Christmas Fun for All Ages

 Felt Christmas Trees are fun to decorate

 Or how about some felt gingerbread men and ladies.

Paper plates are a great art supply

 Some matching fun 

 

Some creative ways to use paint chips and straws

                                             Who says you can't play with your food

                                                  A keepsake of your little ones fingerprint

                                               

Winter Wonderland Ornament

Winter Wonderland Ornament

What you'll need

• 9-ounce clear plastic cup
• Silver poster board
• Pinking shears or decorative craft scissors
• Polyester batting
• Miniature trees (sold in craft stores; try the dollhouse or model railroad section)
• Miniature animals or people (sold in craft stores or online at BJCRAFTSUPPLIES.COM)
• 1-inch-wide mirror
• Tacky glue
• Fine glitter
• Pushpin
• Monofilament
• Several craft beads

How to make it

1. 
   

   

   1. Trace the rim of the cup onto the underside of the poster board. Cut out the circle, but stay at least 1/8 inch outside the trace line so the base will be slightly larger than the cup.
   
   
   
   
   
   2. Cut out a circle of batting snow that's the same diameter as the cup and set it atop the shiny side of the poster board circle.
   
   3. Separate or snip the batting where you'd like to position the trees, figurines, and mirror pond. Glue the base of each item to the poster board, then smooth or fluff the snow around them as needed. Sprinkle the scene with fine glitter.
   
   4.Use the pushpin to poke a hole in the center of the cup bottom. Thread a craft bead onto a 12-inch length of monofilament. Gather the ends together, letting the bead fall to the center of the line, and thread them up through the hole from inside the cup. String a few more beads onto the doubled line (outside the cup) and then knot the ends to form a loop.
   
   5.Apply a line of glue along the edge of the poster board circle. Press the cup, upside down, atop the glue and hold it in place for 20 seconds or so. During the first 10 minutes of drying time, occasionally check the seal and press down gently on the cup, if required. Let the glue cure for a full day before hanging the ornament.

To celebrate the return of summer.

How about celebrating the return of summer, because it's been a pretty wet one here in Alberta, with this simple sunshine plate craft!

Ingredients Needed

• 1 - Small Paper Plate
• 9" x 12" Yellow Construction Paper
• Glue
• Orange Collage Materials
• Yellow Collage Materials

Instructions

1. Glue collage materials onto the paper plate.
2. Cut rectangle sun rays from construction paper.
3. Glue rays onto the back side of the paper plate.

Beach in a bottle.

 

 

This is a fun and easy craft to do after a trip to the beach.

Materials:

• 1 small plastic drink bottle with cap (PET bottle)
• sand
• small shells or beads
• funnel
• blue paint or food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Use a funnel to put some sand in the bottom of a cleaned out plastic bottle.
2. Fill the the bottle with water.
3. Drop in a few small shells or beads.
4. Put in a few drops of blue food coloring to look like the ocean. (optional)
5. Twist the cap on tightly.
6. Shake and watch the sand settle to the bottom.

 Prep and Maintenance

If you use real beach sand instead of craft sand, you should wash the sand first. There are two ways:

1. Wash all the and beforehand in a big bucket.-hard

2. Put some sand in the bottle. Fill with water about halfway. Secure lid and shake vigorously. Unscrew lid and pour out water. repeat 3 or 4 times.-easy

Don't put too much sand, just enough to cover the bottom. If  you put too much, you won't be able to see the shells when they settle, they'll sink. The beads are a little lighter.

 

 

 

Materials:

• 1 plastic drink bottle with screw on lid
• water
• cooking oil (the clearer the better)
• blue food coloring

Directions:

1. Fill the drink bottle about halfway with water and add a few drops of blue food coloring. Shake well.
2. Fill the rest of the bottle with cooking oil and screw on the lid tightly.

