January Craft Round-Up

This month was a little unusual for us; we didn't get to everything on our lesson plan in January because of a snow storm (I lost three days of work), and we also did more activities and "process art" than we normally do (so we didn't have a lot to show for all our efforts other than pictures and memories, lol). Still, it was worth it because some of these activities were just too much fun. :)

Some of our themes this month were ice, snow, cold (we talked about temperature in general) and winter. We worked on recognizing the colors blue and white (with limited success lol).

We started off the month remixing one of our favorite crafts from last month: sensory jars! This time we made them snow jars. The kids had a blast.

One day we did a slew of snowman activities.

First we practiced rolling the dice and counting out the same number of pompom "buttons" onto our snowmen...

... then we practiced building snowmen out of Styrofoam balls (cut in half so they'd lay flat) and construction paper arms, boots, and hats.


And finally we made "melted snowmen" with white glitter paint, googly eyes, and construction paper pieces. The kids did this one all by themselves and their mom and I got a kick out of seeing how each one turned out!

We painted on giant ice cubes (I used the freezer A LOT this month lol) with watercolors.  This was so much fun and I sort of wished I had made one for me, too. At first the paint went onto the cubes like regular paper, then as the water melted it changed until towards the end as soon as you put some paint on the cube, it changed the whole hue of the painting. Very cool.

We also tried painting on snow one day, inspired by this pin. It was a total no - go lol. Pinterest fail!

I also made ice cubes filled with glitter and confetti and let them go at them with paintbrushes and warm water. It was a good chance to talk about melting, freezing, hot and cold.

We did ice chalk! I've been too intimidated to try making my own sidewalk chalk for awhile, but somehow ice chalk seemed less scary. Since it turned out well (and the only significant difference between sidewalk chalk and ice chalk is drying vs. freezing), we'll probably be doing that sometime soon. This was a fun activity! Definitely part sensory activity, as it got rather messy, but fun. It went on like fingerpaint and dried like chalk. Lucy enjoyed "stamping" with the blocks.

We tried making silly putty with cornstarch and Dawn dishsoap, and it failed miserably. I ended up adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that and making it into "snow dough" instead.

I rigged up a makeshift clothesline between the front and basement doors and we worked on some fine motor skills and matching by pinning pair of mittens and gloves. It took everyone quite awhile to get the hang of it, but once they did they had a blast!

That was our month. Of course, there was also a lot of playing in the snow, outings, and play. :) I'm definitely looking forward to warmer temperatures and getting to do more outdoors activities again!

Christmas Toddler Craft Round-Up

I thought I'd take a moment and share the activities and crafts we did month (December). Realizing that it was going to be an incredibly busy month, I was on the ball early (I'm not usually half so organized!) and had a whole calendar written out before December even started. (I have one written out for January, too, so hopefully this trend will continue!)

Some of these are art process projects, some are more traditional crafts, and some are newer ideas. The kids were really into Christmas this year (I think they remembered some from last year) and got very excited whenever we did anything "Christmasy" - even if it was just painting for a "Christmas craft" lol. ;)

Our counting wall. We always have something seasonal up on the wall to practice our counting with, so this time we did ornaments. I had the kids paint a big piece of paper with glitter paint, that I then cut into 20 circles and attached the tops to make ornaments (although I feel they're out of scale somehow - the struggle of being an art-challenged nanny, sigh.)

Michaels has had a great assortment of cheap craft kids lately. I picked up this bracelet kit for $1.29 and it had enough for three projects. As much as I love homemade craft projects, sometimes it's nice to be able to grab something prepackaged and all-included in a pinch! :) This is great fine motor skill practice; we also worked on patterns and color recognition as they worked on "green, red, white" order.

I was confessing on Instagram that I rarely do "invitation to play" crafts because they can get so out of control so fast; however, this one was so worth it! I adapted it from this pin and put out pompoms, pipe cleaners cut into 1/2" lengths, red, silver, and gold glitter, pony beads in red, yellow, and green, and sequins. The kids took forever filling up their bottles (bonus!) and then played with them nonstop for over an hour, rolling them back and forth, having "races," and just shaking them up and watching them settle.

