FUN! FUN! AND MORE FUN!
I'm a stay at home mother- I know how hectic and exhausting life can be sitting home all day with a bunch of kids who are running rapid. Keeping my sons busy throughout the day is the only way I keep sane. One of their favorite activities is arts and crafts! Michael's art supply store can have some decent deals, but it can still get expensive. Which is why we do tons and tons of dollar store crafts!
FIRST! Hit up your local dollar store and snatch up these items:
1.) Finger paints (we use tons of paint in our house so we buy ours from Michael's Art and Crafts store. But, I know for sure they sell small jars of paint at my local Dollar Tree.
2.) Googly eyes
3.) Pom Poms
4.) Pipe cleaners
5.) Glue sticks
6.) Popsicle sticks (colored or wood)
7.) Glitter and/or glitter glue
8.) Pack of paper plates
9.) Pack of Styrofoam bowls
10.) Card stock/poster boards
10.) Card stock/poster boards
(If you don't have a glue gun I suggest you invest in one- they aren't expensive. I use my glue gun practically everyday and I will be having some up coming blogs where my glue gun comes in handy!)
NATURE WALK AND NATURE ART-
WHAT YOU'LL NEED: A glue gun, glue sticks, paint, and a sheet of paper/card stock to display art.
- I give both my sons a bucket or bag and we go out and explore. I let them pick up whatever nature brings them to. They collect rocks, sticks, twines, small pine cones, leaves, flowers, nuts..etc..
- We then go home and start painting our items. (We place their objects on their "canvas" so all that messy paint ends up on their canvas to create a colorful background
- After the paint is done drying I let them arrange their nature items on a hard white card stock sheet and then I glue the items onto the card stock.
- Once the gluing is complete we make up stories using our objects. I'll tell a story first then they create their own little tales using their new masterpiece. They love it! Afterwards, I ask; who, what, when, where, and why?
MY SONS ENJOYED THIS PROJECT SO MUCH WE DO ABOUT ONCE A MONTH...
OR YOU CAN JUST PAINT ROCKS- WE SET OURS OUTSIDE BY THE FRONT DOOR. ORANGE FOR FALL! =)
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- PUMPKIN DECORATING
WHAT YOU'LL NEED: Small pumpkins, (we got a bag of 8 for $4.99 at Safeway,) glue gun, glue sticks, paint, googly eyes, pipe cleans and pom poms, glitter. Mod podge works great with glitter but its only optional and I haven't seen Mod Podge in a Dollar Tree...yet!
- This one is simple and fun. I let my sons paint their pumpkins however they wanted to. They added glitter to the wet paint and then I helped them hot glue on some googly eyes. They wanted to add hair so we used pom poms are hair. My youngest wanted spiky hair so we poked holes onto of the pumpkins using a screwdriver and shoved pipe cleaners in them.
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EXPERIMENT WITH IVORY SOAP
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) One bar of Ivory soap (It only puffs up with Ivory soap)
2.) Cake pans or cookie cutters
3.) Water
4.) A microwave
- First unwrap your Ivory soap bar and place it on some wax paper- place inside your microwave and "cook" for 30 SECONDS. Depending on your Microwave it may fluff up sooner or you may have to do intervals of 15 SECONDS after the complete 30SEC.
- The soap should fluff up creating this huge soap mess puffy shape thing! lol
- Let your kids pull it apart and have some fun- it crumbles up, trust me..its just fun for kids for some reason. lol
- Add some warm water to your soap until its easy to foam. You can place it into small cookie pans or cut them with cookie cutters. (Cookie cutters are a lot easier!)
- Let the soap dry up and then you can re-use it.
- You can also add some Food-coloring to the soap then form shapes. Let the kids draw in the bath tub with that...tons of fun for the kids. ( Rinse bathtub right after bath. You can clean off with white vinegar,baking soda and Dawn soap if its hard to clean up.)
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EXPERIMENT WITH BAKING SODA!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) Recycled, cleaned out bottle
2.) Baking soda
3.) White Vinegar
4.) Funnel or card stock to create a "funnel"
- First- fill the empty bottle about half way full with vinegar
- Second- Add about 1 TABLESPOON of baking soda to a balloon
- Third- pinch the balloon and attach the end of the balloon over the edge of the bottle
- When you're ready let the baking soda fall into the water bottle and watch the reaction! My sons absolutely LOVED this. We did it over and over and over again!
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PAPER MACHE LATERNS
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) Flour
2.) Water
3.) Balloons
4.) Newspaper scraps
5.) If you want to have your lanterns glow you can buy a pack of 3 battery operated candle tea lights from the Dollar Tree. I don't recommend using real candles.
First, take you balloons and blow them up! (This keeps the little ones entertained while you start mixing up the paper mache mixture.)
Second, add flour and boiled water to a bowl and mix it until you get a thick paste like mixture. (You can add salt to keep the mixture fresher if you plan on using the paper mache mixture for more than one day. If you wrap the mixture up and stick it in the fridge it will be good for a couple of days.) Start ripping the newspaper into strips.
Then, let the fun begin! Start taking the newspaper strips and dunk them into the paper mache mixture. Clean off excess paste and place the strip onto of the balloon.
COMPLETELY COVER YOUR BALLOON WITH THE PAPER MACHE.
-LET IT SIT OUT OVER NIGHT TO COMPLETELY DRY. (IF YOU WANT YOUR LATERAN HARDER, YOU CAN APPLY ANOTHER LAYER OF PAPER MACHE.)
-ONCE THE PAPER MACHE IS FULLY DRY, POP THE BALLOON AND BEGIN PAINTING.