The oil is lighter than the water and the two liquids won't mix. Shake it up and watch them separate. Tip to the side and watch the ocean roll. As simple as this craft is, it never ceases to amaze and entertain. For added effect, you could put a little sand at the bottom of the bottle, too. You don't have to limit yourself to just blue. Make a red lava bottle instead. Have fun!

Picnic food ideas!

With the sun shininh outside and temperatures rising, day home providers enjoy time outdoors and trips to the park for play and picnics.

Check out these ideas for some easy to make and different picnic foods.

(1) Cheese on sticks - Cut up cubes of cheese (marble or cheddar work best) and skewer with a pretzel stick. No cocktail sticks to clear up afterwards and prevents little hands grabbing handfuls of cheese cubes!

(2)Cheese parcels -

• Puff pastry
• Grated cheese
• Fillings: grated carrot, courgette, chopped pepper, sweetcorn, ham etc 

Roll out the puff pastry, cut into squares and place some grated cheese with whatever else you want in the middle (I usually add some grated carrot or courgette to get a bit of veg in them, or a few strips of ham)
Fold up into triangles and press the edges together.
Put into the oven for 15 minutes at Gas 6 (200 C).

(3) Picnic roll ups - 

• Soft tortillas/wraps
• Fillings

Spread peanut butter, jam or honey on one side of a tortilla wrap.
Add mashed up or sliced banana and roll up tightly.
Of course you can include anything in your roll-ups as long as it's gooey enough to hold the roll up together. Here are some more ideas:

• Chocolate spread and banana
• Chocolate spread and strawberries
• Cheese and pickle
• Grated cheese, diced cucumber & mayonnaise
• Ham & coleslaw
• BLT
• Mozzarella, tomato & basil
• Greek salad & Greek yoghurt
• Humous & grated carrot
• Tuna mayonnaise

(4) Fruity kebobs -

1. Thread the strawberries, cantaloupe, banana and apple pieces alternately onto skewers, placing at least 2 pieces of fruit on each skewer. Arrange the fruit skewers decoratively on a serving platter.

Enjoyyour picnics in the sun!

We're going on a worm hunt!

With the rain still pouring one of day homes this morning decided it was the perfect day for a worm hunt! Quite simply they were going out for a walk, in the rain, with buckets in hands to look at and collect worms!
It never seems to fail, kids are fascinated by these under gorund creatures and here in Alberta, the driest province in Canada, when the rain falls in June it's the best opportunity to see them!

Worm hunting, or any sort of bug hunting, is a great opportunity to introduce from an early age how important insects, bugs, worms, creepy crawlies, mini beasts are to our environment and to show them how to correctly handle and observe them.

Below are some tips for a successful bug hunt taken from the website; www.activekidsclub.com.

So get out your magnifying glass, a small container and get outside on a bug hunt!

tips about bug hunting:Let children discover insects themselves. Make sure you teach them about bugs that can hurt them. Because children are closer to ground level they will probably discover them before you.
You can help them by turning over rocks and tree branches so they can see all the life just out of sight. You can teach your child about the different types of insects and the function they have in the nature.

Smart materials to bring with you on a bug hunt are: jar, magnifying glass, plastic tweezers, sketchbook, pencils and books about insects.

Bring a jar for collecting insects; remember to make holes in the lid. Make a habitat for the bugs, put soil, leaves (from the place you found them) in the jar and some water. Make sure you remember to set you new friends free after a day, put them in the same place you found them.

Inspect bugs with a magnifying glass; discuss with the kids what you see. Consult the books about the bug’s secrets.

Make art of the findings, let the kids draw bugs how they see them.

Dad Rocks salt dough paperweight.

Dads play an important part in our children’s lives. What better way to celebrate him than by having the kids make a special gift. This fun paperweight only requires small rocks and simple ingredients from your kitchen. He’ll love the results and cherish it always.





