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Let's Make Slime!
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Mar 9, 2017 | STEM
It’s slime, the DIY craft-meets-science-experiment is so popular that Elmer’s can’t keep up.
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Tagged with 'DIY'
Let's Make Slime!
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It’s slime, the DIY craft-meets-science-experiment is so popular that Elmer’s can’t keep up.
What You Can Do with a Shoe Box: 4 Fun, DIY Play Props for Toddlers
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Feb 6, 2017 | STEM
Like peanut butter and jelly or Bert and Ernie, toddlers and cardboard boxes just seem to go together. From the perfect hiding spot to a fabulous fort, boxes have endless play potential.But it’s not just big boxes that inspire all the fun! With a little creativity, you can transform shoe boxes, cardboard toilet paper and paper towel tubes, and even pizza boxes into toys your little one will love. At the same time, you’ll be modeling and encouraging creative thinking and imaginative play.Our DIY Toddler Play Props series features dozens of ideas for all kinds of two-in-one, make-and-play activities. Let’s get started with shoe boxes!
Aquarium
Create and decorate a colorful, no-cleaning-required, cardboard aquarium with your kiddo!- Cut five or six fish-shaped figures and three or four kelp shapes out of the top of a shoe box and discard any scrap (heavy construction paper or tagboard works fine if your box lid isn’t big enough).
- Let your toddler paint the fish and kelp with whatever colors they like using a large brush, sponge, or even their fingers.
- While they’re painting, cut a piece of blue construction paper to fit the bottom of your box. This will be the back wall of your aquarium.
- While the pieces are drying, draw a few shells and sea stars on the bottom of your “tank” (an inside long wall, since the box is on its side) and let them color them in with crayons or markers.
- Glue the kelp strips and a few of the fish to the blue background; punch a small hole in the remaining fish, string them with yarn, and staple the yarn to the top inside panel of the open shoe box to complete your aquarium.
Sensory Box
Kids use their senses to learn about the world, including their sense of touch. You can create a simple, at-home, sensory station using a cardboard box!Cut a hand-sized hole in the center of the lid of an old shoe box and fill it with objects that are tactically satisfying, like cotton balls, sandpaper, nail brushes, and bean bags. Tape the lid in place and have your child to reach inside and describe what they’re feeling, using vocabulary like soft, hard, rough, and smooth. Ask your child to remove the object they’re holding, name it, and talk a bit about it. Consider including pairs of things to see if your child can find the match to the one in her hand using only her sense of touch.Swap out the contents of your box often to keep your child engaged.Car Wash
Kids can take their own toy cars through their very own cardboard car wash! Simply place the bottom of a shoe box upside down and cut a toy-car sized entrance and exit out of each end and a rectangular window on one side. Cut and glue dangling strips of construction paper to the exit end for an extra-realistic touch.Stuffed Animal Bus
Get ready for the ultimate ride with this creative shoe box craft!- Start by cutting two small holes in the short end of the bottom part of a shoe box, placing the lid on the box, and taping around the edges of to ensure it won’t come off.
- Let your little one paint the entire box yellow using a large brush or sponge and washable tempera paint.
- When the paint is dry, use a black marker to add windows, doors, and wheels.
- Loop some yarn or a shoelace through the holes in the front of the box, cut a few holes in the top for your little one’s plush passengers, and let the driver drag his bus around the room.
What You Can Do with a Shoe Box: 4 Fun, DIY Play Props for Toddlers
Like peanut butter and jelly or Bert and Ernie, toddlers and cardboard boxes just seem to go together. From the perfect hiding spot to a fabulous fort, boxes have endless play potential.But it’s not just big boxes that inspire all the fun! With a little creativity, you can transform shoe boxes, cardboard toilet paper and paper towel tubes, and even pizza boxes into toys your little one will love. At the same time, you’ll be modeling and encouraging creative thinking and imaginative play.Our DIY Toddler Play Props series features dozens of ideas for all kinds of two-in-one, make-and-play activities. Let’s get started with shoe boxes!
