Fun with colored popcorn kernels

Today we put out colored popcorn kernels for a 

Thanksgiving sensory activity.The kids had such fun

pouring, measuring and sorting the kernels we 

decided to use them for our turkey craft. To color 

the kernels pour them into gallon size zip lock bags. 

Add tempera paint and mix the paint and kernels 

together. Lay them  out on newspaper (I put mine outside in the Phoenix 

sunshine) and let them dry overnight. We then filled shallow boxes 

with the kernels, added small cups, spoons and funnels. 

At the art center we cut heavy paper plates in half. 

The kids painted the plates with white glue.For easy cleanup and  

drying we did this on sheets of wax paper. After the plates were

covered in glue, we set them in the box of popcorn kernels

and let the kids cover the plate with the  colorful kernels. 

For the turkey head  the kids added eyes, a beak, a gobble

 and feet to a brown circle. Use a heaping blob of

 glue to add the turkey face to the plate. 

What cute Thanksgiving  turkeys!

Supplies needed

brown, yellow, orange and red paint

gallon size zip-lock bags

newspaper for drying

heavy paper plates

white glue

brown , orange and red construction paper

googly eyes

shallow boxes

assorted cups, spoons and funnels

Leaf prints

I love fall crafting!

Today we did one of my favorite fall

crafts,leaf prints.The kids picked out large 

leaves. Using fall colors they painted their leaves.

What fun they had painting leaves picked from

the trees out back! Once painted we laid a piece of white 

construction paper on top of the leaves and had the kids press

the paper onto the painted leaf. We discovered the they could
get two prints out of each painted leaf. The kids had such fun with this
craft!They loved the surprise of seeing the leaf prints as they
lifted the construction paper.
Supplies needed
leaves
newspaper for less mess
paint
paint pots & brushes
construction paper

Kazoo's

Kids love making musical instruments. 

Today my kids loved making and playing their kazoo's.

We started out with paint pots, brushes and toilet paper 

tubes. Painting is always a favorite activity here at Homespun 

Childcare.After the kazoo's were all painted we sat them aside to dry.

 Once dried I used a pencil to poke a hole in the tube, added

 wax paper and secured the wax paper with a rubber band.

 The kids had a great time talking, humming and 

singing into the kazoo's.

Supplies needed

toilet paper rolls

paint and brushes

wax paper cut into circles

rubber bands

Jj is for jelly fish

We had lots of fun today making jelly fish. 

I started by giving each child half a sturdy paper plate.

They enjoyed choosing their favorite colors of 

paint  to paint the jelly fish. We added large googly 

eyes, then carefully turned the plates over and the kids picked out 

colorful ribbons  to glue on for the jelly fishes tentacles. I love simple 

crafts that allow the kids to have fun and be creative!

Supplies needed

paper plates

paint 

paint brushes

googly eyes

ribbon

glue

God is good.

 It's letter Gg this week.
We are so happy that God has sent us cool weather!

We can do our preschool activities outside.
The kids love it when we do our lessons out back. 

Today we used golf balls to paint our Bible verse art.
I like to use open ended art when teaching Bible thoughts
and verses. That way I don't have to worry about cutting
 out lots of craft  pieces, trying to build crafts that are not age
appropriate, and that  frustrate the kids and myself!

 I can focus on Gods word while the kids have fun with art.
Each child has a shallow box, golf balls and paper. I put the
balls to the side of the box, put paint on the golf balls
and let the kids roll them across the paper. As the children  enjoy the
 art activity we talk about the Bible story and the Bible verse.
No matter how young or old the kids are they love golf ball painting!
After they are done, we add our Bible thought or verse.
Supplies needed
shallow boxes
golf balls
paint
paper
Bible verse

Fall leaves

We love fall here in phoenix, it means we are finishing up

 with 110 degree days! The kids love warming 

tray art, so today we celebrated the beginning of 

fall by doing fall leaves on the warming

tray.  I found my trays at thrift shops. If you can't

find any an old electric griddle on warm will

work. Remind the kids the tray is warm so be sure not to touch.

 I set blocks on the ends of the tray, and a folded dish towel on the bottom

as a precaution, although they are warm not hot. Jumbo

crayons with the paper removed works great for this project. 

