Teaching Pre-K: Winter Sensory Fun

Wow! It has been so busy, and crazy that I haven't had time to blog recently. I apologize for that!

Anyways, these are three of the winter sensory projects we did in my classroom. All of them were ideas I found on Pinterest; my favorite place for lesson plan ideas.

It seems I have forgotten to take a picture of the first one: snow paint. Found here. My students loved using a paint brush or their fingers to paint a snow storm, snow man, or snow angel.

The next science experiment/sensory project we did was snow slime! It surprised me which kids loved it and which ones were a little unsure about it. Eventually they all got into it, and had a great time. I think my assistant and I had just as much, if not more, fun playing with it as well! You can find the recipe here.

This week we made indoor snow with corn starch and shaving cream.  It made a huge mess, but the kids had a great time pretending to make it snow and making 3D snowmen. I liked the smooth texture that it had. Little did we know it was going to snow for real the next day! You find the recipe here.

Hope you enjoying these fun indoor winter activities. As always I love your feedback and comments!

Valentine's Day Crafts

I love February and Valentine's Day! Everything is decorated in pink and red with hearts. There's so many craft ideas on Pinterest that there's not enough days in February to do them all. So here are a few of the crafts the Frogs have been working on.

We learned about symmetry when we made these glitter paint hearts for our bulletin board.

Crayon melting on a hot plate is always fun! It's also an easy craft when the other teacher is sick, and you're by yourself at the last minute.

These are the simple heart flower Valentine's I made for the kids with the help of my Cricut. :)

I made heart chains to decorate the classroom.

Pink bubble prints were a hit! Note: poke a hole with pin so if they try to drink it they can't, but it still blows bubbles. :)

These TP tube heart stamps were a hit as well. Sadly, they didn't hold up too well after this one got done.

Simple yet cute hand print Valentine that the kids gave their parents.

Pipe cleaner and Cheerios bird feeders were another favorite project. One girl reported back the next day that the birds were eating the Cheerios.

 What crafts did you make for Valentine's? I love your feedback!

Winter Crafts & Activities

Now that winter is almost over, here are a few of the crafts and activities we did in the Frog class.

Lick and stick snowman pictures. Sorry, it's sideways.

Doily snowman picture. We hung these on their lockers. Again, sorry it's sideways.

We also made borax crystal snowflakes which I posted about a few weeks ago. The kids also had fun playing with the shaving cream snowman in a bag activity.

The beginning of February was literacy week at our school. We had fun reading The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle and we painted funny colored animals, too! We also read The Mitten by Jan Brett, and decorated a mitten and made animal puppets to tell the story. Finally, for our assembly we retold the story of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and the kids loved making wild things masks. I wish I could post a picture of all of them because they were SO CUTE! Although, I'm slightly biased since they're my class. :)

These are just the few crafts and activities we had time for. I found tons more on Pinterest that I wanted to use, but there isn't enough winter! Maybe I'll use those next year.

What are some of your favorite winter crafts and activities with kids? I love to hear feedback!

Learning How to Knook

No, it's not the e-reader from Barnes & Noble. It's a special crochet hook with a knitting needle on the other end. For me it's the combination of two of my favorite hobbies, knitting & crocheting, into one awesome craft! With a little help from a kit I got at JoAnn's and watching a few YouTube videos I have gotten the hang of how to knook.

Pictures are always helpful so here are a few of my new adventure:

This is the Instagram picture before I even opened the kit

Figuring out the knit stitch

Figuring out the purl stitch and making stockinette

Starting my first project: spa cloth from the booklet that comes with the kit

Super excited to be using scented cotton yarn! (Sorry it's sideways)

Finished spa cloth!! (Again, sorry it's sideways) Working on more to add to my Etsy shop. :)

So far I'm enjoying this combination of knitting and crochet. It's also a great conversation starter since hardly anyone knows what it is! My next knook project is a toddler hat for a friend's 12 month old. What knitting or crochet projects are you working on?

Sinterklaas Crafts

In the Frog class we like to do our own little "Christmas Around the World", and teach the kids about some different cultures. This year we went to the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, & Switzerland. Since I'm Dutch I had a great time teaching them about Sinterklaas since I grew up celebrating it. I think the highlights were the blue Big Bird (on the Dutch version of Sesame Street), and the video of "Zwarte Pieten Style". But they had fun making a few crafts too so here they are:

This is one I made, but the kids used magazine cut outs to complete their wish bags.

