to painting them the colors of your choice. Set aside to dry.Have you child cover a couple of phonebook pages with paint. They can use as many colors as they like. If the pages get too saturated with paint they will rip, just so ya know, okay? Set aside to dry.Once dry, cut the pages into small squares about the size of a postage stamp. Or, 1" by 1".Cover your wreath shapes in glue and crumple up each little square and pop it onto the gluey goodness. Repeat until the wreath is as full as your child wants. Do you remember the tissue squares and pencil trick from kindergarten? You can do that as well.Once they are all dry, decorate your wreaths with sequins, ribbon, glitter or more paint. Set aside to dry if they need it.Punch a hole in the "top" of each wreath and thread with a length of string. Now you can connect wreaths to make a garland, top of your presents with them or hang them onto your tree. If you want to turn them into tags, cover the back with glue stick and affix a circle of paper onto the back. Write your To: & From: and you are done!Happy wreath making! If you want to stray from using phonebook pages and paint, cut your squares from tissue paper, you will want a "soft" paper for this project.

Make Name Cards for Passover

There is no end to the many different ways you can make place cards for your Passover Seder. This idea uses up those plastic baskets that strawberries and other fruit may come in. My original idea was hoping that they would shrink like shrink plastic does alas they do not but this is still fun and it allows for some marker time and most kids do love marker time!What you need:
*scissors
*plastic fruit containers, washed & dried
*permanent markers (I know, I'm sorry but Crayola won't stick)
*foil
*cookie sheetscrumdilly-do it!

Wash and dry your plastic containers. Your kidlets can do this, easy peasy. If you can, remove the label from the container so that you can use both the top and the bottom. Each container will give you two place cards.

Cut apart your containers so that your wee ones can doodle-up the tops and bottoms. Save the sides for other fun but usually they are too bumpy to write on. You can even cut each top and/or bottom piece into two pieces for smaller place cards.
Have your tots use the markers to decorate each piece and then place on a sheet of foil on a cookie sheet and pop into a low temperature oven or toaster oven. 200 degrees or under is good.
The plastic doesn't shrink, but it does curl up quite a bit. You may choose to weigh it down with a cast iron skillet or other heavy oven safe pan. It goes without question that you are to do this part and NOT your tots! After about ten minutes, the plastic will curl and be pliable. As quickly as possible, remove pieces, one at a time and gently shape into a wave so that the place card can stand on its own. The plastic cools very fast and becomes rigid. And yes, it does get a might bit stinky.Viola! You are done! You may want to experiment with your kidlets and let them color up all bits of the containers and then see how wonky they will curl. Call it sculptural art!