Coloring on the warm tray is very soothing and the kids love to watch 

the crayons melt as they color.The finished art work becomes

 transparent and looks beautiful hanging on the windows. 

Supplies needed

warming tray

blocks & towel for the tray

jumbo crayons

pre-cut leaves

      God made the world.

I found these cute painting tools at Walmart 

and knew my kids would love painting with them. And
 they did! Today we learned about God's creation.

I set out blue and green paint, the fun brushes

and paper plates.The kids had a great time dipping 

the brushes in the paint and squishing them

 onto their paper plate worlds. When they were done
we added the Bible verse "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth"
Genesis 1:1.
Supplies needed
painting tools
blue and green paint
paper plates
Bible verse

Egg carton caterpillars

This is a classic preschool craft, that has been around for many years, and is 

a kids favorite!It is easy to prep and fun for the kids! Our kids at Homespun 

love painting! They had a great time painting their egg carton caterpillars. 

I started out by cutting the egg cartons in half. I poked a hole

in the top and added pipe cleaner antennas. We covered the art table 

with newspaper so the kids would be free to turn the caterpillars on

 their side to paint with out worrying about paint everywhere. After

they had dried the kids added eyes. We had quite a colorful

collections of caterpillars!

Supplies needed.

egg cartons

paint pots & brushes

washable paint

pipe cleaners

wiggly eyes

Toe caterpillars

One of the joys of Homespun Preschool

is my best friend and I teach together. 

Today she came over with  this cute art activity

 that fit right in with our letter of the week--Cc.

As each child arrived we painted their toes. 

The toe prints came out best by taking the paper

 and pressing it onto their green toes rather than

 having them step on the paper.

We cut out leaves and let the kids golf ball paint

them. Golf ball painting is always fun.
Just use a shallow box, golf balls and paint.
I just put the golf balls in the box cover them
 with the paint and the kids gently tip
 the box as the balls roll over the leaf. While the leaves were drying
   we added antennas and faces to the caterpillars
 and cut  them out. The kids glued their caterpillars
 onto their leaf. They loved seeing their
 toe caterpillars crawling

on the leaves!
Supplies needed
Green & brown paint
paint brush and paint pot
white paper
leaf cutouts
shallow boxes
golf balls
glue stick

Body tracings

How cute are these body tracings? I just love them, and the kids got such

 a kick out of painting themselves. We started out by tracing the kids onto large sheets

 of butcher paper.If you don't have any butcher paper do 1/2 a body on your easel paper 

or even tape easel paper together to make a large enough piece for tracing the kids onto. 

After the kids were traced we cut  them out. We decided to let the kids use watercolors

 on their tracings. We taped the cutouts onto the easel, put the paints on a small table 

next to the easel and let kids paint away. Each child was so excited to show 

their family their painting!   

Supplies needed

butcher paper

watercolor paints
paint pots
medium paint brushes

Self Portraits

We started our preschool program this week with one

of my favorite activities,self portraits. I found these 

cute sturdy kid cut outs at Micheal's. You can always cut your 

own out of card stock. We put out tempera paints and small brushes. 

The kids enjoyed choosing lots of different colors of paint for

their clothes. They chose buttons, hair, wiggly eyes

and mouths(elbow pasta) to finish off their

wonderful self portraits.

Supplies needed

kid cutouts

tempera paints

paint brushes

buttons

hair

mouths

Salt  art

Today we took colored salt and white school glue

and made some interesting art. I started out with bowls of salt,added

 food coloring and mixed the two together using a spoon. After letting the salt dry 

overnight, I poured it into salt shakers. You can  also use jars with holes punched in 

the lid. I have used dollar store salt shakers, baby food jars and  mini jelly jars.

 Today I used my mini salt shakers. The kids took their black paper and laid it in

a shallow box for easy clean-up. I made glue designs for my

3 year old and the older kids made their own glue designs. They had lots

 of fun shaking the salt, and  mixing the colors on their glue. Jovani 

informed the group it was great arm exercising shaking the salt.

 I just love the conversation at the art table!

