Category Archives: kid crafts

DIY Telephone Number Bracelets

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I saw this idea on Pinterest and fell in love! While my daughter has her phone number memorized, I wanted her to correlate the memorized numbers with the written digits. We have a ton of pony beads- and while I would have much rather used beads with pre-stamped numbers, I grabbed what I had and Boo and I started creating!

Materials needed:
beads (we used plastic beads- if you have number beads then this project will turn out much cuter!)
string or pipe cleaner
sharpie (in case you don’t have number beads)

Super easy telephone number bracelets (blurred out the number- sorry, I don’t want prank phone calls 🙂

On each bead, write one digit of your phone number. Then let your kids put their phone number in order on the string (or pipe cleaner). And voila! You are done! Of course you could do several extension activities- such as add the area code, see how many 2 or 3 digit numbers they can create using the digits in their phone number, using a separate phone allow kids to practice dialing their number, and of course listen to this fun song: (This is actually how my daughter initially memorized her phone number!)

Here are some additional resources to help your little ones learn their phone numbers:
squidoo: free worksheets for kids to learn to write their telephone number
KidPhone: helpful app to teach your kids their phone number
bright hub education: fabulous list of ways to help preschoolers learn their phone number

Teaching your little ones their phone number is SO important for safety reasons- hopefully some of these resources will help you accomplish this task!! These bracelets would be great to take anywhere your kids might get lost- amusement park, fair, zoo, airport, beach, etc!

Happy Teaching!

Summer Bucket List

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I have a MILLION plans for my family this summer (thank you Pinterest!) Instead of doing the old plan-the-days-in-advance method, I thought I would try my hand at making a more spontaneous and fun bucket list. And for the record- I hate that these summer to do lists are called bucket lists- I don’t plan on kicking the bucket this fall! Geez! But my ideas of “popsicle pail list” or “random jar of fun” just don’t have the same ring. So I’m callin’ this a bucket list! 🙂

Here is a pic of our summertime popsicle pail (see, it just sounds WEIRD). Notice that there are no cute summertime stickers on the pails- and for one good reason: I will be reusing these for every season. I am bound and determined to cross off some of my pinterest to do lists!!

As you can see from the pic, there are three pails. One pail for our fun activities, one pail for the completed activities, and a third pail to hold extra popsicle sticks and a fine point sharpie. Because I am continuously adding to our list. I think I add about 5 new ideas a day! Which is the primary reason why we have already started picking popsicle sticks. At last count I had a total of 125 things to do this summer!

All of our popsicle sticks are sorted into colored categories. The yellow sticks are things we can do outside in the sun, the blue sticks are summer time treats, the orange sticks are science projects, the red sticks are art projects, the purple sticks are learning activities, the green sticks are places we can go near our home, and the brown sticks are places we can go in Salt Lake (and beyond). This has provided to be SUPER useful already- when my daughter wanted to do something artsy she grabbed a red stick and voila! she had a summertime art project. And I was able to cross of an activity from my Pinterest list! Yay!

When an activity is completed, I have been writing the date on the back of the popsicle stick. That way if I decide to do a journal, I will know the exact dates we did stuff. And when some of the more easy and accessible activities are finished, I write the date and stick it back into the pail of things to do.

I thought I would include the activities we have in our summer bucket list. Of course the list can be easily adapted to meet your family’s needs. And I should mention that the pails are from the dollar section at Target, and the popsicle sticks are from the Dollar Tree. I just love a good bargain!

125 Things To Do This Summer


YELLOW (things to do outside in the sun)
1. bubbles
2. catch a butterfly
3. sandbox
4. paperbag scavenger hunt
5. water pinatas
6. water games
7. hopscotch
8. run in the sprinklers
9. make an obstacle course
10. pull weeds (not everything has to be fun, right? 🙂
11. sidewalk chalk paint
12. mud pie kitchen
13. hunt for predators with water guns
14. sidewalk chalk
15. ride your bike
16. wash cars, scooters, and bikes
17. plant flowers
18. play hide and seek
19. have a race
20. roller skate
21. play red light/ green light
22. play tag
23. plant a garden- even if its just herbs
24. kiddie pool in backyard

