Fun Holiday Crafts

I have been searching for fun projects to do this winter. There are many ideas I found for the Christmas tree. Plus many ideas  for gifts for parents, grandparents, teachers and us nannies. I am inspired to et a small tree just for the many ideas for the oranments.

These ideas were complied by Teach preschool.
http://delicious.com/stacks/view/Hip5uD


Here are some of my favorites and ones I plan on doing 
Play and Learn with Dana: Fingerprint Snowman Ornament http://playandlearnwithdana.blogspot.com/2010/12/fingerprint-snowman-ornament.html


/No Mess Candy Cane Ornaments |
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2010/12/no-mess-candy-cane-ornaments.html

Frugal Family Fun BlogOrnament Advent Day 8:Children's Art Ornaments! -
http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2010/12/ornament-advent-day-8childrens-art-ornaments.html

The Crafty CrowMrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits: http://mrswheelerfirst.blogspot.com/2010/12/peppermint-presents.html



Peppermint PresentsAlmost Unschoolers: Homemade, Color-Your-Own Sun Catchers, and Ornaments http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2010/12/homemade-color-your-own-sun-catchers.html

Pocketful of Posies: Frugal Fun: Cinnamon Ornaments

http://pocketful--of--posies.blogspot.com/2009/12/frugal-fun-cinnamon-ornaments.html

 

Trim Your Tree With This! | No Time For Flash Cards

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/12/trim-your-tree-with-this.html

 

Mama Jenn: Craft Stick Christmas Tree Ornament

http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2010/12/craft-stick-christmas-..

 

 

.House of Baby Piranha: Christmas Crafts: Handprint Mitten

http://www.houseofbabypiranha.com/2010/11/christmas-crafts-h...

 

Little Wonders' Days: Reindeer Games, Advent Day 8

http://littlewondersdays.blogspot.com/2010/12/reindeer-games...

 

Bead Your Own Ornaments | Make and Takes

http://www.makeandtakes.com/bead-your-own-ornaments

 

 

Have fun making oraments or whatever you may chose. No matter what the kids will have fun making oranments for those they love and who are part of their lives.  As I make oranments I will post pictures to share. 

 

Please share your thoughts on any of the above ideas. I would love to hear what your kids thought of the ideas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glueing and more glueing

The week of October 17th:
I gave Smartpants and Sweetheart their own bottle of glue and different items to glue to make creations. Today sweetheart had fun glueing pompoms. Also, this week she cut and glued tissue paper. Really anything can be glued. 

Today, Sweetheart made glued pipe cleaners on a foam board. I had to cut as it was just to hard for her to cut.  She let me know how small she wanted them.  She loves gluing. I let her use as much glue as she wants. Now I am on the mission to find things for Smartypants and Sweetheart to glue.
Heres a list of things to cut and glue
paper
wrapping paper
tissue paper
pipe cleaners
fabric
straws
foamy sheets
string
ribbon

More Fall Button Trees

We have finished the Fall Button trees for the grandparnets. I will be posting pictures soon. I love love Smartypants appletree one. Smartypants organized the red and green apples so beautiful.  The grandparents I know will love their grandchildren art work.  The buttons trees were a big hit by both set of grandparents. Both grandmas love all the art work all the kids do.

this is Sweethearts
Christmas Trees

this is Smartpants
apple trees

My mind is thinking what to do for Valentine's Day for parents and grandparents.  I can't wait to see what I may find on all the blogs.

Happy 1st week of October

I am on a role of posting some blogs. My goal in the next month is to have daily events. I will post activites for all ages. I even want to post places to go around the Twin Cities. This month I will focus on apple orchards and pumpkin farms. Plus, hay mazes. I went to one last yr at night and I can't wait to go back this year. I also want to post some favorite State Parks. 

Here is the link to the hay maze I went to last year. . It was so much fun to go through at night. http://www.tomspumpkinfarm.com/2011thelastfrontier.html#moonlight

I am going to this one

http://www.aftonapple.com/corn_mazes.htm

I am so excited about the yr long project I will be doing. I bought sketch/art books for the kids. My plan is for the next year is to have them draw in them over the next year.  I can't wait to see the changes in each of the kids. Smartypants loves to draw and color. He is getting better each and every day. Sweetheart just started to draw a person.  The hands and legs come from the head. The eyes are big and the mouth is small. I loved her first offical drawing.  Then there is Smiles. She is just beginning stages of coloring, painting and everything in between.  Even six month from now will be exciting to see the changes from all. Smartypants loves his art book.  I plan to introduce different types of art materials.

