Penguin Potato Winter Craft

We love finding things around the house to create art with.  My younger daughter just loves penguins and I  had her in mind when I found this craft.  We are big into re-using and re-purposing at our home so I used old brown paper bags and cut them up into squares with funky scissors.

** We like to find books on the crafts we are making to turn it into a mini lesson or just some fun reading time so we got out our penguin books after we made the craft.


What you'll  need:

• potatoes- 2 different size pieces. One for the larger black body and one for the white belly.
• non toxic paint-white,orange, and black
• googly eyes, one per penguin
• brown paper bag cut up into squares

Instructions:

• Dip the larger potato piece into the black paint and stamp onto brown paper
• take the smaller piece of potato and dip in the white paint, stamp over the black paint onto the body.
• use a finger to dip into the orange paint and create a beak and the feet.
• glue on a googly eye after the paint is dry

My daughter had so much fun with this project that she decided she wanted to make a whole "penguin family" on another sheet of paper which is what she is doing above.

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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25 Things For Kids To Do When Stuck Indoors

EtsyKids team member and mother of two, Katie of childhoodstore, who is also patiently preparing to wait out Hurricane Sandy, shares some really fun indoor activities to do with kids using stuff you already have at home (love that!).  Not in the path of Hurricane Sandy?  Count yourself lucky and bookmark this for later ... think endless freezing cold days of winter, indoor recess at the grade school, games and activities for classroom parties.

Like most everybody on the east coast we are preparing for hurricane Sandy, which means we are stocking up on batteries, waters and snacks. It also means I am preparing for the potential of a week home with both girls and no electricity. So here is a list of some activities we have done before that I am thinking we might revisit this week. Do you have any fun indoor activities for kids?

Shoe Matching Game
Play With a Box
Play With Waterbeads
Painters Tape Hopscotch
Bean Bag Games
Make a Cardboard Computer
Cave Drawing
Pipe Cleaner and Colander Sculptures
Walk the Line
Floor Puzzles
Play People Riddles
Shaving Cream Car Wash
Paint with Water
Post-it Note Art Gallery
Color Relay
Clean Penny Experiment
Form a Square Game
Play Dress-Up
Dance
Glue Painting
Make Plastic Straw Necklaces
Cloud Dough
Plastic Cup Printing
Apple Printing
Plastic Baggie Art

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Easy Oil Paintings

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

My son and I are working through the alphabet with a “letter of the week,” and when I needed an art project for “O Week” a couple of weeks ago, I turned to this marbleized paper tutorial from Unplug Your Kids. For our purposes, I called them oil paintings.

Here’s what you need:
A shallow pan (I used a dish pan)
Food coloring
Vegetable oil
Water
Thick paper (We used watercolor paper and cardstock)
Dropper

First, mix up the colors. Stir together 1/2 tablespoon oil and several drops of food coloring for each color. Mix with a fork for several minutes to combine the two ingredients. (Next time I will try shaking it, as suggested in the original instructions. It's a little like salad dressing.)

Put just enough water in the bottom of your pan to cover the bottom. (The colors will sink if the water is too deep.)

Use the dropper to put dots of color on top of the water. Don’t be afraid to mix colors, put colors on top of each other, or swirl them around. My son is into mixing colors lately, so he loved mixing the colors together.

When you’re done adding colors, gently place a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper on top of the water. Let it sit there until you see the pattern of colors seep through the paper. Gently peel the paper off, let excess water drain off, and set aside to dry.

Change the water and try again!

We’ve used our oil paintings to make cards, and I’m thinking about getting frames for a couple of them. They’re so pretty!

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Sparkling Fourth of July Fireworks Craft

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love getting together with friends or family, eating good food, and celebrating our country and its freedoms. And, I absolutely love fireworks. I’ve found lots of fun holiday-themed crafts, and I’ve tried to squeeze a couple of them in during the busy days before July 4th.

These sparkling fireworks and quick and easy and just messy enough to be fun (but not so messy it trashes your house) – who wouldn’t love blowing air at paint through a straw? Our finished products ended up looking less like fireworks than sparkly blobs of red, white, and blue, but we had a good time making them, and they’re still really pretty.

What you need:
Red, white, and blue paint
Black or blue construction paper
Drinking straws
Glitter

Pour paint into small cups (I use recycled applesauce cups) and water it down so it’s thin and runny. Pour small puddles of each color onto your paper and blow at the puddles with your straw to create arms and streaks of color.

Before the paint dries, sprinkle glitter on top of your fireworks. Set it aside to dry and try it again!

There are tons of fun Fourth of July projects out there. Here are a few I’d like to try, if not now, then maybe for Labor Day. J

• Craft stick American flags: http://aggiemania.blogspot.com/2010/07/patriotic-craft.html
• Hand print flags: http://binspiredmama.blogspot.com/2012/05/kids-craft-patriotic-hand-print.html
• Salt fireworks: http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/06/salt-absorbing-fireworks/
• Tin can windsocks: http://the-wilson-world.blogspot.com/2011/06/4th-of-july-tin-can-windsocks.html

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Science Experiment: Dyed Flowers

From Michelle of himamma.

Science … we love it. Many times when we have gone past the flower area at the grocery store we smell the sweet scent of fresh roses and dainty daisies ... the girls have been fascinated with the flowers that are in an array of colors that are dyed but yet they know that they are not naturally that color … and have wondered “how do they do that?”

