Springtime
This craft was spur of the moment, I was sitting looking out at my backyard and decided to replicate our little cherry tree. While my son played with play dough I made this. He stopped playing and I offered him the option to make one but he just wanted to watch. I love how the Q-tips made perfect little buds and how rich the colors are. Young kids could easily do this if you made the tree for them , and older ones would have no problem doing the whole project independently.
- Gather your materials. You will need some white paper, a brown marker , water colors, a tiny bit of water in a dish..or perhaps an old sippy cup that happens to be on the table….and q-tips.
- Start by drawing the outline of a bare tree.
- Dip your q-tip in the water and then get it nice and covered in paint.
- Dab it on.
- Add more colors.
- Paint the bark if you want.
- Let dry.
Chapter Book
I don’t often do chapter book reviews but this book is so good I recently re read it for fun ! So many great messages and with spring break coming up I thought I’d give a nod to an older book in hopes that some of you with older kids ( girls especially) would grab this for them.
Gaia Girls Enter the Earth
You May Also Like
If you are preparing for St.Patrick’s Day or just urging spring and all the green that comes with it to hurry up and come this sensory tub activity is a must. So fun, so earthy and a huge huge mess. Seriously skip the mung beans, they roll when you sweep. If you haven’t tried scooping activities with your child do, they love this and a little tub like this can lead to wonderful pretend play, basic understanding of measurement and is just plain fun!
- Gather your materials. You will need some split peas, yellow lentils, mung beans ( if you dare… or have a drop cloth down), the green rice is called bamboo rice, some fun gold coins if you are doing a St.Patrick’s Day theme, and tools to scoop and pour.
- Pour your lentils, peas and rice into your tub.
- Add the gold coins and tools.
- Invite your child to play.
- Let them go. Find the gold, count them, hide them again, and just explore.
- This spill was much much larger than I managed to capture on camera. Accidents are forgiven but pouring on the floor is not . He gets one warning then the tub goes up until later in the day when we try again. Still it’s well worth it and still fun a few hours later too!
Looking for more Sensory play ideas?
Ice Cube Painting
Oatmeal Digging
Backyard Car Wash
This is such a simple activity that kids of all ages can enjoy, perfect for the weekend when your family is together all day. My son loved doing this and I thought it was the perfect,simple way to end a great Spring Fling Week here at No Time For Flash Cards. Thanks for celebrating the changing of the seasons with us!
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper, a cookie cutter , paint and a plate.
- Spread your paint on a plate.
- Dip your cookie cutter in the paint
- Print !
- If you want add another color and keep going!
How cute are these? If you think these are cute you are going to be falling all over yourself at the photos on Katherine Marie Photography’s site. Wow. Beautiful and she is crafty too. To see more of this adorable spring craft pop over to her site Katherine Marie Photography. Here is how we tried ( tried is the word to focus on ) to recreate them.
- Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard, paint, glue, paper in yellow for the chick, and pastels for the dots, a paper fastener,marker, scissors, a feather , googly eyes or buttons and some tape.
- Start by drawing an egg on the cardboard with a zig zag break in it.
- Have your child paint this. Try to stick with light colors, we used pretty dark ones and it made our egg look more dinosaur than Easter… Let dry.
- While they are painting draw a simple chick on the yellow paper.
- Add eyes a beak and a feather – I taped the feather on.
- Cut out small circles for decorating the egg- I used scrap card stock.
- When the egg is dry cut out
- Add your glue for the card stock dots
- Add the dots, let dry.
- Poke holes in both the top and bottom egg shells and thread the fastener through.
- Add your chick, again I used tape.
- Open
- Close
Thanks to Katherine Marie for sharing this wonderful craft !
Book !
- Gather your materials. You’ll need some cardboard ( if I did this again I would use a paper bag instead of a glossy cereal box , it was hard to glue) , 2 shades of pink tissue paper, scissors, glue, brown paint and a sheet of blue construction paper.
- Start by drawing a bare tree on the cardboard.
- Next have your child paint the tree brown, crayons or markers would work great too.
- While they paint cut the tissue paper into small squares.
- Let the paint dry and hand your child the tissue paper square to crumple. Be warned that for days after my son has asked to crumple many many things around the house.
- Cut the tree out and glue onto the construction paper. I had to hold down the cardboard for a few seconds because of the glossy side not wanting to glue.
- Add glue to the tree top , I flipped it upside down for my son so it was easier to reach.
- Add the blossoms!
Whether you add a few or many it will look beautiful!
“The Falling Flowers” by Jennifer B. Reed is the perfect book for this craft ! I was a little too loud when I found it at the library, my son told me to shhh! The story is very sweet, it’s about a grandmother taking her young granddaughter on a surprise outing in Tokyo. It turns out that she is taking her to see the cherry trees in full bloom just as her grandmother had done with her.
“Suki’s Kimono” by Chieri Uegaki has been on my shelf for years. I really really like this book, the message is fantastic! Suki loves her Kimono, she doesn’t care that her sisters think it’s not cool to wear it to school, her grandma gave it to her and she likes it. I love that she is depicted as confident but not 100% sure of herself, it allows readers to really connect, recognizing those times when we are putting up a brave face even if inside we aren’t so sure. It’s a lovely book!
