Thanksgiving Day Turkey Craft

I haven't posted a craft for the kiddos in a while. However, I am excited that Turkey Day is just around the corner! I've decided to embrace my role as "babysitter" at Thanksgiving this year. Need a last minute idea that keeps the kids busy? Stick around! ;)

After being inspired on Pinterest, I started cutting out all the parts essential to making a turkey. I wanted to include scrapbook paper for feathers, but I also didn't want to wipe out my stash. Ha! Who am I kidding. Paper Packs from Hobby Lobby last for years. If you are taking notes from me, DON'T be stingy with your scrapbook paper. Anyway...I also included some newspaper and wrapping paper.

Somewhere in the midst of my paper mess, the turkey beaks changed from orange to yellow. Magic!

If you are doing this craft for a large group of children, I suggest making extras of everything. You will need way more than what you think. Kids have a way of...

1| Running out of items

2| Losing small pieces of paper

These turkeys are ready to go! I just need to find two cute cousins to help assemble them. Something tells me that won't be hard. 

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Memorial Day Flag Craft

Before the hustle and bustle of Memorial Day weekend, the kids sat down for their weekly craft.

We got our hands messy and created this American flag with handprints and polka dots!

I read the story Memorial Day Surprise by Theresa Martin Golding. It focused on the best part of Memorial Day parades. No, it's not the firetrucks, friends, or CANDY! Memorial day is about honoring those who served our country. We took a few minutes to talk about our family members that were in the war. Here's to the start of a long weekend!

Scrappy Mother's Day Craft

The kids and I made books for their mother last Friday! 

Supplies: Three paper bags (per book), ribbon, a glue stick, hole punch, lined paper, white paper, scrapbook paper scraps, five of your favorite photos, stamps (optional), A Happy Mother's Day image found via google.com

I recalled making this books with a neighbor when I was little. My friend's mother was really into all things scrapbooking. I looked up a tutorial to refresh my memory. It can be found here.

Gather your supplies and start cutting! Depending on the age of your kids this craft is pretty customizable. 

The kids I worked with were ages 5-8, and I did a lot of gluing ahead of time. They just had to write five things about their Mother and color pictures on the blank pieces of paper. The boys weren't too happy about having a writing assignment, but they got into after a while. Everyone loved "secret pocket" that hid their drawings. 

Note: This was a lot of work for one day. It might be more enjoyable to have the kids work on it a few times during the week.

Have fun and happy crafting!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Back in March we had a week full of Dr. Seuss activities. I have been meaning to post about it, but life has been pretty busy! The kids love to make popsicle stick puppets, and we hadn't made any since Groundhog day. I wanted to find a way to incorporate them into this craft. Making a Topsy Turvy cake seemed to be very fitting.

Lucy got to work painting Bowtie pasta red

Gabriel and I worked on drawing characters from the books. I gave him a few verbal prompts here in there. 

"What would you put on a cake for Dr. Suess?"

Our finished Cat in the Hat puppets

I carefully cut small slits in the paper with a razor blade and reinforced it with packing tape. The puppets took the place of candles at the top of the cake! Unfortunately, one of our artists was under the weather. We saved his puppet for him, and it was added later on.

I found this fun Lorax game on pinterest!

Rachel @ Joyfully Weary provided this awesome Cat in the Hat Matching Game printable.

You can find more Dr. Seuss themed activities here.

At the end of the week Lucy handed me this super detailed drawing. It was a great way to say thank you! :)

Saint Patrick's Day!

The kids and I celebrated Saint Patrick's Day on Friday! We read Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards, The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing, and Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley.

I threw together a quick Leprechaun craft with the help of Pinterest! (Noah's finished piece is pictured above)

 Lucy went wild when she added the freckles! It made me giggle, and she couldn't figure out why.

Gabriel's leprechaun was super silly. He loves to make his artwork stand out from the rest. He told me that it was wearing Groucho Marx glasses. He also tried his best to draw a tie, but he didn't like how it looked. Who knew sole patches could hide mistakes?

I tried to get a picture of all three leprechauns in one shot. This was the result. Lol!

Here's the Leprechaun collage that we made on Monday!

Even though the kids already heard The Leprechaun's Gold at school, they still enjoyed finding all 16 four leave clovers hidden within the book. It was a nice surprise! I had fun seeing them working as a team. What a perfect way to end the week.

"Peg And The Whale" Craft

Peg And The Whale by Kenneth Oppel was really fun! I was searching for a story about a whale at our library. I found this book on the shelf and put back all my other choices.

I loved the detail on each page - we attempted to recreate these pages (otherwise known as a spread)

The kids enjoyed using the dry brushing technique with a few of our stencil brushes. Tapping brushes against paper is stress relieving for all ages. :)

After finishing our orange sky, each child used some crayons to add waves to their blue paper. Then, we got started on our puffy, pink clouds.

The end results were pretty awesome!

The bright colors felt refreshing in the middle of winter. I was happy to use a lot of my Elmer's construction paper. It never seems to stick together all the way. I'll be happy when it's gone!

 I painted 3 coffee filters with black tempera paint before hand. It gave the whales a wrinkly look. I'm glad I did this step ahead of time. Our final touch was adding Peg to the top of her whale!

