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Month: April 2015

Lowercase Letter Formation Baked Cotton Swabs

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Have you ever made baked cotton balls?  Today we’re sharing one of our newest creative play ideas with baked cotton swabs!  These are a colorful manipulative for learning and fine motor play.  Today we’re sharing how we made baked cotton swabs and using them in a Kindergarten Preparation busy bag to build letters.  This is something you definitely need to make.  You and the kids will love it!
Building letters with baked cotton swabs

How to make baked cotton swabs for sensory play:

 
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Start with a batch of Cotton Swabs and food coloring.  Just like making baked cotton balls, you want to mix together flour and water in a 1:1 ratio.  I scooped a bit of the flour/water mixture into a water bottle ice cube tray.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each section.  
Dip the cotton swabs into the mixture and place on a sheet of aluminum foil.  Continue to dip all of the cotton swabs.  Position the aluminum foil on a baking sheet and place in the oven.
Baked Cotton swabs for sensory play, learning, and loose part play
 
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.  Keep a close eye on the cotton swabs.  You’ll want to make sure the stick part of the swabs don’t start to turn brown.  Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven and let cool.
 
Now you are ready to play!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten: Writing Letters

 
So how can you use your baked cotton swabs in play and learning?  We used them to build letters, numbers, shapes, and pictures.  Kids can match and identify colors.  Use the cotton swabs to count, sort, and pattern.  Work on visual memory by coping shapes and asking your child to recreate letters, numbers, and shapes.  
 
All of these activities are a great way to prepare children for Kindergarten.  When a child goes off to kindergarten, they are often times presented with handwriting and letter formation for the first time.  You can work on a little Kindergarten prep work with making letters at home in a fun way.  Use the cotton swabs to make letters with your child, and then have them create letters on their own.  
 

Letter formation Busy Bag

letter-building-letter-formation-free-printable



We created a free printable for you to use as a busy bag activity using the baked cotton swabs.  Children can copy and build letters with the cotton swabs using an upper case and lower case letter form.  

 Build letters with cotton swabs, dyed lollipop sticks, play dough, pipe cleaners, string, or other manipulatives.
Just for our newsletter subscribers, we’re offering our FREE upper case and lower case letter builder printable.  

Use these printables to work on letter formation with your little ones.  An adult can write the letter on the left side and kids can trace the letter.  Use manipulatives to build the letters.  Print off the sheets as many times as you need: one for each letter or laminate the sheets and use them over and over again for all of the letters.  (If you laminate the sheets, you can use a white board marker to work on writing letters over and over again.  

Freight Train Preschool Book Snack Idea

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 We joined the Preschool Book Club in another round of connecting a fantastic preschool book with crafts, activities, and (this time) a Snack!  Freight Train is an eye-catching book, with it’s bright colors.  We used those colors to create a Preschool (or any age) snack based on the book.  Hosting a playdate? Reading Freight Train at preschool or in a homeschool co-op?  This Freight Train inspired train snack is healthy and fun!

Try these train themed sensory activity ideas for more ways to play and explore the senses using a train theme.

Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.

 

Freight Train Snack Idea 

 
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Have you read Freight Train by Donald Crews?  This book caught our attention right away with the colors and names of the trains.  My kids were mesmerized by the simple text of the book and loved the bright colors.  This is definitely a book you will want to add to your home or school library!
To make our Freight Train inspired snack, we started with a few simple ingredients:

club crackers

red cherry tomatos.
orange and yellow sweet peppers
cucmebers (sliced)
blueberries (ours were frozen, but fresh would work, too)
grape jelly
black olives
cream cheese

Read through the book and line up your crackers and ingredients.  We matched up the train car names to the colors of the fruits and vegetables.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Dice the peppers and slice the olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.
 
We used cream cheese to get some of the train cars “colors” to stick.  Spread a little cream cheese on the cracker and then place the fruit or veggies in place.  
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
My Little Guy (age 5) had fun placing the colors into place on the crackers as he said the names of the train cars.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Once all of the train cars are built, we placed our Freight Train on a bridge that we drew on paper.  This would be a fun way to serve this healthy snack at preschool play dates or a train-themed party.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
Time to eat! Little Guy decided he wanted to start with the orange tank car.
Freight Train book snack idea for preschool! This is a cute snack for preschool, homeschool, home, or a train-themed party food.
 
You can find all of the books we’ve covered in the Preschool Book Club with all the posts from each member:
Stop by to see what the rest of the Preschool Book Club bloggers have created to go along with Freight Train: 
Stamp Painted Train Craft- Inspired by Freight Train by Donald Crews~ BuggyandBuddy.comFreight Train Block Building - exploring books through play with Preschool Book Club
Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Math Game
Buggy and Buddy  Sponge Train Art
Homegrown Friends Block Building
Mama Papa Bubba Train play Mat

hands-on activities to explore social emotional development through children's books.