BLUE (summertime treats) I have a bunch of dinner recipes that I want to try that I will be adding to our monthly meal schedule (hopefully!).  I wanted to make the summer bucket list fun for my daughter, and pulling out a popsicle stick that said “grilled chicken fajitas” wouldn’t do much for her.
25. smoothies
26. campfire cones
27. cupcakes in ice cream cones
28. make sugar cookies and decorate
29. food paint
30. dip a banana in chocolate and freeze
31. take a picnic somewhere
32. muddy buddies
33. mini personal pizzas for lunch
34. candlelight dinner
35. make homemade taffy
36. indoor smores
37. homemade snow cones
38. frozen grapes
39. ice cream in a bag
40. make popsicles
41. use candy melts to make suckers
42. frozen jr mints
43. gelato
44. fruit kabobs

46. kool-aid ice cubes and 7-up
47. crabby sandwich for lunch
48. frozen fruit bars

ORANGE (science projects)

49. make bird feeders
50. freeze things and dig them out
51. oily fireworks
52. fossil cookies
53. static electricity
54. volcano in a mug
55. m&ms in hot water
56. glow in the dark party
57. weather cloud in a cup
58. blowing up balloons
59. ice sculptures
60. sidewalk egg frying w/aluminum foil
61. floating eggs in salt water

RED (art projects)

66. glitter toes
67. make a treasure map and go on a hunt
68. marshmallow and tooth pick sculptures
69. make slime
70. make a paper mache bowl

72. paint cement with water

74. fingerpaint
75. fingerpaint with pudding
76. self portrait
77. silhouette pictures

PURPLE (learning activities)
80. use a calculator
81. write digits 0-9
82. puppet show
83. sound sorts
84. write name
85. letter bingo
86. write and illustrate a story
87. follow direction cards
88. etiquette factory
89. Dora letter sound flashcards
90. number bingo

GREEN (hometown activities)
91. bowling
92. bounce house
93. aquatic center/ swimming pool
94. dinosaur park
95. splash pad
96. children’s museum
97. playground
98. duck pond
99. city museum
100. train museum
101. nature trail
102. nickelcade
103. Hill Air Force base airplane museum
104. nature center

BROWN (Salt Lake and beyond activities)
105. Symphony
106. Natural History Museum
107. Red Butte Gardens
108. Zoo
109. Kennecott Copper Mine
110. City Creek shopping center
111.State Capital Building
112. baseball game
113. planetarium
114. temple square
115. liberty park
116. aviary
117. childrens theater
118. Park City
119. aquarium
120. Church History Museum
121. Gateway
122. This is the Place State Park
123. ride the bus
124. fireworks
125. fair

I know there are TONS more ideas (Thanksgiving Pointe, Yellowstone, Dinosaur National Monument, hiking, Antelope Island, etc….) And there is NO pressure on accomplishing every single thing on my list. OK, maybe a little pressure- I mean, being able to cross off my entire list would be amazing!
I hope this list inspires you to make some fun memories with your families this summer.

Happy Teaching!

"Not a Box" Linky Party: Biome Box

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I got the idea for this linky party after reading the book “Not A Box” with my daughter: a cute story about a rabbit who uses his imagination to turn an ordinary box into anything but a box. This post is all about using cardboard boxes in a fun and creative way!

Here is the cardboard creation we came up with:

This was a rainy day art project that consisted of painting 9 different biomes so my daughter’s animals could have a home. We just happen to own tons of small plastic animals. And it just so happened to fit PERFECTLY with our new learning unit on animals! 
I grabbed one of the boxes from our move (which just happened to be a box of my teaching stuff).  I opened the box so it was laying flat on the ground. 
After the box was flat, I drew 9 different biomes on the board: city, farm (both of these are totally anthropogenic, but thats where pets and farm animals live!), desert, wetlands, grasslands/savannah, tropical forest, alpine, temperate grasslands, temperate/coniferous forests (we are combining the two on our board), arctic, and marine- with a sandy beach for some of those invertebrates! After I had sketched out the outlines for each biome, Boo and I set to work painting. And yes, I craft on the floor. Not the best idea, I know…at least we didn’t spill paint on the carpet!!
We then added the animals to the correct biomes. I propped up the alpine biome (with a shoe) to make it more realistic- this way baby mountain goat can actually climb the mountain! 
Side shot of our biome box

Now it’s your turn! Submit any and all your cardboard box creations!! I have a mountain of boxes just waiting for some of your good ideas 🙂
And here is a link to my cardboard creation pinterest board– I am excited to pin your ideas!

Happy Teaching!

Upcoming Not-A-Box Linky Party

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First of all- my daughter LOVES the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis.

Because my family recently moved, I have a gazillion cardboard boxes lying around that needed some sort of purpose! I was able to come up with some ways to creatively use cardboard boxes and thought it would be fun to have a linky party Thursday March 15 – Tuesday March 20! Please, please link up any upcycled box project- whether it be crafts, cars, or kid creations.

