Felt Hand Turkeys

The other day I was looking for a craft to do with the kids. Thanksgiving is coming up so I wanted to do something that fit the Thanksgiving theme. I adore hand print crafts because I love being able to have something later that reminds me of how big their hand was. Connected to the craft it also shows what their artistic ability is at that point in growth.

Hand print crafts also have the advantage utilizing many areas that little ones need to work on like fine motor skills (tracing, cutting things out), you can talk about how the hand that is traced is the same size as their hand and how it is larger than the one from last year (learning about growth and size), and usually there is either coloring, gluing, or some other form of decorating that takes place where patterning development, learning about colors, textures, shapes, etc. can all take place. 

This time of year is also a really good time to learn about history, culture, and reasons for being Thankful. I like to talk about the story of the first Thanksgiving and include some talk about how the Native Americans might feel about Thanksgiving given how they are no longer able to live on the land the way they used to.

So I went with the hand print turkey. I have done hand print turkeys in past years using a foot as the head and body and hand prints (usually at least 3) as "feathers". Those are really cute and I recommend them, but this year I went with something a little different.

I had some little googly eyes and toilet paper roles hanging around and I had gone to the craft strore a few days before looking for Thanksgiving colors and found these leaves and pompoms that looked like fun.

We traced the kids hands onto the felt leaving enough room below and next to it to cut out a line to wrap around the toilet paper tube (used for support). I cut the toilet paper tube to about and inch in length but with one side having enough room to extend the length of the hand so it would support the hand so the fingers would not fall over.

Then using a sticky, less watery, craft glue the kids went to town decorating the turkeys.

After the glue dried we glued them onto the toilet paper rolls and set them up.

Cherry Blossoms Craft

Before I get into the craft part of this post I just wanted to show you the hair cut that my son decided to give my daughter. The day before I had finally gotten all of her hair up into pigtails which made this event very sad for me :( However, it will grow back and it looks okay now (I just really liked the pig tails).

 So we went to get her the first real hair cut she has ever had that morning. I told my husband (and several friends), I think it is payback for when I gave a friend a hair cut when I was about the same age as my son is now. You can see what it ended up looking like in the next set of photos. 

On to the craft. 

This is a really easy craft that is perfect for spring. We ended up doing this on spring equinox instead of what I had been planning because it was snowing that day (that was unexpected). 

Supplies you need:

Background paper (like white or light blue construction paper but you can use what you like)
Paper bag or brown construction paper
Pink tissue paper (or whatever colors you like)
Glue
Scissors

• Cut a strip of paper from the paper bag that will be the trunk of the tree so it should be about 1/3 the height of the background paper and about an inch wide. 
• Cut out branches from the paper, they need to fit on the paper coming off the trunk, ours were anywhere from 2-5 inches long and about 1/4-1/2 inch wide. 
• Crinkle the branches and trunk to give the texture like bark. 
• Glue them onto the background paper

• Crinkle up small bits of tissue paper and glue them onto the branches. 

Some things to talk about while you are doing this craft. 

• Discuss how spring is when the trees start to get flowers and leaves again. 
• Talk about the part of the tree: the roots, trunk, branches, flower, leaves. 
• Talk about other plants that are growing during spring like tulips, daffodils, grass (are you having to mow the lawn again yet?)
• Talk about how animals start to get more active at this time of year. Bees come out and start gathering the nectar from flowers pollinating them, birds start making nests and laying eggs, geese travel north again, bears come out of hibernation, etc. 

All that talking makes this simple craft a vocabulary builder and an opportunity to learn about science too! This craft also is great for fine motor skills.  

Most of all have fun! 

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Have fun!
 

 

Winter Flowers

I don't know about you but I am ready for spring. I am ready to see the new leaves come out on the trees, have a sunny and slightly warm day, I am ready to plant some seeds with the kids and start watching them grow and I want to see plants sprouting and turning into flowers. Well I can't make any of those things happen, but I can get the kids to make me a bouquet of "flowers" for my table to add a little color and a big smile to my face every time I see them.

Today's craft is simple and yields very fun results. I encourage you to add or take away any elements from this that you would like.

What you need:
An empty egg carton with the individual egg places torn apart from each other (see the picture)
Glue
Paint
Paint brushes
Pipecleaners
Any odd and end craft decorations you have we used:
        Beads
        Buttons
        Small pieces of tissue paper
        Glitter and glitter glue
        Little fuzzy colorful balls
        Small pieces of cut up yarn

What you do:
First you make a hole in the bottom of the egg carton cup

Second you put the pipecleaner through the hold about 1/4 of the way down the length of the pipecleaner leaving enough room to secure it.

Either fold the pipe-cleaner so that it will reach back around to the "stem" and twist to secure or fold it in the center of the flower to crimp it and secure it. We also tried making a spiral by wrapping it around a finger.

Now you get to start the fun part of decorating the flower. There is no right or wrong to this part just let the kids go for it. This is a great activity to help with fine motor skills and to discuss colors, shapes, sizes, and textures. You could check out a book about plants and flowers and talk about the parts of a flower and compare it to the flowers that your child makes learning science. All of these things will help to increase vocabulary as well as increasing awareness about many concepts. I love how a simple activity can be so developmentally rich.

This craft would be perfect for the upcoming Valentine's Day working as a very cute Valentine to someone who lives near. It also would be good for engaging in a discussion about Earth day and recycling (reusing the egg carton). Mayday would be another great day to give these out, hanging them from the doors of loved ones.