Supplies needed

salt (and shakers)

food coloring

bowls/spoons

school glue

construction paper

Foil art

We had a great time making foil art Bible verse pictures.
The kids loved using "grownup markers"(sharpies) to color their shapes.
I loved that each picture looked different. First I took pieces of
sturdy cardboard and cut them in half. I then  randomly cut slits along
 the edges of the cardboard and wrapped yarn around the cardboard making sure
 the yarn was in the slits. I then taped the yarn down on the back and
covered the board with foil and taped it down.I showed the kids how to rub
 the foil so they could see yarn lines. Then they went to work coloring in
the shapes. We finished off  by  adding our Bible verse.
 Each masterpiece came out beautiful!
Supplies needed
sturdy card board
foil
yarn
sharpie markers
tape

Junk art

Here in Phoenix we never have snow days, instead we 

have hot days! Today is definitely a hot day (112 degrees) so the

 kids and I have been staying busy making junk collages in

 the cool air conditioned playroom! I put out all 

kinds of junk. Paper scraps, ribbon,buttons, bottle tops, 

pom poms, what ever I could find.I then give the kids card stock 

and white school glue and let them create. They have so much much fun

 using everyday scraps to make pictures. I like to teach a Bible 

verse as the kids are busy gluing. Art time is 

 are a great time for Bible teaching! We stayed busy all afternoon
creating one junk art  masterpiece after another! And I love that
the kids could recite their Bible verse for their
parents at pick-up time!
Supplies needed
card stock paper in assorted colors
white school glue
lots of assorted junk/scraps
Bible verse

Happy Fourth Of July!

I saw this cute idea on pinterest using straws to make fireworks.

I decided to add large spiny balls to the paint and subway art to my paper 

because I love subway art! Just Google Fourth of July subway art. I first glued the

 subway art in the corner of the paper. I then taped 8 straws together. You need the 

bending straws so they fan out. For easy clean-up I used paper plates.

We added glitter to our paint for some sparkle. The kids took the straws

dipped them in the paint, turned them in the paint  so they were covered with  paint

 and then pressed them onto the paper. I had them gently push each

 straw so the print would come out nicely. They then added spiny

 ball fireworks to fill in the empty spaces on their paper. 

These came out so cute!!! Worthy of being framed!

supplies needed

straws taped together

subway art

large spiny balls

red,white & blue paint

glitter

black paper

Fireworks.
We had a great time making these colorful
exploding fireworks! I gave each child a straw that I had cut a couple
 of inches off of. This makes it easier for them to blow the food coloring
around on the paper. I dropped one color of food coloring at a time and
had them blow the coloring with their straw.The kids figured
 out if they wiggled the straw as they blew the colors their colors
would go "crazy". They had lots of fun  making the colors run crazy.
They were very proud of their art work!

Rain painting

We decided to make our own rain today. Kids in Phoenix

don't see much of  the real stuff!The kids stayed busy dipping 

their paint brushes in very wet watercolors and then 

tapping the brush and  making it rain all over their paper. They thought

it was so funny when the "rain" splashed on their hands and even their faces

 We should of worn our smocks to cover our clothes,they were rained on to!

Thank goodness for washable paints!

Supplies needed

construction paper

washable watercolor paints

( I like  a good quality of paints such as Crayola or Prang)

water cups & brushes

Paper crunch

What fun the kids had crunching and wadding up old newspapers

 into a ball to paint with. I had them take their newspaper and

crunch it, wad it and undo it a couple of times. Then I gave them a 

paper plate with blue and red paint. They dipped  their paper ball into the 

paint and smashed it all over their white construction paper. They enjoyed

seeing the purple appear as the colors mixed. This is a great activity to 

use up all that extra energy kids have! 

Supplies needed

white construction paper

newspaper

paint

paper plates

Shaving creme art

What fun kids have with a dollar can of shaving creme and a bit of paint!

Some days I just squirt it right on the table, and let them finger paint.

This is a great way to clean your preschool tables. Other 

days I add 2 colors of paint to the shaving creme on the table

(for easier clean-up you can put the shaving creme on cookie sheets) and we

 learn about color mixing as they finger paint.The kids love making new colors. 

Then I lay a piece of paper on top of their paintings, let them press the paper and 

lift gently.They love to see the designs they made on the table appear on the paper.

 Today I gave them each a cookie sheet of shaving creme. I added florescent

blue and green paint. Then I gave them straws to carefully swirl through

the paint and shaving creme. After they were happy with their swirl design I 

laid white paper on top of the shaving creme and had them press it down. 