Love exploring books with hands-on play?  

Grab our NEW book, Exploring Books Through Play: 50 Activities based on Books About Friendship, Acceptance, and Empathy, that explores friendship, acceptance, and empathy through popular (and amazing) children’s books!  It’s 50 hands-on activities that use math, fine motor skills, movement, art, crafts, and creativity to support social emotional development.

Strawberry Whole Wheat Pancakes Milk-free Egg-free

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We’re back for another week of our Cooking with kids A-Z series and today we bring you Strawberry whole wheat pancakes made milk-free and egg-free.  While this cooking with kids recipe is one that builds many skills, it’s a great addition to a strawberries activity theme, too.

Strawberry Pancakes Recipe

This week, we are on the letter “F” for flour in our cooking series.  We decided to try our hand at whole wheat pancakes with strawberries for a fun Monday morning breakfast.  These no-milk and no-egg pancakes are perfect for those with allergies and despite being made without a few usual ingredients, are very fluffy and moist.  My daughter even asked for another batch for dinner!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!

 
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Fluffy Strawberry Pancake Recipe
This recipe is an easy one to throw together.  It can be made during the morning rush of a weekday while you still get everyone out the door on time.  We used my favorite white whole wheat flour.  White whole wheat is milled from white kernels and provides just as much nutrition as typical whole wheat flour, but with a milder taste and a lighter color.  It doesn’t seem to bake as dry as regular whole wheat flour does, either.  

Strawberry No-Milk, No-Egg Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe

 
To make the pancakes, you’ll need a few ingredients:
4 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups water 
1 and half Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries
Mix the dry ingredients together.  We use my Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl every time we make pancakes.  The size is perfect for double batches of pancakes to feed a big crew.
 
Add the remaining ingredients except the strawberries, and stir well with a spoon.  
Chop the strawberries and and place in a bowl.  My little strawberry chopper sneaked a few strawberries while chopping.
Fluffy pancakes require a simple trick:  Let the batter rest for a few minutes after mixing.  You can sometimes see bubbles popping on the surface of the dough right in the mixer bowl.  I like to heat the pan with butter while the batter is resting.  Use a 1/4 measuring cup to drop batter onto the hot grill.  These pancakes are thick and fluffy!


 Milk-Free, Egg-Free Fluffy Pancake recipe

We made a few pancakes without strawberries, too.  They were just as buttery and moist.  These pancakes are so good with real maple syrup.  Sprinkle a bit of confectioners sugar on the strawberry pancakes, or go all out with maple syrup.  Either way, they are delicious and the perfect way to start your day!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
White whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe
Strawberry whole wheat milk-free, egg-free pancake recipe. This is great for cooking with kids!
This post is part of the Cooking with Kids ABC series.  You can see all of the F is for Flour recipes here:
 
 
Be sure to try our other cooking with kids recipes:
A is for Apple Dumplings Recipe
B is for Banana Cheesecake Bites
C is for Carrot Veggie Puffs Recipe
D is for Dough recipe
E is for Egg Strata Recipe

Want to cook healthy foods for your family?  Grab Yum! Deliciously Healthy Meals for Kids, a cookbook for busy families that want healthy meal ideas. 

Healthy recipes for kids

Great quote for parents of young kids

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Sometimes a quote is all you need to know you are not alone!  I love this quote about my home.  It’s just about perfectly describes the mess, the noise, and the fingerprints (they are seriously EVERYWHERE!)  It also describes what really matters.  That is the part of motherhood and parenting small children that is sometimes difficult to remember during the noise and the mess.  You are not alone, mama!  The love in your home will be there today and in twenty years.
I love the Mr. Rogers quote about play just as much as the one below. It’s so true!


Quote for busy moms of small children. My home is filled with toys, has fingerprints on everything, and is never quiet...

Check out our quote for parents of small children on you tube:

Robot Activities and Crafts for Kids

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This week on Share It Saturday we’re featuring Robot crafts and activities for kids!  We loved the Robot Memory Game linked up from Brain Power Boy last week and had to feature it, so off we went to find more fun ways to build robots, create robots, and make robots with kids!





robot activities and crafts for kids

Build-a-Robot activities and crafts for kids

Super cute robot activities from around the web:
Robot Books from All Done Monkey
Magnetic Robot Art from Fun-A-Day
Recycled Robot Craft from Kids Activities Blog
Balancing Robot from Buggy and Buddy
CD Robot craft from Love and Lollipop
Cupcake Liner Robot craft from Glued to My Crafts
Shrinky Dink Jointed Robot from LalyMom
Build and Stack Robots from Handmade Kids Art
Robot Pencil Holder from Plaid Online

Recycled Seedling Planter Animals Craft

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It’s no secret that we love to create crafts and activities using recycled materials.  Especially during April and right before Earth Day, we wanted to make a recycled material craft.  We pulled out recycled seedling planter containers to create animal crafts.



