{Originally posted October 2008}

Last weekend, while out on a nature walk, the girls helped me find interesting landscape “scenes” to photograph.  At home, we printed our favorites out, full-page size.  Then, the girls chose some clip art and stickers to decorate their scenes with.  They also dictated some fantastic stories about their scenes.  You could also draw and cut-out your own things to add too.

Happy playing!

Need a last minute St. Patrick’s Day activity today?

Write a green poem!

{Originally posted May 2008}

Happy Monday! This week’s Unplugged Project theme was green. I decided to help the girls write some Green Poems.

This was so fun and easy! We started by talking about all the things we could think of that are green. Then, we wrote simple list-style poems — they talked, I wrote! We finished it off with gathering a bunch of green drawing supplies and illustrating our poems. The only suggestion I gave them was to think of an ending for the poem that sounded different than the rest of their poem. I was quite impressed!

Green by Natalie (age 5)

Green grass
Green leaves
Green stems
Green plants
Green lettuce
Green peas
Green lime
Green frogs
Green basket
Green is good!

Green by Delaney (age 3)

Green balloon
Green anything
Green peas
Green lettuce
Green tomatoes
Green paintbrushes
Green mermaid fins
Green me!

Natalie, the little book-maker that she is, wants to do a poem for every color and make a book. I can’t wait! I am going to try and think of a different poem type for each color. I will be sure to share as we work on our “Rainbow Colors Poem Book.”

Happy playing!

We have not painted with dot markers (bingo markers) since the girls were probably three and four years old.  I remember them both loving them – bouncing the markers up and down to make dots, and sliding them around to make stripes and swirls. The dot markers aren’t terribly messy either, which is always nice for those days when you don’t feel like a big, messy production!

Do your kids like to play with these type of markers? I remember having the Do-A-Dot brand a while back, and some of the activity books they make. I recently bought a new set for us to play with – we tried the Tropical Chubbie Markers from Discount School Supply.

The three of us girls had a great time playing and experimenting with the dot markers!  We tried some crayon resist with a white crayon:

Natalie and I also had a really fun time using the ideas in Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book to make little animals out of our dots. We carefully positioned our dots, waited a couple minutes for the paint to dry, then added details with a black marker. (Flair felt tip pens are the black drawing pen of choice in our house right now…)

I was happy to discover that my girls are not too old to enjoy creating with dot markers – and neither am I!

Here are a few fun resources, in case you feel the need to make dots!

• Thumbprint Art at Ed Emberley’s site (really cool website!)
• Bingo Marker Activity Pages at Making Learning Fun
• Bingo Dauber Art and Fingerprint Art Ideas at DLTK

I’m sure some of you have done some neat things with dot/bingo markers – please share!

Happy Playing!

Here’s a super-simple creativity boost for your kids today!  Make ordinary crayons a little more interesting by bundling them together.

Crayons + rubberband:

Crayons + tape:

Set out a variety of crayon bundles and a stack of paper and see if your kiddos are inspired to play!  Keep the rubberbands and tape handy, because my girls are always wanting to make their own custom crayon bundles after seeing mine…

Happy Playing!

Yesterday, the girls had fun with magnet painting. This is something they both remember doing at preschool and were excited to experiment with it again!  You will need:

• magnetic marbles
• magnet wand
• washable paint
• a shallow box or tray (not metal!)
• paper

I think you can see the basic set-up in the picture below.  You want your box to be propped up slightly – we used a little bit of masking tape to secure our box to some blocks.  Put some washable paint in a bowl, plop in a magnetic marble and stir it around.  When you are ready to paint, the marble goes in the box on top of your paper, and you use the magnet wand under the box to make it move all around.

For the best marble control, make sure you keep the magnet wand against the bottom of the box.  Keep adding new magnetic marbles covered in paint to complete your masterpiece!

You can try this magnet painting variation too: Squirt some paint onto your paper.  Put a clean magnetic marble into the box and use your magnet wand to swirl all the colors together.  Delaney tried this with two marbles, which was really neat, too!

Magnet painting is all about the process.  The finished products are not necessarily anything special, but the girls love them just the same!

How do you like to play with magnets?

Please remember to supervise your little ones with the magnetic marbles!

Resources:

Large Magnetic Marbles

Magnetic Wand

We went to our local toy store to look for a new board game and the girls spied this coloring book on the spinny rack:

I mean, garden fairies, stained glass, and glowing background colors? I knew we would be bringing this book home with us!

The book contains 16 beautiful illustrations on a vellum-like paper.  The girls got busy with their markers and worked on carefully coloring their chosen flower fairies for at least an hour.  The book also suggests trying crayons or paints, but we have only tried markers so far.

The finished pictures do look really beautiful hanging in the window!

We also saw the same Dover GemGlow stained glass coloring books in Wildflowers, Butterfly, and Sea Life.  Paired with a fresh pack of markers, these would make great gifts too!

