Crafty Team, Author at The Crafty Classroom

4 Easy and Frugal Homeschool Art Projects

February 13, 2019 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but the homeschool day goes really fast! And, it can be hard fitting in the time-consuming, clean up-consuming subject of art. To help my fellow homeschool moms, I’ve come up with a simple, yet SUPER engaging list of easy and frugal homeschool art projects.

Kids LOVE art — getting messy is fun! And, any creations they concoct can be proudly displayed or shown lovingly to their Grandma on FaceTime.

However, for Moms — crafts can be exhausting! The time suckers and messy materials can be somewhat daunting for our busy days! Yet, we also know our children’s joy and creativity soars with art. It’s an important subject NOT to skip.

That’s why these fast, simple, and frugal art activities are perfect to use as boredom busters for any preschoolers, kindergartners, and elementary school aged kids.

Are you looking for simple items you can purchase to keep your Homeschool Art Supply Closet full? We’ve compiled our favorite, frugal products and brands to make it easy for you to keep your art cabinet stocked. All of these products are tried and tested in our own homeschool classroom, and are well loved by the kiddos. We’ve picked these specific items because of the price and the quality, this is a list you don’t want to miss! Click Here

On a budget? No problem! Most craft materials can be found at the Dollar tree or on Amazon at a great price (and shipped right to your door!). These art crafts are also wonderful time fillers and distractors for after school, on weekends, playdates, and gift giving!

Popsicle Stick Crafts

The possibilities are endless with popsicle stick crafts but when you’re in a hurry, here are some exciting ideas. Remember, kids have vivid imaginations and giving them materials only will get their creative juices flowing! Grab some glue sticks, washable markers or paint and ask the kids to get creative.

Here are some ideas to use for Popsicle Stick crafts:

Build Tic Tac Toe Grids, glue together, and cut out 9 pieces of paper to fit inside boxes. Write ‘X’ and ‘O’s using markers on pieces of paper with different colors.
Make a star using 2 triangle shapes. One will be upside down on top of the other. The kids can paint or color them with markers.
Create a frame with sticks shaped as a square. The kids can write “family” or any words they wish or paint with favorite colors.

Beads

Beads are wonderful materials to make gorgeous designs, bracelets, necklaces, and much more! These innovative ideas may require a purchase of a bead kit for a low price. Using beads strengthen hand eye coordination, focus, creativity and fine motor skills!

Please note: We wouldn’t recommend attempting beads until your child is about 5 years old or any child who puts things in their mouths.

Pipe Cleaners

Pipe cleaners are one of the most versatile and simple craft materials you can use for tons of kid activity! They come in a variety of colors, they’re inexpensive, and easy to manipulate into any shape!

Here are some ideas to get you started with your creative kid:

Make a flower arrangement: draw and color a flower, cut it out, and pull stem through. Put it in a pretty vase or cup and pass it onto a neighbor!
Bend and twist 2 favorite colors to make a bracelet or necklace.
Cut pipe cleaner in half, add a wonderful array of colorful beads, and twist the end.

Playdough

Playdough is SO easy to make! Here is a step-by-step recipe and tutorial. Just combine 2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of oil, ½ cup salt, and 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar. Then, start adding 1 to 1 ½ cups of boiling water in increments to determine best consistency. Food coloring is also an option for a variety of colors.

Give each child a ball of dough, and the sky’s the limit! If you see some inactivity, throw some cookie cutters on the table for a little help. You’ll be amazed at what your child can create with his/her imagination!

Now, if you just don’t have the time or prefer commercial play dough, check out this colorful Play dough package.

Finding ways to give your kids creativity time fosters mental growth, stimulates new ideas, and encourages new pathways of thinking and problem-solving! Take time today to give your children these wonderful opportunities to grow and learn exponentially!

Looking for more easy and frugal ideas on homeschool art projects? Check out these crafts, activities, and printables here!