If you don’t have the book, its ok…check out this cute video of the story. I just love it!


Hope to see you March 15th! 

Happy Teaching!

DIY Lite Brite Board

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Ever since I made a light box (read more about it here) I knew I wanted to do something with all the lite brite pegs we have all over the playroom floor. I have been thinking HARD about how exactly to pull it off when inspiration hit me. OK, more like a piece of cardboard….

We went to Ikea today to get some bookcases. After my husband opened up the box to start putting them together, I noticed that encased in all the plywood was a beautiful, thick piece of corrugated cardboard. Perfect for a Lite Brite board- something we could add our pegs to and easily take on/off our light box. It was as if Destiny knew that we would buy bookcases and threw in a future lite brite scrap just for us. 🙂

Once I realized it was the perfect material for us to use, I set to work playing with lite brites. I made some mistakes (ginormous holes) as you will see in the pictures below… but I was just experimenting to find the best way to make a lite brite board!

Materials:
Light Table/ Light Box (read here for more details)
Lite Brite pegs
Corrugated Cardboard (can be found in packaging stores or Ikea!)

To Make the Lite Brite Board:
Mark one side of the cardboard with a “B”. This will be the back. It is important to remember which side is the back, since the holes made in the front are different.
Take a lite brite peg. On the backside push the peg all the way through the cardboard until it makes a little hole on the other side. For us, we just had to push it until the peg was flush with the cardboard but the thickness of your cardboard may be different.

Back of Lite Brite Board

Once you have made several holes, turn the cardboard over to the front side. Find the small holes and push in just the tip of the peg, so the top part is sticking out (just like in a real Lite Brite).

Front of the Lite Brite Board

Once I made a few random holes and saw how cool it was, I set to work making this semi-educational for my daughter. I wrote her nickname mirrored on the back and marked spots where I wanted to put the pegs.

Back of Lite Brite board getting ready to add Lite Brites.

Turn the board over to see the word “Boo” marked by tiny holes (not big enough for a Lite Brite peg yet).

 Insert just the tips of the pegs into the tiny holes.

Pretty soon you will see something like this… your very own Lite Brite creation. Boo will have a great time writing her name with these colorful pegs!

While I initially just played with it on top of the light box, you could also lay it against the side of the box. I also added another piece of cardboard on top to dampen the light in the room a bit.

One of the coolest thing about having a Lite Brite board (as opposed to the actual manufactured toy) is that you can turn it around and see the back. It was more cool than the front! The picture just doesn’t do it justice…. it was like little pits of color. Can you imagine the fun Christmas displays you can make with these in your window? 

 Here is a pic of just the holes- without the pegs its still pretty neat!

Our light box has been so much fun- there are so many different ways of playing with light. So if you happen to have lots of Lite Brite pegs laying around- consider making a board and using them on your light box!
Happy Teaching!

Dollar Store St. Patrick’s Day Handprint Plate

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Boo and I recently created our third Dollar Store plate- this time with a St. Patrick’s Day flair! I tried making a shamrock plate, but as soon as I saw this adorable handprint leprechaun from Meet the Dubiens I was in love.

Materials for the Leprechaun:

  • Orange and peach paint
  • 2 brushes
  • black, yellow, and green paper for hat
  • marker

Materials for the plate:

  • Variety of colored tissue paper cut into squares
  • Glass plate from the dollar store
  • mod podge/foam brush
Make the handprint leprechaun. (for complete step by step directions on making the leprechaun , head over to Meet the Dubiens!)
Turn the plate over (so the back is facing you). Put the leprechaun facedown on the back of the plate. Then modpodge it on until the leprechaun sticks on the plate. Don’t worry if he looks a little gluey- it won’t stay this way!
Modpodge the tissue paper squares on to the back of the plate to fill in the gaps. Be careful not to rip or tear the tissue paper during this process. 

Turn the plate over and admire your work. Preferrably in front of a large window- I just love how the light shines through the paper!

And it is such a great addition to our St. Patricks Day mantle. (We just rolled up green glitter foam paper and stuck it inside our apothecary jars- simple, yet goes well with our green theme!)

We are having such a great time making these holiday handprint plates! For similar art ideas, follow our hand and footprint pinterest board.

Happy Crafting with your kids- and Happy Teaching!

DIY Embroidery Floss Easter Eggs

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Easter is soon approaching (can you believe it? i am not even ready for st patricks day!) I thought it would be fun to post a quick (and messy) tutorial on how to make some embroidery floss eggs. This would be a fun craft for kiddos (this particular set was completely mommy made however- Boo was not in a crafting mood!)