Kids say.........

I am going to come up with names of each of the kids so I am not always referring to their age. I will start with the youngest. I will call her Miss Smiles. As she is always happy. The 3 year old I will call Miss sweetheart. The 5 yr old I will call Mister smartypants.

Back in the summer though it may have been spring. I asked Miss sweetypants "I asked you 3 times to get on your shoes. how many times do I have to ask you?" Not expecting answer. She answered " 4 times". I started laughing and even since that has become our joke.  When I ask "how many times" I will hear from the big kids 4 times.

I must say the  Miss sweetheart can come up with some funny things. Earlier in the summer big brother called her some names. I talked to him about calling names and how it can hurt feelings. Miss sweetheart comes up to him and puts her arm around him and says " I love you, but you just can't call me names".  Needless to say he felt bad.  He said sorry and we went on to the next activity. 

One of the activities we have been doing at breakfast, lunch or snack is reading Flat Stanley. Even Miss Smiles will smile when I show her the pictures.  When we get ready for nap the big kids shuts all the doors upstairs to avoid Miss Smiles crawling in the rooms. She is pretty good when I am reading the books. I read 2-3 Miss Smiles books and then put her down. Then I read other books to the big kids. sometimes I may say all go to your room. There was a time where Miss Smiles crawled toward her room.

Ever since seeing the movie 'The Help' I have been telling the kids " you are kind, smart and important". Or I will say before closing the door "remember" and they say "I am kind, smart and important". I must say this 1-5 times a day. I hear Miss Sweetheart tell her mister smartypants all the time he is kind, smart and important. I tell them both before they go to school.  All I say "remember" and they say the rest.

Fun Fall Projects

Thanks to Teach Preschool for the following idea. I had the big kids collect sticks. Then they chose the sticks they wanted and glued them on a canvas. We waited for a day for the sticks to dry. After chosing the buttons they wanted it was time to glue. I was in the middle glueing the buttons and they put the buttons on the canvas. Both of there creations turned out wonderful. I loved them so much I wanted them to create one for me. Now in the next month they will each create 3 more. I decided to have the kids make one for the grandparents.  I bought different sets of buttons. So, each of us will get an unique piece of art.  Posting pictures sometime in the near future.

The kids love projects of all kinds. So, coming up with new ideas can be challenging at times. Thanks to Teach Preschool on FB I am getting tons of new ideas.

Can I say how much I love Michaels. I bought white pumkins and all 3 kids painted their pumpkins with their hands. With the little one I put red and yellow paint on the pumkin and away she went. She had so much fun painting. She even managed to cover most of the pumkin. The big kids wanted the paint on the paper. From there they mixed and put on the pumpkin. The oldest drew lines on his. Each turned out great and now are diplayed on the table.

The next project the kids did was a fall tree. The oldest drew a tree and the family on the posterboard. Including me. Then from the $$ store I bought yellow leaves dollies and posterboard. From there I put paint and the leaves in a baggie and away they went mixing the colors. Sometimes the bigs kids just wanted yellow or just red. For the little one I did both. She enjoyed pushing the paint around. Once they were dried the big kids glued them on the tree. The oldest was proud of his drawings so he asked his sister to glue around the family and words.

Our ongoing project since summer has been story time rocks.  More details to come.

This week I am having the kids put masking tape on a foam board. I will tell them to have fun with the masking tape. I may pre cut several different sizes and let them put as much tape as they want. Encourage them to make a picture or whatever there hearts desire. Then they paint away. When dried we will take off the tape. I am very excited for this creation.  I am thinking this may be a creation the grandparents and myself may like as well. Maybe, I will wait for Christmas for the grandparents.  Maybe have them stentil a Christmas theme on the foam board. 

I am excited for the week. The weather is going to be really nice. I believe in the 70's. So, we will want to be outside as much as we can.