Have you made any successful impulse purchases lately?

Have a great weekend!

Today we had fun squishing, rolling, and cutting hearts made from air-dry clay.

We punched holes with straws, so we can give Valentine necklaces to some special friends – and we’ll keep some for ourselves, too!

We gently pressed in sparkly sequins – everyone agreed this was the best part!

We also made some little decorations and pendants, using rubber stamps to make impressions in the clay.

We left a few hearts blank so we can paint them tomorrow when they are finished drying (the air-dry clay takes 24 hours to dry).

You can find Crayola Model Magic at most craft stores.  I usually buy the Air Dry Putty at Discount School Supply – it’s a few dollars cheaper and works just as great!  My kids love the texture of the putty – it’s so lightweight and just different than playdough.

Tomorrow, we’ll show you our finished projects!

Happy Playing!

]]> http://lets-explore.net/blog/2010/02/air-dry-clay-hearts/feed/ 5 http://lets-explore.net/blog/2010/01/projects-with-pixos/ http://lets-explore.net/blog/2010/01/projects-with-pixos/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:28:49 +0000 Amy http://lets-explore.net/blog/?p=2745

My girls received some Pixos Starter Sets for Christmas.  They were really excited to try them, having seen them in the store a few times.  Basically, you arrange these little colored plastic balls on a dimpled tray and then spray with water to adhere them together.

I have to say, working with all those tiny little plastic balls was a bit too frustrating for Delaney (age 5).  But, Natalie (age 7) enjoyed it and spent the better part of an afternoon doing all the templates.  Natalie used the dispensing pen, but also found it just as easy to place the balls by hand.  We did discover that to really get the designs to stay together, it was necessary to spray one side, let it dry, and then do the same on the back.

Anyway, now we have a pile of completed Pixos projects that need a purpose!  Here are two ideas Natalie and I came up with:

Magnets – add a piece of adhesive magnet tape to the back.

Bookmark – hot glue a Pixo design to a wooden craft stick.

On the Pixos website, you can create your own design templates.  You can print and use them for making Pixos projects, but I am thinking it would also be fun to just make designs on the computer – and less “stuff” to deal with too!

Happy Playing!

I don’t think I ever shared this quilt!  It was a gift for our preschool teacher at the end of the school year last May.

Just like the quilt I made for my Grandma, we used Pentel Fabric Pastels for the artwork.  The kids love using these pastels – they go on smooth and bright!  (And, they still look bright coming out of the washer!)

I traced a variety of nature pictures onto 10″ muslin squares with a black pastel and heat-set the black outline with my iron.  The muslin squares also had a piece of freezer paper ironed on to the back for stability.  Since we had a small preschool class, each child chose and colored two squares.  I had all the kids sign their names with a fabric marker for the center block.

It’s not too early to start planning and working on an end-of-the-year teacher gift, especially a big project like a quilt.  I really need to have my girls help make one for me!

This is one of our all-time favorite activities!  Since we made our zoo maps, there have been maps of mermaid lagoons, five-story malls, fairy lands, and much more.  If you are stuck inside on a cold day, this is a great activity to work on with your kids.  Have fun!

{Originally posted June 2008}

Some of the most coveted “souvenirs” in our house are the maps we bring home from places we visit, especially ones from the zoo and Disneyland. My girls will look at these again and again, remembering things we saw, tracing their fingers on the little paths. I think this type of “real-world” reading (also called environmental print) is such an important part of literacy and reading development, which is why I also save children’s menus from restaurants, brochures, etc.

I thought it would be fun to learn more about maps and make our own. I decided to start with zoo maps. We have a full-color one from our local zoo, plus I printed about 5 more from various zoo websites. The National Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and Oregon Zoo had nice printable maps.

Just looking at these maps was an activity in itself! The girls loved identifying the different animals, and we also had the opportunity to talk about legends and what the different symbols mean. They really enjoyed finding all the bathrooms!

Then it was time to get to work! We used large sheets of easel paper for our maps. Natalie drew her entrance & exit first, followed by all sorts of paths. Then she filled in with her animals and other attractions. Delaney started with a bus that brings everyone to the zoo, then added her animals, and finally connected them with a path.

They worked on these for close to an hour. I added labels or words if they wanted. Natalie drew a rectangle with a P on top to show all the “potties” in her zoo. She also put in a food court, a fountain, a farm animal petting zoo, and a place called “Kids Explore,” which is some sort of fantastic kids’ play area.

Delaney’s zoo had an armadillo, an octopus, a tiger, two bunnies, a pig, and a flamingo.

Of course, the fun is not over, because now they want to use toy animals to create these fantastic zoos. I can’t wait to visit!

I’m sure we will revisit map making soon — maybe we’ll make our own Disneyland!

Happy playing!