Easy Valentine's Day Craft and Gift

This week my preschoolers will be making a Valentine's Day gift for their family.  It is fairly quick and super easy, but best of all it is a craft that shows each child own creativity.
Heart Magnet:

I love to keep the kids using their natural creativity.  The more they can do on their own the better. So I supplied the foam heart and let the kids come up with how to decorate it.

 First, cut out a heart shape on paper or cardboard.  Use that as the template to trace onto the pink foam (or red, purple, whatever color you like).  I am going to have my preschoolers write I (heart) U on the front of their heart.  It will look sweet in their young handwriting, and it's also good practice for their writing.  But before I give the hearts to the kids I glued a magnet onto the back. I use a hot glue gun so that the magnet doesn't fall off.

Next comes a supply of all kinds of fun things.  Red sequins, little puff balls, different shapes and colors of shiny "jewels".  And small foam heart stickers (I forgot to get those in the photo, sorry)

 

Let the kids be creative and glue the different items any way they want. It is a simple craft that comes from their heart and it will become a great keepsake on their parents refrigerators for many years to come. 

WINTER - Mittens, Frozen Paint, Snow and Puffy Snowmen

This winter we did some new fun crafts.  Although we had frozen paint last year, this year we used the FROZEN PAINT TO DECORATE MITTENS:

I poured ordinary washable tempera paint into ice cube trays, I put foil over it and pushed through popsicle sticks.  I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of the frozen paint, but if you look in my archives you'll see how it is done.
We used the paint to decorate one mitten, then folded the mittens together so that they matched!

 I punched a hole and tied a piece of yarn through the holes to keep the mittens together.

SNOW!!
I found a great recipe for play snow at www.1stgradefantabulous.blogspot.com.  Super simple, mixing white hair conditioner and baking soda.  The kids had a great time playing in the snow with small animals and even making snowballs!

  

PUFFY SNOWMEN:

First I read the story, Snowmen At Night - It is a fun story that shows what snowmen do at night and by the end of the book the snowmen are a little moved about.  The snowmen we make will look like that.

I mix shaving cream and glue.  No exact measurements just stir it until seems thick.  The glue will keep the shaving cream from evaporating.

 It is easiest for the kids to put the "snow" on the paper with a craft stick.  They put 3 circles (or however they want) and then they stick on the eyes, nose, hat, arms, etc.  Because there is glue in the shaving cream the paper items will stick easily.

The end result is great.  There is a "puffiness" to the snowman almost like real snow.  After a week or so it will get a little less puffy, but still very cool. 

Thanksgiving Crafts for Preschoolers

Since Thanksgiving is during Autumn and we have been talking about fall leaves, etc.  I like the kids to make a GRATITUDE TREE:

I have the child lie their arm down on a brown piece of paper and I trace around their arm and hand.  This becomes the "tree".  Then to keep it a simple craft I give them pre-made fall themed foam stickers.  They can decorate the tree however they would like.  

 Then they dictate to me what they are thankful for and I write each item on each branch.  It can be family members, a certain food, a certain toy, etc.  These are a great keepsake to look back on in the future.

TURKEY CENTERPIECES:

Simple materials - pinecone, feathers, paper, googly eyes.  The children glue together the precut pieces to make the face, then glue on feathers to the pine cone.  A cute thankgsiving turkey to put on the table for the big feast!

Christmas Finger Play - Jesus' Birthday

Since I could never find a good Christmas finger play that talked about Jesus' birthday I made one up myself!  I hope you like it and can use it with your preschoolers.  My preschoolers love it and want to do it over and over, they love taking turns saying the different parts.  It is also a great lesson in placement as you can have the children stand in different places depending which line they are going to say.  It helps them learn 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.


5 Little Christmas Trees

5 little Christmas trees standing by the gate

The first one said, "It's getting late".

The second one said, "There are angels in the air".

The third one said, "Why are they there?"

The fourth one said, "It's Christmas day"

The fifth one said, "They tell of Jesus' birthday!"

Then along came the shepherds and the three wise men,
and they all bowed down and said "We love him".


