Fingerprint dandelions

Today's craft was a fast one because we were expecting a visit from some of my former daycare kids. We made these easy  fingerprint dandelions from Crafty Morning.

First, I cut half sheets of a dark blue paper, so the white paint would show up well. Then, I used my own fingerprint for the brown since the kids have such tiny fingers. I used the smallest brush I had to make simple stems and let them dry. 

When they were dry the kids took turns making finger "dots" with the white paint to create a dandelion look. 

Tissue paper flowers

The kids made the cutest craft today. I found a template for a flower to place tissue paper squares in on Mess For Less.

The kids used glue sticks to put glue where the circles in the worksheets were. Then they crumpled up tissue paper squares. You could cut your own, but I bought pre-cut squares from Oriental Trading Company.

I guided them to use green on the leaves, and then let choose their own colors for the flowers.

The girls picked purple and Lucian orange. 

Fingerprint hyacinths

I've seen many different versions of fingerprint hyacinths over the years, but never pinned one. This is how ours turned out.

On half sheets of paper I made lines (stems) with the corner of a sponge. Next time I may just use a marker. Lucian and I experimented with sponges to create the leaves.

When we had enough made for everyone we lightly swirled blue and purple paint together. Then the kids took turns dipping two fingers at a time in the swirled paint and placed them on either side of the stem.

Hand and footprint flowers

This weeks theme is flowers. This morning we made some really sweet hand and footprint flowers. I found the idea on Learning As We Grow.

First, we painted each child's feet green and stamped them on their paper. Next we stamped their hands on the paper in two different colors.

My kids wanted to make flowers for their dad and grandma, so they actually did an extra set each. 

Lastly, once all their hands and feet were clean I added green stems and some blades of grass with the edge of a painting sponge. 

Train Do-A-Dot

After reading The Little Engine That Could we did a different train Do-A-Dot worksheet this morning that can be printed out from here for free. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the q-tip painted train to print, so we needed a quick fill in.

Sutton didn't finish her blue and purple train, but the other kids had fun doing their "dots." I think it's time to get a second set of Do-A-Dot markers so they don't have to take turns with colors. These are the ones I currently have.

Name trains

We made name trains today from Tippytoe Crafts. I can't wait until the kids can start cutting (correctly) on their own! This was a lot of cutting and I didn't have it prepped ahead of time so the kids were losing patience.

I drew tracks on paper, gave the kids an engine and had them color it while I made little squares (cars) with each letter of their names. As I was getting each one done I was handing them out. 

By the time they got done coloring our daycare friend and Lucian were done and didn't want to glue the trains together, so Suttin helped me do all 3.

Sutton's train is in space and those are various planets, in case you were wondering. 

Train Do-A-Dot

We did some Do-A-Dot worksheets from Gift of Curiosity's Transportation Pack today. We've done quite a few of those free worksheets now. The kids LOVE Do-A-Dot anything, so they were actually waiting at the printer when I told them what we were doing.

My kids did two sheets where they "dot" the letter T's (for train), and our daycare friend who just turned 2 did a simple sheet where she just filled in the dot's of the letter "T."

Toilet paper roll trains

To my sons delight, it is train week this week. We have plenty of Thomas books, and several other train books to go with our projects, so I won't even need the library this week. Today's project was toilet paper roll trains.

This morning the kids colored basic train shapes that I cut out.

When they were done, I placed toilet paper roll wheels in them. I cut each roll in half, then cut a slit in each one to insert the paper train.

Handprint dinosaurs

We made a different handprint dinosaur today. I attempted to draw a stegosaurus shape, and then the kids handprints finished it off.

First, I drew out the shape of the body and cut them out. Then, the kids helped glue them to white paper and we added an eye. 

Lastly, I painted the kids hand green and they placed them on the dinosaur. Fairly easy (minus my crude drawing skills), but turned out really cute. 

Dinosaur fossils

Much to my children's delight, we played with play-doh as our project today. We used small plastic dinosaurs to create fossils in play-doh.

They tried using the dinosaur feet and laying the dinosaur down to create full body prints. We also buried them in play-dog and dug them back out again. Each kid also got to try several colors of play-doh and each of the four different dinosaurs. 

Paper plate dinosaurs

I found a cute paper plate dinosaur craft on Learn With Play at Home that even included the templates for a few different dinosaurs.

First, the kids painted their paper plates.

Once they dried a bit they used sponge stamps to stamp some shapes of another color on to their plates. Lastly, I stapled the cut out shape of the dinosaur on to the dried paper plates.

Dinosaur worksheet

While I made lunch today, the kids did a dinosaur worksheet that I had downloaded from Living Life Intentionally. They offer a while pack of free dinosaur worksheets, so I let the kids pick which one they wanted to do. Of course, they picked a pattern worksheet. We also looked at the "Which one is different" worksheet on my laptop and did it together without printing it out.

Dinosaur footprints

This week our theme is "dinosaurs." Our first craft project was going along smoothly until I realized I had placed the kids' feet backwards and had to start over! We made dinosaurs out of footprints.

Even with starting over, this was a very fast project. I painted each kids feet (which they find ticklish and funny). Placed them on the paper and did the next kid. 

They glued an eye on and then I drew in some teeth with a sharpie. 

Handprint Spiders

We are talking about spiders today. We've been singing and reading "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and made easy handprint spiders.

My kids attempted to paint their own hands, and then I finished painting them. We painted each hand, minus the thumbs for this.

The palms overlap and the four painted fingers created eight legs.

We added eyes and a web string for the spider to hang on after the handprints were done.

Craft stick dragonflies

I'm not sure why I picked today's dragonfly project. I hate glitter. No matter how careful you are, it ends up everywhere. For this reason I haven't bought much glitter, so we only used silver on our dragonflies.

To make these each child painted a craft stick (Sutton actually did two). As soon as they were done I sprinkled glitter over most of the stick (leaving one end to draw eyes on later). 

While they were painting I traced a craft stick on red construction paper and cut out enough pieces to make wings. The kids helped spread glue over each wing, and again I sprinkled glitter on them. 

Once they dried I drew eyes on with a Sharpie, and glued the wings on. 

Paper plate snails

The kids made paper plate snails today.

They each painted a small paper plate in the color of their choosing. Two used brushes, and one used her hands. When they were finished I helped them use a finger to create a swirl in the paint for the shell.

When they were mostly dry I stapled on the rest of the snail body I had cut out from yellow construction paper. 

Handprint caterpillars

This week our theme is "bugs." Lucian actually saw a handprint caterpillar on Pinterest so that was what we made today.

We did one handprint a a time, letting each dry for 10-15 minutes before doing the next.

After the last handprint I added blue circles for the head.

When those were dry Sutton and I added eyes to each one and I cut them out. 

I used a paper punch to put a hole in each one and a pipe cleaner created antennae.

Paper plate Jellyfish

One of my favorite ocean creatures to look at is jellyfish. Today we made paper plate jellyfish.

The children each painted half a paper plate in the color of their choice.

When they were dry Sutton and I glued eyes on each one, I made a smile with marker and tapes some ribbon to the back. You could use other ribbon, crepe paper or anything else your imagination inspires you to use. I thought I had silver ribbon, but couldn't find it this morning. I think they still turned out cute!