Archive for October 2009
Easy As Pumpkin Pie !
I love play dough but until last year hated making it. I had a play dough cook off and this was my favorite recipe that was submitted by Jana from This and That I added pumpkin pie spice to it and it was perfect! It was a nice calm activity for my little man on a very rainy day!
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
3 Tbs. oil
1 Tbs. alum
2 cups boiling water
food coloring
Here is how I had my little man help me make it today!
- Gather your materials. You will need the ingredients – separated into individual bowls, pumpkin pie spice, food color is you want, a cutting board, and fall cookie cutters for playing after!
- Start by pouring your flour into a large bowl, I don’t suggest having it at kid level until you are ready to mix… my camera batteries died and in the 2 minutes it took to get new ones there was a nice dusting of flour all over.
- Pour in the salt.
- The alum
- The oil
- The pumpkin pie spice – my son added so much but it turned out great.
- Pour the boiling water in ( adults only please- the water needs to be boiling not just hot)
- Mix.
- Pop onto the cutting board and knead, add food color if you want.
- Let cool a few minutes.
- Play! The addition of seasonal cookie cutters make all the difference for us. Plain old playdough becomes extra fun with these $1 cookie cutters! You can store it in the fridge for months in a sealed ziplock.
Toddler Halloween Books
Clifford’s First Halloween (Clifford the Small Red Puppy)
Peek-a-Boooo!
Where Is Baby’s Pumpkin?
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Sun Print
The blue is really all one color- my reflection is wrecking a perfect picture!
My son is fighting the flu, and although his fever is gone he hasn’t asked to do any projects and I haven’t pushed. He has been watching far too much TV though which if the fever is still gone tomorrow will be ending. So today while he sat on the couch enjoying my lax rules about TV when we are sequestered in our house , I made this. I was so impressed with the results. My mom bought me this paper and I think she paid $7 for the pack of 12 in Canada, I would bet it’s cheaper in the states! This is not a craft for little ones but you can grab leaves or other flat objects and use sun print paper with young kids. Here’s what I did:
- Gather your materials. You will need sun print paper kit, some construction paper of any color, a pen or fine tip felt , fine tip scissors and patience !
- Start by reading the instructions in your sun print paper kit. Pull out the frame that is included to make sure your paper cut out will fit. I did not do this and had to adjust later on.
- Draw a spooky scene that can be cut out, I drew way too much but edited it down to a tree with an owl.
- Check on your sick child who is overjoyed to be watching a 2nd episode of Dora.
- Start cutting out your picture. It may take a while… I was thankful Dora was keeping my normally clingy sick son happy, cutting this was not easy.
- Place the cut out in the frame provided before you open the sealed pouch of light sensitive paper.
- Take the paper out, close the frame and place in sunlight.
- You will see that we had a foggy foggy morning , I specifically wanted to try it on a day like today to see how it would work in overcast conditions.
- It worked but it took longer than the 2-3 minutes of sunlight suggested ( about 10) .
- Rinse in a dish of water for a minute.
- Let dry- colors get darker as it dries.
- Frame and add some classy touches to your Halloween display!
Note to Readers
I am putting together an educational toy guide for the holidays and would love to include some reader suggested toys or games. My rules are : No characters, no weapons and keep the reviews short . I am aiming to have it done by the end of the month and up shortly after. I will as always link back to your blog in the post. If you are interested send me an email with “Gift Guide” in the subject.
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Reader’s Request
I had a reader ask if we had any scarecrow crafts, I didn’t but I came up with this. shape scarecrow! There are a lot of steps but my almost 3 year old breezed through it, we talked about the shapes, and each body part as we added them . You will notice that my shapes are way less than perfect, but if they are clearly recognizable you are golden. Time is short for anyone caring for young kids, don’t fret over your shapes being perfect!
- Gather your materials. You will need 5 different color pieces of construction paper ( you can use scrap if you want for all but one) we used orange, green, yellow, neutral and light blue , 2 large googly eyes, a marker, scissors and a glue stick.
- Start by drawing a scarecrow head and mouth. Cut out.
- Next cut out ( or have your child cut out) a triangle hat and rectangle shirt and arms from the green paper.
- Cut out many smaller rectangles from the yellow paper for hair.
- Cut out a orange triangle for the nose and 3 orange circles for the buttons.
- Start gluing. Now you can just let them at it but to me this isn’t a creative project at all, it’s too structured for that, to me this is a shape lesson really. Here is what I do. Show your child the shapes and ask them what they look like. I help up the large rectangle and asked my son if he thought this was the scarecrow’s head, ” no it’s his belly!” Glue it on. Don’t forget to ask what each shape is or label the shape for them.
- Next add the head… I suggested this was an arm. My son set me straight! Don’t forget to have fun!
- Keep labeling, and adding the shapes to build your scarecrow. Here he is adding the hair.
- Add the arms.
- If you are doing this with young toddlers don’t forget to label the colors as well! Add your hat!
- Add the eyes and nose.
- Add your buttons.
- Let dry!
Shape Books
Clay Quest Minis: Search for Shapes!
So Many Circles, So Many Squares
by Ellen Stoll Walsh is a cute book that not only helps teach shapes it is also entertaining! The three crafty mice use the shapes to protect themselves from one hungry cat finally using them to make scary mice to frighten the cat away! Kids love to help find which shapes are used in the illustrations and older ones can even anticipate what the mice will make next!Food f
Food is a great word to use for letter of the week, because there is no doubt your child knows what it means, uses it daily and probably likes it ( most of the time). We used a recipe magazine that was packed full of pictures so it allowed my son do some of the cutting himself successfully since there were so many to cut out in a small space. This is a fast project so we slowed it down a bit by talking about the food we were cutting out, if we liked it or not and if it was a “growing food” or a “sometimes treat” .
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 sheets of construction paper, any 2 colors will do, some pictures of food like a recipe magazine or you can draw your own, scissors, a glue stick and marker.
- Start by writing a lowercase f on one of the sheets of construction paper.
- Hand your child their scissors, and let them cut out pictures of food. We chatted about what he was cutting and I had to help a lot but he managed to cut a few out with only a little help too, better yet there was no frustration! That is a huge success for us, cutting is hard and it takes a lot of practice to be precise, so let them practice! I cut many out as well.
- Gather all the cut out pictures.
- Time to glue!
- Add the food !
- Cut out the f
- Glue on the 2nd piece of paper and let dry.
Alphabet Books!
Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z
The Abc Bunny 
The Human Alphabet
I am often asked how I can chill and not worry about the mess my son makes, but I have nothing on Filth Wizardry. The creative messes here abound, with amazing results. I loved the Freaky Scarecrow and her Playdough Dinosaur Island is simply amazing. If you haven’t found her blog you need to , trust me your kids will thank you!
