Showing posts with label crafts for preschoolers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts for preschoolers. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2012
Easy Craft: Paper Tissue Flowers
If you want to thrill a 3 year old girl, let her make some paper flowers and then leave them on the table for a centerpiece! We did this last week and Munchkin Girl even used them for her tea party with her dolls. I heard her telling them, "You see, if you want to make a flower, you just pull this here and here. It's really easy. Don't worry...You can do it later, when you get bigger."
For this project, you need to buy some flower wire from Hobby Lobby. Other than that, all you need is tissue paper. First, you will to cut down a piece of tissue paper into a bunch of squares (probably about 12 inch by 12 inch). Depending on your child's age, you might have to do this part yourself. Then you will fold it over itself several times until it is a long skinny rectangle. Then you will wrap the wire around the middle and around itself.
Now you can give it to your child and have her pull the pieces apart. They have to slowly peel them apart one by one. This takes a lot of concentration and was great for working on her fine motor skill, which as I've learned is what makes kids ready to write later. It also makes it prettier if you snip off the end before you start, into a circle or something fun, to give the flower more texture.
And now, the finished product...I do realize this might seem confusing and weird, but it really is fun if you can figure it out. To help you, I made a video. Just click the photo below and it will take you to the video where you can see step-by-step instructions.
As you all probably know by now, my baby-sitter is a miracle worker. She took our paper flowers a step further and I asked if I could share it with you. She also makes roses from crepe paper. This isn't really something that little kids can help with, but if you have that creative gene, you might enjoy doing this part too and then it makes for an even cooler centerpiece when you add them all together. For this part you will use crepe paper instead of tissue paper. Ins't that amazing that the roses below are made of paper?? Just click the photo below and it will take you to the video on how to make these paper roses.
I sure wish I could say that I'm one one in that video, making those superb roses. But alas, I'm not a magician. I'm just a Mom with zero artistic skill. If you are like me, my advice to you is to stick to the easy ones. If you are brave enough to try the fancy roses, send me a picture...just because I can't do the art doesn't mean I can't appreciate it!
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
Easy Craft for my Daughter to Give to New Baby
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My daughter loves babies, whether real or pretend, so she is thrilled that she will be getting two baby cousins this Spring! I'm really excited too (especially since I won't be the one having to get up for midnight feedings haha!)
We traveled to the joint baby shower last weekend and Munckin Girl (3.5 years) was excited to help me wrap the presents so I decided to come up with a cheap craft so that she could give a gift that was just from her. I mixed up a little bit of Elmer's glue and a little bit of water with a small drop of food coloring. Then I cut hearts out of tissue paper. She simply used a paintbrush to "paint on the glue", then it stuck the paper:
Even the little guy was able to participate without making too much of a mess (22 months)
After we finished the hearts portion, we even snuck in some work on letters. First, I traced in pencil and then I gave her a nice fat marker so she could trace over my writing and work on her letters. She was very proud of being the one to write on the gift.
And finally, our finished product...we made two of these and I put them inside our gift bags. During the shower, they let Munchkin Girl help unwrap the gifts and she was so excited when they opened our present and saw what she'd made for them!
Friday, February 17, 2012
A Game for Kids to Play Together
Poor Little Buddy. He's done crafts about butterflies, caterpillars, ponies, etc, and he does enjoy them but they aren't very manly. I am always trying to think of an easy craft that a two year old boy will enjoy.nnThomas the Train is very popular in our house and we have dozens of books but I haven't been able to think of a craft for him....until now!
I put out some long butcher paper on our wood floor in the kitchen. Then I drew a "racetrack". Munchkin Girl sat on one end and Little Buddy sat on the other. Once I showed them what to do, they spent almost all day (on and off of course) pushing Thomas back and forth and back and forth...to each other. If I'm being honest, being two years apart is rough. They do spend a lot of the day fighting and screeching over toys so I was thrilled to find something they could actually play together, without fighting.
Then later, we turned it into a picture game:
My babysitter is very creative and a few days after we drew the original track, I came home to find this...an entire city! Trees, a school, a swingset, a church, all kinds of things! She said the kids sat with her for over an hour and watched her draw the city onto the street. We finally had to pull the paper up because it started ripping, but this turned out to be one of the most fun games we've played and home and not only was it an easy craft, it was a cheap craft...All we needed was butcher paper and and masking tape!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Making Mountains From Egg Cartons
We LOVE going to Colorado on vacation. We go every year and the kids have been several times so the other day we were looking at family pictures ( a favorite activity of the kids) and they saw the mountains and it occurred to me that I could use an old egg carton and they could "make mountains".
First, I cut up the egg carton and then I glued a green piece of paper to some cardboard (for the grass). You wouldn't really need to do this, you could just use the egg carton, but I had the cardboard and green paper so I figured why not?
Then I gave them some paint and they happily painted their "mountains". Although I personally HATE to craft, I have found that this sort of thing really directs energy in a positive way and the kids are so proud of their creations so we try to do something like this every day. I use the small paint containers to minimize mess and they usually don't even get paint on themselves since they're now so used to doing this kind of thing. Plus, I like to keep it cheap and easy and that's why I like to re-use things like egg cartons and things I find around the house.
When they were finished, they glued some "snow balls" to the grass. Again, this part isn't really necessary, but they thought it was fun and were very proud of their mountains!
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