I always have left over seedling planter containers in the garage from gardening and flower planting.  If you garden, then you know that a pack of flowers or plants usually comes in a seedling container or 4-6 plants.  Once you plant your seedlings, you are left with a plastic container.  You can either toss it into the recycle bin, or save it for another project…like our cute animal crafts!

recycled seedling planter animal craft puppets



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Recycled Seedling Planter Containers crafts

Use recycled seedling containers to make puppets!
To make your seedling animal crafts, you’ll need a few materials:
Seedling Starter Trays that you’ve saved from planting

glue
assorted cardstock
extras like googly eyes, yarn, ribbon (use left over scraps!)

Cut the seedling planters into one sections.  Our planters were black so we decided to create black animal crafts.  Seedling sections became penguins, black cats, and even an orca whale.

Cutest animal puppets made from recycled seedling planters

We also made a spider, skunk, and panda.

Black cat puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
So many cute animals!  A black cat…
Panda puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!

 We made a panda…
Skunk puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
…and a skunk.
Spider puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
A spider…
Penguin puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
Penguin…

Orca (Killer Whale) puppet craft made from recycled seedling containers!
And the cutest orca (Killer Whale) craft!

Our seedling planter animals turned into cute puppets for all sorts of imagination and pretend play scenes.  We added these to a sensory bin for a small world activity, too.

Recycled seedling container animal puppets craft
Recycled seedling container animal puppets craft

This post is part of the 60 day junk play challenge on Best Toys 4 Toddlers.


Looking for more recycled crafts? Try these: 
Spring chick juice box cover~ tip to tip grasp, multi-textural craft for Spring

Rainbow recycled cardboard tube craft~ fine motor skills, imagination, pretend play, language skills

Rainbow binoculars~ imagination, pretend play, fine motor skills

Cardboard tube turkey napkin ring~ fine motor work 


Fine motor color sorting activity with recycled grated cheese container~ tripod grasp, color, pattern, and sorting learning skills. This is a great early math activity!

In-hand manipulation activities ~uses a grated cheese container and a recycled two liter drink container to develop in-hand manipulation and translation skills.

Tractor Footprint Art for Kids

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We LOVE print art at my house. My kids are 2, 3, and 6yr right now. I love making fun keepsakes with their little prints. They love making them just as much as I love keeping them. The transformation from a handprint or footprint into say, a Bunny, is just so much fun to them. With Spring in the air and thoughts of gardening and getting outside, we decided to try making a fun Tractor Footprint Art for the art wall. The kids are just thrilled at how this turned out.

 


Tractor Footprint Art

What we used/ supplies:

  

green paint
white cardstock
sharpies 
glue

green, yellow, and black paper

scissors

 

 

  

 What we did/ how to make:

 

I used my finger and smeared green paint on my sons foot. I pressed it down on the white cardstock. I had wipes and paper towel handy to wipe his foot off. Once he was done we left the footprint to dry overnight.

 

Once I came back to the dry green footprint it was time to turn it into a tractor! I grabbed the yellow, black, and green paper out. Also the glue and scissors. The kids were at school and I had to to do this now or never but the kids can help with all of the next steps. We still have a few footprints on the counter to work on when they get home.

 

I took what was on the counter and traced 2 different sized circles on the yellow paper. You want one to be bigger than the other. Once I had those, I laid them on the black paper and guessed and traced a circle a little large. I took my scrapbook scissors and cut those out. Now I glued the yellow circles to the black circles. Yay, we have tires now.

 

Glue the tires to the footprint. I took a little of the yellow paper and cut out a top for the tractor. I used the black sharpie to draw the lines under the top. And last added a pipe with smoke coming out. The bottom looked empty so I added green paper.

 

 Hi! I am Jaime, mama to three high energy boys. With three boys, life never slows down, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! We love creating, learning, and crafting together and we can turn anything into an adventure.

Books About Recycling for Kids

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We love to make crafts and activities using recycled materials.  Love it.  So when we joined the natural parenting and earth month series at Alternative Learning, we knew we had to do something with recycled material crafts. Looking around the internet a bit, we were able to find the best craft idea books for creating kids’ crafts using recycled materials.  These are some seriously fun looking books!