Winter Fine Motor Skills: January Pack

December 8, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

It always surprises me how cold the weather gets before we are even in the winter season. For the past few years, here in Southern Oregon we’ve had snow before Thanksgiving even, which has been quite a surprise. This year, thankfully, we have yet to have a big snowstorm, and this homeschooling mama is A-okay with that! In fact, I could easily go a few years without missing the snow at all. My kids think I’m crazy, because of course, they love the snow and all the winter fun in brings.

Anyway, with winter on the horizon, I wanted to be sure to finish our Fine Motor Pack for January. January’s themes are winter, ice skating, snowmen, snowflakes and cold weather clothing. And it is FILLED with fun, hands-on activity pages that will have your kiddos begging for more.

Thematic Tracing Pages
Cut & Paste Sequencing
Thematic Mazes
Dab & Dot Mystery Pictures
Pom-Pom Pages
Popsicle Stick Craftivities
Pattern Block Pictures
Playdough Mats
Pin & Poke Pictures and more!

If you are looking for some great fine motor manipulatives, check out our top picks here!
(Suggested Materials are recommended at the botom of this post)

Here is a peek inside our January Fine Motor Pack:

MAZES: Students solve the mazes and follow the prompts. Each page features thematic mazes alongside a tracing activity or prompt.

POM PICTURES: Students use pom-poms to complete the picture.For added difficulty have students use plastic tweezers to pick up the poms. Alternatively, students can glue poms to make these sheets into a simple craft project. HINT: Glitter Poms make for some fun Winter pictures!

TRACING: Students trace the pictures with colored pencils or fine tip markers. Each page features thematic content and prompts students to complete the pictures.

PLAYDOUGH: Students use playdough to complete the prompts.Prompts require students to form and shape the dough to make pictures, solve problems, or complete the scene.

GEOBOARD: Students use rubberbands to create the pictures on a geoboard. Each sheet features a letter of the alphabet alongside a thematic picture.

SNAP CUBE CREATIONS: Students use counting cubes to make thematic pictures These cubes can be snapped together. If you do not have cubes, students can color the squares in the grid to match the picture.

PUZZLE PICTURES: Students use pattern blocks to create thematic pictures. These sheets feature thematic shapes and provide students with easy and more dificult patterns. A full color example is available for easy reference.

DOT & POKE: Students cut apart the halves. Students solve the dot to dot activities.Then, students use a push pin to poke a picture onto colored construction paper. See full instructions below.

CUT & SORT CROWNS: Each crown features a theme alongside a 4-step sequencing pattern. Students cut out the pictures and glue them in the correct order. Students write their name, color the pictures, then staple the sides to make a crown.

DAB & DOT: Students use daubers to dab by number in order to reveal the mystery picture. (Hold at a distance to help students see the pictures).

CUT & PASTE CRAFTIVITY: These crafty projects are perfect for little hands.Students color, glue, and cut to make fun, thematic pictures.Pair with a simple writing prompt or poem for extra learning!

BONUS Calendar:

For a little extra fun, we’ve included a bonus calendar at the back of the pack. We recommend printing this page on cardstock. Students fill out the calendar and glue wiggly eyes on the characters. This is great small motor control to practice squeezing the glue carefully enough to make a single dot.

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

· Pencil, Scissors, Glue

SUGGGESTED MATERIALS: (HERE ARE OUR TOP PICKS)

· Geoboard & Bands

· Playdough

· Snap Cubes

· Puzzle Blocks

· Push Pin

· Dab & Dot Markers

· Pom-Poms

· 10mm Wiggle Eyes

· Popsicle Sticks

· Page Protectors

What’s Included:

This pack includes 40 pages of hands-on activities and resources you can use to enhance your classroom for an entire month. These resources have specifically been developed to keep the prep work to a minimum, while providing ample opportunity for your students to build their small motor muscles.

How to Use:

The pack is organized into four weeks, and the simplest way to use this resource is to print it out and place into a three ring-binder. However, you might want to place many of the pages in page protectors for reuse. The first six pages of each week are considered non-consumable and could easily be reused through out the years (Geoboard, Mazes, Playdough, Tracing, Cube Creations, Puzzle Pictures). The remaining four pages of each week are considered consumable as they require cutting, gluing, dabbing and poking (Dot & Poke, Cut & Sort, Dab & Dot, Pom Pictures). Many pages are adaptable if you do not have the manipulatives. For example, you can have students color instead of dab, or build.

