Pinecone Bird Feeders

Materials needed:

Pine cones(or any kind that you can find)
Yarn
Bird seed
Peanut butter
2 Bowls
Rubber spatula
Newspaper(or any paper)

Look around your yard(or in my case, my neighborhood) and pick up some pine cones of any sort.

Take the pine cones home and cut long pieces of yarn to tie around the top of the pine cone.

Then scoop some peanut butter into a bowl and put it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, or just until soft enough to be spreadable. Then spread it onto the pine cones.

Pour some bird seed into a separate bowl and dip the pine cone into the bird seed. Then place them on newspaper until you're all finished. Then go find a tree to hang them in and watch the little birdies eat the delicious food you have made for them!! :)

Sink or Float?

Materials needed:

A big bowl
Small toys or objects. (choose some that you know will sink and some that will float)

Simply fill the bowl full of water and let your child place the items in the bowl. Talk about whether the objects are sinking or floating and explain what that means. Let your child guess whether the next object will sink or float. If they are old enough you could even start talking about density.

This is a great activity for many ages, because you can adapt the information given to your child's age level. Put the bowl in a the middle of your kitchen floor on a towel, and don't worry so much about spills. What child doesn't love to play in water?

(Please excuse my son's clothing choice... He has his own ideas about his wardrobe these days.)

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??