I created these simple "order puzzles" for one of our circle times. The kids struggled more than I expected to complete them!

We played this counting game at the same circle time; throw the dice and find the Christmas tree with the same number of stickers.

Torn paper collages are fun, and we've done several different seasonal themes. This time I let the kids use scissors for part of the time, which they enjoyed, but got frustrated/tired with easily.

Another really fun activity, especially for Miles (who often tires of being told to "stop banging on things" - he kept banging on the buttons with the hammer, then looking at me like, "Can I really hit it?" lol). Oversized buttons, crab hammers, and styrofoam cones. We have to figure out a way to reuse these cones, or else save them for next year - they were easily one of the more expensive craft supplies I've ever bought!

Super-easy craft, making pipe-cleaner and pony bead candycanes for the tree.

The kids were able to do this craft completely by themselves this year. I did the cutting, but they did the gluing and positioning without any help. :)

Another easy ornament craft - popsicle stick trees. (I swear they're almost totally painted in real life, I don't know why the glitter glue won't show up on the camera!)

Cinnamon-dough ornaments. The kids loved mixing the dough and enjoyed playing with it for a bit before making the handprints. We followed up this craft several days later by painting the handprint ornaments.

The kids LOVED getting to paint their hands lol.

Sometimes our crafts turn out more "Fail" than "pinterest" lol

We did this after dinner one night with all four kiddos. Right before we turned them loose, I told DB that I had the sudden feeling I was making the biggest mistake of my nanny career ;) but it ended up being a relatively mess free craft and one that they definitely enjoyed!

January Craft Roundup

The triplets and I didn't do as many crafts this month as we usually do. Part of this was that everyone was sick for a good chunk of the month, part of it was that I never did get quite as organized as I wanted to (ha!), and part of it was that we do a lot more activities now (reading, games, etc) that take up more of our time.

Here's a roundup of what we DID manage to do this month (along with links to instructions, when possible):

Glue relief painting. I'm shocked that I can't find any instructions on how to do this - it's such an easy, fun craft! We do this once a month and change the "secret design" to fit the theme. You just draw a design in clear-drying school glue on the paper the day before, let it dry, and as the kids paint over it with watercolor, the design emerges. These were snowflakes.

Again, super simple craft. I had the kids go nuts with the watercolors, cut out the mittens for them, and let them glue them to the cardstock. This was especially fun since it snowed the day before and they'd worn mittens for the first time!

One Two Three Counting Charts. Doily snowflakes that I let the kids glue on. This was a super simple 5 minute craft when everyone was sick. :( We used the charts to talk about the colors blue and white, and counting and recognizing 1, 2, 3.

Painting with blue paint on blue construction paper. We did this at the beginning of the month to introduce the color blue. We also used kosher salt as "snow glitter" (the kids love glitter and salt is much more forgiving lol).

Snow paint. I was initially unimpressed with this craft, and said so, but it ended up being pretty cool and an activity we'll definitely do again. I was expecting a more "paint" texture, which threw me, but this ended up having a very snow-like feel and dried looking just like snow, which was cool.

Hot chocolate mugs with cotton ball marshmallows and chocolate paint. Essentially it's this craft with construction paper instead of felt. I know I found the chocolate paint recipe somewhere but now I can't find the link! It's the same recipe as the snow paint (above) with a good 2 TBS of unsweetened cocoa powder mixed in. I let the kids go nuts on plain paper and they had a good time doing sensory play with the paint before we did the "real" craft. :)

Paper plate snowmen! I put dots of glue in the right places and gave the kids verbal cues on what to place where.

We also did some new activities this month.

In keeping with our theme for winter ("Snow") we had our first snowfall of the year right on time! The kids loved playing with it, building a snowman, and taking countless long sled rides. It was great that they got to see the real thing before we did so many snow-related crafts.

I made this "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" felt wall hanging for their birthday. Great educational play about body parts, etc.

We made a sensory bin with "tub snow" and it kept the kids busy for over an hour. Best part was that it all washed down the drain when we were done! :)

We also played with the gel window clings I picked up at WalMart. Great for hand-eye coordination and they love them.