PEEPS on Skateboards!!

 

My kids and I had so much making these with their friends!

They were so easy to make, we used Vienna cookies, Gummy Life Savers, and a tiny bit of frosting to make the skateboards.

Lorax Craft

We made this cute little Lorax craft with our Dr. Seuss play date last week.

Isn't he too cute?

My favorite thing about this craft is that it uses your child's handprints to make his mustache, which makes it a keepsake as well!

 

Make Your Own Dinosaur Fossils!

 

My son and I had a lot of fun making dinosaur fossils for his DINO-mite dinosaur party. This was a great craft for us to do together because they are very easy and  inexpensive to make. You really can't mess them up! We hid some fossils in the plastic eggs for our dinosaur egg hunt and placed the others on the tables for added decoration. 

 

 

All you need to make these is a container of play sand, some plastic dinosaurs, and plaster of paris. 

 

 

The sand should be about an inch to an inch and a half deep.

Mix in a small amount of water to moisten the sand and make it hold the shape of whatever you push into it. Once your sand is prepared, prepare your plaster of paris by following the directions on the package.

Lightly push a plastic dinosaur into the sand and carefully remove it.

 

 

It should leave the imprint of the dinosaur behind, if it doesn't, mix a little more water into the sand and try it again.

 

 

Using a spoon, spoon enough plaster of paris to fill the indents I the sand.

 

 

Repeat each step for each fossil, moving quickly so that the plaster of paris doesn't start to dry out and thicken. If the plaster of paris in the bowl begins to thicken, you can add a little more water to thin it out. Once you are finished, let the plaster of paris dry completely, I let them sit for a few hours to be safe.

 

 

Remove the dried globs of plaster of paris from the sand.

 

Using a paint brush, brush off all of the excess sand.

 

 

Look at those fossils!

You could make these using anything you like to make the imprint and create fossils of all types of things! Think animals, footprints, sea shells, leaves, and more!

 

 

Fire Breathing Dragon Mask Craft

My son and I are working on putting together a Dragon Sensory Tub. I really like to add handmade items to our sensory tubs when possible, especially items that he made.  This craft was relatively easy and fun to make. It will be a fun addition to our sensory tub, but it is also a great stand alone craft for your toddler or preschooler or party favor for a knights and dragon party!

 

 

These are little dragon faces that "breathe fire" when a child blows into them.

I picked the green plastic cups up from the dollar store along with red, orange, and yellow crepe paper. I cut the bottoms of the cups off with scissors and then glued strips of the crepe paper to the inside of the opening. If you are making this for a child, low temp hot glue works great because it dries so quick. If a child is making this, glue dots are great to use because they hold in place and do not require any drying time. I cut 2 small rectangles out of cardstock and folded them in half to make the eyes pop out. We then glued the folded rectangles into place and added the eyes.

Now, my son can run around breathing fire like a dragon!

 

 

Cereal Glove Turkey

 

 

We had some fun today creating our little cereal turkeys! Our turkey's feathers are Fruit Loops cereal. My little guy really enjoyed sorting (and eating) the Fruit Loops! Our turkey's body consists of Cherios and Alphabits cereal. I made the beak and gobble out of foam paper, but you could also use construction paper. I tied the glove closed with a small rubber band and stuck a small circle of cardboard on the bottom to help him stand. He is very colorful and absolutely delish-- Just ask my little guy! These are cute to add to your Thanksgiving table, especially at a child's place setting, and would also make a great Thanksgiving treat for any child!

 

Leaf Placemats for Thanksgiving

Last week, we had some friends over for a playdate. We  had a blast making these fun Fall themed placemats. We decided to add some cute handprint turkeys to them to make them perfect for Thanksgiving. These were fun and easy to make. The kids loved going outside and searching for leaves to add to their placemat. 

 

 

To make these, you need 2 pieces of clear contact paper cut to the size of a placemat. I picked up rolls of contact paper from the Dollar Tree, I got 2 placemats (4 pieces) from each roll.  Take the paper backing off of 1 piece of contact paper and lay it sticky side up on your work space.

Place your leaves and handprint turkey wherever you like onto the sticky side of contact paper.
*I chose to cut out our handprint turkey, some didn't.

 

 

Once everything is in place, put the second sheet of contact paper on top of the first one. I found the easiest way to do this is to take the paper off as you go-- Remove the paper about an inch or two and stick that to the bottom sheet. Then, repeat with a few more inches. Continue to repeat until you are done.

 

 

Smooth the contact paper out to make sure it sticks and then trim the ends with scissors so that they are even. 

 

 

There you have it, a wonderful kid-made placemat for your child to use and show-off  on Thanksgiving!

My son is loving his, he cannot wait to show it to his Grandma & Poppie on Thanksgiving!

 

I plan on making these with the kids again next year, I think I may do them a little earlier so that we can highlight all of the beautiful colors of Fall. Here in PA, the leaves are mostly brown by the time November rolls around.

Handprint Turkey's

 

I love making these Handprint Turkeys with my kids for Thanksgiving.

They are a lot of fun and they double as a decoration and a keepsake! Every year after we make them, we compare them to last year's turkeys to see how much their hands have grown.

 

 

They are easy to make, you just 5 colors of paint, one being brown.

Paint your child's hand like shown and have them stick it on a piece of paper.

After the handprint dries, add eyes, a beak, a gobble, and little legs if you desire.

Turkey Cupcakes for Thanksgiving

 

These little Turkey Cupcakes were the highlight of one of our playdates last week! Not only did the kids enjoy eating them, but they had a blast putting them together! With a little help, even the younger kids were able to make a turkey cupcake of their own. These would be absolutely adorable for a children's Thanksgiving party or for a special kid's dessert on Thanksgiving.

