Stick Puzzles

Popsicle Sticks, craft sticks, whatever you call them - they can be made into puzzles for kids. You can follow a detailed tutorial here or here. I just used photos on regular copy paper, and Elmer's glue. I need a new color cartridge, so all photos were in black and white - which makes it even harder to sort when they are all together!

I made the puzzles and let them dry - sliced them apart and put them in a cup for The Punk to find in the morning. He had fun trying to figure out what they were, and then he was off! He found that I had marked the backs, so he turned them all over and sorted them into piles. Then he sorted them by number - and solved the puzzles. A very proud Punk, indeed.

Back in the cup they went - and onto the School Shelf. I'm sure this will be a repeat when Daddy comes home!

D is for Doctor

Doctor Who?

The Punk is a Dr. Who fan. He wanted to be Dr. Who for Halloween last year (and made an adorable 11th Doctor!). He watches (screened and parental approved) every episode he can get his hands on. He knows who the Cybermen and Daleks are, but doesn't know Dora the Explorer. And I love that! He's our little Geek (he's super mega ultra into Star Wars too - but only the old ones), and we are very proud of him.

So when trying to find another way to help him learn the D sound, I thought to myself "Duh!" and started printing out all the Google images I could of Dr. Who and the creatures that he battles. The Punk had a blast with this, and I was happy to indulge his nerd-side while having some fun with our school work.

Painting the TARDIS
Writing his name (Photos of himself dressed as the Doctor)
Helping the Doctor Sonic the Daleks
D is for Doctor
D is for Daleks
Sequencing Largest to Smallest
Front of the Lapbook made to look like the TARDIS
The back of his Lapbook
It's bigger on the inside!

As the proud parent of a little Geek in Training, I must now link you to the Punk's entry into a Dr. Who TARDIS contest. All you have to do is "like" the entry (if you have a Facebook account). Easy as 3.14159265 ;) We know there are tons of awesome TARDIS replicas out there, but we think the Punk will find it neat one day to know so many people saw his costume and thought he made an awesome Doctor.

"Allons-y!"

This post linked to Tot School

Eggs in a Nest

This week we made bird seed feeders, and molded them into egg shapes using last year's plastic Easter Eggs. You can find a ton of mold-able bird seed recipes online, but we used this one and it came out great.
I had intended for the walnuts to be stashed inside some of the seed eggs as a base to attach yarn, and also a little surprise for the squirrels after the seed was gone, but that didn't go exactly as planned.

It's a sticky mixture! Unflavored gelatin and bird seed WILL get on your work surface, hair, under your nails, on your clothes. It's rather easy to clean up, but it does stick to everything.

Inserting some seed mix into the plastic eggs. Once this was done we put the eggs in the refrigerator to "set" the gelatin for a while. How long? Long enough for me to clean up and the Punk to take a nap!

Then we set about making our bird nest. We used the yarn and a balloon technique with a bit of Elmer's glue. Sloppy, gloopy, messy, and FUN! Just cut the yarn into 8 to 12 inch strings, dip in the glue and drape over the balloon (placed in a bowl so it wouldn't roll around).

Hey look! Our eggs are done! We "cracked" them out of the plastic molds, and put them on a cookie rack to dry for a few days. The ones where I used walnuts inside broke in half and the walnuts fell out. So, I don't recommend that after all. But, we still managed to use them by gluing them back together with peanut butter. Waste not!

After the nest seemed mostly dry we took it off the balloon and gave it another good coat of glue. It was a little on the flimsy side, so the extra coat made it stiffen up and seem sturdier.

And here is the Punk holding his lovely nest and one of his lovely bird eggs. He was so proud of this craft. It took several days with all the drying time, but he was very patient and worked hard on each step of the process.

We packed the nest and eggs up and took them to my Mother's house. He stayed the night, and they took a little walk around her yard and finished the nest with all sorts of Nature Findings.

Leaves, acorns, flowers, berries and a bed of grass to lie on... could a little seed egg ask for more?

This post was linked to: No Time for Flash Cards and Peanuts are Evil

Art Wall

This is our Art Wall in the living room. Some nails (left behind by the former owners_ and some string (from the garage) made a handy place to hang the Punk's art while it dries, and is being displayed.

