Archive for March 2009
How could I let a holiday go by without a garland? I love decorating with garlands .What makes this one so fun is that it’s made with coffee filters. The surface absorbs the paint well and when it’s dry it really looks like a leaf. Add a little glitter and you have a perfect and inexpensive St.Patrick’s Day decoration.
- Gather your materials. You will need multiple coffee filters,some yellow and blue paint, a paintbrush, some gold glitter, sharp scissors, and some green ribbon .
- Start by cutting your coffee filters into shamrocks. With really little toddlers I would draw a shamrock and let them paint it then cut out, painting on the small shamrocks is a challenge , they have to be careful and for a young toddler it would prove to be really frustrating which isn’t what we want.
- Mix your green paint. When activities are shorter like this one I like to have my son mix the paint, he loves it too!
- Paint your shamrocks
- Let dry
- Add the gold glitter and let dry.
- Poke 2 small holes in each shamrock, I alternated between the top and the stem.
- Thread the ribbon through
- Hang up and enjoy!
- Gather your materials. I am using a left over 2 x 4 my husband had in the garage. I made sure it was smooth before bringing it inside.
- I popped it on my rug and that’s it !
- We pretended to be pirates walking the plank, sneaky foxes on our tippy toes and played follow the leader all using this little piece of wood.
Stars are my favorite shape and I couldn’t resist making our letter of the week into a starry creation, we were also eager to test out our new glitter. This craft is a great add on to a shape or better yet a space theme! Bet you thought it was going to be a shamrock S , not today but we still have a few St. Patrick’s Day activities to come !
- Gather your materials. You will need 3 pieces of construction paper ( 1 black, 2 neutral) , markers, glitter paint, scissors and glue.
- Start by having your child paint the black paper with glitter glue.
- While they do that draw a large S on the lighter paper
- On the 2nd piece draw some stars. I used a cookie cutter for one, and free styled the others, hmmm perhaps I should have traced the cookie cutter for all of them !
- Time to color the S, use the markers. We didn’t use the glitter but you can if you want .
- When they are done with the S, add glitter to the stars. Our glitter was a little hard to get out so I squeezed and my son smeared.
- Let everything dry.
- Cut out the S and glue it onto the black paper.
- Cut out the stars
- Add them to the S
- Let dry.
Books!
“Draw Me A Star” by Eric Carle is often not read in classrooms simply because of a beautiful depiction of a naked man and woman. It’s not what most parents expect to find in an Eric Carle book but it is very fitting in this beautiful and really touching book. The story although very similar to a biblical creation story isn’t necessarily reflective only of a christian view point , rather as I read it is was the author’s own creation. It begins and ends with a star , and hits all the right points in between.
” How to Catch a Star” by Oliver Jeffers is a sweet story about a little boy who wants a star of his own. I loved the bright and simplistic illustrations and the message about holding on to your dreams, working for them and figuring out that sometimes things come to you in packages you don’t expect! Great book!
Cooking Claire
What I love about this blog is that it’s a realistic cooking blog ,items get used more than once, results aren’t always perfect and as a mom of two young kids Claire keeps the menu tasty without being unfriendly to kids !
Pop over and see why Cooking Claire is my pick for this weeks
Sunday Spotlight !
I am pretty health conscious , especially when it comes to what my family eats, but treats are not banned and candy has a special place in my heart. When my son and I made both the treats in this post he turned up his nose at the sugary one and gobbled up 2 spinach and banana popsicles in a row! I was proud and it made up for all the marshmallows he ate while we were making the shamrocks. You can win every time right?
Shamrock
Crispy Rice Treats
- Gather your materials. You will need 5 1/2 cups of marshmallows, 5 1/2 cups of rice crispy type cereal, 1/4 cup of butter, green sprinkles, green candies , some non stick spray , a large sauce pan , 2 baking sheets and a shamrock cookie cutter. * I had food coloring out but didn’t end up using it, the sparkles bled enough.
- Stir the green sparkles and candies into the cereal.
- Melt the butter over low heat .
- Add the marshmallows to the melted butter and stir until smooth.
- Add the cereal mix.
- Mix well
- Put the mix onto one baking sheet that has been sprayed with baking spray
- Press down with the 2nd, this compacts it down perfectly
- Let cool in your fridge for an hour.
- Cut out with cookie cutter and enjoy.
Popsicles
- Gather your materials. You will need a blender, banana or vanilla yogurt,some milk, frozen spinach,a very ripe banana and popsicle molds.
- Put all ingredients into a blender and blend.
- Pour into the mold and freeze for at least 3 hours.
- Pop out and enjoy!
