Toilet paper tube bird feeders

I'm sure you've seen this "craft" many times. Today we made little bird feeders out of toilet paper rolls.

We talked about what birds eat this morning. It's been raining on and off for a few days so we have seen the worms on the sidewalk, and the kids already knew birds ate bird food. We started making our little bird feeders by having the kids spread peanut butter on toilet paper tubes.

When they were finished they looked like this.

After wiping hands, the kids rolled their tubes in a plate full of bird seed.

This afternoon we will hang them from a tree branch and watch to see if any birds eat from them. We also dumped the extra bird seed that was on the plate into the yard. The kids keep looking out the window to see if the birds are eating the seeds yet.

Update: The rain has stopped so we were able to hang out bird feeders.

Peacocks

This morning we talked about peacocks. We looked at some pictures online too. Then, we made coffee-filter peacocks that I found on Like Mama ~ Like Daughter.

The kids used 3 colors of purple and blue to make fingerprint dots on coffee filters.

When they were (mostly) dry I glued them to paper with a glue stick. While they were drying I had cut out the body of the peacock. The kids helped glue the bodies on, and the eyes and beaks too. 

Handprint ducks

This morning we made handprint ducks. I did change things from what Crafty Morning had done.

First, we painted handprints (minus thumbs). 

Then, I painted in the head, beak and feet. The kids put an eye on each duck.

I don't have cool, puffy feathers like they used on the link I posted to. I cut pieces off bigger craft feathers and we glued those on to each duck.

Robin footprint art

The theme this week is "birds." We started our projects with a simple footprint art piece that looks like a Robin.

First, I helped the kids paint a foot brown.  Then, I added in the red with paint.

Last, when that was dry I used markers to create legs, a beak and an eye.

Fairy garden rocks

In preparation for getting our fairy garden ready, I had the kids paint rocks today. I asked them to paint designs or spots, but they just crazy painted. 

Each kid got to paint 3 rocks, that we will place in the garden once it has been weeded and replanted. 

Fairy coloring pages

Yesterday we were supposed to make fairy gardens for the garden, but the glue gun is missing. We were also busy doing a final sort through toys deciding what to keep and what to put in an upcoming rummage sale. I still intend to help the kids make fairy houses in the next week or two.

Today the kids were supposed to color Fairy Coloring Pages from Itsy Bitsy Fun, but Lucian refused, and the girls did a quick coloring and went back to playing.

They did have much more interest in today's fairy book, Alice the Fairy. This is one of my favorite books for kids. I even took baby pictures of Sutton laying on open pages of the book with wings on her back. If you haven't read this one, I highly recommend it!

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Tooth fairy puzzle

Our project today was a tooth fairy puzzle that I downloaded for free from 3 Dinosaurs. I cut all the strips out and the kids glued them in place. Our daycare friend needed lots of help (she just turned two), but Lucian and Sutton did theirs on their own.

Fairy Gardens

Our theme this week is fairies. The weather hasn't been very cooperative in working on my fairy garden outside (we had snow Saturday). We made a fairy garden inside today instead with sticker sheets I purchased years ago from Oriental Trading.

Animal masks

Our easy animal project today was to create animal masks. I finally got some card stock just in time for this project.

The kids each picked an animal from First Palette for me to print out. When they finished coloring them I used packing tape to secure each one to a craft stick. You could use the holes provided and make a wearable mask. I knew Lucian's sensory issues wouldn't allow him to wear it, and didn't think our daycare friend would either, so we used the craft sticks. 

Paper plate bear

I didn't realize my blog didn't update yesterday. On Wednesday we made paper plate bears, and read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" By Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle for the 1,638th time.

To make our bears, the kids each painted a small paper plate with brown while I cut out the other parts. 

We glued the ears and noses together, then put everything but the ears on the plate with a bit of glue. I had to help the youngest, but my two were able to do this part.

When the plates were dry, I stapled on the ears. 

Turtles

Our animal project for the day was a turtle. I used a combination of different Pinterest links to make it, so I don't have a referral link to post. Here's what we did:

First, the kids painted upside down paper bowls green. 

As soon as they were done they stuck a few green tissue paper squares on to the wet paint to represent the patterns on a turtles shell. 

While they dried I cut out heads, tails and limbs. As soon as the shells were dry I taped them on and added black dots for eyes. 

Where do animals live worksheet?

This week is animal week. Today we did a worksheet about where different animals live. Yesterday we played with a magnetic animal habitat learning game I have. This worksheet not only helped with learning where the animals live, but their fine motor skills as well.

You can download this free worksheet from Kids' Pages for small ages.

Dragons from toilet paper rolls

To finish up our dragon week, we made fire-breathing dragons out of toilet paper rolls. 

The kids each painted a toilet paper roll green. Then we had to wait a few hours for everything to dry. 

When they were dry I added drops of glue for eyes and a nose and the kids put the green pom poms on. They tried to add wiggly eyes, but it was a bit tricky so I ended up doing it. Once again, we had to wait for it to dry before putting a ring of glue on the "mouth end" and glueing streamers inside. I had them precut ahead of time. 

When these are fully dry the kids can blow inside it and the streamers will blow around making it look like the dragon is breathing fire. 

Mother's Day Fingerprint Flowers w/Poem

I never got a chance to update yesterday. We took a day off from dragons to make a Mother's Day gift. I downloaded a free template from Teachers Pay Teachers that includes an outline for flowers, a cute poem and a space to put a picture. I had each kid make theirs (with some help), and then added a picture. When they were dry I laminated them so they would last.

Dragons Love Tacos and Mother/Grandmother's Day questionaire

You can't talk about dragons with preschoolers without reading Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. It's a very cute book, and gave us a different kind of project to create - tacos! See the link below to get your own copy of this cute children's book. The idea for this project came from Glued to My Crafts.

After reading the book the kids painted the bottom side of small paper plates brown. They used a LOT of paint, so they had to dry quite a while before we could continue.

After they dried we glued tissue paper squares and green crumpled paper inside one half. Lastly, I folded them in half, and stapled them shut. Tacos!

Before we read this and made our tacos, my kids answered questions to fill out a questionnaire about me for Mother's Day and about their Grandma too.  Some of their answers were very funny! We will give my mom the ones they did about her on Mother's Day. I found them on Who Arted?

Dragon puppets

Today's dragon puppet project almost didn't happen. Periodically my printer refuses to work just to remind me its in control. After a long battle, I finally got our templates printed and the kids did their coloring. I found this project on Create In The Chaos.

The kids colored their dragon parts, then I cut them out and glued them to brown paper bags. After lunch they were dry enough to play with.

Do-A-Dot Dragons

The theme we are working this week is dragons. Today we did several worksheets from the Gifts of Curiosity Knights and Dragons pack. This download is free, and has a variety of sheets.