Hope you enjoy. Have a very Merry Christmas!

Autumn - Lots of Autumn Leaf Activities

The leaves are changing colors and it's time for my preschoolers to make some colorful leaves.  There are so many fun crafts to do for this season.  Here are a couple we did last week.

PAPER TOWEL FOOD COLORING EYE DROPPER LEAVES:

You'll need paper towels, plastic eye droppers, water and food coloring.

I cut paper towels into leaf shapes.  Then I put them down for the kids on stack of newspaper (want a thick stack so the food coloring doesn't go through to the table).   I put red, yellow, and orange (mixed one drop of red with a few drops of yellow) food coloring in small bowls with some water.

Then I let the kids have fun taking color from the bowls and dropping it onto the paper towel leaves.
The kids learned fast how much they wanted to squeeze out.  They loved watching the color spread after it hit the paper towel.

By adding each color wonderful autumn leaves were made.

In order to keep track of which child created which leaves, I put them to dry on a light colored piece of construction paper that had their name on it.  I forgot to take a picture, but after the towels - oops, I mean leaves - dried, they left a neat pattern on the paper.  Many of the children wanted to take that paper home as well.

Another craft we did was LEAF RUBBINGS:

You just need to cut out leaf patterns from cardboard.

It is important to tape down the cardboard leaves to the table (or newspaper you might have covering the table ) so they don't move.  Then place a piece of white printer paper over the cardboard leaves. Give the children fall colored crayons with the wrappers off so they can roll and rub them across the paper.  They are amazed when they start to see the leaves appear.  It is probably a good idea to hold the paper still for the children so they can rub and rub with out the paper flying off the table :).

Here is a finished leaf rubbing picture -

Another fun fall leaf craft is TISSUE PAPER LEAVES:

I cut many small pieces of tissue in fall colors (red, orange, yellow, and brown).  The kids could also practice their cutting skills by cutting the tissue themselves. 

  I drew a large leaf shape on thick white paper and let the kids glue down the tissue on the paper.

They really took their time and enjoyed putting different colors all over their leaf.  They used glue mixed with a little water to brush over the tissue, making it stick to the paper.

Almost done, after they dry, then I cut them out.  It is good to leave the area around the leaf while the children are pasting the tissue so they can really cover and not worry about staying in the lines.

Once dry I cut out on the leaf outline to create the beautiful fall colored leaves you see in the picture below.

 

                                 

Father's Day

Well I'm finally getting around to posting for Father's Day.  But maybe it will inspire you for next year or if you have a child who would like to make a gift for their father's birthday?

First I took a man's shoe and painted the bottom. I put it onto regular white contsruction paper.  Then after it dried, I painted the child's foot blue and they stepped onto the man's shoe outline.

 I added the words "I'm following in your footsteps" to the top and then Happy Father's Day 2014 was written on the bottom. I trimmed the paper and glued it onto a thick scrap book paper that each child picked out for their dad.  This is going to become the front of the father's day booklet, so I am leaving room on the left to staple it.

On another piece of plain white paper I did a print of their foot in blue again.  When it dried I cut it out and glued it to the back of the thick scrapbook paper. I also typed up the following poem I found online and printed, cut, and glued that onto the page as well.

My footprint is small, but getting bigger everyday
I am learning how to be big by watching you work, love and play.
Remember when your days are long and you can't walk another mile
That this little footprint makes it all worthwhile.

 The second page was a Dad survey that I also found online.  Each child answered the questions and I filled it in for them. We glued that sheet down to another heavy scrapbook paper.

 Once all done the 2 pages were stapled together to make a wonderful booklet for dad!

Easy Dalmatian Dog Art Activity

When we were talking about pets we made a very easy craft that everyone loved.  First I cut strips of heavy white paper (it can be posterboard, but doesn't have to be) and I also cut out long dog ear shapes from the same type of paper.  Each child put their finger in a black stamp pad and put finger prints all over the strip and the ears to look like dalmatian dog spots.  Then I stapled the strip to fit their head, stapled the ears on each side...

...instant dalmatian puppy dog!