Umbrella Painting

In keeping with the theme of Spring I did an Umbrella Painting project with Hailey yesterday.

What you’ll need:

• -paper plate cut in the shape of an umbrella
• -card stock in the shape of a J for the handle
• -finger paint
• -smock
• -a place set up to put the project to dry when you’re done

Let’s get started!

Hailey had never finger painted before, so she was a little unsure of touching it at first.

Soon she was enjoying herself.

Finally she really got into it and got both hands covered in paint.

While Hailey was painting I kept a little dialog going with her.  I started out with some simple questions like, “What are we making,” “What color is this” etc.  And then I moved on to some more open ended questions.  Open ended questions are important because they enhance your child’s language.  Rather than a simple answer they have to think about their response.  Some good open ended questions to ask might include “What does it feel like,” “Why do you think the red and yellow turned orange” and “What do you see.”  With a toddler you aren’t going to expect complex answers but you are still helping to expand their vocabulary and thinking skills.

Hanging the pieces up to dry.

The finished umbrella.

Tags: finger painting with toddler, free toddler activity, umbrella craft, umbrella painting

Mother's Day Ideas

Oh my goodness, I have been neglecting this blog.  I was doing really good there for a little while and now I haven’t posted in several days.  The weather has been nice and we’ve been pretty busy being out and about. 

But, I realized that Mother’s Day is only three weeks away, so I thought I should post some ideas for Mother’s Day activities to do.  Of course I won’t tell you what I’m doing with Hailey for her grandmothers because I have no idea yet what we’re going to do then it won’t be a surprise.

Personally I love the homemade gifts from children for any occasion, so I am going to share some links with you to some sites that have cute ideas that your children can make.

• ChildFun Family Website– has a list of over 20 different activities.  They also have some Mother’s Day Poems.
• You can find many activities for Mother’s Day on the A to Z Teacher Stuff site. 
• At Family Corner you can find a variety of crafts, stories, recipes, etc for Mother’s Day.
• Kaboose has some adorable projects your kids can do for Mother’s Day.
• You can find cards, poems, crafts and more at DLTK.
• Free Kids Crafts has some really cute ideas for Mother’s Day.

There is a lot more out there, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many choices.  If you find a really spectacular site with Mother’s Day crafts please feel free to let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

Tags: free toddler activity, Mother's Day crafts

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Today we worked on making a kite that will be the right size for Hailey to be able to use.

What you need to make the kite:

• construction paper
• crepe-paper streamers
• yarn
• stapler and tape
• glue
• scissors
• hole puncher
• markers, crayons, stickers, stamps

Directions:

• Have child decorate a piece of construction paper using markers, crayons, stickers, stamps, etc.
• Glue or tape the crepe-paper streamer to the side of the paper that has not been decorated.
• Roll paper into a tube shape and staple it in place.  I then put tape on it to add extra reinforcement as well as to protect Hailey from getting cut on the staples.
• Punch four evenly spaced holes on the tube, on the opposite side of the streamers.
• Thread two eight-inch lengths of yarn through the holes so that they crisscross and then tie them in place.
• Then tie one end of an 18-inch piece of yarn around the center of the crisscross (I did not use an 18-inch piece of yarn, I used a much shorter piece)

Adding some stickers to her paper.

Coloring her paper

“Look mom, I colored my hand too!”

The kite when all finished.

When we have a day with some nice weather we’ll take it outside to try it out.  I’ll be sure to post some pictures of it.

Tags: free toddler activity, kite

The Letter A

For the first two weeks of April I am focusing on the letter A with Hailey as we work towards recognizing letters.  Since being able to recognize letters is essential to being able to read, I think it’s important to start early with teaching letters. 

The possibilities are endless for teaching letters.  A few of the activities I’ll be doing with her include:

• Coloring a letter “A” paper
• Letter “A” games on Leapfrog toys
• While reading books point on the letter “A”
• Use Starfall Internet game
• Letter hunt
• Make the letter A using various toys- blocks, Legos, Playdough, etc.

Tags: free toddler activity, teaching the letter a