 Recycled Materials Craft Books for Kids

kids crafts using recycled materials. Books about crafting with recycled materials.
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Recycled Crafts Box by Laura C. Martin
Use your  to create castles, puppets, and more, using trash.  These projects can be transformed into art projects and given as gifts using materials from the recycling bin!

The Cardboard Box Book by Roder Priddy
Use a cardboard box to create crafts, costumes, castles, circus, and more.

  














Green Crafts for Children by Emma Hardy
Kids can make their own toys and games, gifts and ornaments. This book uses all materials that you can find in recycling bins or nature.



Ecoart! by Lauri Winn Carlson
 Children can express themselves and interact with nature using imaginative experiences. All the projects use recyclable, reusable, household materials and/or items found in nature.








 
Recycled Robots by Robert Malone
Use items in your house to make Robots!



















Recycled Crafting for Kids by Kate Lilley 
Quirky, colorful and fun projects for pre-school kids and their parents to make together.

Need more recycled materials books for kids?  These are great for teaching kids about recycling:


                                                Why Should I Recycle? by Jen Green

A teacher explains to his class about recycling as he takes them to a recycling plant to show them how it works, what sort of things they can recycle and to explain why it’s important. 





















Recycle!: A Handbook for Kids by Gail Gibbons
Kids will learn about the recycling process with a focus on 5 different types of recyclables.















The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling (Little Green Books) from Alison Inches
Learn about recycling from a new perspective as a plastic bottle journeys from the plant to the manufacturing line all the way to it’s new recycled life!

 
 
 
 
 


I Can Save the Earth! by Alison Inches
Educating kids on how to be more earth-friendly, this is a fun book.
 

Bernoulli’s Principle Tissue Paper Glider

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make a tissue paper glider

Today we’re excited to share how to make glider using tissue paper. This tissue paper glider is a fun way to build a project together with the kids and explore airfoil and Bernoulli’s Principle.  Using just a few materials, you can easily construct this glider and watch it sail! Add this simple experiment to your list of discovery activities that support exploration, STEM, and fine motor skills!

how to make a delta sale glider from tissue paper. This is a fun glider activity for kids to explain airfoil and Bernoulli's Principle as well as answer the question: "why do airplanes stay in the sky?"
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Bernoulli’s Principle for Kids

My kids love to watch for airplanes flying overhead when we are outside. They’ve asked a few times how the planes stay in the sky.  We made this simple glider as a way to play and explore Bernoulli’s Principle while learning about flying.  
 
First we talked about Bernoulli’s Principle.  This principle tells us that when the speed of air (or water/oil/etc) increases, it’s pressure decreases.  To fly, a plan requires airfoil (a wing or surface that air flows around) to glide on the wind. The surface of a wing (airfoil) is designed to provide lift using Bernoulli’s Principle.  the wing/airfoil makes air move faster over the top and creates a low pressure area above the glider or airplane.  This lifts the plane or glider and keeps it in the air.
 
We decided to explore this principle a bit more by making a Delta Wing Airfoil. 


What is a Delta Wing Airfoil?

Essentially, a delta wing airfoil is a triangular shaped wing.  A glider that a person can ride is a delta wing airfoil.  We made one on a much smaller scale using straws and tissue paper.


How to make a glider:

You’ll need just a few items to make a glider.

Gather the items you need for the tissue glider and then get started:

  1. To make the frame of your glider, roll the end of one straw and insert it into the end of another straw.  
  2. Connect three straws this way to make two long sections of straws.  
  3. Attach these two long sections and bend them into a sharp point.  
  4. Add tape to support the angle.  This will be the point of the glider.
  5. Connect two straws in the same manner.  
  6. Attach the ends to the long straw sections and tape into angles.  
  7. Add tape to the connecting points of the straws.
  8. Next, cover the frame with tissue paper.  We covered both sides of the frame and used tow pieces of tissue paper, but you could cover just one side.  
  9. Use tape to secure the paper.  (You may need more tissue paper depending on the size of your sheets of tissue paper.)
How to make a tissue paper glider with kids. Exploring Bernoulli's Principle
Next, go outside and launch your glider!  Hold both of the long sides of the triangle over your head and GENTLY toss the glider upward.  It will take practice to get the glider to sail, but once you get the hang of it, you can really have fun with watching it sail!  
Talk about Bernoulli’s Principle at work to keep the glider sailing through the air.  
 
Other concepts you can discuss include talking about air drag and streamlined shapes.
 
This post is part of Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails’ A-Z Science Experiments series.  
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