Archive for July 2010
Paper plates are a must have for any summer camp, preschool or even home craft supply closet. The endless possibilities of fun and educational crafts are well, endless. Here are some paper plate kids crafts we have done over the years. I hope that the extra plates from summer BBQ, church picnics and cookouts can be used to make something fun.
Using non-standard units ( like lego blocks, your own feet, etc…) to introduce children to measurement is a fun and functional way of doing it. They are comfortable with the items they are using to measure, and it’s a little less abstract than a standard unit like an inch or centimeter. They can see and manipulate these units and are familiar with them as well. My son loved this and has been asking to measure his sister in Legos too.
- Gather your materials. You will need some blocks ( we are using Lego Duplo blocks), a sheet of paper, marker, and items to measure.
- Start by making a chart with 3 columns. Item , Prediction and Result.
- Draw the items for children that can’t read independently yet, but also write the item name with the drawing.
- Go item by item asking for a prediction before measuring.
- Time to measure! Count how many Legos tall it is.
- Write the result.
- Keep going!!
Math Pretend Play
This simple elevator activity not only boosts number recognition it also uses your child’s imagination !
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I love pretty paper and before I started blogging I used to make greeting cards and sell them on Etsy.com I still have many supplies and I decided to make this garland to add some more color to my daughter’s nursery, but it would be a cute craft for any kids room, just adjust the colors to match the decor.
- Gather your materials. You will need some cards stock in a plain color, and various sheets of patterned card stock, scissors, a circle paper punch ( ours in 1″) , glue, ribbon, and a hole punch.
- Start by cutting your plain paper into squares. I purposefully made mine imperfect. There is something about birdhouses that suggest that imperfections are the way to go.
- Next cut the patterned paper into triangles for roofs.
- Punch the holes.
- Glue the roofs and circles on. Let dry.
- Punch a hole at the top of each house.
- Thread onto your ribbon, either randomly or in a pattern.
- Hang up!
This too sophisticated a craft for your little one? Try Feather Painting!
Bird Books
Birds
Bird Talk
A Poet’s Bird Garden
Scrap paper , magazines and catalogs all crowd my recycle bin. So today I put them all to work for me and made this recycled alphabet craft using only one piece of paper that hadn’t been rescued from the bin. It’s fun, bright and makes a great long term cooperative art project for young kids. Pull it out when it’s rainy and search for a few letters in a magazine, glue them on and add some more another day. I like projects like these because they teach young kids how be committed to something over more than 20 minutes. Also in classrooms these long term cooperative projects always seemed to be the greatest sources of pride for my students.
- Gather your materials. You will need one large piece of paper, some construction paper scraps, glue, a pen, some magazines/catalogs and scissors.
- Start by cutting your construction paper into squares ( or any other shape)- this just makes a fun frame, you can skip this and simply glue the letters onto the paper too.
- Glue them on. This is a fun way to get your child counting to 26, as well as figuring out how to fit all on one page. If your child is really young I would probably do this before bringing them into the activity, just so their energy is on the letters, not the set up.
- Write the alphabet on the construction paper squares.
- Cut some letters out of the magazines for your child if they need help. I did this for every age group I worked with up until school age. They are still challenged looking for the individual letters but not frustrated by looking for them in magazines that may or may not have what they need. * Tip … auto magazines are great for these activities, because of the abundance of car makes with Z, Q and X letters that are usually a pain to find.
- Start adding the letters on. Go for as long as your child wants. This does not need be be done in one sitting!
- To make it more challenging for older kids have them find only upper or only lowercase letters.
Alphabet Books
ABC of Canada
The Alphabet Tree
The Graphic Alphabet by David Pelletier is a fun book to share with a child who has already mastered the alphabet, because this book is challenging. Each letter is shown in it’s own illustration, but you aren’t sure exactly what the picture is of, this is the challenge. As you can see on the cover it has an avalanche, the hardest one for me was N no matter how I looked at the picture I thought it was of magnets! Turns out it was noodles! Very fun book for kids that already know their letters and are up for a challenge.
Want more Alphabet Crafts? Check out my Alphabet Crafts eBook and you will have a craft for every letter!
When I think about my blogging community, I think about blogs that are written by women like me who want to find fun educational and creative ways to spend time with their kids, then share it with other caregivers so they can do the same. I love our niche and am proud to be in the same category of blogs as ones like Muffin Tin Mom. Michelle the founder of Muffin Tin Mom is all about those same goals , from her Muffin Tin Mondays where she encourages creative lunches for kids to her No Need For The Sunday Paper where she spotlights activities from other blogs. She is a mom of 2 and former preschool teacher and full of creative genius so pop over and check her out!