Supplies:
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water
bowl
cookie sheet
1/2 cup pea gravel

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Mix flour, salt and water together in a bowl. If dough is too sticky add small amounts of flour until it is doughy and pliable. Be careful not to add too much as the dough will dry out and your creation will crack.
Shape a piece of the dough into a ball in your hands. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2″ thickness.
Carefully select pieces of pea gravel to spell out “DAD ROCKS”. Press them firmly but gently into the salt dough. (For younger children you may want to mark this out first or just shorten to Dad)
Bake your paperweight for 2-2.5 hours until completely dry.
Remove from oven and allow to cool before handling or removing from cookie sheet.

Optional: You can spray your creation with acrylic sealer or paint it with a clear coat sealer.

Rainy day website.

With the rain still persisting in falling, looking for new ideas and activities to keep the kids busy and occupied becomes a priority!

Check out this website for 101 + ideas for rainy day activities, both indoors and outdoors!

 www.rainydaymum.co.uk

Ideas and links from a Mum who lives in a country where rain can often stop play!

Our particular favourites are painting with rain drops and making mud soup!

Paper plate matching puzzle.

Such a simple and easy to make matching puzzle!

Simply cut up a decorated paper plate, this could be a store bought one or one that the children have decorated, to make an instant puzzle.

You could be creative with how many pieces you cut, shapes or the way you cut it.

Needless to say it's an activity the kids will enjoy!

Matching books.

Ever wondered what to do with those old or free calendars?

Well here is a great idea see at a recent COW (classroom on wheels) event that recycles the calendar into an early literacy development activity.

Simply laminate or sticky tack each picture, as shown above. Then cut out the matching small pictures for each month, laminate or sticky tack these also.

Attach to each small picture some velcro to attach each picture to the front page. Also attach a piece of velcro to each main picture.

Put all pages together as a book and attached using some rings, the sort you may find on a key chain would suffice.

The children can then explore the book and match the smaller picture to the larger one.

Matching puzzle.

How many times have you used a puzzle like this where you have to match two objects together?

These matching puzzles are a great way to encourage the development of early reading skills.

A different approach to using this puzzle though is to have all the pieces attached to a vertical surface such as a wall, door, easel etc rather than on a horizontal surface such as a table or the floor.

In the photo above, magnetic tape has been attached to the back of each puzzle piece to stick it to the magnetic surface!

More Mothers Day flowers.

A quick and simple Mother's Day craft that any Mom from your day home will love and treasure.



Instructions

1. Cut out the flower pot from construction paper.
2. Cut green construction paper into 1" strips.
3. Glue three strips onto the backside of the flower pot.
4. Paint hands and create three handprints on white construction paper.

This idea and many others can be found at www.childcaresoup.com.

Mother's Day.

With Mother's Day coming up this weekend our day homes are busy creating personal crafts that will be long treasured by the Mom's of the children they care for.

This craft was observed at one of our day homes and was done with children from 1 years old and up (although the amount of help needed differred!!)

1. Simply start by making a hand print in the middle of the page.
2. The children can then add flower shapes or stickers to the end of the fingers.
3. Finally, cut out (or pre cut for younger children) a flower pot shape and glue underneath hand.
4. A nice touch is to personalize the card with the words "I love my Mom because....." and then ask each child for a suggestion for their Mom.

Play room art work on a budget!

This fantastic idea for art work to brighten up a play area was spied at a provider's home during a visit.

Simply glue wax crayons to a pre prepared painting canvas (both available cheaply at a local dollar store). A hot glue gun is the best way to secure them.

Using a blow dryer, gently heat the wax crayons until they start to melt. Use the air from the blow dryer to direct the melting wax.

Simple, easy and effective!

What an amazing chalk table!

Just love this idea, so simple and would be easy to fit in a corner of any day homes play area for creative, free drawing! Would also be great outdoors!
Simply take one of these small Ikea tables, that are inexpensive, and paint on chalk board paint!

The picture shows a bin for chalks also that has been cut out of centre but a bin just placed in the centre would work fine!

