Winter
You know that stage when everything gets thrown off tables? Bins get dumped? Nativity scenes get wiped out in a single visit from Baby-zilla? Yeah we are knee deep in that right now. It’s fun. This is a really simple classic craft but with a few tricks you can save yourself cleaning up gobs of glue from the floor, your baby’s mouth or hair. As you can see she loved making it and points to it and asks me to hold her up to touch it in the window daily.
- Gather your materials. You will need some cotton balls, glue, a dish, a paint brush ( pretty wide like an inch or so) and some construction paper. I used 2 pieces one to glue the cotton balls onto and one to use as a backing to make it strong enough to hang it up.
- Start by pouring some white glue in a small dish.
- Paint the glue onto the paper in the shape of a snowflake.
- Add kiddo and cotton balls.
- Because the glue is so thin the cotton balls stick but if they pick it back up there won’t be a ton of glue on it. I rotated the paper as she filled up each arm of the snowflake.
- Lable the textures as they explore and make the snowflake- soft, sticky glue , rough ( or smooth) paper.
- Let dry and cut around the snowflake and glue onto the 2nd page if you need some extra strength. Hang up where your little one can see their awesome creation.
Books About Snow
Stella, Queen of the Snow
The Biggest Snowman Ever
Pop over to my other blog Crafitivity Corner on FamilyEducation.com to see our take on the classic popsicle stick snowflakes.
5 Comments »
It seems like it’s snowing almost everywhere lately. I love doing activities that use what’s going on around us to keep things interesting and fresh! This snowflake craft is simple enough for preschoolers to do with a little direction , and don’t forget you can add in lessons about counting and estimation too!
- Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of construction paper, white glue, mini marshmallows, and glitter.
- Start by designing your snowflake. You can just use the glue or draw it with a pencil first. I did this one to show my son how to draw with glue.
- I encouraged my son to do this himself by reminding him that all snowflakes are unique.
- Add the marshmallows! I get asked all the time how do you avoid him eating them all? My main strategy is that I let him eat a few but only after he adds them on. I tell him to count to 14, then eat one, then add on another 20 and eat one etc.. interestingly enough this time he didn’t eat a single one, but he still counted.
- Add glue for glitter
- Add the glitter. I LOVE these little glitter tubes. They only hold a small amount of glitter so the mess is minimized. I wouldn’t use them with toddlers/ kids who still put things in their mouths though, the tops pop off and could be a hazard.
- Let dry. His is proudly on display in our front hall.
Books
Holly’s Red Boots
Stella, Queen of the Snow
Tacky the Penguin 
11 Comments »
Making snowflakes isn’t a new craft. I love to try different ways of doing traditional activities. When Iwas young my mom and I would make snowflakes like this. So I had to do this with my son.
You will just need paper, hole punch and scissors.
Fold the paper into a triangle.
Give your child the hole punch and the triangles. Just let them punch away.
You will need to make sure that you don’t fold the paper too much or you may encounter this…
Cole made random punches on the first snowflake, but as he started the second one I asked if he coulduse the hole punch to make a hole that was a line. He looked at me funny for a second, then you could see the light bulb go off. He really got into making clusters and lines.
The end result was a window full of beautiful snowflakes. Now I have passed down this activity to the next generation and I guess we have a new tradition in our house.
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.3 Comments »
The snow was everywhere this time last week and we were excited to make a snowman. Unfortunately the snow wasn’t sticky enough so we had to come in warm up and make one with paper plates and glitter. This snowman craft needs adult involvement for preschoolers for sure but working together is one of my favorite things about crafting with my kids. This snowman was inspired by our very popular Snow Globe Snowman we made a few years ago.
- Gather your materials. You will need 1 large and 1 small paper plate, a cupcake liner, glue, scissors, glitter ( ’tis the season), goggly eyes, a hole punch, some ribbon, a stapler or heavy tape, black and orange paper.
- Start by cutting the middle out of your large plate. Make sure that the hole is a little smaller than your cupcake liner.
- Add glue to the plate.
- Add glitter and set aside to dry.
- Fold your cupcake liner in half, then half again.
- Make cuts along the side. Have extras on hand for preschoolers who insist on doing it themselves with no instruction and get frustrated when it’s not “perfect” for us that was 4 liners. Make sure that they don’t cut the outside edge or the snowflake won’t glue to the snowman’s tummy properly. This was tricky with the foil , he did the first cut and I did the second and carefully took the pieces out. Paper would be much easier , though not as shiny!
- Open and glue over the hole in the large plate . Let dry.
- Make a quick hat out of the black paper and a carrot nose out of the orange. Great use of scrap paper if you have it!
- Using the hole punch have your child punch some holes in the black paper for coal for the mouth.
- Add glue to the small plate for the face.
- Add the googly eyes.
- Add the punched out black paper for the mouth – this is a great fine motor exercise, but may be frustrating for really little guys so be prepared to help . Add the hat and nose as well.
- Let dry. My light ( for pictures) was fading fast so I continued but you should wait until things are dry so they don’t shift on the plates.
- Attach the small plate to the bottom one. Glue is not a great option for this, staples are ok but tend to bend the plates. I have found the best option is to use packing tape.
- Add the ribbon as a scarf.
My Favorite Snowman Book Ever !
Snowman in Paradise
In May after splashing with buckets of paint, He threw down his brush, saying, “Gauguin I ain’t.”
Even if some references are more for the adults reading it than the children listening , both parties will close the book smiling and wanting to start all over again. Grab it and see why I love it so much!
11 Comments »
Penguin Place Mat!
Who doesn’t like penguins? This penguin place mat craft could easily be turned into a plain old paper craft with white paper instead of a paper towel. You can find contact paper almost anywhere these days, both Walmart and Target carry it in my neck of the woods and of course the big craft stores do too! We use these place mats for play dough, crafts and yes dinner time too. Putting out the place mats for dinner is my son’s job so making something new and fun is a great way to keep it fresh!
- Gather your materials you will need 1 sheet of black construction paper, a sheet of paper towel ( paper will work too),contact paper, some glue, silver and blue sequins, 2 googly eyes, an orange marker, scissors and some white construction paper.
- Start by drawing an outline of a penguin with the marker on the black paper.
- Cut out and glue onto the paper towel.
- Add glue for the sequins.
- Add the snow – the sequins! This is awesome for fine tuning those fine motor skills. Those sequins are tricky.
- We had no orange paper so instead I had my son color this white piece to use for the beak and feet.
- Next cut out the beak and feet from the colored paper.
- Add the eyes.
- Add the beak and feet.
- Let dry - I didn’t because daylight and my ability for ok photos was fading fast in my cloudy sky town! But you will want to to avoid globs of glue stuck under contact paper.
- Measure your contact paper to fit – you will want to sandwich the place mat between 2 sides of a long rectangular piece. Peel back only half the backing , place the place mat face down on the sticky side. Doing it this way will prevent big bubbles and wrinkles on the front.
- Peel the rest of the backing off the contact paper and press to sandwich the place mat. Press firmly to seal.
- Trim the edges and voila!
Books !
Tacky the Penguin
Penguin Dreams