Aquarium
Create and decorate a colorful, no-cleaning-required, cardboard aquarium with your kiddo!- Cut five or six fish-shaped figures and three or four kelp shapes out of the top of a shoe box and discard any scrap (heavy construction paper or tagboard works fine if your box lid isn’t big enough).
- Let your toddler paint the fish and kelp with whatever colors they like using a large brush, sponge, or even their fingers.
- While they’re painting, cut a piece of blue construction paper to fit the bottom of your box. This will be the back wall of your aquarium.
- While the pieces are drying, draw a few shells and sea stars on the bottom of your “tank” (an inside long wall, since the box is on its side) and let them color them in with crayons or markers.
- Glue the kelp strips and a few of the fish to the blue background; punch a small hole in the remaining fish, string them with yarn, and staple the yarn to the top inside panel of the open shoe box to complete your aquarium.
Sensory Box
Kids use their senses to learn about the world, including their sense of touch. You can create a simple, at-home, sensory station using a cardboard box!Cut a hand-sized hole in the center of the lid of an old shoe box and fill it with objects that are tactically satisfying, like cotton balls, sandpaper, nail brushes, and bean bags. Tape the lid in place and have your child to reach inside and describe what they’re feeling, using vocabulary like soft, hard, rough, and smooth. Ask your child to remove the object they’re holding, name it, and talk a bit about it. Consider including pairs of things to see if your child can find the match to the one in her hand using only her sense of touch.Swap out the contents of your box often to keep your child engaged.Car Wash
Kids can take their own toy cars through their very own cardboard car wash! Simply place the bottom of a shoe box upside down and cut a toy-car sized entrance and exit out of each end and a rectangular window on one side. Cut and glue dangling strips of construction paper to the exit end for an extra-realistic touch.Stuffed Animal Bus
Get ready for the ultimate ride with this creative shoe box craft!- Start by cutting two small holes in the short end of the bottom part of a shoe box, placing the lid on the box, and taping around the edges of to ensure it won’t come off.
- Let your little one paint the entire box yellow using a large brush or sponge and washable tempera paint.
- When the paint is dry, use a black marker to add windows, doors, and wheels.
- Loop some yarn or a shoelace through the holes in the front of the box, cut a few holes in the top for your little one’s plush passengers, and let the driver drag his bus around the room.
A Crafty Way To Develop Color Recognition
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Feb 2, 2017 | STEM
Painting is one of those activities that teaches children all kinds of skills at a young age. Whenever a child runs a brush over a piece of paper or canvas, they are exploring their creativity, fine tuning their motor skills, and even expressing their emotions.
But even more so, painting opens the opportunity for children to learn color recognition while having fun. Luckily, there are endless painting games and exercises you can do with your children to help them learn all about colors. Below a few of my favorite painting activities.
Connecting the wheel
For the first activity you will need:- a paper plate
- red, blue, and yellow paint.
Now it's time for the fun part. Let your child pick two adjacent colors and let them start pulling paint into the unfilled circles. Once enough paint is transferred, have them mix the rest until a new color forms. Clean off the brush when you are done and repeat the process with the remaining colors. Soon they will have created a complete color wheel!
One reason I enjoy this exercise so much is that the child gets to see the process of making new colors. Trying to explain that red and blue make purple is much harder to comprehend than watching the colors mix right in front of them. Plus, the child has a full color palette after the activity is complete, which is a great transition into another painting project.
All about hues
While this activity is more advanced than the color wheel, it is a good way to teach how paint affects colors differently. Here is what you will need:- Three small paper cups. (If you don’t have any, you can always use a plastic paint tray like the one used in my example.)
- Any paint mixture from the previous activity. (I used purple.)
- A piece of painting paper or a canvas.
- A few paper towels and an old water cup to clean off the brush between mixes.
