Sandpaper Letters

This activity is short and sweet. Give your child a sheet of coarse sandpaper and a few short pieces of yarn (the fluffier the better). Practice making letters, shapes, anything you want. The yarn will "stick" to the sandpaper. It's nice to have a little textile variety!

Do-It-Yourself Mobile

I know. I know. Valentine's has come and gone, but this is a project that is EASILY adapted to any burst of creativity. Learning about clouds? Rain? Moon? Stars? Flowers? You name it. You can make a mobile out of it. You'll need:

Colored paper

Crayons or paint

Long, thin supports

String

Scotch tape

1. Cut out paper into whatever shapes you want. Kids can color it, paint it, etc.

2. Attach string securely (aka tape generously) to the ends of of your supports (I just used colored pencils...it's not like this mobile will hang in your house for years to come) and tape the cut-out shapes to the string.

3. Tie another string in the middle of the support, don't secure yet. Hold up the mobile and slide the middle string back and forth until it balances at its fulcrum (yes, we're talking simple machines/levers here). Tape string securely into place.

4. Work your way from bottom to top, making the mobile as elaborate as you'd like.

5. Hang up your child's mobile for all to see.

5. Gush over how awesome it looks to anyone passing by. Make him/her agree with you. Because really, mobiles are the BOMB of all hanging, preschool art projects, right?

-original idea from...whoever first invented the mobile, I guess.

Paper Chain Butterfly

Materials:

Construction paper (3-4 colors)
Paint
Tape
Marker

1. Fold one piece of construction paper in half. This will be the wings.

2. On one half of the folded paper, put small dots of paint. (My daughter was too little to do this herself, so she chose the colors and I poured the paint.)

3. Fold the paper in half again so the paint spreads out on both sides. While it is folded, cut out around the paint to create the wing shape. Unfold and allow to dry.

4. While the paint is drying, create the butterfly's body by cutting paper into thin strips. (I wanted more loops, so I made them pretty small.) Loop them together and tape them closed to make the paper chain.

5. Add one loop of a different color at the top of the chain for the head. Draw a face and add small antennae (curl them around a pencil to make them round).

6. When the paint is dry, attach the paper chain between the two wings by taping it down in each place where the loops lay flat.

Idea originally from www.dltk-kids.com

Homemade Icebergs

We learned about icebergs and then made some of our own with a few toys thrown in them for added fun! The next morning the "icebergs" were frozen and we threw them into some water to play with. They were only half frozen by afternoon so we decided let them sit overnight. Our dining area was a bit wet by the end, but it was so worth it! My five year old had an informal q and a lesson about buoyancy and phases of water. My two year old learned a bit about hot and cold, that ice melts in warm water, and about what sinks and floats.

Thanks to Delia for the snow/cold weather activities that will be featured over the next little bit! Check out her blog Delia Creates at http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/!

Ice Cube Scavenger Hunt

I froze ice cubes dyed with food coloring in our freezer. Yes...we have star shaped ice cube trays. I hid them all over the yard like an Easter egg hunt. I tried not to make it too hard since the stars could easily get buried and then lost. We worked on math skills with this one. My five year old had to count how many he had to find by counting the empty spaces in the ice cube tray. As he found some we subtracted them from our "total to find" and put them back in the tray. My five year old loved this one!

Thanks to Delia for the snow/cold weather activities that will be featured over the next little bit! Check out her blog Delia Creates at http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/!

Borax Cystal Snow Flakes

Here is the how to:

Materials

Boiling hot water - enough to fill your pint sized mason jar
1/3 cup borax - you can find this in the laundry aisle.

pint mason jar
pencil
pipe cleaners
string/yarn

Directions

1. Form your pipe cleaners into a snowflake shape or whatever shape you desire, while you boil water.
2. Add water to your mason jars.
3. Mix in borax. Stir it but don't worry if it isn't completely dissolved.
4. Attach your pipe cleaner shape to the string and hang it from the pen/pencil while submerging it in your jar.
5. Leave it overnight. The next morning you should have a nice pretty crystal snowflakes!

Thanks to Delia for the snow/cold weather activities that will be featured over the next little bit! Check out her blog Delia Creates at http://deliacreates.blogspot.com/!

Feather Turkeys

This activity is easy enough! But a winner for Thanksgiving.


Materials:

Brown or tan construction paper

Orange construction paper

Red construction paper

White paper

Colored feathers (we found ours at Wal-Mart)

Google eyes (optional)

Elmer's glue

Hot glue


Directions:

On your brown paper draw a shape like a short, squat bowling pin. Then cut it out. Glue this shape onto the middle of a white piece of paper with Elmer's glue - leave an edge around the outside (glue mostly in the middle).


Next, take the colored feathers and decide how you want them arranged around the turkey. Using a hot glue gun put a thin squirt of glue on the bottom of each turkey feather and quickly push it under the brown paper. You can try this with Elmer's glue, but the feathers might just fall out.


After the feathers are glued on, cut out a beak, feet, and waddle with your colored paper and glue them on. Glue on your google eyes as well (or, you can make your own eyes by drawing them on or using white paper to cut some out).


You can have your little one stick on all the parts of the turkey with your help! If your child is old enough he/she can cut out the parts of the turkey.

Paper Bag Pumpkins

Materials:

Brown Paper Bag (lunch size)

String (any color - green is fun)

Newspaper

Orange and Green Paint

Paintbrushes (large foam paintbrush is best)



Description:

Have your child wad up 1-2 pieces of newspaper into a big ball. Have him/her stuff the newspaper into the brown bag. Using the string, tie the bag closed (I used white, but green is a bit more fun if you have it). Then dump some orange paint into a bowl and let your little one paint the outside of the "pumpkin" (we used finger paints, but crayola tempura paints are good too - just make sure they are washable, so avoid acrillic - this gets messy!) Lastly, use green paint to color your "stem." That's it!!



**Tips, make sure your table is well covered with a plastic cloth or newspaper - the paint tends to drift with this activity.



**Optional additions - add a face to make your pumpkin a jack-o-lantern. You can do this activity in October for a Halloween decoration or you can do it in November (without a face) and just use it for a fun fall craft.