Then let the kids be creative!

Earth Day

April 22nd 2013 is Earth Day!

How about trying out this fun and easy baking activity with the children, based on the recipe for rice crispie treats!


Basically, just your basic rice krispie squares recipe with food coloring added.

1/4 cup margarine

40 regular marshmallows

1/2 tsp. vanilla

6 cups rice krispies

green and blue food coloring

Melt margarine and marshmallows over medium heat in a large pot, stir in vanilla and rice rispies.  

 

Divide into two bowls

 

Add green food coloring to one bowl and blue food coloring to the second.

 

Stir

 

Allow the children to take a scoop from the blue bowl and a scoop from the green bowl and mash them together in a ball (the earth).

 

Set the balls aside until completely cool.

It may not look like it but it really is spring!

One minute it's beautiful and sunny and the next we are covered in snow!

Yes, it's definitely spring in Alberta!

Even though it may not look like it, spring is officially here and what better way to kick off spring time activities than adding some colour to your day homes with these bright daffodil hand print pictures. (Even if your bulbs are still frozen in the ground!)

 

 

Perfect for  Mother's Day or Spring!

You will need:
Paper
Yellow, orange and green paint
Black pen

Instructions:
Keeping your fingers together, print 4 yellow handprints, with their fingers overlapping. These are your petals.
Print an orange handprint with spread fingers, overlapping the palm with the fingers of the yellow prints.
Add a green stem with the side of your hand.
When the paint is dry, use a black pen to draw on the lines of the petals.

Sensory food activity!

Ever noticed how young children enjoy feeling, touching, squishing, mushing and generally playing with their food? It's just another way they are exploring and discovering with their senses!

How about trying out this sensory food activity to encourage this natural curiosity and developing hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Use a melon baller to make balls of different coloured melons.

Give the children a range of utensils to pick up the fruit with, shown are spoons, skewers and straws. Tongs would also be a great addition or chop sticks.

And then let the children explore!

They may pick them up and eat them, smell them, squish them. If you provide colour coordinated cups they may sort them developing one on one correspondence skills.

This could be a great activity at snack time or to keep kids engaged whilst you prepared lunch!

This idea and more great tried and tested ideas can be found at;

www.platathomemom3.blogspot.ca

Somedays 5 year olds have the best ideas!

Had the delight today to be asked to join in a game at a day home!
The game was being led by a 5 year old and created much enjoyment for the younger children at the day home.

It was an extremely simple idea!

One child lies down on a blanket with their eyes closed.

The other children tip toe around the child saying 'grumpy grizzly, grumpy grizzly sleeping in a cave, never, ever wake her/him up'.

On the word 'up' the child pretending to sleep on the blanket wakes up and tries to catch another child who then becomes the 'grumpy grizzly'!

Needless to say the chgildren get closer and closere as they all want to get caught and have their turn.

What was wonderful to see was the children changing the game! Grumpy grizzly became grumpy robin in a nest, grumpy dog on a bed, grumpy horse in a stable and then elements of freeze tag were included where once caught the child stood still until they were freed by another!

As day home providers it is expected that developmentally appropriate activities are planned for everyday. A great emphasis, however, is placed on learning through play and being flexible to go with children's interests and ideas!

It is fair to say that somedays the children simply have the best ideas! Try a game of 'grumpy grizzly, at your day home!

Indoor sand tray exploration.

So often we wait to use sand outdoors in the summer! Understandably sand plus young children does equal mess!

However, if you have an area in your home where sand play can happen during the colder months, the children will certainly enjoy and gain great development from it!

Sand is great for exploring and discovery as well as providing many opportunities for fine motor skill development!

This great idea has come from the blog www.playathomemom3.blogspot.ca

Use an enclosed tray or shallow bin and add stickers to the bottom. Could be letters, numbers, colours, dinosaurs etc.

Cover with a shallow amount of sand.