 What a gallery of beautiful pictures we have!

Supplies needed

shaving creme

paint

cookie sheets

straws

 white construction  paper

Milk painting

Today we explored science and created gorgeous paintings at the art table!

I set out cookie sheets with a rim. I like the cookie sheets

from the dollar tree.They are smaller than regular cookie sheets

and work well at the art table.I also set out food coloring,small bowls of liquid 

dish soap and q-tips. I poured enough evaporated milk onto the cookie sheet to 

cover the bottom of the cookie sheet.The kids then dropped small drops

 of food coloring onto the milk.Now the fun begins!The kids dipped their q-tips 

into the soap and then gently touched the q-tips next to the food coloring drops.

The food coloring started to move and "dance". The kids were so excited to watch

 the food coloring spread and blend making an explosion of colors! After the colors

 stopped blending I gently laid a piece of paper onto the tray of colors and

 then carefully lifted the paper off the cookie sheet and set the 

pictures out in the sun to dry.

Such fun! Such beautiful paintings!

Supplies needed

cookie sheet or shallow dish

paper cut to fit the cookie sheet or dish

food coloring

dish soap

q-tips

evaporated milk 

Fun with straws.

Today I set out bowls of cut up straws and school 

glue. I made each child a name plate,writing their names lightly 

with a pencil and let them add the white glue and straws to build their names.

 ( I did the glue for my 2's and 3's)They enjoyed searching for 

just the right size straw to fit on each letter perfectly.

They had such fun with this activity they wanted  to make more pictures. 

This time I had them just be creative and  put their glue where they wanted and create 

want they wanted. They came up with all kinds of ideas-- water pipes, houses, 

the beach, a castle! Still after spending a good hour gluing they wanted to 

make necklaces!So I  cut out circles,wrote their names on them  put the circles onto 

curling ribbon and they made their necklaces. This is a great fine motor skill, and works

 best with curling ribbon and short pieces of straws. The ribbon is stiff and the 

short straws are easy to string. I like to tape one end of the ribbon down so as they

 string the straws don't all fall off the end they are not putting their straws on. 

A great activity that is great on the budget!

Supplies needed

colored straws

construction paper

school glue

curing ribbon

Bouncing balloon prints

It was 110 degrees outside today in Phoenix! That 

meant I needed to find some creative inside activities for the kids! 

They had so much fun bouncing balloons through

florescent colored paint and onto white 

paper.  The paintings came out super cute! I gave each

child a paper plate with 4 puddles of paint and a

 balloon (don't blow them up to big). Then I showed them how to dip 

the balloon and bounce it over the paper until the paint was gone. 

They giggled as they painted picture after picture!Once the pictures  

were dry I stapled their paintings together and we made bouncing 

balloon books. I set foam stickers out  for them to add to

 each page of their book and had them dictate a story line

 for me to write on each page. They came up with such cute stories!

This was definitely a  fun and entertaining activity that keep us all nice and cool!

Supplies needed

florescent paint (a fun change from primary colors)

paper plates

balloons

white paper

optional --stickers

Dinosaur puppets

My kids love our week of dinosaur activities! Today

we use dinosaur stencils, do-a-dot painters

and large craft sticks to make puppets.They had

so much fun together playing with their puppets and giving

 puppet shows for each other! First I taped 2  dinosaurs 

 stencils  to white construction paper. The kids picked 

 the ones they wanted and dot painted  the 

white dinosaurs beautiful colors! They loved making them 

look like rainbow dinosaurs! We then carefully removed

 the stencils and let the pictures dry. My kids are young and not

 skilled with scissors yet so I  did the cutting.

 They added eyes and then we taped them to 

large craft sticks.They came out so cute and colorful.

Supplies needed

Dinosaur stencils

do-a-dot painters 

large craft sticks

white construction papaer

Dinosaurs

I am not sure who likes magic noodles more---me or the kids! 