 

To make your own turkey cupcakes, you will need cupcakes, chocolate icing (if you don't like chocolate, you could try to dye vanilla icing brown), black cake gel for the eyes (you could also use a dab of icing to stick mini chocolate chips on for the eyes), Fruit Rollups (you could also use Fruit By the Foot), Vienna Cookies (Nutter Butter Cookies work great too), and some toothpicks.

 

 

We got the rainbow fruit rollups and cut them into strips. You will need 1 Fruit Rollup per cupcake that you want to make.

 

Fold each strip over a toothpick to make the feathers.

 

 

         Before you fold over the red and yellow pieces, cut a little piece off to make the gobble (red) and a little triangle for the beak (yellow).

 

Ice the cupcakes and get decorating!!

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Literacy Basket

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of our favorite books. I fell in love with I the first time I read it so many years ago. My little guy shares the same love for the book, so I decided to put together a literacy basket for it.

It is loaded with a bunch of activities, story retelling cards, and props that go along with the book.

 

This is one of my favorite activities, it is a great activity to help with retelling the story, plus it is absolutely adorable! It is definitely my son's favorite activity

 

 

 

It is a sock puppet with all of the pieces of food that the caterpillar eats through. The pieces of food were all cut out of felt.

 

 

My son loves his peg butterfly that I made using a doll clothespin, felt, and paint. 

 

 

I added this story retelling activity that I made awhile back, you can check it out here.

 

This is another set of retelling cards that I printed out.

 

Along with some other items, there is this set to teach the life cycle of a butterfly hands on.

 

 

Here's a look at all of the contents in our literacy basket. This basket of goodies takes The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a whole new level of fun! 

 

 



Halloween Sensory Tote

My son loves his sensory totes,  so of course I had to put together a Halloween Sensory Tub for him. He is really enjoying it with all the skeletons, snakes, and other creepy crawly things that are in it-- What boy wouldn't?  It is filled with all things Halloween,  including ghosts,  costume glasses, trick or treat baskets, vampire teeth, pumpkins,  Jack-o-lanterns,  and witch fingers.  This is a great way for my son to explore all of the fun things about Halloween!

Our Lion Pumpkin

Every year we put together a pumpkin for our Cub Scout Pack's Halloween party and pumpkin decorating contest. This is a Lion Pumpkin we made last year.  I ended up making it out of one of those fake carvable pumpkins so that we could keep it and display it year after year.

 

Our Little Spider Pumpkin

My youngest and I went to my girlfriend's house last week and she had a little pumpkin decorated as a spider that she made with her son. My son told me then and there that he wanted to make one too. I asked her about it and she said that it was a craft kit that she got for like $10. $10 for a spider pumpkin? I was quickly rethinking making one with my son...

 

The next night, I had to run to Target to pick up a few things. I found black glittery Styrofoam pumpkins in the dollar section. Jackpot! I grabbed one to turn into a spider and two others, I'd find a use for them when I got home. When we got home, we stuck some pipe cleaners into the pumpkin for legs and glues googley eyes on him to make him a spider. It cost me $1 for the pumpkin, everything else I had in my stash. My son loves his little spider pumpkin and since it is made out of Styrofoam, it can be used year after year.

 

We turned another pumpkin into an Eyeball Monster Pumpkin and decided to leave the third one plain, at least for now.

 

Fun Halloween Snack-- Quick & Easy Broomsticks

 

My kids love these-- who wouldn't? They are simply peanut butter cups and pretzel sticks, a combination that most like. Whip some of these up in just minutes, your kids will be thrilled that you did!! Even better, have your kids make them!

 

Oreo Cookie Spiders

 

These Oreo Cookie Spiders are so much fun to make! A pack of Oreo's, some icing(to hold the M&M eyes on), licorice laces, and M&M's and you are on your way to have some fun with the kids!

 

Easy to Make Doc Mc Stuffin's Stethoscopes

We are working on putting together a Community Helpers Sensory Tote and one of the items I decided to make was a stethoscope. I used headbands, ribbon, and felt. I picked up all of the materials from the Dollar Tree-- the headbands were 6 for $1, ribbon was $1 for the roll, and the felt was a pack for $1. I made 6 of these stethoscopes for $3 and still had felt and ribbon leftover! I cut long rectangles of felt, wrapped them around the end of the headbands, and hot glued them into place for the ear pieces. I used about a foot long piece of ribbon for the strap and cut out 2 circles out of felt and glued them together with the tip of the ribbon in between them. I then cut a small band aid out of felt to glue on top. You can even add a small heart on the band aid if you like! The kids are really enjoying these, my son takes it out every time we watch Doc Mc Stuffin's on TV. I will definitely be making more of these for Christmas presents!

Popsicle Stick Catapult

 

I made these simple popsicle stick catapults last week for a playdate. I gave the kids each their own catapult and a bowl of mini marshmallows and they had a BLAST!

 

 

These catapults are quick, easy, and inexpensive to make! All you need is 5 rubber bands, 7 popsicle sticks, and a water bottle or soda bottle lid.

Group together the popsicle sticks and a wrap a rubber band around each end to hold them together.

 

Put one popsicle on top, one on the bottom, and use a rubber band to hold them together.

 

 

Using another rubber band, wrap it around the center of all of the popsicle sticks to hold them in place.

 

 

Use the fifth rubber band to do the other side.

Glue the water bottle lid on (I used my glue gun) and you are ready or action!