There are really just TOO many activities to list them all! Be sure to check out the complete set in our TPT Store Here! Our monthly fine motor packs have been a huge hit, and if you’d like to order other months you can find them in our TPT store here. We are currently working on February so be sure you are subscribed or follow along for that!

Fine Motor Skills Printables for December

November 30, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Winter is coming!! Here in Southern Oregon, we have yet to have snowfall this year. Which, is a-okay with me because this homeschool mama has a very steep driveway to maneuver down each winter.

My children pray for snow every year, because said driveway becomes the best sledding ramp on this side of the river. Helmet required fast.

Anyway, with winter on the horizon, I wanted to be sure to release an update for our December Fine Motor Activity Pack. This pack originally contained 24 printable activities, and I’ve doubled it to 48! And it is FILLED with fun, hands-on activity pages that will have your kiddos begging for more.

Thematic Tracing Pages
Cut & Paste Sequencing
Thematic Mazes
Dab & Dot Mystery Pictures
Pom-Pom Pages
Popsicle Stick Craftivities
Pattern Block Pictures
Playdough Mats
Pin & Poke Pictures and more!

Here is a peek inside our December Fine Motor Pack:

MAZES: Students solve the mazes and follow the prompts. Each page features thematic mazes alongside a tracing activity or prompt.

TRACING: Students trace the pictures with colored pencils or fine tip markers. Each page features thematic content and prompts students to complete the pictures.

PLAYDOUGH: Students use playdough to complete the prompts.Prompts require students to form and shape the dough to make pictures, solve problems, or complete the scene.

GEOBOARD: Students use rubberbands to create the pictures on a geoboard. Each sheet features a letter of the alphabet alongside a thematic picture.

PUZZLE PICTURES: Students use puzzle blocks to create thematic pictures. These sheets feature thematic shapes and provide students with easy and more dificult patterns. A full color example is available for easy reference.

DOT & POKE: Students cut apart the halves. Students solve the dot to dot activities.Then, students use a push pin to poke a picture onto colored construction paper. See full instructions below.

DAB & DOT: Students use daubers to dab by number in order to reveal the mystery picture. (Hold at a distance to help students see the pictures).

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fine-Motor-Skills-December-Activity-Pack-4136717POM PICTURES: Students use pom-poms to complete the picture.For added difficulty have students use plastic tweezers to pick up the poms. Alternatively, students can glue poms to make these sheets into a simple craft project.

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

· Pencil, Scissors, Glue

SUGGGESTED MATERIALS: (HERE ARE OUR TOP PICKS)

· Geoboard & Bands

· Playdough

· Snap Cubes

· Puzzle Blocks

· Push Pin

· Dab & Dot Markers

· Pom-Poms

· 10mm Wiggle Eyes

· Popsicle Sticks

· Page Protectors

What’s Included:

How to Use:

BONUS Calendar:

There are really just TOO many activities to list them all! Be sure to check out the complete set in our TPT Store Here! Our monthly fine motor packs have been a huge hit, and if you’d like to order other months you can find them in our TPT store here. We are currently working on January so be sure you are subscribed or follow along for that!

Bible ABC Mazes

October 6, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Sometimes you just need to add a little FUN to your Bible lessons! Our Bible ABC Letter of the Week program is filled with fun, hands-on activities, games, and teaching resources. Last week, we added some fun (lowercase) Bible ABC Dab and Dot Worksheets. They were an instant hit, so if you missed that announcement, be sure to go back and check it out.

Well, today, we’ve created another fun pack of Bible ABC Dot Mazes that would compliment this (or any other letter of the week) program that you are using.

If you’re not familiar with Dab and Dot mazes, they are basically mazes in which the student dabs to follow a specific number, or in this case letter (horizontally or vertically) until they reach the end of the maze.

They are tons of fun for children of all ages and work wonderfully as hand-on learning tools in your classroom. This particular set focuses on the uppercase alphabet.

