Fun with shapes.

It was all about shapes today at preschool.

For art I traced 3 shapes onto white construction paper. 

 Carefully using an xacto knife and small 

scissors I cut the shapes out. To make our

project a bit more interesting and fun for kids I 

put a piece of double sided tape on 

the corners of the white paper and stuck it

on top of  a piece of black construction

paper. I had found some Sargent art brand of 

 florescent  tempera paint at Walmart.

It was a great price and a great quality

of paint. The kids had fun with the bight colors. 

I encouraged them to paint the entire piece of paper. 

Some of the kids carefully painted the shapes, then painted 

around the shapes. Other kids just busily painted the entire 

paper watching  the colors blend into each other. 

They were so excited when  I lifted the white paper and 

they saw the black paper with bright shapes.

Supplies needed

white construction paper

black construction paper

shape templates to trace

tempera paint

paint pots & brushes

Food kids

This week in preschool is all about food. We had a 

great time gluing food pictures onto pre-cut kids 

and making a healthy snack. My preschoolers are 

young, and not ready to cut pictures out

 so I cut out lots of food pictures for them. They

enjoyed  gluing their favorite food pictures

onto the kid cutouts. We talked  about healthy foods

and foods that are not so healthy as

 they glued their pictures.

 For their healthy snack I topped an apple ring with 

peanut butter  and let them chose toppings to 

sprinkle on. There was granola, yogurt raisins,

 chocolate chips, cranraisins and nuts to chose from.

Kids eat so much better when they 

get to help make their food. 

Supplies needed

kids cutouts

pictures of food from magazines

glue sticks

wiggly glues -optional

Snack supplies

apples cut into rings

peanut butter

assorted toppings

 

Puffy paint ice cream

We are learning about summer this week at Homespun Daycare. 

What better craft to do on a hot Phoenix day 

 than an ice cream craft! I started out by 

making puffy paint. Just add equal parts of shaving cream

and white glue to a bowl and stir. I let each child 

pick a color they would like for the puffy paint. I use Wilton

food color paste.They are such bright colors and take just a 

tiny bit of color no matter what I am coloring.

I had made ahead an ice cream cone and added circles

 for the scoops of ice cream. (I use card stock for this project)

I also made ahead a bowl for ice cream. My kids

 love puffy paint so I knew they would want to make more

 that one ice cream picture. I put a couple blobs of puffy paint 

on their paper and gave them wooded craft spoons to spread the

 paint with. They loved swirling the spoons around in the thick

 paint, and watching the colors mix. They have just as much 

fun seeing the pictures after they have dried.The 

paint dries puffy and feels smooth. Some of the 

kids had such fun I put out sheets of card stock

and they made their own creations with the puffy paint.

Supplies needed

Shaving cream

white glue

bowls for mixing

 plastic or wooden spoons 

food coloring

  pre made ice cream cone pictures

or just card stock paper for painting on.

homespun kids: Swatting fly's!We had a beautiful May here in ph...

homespun kids:
Swatting fly's!
We had a beautiful May here in ph...: Swatting fly's! We had a beautiful May here in phoenix, but June is here and so are the triple digits! So with summer upon us  ...

Swatting fly's!
We had a beautiful May here in phoenix, but June
is here and so are the triple digits! So with summer upon us
 I decided to do a summer theme this week in
preschool. The kids have been complaining
about the fly's outside bugging them.  Unfortunately our Phoenix heat
brings fly's! I decided it  would be fun to swat fly's today at the art table. First
 I Googled "fly templates to print"and made copies of fly's and cut them out.
 Then the kids glued the fly's onto the easel paper. I poured paint onto paper plates
and dipped the flyswatters in the paint and let the kids swat their fly's.
They had such fun swatting fly's! It got a bit messy, they loved swatting  those
fly's hard! Be sure to use a small amount of paint on
the flyswatters. The fly's show up  best with light colors of paint.
Supplies needed
fly pictures or stickers or hand draw fly's on the paper
easel paper or large sheets of paper
paper plates and washable paint
flyswatters ( I found mine at the Dollar Tree)

Robots

The kids had such fun building  their robots today. 

I love to watch their creativity as they glue all 

sorts of odds and ends onto the robot. I started out

with some cardboard squares. I am a craft hoarder so 

I had pieces of light weight cardboard in my craft cupboard.

You can always just cut cereal boxes, or use poster board.

 I then cut toilet paper rolls in half for the body and cut  a smaller piece

for the head. (Cut them in half long ways). I covered them in foil

 and used the hot glue gun to attach them securely to the cardboard.

For this project we used tacky glue. Its a thick glue that holds

better than white glue. I gave the kids little cups of glue with a q-tip.

I then set out  cut up colored craft sticks,  cut up straws, small washers, 

nuts, bolts, buttons, and beads. The kids had such fun 

 with this craft, they even gave their robots names!

Supplies needed

cardboard

foil

toilet paper rolls

tacky glue & q tips

assorted "junk" for gluing onto robot

I'm back sharing more make it take it crafts!

These past six months have been a difficult season 

for me as well as for my family. In October my mother suffered a stroke. 

In November my mother in law suffered a stroke. My husband and I  

along with our siblings, their wives and our children were

 overcome with great sadness as we learned our mothers/grandmothers

 would not survive the massive strokes they had had. We gathered together 

and spent as much time as we could at our mothers side, soothing them, reminiscing 

about our childhood, and just being there capturing every moment with 

them we could. We were blessed to have them in the same care facility. 

Helen passed away Dec 5th. My mother Joyce passed away May 24th. 

It was bittersweet saying good bye to our mothers as 

God greeted them with open arms. We can smile through the

tears knowing a day will come when we will all be together once more.