I had meant to get this posted a little earlier so that you would have time to do it if you want to.  But I have been so sick that I just haven’t been able to get sit at my computer for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  I feel a little better today so I’m going to post this, hoping it all makes sense (I feel like I’m in a fog right now).

Anyhoo- it doesn’t really take all that long to do, it’s just that you have to allow time for the paint to dry.  This is what Hailey made for her grandparents for a Christmas present this year (so no peeking Gramma and Nana!)

Here is what you’ll need: an old gift box, construction paper, red and white paint, something to paint with, a fine tip marker, sequence, glue and a pipe cleaner.

Paint your child’s hand white.

Press onto the paper.

Whenever we do a project that involves a hand print I always have extra paper there for Hailey to make hand prints on once I am done with her- so here she is having fun stamping her hand prints all over the paper.

From the box- cut 2 squares.  Cut the center out of one of the squares- this will be your frame.

Paint the frame.

Once the frame is dry, add some sequence or any kind of decoration you want.

Sorry for the blurriness of this picture- too much cough medicine I guess.  Anyhoo- write your poem on construction paper.  Or if you have messy handwriting like I do, just print it out.  This is the poem we are using:

This is the hand
you used to hold
when I was only
2 years old

Of course you can use any poem you want.

Put everything together.

Once I actually have enough strength, I will cut the excess off the sides and come back and post a picture of the final product.  Also- when I first thought of this, in my mind it was going to be an ornament for the Christmas tree.  Now that it’s done I see it is too big for that.  So I’m not exactly sure what it is going to be.  A magnet for the fridge?  Just a frame?  I don’t know yet.  Any ideas?

Here is another very simple and fun Christmas craft you can do with your toddler (or preschooler).

Here’s what you’ll need: paper plate with the center cut out, red pom poms, green paint, something to paint with, 2 red pipe cleaners and glue.

Paint the paper plate green.

Do your best to make a bow out of one of the pipe cleaners.  As you can see mine did not turn out very well but it worked just fine anyways.

Once the paint is dry- glue the red pom poms on and then add your bow.

Thread the other pipe cleaner through the top of the wreath- and hang it up.  Ours is haning next to our front door and Hailey is so proud to see it there.

Last week we worked on the number 4, the color orange and the triangle.  Here are some of our activities:

Hailey painted a number 4- you’ll need construction paper with the number 4 on it, another piece of construction paper in a different color, paint and something to paint with- we used the bow.

Hailey stamping the paint onto the 4.

The finished number 4.

For our orange project:

You’ll need orange tissue paper, a small piece of green tissue paper, glue and a paper plate.

Rip apart the orange tissue paper.  (Great for those little muscles in their hands!)

Glue the orange tissue paper on to the plate and add a green stem.  Now you have a pumpkin.

For our triangle activity:

You’ll need: paint, a sponge, a paper plate and a piece of paper.

Stamp the triangle sponge onto the paper.  Fun, fun!

Stop back tomorrow to see our Noah activities from last week.

Please also take a second to stop by the Velveeta Casserole Challenge and vote for me (I’m the one on the right- Livin’ With Me and the Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole). You can vote once each day and I’d appreciate it so very much if you’d vote for me. Thanks!

Our theme again last week was fall and we did several fun activities.  Here are some of the things we did:

We had 2 sets of pumpkins in various colors.  I put one set out on the table and gave Hailey the other set.  She matched up the colors.  This is a great way to practice color names.

We made pumpkin prints- here’s what you’ll need: green and orange paint, paper and a paper plate.

Dip the top part of your child’s fist into the orange paint then make prints on the paper.

Then use your finger to add a green stem.  If you do this with an older child the prints might actually look like pumpkins.  But, Hailey did not want any help and did not want me to show her how to do it- so she had fun but they don’t exactly look like pumpkins.

I made a pumpkin patch then put pieces of Velcro on the patch.  Then I added some pumpkins that have Velcro on their backs.  We sang this song to the tune of “Clementine:”

I saw a pumpkin
a big fat pumpkin
It was hanging on a vine
Hailey came along and picked it
took it home
and said, “It’s mine.”

And as we sang the song Hailey would go pick a pumpkin off of the patch during the “Hailey came along and picked it” line.

Lastly we made an acorn:

First you’ll need to paint a brown piece of paper with a darker shade of brown.

Once the paint dries, rip apart the paper.  Also, rip apart a piece of regular brown paper.

Glue the lighter colored brown paper to the top of the acorn and the brown paper that was painted to the bottom of the acorn.

The finished acorn.

Come back tomorrow to see our number, shape and color activities from last week.

Please also take a second to stop by the Velveeta Casserole Challenge and vote for me (I’m the one on the right- Livin’ With Me and the Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole). You can vote once each day and I’d appreciate it so very much if you’d vote for me. Thanks!

Last week our letter was F.  Here are the activities we did for the letter F.

Hailey used a paint roller to paint the letter F.  Later I cut it out and glued it onto construction paper and posted it on our refrigerator.  Each week she does one of these for our letter of the week and we always use something different to decorate the letters (colored pencils, markers, water colors, finger paints, etc.)

Then Hailey got check out some feathers.  She had never touched feathers before so she was pretty interested in them.

Then we glued the feathers onto the letter F.

Our finished Feather F.

Then we made a fish- we used triangles to make the fish since our shape was the triangle.

Hailey added some glue to the triangles.

The finished triangle fish.

Stop by 1+1+1=1 to see what the other moms did last week to keep their tots busy.  Don’t forget to stop back to see what else we did last week- we did some more fall activities, some activities for our number (4), color (orange) and shape (triangle) as well some activities while learning about Noah.

Please also take a second to stop by the Velveeta Casserole Challenge and vote for me (I’m the one on the right- Livin’ With Me and the Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole). You can vote once each day and I’d appreciate it so very much if you’d vote for me. Thanks!