Spoon People

Materials:

Wooden spoons
Google eyes
Yarn
Buttons
Glitter glue
Hot glue gun

Directions:

Have your little one lay out the parts of the spoon person's face on the spoon how he/she wants. Let the child choose the color of button nose and other things. When the pieces are in place, YOU glue them on with hot glue. Wind up a bit of yarn and tie it together for hair and glue it on as well. Then, take some glitter glue and draw a mouth. When the glitter glue dries you are all done! Have a puppet show or just play with them.



*Tips - this activity was super cheap. I bought a set of spoons at Wal-Mart that only cost me $1, then I got some google eyes (again $1) and some buttons ($1) I already had yarn (hence they all have white hair, but I have so much white yarn I didn't want to buy different colors) and glitter glue. You can also use what you have - instead of buttons use puff balls if you have them.

You can also leave the mouth off if you don't have glitter glue - it looks cute either way.

Find That Number!

Supplies:


11 small slips of paper with numbers 0-10 written on them
3 plastic or paper cups
10 beads, marbles, raisins, buttons (really, anything)

How to play:
Have your child cover his/her eyes. Place one of the pieces of paper under one of the three cups (make sure the papers are small enough so that the cup can cover them). Then have your child guess which cup has the paper. When they find the paper have them identify what the number is. Then have your child count out the same number of beads as the number on the paper. Repeat until all numbers have been hidden, identified, and counted.

Modifications:
Cut out shapes on the slips of papers and then have your child identify the shape and name how many sides/corners it has.

Color on the sheets of paper and have your child identify the color and then find 3 objects in the house that are the same color.

Write letters on the papers and have your child identify the letter, give it's sound, and think of a word that starts with that letter.

Write words on the papers and have your child read the words.

Really - you can use this game for any learning activity!

Stuffed Animal Safari

Materials:

~2 toilet paper rolls or one paper towel roll cut in half

~construction paper

~stapler & scissors

~all the stuffed animals you can find :)



Directions:

1. Color the construction paper if desired.



2. Staple the cardboard rolls together, wrap the construction paper around and cut to size, then staple the paper to the rolls.



3. Hide the stuffed animals around your house, and going searching for them with your new binoculars.



Happy hunting!

Snowflake Crystals

We made these around Christmas time but they are a great January craft as well. Simply form a pipe cleaner into a snowflake [or whatever shape you want, my son made a snowman), boil water and pour into wide mouth jars. Dissolve 1/3 c. of borax into water. Hang pipe cleaner with string from a stick laid across the jar. It should take about one day for the crystals to completely form.

These are so pretty and way easy. You could even make hearts for Valentine's Day which is just around the corner. As for the borax, I found it at Walmart on the bottom shelf. A box was going for just over $3. It is a great stain remover and I keep finding new uses for it...like this craft and slime goop that my friend Jes has the recipe on her blog Koop's Kitchen.

Have fun!

Raisin Letters

Here is a super easy craft/learning activity.

Supplies:
Raisins
Toothpicks

Directions:
Form letters out of raisins and toothpicks - have your little one help by handing you the toothpicks and raisins. Just poke the raisins with toothpicks to form letters. Some letters are curvy, so instead of using toothpicks just form them with the raisins. You can glue these down onto a paper for an art project or just form the letters and then pick off AND EAT the raisins when you are done (which is what we did).


*This activity is great because you can incorporate counting skills and you could also switch this to a shape activity instead if your child needs to brush up on geometry. :)


HOW FUN AND EASY IS THAT??

Treehouse for Birds

I heard about this idea on NPR. Instead of chucking your Christmas tree, set it out in your backyard to give some protection and food for birds. Especially where we live there are not many evergreen trees to offer birds a place to perch and hide. Winter is also a time when food is scarce for them.

So instead of getting rid of your tree, set it up in the yard and decorate it with bird feeders. We spread peanut butter on pine cones before putting sunflower seeds on them and kept our popcorn garland on the tree. It is the activity that keeps on giving too...because it is just as much fun to watch the birds from your back window.

*If you already got rid of your tree or didn't get a real one, consider just making some bird feeders to set out for the birds.

Variation:
You can spread peanut butter on a card board cut out and then pat on bird seed.

Hands on Christmas Crafts

This is an easy, easy craft that uses stuff you most likely have on hand today.

Small children love to trace their hands and make hand prints.

Dip their hands in green paint and press onto paper several times to to make a tree or a wreath. {For my 14 month old I used his feet.} For the tree I had my son press one index finger at the top for the point of the tree. Let it dry and then decorate.

For less mess and supplies trace their hands in the shape of a wreath or tree and have them cut it out if they are old enough to be handy with scissors. Then color to decorate or glue stuff on (fabric scraps, paper scraps, if you want to or if you have stuff).

Tips...if you are doing a wreath, 12x12 scrapbook paper works best. I also used a piece of paper a little longer than 8 1/2 x 11 for the tree to give my 4 year old plenty of room to create.

Hands-down so easy! ;} Have fun!

This is an easy, easy craft that uses stuff you most likely have on hand today.

Small children love to trace their hands and make hand prints.

Dip their hands in green paint and press onto paper several times to to make a tree or a wreath. {For my 14 month old I used his feet.} For the tree I had my son press one index finger at the top for the point of the tree. Let it dry and then decorate.

For less mess and supplies trace their hands in the shape of a wreath or tree and have them cut it out if they are old enough to be handy with scissors. Then color to decorate or glue stuff on (fabric scraps, paper scraps, if you want to or if you have stuff).

Tips...if you are doing a wreath, 12x12 scrapbook paper works best. I also used a piece of paper a little longer than 8 1/2 x 11 for the tree to give my 4 year old plenty of room to create.

Hands-down so easy! ;} Have fun!