Once you notice the color changing, start to ask questions. What happened to the purple? Do you like this new color more than the original? What happens if we add even more red? These questions get your child engaged, while also making sure they see the process.
Repeat the first few steps with the second cup, but add blue instead and go through the same questions. Look at the colors now. See how all are different but remain like the starting color.
After the child is done, let them have some fun by allowing them paint a picture using the new colors they made. Using colors created from scratch is incredibly rewarding and provides a sense of uniqueness with their painting.I hope these activities inspired you to grab some painting supplies and start painting with your family. They're an excellent foundation for any little artist so what they learn now will help in the future.
Learning is Where We Play:
A Crafty Way To Develop Color Recognition
READ MORE
Painting is one of those activities that teaches children all kinds of skills at a young age. Whenever a child runs a brush over a piece of paper or canvas, they are exploring their creativity, fine tuning their motor skills, and even expressing their emotions.
But even more so, painting opens the opportunity for children to learn color recognition while having fun. Luckily, there are endless painting games and exercises you can do with your children to help them learn all about colors. Below a few of my favorite painting activities.
Connecting the wheel
For the first activity you will need:- a paper plate
- red, blue, and yellow paint.
Now it's time for the fun part. Let your child pick two adjacent colors and let them start pulling paint into the unfilled circles. Once enough paint is transferred, have them mix the rest until a new color forms. Clean off the brush when you are done and repeat the process with the remaining colors. Soon they will have created a complete color wheel!
One reason I enjoy this exercise so much is that the child gets to see the process of making new colors. Trying to explain that red and blue make purple is much harder to comprehend than watching the colors mix right in front of them. Plus, the child has a full color palette after the activity is complete, which is a great transition into another painting project.
All about hues
While this activity is more advanced than the color wheel, it is a good way to teach how paint affects colors differently. Here is what you will need:- Three small paper cups. (If you don’t have any, you can always use a plastic paint tray like the one used in my example.)
- Any paint mixture from the previous activity. (I used purple.)
- A piece of painting paper or a canvas.
- A few paper towels and an old water cup to clean off the brush between mixes.
Once you notice the color changing, start to ask questions. What happened to the purple? Do you like this new color more than the original? What happens if we add even more red? These questions get your child engaged, while also making sure they see the process.
Repeat the first few steps with the second cup, but add blue instead and go through the same questions. Look at the colors now. See how all are different but remain like the starting color.
After the child is done, let them have some fun by allowing them paint a picture using the new colors they made. Using colors created from scratch is incredibly rewarding and provides a sense of uniqueness with their painting.I hope these activities inspired you to grab some painting supplies and start painting with your family. They're an excellent foundation for any little artist so what they learn now will help in the future.
Learning is Where We Play:
Happy Hands: 6 Hands-On Art Projects for Little Ones
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Jan 24, 2017 | Social-Emotional Learning
Little kids love getting crafty, but their fine motor skills are often not developed enough to manage traditional arts and crafts supplies. By simplifying the tools toddlers and preschoolers use to create their masterpieces, you can ensure a positive art experience with wonderful results. And you can’t get much simpler than the hand- and fingerprint art project ideas below!
Fun with flamingos
Flamingos are a childhood favorite, perhaps because of their comical leg length and bright pink coloring. With some detailing assistance from you, your child can craft his or her own handprint flamingo! Place your child’s hand in a plate or pie tin of pink paint, then press onto your paper at a slight angle, palm to the bottom edge of your sheet. Flip the page and have your little one finger paint yellow legs and blue water. Add a beak and you’ve got a flamingo-scape art project!
Pretty peacock
Speaking of birds, your child’s handprint can also make a pretty peacock! Just press a hand dipped or painted in blue paint flat onto the center of your paper, then use markers to add legs, curly head feathers, a beak, and other colorful details. You may even want to get out the glue and let your child add real feathers, pipe cleaners, sequins, beads, and more to complete this magnificent art project.