Right now we are featuring:

A is for Alligator, B is for Buttons, C is for Confetti

a Bumble Bee, a Clown, a Circle of melted beads

and a painting signed by the Punk using his Fingerprints

I wonder if Picasso's Mom hung up his art when he was little?

C is for Confetti

C is for Confetti! I had considered candy, cookies and cranberries - but I was afraid those would be a.) eaten before/during the gluing session, and b.) not something I want hanging on the Art Wall to attract insects. So - Confetti it is! We hole punched and cut paper to make lots of tiny sprinkings. It was fun, and now I am excited about introducing the Punk to confetti eggs this Easter!

Linking to Tot School... , Linking to Ultimate Alphabet Craft Collection...

I Greater than Three this Craft!

The Punk and I made hearts for Valentine's Day today. This craft took me to a happy place. Melty plastic, bright colors, hearts... love! They are called Perler Beads at most craft sores, but I (of course) bought ours from IKEA. We also bought the shapes set that goes with the beads. I sat up late last night and picked out only red, white and pink beads and sorted them on one of the Punk's crafting trays. We got started right away, and we both had a lot of fun picking out each bead to go in each spot. This is a GREAT way to work on fine motor skills, and it's fairly difficult (even for me) I was proud of him for having the patience to stick with it.

After we set our beads in place I melted them. The Punk was safely in the living room playing Hotwheels, and I went at it. Parchment paper, iron and a washcloth was all I needed (The IKEA directions just show a stick figure and an iron, so I Googled some better instructions).

Paper under, paper over, press with a hot iron.

Voila!

We ended up making 3 hearts today. I am thinking about gluing some magnets to the back so they can have a bit more purpose.

We talked about patterns, colors, heat, all kinds of interesting stuff. And while he's not able to do the magical-amazing-melting part of the activity, I can still see it being something we work with again and again.

B is for Buttons

I have a few jars of buttons that I bought a year or more ago. I sorted the giant plastic bag into jars by size, and then put them up to "craft with some day". I pull them out on occasion, but put them back thinking that I don't want to waste them on this or that. Today it dawned on me that the reason I bought the buttons was to use them with the Punk. For him to feel them, and sift through them and pick and choose colors. I bought them with him in mind, but kept putting off the use of the buttons for just-the-perfect-craft.

That was silly. They are just buttons. And B (we are working on this week) is for Button. So we made a Button B. And it is perfect.

And lastly is a scanned version of it after drying. Scanning his art makes me feel like I can keep it forever (I don't know why I don't feel the same way about photos?) We had a great time making this. Sticky glue, colorful buttons, and a 3 year old boy = Bliss. And that starts with a B as well. Looks like Mommy learned a lesson today too.

Hog the Ground

I was super proud of myself for this one - I pretty much created a lapbook on my own to celebrate Groundhog Day! There wasn't much out there in the preschool blog world about it, so I Googled some images, and borrowed from a few places until I had enough info to help explain the Holiday to the Punk. I bow to the Home Schoolers who do this type of thing with multiple children, it's no easy task (but it is kind of fun).


It contains: Groundhog poem, hibernating animals, Groundhog mini-book, sequencing Groundhog shadows, Matching animal shadows, tracing the Groundhog's path back to the burrow, and practicing his name letters, whew!

We made a little Groundhog puppet that pops up and down (and then watched for it's shadow). Then we watched Punxutawney Phil via webcam, and found out that he predicted that Spring will be here soon!

Frozen Fun

I've seen this on a few blogs/websites/random places, so I don't know who to properly link to, but I decided to try it with the Punk today. Icy Fun! I froze mini-muffin cups full of food-colored water, and let him have at it in a casserole dish. Stacking, skating, blending colors, swimming, building, stirring, I can't list all the things he did with these little cold gems! This activity will be repeated a number of times, I am sure.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar this morning for the 7,254th time. I brought out the story board and felt objects I had made some time ago for this book. We placed them on the board as we read the story, and the Punk (in his usual fashion) chastised me a bit because I (in my usual fashion) hadn't gotten around to completing the felt pieces for the story.

So that night I made the cocoon, one nice green leaf (not pictured?) and the beautiful butterfly.