Archive for February 2010
I know I keep talking about the reader survey I have going this week, but I have learned so much about you all. One thing I have learned is that many of you are relatively new to No Time For Flash Cards. So today because the weather was nice yesterday and craft time was spent outside in our yard digging for worms, I am digging up old crafts that you may not have seen before.
If you watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics you saw Sarah McLaughlin singing among tall painted trees. They were a homage to West coast painter Emily Carr , a personal favorite and not as well known outside of Canada. I have been waiting to do a fine art reproduction craft since it has been a while and this was the perfect link to recent events ! No matter if your child saw the ceremonies or not trees are something they can relate to.
- Gather your materials. This project although has a set end result we focused on all different ways to paint, so we are using multiple tools. You will need some coffee filters, brown or white paper, blue paper, glue, scissors, a roller, a glass sponge, an eye dropper, some blue, green and brown paint as well as some green food coloring.
- Start by showing your child pictures of Emily Carr’s work online, in books or if you are lucky enough to have a real one near by at a museum. Talk about the trees, the colors and ask what they like and don’t like.
- Start by painting the trunks. We used a foam roller. My son pretended he was a steam roller and did this for a long long time!
- Next hand them the sky, we used blue paper but white or pale green would both work perfectly. I put green and blue paint in a dish for him to use with the glass sponge. If you follow me on twitter you may have seen my tweet saying my son announced he was Jackson Pollack as he splattered the paint- this was when he said that!
- Time for green food dye! Using an eye dropper suck up the food dye, and drop on the coffee filters. Have wet wipes on hand, my fingers are still green .
- Let everything dry.
- Cut out the trunks
- Cut the filters into tree tops. I did this step for my son because his cutting skills aren’t yet developed enough . If your child is able invite them to do it, I did ask him if he wanted spiky trees or rounded trees!
- Time to glue. Add three long lines. I added the first and then he did the rest.
- Add your trunks.
- Add glue for the tree tops
- Add the tree tops and let dry.
Books
Pablo’s Tree
A Pocket Full of Kisses
A Tree for Emmy
Support Your Team!
When I bought these beads I was trying to decide what to make with them , and inspiration struck today. We are going up to cheer for Canada and the USA at the Olympics and decided to make some jewelry for the occasion. Beading was not easy and my son only did a bit, I wasn’t expecting him to do any this is an activity for 5 and up although as you can see younger kids can help! For a great activity for younger ones scroll down!
- Gather your materials. You will need some pipe cleaners ( in the country’s colors you are supporting), and some alphabet beads.
- Start by searching for the letters. I didn’t ask my son to come help since my plan was for this to be an older child activity, but he came and helped!
- Spell out your message.
- Thread on! I threaded all the of the beads on and separated the pipe cleaners to make it fancy
For the USA one I threaded the USA on a single pipe cleaner and the hearts on both.
- Wrap the ends to make your bracelet.
Uppercase Lowercase Match!
Games don’t have to be complicated to be fun. This alphabet game is super simple but easy make and fun to play. The beads are uppercase letters so to make it more challenging for my son who knows his letters, I used lowercase letters in the tin. You could use uppercase letters for beginners or even spell simple sight words for more advanced learners.
- Gather your materials. You will need alphabet letter beads, a muffin tin, some paper, a marker , tape and scissors or a circular paper punch.
- Write out the letters on the paper.
- Punch them out.
- Tape into the tin.
- Call your sorting superstar to the table! And have fun, it is a game after all!
You might also like :
Letter Pizza!
Letter Recognition- Links to great lessons
Cereal Box Laptop
I am already trying to implement some of the suggestions you have made in the Reader Survey ( take it now if you haven’t yet!) , one being a desire to see more activities for younger children. This one stretches from the very youngest well into preschoolers. It also opens a dialog and curiosity into the sense of smell! If you are looking for more activities for those under 2, we have a ton! Check out the Beginners tab on the Crafts drop down menu or the ” Age Under 2 Years” category in the categories side bar.
- Gather your materials. You will need some paints ( we are using finger paints but any liquid paint will do), imitation flavors ( we are using strawberry, banana and cherry), a bowl, brushes and paper. I am using imitation flavors because they had a lower alcohol content and just smelled better to me than the real stuff which all had much higher alcohol content and smell.
- Pour the paint in the dish. We made “purple” by mixing blue and red… sorta . It was more like black but my son didn’t mind one bit.
- Add one drop of flavor – a little goes a long way.
- Mix the flavors in.
- Paint.
- He painted 2 pages while I unpacked groceries and made lunch. All the while saying ” Yumm I am pretending it’s strawberry jam, and banana smoothies!” If you are doing this with really little guys watch them more carefully and talk a lot about smell, how we smell the paint not eat it!
Books
My Five Senses Big Book
Green Start: The Five Senses
Sniff, Sniff: A Book About Smell (Amazing Body)
Contest Reminder!
Gratitude is not one of the 5 senses but it is an important value we as parents and caregivers can teach our children. My dear friend Lee from My Sentiment ExactLee is hosting a fun and worthy giveaway that benefits our troops while teaching our children gratitude! Click her for details!
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t Torch
The Olympics are a big deal in our house. My grandma was a Canadian Olympian, I lived in Calgary in 1988 when they hosted the Winter Games and grew up in Vancouver where the Olympics are going on as we speak. We are heading up to Vancouver later this week and getting very excited. For today’s letter of the week I had to do something with an Olympic theme.
- Gather your materials. You will need a black piece of paper, a white piece of paper and some red and yellow tissue paper ( or regular paper too) , glue, scissors and markers ( the Olympic colors- red, green, black, blue and yellow).
- Start by writing an upper or lowercase t.
- I drew the Olympic Rings to add to the torch , this is totally optional.
- Have your child decorate the torch with the markers. I absolutely LOVE how my son decorated it, I don’t know why I do so much but this craft is not getting recycled, I think it’s so pretty.
- Cut out the Olympic rings – I drew lines to guide him( and then I still helped him as well) .
- Cut out the t and glue it to the black paper, add glue for the Olympic rings.
- Add the Olympic rings.
- Cut the tissue paper to make flames. Let the kids go nuts, irregular cuts make awesome flames.
- Add glue.
- Add the flames and let dry.
Looking for more Olympic Crafts ?
Book
Tacky and the Winter Games 
Looking for Alphabet Books?
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