Fish bowls

Today's project was paper plate fish bowls. 

First, the kids painted one paper plate blue. 

Then, I stapled a cut-out paper plate to the first plate. The paint had dried during nap time. Lastly, they glued gold fish into their fish bowl.

Toilet paper roll octopus

The theme of the week is Ocean. Today, each kid made a toilet paper roll octopus.

The supply list is easy:

Toilet paper roll (or paper towel roll cut down)

paint/paintbrush

First, each child picked a color and painted their toilet paper roll (and their own hands).

We let them dry for an hour, and then I cut one end into 8, 1.5" (or so) strips), and curled them up a bit. Then the children painted the underside of these newly made tentacles. 

After lunch when they were dry Lucian and I added eyes and dots with a q-tip (you could use a paint market or even a brush) to create eyes and finish the tentacles. 

Once they were dry they played with them a bit, but mostly we will keep them on display for a week or two. 

Glitter Bunnies and An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick

Yesterday we had a snow day, so we didn't do any craft projects because we were so busy cleaning, making homemade granola, playing games and playing in the snow.

This morning we made Glitter Bunnies and read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick while using a cute printable. 

To make the glitter bunnies I printed out a template from here and used it to cut out bunnies in the colors each kid chose. 

Next, they used a small flower cookie cutter to stamp white paint on their bunnies. 

The Easter cookie cutters I have are very large, so we chose a small flower instead. I really like the way they turned out. When they were done, I shook glitter on to each bunny. 

Then, we read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick. We used this printable that I had laminated and taped to a butter box as we read the story. We did a similar printable at Thanksgiving so the kids loved having an Easter one too.  

Potato stamping

As part of Lucian's feeding therapy I've been trying to incorporate foods into our projects. Getting him to touch foods in a non-threatening way is a step to maybe one day getting him to try them. Our Easter project today then, was stamping with potatoes carved to look like Easter eggs.

First, I attempted to carve 6 potato halves to look like Easter designs. They are nowhere near perfect, but they worked. I stamped each egg first to make sure they worked, and then we passed small paper plates around (each had one potato half and the color of washable paint assigned to it). 

Sutton usually has limited patience for art projects, but she really enjoyed this one. Even after the other kids had left the table she used some of the potatoes again to fill up her piece of paper. 

Now my artwork display area is looking very Easter like! 

Easter baskets

It's spring break week here, so I have an extra daycare kid (age 5). Today I had the four kids paint or color an Easter basket from a template I printed out from here.

Then, they used their fingers to fill their baskets with dots (eggs), and color in the bows. Some got quite messy, like Sutton's. She said her eggs exploded. :)

Two of the books we read today are 2 of my favorite Easter books. 

You can get both from Amazon. Happy Easter, Mouse! (If You Give...) by Laura Numeroff, and 10 Easter Egg Hunters: A Holiday Counting Book by Janet Schulman. Both are easy to read, and hold the attention of young children.

Easter racers

While our friends were visiting today we tried making the Easter racers I kept seeing on Pinterest. Working with little marshmallows instead of the big ones they recommend made the wheels a bit funny, but the kids had fun.

You will need:

Twinkies

Marshmallow bunnies (Peeps)

Large marshmallows cut in half (or small ones like we did)

M&ms

pretzels

And frosting for "glue"

First, cut a small rectangle at the top of each Twinkie about 2/3 of the way from one end. Place a marshmallow bunny and pretzel (steering wheel) in the hole you created. Eat the Twinkie piece you cut out. 

Next use frosting to hold the marshmallow wheels on. Then frost one side of each m&ms to place on the wheels. Quick, take a picture before someone eats them! Ours didn't turn out "Pinterest Perfect," but the kids had fun making them (and eating various parts), so that's all that matters.

Marshmallow bunnies

Easter is Sunday, so our books and projects will be Easter themed this week.

This morning we used a bunny template and glued marshmallows all around it. You can use any template you like (or draw your own), but I chose this one.

I put glue around each bunny and the kids placed their marshmallows.

These take a while to dry, so we will leave them sit a few hours before hanging them up. 

