#toolsfortots

The girls and I enjoyed Jeanette Winter’s kids bio of Serena and Venus Williams, how they grew up, the impact of their hard work and their perseverance and standing out in the tennis world. We opted for a tennis racket for an accompanying craft and it sure did keep us busy.

Needed: a paper plate per child, yarn cut to correct length, hole punch, scissors and glue gun

instructions:

Depending on ages, you may have to prep a bit as I did. I cut the middle out of the plates, punched the holes and precut the yarn. The girls ran the yarn through the holes and I tied them off for them which takes them plenty of time and certainly works that hand/eye coordination - bonus! I am big on recycling and was excited to use the cutout circle portion as the racket handle. I used hot glue to hold the circle while i folded it into a handle and hot glue again to attach it to the rest of the plate. I did cut slits in the top of the handle and added hot glue before placing the head of the racket in. The kids can use these with balloons for some play time!

The kids are the best scavengers when on a walk. Most of what we pick up along the way ends up in our crafting. We have an abundance of pine cones from walks that have long since passed that the girls and I decided to use as a classic Peanut Butter, Pine Cone, Birdseed Birdfeeder.

Needed:

Peanut Butter

Birdseed

Forks

2 bowls

PIne Cones

String or Yarn

To Do:

Most importantly, remind your kiddos TO NOT EAT THE PEANUT BUTTER!!! They will be plastering it all over a dirty pine cone so I suppose it won’t be horrible if some makes its way into their mouths but I wouldn’t recommend letting them intentionally eat it .. besides .. there’s a surprise at the end! 

I filled one bowl with birdseed, one with peanut butter. I then tied the yarn to their pinecone before they went to town with the PB.

Each child receives a fork to scoop and spread peanut butter all over their pinecone. Once covered, we dipped their pinecones into the birdseed and coated the pinecone with seeds. 

The girls were very excited to bring these home, pick a hanging spot and share a snack with their resident birds! 

And now for that surprise ... I treated the kids to a spoonful of fresh peanut butter! Hooray for all!!

Bird Feeder

Can’t beat the ol’ bird feeder craft. We put a twist on the pinecone feeder and recycled a cardboard egg carton by cutting it up and swiping the peanut butter inside then dousing with birdseed.

Rainy Day Girls

I had the girls do a little self portrait. We then painted blue paint onto bubble wrap (smaller bubble wrap would have been better for this!) and placed a piece of paper a bit larger than their portraits to protect that area of the paper. Once the portrait area was covered, we blotted the bubble wrap over the entire piece. When removed, we then also removed the paper protecting the portrait and cut out a little umbrella over head.

Orange Hand Tree

With an abundance of clementines, Evie and I decided on making an orange tree. She mixed a brown paint herself and then used it to make handprints on green construction paper as well as to paint 2 toilet paper rolls. Once the handprints dried, we glued circle cut outs from the orange peels and glued them onto the handprints before gluing the handprints to our tree trunk. Orange you glad you checked this post out. Hehe.

This was the coolest steam project ever!!! Completely looked it up online so I wish share the link because it is a must to try this out with kiddos. Fun to customize and to play with after!

My favorite part of Valentine’s Day is sharing sentiments in the form of cards that we’ve labored over and decorated very intentionally for each recipient. Addison and I love using metallic sharpie’s, beads, wooden clips, different cardstock, lace and so on for our Valentine creations. How do you show your love and affection and go a little extra on Valentine’s Day?

We love our Avon Free Library and the opportunities it has given us to connect since the pandemic began. We’re engaged in virtual storytime with Miss Kasey once or twice a week and when she holds occasional after school activities for the older kids, we do our best to plug in any of the kids who are here and available. One week she did origami with them which proved a very complicated task and reminded us of the advantage of being with kids to walk them through various crafts and activities BUT it was undeniable that we were able to problem solve and successfully make some origami Jack-O-Lanterns!

We kept our letter ‘M’ craft rather simple today! I provided a large letter ‘M’ and eyeballs and teeth and they glued away. Once all was dry, I added some final touches to their work. A fun collaboration for all!!

It’s easy to get caught up in trying to find elaborate crafts but it is important to take a step back and know that the simplest crafts can also make an impression. The girls really enjoyed designing their lampshades for our lamps. We sat and chatted and they talked to one another about their placement choices for the stripes and polka dots. They word on hand/eye coordination in the process and were quite impressed once i places their shade on their letter ‘L’ turning it into a - voila! - LAMP!

Needed: pre cut strips and circles out of various colored construction paper, white paper cut into a trapezoid shape, glue and an ‘L’ shape out of construction paper. Have a main piece of paper that all will be glued onto, preferably construction paper or cardstock to hold all better.

To Do: Have the kids decorate their trapezoid first. Once! completed, they may glue the letter ‘L’ onto their main piece of paper. They’re finished at this point and depending on age, the lampshade can be glued by you or kids once it has dried. Dexterity needs and making patterns are highlights of this craft!

His name should be a regular in every household as we see his invention or a variation of it on a daily basis. Garrett Morgan invented the first automatic three-way traffic signal system. This, my friends, is why we do these crafts with little ones. We made a traffic light to help them remember Morgan’s name and tie him to his invention. Spread these significant names to our history with friends and family!