crafts for kids

Spiky Sea Urchin Craft for Kids

These spiky Sea Urchin creatures are lots of fun, and take minimal supplies to create. Just be careful because they really are spiky! They look wonderful in Ocean dioramas.

Materials:

Self Hardening Clay
Toothpicks

Suggest Resources for a Unit Study:

Art Project Tutorial:

Step 1

Roll up your modeling clay into a ball. Tap the bottom gently so that is fits flat against the table.

Step 2

Begin to stick your toothpicks into the clay. Not too far because you want them to stick out a bit.

Step 3

Go around the circle, putting in toothpicks every couple of spaces or so. You want it to be very full so try an fill it up as best as you can.

Step 4

Make yourself a variety of different sea urchins and put them on display in an Coral Reef Diorama.

Stained Glass Coloring Pages

March 25, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

This week I picked up a set of Stained Glass Coloring Pages from the bookstore.

Everyday last week, after the children finished their schoolwork I let them choose a few stained glass coloring pages.

They were a HUGE hit.

Addictive even.

They have since filled up the classroom window with their creations.

This was such a great project for them,
(and me)

They stayed busy for HOURS.
All of them….even the baby and the tot loved coloring them.
Grandma even got in on the action.

It was perfect for the rainy days we’ve had this week.

Gotta love it!

There are so many different sets of Stained Glass Coloring Pages,
you can bet that we’ll be picking them up for birthdays and Christmas presents!

Claude Monet Craft

August 30, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 12 Comments

This week we revisited our Famous Artist studies,
and added Monet to our list!

If you’re new to our blog we’ve been using The World’s Greatest Artist series to
take a mini-survey of various artists and their work.

It’s a pretty low-key approach.
We read the book. Look at the art.
Then we make our own.

The real learning occurs over the following weeks/months/years
in which I bring up things like;

“Hey Bubba, Look at those water lilies, they look just like that artist….” or
“Hey Sissy, check out that billboard! They are using that cool Pop-Art style…..”

And the conversations and natural learning run wild from there.
You just can’t keep them from telling you what they remember.

way better then a paper test if you ask me ;)

Well, this week we broke out the masking tape
(inspiration via: Frugal Family Fun Blog)

And we broke out the paint.

We tried our best to be patient:

And we were rewarded with these beautiful representations of
Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

These are keepers for sure!

Check out the Full PhotoTutorial,
and more Famous Artist Crafts here

Australia Crafts

July 21, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to post these for a while now,
We finished up our Unit on Australia before the start of Summer,
and I’m just now getting around to sharing them.

Learning about Australia was great fun!

We used HOAC Continent Study on Australia

As well as Discovering God’s Animals (from COAH)

And of course we did lots of crafts too:

We made Cave Drawings:

We made boomerangs (That work!)

We made music with a “Didgeridoo”:

We even painted our faces:

We had a GREAT time learning about the Land Down Under!
I added these all to our Australia Themed Crafts on the main site!

Feel free to Bookmark, Pin, Staple….or whatever if you see something useful :)

Butterfly Life Cycle Stamps

April 18, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

Oh golly, I couldn’t resist:

I made a set of Butterfly Life Cycle Stamps too!

Didn’t they turn out cute?

Just in time for our butterflies too!

Have you ordered your Butterfly Kits yet?

We ordered a kit last year, and loved it!
It’s about time to dig it out and order us some new grubs!

Can’t wait!

Nativity Wreath

December 13, 2009 By Valerie Mcclintick 3 Comments

So I totally missed Wreath Week at DollarStoreCrafts. I thought the cut off was today, but alas it was yesterday…..and I have no one to blame but myself.

SIGH.

Not that I would have won….
There are some AMAZING wreaths that were entered…..

it just would have be nice to show off a little.

LOL

Anyway, what’s cool about this wreath, is that it’s a “Kids Wreath” because, each figure is easy for kids to make, and has a printed part of the Nativity story attached.

Of course I’m putting up tutorials for all the ornaments, and the Printables on our sister site www.LittleBlots.com

(I’ve already got the Donkey tutorial up if you want to peek)

Anyway, without any further delayhere is my totally awesome Nativity Wreath, that I’m NOT entering in the contest.

wreath2

The Angel Bring Mary the Good News:
wreath3

The Donkey for the Trip to Bethlehem

wreath4

Baby Jesus Born in a Manger

wreath1

The Shepherds Visit

wreath6

Wise Men Follow a Star

Wreath5

Wrap it all together and you’ve got yourself a Beautiful Christmas Wreath….

wreath7

I’ll keep you updated when all the Ornament Tutorial are up, just in case you’re interested!