The kids loved making a Piet hat! This is the one I used to become "Piet" when I taught them about Sinterklaas.

All of the kids were adorable in their Sinterklaas hats! They even got a little goofy wearing them sideways or upside down. :)

I can't forget the delicious peppernoten I made at home and brought for snack one day. I wasn't sure what the kids would think because of the anise flavor, but they loved it. I also brought in a chocolate letter (an F for frog class of course!) which they also loved.

I'd say I was successful at teaching them about Dutch culture since they still sing Sinterklaas songs I taught them. One of my girls told me, "I asked Santa to bring me peppernoten and a chocolate letter." If you would like more information about Sinterklaas or these crafts just ask me in the comments!

Fall Craft Projects

Well, the Frog class was busy crafting this fall. Thanks to Pinterest for pretty much all of my ideas!

 We painted egg carton pumpkins. Some are scarier than others!

I got a kit of these foam pumpkins at JoAnn's. I love how they used the same items, but they're all so different! I also got a kit for foam turkeys that the kids had fun putting together.

We made hand print spiders around Halloween. Isn't it cute with the googley eyes?

After reading the "Pumpkin Patch Parable" we made pumpkins similar to these that we hung on our lockers.

For Thanksgiving we had fun coloring pasta (I discovered that liquid water colors work well too) to make noodle turkeys like the ones found here, and hung them above the lockers for everyone to admire. We also made hand print turkeys then used feathers to decorate them to use for a bulletin board display.

Happy crafting! Please leave feedback of crafts you've done with kids for fall, if you want more details, or if you like an idea. I would like validation that I'm writing to an audience.

Pinterest Project: DIY Cake Stand

There are so many ideas on Pinterest on how to make a DIY cake/cupcake stand with items from Dollar Tree. So I decided to try it! The downside is that I didn't read any directions before doing the project, and i learned that I should have.

Off to Dollar Tree I went since I always have a list of things to get there, and I found a plate that I liked. Then I was trying to find a wine glass that fit with it, but didn't have any luck. Then a kind lady, who has done the project before, suggested a candle stick. So with those items in hand I headed to Hobby Lobby to get the glue that the kind lady suggested (E-6000).

When I got home I glued to candle stick to the plate, and put it in the garage to dry (since it was starting to smell up the house).

A few days later I spray painted the bottom side of the plate and candle stick.

I wasn't planning spraying the top of the plate, but in my eagerness to get the project done I didn't realize there would be a clear circle where the candle stick was glued to the plate.

So I spray painted the top of the plate as well.
 
Regardless of my minor mistake it was a fun, quick, and cheap project. The plate and candle stick were $1 each, E-6000 glue was $5, and the pink spray paint I already had. I already have the supplies to make another one, but this time I'll spray paint before gluing together!

NOTE: Sorry, for the sideways pictures! For some reason when I put them in Blogger they turned sideways :(

Paper Plate Apple Craft

This year I'm in charge of crafts for my pre-k class since I'm creative. The other day we made these paper plate apples, and they turned out so cute!



Of course I found the idea on Pinterest which linked me to here. I chose to simplify it a bit.

All you need is:
Large paper plates
Red tempera paint
Green and brown construction paper

While the kids painted their plate, I cut out leaf shapes from the green paper and stems from the brown paper. After the paint was dry I glued the leaf and stem to the back of the plate. Voila! There you have a cute and simple fall craft for kids.

posted from Bloggeroid

You're Dyeing to Know...

...what I dyed aren't you? Sorry, but I couldn't resist the horrible pun. I finally got around to dyeing the Ikea blanket I bought a few months ago. Ikea only sells the blankets in white, tan, grey, & red. I loved the texture of the blanket, but didn't like any of those colors. Then I had the bright idea to buy the white one, and dye it to match my duvet cover on my bed. So with a white blanket in hand I headed to JoAnn's to pick what color I wanted. Note: read the tag on the item you are dyeing BEFORE buying the dye! I made the mistake of thinking it was cotton, when it was really a poly blend, and had to go back to exchange the dye for natural fabrics for the iDye Poly (pictured below). Also, sorry for poor picture quality; these were taken with my iPod before I found my camera again (YAY!). Anyways, continuing with the fabric dyeing process...

The blanket before.

 

I decided green would go nicely with my duvet cover. I read all directions before starting.

The water in the washer after putting in the dye packet.