Today we used them to decorate our dinosaurs. These fun noodles are
like packing peanuts, but when they are moistened  they stick, no
 glue needed! The kids had such fun laying them on a 

 wet paper towel  and  sticking them on their dinosaur shape.
 Some of the kids stacked their noodles onto each other.
They loved that the noodles could stack!
This was an easy and fun project! I Googled
 a dinosaur template, and enlarged it. Then cut dinosaurs out of
construction paper. The kids picked out a wiggly eye and glue it on
their dinosaur  then went to work creating their dinosaur
with the magic noodles. These fun magic noodles are
 available at Lakeshore learning stores and Amazon.

Supplies needed
Dinosaur shape
wiggle eyes
magic noodles
wet paper towels folded into a square

Happy Mothers Day!

Today we made a cute card for mom. I started out with a large piece 

of construction paper and folded it in half. I found cute MOM letters on 

"making learning fun"and printed them onto pink paper. After I cut them out

the kids glued it them to the top of their card and crunch up tissue paper 

to decorate "Mom".They had fun picking out tissue paper squares of 

their moms favorite colors. Next we made flowers. I set out brightly colored cupcake

 liners, turned them inside out and pressed them to flatten them a bit. 

The kids picked out the colors of flowers they wanted for mom 

 and glued them onto the card. The enjoyed gluing a little cupcake liner 

into the big one, and adding pom poms for the center of the flowers.

They added stems and leaves to complete the flowers.I found

"All about mom" on teachers pay teachers(and it was free!). The kids 

give such cute answers!! Next to their mom interview they drew a picture 

of themselves with their mom. I love to see their drawings!! For 

my toddlers I  traced their hands with a black crayon  and let them

  scribble on the tracings. I am sure each mom will treasure her

Mothers day card!

In the beginning God created...

Today at preschool we finished up our unit on creation.

At the art center I put out tissue paper kids.I  used a pattern and traced 

it onto the tissue. The nice thing with tissue is you can

 cut out lot at one time.We also used  liquid starch and  had our 

Bible memory verse out on the table. As the kids painted the starch onto

their white paper we talked about how God made people and how

 much he loves each of us. The kids liked the bright colors of

tissues kids and  enjoyed overlapping them to see what new colors 

would appear. After they arranged their kids on the 

starch painted paper they carefully brushed  the kids with more

starch. We them added our  Bible memory verse"I am fearfully and 

wonderfully made."Psalm 139:14. and painted  it with starch.

 Its best to use card stock paper for this art activity as construction 

paper tends to curl up at the corners. Tissue paper art

drys shiny and looks incredible. It's a art project

that parents will  love and want to frame. 

Supplies needed

Tissue paper cut into kid shapes

liquid starch

paint pots and brushes

card stock

Bible verse

In the beginning God created....

Today we continued our creation theme by doing

one of my favorite art activities-- painting with balls 

in a box. If you have a rambunctious group, this activity will 

calm them right down! Its so relaxing to roll marbles or 

golf balls or spiney balls back and forth and watch the 

colors make awesome designs!  Since we were on day four of creation we

 did stars in our boxes. I used gold,green and silver glitter paint and small 

spiney balls. As the kids rolled the balls across the stars 

(only rule is no hands in the box) we talked about Gods creation. 

We also talked about sizes. I cut 4 stars in 4 sizes for each child.After

the stars had dried we glued them on black paper and added our Bible 

memory verse. (I found a print out of the verse on Christianpreschoolprintables.com).

The sparkling stars looked perfect against the black paper!

Supplies needed

shallow boxes for painting in

spiney balls

glitter paint

star cutouts

black paper

glue

Bible verse

In the beginning God created.....

 We began our unit on Gods creation this week in preschool.

 At the art center I put out circles of wax paper,tissue paper, and 

cups of liquid starch and brushes. First the kids tore the 

tissue paper into pieces as I talked about how on the  first day of creation 

God made the day and night. Next we painted

 the circles with the starch while we talked about things we do at night 

and things we do during the day. After they covered their

 circles with the starch they added black and white tissue paper.

I encouraged them to gently brush the tissue with more  

starch and lay more layers of tissue on the circle. 

 The second circle we covered in shades 

of blue and green tissue to make the"earth" as we 

talked about how God created the earth and everything in it. 

After they had dried I punched a hole and added a ribbon

so the kids could hang their art work on the window as a reminder of 

Gods marvelous creation.   

