Fruit Art

May 28, 2020May 28, 202028 Comments

Our theme for the week is FRUIT! We have made a couple fun crafts. This one is simple and a BIG language activity. Did you know I am a Speech Language Pathologist too?! I like to look for activities that use a lot of different language and let Millie explore everyday objects.

This activity is Stamping sponges on paper to make watermelons and strawberries. I bought the sponges at the Dollar store. It is a great place to find a lot of fun project items for super cheap.

For this project you will need::

Sponges- you cut out a triangle and a strawberry shape

Paint- red, black, green

Paper or Cardstock

Paper plate- to put the paint on

Cut the sponges into a triangle and a strawberry shape

Place the sponge in the paint and place on the paper. Millie put a lot of strawberries on her paper! She was loving the stamping. After take green paint and finger print the stems for the strawberries. While we do the fingerprinting we count how many we are doing. After take your pinky and do black dots on the strawberries for the seeds! We talk about how the paint feels cool and squishy, the sponge is soft, and we use a lot of counting. Counting the strawberries, counting when we make all of the dots, etc. We also talk about colors and tried to think of other things that were red! This is a bit challenging for a two year old, but older kids would do much better! We talked about how strawberries are FRUIT and the letter of the week is F. You can talk about SO much with this activity.

We did the same thing with the watermelon. Sponge in paint, on paper, then we used our finger to finger paint the rind of the watermelon and then dots again for the seeds. With the watermelon we discussed shapes! How the water melon is round to start then this was cut into triangles. Once again we counted the black dots while we were dotting and then counted how many watermelon slices we made! We talked about how the fruit tastes too! Cold, wet, sweet, slimy, etc.

Looking for ways to use as much language as possible is an amazing way to teach your child more. Talking about shapes, textures, temperatures, colors, numbers, etc is great for their little brains to take in!

Make sure to Pin this to your Pinterest page for later! What is your favorite fruit?!

Peacock Craft

May 23, 2020May 23, 20209 Comments

The theme this week was BIRDS- which is funny because I actually hate birds- like they freak me out and seem mean- but I did the theme anyway! We had a fun week learning about birds, looking at birds on our walks, out of windows, and playing pretend with birds!

This craft is simple and fun. Handprint art is always a big go to for us. The sensory aspect is fun for kids too. It is a good opportunity to discuss the feeling of the paint- cold, wet, squishy, smooth, etc.

What you will need::

Card stock or plain white paper
Blue, teal, green, gold (other other colors of your choice)
Blue paper (ours was glitter paper)
Yellow paper
Scissors
Glue
Black Sharpie or marker

I always lay down a table cloth from the Dollar Store and a paper plate for the paint. It make the mess easier to clean up.

Place one hand in the blue paint and place on the paper then replace the hand next to the handprint. Next use the teal colored paint to do the same thing but with the other hand. After use your fingers to dot the green and the gold around.

Blue paint, teal paint, finger dots of green and gold

Take the blue paper and cut out the peacock body to the size of your handprints. I did this free hand/cutting, it is not perfect. Then use sharpie to make the eyes. I used yellow paper and cut a small heart shape for the beak. Glue that on to the peacock body. I suggest waiting a hot minute for the paint to dry before you glue the body on to the ‘feathers’. After it has dried a bit glue the body to it! Once fully dry cut out the peacock- you could leave it as is, but I think it looks cuter cut out. That is it! You have your beautiful bird!

You could use more colors, different colors, add glitter or feathers, there is a lot you could do to make it your own.

If you make it tag me on instagram at @millieandmommie or @play.color.create I would LOVE to see your projects!

Check out our others posts on Nature walk with tree craft and handmade cards!

Nature Walk and Art Activity

May 19, 2020May 19, 202025 Comments

Anyone else taking 100 walks a week?! We are!! Millie always loves to bring her blue bucket and collect all the things! I decided to do an art project with some of the things we collect on our walks. This week our theme is BIRDS so I decided to add that to our craft too!

We take walks around the neighborhood and two or three days a week we go someplace fun like the lake or another area. On our walks we always collect leaves, flowers, rocks, sticks, and more! Millie always wants to bring them inside, but I never let her…worst mom ever…I know. This time I let her. Yay!

The art project is super easy. What you will need: card stock, brown construction paper, glue stick/glue, and the items we found on our walk! Since our theme was birds I printed off bird pictures off the internet to cut out and put in our trees.

If you have littles they will need a bit more help, but older kids can do most of this by themselves. I cut out the tree and had Millie use the glue stick to glue it on the paper. After we used regular glue to glue the leaves on the tree, as well as the bird. We added grass to the bottom with crayon. Super simple and cute. Two activities in one. If you can’t go on a nature walk you can always find things in your yard too! You could add other animals too- like squirrels!

Millie told me she wanted a purple bird so that is what she got!

Handmade Cards

May 6, 2020May 18, 202015 Comments

With teacher appreciation week, Mother’s Day, birthdays, and Father’s Day coming up it seems like we are in need of a card every other week! I decided we should make our own cards to give! It is a super simple craft and makes a real personal touch when sending someone a card!

All you need is paint, paintbrush (or hands), paper, and card stock. Painting Hack: I always lay down a Dollar Store table cloth so the mess is easy to clean up! I used colored construction paper to paint on. I put a few dots of different color paint on the paper then let Millie brush away. We made one with pinks and purples and one with greens a blues. You can do any colors you want! It is endless.

Once the paint dries all we did was cut out designs. I did hearts for Teacher Appreciation and Mother’s Day, and stars for our Uncle and for Father’s Day! Cut out whatever shape, Letter, or design you want and glue it onto the card stock that is folded in half like a card. I did all of ours where it opens like a book, but you could do it opening bottom to top too!

After the glue dried we wrote our notes on the inside. Simple as that. Millie had a blast making it and I know her teachers and our family will love the personal touch of her art work!

Perfect for Mother’s Day, Teacher Appreciation, Father’s Day, birthdays, and more

Cinco de Mayo Cactus Handprint Art

May 2, 20209 Comments

We love doing art projects. Now that Millie isn’t going to Mother’s Day Out since quarantine I’ve been trying to do art most days even if it is watercolors on a coloring book. With Cinco de Mayo in a few days I thought this was a fun project! It is so simple but turns out so cute!

We did mommy and me handprints. You can do just their handprint, just kids, just yours, whatever you want! I thought doing a family one would be fun too!

All you need is paper- card stock is better but not necessary – green paint, a color for the flowers paint, and a Sharpie! That is it!

Start by putting some paint on a paper plate – easy clean up. Press your hand into the paint and place it gently on the paper. If you have a smaller child they will need a lot of help with this!

Next use fingers to make the extra green marks on the cactus. Then pick a flower color and use your fingerprints to make flowers using 3 dots.

You will need to let it dry. Once it is dry use your sharpie and make some cactus needles! Simple as that!

Supplies:

Paper

Green Paint

Purple, Pink, Yellow, or blue paint

Black Sharpie