Scariest part: putting in the blanket & not being 100% sure of how it will look afterwards.

Completely in the murky green water...time to close the washer and wait.

It's green! This is after the first rinse. It recommends a second rinse to lock in the color.

A beautiful day to line dry a blanket. The tag on the blanket said no machine drying.

The after...a pretty green blanket!

I'm glad I got around to dyeing this blanket because I use it all the time now. It's light yet cozy, and the texture is so fun! Now that I've dyed something I'm not so scared to do this again. Hmm...what could be next? What have you dyed? What would you like to dye?

P.S.--I watched "Julie and Julia" last night. That movie always inspires me to blog more regularly. I've got a few projects waiting to be blogged about. So I'm going to try to keep it up! I'd love to have new followers, too. Maybe I'll do a give away or something if I can get up to 30 followers by the end of the year. Please let others know about me if you like reading my blog. Thanks!

Wedding Invitations (all the details!)

Now that Diana's wedding is 19 DAYS away I figured I better post about the invites I made. Finally (in June), Diana's wedding invitations are complete and mailed out. I have gotten permission from the bride to give you all the details on making the invitations as I promised you here.

This was my wedding gift to Diana and Aaron. Since I like making cards I figured I would give them something that will make their special day that much more special. Diana even told me when they were all completed, "They're beautiful, and exactly what I wanted. Thank you so much for making them for us." Also, part of my gift are the place cards, table names, & programs. We will be finishing those up this weekend, and I'll post about those after the wedding (bride won't let me before).

We got an idea of what Diana wanted from looking on Pinterest and Split Coast Stampers. Then we took those ideas to my Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Julie, who's always got ideas. After a few trials we thought we had something great, but then the groom had an opinion too. So we made a few changes to make everyone happy. In the end we went with half white emboss, and half clear emboss. I used the Baroque Motifs stamp set with the black and red paper. I used white card stock from FedEx Office for the inside papers. For the embossing I wiped it with my embossing buddy, stamped in Versa Mark ink, and then sprinkled with embossing powder before using my heat tool (which can melt carpet I discovered...just FYI!).The belly bands are simply stamped in Versa Mark ink with the swirl pattern before cutting them into strips.

I think that's all the details I can remember. So go ahead and look at the pictures now. I do need to say a BIG thank you to Diana for helping with her own wedding gift! I wouldn't have been able to complete these 44 cards by myself without going insane without her. I love ya bestie!!

Here are all 44 finished invitations! We ended up with 24 white embossed, and 20 clear embossed.

This is the inside with the pocket to hold the RSVP & direction cards.

Outside of a clear embossed card.

Front of a white embossed card with the red belly band. Picture-wise I like these better than the clear now, but both turned out gorgeous.

Front of a clear embossed card with the red belly band. I notice now that the clear ones don't look as elegant in a picture as they do in person.

Details, Details

So, I've switched to the new format for blogger with hopes that it will help solve a few issues I've had with blogger (posting pictures was a hassle). Now I can give you more details on how I made my melted crayon monogram art. Yay!

I decided on a 1" border so I marked that out with pencil, and started hot gluing the crayons on the canvas.

All done hot gluing! I used 30 (I think) crayons on a 12"x12" canvas.

I layered strips of blue painters tape vertically & made another layer horizontally for the monogram. I found a font I liked in Word, and printed out the size I thought fit well. Then cut around it with an Exact-o knife. Getting the tape 'K' off the cutting mat was the hardest part of this project!

Ready to melt! I used my embossing gun instead of a hair dryer. The embossing gun put out hot air, but has less force so the crayon doesn't splatter as much (it splattered a little as you can see in the picture below).

Finished melting; now letting it dry/cool. I had a mini panic attack when I peeled off the tape, and saw it had bled through the edges.

Not to worry though, a little tracing with a black sharpie (that no longer works due to waxiness on the tip...oops!) solved my problem. Notice the splatters of red & orange on either side? I think it adds character! My personal favorite is the added shimmer from the glitter crayons, but I love anything sparkly. :)

Here's the finished product hanging up in my room. Yeah, I know it's not centered. I happened to have a nail there from a larger picture that got taken down.


Overall this was a cheap, easy, and quick project. The only cost was the canvas which was $6 at Big Lots since I already had the crayons, hot glue & glue gun, Exact-o knife, and embossing gun. It only took me an hour tops. Cutting out the monogram, and gluing the crayons took the longest. So now you know the details of my second Pinterest craft project.