Supplies needed 

wax paper cut into circles
liquid starch
brushes and paint pots

black and white tissues paper

assorted shades of blue and green tissue
ribbon

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Our lesson today was centered around the book Chicka

Chicka Boom Boom.I thought it would be fun for 

the kids to paint a coconut tree. I  cut out coconut

trees, set out paint pots of assorted colors of paint and brushes. No rules

on what color their tree needed to be. They enjoyed painting their trees

with all the colors! After the trees dried they took brown tissue paper

crunched it into balls for the coconuts and glued them on the trees.

I then set out foam letters and let the kids pick letters to put on 

their trees. During this time we talked about letters and their sounds.

When the kids finished up we had a beautiful coconut grove of colorful trees!
We also made coconut trees for snack. The kids took  graham crackers for the
tree trucks. Apple slices for the leaves and cereal for the coconuts.
They loved building and eating their trees!
Supplies needed
pre cut coconut trees
washable paints
paint pots & brushes
foam letters
brown tissue
For the snack
graham crackers
apples
cocoa puffs or peanut butter captain crunch

The Hungry Caterpillar

Today I planned my preschoolers  lesson

around the book "The Hungry Caterpillar". 

There are so many different math and letter activities 

on the internet for this story! For the 

art center I decided to use bubble wrap and paint.

Before I started I printed a caterpillar and butterfly

picture and cut it out. I found these on DLTK's website.  I taped a sheet of blue
 and green paper together to glue our finished paintings on.I taped a piece of bubble

 wrap (about 8" x 11") to the art table for each child. I 

worked with four kids at a time. The
paint the kids covered  their bubble wrap with paint.

They had such fun painting on the bumpy surface!

 Then we laid the butterfly and caterpillar on top of the painted bubbles.

When they were done painting I laid  a piece of newsprint on the butterfly and caterpillar
and had  the  kids pat the newsprint.

 We lifted  up the newsprint and then lifted the caterpillars 

and butterflies off the bubble wrap. The kids faces were all smiles

 when they not only saw their spotted caterpillars and butterflies

 but also the silhouette of  them on the newsprint! They love googly eyes
and wanted to add them to their caterpillar and butterfly. They
were  very proud of their art work!

Supplies needed
bubble wrap
green and blue construction paper
washable  paint
paint pots and brushes
pre cut butterfly and caterpillar
newsprint or white paper
googly eyes
glue
tape

Easter blessings

I love scrap book paper so I am always looking for new ideas

for crafts that I can  incorporate scrap book paper into. Today we 

made Easter blessing pictures. They came out so cute! I did

a pinterest search for "Easter subway art" and found this cute 

print. I then did a Google search for flower templates and used

those for my pattern. I cut lots of flowers out as well as stems.

I cut and mounted the Easter blessing onto a yellow piece of construction 

paper, then glued that onto the green paper. I had the kids count out 5

big flowers and 3 little flowers and  they glued them above the words. 

This step gave them counting practice. They glued their flowers in place, and 

then counted out buttons for the center of the flowers. 

I used tacky glue for their buttons(they used glue stick for the flowers)

I added stems to the bottom of the pictures, one short one tall and had the kids

add tulips. One of my kids is Jewish so for his I printed "Happy Passover."

I am sure their families were blessed by their child's Easter picture!

Supplies needed

spring scrapbook paper

green construction paper

yellow construction paper

flower templates for pattern

colorful buttons

subway art print outs

glue sticks

tacky glue

Empty tombs

Today we made empty tombs as we continued to learn all about Easter. 

I took heavy paper plates and cut them in half. Then I glued the the two halves

   together with tacky glue. It's best to do this the night before so they are

dry when the kids paint them. I also cut out stone shapes. Next

 I cut a small opening out of one of the plates and I taped a piece of black paper behind it. 

 A  hole punched  next to the cut out tomb opening will be to attach the stone

 to the tomb with a brad.  I don't add the stone until after

 the kids have painted the tombs and they have dried. I let the kids
paint their tombs. For an easier craft you can have them color the tombs.
While the kids paint their tombs we retell the Easter story together. After the tombs
 are dry we add the stone and foam flowers. I closed the tomb and
 let the kids "roll the rock away" and add a "Christ has risen" sticker.
Supplies needed
heavy paper plates
brown paint
paint pots and brushes
black paper
foam stickers
brads
Christ has risen stickers