Two of my former daycare kids are visiting today during spring break,  so we have a snack time project planned, and will play Easter bingo also. 

St. Patrick's Day Shape Worksheet and Leprechaun pranks

All 3 kids did a shape worksheet. It took me much longer to cut their shapes for them than it did for them to glue their shapes on! Even the newly turned two year old did this worksheet and was able to name all the shapes except one.

This morning when the kids woke up, they discovered that the dining room chairs were on top of the table and that four gold (chocolate) coins had been hidden for each of them. 

They enjoyed the St. Patrick's day fun and are hoping to see a "real leprechaun" now. 

Straw painted shamrocks...or not

Our project today did not go as planned. I gave the kids shamrock templates and wanted them to dip straws in paint to fill in the shamrock. It didn't take long and they decided they wanted to use their hands or brushes instead.

With help, the newly turned two year old made hers with the straw.

Sutton eventually used her entire hand.

Lucian opted for a mess-free brush.

Leprechaun handprint

I've been trying to explain leprechauns to my kids this week. They know about fairies and elves, so I think they understand leprechauns are part of that magical world. Today's project was to make leprechaun handprint art.

First, I painted each kids hands tan and brown. After they stamped their hand on the paper I painted a bit of brown hair on top. When they dried a bit I added a green hat, and the kids glued eyes on. 

After they finished drying, I used a Sharpie to draw in a mouth and nose. Then I used scraps of construction paper to make a band for the hat. 

St. Patrick's Day worksheets

Yesterday was a crazy day. Our schedule was off because we were able to sleep in a bit. Sutton spilled my coffee all over a bookcase, and it took a long time to clean. I was busy at nap time listing clothes on an auction site. Lucian fell and got hurt (he's ok). I switched our plans to do a quick worksheet instead of a handprint project, but never got around to posting about it.

I downloaded the 46 page free St. Patrick's Day worksheet pack from Totschooling. My kids both did the do-a-dot rainbow worksheet, while our daycare friend did the shamrock sheet. Sutton also did the shape tracing worksheet. 

Paper plate umbrellas

It's overcast and damp this morning. It's Perfect umbrella making weather. Today's project involved making umbrellas out of paper plates, gluing them on construction paper and then making a few rain drops out of tissue paper.

First the kids painted their pre-cut paper plates in the color of their choice. 

Then, we went to play for 45 minutes while the plates dried. When we and back we glued them to the paper and I drew handles on each one. I showed the kids how to crumple the tissue paper and they glued them on as raindrops. 

We have another umbrella craft for tomorrow and then we are taking a long weekend off! 

Season sorting worksheet

Today we talked about how winter weather is cold and snowy while summer weather is hot and sometimes rainy. Then they did a sorting worksheet where they glued the correct image to winter or summer.

You can download your free worksheet here.

Storm clouds

Even though it's not officially spring yet, the weather is warming up and the snow is almost gone. This is a great time to spend a week learning about the weather.

This morning we made storm clouds. First we talked about storm clouds and we talked about what happens if you mix black and white paint. Once they had the paint mostly mixed I instructed the kids to cover as much of their paper as they could while I cut out lightning bolts and rain drops.

When they were done painting they glued the raindrops and lightning bolts into their storm clouds.

These will take a good chunk of the day to dry, then we will hang them up.

Rainbow scavenger hunt

Today's rainbow project was a scavenger hunt. I instructed the kids to find toys that were the colors of the rainbow and lay them in rows to make a toy rainbow. 

Marshmallow painted rainbows

Yesterday the kids stamped rainbow fish using celery and had a great time. So, today we used marshmallows on toothpicks to make rainbows.

I printed out a rainbow template, and gave each kid six mini marshmallows stuck on toothpicks.

Then they used one marshmallow per color to make dots on their rainbows.

Rainbow fish

The kids had a blast with today's art project. They used celery as paint stamps to make rainbow fish.

I printed out the template from here. Then gave each child 6 pieces of cut celery, and a small paper plate with the 6 colors of paint. I helped our daycare friend (who is almost two), and my kids did their own. 

After their fish were done they just randomly stamped on paper since they were having so much fun.