Materials:
Embroidery Floss (one small skein per egg)
Vaseline
Mod Podge
Balloons (picked these up at the good old Dollar Tree)
Blow up a small balloon until its about the size of an egg. Then coat that balloon with Vaseline. This prevents the Mod Podge from sticking directly to the balloon. 
Cut the embroidery floss into several long strands. Do this before you begin gluing, since your hands will be super sticky. Then dip the floss into your Mod Podge and wrap it around your balloon.

Helpful hint: I covered my table with old sheet protectors. They not only kept my table clean, but the Mod Podge didn’t stick to it. And then, of course, the clean up was fast!

Hang balloons to dry. I just tied a simple knot at the ends of the balloons with white string and hung them in the bathroom on the shower curtain rod.

After a day or so, take the balloons down. The balloons should be shrinking- but the embroidery floss should have kept its original shape. Pop the balloons and take them carefully out of the egg.

And voila! You are finished! And not only would these be fun for Easter, but they make a great addition to Christmas lights (how fun to hang on the deck in the Summer!) and I love the color they add to my home decor!

Have fun crafting with your kiddos- and as always, Happy Teaching!

Last Minute Valentine Card Ideas

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My daughter and I spent the evening making some easy Valentines for family and friends. I thought I would share the ideas with you!

 A fun way to showcase your child’s artistic abilities! Trace your child on large butcher paper. I saved all my packing paper from online Christmas shopping- it works perfectly. After cutting out the body shape, have your child draw themselves! It was fun enough for my anti-arts-and-crafts daughter to do. After she was done coloring, I folded up the body and wrote this message:
“From the top of my head all the way to my toes I ♥ you!“
Found this on Pinterest from Brown Paper Packages: Simply have your child make thumbprints (I used a pink stamp pad). Turn the thumbprints into little people and write “Thumb-body loves you“.
I loved this idea I saw on Pinterest and now for the life of me I can’t find where I pinned it…. that’s what happens when you have 2000+ pins! It’s a handprint hug card. Trace your child’s hands and cut. Cut construction paper (or a bright green party streamer- you use what you have on hand!) the length of your child’s arm span. Tape hands and streamer together and you have an instant paper hug. On the top hand I wrote “I love you…” and on the streamer “this much!“This is a perfect card for grandparents that live far away!

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Teaching!

Paper Bag Bird Nest

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It recently came to my attention that Rachelle over at TinkerLab was hosting a special kid-directed linky party/contest using paper bags. Well I just happen to have a gazillion paper bags lying around, so I was super excited to get on board with this challenge!

We chose to make a nest because, well, that is what Boo wanted to make! She has a baby golden eagle stuffed animal (doesn’t every 4 year old? The things our kids love!) who has been in need of a nest for awhile now. Keep in mind that this girl is smart as a whip but arts and crafts are just not her thing. I was extremely elated that she actually chose to make something! And she did the ENTIRE project all by her little old self!! Granted, it isn’t anything eloborate or difficult…but to me this challenge was a success because it got Boo CREATING. And I just adore her glammed up birds nest.

 Boo painting and glitzing up her birds nest. Yes, we craft on the floor :).  She also cut raffia for branches, stuck in some feathers, and added plastic easter eggs. On a side note, one of the golden eagle’s eggs contained a small plastic elephant. Love the creativity!

Finished product next to Boo’s baby golden eagle. See the angry birds on the upper right? They are getting ready for a special blog post!

Happy Teaching!

Tinkerlab

Dollar Store Valentine Handprint Plate

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I am really excited for Valentines Day! My daughter and I recently made a handprint heart plate. It is super easy, cheap, and I think it looks pretty darn cute!

Materials:

  • red paint
  • white paper
  • pink tissue paper squares
  • glass plate from the dollar store
  • modpodge/ foam brush

Using red paint, have your child stamp their handprints in a heart shape. Then cut out the paper in the shape of a heart.

Turn the plate over (so the back is facing you). Put the heart facedown on the back of the plate. Then modpodge it on until the heart sticks to the plate.

Modpodge the tissue paper squares on to the back of the plate to fill in the gaps. Be careful not to rip or tear the tissue paper during this process.

After the plate was covered in tissue paper squares, I modpodged a paper on the back of the heart that has my daughter’s name and age.

Follow my handprint art board on Pinterest for more ideas:
It is always so fun to craft with my Boo and make something that will always remind me of her. 🙂
Happy Teaching!
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