Christmas Farm Craft

Supplies: newspaper, markers, glue, sequins, blue construction paper, green construction paper, tree cookie cutter (optional), white paint, paint brushes (small), smocks, wooden dowel

I handed the kids their supplies and let them be creative! They loved adding the snowflakes to their paper. The finished products were really fun to look at. :)

I traced the outline of the trees on green paper using a Christmas tree cookie cutter. I precut most of our crafts before hand, but this could definitely be used to help kids practice cutting with scissors.

Lucy made a "trees for sale" sign on her paper. What a little entrepreneur! She was also the only one to line up her trees in a straight row. I asked her if she wanted a snowman like the boys, but she decided that her farm was for trees only. 

We ended the night by reading Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray. This is a cute book about a woman named Wilma. Instead of planting more flowers, she places an order for sixty-two dozen balsam seedlings. The illustrations were wonderful, and the kids enjoyed finding out how many of the trees survived the harsh winter conditions. This was a perfect bedtime story! 

"Setting the Turkeys Free" Craft

I didn't think I would be able to check out this book 7 days before turkey day, but there it was sitting on the shelf! It did have holds placed on it, but the librarian allowed me to check it out anyway. Sorry to the little kids who were waiting for the book! I returned it as fast as I could. I promise.

I gave the kids their cutout handprints, tissue paper, glue, sequins, construction paper, markers, crayons, tin foil, and toothpicks. This was a nice craft that didn't need too much overseeing. I let the kids decorate their turkeys however they wanted without giving them too much instruction. 

This is what the table looked like when the kids were done! I think I've finally found something messier than when the kids eat Nature Valley bars for their snack...Besides the sequins on the floor, it cleaned up pretty fast. 

Note: L was feeling tired today. She gave me this look when I told her to remove her thumb from her mouth. "When Mom sees this picture she is going to find out that you were sucking your thumb!" ;)

Cute? I think so! These birds were customized all the way down to their gobblers.

"You can use one of the paper gobbles or color your own, but you have to make one. What's a turkey without a gobble?" -Me

"Hey! The Turkey Without a Gobble! That would be a funny book!" -Gabe

I decided to use the vacuum after I finished sweeping to speed things up. Super tired Lu volunteered help clean the kitchen! She was pretty proud to show me how fast she could make the piles disappear. "I told you I am good at this, Angela!" Please excuse the tongue...She smiled for the first picture, but this one happened to be less blurry.

I wrapped up the vacuum's cord and pushed the chairs back to their rightful spots. My helper didn't have to wait too long for me to read the book, and we both were reminded that many hands make light work!

Pumpkin Patch Art

Last month we made some crafty pumpkin patches using our fists. I got the idea from two Rachels that can be found here and here! The kids were a bit disappointed that their pumpkins didn't look like the example picture that showed them. I guess our tempera paint was a bit runny. Even though we had different results, I still think they look great! 

We read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara and The Very Best Pumpkin by Mark Kimball Moulton

Noah surprised me by painting a fence at the top of his paper. "If you don't have a fence people can steal your pumpkins!" he explained. Of course his siblings thought that was a great idea.

Here is Gabriel's artwork. He likes to make his art different from everyone else's. The pumpkin on right has multiple stems. "This pumpkin is rolling really fast. That's why it has so many stems!"

Last but not least we have Little Lu's picture. She made big pumpkins and small pumpkins. I tried to convince her to connect them with squiggly vines, but she insisted on making the cutest leaves on each stem.

Handprint Spiders

I can thank Pinterest for this cute idea! Now that October is here I can break out the fall crafts! I was brave enough to paint 4 little hands before bedtime. The hands belonged to children ranging from 3-8 years old.

Supplies: newspaper, smocks, paint brushes (we used a foam brush), black paint, white paint, an old pencil, a permanent marker, orange construction paper, a bowl, sponge, and paper towels

Step 1: Find a willing volunteer that is ready to paint their hand. Make sure you cover the whole hand with a sufficient amount of paint. Caution: This step can cause giggling! The paint is cold and the brush can tickle.

Step 2:  Make your handprint! We turned our construction paper upside down to make things easier. I pushed each hand/finger down firmly. I also made sure the paper stayed on the table when the kids were ready to lift their hand. Before pressing their hands onto the paper I instructed them on how to keep their fingers spread apart. For the smaller kids we practiced with their clean hand first.

Step 3: Use a smaller brush to fill in any orange spots inside your hand print. This was Noah's favorite part. 

Step 4: Wash, wash, wash! Whenever we are painting with our hands I always prepare a bowl of warm soapy water before we start. This keeps the mess in one place, and saves time when I am cleaning up. Dry their hands after the job gets done. Warm water can be a fun place to play!

Step 5: Wait for your paint to dry. This is the perfect time to repeat the process with the next child. Once the spiders were dry, we gave them two eyes using the eraser of an old pencil. After this step they quickly came to life!

Dragonfly Craft

Yesterday I asked Noah and Lucille to pick out 4 pairs of helicopter leaves and 2 small sticks for a craft. There were some curious questions from the kiddos. What would we be using these for?

 Today we put them to use! We made some cute dragonflies on a blue piece of construction paper.

 We took a quick look at these dragonfly books that I got from our local library

Lucy asked for some crayons so that she could draw Antennas on her dragonflies.

The last step was writing down their favorite fact on a small piece of paper...

And gluing it onto their artwork. (Miss independent loves to use the glue stick all by herself!)

All done! Judging things by that smile, I think they enjoyed this craft!