Each worksheet features a beginning letter Bible topic (A for Angel, B for Bible, C for Cross…..etc.) and the goal to to reach the end as quickly (and as accurately) as possible.

Students might even add a little extra challenge by solving the maze with a pattern of dots along the way. You can expand this set by using the “un-dabbed” letters as review. For example call out, “Dab letter M with blue!”

This set includes the entire uppercase alphabet, so your kiddos are sure to have pleny of learning fun! You can purchase this set in our TPT store here.

Bible ABC Dab & Dot Worksheets

September 28, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

One of our best-selling curriculum notebooks is our Letter of the Week Bible ABC program. If you haven’t yet had a chance to check it out, you’ll definitely want to head over to our eStore to view the course overview and sample pages.

One of the most common questions I get is, “When will a Kindergarten Bible ABC Program be available?” While I do have a few planning pages in the work, it is still a long-term goal to add subsequent grade levels and (gasp) languages even. (“Do you have this in Spanish?” is probably the next popular question.)

Anyway, my boys have been all about Dab&Dot lately with these Free Sight Word Dab and Dot worksheets I made for First Grade Mom and I got to thinking it might be fun to make some more Dab and Dot Worksheets with a Bible theme:

I’m super excited at how they turned out. I chose to feature the lowercase alphabet alongside a beginning letter Bible picture for children to dab. There are also letter bubbles for children to seek and dab their letter for each worksheet.

I would even encourage students to use different color daubers to complete their pictures if you have them.

This is the set of daubers we have at our house, they are nice because the ink doesn’t splatter everywhere. They have a flat cap so you can store them upside down, and they take a little bit of priming before use (which I don’t mind at all, I prefer priming to splattering/dripping ink)

With 26 different letters, these would make a colorful display in your homeschool or classroom setting. Give each child a letter or two, then back them with construction paper and hand them on the bulletin board. Or, print up the letters in your child’s name and have them create a colorful custom art project. Better yet, print up a complete set for each child in your Sunday School classroom and send them home with their very own Bible ABC book.

There are lots of possibilities with this set, especially when you pair it up with our Bible ABC Curriculum Notebook.

We’d love to see your creations! Don’t forget to TAG us on INSTAGRAM!!!

Looking for more Bible ABC Fun?

Try our Letter of the Week Bible ABC Curriculum Notebook Today!!

September Fine Motor Activity Pack

September 17, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Fine motor skills are important for children to build during the early years. Provide your kiddos with lots of hands-on activities, games, and manipulatives they can use to work those small motor muscles. These small motor movements will help children with their coordination as well as develop the necessary strength and control they will need for handwriting down the road.

Recently, I’ve begun to create a set of Fine Motor Activity Books for students. Each pack is filled with thematic activities and workbook pages that will encourage fine motor movements throughout the month. Here is a little peek inside our new Fine Motor Activity pack for September:

Thematic Mazes and Worksheet prompts:

Tracing pages and Geoboard pictures to make:

Thematic Play dough activity mats:

Pin & Poke Pictures:

Dab & Dot Mystery Pictures and more!

September Fine Motor Activity Book

Free Abraham Preschool Bible Printables

September 3, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Learning about the life of Abraham provides many opportunities to teach your students important life lessons. Today, I have a small collection of printables you can use to remind students that God always keeps his promises and that he will provide for all of our needs.

Included in this set is a full-color printable Bible Verse Chart. These are fantastic for hanging in the classroom or bringing out at circle time for review. Also, if you adjust your printer settings to fit 8 on a page, these make perfect take-home Bible verse cards. Super handy for children’s ministry or outreach opportunities.

There is also a coordinating Bible Verse Tracing Page available for Genesis 22:14 ESV. Students can trace “The Lord will Provide,” over and over if you place this sheet inside a page protector for reuse. This sheet includes reminders of stroke order.

I’ve also added an adorable Bible Verse Crown Craft for your youngest students. Children color the stars then cut and paste them to their Bible Crown. My Bible Verse crowns are super simple to assemble, you cut out the strips and then staple on the sides to fit the students head. The full scripture reference is on the back.