Well, we made it our science experiment last week! So now they have a much better understanding and can visualize how the flower petals changed colors.

Steve Spangler Science shares a great tutorial on dying flowers, in addition to other experiments he has done…but most importantly the details and why they work make sense on his website that kids understand.

Our science experiment was over a course of several days. We started out using some older daisies that we had purchased later the week before. We recut the bottom of the flower stems and placed them in the colored water glasses. The older flowers did not dye as well as we had hoped, but we knew that might be the case going into the experiment. A few days later we purchased new flowers and this time they did much better and the color was obvious.
One question the girls had asked was how soon do you think we will see the color in the petals? Within two hours, it was amazing to see the colors showing in the white petals. By dinner time, the flowers were fully dyed and in a brilliant shades of yellow, blue, red and green.

We even wondered if certain colors would dye the petals quicker than others. It seemed to us that the blue and the green food coloring dyed the white petals the quickest. I know in the printing world, that when you print with blue ink, it takes longer to dry than any other color just due to the pigment. I know it doesn't relate to the experiment but it is an interesting fact that makes you wonder about inks in general.

Do you have a favorite science experiment book/curriculum that you use? Please feel free to comment below or send us an email. We are always enjoying and reading science books and would like to share with other families in the journey of learning.

In addition to the Steve's website we also enjoy the following:

• The Magic School Bus series. We will reserve DVDs and library books from our library and/or watch the various topics that we are studying via YouTube. Last year, I purchased The Magic School Bus Science Experiment books that take each of the episodes and relate it to an experiment/participate in an observation. On the MSB website they also have a Parent/Teacher section that is very helpful. Ms Frizzle and the gang are always a hit with the girls. I must admit...I love the series too.
• I recently have exchanged emails with a mom I met through a workboxes group. Via our email workboxes group, Colleen shared that she has written several books, with one particularly focused towards science. Colleen has a blog called Raising Lifelong Learners as well as her writing website called Colleen Kessler. I strongly suggest you visit her blogs to learn more.

As we prepped for our experiment we talked about how flowers/plants drink water to survive, how the flowers use their roots, and the water travels up through tubes in the stem. By coloring the water, we will then see the water move up the stem and into the flower petals over a course of a couple of hours. Steve Spangler Science shares a great tutorial on dying flowers, in addition to other experiments he has done…but most importantly the details and why they work really make sense on his website that kids understand.

You can find Michelle online here ... Facebook, Twitter, her blog Hi Mamma and of course her Etsy Shop:

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Under the Sea Craft Projects

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Finding Nemo is all the rage at my house these days, temporarily bumping Lightning McQueen from most-favored-toy status. We’ve borrowed ocean books from the library, visited aquariums, and pretended we were Nemo and his friends.

So, when I started planning the monthly arts and crafts activity for my MOMS Club, I scoured my Kid Stuff Pinterest board for simple projects related to ocean creatures. I settled on two painting projects: paper bowl jellyfish and paper plate fish.

The jellyfish were inspired by this project from First Palette and this one from Creekside Learning. I told the kids we were making octopuses; as we moved along with the craft, they informed me the octopuses looked more like jellyfish. I went back and looked at the original ideas, and of course, they were right!

We started our jellyfish by painting the bottom of paper bowls. Some kids painted the whole thing; others, like my son, just painted the base of the bowl. I glued googly eyes onto each one. We used tape to attach streamers around the bowl for tentacles.

The fish were inspired by these beautiful paper plate tropical fish from Crafts by Amanda. For the fish, give each kid two paper plates. Have them paint one to be the fish body and help them draw fins on the other plate (or draw them for little guys), and paint those shapes.

When everything is dry, cut out the fins and tape or glue them into place. Draw an eye or attach a googly eye. Too cute!

Here are some other fishy crafts we’ve tried or want to try:

Paper plate octopus, via Artsy Craftsy Mom

Egg carton fish, via Crafty-Crafted. Ours are still a work in progress; we need to add stripes, fins, and eyes.

Squishy fish aquariums, from Teach Preschool (one of my favorite blogs!). We used light blue hair gel and added food coloring to make the gel bluer.

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April Showers Umbrella Craft

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

We all know April showers bring May flowers, but too many rainy days can make you a little stir crazy. These umbrella mobiles  from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman are a fun, easy craft for a rainy day that even little kids can do.

For each umbrella you’ll need:

Paper plate
Stickers, markers, crayons, or paint for decorating
Several blue rain drops cut from blue construction paper (we used eight)
A “J” shape cut from contruction paper for the umbrella’s handle
Glitter and glue (optional)
Thread or fishing line
Hole punch
Tape or glue

Cut the paper plate in half. Cut a slit in each plate, at the top of one and from the bottom of the other. I made my slits about half the width of the plate. Don’t cut all the way through!

Set your kids to decorating their umbrellas on all sides, leaving the area around the slits clear. If necessary, let them dry. My son is going through an ocean and “Finding Nemo” phase, so he opted for sea creature and fish stickers.

Punch holes along the straight edge of your umbrella pieces. I did two on each side of the slits. Slide your umbrella pieces together at the slits to form an “X”. I taped ours together to keep the shape.

If desired, glue glitter to your raindrops to make them sparkle. When they’re dry, tie them to your thread or fishing line and then attach the opposite end to the umbrella. Tie another loop of thread at the top of your umbrella.

Hang and enjoy!

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