-WE PAINTED OUR LANTERNS ORANGE AND TURNED THEM INTO JACK-O-LANTERNS. =)
(COULD OF HAD A SECOND COAT OF PAINT BUT MY SONS WERE TOO ANXIOUS TO SEE THEIR FINISHED PRODUCT!)
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SPOOKY GHOST!!!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) White paper plate
2.) Black card stock or construction paper and white paper
3.) White streamers or toilet paper strips
4.) Glue and tape
Very simple! Cut out some eyes and a mouth out of the black paper. Let the little ones glue them onto the paper plate. Then, have them tape the arms and to streamers to the back of the paper plate.
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I LOVE YOU.... THIS MUCH!!!!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) Colored card stock
2.) Crayons/ markers
3.) Tape
First, have your kids trace their hands on card stock paper and then have them cut them out
Second, Have them cut out a long thin strip and fold it back to back (fan style). You can dot out the words and have them trace the dots. One hand says, "I LOVE.." The other hand says, "YOU!" And the center fan strip in the middle says, "THIS MUCH!!!!"
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JELLYFISHES!!!!
On this day we learned about jellyfishes. I googled some fun- kid friendly facts. While I got the art supplies ready my sons watched this 10 minute video about jellyfishes on YOUTUBE. There was also some fun facts in this video. But, the purpose of watching the video was so they can see all the different shapes and colors of a jellyfish. =)
FUN FACTS WE LEARNED:
FACT: Jellyfishes are made up of more than 95% water.
FACT: Jellyfishes have no brain, no blood, and no nervous system.
FACT: There are about 200 species of True Jellyfishes.
FACT: Jellyfishes can sting even after they are dead
FACT: Box jellyfish have as many as 15 venomous tentacles on each corner that can grow up to 10 ft. long
(I COULDN'T FIND THE YOUTUBE VIDEO WE WATCHED BUT THIS ONE HAS SOME FACTS AND BEAUTIFUL VIDEO FOOTAGE OF SOME JELLYFISH! http://youtu.be/NbpB5F9CcLc)
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) Styrofoam or paper bowl
2.) Paint
3.) Pipe cleaners
4. Streamers
5.) Googly eyes
6.) Glue
1.) Paint- let dry
2.) Glue on googly eyes, pipe cleaners and streamers to the inside of the bowl
3.) We attached a string to the top of ours so we can hang them up on their ceilings.
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MR. SUN!!!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) Styrofoam or paper bowls
2.) Yellow or orange pain
3.) Yellow card stock or construction paper
4.) Googly eyes
4.) Hot glue
-Paint the bowls (2 per child)-"Sun" - Let paint dry completely
-I drew out glares for the sun on card stock and had my sons cut them out. We have those jagged scissors so they just cut along the line.
-Glue the glares to the back of one bowl then glue the bowls together.
-We added a string so we can hang it up.
We also sung this song a few times while they ran around the house, swinging their suns around. Lol. =)
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FINGERPRINT TREES
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1.) White poster board to display trees
2.) Brown card stock or construction paper
3.) Paint
4.) Glue
-Have each kid trace their arms and hand print. Both left and right. Then cut them out.
-Glue each print onto the white poster board
-Use thumbs to make leaves!
SIMPLE AND FUN. I framed my sons masterpieces and hung them up..they make beautiful, personalized fall decorations. =)
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LAZY DAY/ FRIDAY- NO SPENDING $ INCLUDED!! Hehe!
We do letter of the Day. And try to come up with as many objects we know that start with that letter. On this day our letter was, "P." We ordered pizza. Watched Pocahontas. Snacked on popcorn and pranced around the house while listening to some Prince- Purple Rain. lol.
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FISHY PRINTS!
Paint hands orange and gently place hand on blue construction paper. Add googly eyes. You can draw on bubbles with a white crayon on paint them on. =)
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FOREVER KEEPSAKE FLOWERS IN A POT =)
PAINT YOUR "POT," AND TOILET PAPER ROLL
DRAW OUT FLOWERS ON CARD STOCK AND CUT OUT.
GLUE FLOWERS ONTO PIPE CLEANERS
GLUE COMPLETE FLOWERS ON THE INSIDE OF THE TOILET PAPER ROLL.
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NEW YEAR- NEW LIFE PLANTS!
So it was a new year...and what does that mean to toddlers? Nothing much. I found these plant starter kits at the dollar store and we planted the seeds on New Years. They started sprouting within a couple of weeks.
As the plant grew we combined them into one vase (also from the dollar store) I wanted glass so they can see the roots growing. We are going to do this again this upcoming New Year. or you can do it on your child's birthday. =)
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PUPPET MASTERS!
Using brown paper lunch bags we made some puppets. =) I know you're jealous of my cardboard puppet theater. lol
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FROSTY THE SNOW MAN!!
We purchased these little Styrofoam balls from the Dollar Tree. We attached the ball to each other with a stick/toothpicks.
I let my sons paint them with silver glitter to give it a more "snowy" look. We used pipe cleaners for arms, I cut the tips of their used Capri Sun straws off, we used those as carrot noses. We made our own top hats using card stock. and some fabric for scarfs. We also added string to the top so we can hang them on out Christmas tree. =)
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Hand-print wreaths
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TREASURE HAUNT! "X" Marks the spot!!
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CAN TOSS-
This isn't a craft as well but you can make it into one. I sprayed paint these cans but instead you can have the kids paint over them or add stickers to them. Its FREE and my sons love playing this game. We used it at my sons birthday party and all the kids we're enjoying themselves-knocking down some cans!
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