You can print all of these Abraham Bible Printables FREE

on our sister site ChristianPreschoolPrintables.com

By the way, if you are looking for Bible Crowns, I have a complete set of ABC Bible Verse Crowns available in my TPT store. These are super cute and work perfectly with a Letter of the Week Program!

Creation Activity Pack

May 29, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Learning about the Days of Creation is always a fun lesson for your homeschool or Sunday School classroom. Today, we’ve released a special K-5 Activity Pack that includes TONS of fun for teaching the Days of Creation to your students.

This Creation Activity Pack is the perfect accompaniment to your Creation Bible lessons! K-5 students will find lots of fun hands-on activities, games, scripture tools, copywork pages, mazes, worksheets, activity pages, craft projects and more! Includes fun take-home resources for students to memorize the seven days of creation. 32pgs

This Days of Creation Bible Activity Pack is just one of many No-Prep, Holiday Bible Activity Packs available in our store. These are some of our best-selling titles for good reason! Each pack includes games, crafts, activities, worksheets, scripture copywork, take-home activities and more for multiple age levels. We get feedback from parents and teachers who continue to use these packs year after year with their thematic units.

Anyway, here is a peek inside our New Days of Creation Pack,

We’ve packed it full with tons of hands-on and interactive activities:

Days of Creation Worksheets: Creation Crossword Puzzle, Word Search and Word Scramble

Days of Creation Wheel

Students cut out and assemble to create their own story retelling set.

Creation BUMP!

Bump is a favorite game with my children and this version helps students memorize what God made on each of the days of creation.

Creation Puzzles and Mazes

Fun, thematic Dot2Dot and maze pages you can use when learning about the days of creation.

Days of Creation Necklace

Print one set each to make a necklace for students to take home.

Creation Bible Verse Copywork (KJV)

Each page features a different day in creation along with a key scripture references. These would be fun to use each day to build a book at the end of your unit.

A Cursive set is also available for older students, also KJV.

The Creation Game!

A fun, multi-player game you can use during your Creation Bible lessons. Collect each day of creation to WIN!!

All God’s Creatures Matching Worksheets

Each page offers a fun way to get your younger students involved in learning the days of creation.

God Made Me Bible Crown

Our Bible Crowns are LOVED by children everywhere, and we’ve added a fun God Made Me Bible Crown to this set. What a fun way for students to take home this important message.

Days of Creation Song

A simple opening song for circle time or for easily memorizing the days of creation.

This would pair nicely with holding up visual cues or by using the Creation bracelets for reference.

Days of Creation Bracelets

A simple way for students to retell and memorize what God made on each day of creation.

Creation Geo Art for Older Students

Days of Creation Bible Bookmarks

As you can see we’ve included so many fun games, activity pages, art projects, copywork, puzzles and more!

It’s ALWAYS a good time to learn about the Days of Creation, but this set pairs especially well with an Earth Day unit as well.

The Creation Activity Pack

$5.00

Free Homeschool Planner

May 11, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

I know you are likely winding down from your 2017 homeschool year, and I am right there with you! We are counting down the days till summer vacation over here, and it can’t come quick enough! With the wrapping up of another successful homeschool year, it’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on what worked and what didn’t so that we can plan for the upcoming year ahead of us.

One task I like to complete at the end of the school year is to start planning for the next year. I know that might not be how everyone likes to do it, but I like to have a plan in mind BEFORE the garage sales and homeschool books fairs start to pop up. Otherwise, I turn into a homeschool curriculum junkie and I just buy it all, whether I need it or not.

Shout Out to all my #Homeschool Buddies: SHARE your best curriculum score!Click To Tweet

My favorite way to plan my year is with my Simple Homeschool Planning Pack, which I’ve been using for years. This year I’ve updated it with a couple more pages, and a whole lot of Rainbow….because this homeschool mama likes color! It really only takes 3 or 4 pages and I’ve got everything planned out for my kiddos each year. I’ve had so many people ask how I can get away with just a few homeschool planning pages so I thought I’d preview my planning method below:

Homeschool Goals: Sometime before you start your curriculum planning we suggest sitting down and writing out your goals for each student. This doesn’t have to be detailed, it can be as simple as, “Get through 5th-grade math.” However, there may be subjects that you have more detailed answers for, “Develop empathy and self-control.” Doing this for each student is a great way to customize their education.

