S is for Snake!

S is for Snake! 
Draw an uppercase S on brown construction paper.  Did a small piece of bubble wrap into green paint (bubble side down) and press onto the S.  Repeat, to cover the entire S.  Let dry.  Cut the S and glue onto another piece of construction paper.  Glue on a googly eye.  Cut a tongue out of red construction paper and glue to the S. 
Materials Needed:  brown, red and any other piece of construction paper, green paint, small piece of bubble wrap, scissor, glue, googly eye

R is for Rainbow!

Our letter this week is R! 
Draw an uppercase R on a white piece of paper.  With a pencil, draw a rainbow, so it covers the R.  Paint the rainbow accordingly (I guided Ty, Addie did not want to be told what to do, so she did her own thing!!)  Let dry.  Cut the R out and glue to a blue piece of paper.  Draw two clouds on white paper and cut out.  Glue the clouds to the feet of the R. 
Materials Needed:  white paper, blue paper, pencil, scissors, glue, red, orange, yellow, blue, green and purple paint, paintbrush

Cereal Box Tote!

 Project:  Cereal Box Tote:  My cousin's 5 year old daughter came over the day to do a craft with me - she absolutely loooooves to do projects.  I have been wanting to make this cereal box tote, for a while, but haven't had a chance.  Mia wanted to make some sort of box, so I thought this was perfectly appropriate for her! 
Materials Needed:  1 empty cereal box, scissors, assorted decorative paper, paintbrush, Mod Podge
Direction:  Cut off the box's to flaps.  Draw a 4- by 1- inch oval centered on the front and back of the box, about 1 inch from the open end.  Cut out the ovals to create handles.  Tear paper into various shapes.  Using the paintbrush, apply a small amount of Mod Podge to the back of a piece of paper, then smooth the paper onto the box.  Repeat until the entire box is covered, folding the papers over the edges of the box when necessary.  Let dry.  To help the tote close easily, score a line down the middle of each side of the box, then bring the edges together to crease the fold.  (Source:  Family Fun Magazine) 

Lego Birthday Party!

Connor turned 6 on Monday!  I can't believe he is 6 already - wow time sure does fly.  He celebrated his birthday with school friends on Saturday afternoon, then we had another little party with some family on Saturday night.  Finally, on his "real" birthday we had another little party with some more family!  Talk about crazy and busy, but Connor sure did feel special and loved. 

He wanted a Lego birthday party this year.  I made Lego brick invites, borrowed a Lego cake pan and mini lego minifigure molds from my sister.  I bought red, blue and yellow plates.  Filled treat bags with Lego stickers, Lego Minifigures and candy.   I ended up making 3 cakes and a set of cupcakes for his treat for school.  Connor had a wonderful birthday! 

Connor with Cake #1 for his friend birthday Party!

Two of the games that were played at Connor's friend party.

      Pin the head on the Lego Man!                                                       Build the tallest Lego tower!

  . 

  Connor and cake #2 - smiling big!!

.                                Connor and his sister Addie - with cake #3!

Connor's cupcakes for his kindergarten class!

Shamrock Matching!

I happened across this great matching activity for preschoolers on the blog, http://www.craftsandartforchildren.blogspot.com/  She has wonderful learning activities for young children.  She provided a link for the Shamrock matching activity  at Preschool Printables .  I printed off the templates and made a great Shamrock Matching File Folder activity for Addie.  Addie is 2 1/2 and she had a great time matching the shamrock pairs.  I am going to do more File Folder activities with Addie in the future!!

Shamrock Placemats and a Pot of Gold!

 Here is our St. Patrick's Day Placemat.  Connor is on Spring Break this week, so he was really excited to be able to make a placemat. 

Directions:  Decorate a sheet of white paper with different types of shamrocks.  Mat the paper with green paper and cover with Con-tact paper.

I saw this next craft on my blogger friend's blog http://www.adventures-in-mommy-land.blogspot.com/  She always has great projects.  This pot of gold craft was too cute to not make

Directions:  Cut a pot out of black construction paper - cut an opening on the top of the pot.  Lay the pot on a piece of Con-tact paper - sticky side up.  Add pieces of yellow tissue paper.  Cover the pot with another piece of Con-tact paper ( I made sure there was enough Con-tact paper to just fold over the top of the pot). 

Materials Needed:  black construction paper, Cont-tact paper, scissors, yellow tissue paper

Q is for Queen!

Ty is doing absolutely fabulous on his letter recognition - only 7 more letters to go!!!
Project:  Q is for Queen!  Again, I adapted this project from www.notimeforflashcards.com 
Directions:  Cut an uppercase Q from construction paper.  Glue the Q to another piece of construction paper and decorate!!  Cut a crown from yellow construction paper and glue to the top of the Q, and decorate!  Draw a face for the Queen in the middle of the paper!

Addie's QueenTy's Queen

Materials Needed:  construction paper (2 pieces per child), yellow construction paper marker, glue, scissors, glitter, beads, crayon,

Lego Birthday Invite!

Connor is turning six on the 21st, so we have been planning his very first "friend" party.  He loves Lego's, so we are going to do a Lego themed party this year.  Instead of buying invites, I thought I would try making our own.  I searched the web and found many ideas.  I adapted one of the ideas and it was really fun and easy to make!!  It seemed like every search I did for Lego Birthday invites showed some sort of version of this invite! 

Lego Birthday Invite - Cut a rectangle out of bright colored cardstock and round the corners.  Cut  4 circles out of the same color cardstock and adhere with raised, mounting squares.  Either print the word Lego on the cardstock circles or print the word out on clear mailing labels and trim to size.  Stick the trimmed mailing labels to the circles.  Print out birthday party information and  attach to the back of the Lego Invitation!

Materials Needed:  cardstock (any bright color, make sure you have enough for the block and the 4 circles on each block), scissors, square mounting labels, clear mailing labels or printer and computer to print the word Lego on the cardstock

N is for Noodles!

Project:  N is for Noodles!  The site http://www.notimeforflashcard.com/ used noodles for her lowercase n.  We are still working on our uppercase letters, so we used the noodle theme for our uppercase N! 
Directions:  Cut an uppercase N out of construction paper.  Glue the N to a piece of cardboard or cardstock.  Dip different types of noodles into glue and attach the noodles to the N!
Materials Needed:  construction paper, cardboard, marker, glue, different types of noodles, scissors

I is for Ice Cream Cone!

Project:  I is for Ice Cream Cone!  Again, I saw this project on the site www.notimeforflashcards.com  she has great project ideas on her site, I modified my project by using shaving cream, glue glitter and food coloring!
Directions - Cut an uppercase I out of brown construction paper.  Draw diagonal lines to create the cone.   Glue the uppercase I to construction paper. I cut an ice cream shape out of white construction paper and glued it to the top of the uppercase I.  Mix up equal parts of shaving cream and white glue.  Add food coloring to tint the shaving cream mixture.  Spoon shaving cream mixture onto ice cream shape and spread around to make the ice cream.  Sprinkle on glitter!  Let dry.
Materials Needed:  construction paper, brown construction paper, marker, glue, shaving cream, white glue, food coloring, glitter, scissors, bowl, spoons  

H is for hands!

Project:  H is for hands.  We are really focusing on our letters.  I saw a version of this project on http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/  
Directions:  Cut an uppercase H out of construction paper.  Glue the H onto another sheet of construction paper.  Press hand into paint and press hand onto H multiple times. 
Materials Needed:  construction paper, paint, scissors, glue