Posts Tagged ‘Shapes’
I have been meaning to make an easy bird feeder with my son for ages, but the problem was all the ones I knew or have done in the past used peanut butter. My son isn’t allergic but he is completely repulsed by the smell. So when I found this one on Pinterest and saw that it uses gelatin I squealed ( yes really) and added gelatin to my grocery list immediately. We had some left over gelatin so we made some yummy all natural gummy treats too. Two easy heart shaped treats made with 1 box of gelatin, that’s rad!
- We doubled the recipe that Bargin Hoot uses here. And instead of cookie cutters we used a silicon mold .
- They had fun mixing .I had fun vacuuming after. But it’s easier to vacuum bird seed up than try to sweep it, those little seeds roll and hurt to step on!
- Press into the mold. We filled it halfway popped our string in then filled it up.
- A few hours later – voila!
The best part of this activity wasn’t making it was finding the right spots in our yard to place them.
We put them in the apple trees in the front yard, the pine trees in the back and some random bushes too . Clearly I am not a gardener. Since we hung them up we have gone outside every day to see which ones have had birds nibble away at them. It’s been fun to see my son concerned about the birds and I think the hearts add some natural sparkle to our wintery yard. Just today we noticed the birds ( or perhaps raccoons?) already have a favorite. We will continue to observe them in the upcoming weeks.
After we hung those up we noticed a recipe on the back of the Knox Gelatin box , adjusted it for our serving size and made some heart jellies! Why haven’t we been making these for years? My son loved helping me make them and I loved that there are no artificial colors like the store bought gelatin desserts.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 envelopes of gelatin, 1/2 cup of cold juice, 1.5 cups of juice brought to a boil and a dash of sugar. You will also need a heart cookie cutter, a sauce pan , casserole dish( ours is 8x8x2) a spoon and a big bowl for mixing.
- Pour the cold juice into the bowl and drizzle the gelatin on.
- Boil the other juice.
- Pour into the bowl and mix .
I added just a dash of sugar since the juice we used was already low sugar. I had my son gently mix and I got the bottom bits. Once dissolved let cool for 2-3 hours. - Using the cookie cutter make heart shapes.
- He loved the leftovers!
Note about the juices we used – we used mostly natural lemonade with just enough natural strawberry kiwi to make it red. Any juice will work though, I may hit up the natural market for some pomegranate juice before Valentine’s Day.
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Creating with shapes to make a bigger creation has been an activity I have done for years at home and in the classroom. If your child decides that they want to create something other than the end product you intended encourage it! They are still playing with, manipulating and getting a hands on experience with shapes which is the goal, the end product isn’t. Some kids like my son want an end goal to work towards to get started , so here are some fun projects to inspire your shape creations.
Shape House. Fantastic for basic shapes and little hands.
Shape Dinosaur. Make shapes exciting for your little paleontologist.
Shape Sail Boat. Set sail while learning about geometry.
Shape Pizza . Add shape toppings to your circle crust.
Shape Trash Truck . Perfect for those kids who go batty on garbage day.
Shape Bulldozer. What can I say my son likes big trucks.
Shape Banjo. Great way to mix math with art and music.
Shape Castle. Make it big and detailed or simple just don’t forget the glitter!
Shape Firetruck. Firetrucks were the big thing around here for a long time.
Shape Snake . Make a little one or a huge long snake full of all sorts of shapes.
Mining For Shapes. Play pretend while learning about shapes too.
Shape Skyscraper. Sort your shapes and make a 3D building with them.
Shape 4 Leaf Clover. Get ready for St.Patrick’s Day with this fun shape craft.
Shape Sorting. An easy introduction for young preschoolers.
This craft is the perfect spring craft for when the weather is not cooperating.
Grab some construction paper, scissors, glue, cotton balls, marker, and bowtie pasta. I bought the mini version and they worked perfectly. I honestly think this company makes these just so moms can do crafts, but my kids enjoy eating them.
I drew some triangles on construction paper and the outline of the kite on the blue paper.
I had my son cut out the colored triangles. For younger kids you can just have the triangles already cut out for them.
Then he matched up the shapes to the corresponding empty spaces and glued them down.
He squeezed some glue on the tail of the kite and glued the bowtie pasta onto the spots.
After the kite was completed, I just told him to put clouds wherever he wanted. He really loved it when I told him he had to use a lot of glue to make sure the cotton balls stuck. He squeezed an excessive amount out, but who really cares. 
Here is the happy boy with his kite. It didn’t even matter that it was 36 degrees and snowing outside (and it’s officially spring – hah).
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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.
My daughter is learning her shapes and colors. She is doing fabulous, but I remember my son having trouble with certain shapes simply because we didn’t talk about them as much. Let’s face it diamonds, ovals, and octagons (other than stop signs) don’t really come up that often. So I came up with this sensory box as a fun way to practice these shapes.
You will need scissors, craft foam, cardboard, aluminum foil, and black beans.
I drew some shapes onto the craft foam and cardboard. Rectangles on green (for emeralds), octagons on red (for rubies), ovals on blue (for sapphires), and diamonds on the cardboard.
Cut the shapes out and wrap the diamond shapes with small pieces of foil.
Pour the black beans and shapes in the bowl. I chose black beans because I thought it would look more like coal. It really makes the colors stand out, too.
To make it a tad more authentic for mining, you can cut strips of construction paper and tape them together to fit around your child’s head. Then cut a 1 inch section off of a toilet paper roll and tape it to the headband. I thought we had yellow tissue paper (very cute for the headlamp, but we didn’t). He’s still cute, I think.
You can give your child tongs, sifter, strainer, colander, or measuring cups. Try anything to make it feel more like mining. It’s all about having fun.
Every time my daughter found a shape I would say “Wow, you found a blue oval. Great job!” or the corresponding shape and color. We had a blast mining. My son had to play along after he saw how much fun my daughter was having.
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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.
This simple activity requires very few supplies. All you need are scissors, craft foam, yarn, a marker, and a hole punch (can use scissors instead).
First cut strands of yarn about 4-5 feet long. Tie them to something extremely sturdy, such as a doorknob. This yarn is going to see a lot of action. Make a strand for each child playing.
Cut craft foam in squares and punch or cut a hole. Be sure to make the hole large. Your children will be threading the yarn through this hole.
Draw shapes, letters, words, whatever you would like them to practice learning onto the craft foam squares.
Ask your child to grab the square that is a specific color or has a certain shape/letter on it. Have them thread the yarn through the square.
The best part of this activity is that it is perfect for different stages in development. I instructed one child to do colors (2 yrs old), while the other child did shapes (3 yrs old). Later on when my 4 yr old returned home from preschool I had him play along with letters.
Now to get some great use out of competitiveness and sibling rivalry. Have each child hold the end of their yarn strand with the square at their hands. Tell them to shake the yarn to get the square to the doorknob. Make it a race!
This activity is also great for one child, too. Use their determination (which we all know they have) to jump and shake that square to the doorknob.
Be prepared for a lot of jumping, wiggling, and giggling. This was so much fun for everyone, especially me standing back watching them burn off some energy while learning and having a blast.
PLEASE NOTE: This activity is designed to be parent involved. Do not use this activity as a busy activity while you leave the room. The long strands of yarn can be dangerous with young children if not supervised. You will need to monitor your children closely and be sure they do not wrap themselves with the yarn.
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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.