Homeschool Curriculum: Print one page for each student and use this sheet to keep track of what products, resources, and classes you’ll be using during the year to cover each subject. Take this sheet with you to homeschool conventions and curriculum sales so you can always update and keep organized.

Homeschool Lesson Planner: Sometimes curriculum doesn’t come with a weekly schedule, or it will be a five-day schedule and you want to homeschool over four days instead. In this case, the simplest way to organize your lesson plans is to count the number of lessons or the number of pages in the curriculum. Then divide that number by the number of weeks you plan to homeschool. This will give you the number of pages you need to cover each week. You can then further divide that number by the number of days you plan to homeschool each week. You now have weekly and daily goals for this subject.

Homeschool Calendar: This sheet is intended to be an independent planner for your students. Print and add in your daily subjects and a photo of your student. Laminate or store in a page protector then provide your student with a dry erase marker to keep track of their daily tasks. Encourage students to mark off the boxes as they complete each task. The page comes with a blank version as well so you can write in your own topics.

Annual Overview Calendar: If you have field trips or monthly themes you want to plan, then this calendar is for you! Featuring a quick at-a-glance layout, this sheet is available with two different formats; the first starting in January and the second starting in September. Use this calendar to jot down quick notes for annual requirements, testing or even

Print our Free Homeschool Planning Pack Here

Still looking for Homeschool Curriculum?

Shop our eStore Here

Free Earth Day Printables: Necklace Craft for Kids

April 19, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Earth Day is April 22nd, and if you are looking for some fun, low-prep educational activities for your students you’ve come to the right place! At The Crafty Classroom we believe that learning should be fun, and there is nothing more fun then making something you actually wear and take home with you!

Today, we’re featuring a fun and free Earth Day Necklace craft available at PreschoolMom.com. This craftivity couldn’t be easier to implement in your classroom. You’ll have the option to print in color or black and white. This is a bonus for students who don’t like color (or become frustrated with coloring smaller images).

You will need scissors, string, a hole puncher, and coloring materials.

Students color and cut out the medallions. Help children use the hole puncher to punch holes over the greyed out circles on each medallion. Thread the yarn through the holes to assemble the necklace and tie in the back.

By the end of this crativity, with the cutting, hole punching and threading, your students will have worked on many fine motor skills all while learning and having fun!

This is a great way to send children home with their Earth Day message, just be sure to remind them to recycle their necklaces when they are done wearing them!

Find more Free Earth Day Printables on PreschoolMom.com

Find another great selection of Activities on KindergartenMom.com

Homeschool Dollar Deals

April 8, 2018 By Crafty Team Leave a Comment

Do you have a student that is learning to read? Finding the best reading resources online can be hard. While I love Pinterest and the ability to search out FREE products, sometimes it’s helpful just to pick up a small pack of worksheets to target a specific skill.

That is one of the reasons why we are offering small worksheet packs on EdZone. These packs are pieced out from our most popular curriculum and can be used as a stand-alone resource to help your student reach a specific goal.

Best of all, these resources are priced much lower than a complete curriculum. In fact, they are so low that we’ve created a Dollar Deals section on EdZone to make it easy for you to look through all of the products. To prevent duplicate purchases, if a product is included in a larger curriculum it will be noted in the product description.

Shop Dollar Deals Here

Shop all EdZone Products Here

Valentine’s Day Bible Coloring Pages

January 19, 2018 By Crafty Team 1 Comment

Valentine’s Day is less than a month away and we’ve got a special LOVE Coloring book for kids! This Bible-based coloring book depicts character qualities of LOVE as outlined in 1 Corinthians 13:4. Students can color and take home their very own book of love! Print multiple pages/sheet to make smaller coloring books.

This set is a special Subscriber Freebie! It’s completely free to subscribe and you’ll join over 100,000 homeschooling and children’s ministry workers with your subscription.

Click Here to Subscribe