Celebrating Fall- Leaves

Welcome Fall.

This was another fun week of creating some Fall crafts.

My little kiddos just love leaves.  Collecting them, crunching in them and treating them like they are wonderful found treasures.

Here is what we did this week.

This was such a great, fun craft to make that I found on Pinterest.

Using 2 paper plates, we glued on some fall coloured papers.

The top plate has a leaf cut out of it.

The kids decorated and coloured the plates, then we put the cut out one on top and fastened it with a brad.  They could turn the top plate and see the leaf change colour.

Simple Fall leaves mobile.  

I cut out leaf shapes, the kids decorated them and we made them into a mobile.

We did some dot glueing....great fine motor activity.

Fall Banner to decorate their houses.

I cut the banners and the kids glued on the letters and the leaves.

Leaf Matching Game.

My kiddos love puzzles, so this was perfect for them.

found on Pinterest

Leaf decoration.

We glued strips of coloured paper behind a cut out paper plate.

Well that's all for this week.

Fall and Squirrels

Fall is almost here.

This week, we learned about Squirrels as we see so many of them along our walks to the park.
The kids love Fall so much and crunching in the leaves and collecting them too!

We made a cute squirrel from a paper tube and glued him onto a CD that we covered with some colourful Fall leaves.

Next, here is an acorn, number matching game.  Simple to do and fun learning as well.
Here is the link to print the acorns:
https://www.kidsparkz.com/squirrels.html

Some happy acorn puppets just simply made with construction paper and a large popsicle stick for little hands.

'S' for squirrel.
It was also a great opportunity to talk about lots of words that start with 's'.
We also learned a new song of the week.

Some fun acorn colouring of course.

We finished off the week with making a lovely Fall leaf wreath for the door.
I textured some of the leaves using a crimper for added interest.

That's all for now.
Next week we will be full into FAll with lots of leaves.
Such a pretty time of year.

Apples Theme

Who doesn't love a nice juicy red apple although we learned that apples come in different colours too!

That was our theme this week....so fun.

We made these fun apple puppets with a paper bag.

(so sorry I don't have a print-out for this one, its so old and I searched and found nothing online)

A simple apple tree made using a paper towel roll.  By cutting a slit in the bottom, we were able to add a base so it could stand up.  A slit on the top to slide in out tree top too.

Apple suncatcher.

I cut out an apple shape then cut out the center.  I put a piece of sticky back paper to the back and the kids added pieces of tissue paper.  When they were done, I added another piece of stick back paper over that to seal it.  When hung in the window, the sun will shine through.

'A' for Apple

We got to talk about all the other words that start with A too.

We made an apple on a stick with a funny worm, our finger!

Learned some new apple songs too.

And finally, we saw the star hidden inside the apple.
The kids were amazed and loved it.

That's all for now.  Onto another crafty theme this week.

Favourite Shows

Welcome
We had another fun week creating.
I decided to go with a 'Favourite Shows' theme and they absolutely loved it!
So here's what we created this week.

Princesses....they have been wanted to make some of these for awhile.

I printed these off Princess Printables and glued them together as instructed.

I punched out 8 circles in blue, then 8 circles in pink for each little princess.  They coloured them and we glued them together to form the dress.  I did cut them straight across the bottom so they would have fun playing with them.

Who doesn't love Max and Ruby.  Fun little show.
We stuffed white paper bags with newspaper after decorating them.
I stamped the top closed and we added the ears.
They turned out very cute.

The girls love Ariel the mermaid from the Disney movie, so I printed it off, glued it onto a piece of cardboard for stability and they coloured them up.  We took some cupcake liners, folded them in half and glued them to the dress and added the long stir stick to create a puppet.
Here is the link for printing:

Ariel the Mermaid


Dora Day

We ended the week with a 'Dora Day'.
My kids always love having a special themed day and this one was a big hit.

Dora binoculars made from paper rolls to go exploring.

 This is how I created backpack.
I didn't have any large paper bag so I glued 2 smaller ones together by cutting open the sides and gluing them together.
Above, you can see the pieces we used.  I hot glued the straps made from fun foam on the back before the kids decorated the bag.
Here is the link to the face details that we used:
Backpack Face

Finally, we made 'Map' to go inside the backpack.

Map was created by covering a tube with white paper and adding these face details:

Map Face

https://inspiresuafesta.com/mochila-da-dora-aventureira-em-eva-com-molde/

We coloured the map, rolled it up and placed it inside the tube.

Map

They had a blast pretending to explore.

Well that's it for this week.
Thanks so very much for coming by and taking a look.

Ocean Theme

Well here we go with some fun.

This summer went by way too quickly but we really had lots of fun creating.

These crafts were from our 'Ocean Theme'.  Very simple but fun to play with as well as create.

Above was a fishy scene we created.  These cute fish are just a strip of paper folded in half and snips made in the tail.  Add the fins and glue onto a blue paper.

The crab is a strip of paper as well.

This cute little boat is created by using some paper folds.  I added a popsicle stick so it became a toy.

The kids did a puppet show with them.

http://krokotak.com/2015/08/origami-ship/

Here is a fun fish we created using a paper plate.  Cut out the mouth and use the leftover piece to make the tail and fins.  We glued some folded circles onto the fish to look like the gills.  

You could add a piece of cardboard to the back as a handle and the kids could make the fish swim.

 Simple jellyfish mobile.

I cut out the heads, added some streamers cut from a white kitchen garbage bag and attached them to a large popsicle stick with string.

This is called the 'Moving Fish' because by cutting the slits in the paper it moves.

Here is the link for the pattern:

http://krokotak.com/2016/07/moving-fish/

This super easy craft was made with a paper plate, simple head and feet cut outs.

Great fine motor activity for the kids as they picked up the dots and stuck them onto the glue dots I had placed on the plate/shell of the crab.

Thanks for coming by and taking a look.

Welcome

Ok....call me crazy!

With a house full of daycare kiddos and a busy life, why am I starting another blog?
I have a stamping blog here which keeps me busy already.

Honestly, I have to say I guess it's from the joy of creating and little people love to create.

My philosophy about creating is that it is a very important part of being.  For kids I feel it's so important to be able to express their own creativity through art.  With so many of the arts programs disappearing from the schools curriculums, it is up to us to help foster that love. 

Creating art relaxes, it teaches so many concepts....colour, shape, texture, numbers, counting and most important; fine motor skills.

And most of all, it's FUN!!

My kiddos love to create and we do it everyday.  Be it simple or a bit more complicated, they love having something special to take home and share with their family.  The joy on their faces makes it all worthwhile.

So if you are a parent, daycare provider or even a grandparent, I so encourage you to create with your kids and I hope you will find some little bits of inspiration here.  

Many of the crafts can be made more simple for little ones or more involved for the older ones.  Just change them up.  Get the older kids to do the cutting or let them add their own finishing touches.
You don't have to be really crafty, give the kids some paper shapes and they will help guide the way.

I will try to post on a weekly basis so you can see what we have done.  I generally work on a theme- base schedule but sometimes it's just a free for all.

If you want to keep in touch, I hope you will hit the 'followers' button on the right so you can receive updates when available.

Looking forward to taking this journey with you.

Thanks for the visit and Happy Crafting and Creating.