Feeling crabby
Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Turn that frown upside-down! Printing two hands, wrist to wrist, in red paint creates the body of a crab. Once dry, have your child dip a finger in white paint and press to the center of the thumbprints, then add a dot of black marker to create the eyes. Add red pincher claws and it’s done!
Beautiful butterfly
Brighten Grandma’s day with a beautiful butterfly handprint piece! You’ll need to paint the body first – a simple tube with a round head and antennae on top. Then, using a different color for each print, have your child print two handprints on each side, wrists to the butterfly’s body, to create the wings.
Crafty caterpillar
First, paint your child’s palm green and fingers blue (don’t paint the thumb). Next, press three prints in a row, green palms side-by-side, in the center of your page. Flip the paper so the fingers point down and you’ve got your body’s critter. Rinse your little one’s hands and paint the palm only in red. Press the red palm above a green palm on either end to add the head. Finger paint two antennae and thumbprint two white eyes to create your very own version of that junk-food junkie!
Thumbprint dandelion
Create a colorful garden in your kitchen with this multi-colored thumbprint project! You’ll need to draw the stem, center, and extending lines with a marker. Then have your child dip his or her thumb in one color and print at the end of several of the lines you drew. Wipe and dip in another color and repeat until all lines are capped with thumbprints.
Grab some paper and tempera paints and try one of these creative craft ideas today – and be sure to email some pix to us at blog@learningresources.com
Learning is Where We Play:
Happy Hands: 6 Hands-On Art Projects for Little Ones
READ MORE
Little kids love getting crafty, but their fine motor skills are often not developed enough to manage traditional arts and crafts supplies. By simplifying the tools toddlers and preschoolers use to create their masterpieces, you can ensure a positive art experience with wonderful results. And you can’t get much simpler than the hand- and fingerprint art project ideas below!
Fun with flamingos
Flamingos are a childhood favorite, perhaps because of their comical leg length and bright pink coloring. With some detailing assistance from you, your child can craft his or her own handprint flamingo! Place your child’s hand in a plate or pie tin of pink paint, then press onto your paper at a slight angle, palm to the bottom edge of your sheet. Flip the page and have your little one finger paint yellow legs and blue water. Add a beak and you’ve got a flamingo-scape art project!
Pretty peacock
Speaking of birds, your child’s handprint can also make a pretty peacock! Just press a hand dipped or painted in blue paint flat onto the center of your paper, then use markers to add legs, curly head feathers, a beak, and other colorful details. You may even want to get out the glue and let your child add real feathers, pipe cleaners, sequins, beads, and more to complete this magnificent art project.
Feeling crabby
Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Turn that frown upside-down! Printing two hands, wrist to wrist, in red paint creates the body of a crab. Once dry, have your child dip a finger in white paint and press to the center of the thumbprints, then add a dot of black marker to create the eyes. Add red pincher claws and it’s done!
Beautiful butterfly
Brighten Grandma’s day with a beautiful butterfly handprint piece! You’ll need to paint the body first – a simple tube with a round head and antennae on top. Then, using a different color for each print, have your child print two handprints on each side, wrists to the butterfly’s body, to create the wings.
Crafty caterpillar
First, paint your child’s palm green and fingers blue (don’t paint the thumb). Next, press three prints in a row, green palms side-by-side, in the center of your page. Flip the paper so the fingers point down and you’ve got your body’s critter. Rinse your little one’s hands and paint the palm only in red. Press the red palm above a green palm on either end to add the head. Finger paint two antennae and thumbprint two white eyes to create your very own version of that junk-food junkie!
Thumbprint dandelion
Create a colorful garden in your kitchen with this multi-colored thumbprint project! You’ll need to draw the stem, center, and extending lines with a marker. Then have your child dip his or her thumb in one color and print at the end of several of the lines you drew. Wipe and dip in another color and repeat until all lines are capped with thumbprints.
Grab some paper and tempera paints and try one of these creative craft ideas today – and be sure to email some pix to us at blog@learningresources.com
Learning is Where We Play:
