Earth Week ~ Filter Flower

Hooray for great weather this week! :) In celebration of Earth day, we are doing an Earth theme this week.

We went to the park this morning. This afternoon's craft: a flower.

Using markers, Kylie colored an extra large coffee filter. I then showed her how to use a medicine dropper to "water" the coffee filter. She went to town playing with that!

After wetting the paper and making sure the colors bled together all over, we used a hair dryer to dry it quickly. I then folded/smushed it up and wrapped a green pipe cleaner around the center to form a flower.

Kylie spent the rest of the afternoon "smelling" her flower and dusting the house with it (??!). She was so proud of her flower!

Spring Theme (in progress)

Welcome Spring! There are so many things you can do for Spring. I'm going to try and keep it to a week-long theme, but we can always revisit later and do a second + week...

Crafts:

• Handprint Tulips - paint green flower stems. Paint hands and push onto paper for tulip heads.
• Coffee Filter Flower Craft -  Use an eye dropper to paint a coffee filter. Pinch the bottom and fold into a "flower". Wrap a green pipeliner around the bottom and bend into a stem.
• Handprint Butterfly - trace child's hands on paper, cut out (double) for 4 hands total. Glue to make a butterfly. Waterpaint to add color.
• Umbrella rain craft - Draw an umbrella outline. Have toddler color umbrella. You could also cut out or use foam shapes and have toddler glue to decorate umbrella. Cut out rain drops. Have toddler glue rain all around the umbrella.
• Caterpillar - cut out circles from construction paper. Glue on paper in the shape of a caterpillar. You could outline the circles on the paper and have Toddler match them up, or just wing it ;) Another option is to glue pom-poms for some dimension.
• Fairy Flower Craft - Print out an outline of a fairy. Color in, then cut out. Have a tulip head drawn and cut from a piece of construction paper. Have toddler glue tulip head and fairy onto a piece of paper. Together, paint a flower stem and decorate the paper.
• Tissue Paper Flower craft - have child cut or tear tissue paper. Glue onto a paper flower.

Fine Motor Skills:

• Cut or tear tissue paper. Glue onto flower cut-out.
• Lacing - Cut out a large flower from foam paper. Use a hole punch to make holes around the edge of the inner flower circle. Have toddler use ribbon or yarn (with tape wrapped around the edge to make it easier) to lace the flower.

Activities / Felt Board:

• Matching - To go along w/ the Fairy book mentioned below, can be used for the felt board or just on the floor: cut out tulips and fairies, a set per color. Have toddler match them by color by putting the Fairy in the matching flower cup.
• Giving Tree Felt Activity: cut out a tree (trunk and branches) and separate leaves. Have fun building a tree. Count the leaves (I made 10).
•  Cut out felt circles to create a caterpillar on the felt board. You can do 2 colors and work on patterns (green, yellow, green, yellow, etc..).
• Plant seeds together. Count them. See how they feel. Talk about what will happen after you plant and water them over time. Go outside and find flowers or plants that are budding and growing.

Books:

• Make your own Garden book: http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/colors/index.htm
• Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• God Made Spring
• Five Little Spring Fairies
• The Giving Tree

Handprint Butterfly

Today's craft is a Spring theme: butterfly!

We traced Kylie's hands to make the wings and then glued the parts together. Next, Kylie got to paint (with watercolors). She loves painting!

Reading connection: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Bunny

Easter is this coming Sunday, so I thought we would do some Easter and Spring crafts this week!

First, a bunny made from a toilet paper roll :)

Reading connection: The Runaway Bunny