Joyfully Weary

One of the boys' favorite activities is playing with baking soda and vinegar. A couple weeks back I surprised them with some heart shaped baking soda and they enjoyed it so much we decided make some more for their valentines. 

Last weekend our local library hosted a Star Wars event. The boys wanted to dress up and since Yoda (who they insist on calling "Master Yoga") is their favorite character, we whipped up some green pointy ears. pouty lips and dimples! seriously, my heart could explode! Our Supplies: an old orange juice carton, scissors/x-acto knife, green acrylic paint, paint brush, pipe cleaners, & hot glue

Marble painting* is one of my favorite go to crafts . It's quick to throw together, easy enough for toddlers, and yet engaging enough for school agers. Last week the kids and I decided to spice marble painting up a bit by super-sizing the fun. Instead of just one person rolling marbles and paint around in a cake pan we worked in teams and used a few big boxes. 

It's been crazy windy here lately, and since we just finished up a weather unit  I thought it would be fun to make a wind-theme craft. We go through a ton of orange juice in a week and I have started to save some of the cartons for crafts. They'll make great buildings or boats someday but we started out with wind-spinners.  Our Supplies: orange juice carton, spray primer, x-acto knife, acrylic paint, brushes, twine Step #1: prepare carton by applying one coat of primer. Once primer has dried use an x-acto knife to cut a door in every side (make sure all doors open in the same direction). Also use x-acto knife to cut a small string hole at the top of the carton. *this step should be done by an adult Step #2: paint all sides of the carton Step #3: once paint has dried, thread twine through hole and knot, then hang your wind-spinner.  Here is a closer look at our finished wind-spinners. The kids have really enjoyed watc...

Last week the kids and I put our math and crafting skills to work and made Christmas trees out of ribbon.  Our Supplies:  foam board (construction paper would work just as well), green glitter paint, foam brushes, various green craft ribbon, rulers, scissors, glue, & brown markers Step 1: paint foam board with green glitter paint and let dry completely.  Step 2: use ruler to measure width of foam board Step 3: subtract 1" from foam board width and cut one piece of ribbon to that length. For example, our foam board was 10" so our 1st piece of ribbon was 9". Step 4: glue ribbon strip a couple inches from bottom of foam board.  Step 5: measure and cut the next strip of ribbon 1" smaller and glue it on top of the1st. Continue this step until you get to a 1" strip of ribbon.  one of our ribbons had silver balls so all the kids added 1 ball after their 1" strip - they thought it made a good star Step 6: dra...

Last week at the library, just as we were leaving, the kids noticed an Indian corn craft. They of course all wanted to do it; why is it that when it's time to go everything looks fun? We needed to get home for lunch (and naps!) so I promised we do our own version later.  Our Supplies: paper plate with corn cob drawn on to it, tissue paper squares, glue, scissors, tan paint, paint brush, & a stapler  Step 1: Cut the corn cob out of the paper plate Step 2: cut three strips from ridge of paper plate - these will be your husks parts of the plate you'll use, discard the rest  Step 3: paint your husks & set them aside to dry we enjoy a good paint mess at our house but if you aren't so inclined crayons or markers would work just as well.  Step 4: scrunch tissue paper squares into balls and glue them to your corn ear i love how his lips get involved in the gluing  Step 5: let everything dry Step 6: staple husks...

Inspired by the every popular handprint-turkey crafts we decided to make stuffed turkeys using some old gloves.  Our Supplies: craft feathers, old gloves (and one mitten), googly eyes, red felt, scissors, newspaper, glue, and scissors.  Step 1: Tear newspaper into strips Step 2: stuff gloves with newspaper strips Step 3: fold and glue wrist portion of gloves so that you create a base.  * after gluing i had manipulate the newspaper a little bit in each turkey so they were balanced enough to stand Step 4: cut a bill and wattle out of red felt for each turkey Step 5: glue bill, wattle, eye, and feathers to gloves *we ended up switching from tacky glue to white glue because it is so much easier to squeeze Step 6: let everything dry overnight Step 7: display and enjoy your flock of turkeys

Roasted pumpkin seeds weren't too big of a hit at our house so we decided to craft with our seeds instead.  We divided our seeds in to four zip-loc bags and then each of the kids used liquid water color to dye a bag their favorite color.  little lady: pink, mini man: orange, big buddy: blue, v: violet After the seeds had dried the kids glued them to foam board - we have lots of this laying around but I'm sure study paper would work just fine.  The kids all did one picture where they placed the seeds at random anywhere they wanted. Then I encouraged them to fill in the first letter of their names.  As you can see from the picture above Little Lady didn't quite get concept of placing the seeds inside her 'K'. She did however amaze me with how she handled the glue. I started by showing her how to squeeze out a small amount of glue out and put a seed on top. She kept at it, quietly whispering "dot, seed, dot, seed" as s...

When I shared our Ocean Unit I mentioned that National Geographic Kids Oceans   was one of our favorite books. There is one page in particular that Big Buddy loves - he'll study it for several minutes at a time. national geographic kids oceans, pages 58-59 Since he's so captivated by the picture we've read the text several times and decided it would be fun to create our own ocean layers... Our supplies : blue, black, and white paint, small bowls, stir sticks, bubble wrap, sponge brushes, white paper/foam board, sea life stencils, markers, stickers.  Step 1 : pour a little blue paint into the three bowls.  Step 2 : add a bit of white paint to one cup to create a lighter shade of blue. This will be the top ocean layer/sunlight zone. Step 3 : add a bit of black paint to one cup to create a darker shade of blue. This will be the bottom ocean layer/midnight zone. The remaining cup of blue paint is the middle layer/twilight zone. ...