Provide the children with various brushes and encourage them to gently brush the sand away to discover the stickers beneath!

Washing and cleaning toys.

Last week our day home agency held a health and safety workshop presented by a health inspector from Alberta Health Services.

Many points were made on how to have healthy and safe environments, spaces, equipment, how to control the spread of infection and how to safely handle and prepare food for children.

A super easy idea was presented about organising toys that need to be washed or cleaned and sanitised, especially those that are constantly in the mouths of infants and toddlers!

A simple bin, tote box or laundry basket placed in your play area (out of reach of the children) where toys needing washing and cleaning can be placed out of the way is a great addition to any play room. A lidded bin or basket would also be something to stop the children retrieving they toys back out!
At the end of the day the toys can simply be placed to soak in a bleach solution or ,if able, placed in a dishwasher with a sanitisation cycle and then left to air dry!

Winter Cotton Ball Fun for Toddlers

We all know the familiar scene, you buy your toddler this wonderful, bright, noisy, educational toy and they play with the packaging instead! Toddlers are naturally very curious, discovering and exploring everyday and keeping up with them during this busy stage of development is a full time job! So how about these simple and inexpensive activity ideas using cotton balls to keep them busy? These ideas were found on the toddler station on www.preschoolexpress.com Have fun exploring with your toddlers! WINTER COTTON BALL FUN COTTON BALL PAINTING Pour a small amount of tempera paint on a plate. Let your child use a cotton ball like a paintbrush, dipping it in the paint and then brushing it onto a sheet of paper. Use one color of paint or try two colors that mix well, such as blue and yellow or red and yellow.   FLUFFY SNOWFLAKE Cut a snowflake shape out of self-stick paper (the kind used for covering shelves, cupboards, etc.) Remove the backing and place the snowflake sticky side up on a table. Let your child place cotton balls all over the sticky side to make a fluffy snowflake. SNOWBALL WALK AND TOSS Give your child a paper plate with three cotton ball "snowballs" on it and place a basket on the other side of the room. Have your child balance the snowballs on the plate while walking carefully over to the basket. Let your child toss the snowballs into the basket before returning for more. COTTON BALL SNOWSTORN Make a "Cotton Ball Snowstorm" with your child. Place a handful of cotton balls on the floor. Join your child on the floor as you blow the cotton ball "snow" all around. Can you make your snowstorm wild and windy? How about gentle and breezy?

Song time!

Music and singing are great fun with young children and an important part of their development. Sometimes, though once we've sung all the old favourites we can be left struggling for mew songs and rhymes!

Why not check out www.preschoolexpress.com and click on the song and rhyme station!

There are loads of great songs categorised by themes and seasons. Many are new words set to familiar tunes!

This is one of our favourites, and currently being used in our song and rhymes mentoring sessions for February! It's a great way to start your song time and encourage all the children to be involved and feel part of the group!


MARY'S HERE TODAYTune: "The Farmer In The Dell"

Mary's here today, Mary's here today.
Let's all clap our hands and say.
Hip, hip hurray!

Continue singing about other children as they join the group.

Valentine heart suncatcher.

What a beautiful way to decorate your windows this Valentines Day! The love will shine out from your home!



You will need:

• Squares of tissue paper in valentine colours.
• A heart frame.
• Two pieces of contact paper / sticky back plastic.

On roll one piece of contact paper and place the heart frame on stcky side.

Fill the middle of the heart with the tissue paper squares. Overlap the paper and do not leave any spaces.
Sandwich the frame inbetween another piece of contact paper and then cout out heart!

This idea was discovered on makingmerrymemories.blogspot.jp

Light table.

What a great idea for a sensory activity and so easy to make!

This light table was made by one of our day home providers and successfully used with all children she cares for!

She simply placed push on lights inside a lidded clear tote box and then placed different coloured transparent objects on top!

Turn out the lights (a basement would be great for this) and let the children do what they do best, discover and explore!