Archive for June 2009
- Gather your materials. You will need some craft paper, some small spray bottles, liquid washable paint and masking tape.
- Pour some paint into the spray bottles , add water and shake. You will want to use dark colors, because the water dilutes it .
- Tape your paper to your fence.
- Start spraying! Your child will have fun but is also giving their pincer grasp a great workout. We had fun spraying it up close ,
and far away. 
Older kids can try to make a picture or have fun watching the drips like we did.
This project was sent in by Scott over at 360KID. This uses bleach so this is not a project for when kids are around however for a crafty parent it’s awesome. Make sure you are in a very well ventilated area- like outside and you use gloves when dealing with bleach. I plan to do this for my son with a cut out of an upright base- for some reason I can’t find shirts with that instrument in a 3T! Thanks Scott for sharing this and your blog!
- Gather your materials. Scott used an old black tee-shirt, some doilies, twigs, scissors, newspaper , spritzer bottle, bleach , water and gloves.
- Start by mixing 2 parts water and one part bleach in your spritzer bottle.
- Lay out the newspaper and tee-shirt.
- Cut your doilies, and paper into shapes. You could also use plastic letters, rocks… the sky is the limit. Place them and the twigs on the shirt.
- Spray with the bleach mixture. Wait. Scott said that it started turning almost immediately!
- Pop it in a cold wash – dry and you are good to go!
If you are interested in kids , learning and technology pop over to Scott’s blog 360KID , you’ll end up reading for hours!
We went on a fun play date to the local marine science center, where my son was taken with the crabs. You would think an octopus or eel would have been the star of the show but for days he was talking about this plain old, can see it at the market shell fish! So of course, we made one!
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate, a piece of light colored construction paper, scissors, red paint, a paint brush, glue and googly eyes.
- Start by painting your paper plate red.
- Next paint the paper red too, at this point he was using his hands, which is fine too. Let dry.
- When they are dry ( nap time is always a good drying time) cut the plate in half.
- Cut one half into quarters and cut out some claws.
- Cut 2 longer strips out of the paper and 2 small ones.
- Fan fold the longer strips.
- Add glue to the top of the 1/2 paper plate.Add the two smaller strips.
- Add glue to the ends of them and add the eyes.
- Add glue to the sides of the plate and add the folded strips.
- Glue the claws on the end and let dry.
Books!
“Beach Party” by Harriet Ziefert and Simms Taback reminds me of “Head to Toe” by Eric Carle , and that comparison is a compliment. This large board book is a fun and cute way to introduce toddlers to movement as well as animals you find or want to avoid at the beach. The reader is asked how they want to walk today then they see how each animal moves. This would be a fun read for a circle time where kids could get up and move!
“The Seashore Book” by Charlotte Zolotow is a touching story of a little boy excited to go to the sea for the first time from his mountain home. The mother describes it so well that you will be aching for a trip too! I must admit though that my son and I barely paid attention to the words, we were both so moved by Wendell Minor’s paintings. We couldn’t help but ooh and awe every time we turned the page. My son’s favorite page was the one with the crab, of course!
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My son is rather smitten with my husband’s blackberry. When he pretends to be his dad he goes to the front hall, grabs the blackberry, a pretend coffee mug and tells us he’s off to the office. It was only fitting to try to do some father’s day craft with that as the inspirations. Here is what we came up with.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 sheets of foam(one black one white, paper will do but foam will look better), a fine tip marker, scissors some tin foil, glue, magnets or magnetic strips and a picture.
- Start by writing out the alphabet or you can write out “Happy Father’s Day” remember to make each letter individual so it looks like a keyboard. I didn’t bother because I knew my son would not be able to put it in order and I wanted him to do it since he loves to glue.
- Cut the letters out. If your child is too young for tiny pieces, do 3 rows of keys instead of cutting each out.
- Make a space bar and cut out.
- I tapes off the upper half of the black foam so that my son had a physical line not to cross with the glue.
- Glue the letters on.
With little guys you can spread the glue, it doesn’t dry completely clear there will be a reflection so if your child is able to carefully put glue under each key , try. If not it’s no biggie!
- While they do that cut a frame from the other piece of foam. Mine is black but I should have done it with the white, I have 2/3 of a sheet left over after the letters.
- Cover it with the tin foil.
The best way is to put the foil over the frame, then cut out the middle, leaving some extra to squeeze around the frame. 
This was actually sorta tricky, I got all consumed by this and my son was gluing his hands together .Ooops. - Take off the tape when your child is done gluing and glue their picture on.
- Add the foil frame- use lots of glue for this.
- Let dry
- Add some magnetic strips or my favorite use those free marketing magnets companies send you!
Song!
I love my daddy
He’s really smart
He’s got big muscles and a bigger heart
When I get all cranky and I pout
He gives me hugs and never shouts!
“Molly and her Dad” by Jan Ormerod was a great find. Molly doesn’t see her dad often because he lives a plane ride away and when he comes to take care of her things aren’t perfect at first. There are so many little things about this book I like. I like that there are details like baby photos of Molly and both her parents together, I like that Molly tells her dad how he is doing things wrong and doesn’t warm up to him immediately and I like how he doesn’t get mad. I think this is a pretty realistic portrayal of children’s emotions when spending time with a parent they don’t see often but still have a great relationship with.
** As promised I have re worked this craft for the iphone… here it is!
1. Cut some black foam into a rounded rectangle.
2. Using silver sticky back foam cut into small strips.
3.Press the strips onto the edges of he black foam.
4. Cut a piece of white foam and draw lines on the ends, color them blue. Glue on.
5.Cut a small circle and tiny rectangle out of the silver sticky back foam and stick on.
6. Glue on the picture!
