Sand fun

Today looks gloomy outside, so we decided to turn the kitchen into some art fun! We sort of did 3 things today, and one will last the whole day!

First thing this morning, I made some coloured salt. I put some salt in small bowls and each bowl also had a piece of chalk. I "mixed" around the bowl of salt, using the chalk. In a few seconds we had coloured salt. You can also put the chalk in a bag with the salt and move it all around.

The first thing we did with the salt was salt pictures. (I told the kids it was coloured sand!)

I got some glue, paper and the salt.

They drizzled the glue all over their papers- older kids might make a design.

And then we dropped the sand all over the paper. Once it dries it will be a rainbow of colours on the paper!

With the left over sand, we put them into baby food jars, for a nice decoration!

After that was done, we pulled out the long paper roll. I taped it to the floor and had each child lay down on the paper. I traced around them, and then they went to work decorating their bodies. They have gone back and forth a few times now, playing, colouring, playing, colouring! They will be on the floor in the kitchen for most of the day!

Pot O Gold

St. Patricks Day is this weekend. So, of course, we started the crafts that we want to do to celebrate. While I was getting things together, I went to explain what St. Patricks day is to the kids. Then, Danika and Landon spoke up and told me that their teacher at preschool told them already. They told me that she said, "The leprechaun comes in your house, makes a mess and leaves the kids coins"- UM WHAT! Now, we have to leave them coins- when did this start! So, I am not sure what I am going to do- maybe chocolate coins if I can find some. But we will see!

Today, we were making pot of gold! Complete with rainbow. I got everything ready to begin. I cut the pot of gold, colours for the rainbow, and the coins. I also made a shamrock for each of the kids to put on too. This was an easy craft, but the kids love it!

First they had to glue the rainbow together. This was good for the older kids, because we talked about going from biggest to smallest, colours, and other colours in the rainbow.

Then we glued on the pot!

And then to complete the pot o gold, we added the gold pieces and the shamrock!

Ta Da! 

Rain clouds

They say 'April Showers bring May flowers", so today, we made rain clouds (I think also in hopes that the snow in the forecast changes to rain!).

I collected everything we were using- paper cut into cloud shapes, paint, glue, and paper cut into rain drops.



Then the kids painted their cloud



And then glued on the rain drops




And then we had our final product. (I may let the older kids add some sparkles if- and when they dry!)

Simple Crafts

Today, I don't have pictures- the battery in my camera died! But- the crafts we did today are simple. Simple enough just to explain what I did.

The first one we did (yes we did two because they were simple, and the kids were all in a crafty mood!) was a coloring picture. It is a picture of a bear cub jumping in a puddle, he has an umbrella and rain gear on. I got it out of one of the teacher books I have, but you could use any rainy type picture you have, or make. Basically the kids just colored this. But, while they were doing it we talked about rain, and how it usually rains in April. We talked about the phrase "April showers bring May flowers", and the letters that spell out April. (I wrote April on the top for them to color too!). You could also add sparkles to the rain and puddles, or glue cut out tin foil for the rain/puddles.

The second craft was easy too. We made Happy Easter signs. I have foam Easter stickers, regular Easter stickers, and got together pastel colored markers. The kids got to pick which color of pastel colored paper they would like to do theirs on. I then had them stick all of their Easter stickers all over the page. After they did that, I wrote "Happy Easter" and their names on the paper. Then asked them to write it themselves (the older ones). They looked at the letters I had done, and tried themselves. Both of them were very proud that they wrote Happy Easter! After that they colored their page with the pastel colored markers. One drew more Easter Eggs, and the other made homes for the bunnies on the stickers.

Sometimes simple things are great too! Sometimes all you need is paper, markers and imagination! (Stickers help too!)

Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow

In honor of St. Patricks day today, we made rainbows, complete with the pot of gold at the end!

We started off with a plain white sheet of paper, and a number of multi-colored strips of paper. We had the pot, and used glitter glue to put the "gold" on it.



Then the kids glued the colored strips to the white paper



After those dried (or almost dried), we cut them into rainbow shapes, and glued on the pot of gold!




Happy St. Patricks Day!