A-mazing!

In between summer busy-ness lots of active, outdoor adventures, swimming, running, bike-riding every kid (and their mother) needs some downtime.  When I saw this fun idea at Bookhoucrafts I thought it would be worth a try. It turned out to be worth a couple of hours of fun constructing the mazes and then playing each others.  Even after I took these photos the boys kept making more mazes.  We had everything on hand too which is a huge bonus. I found some little, round pearl beads that we used for the ball in the maze and we found that a double layer of wax sticks helped the bead not to jump the "wall"  Some of the mazes were fun with several balls. I'd highly recommend this.

Cheese and Silly Bandz

Is anyone else over-run by these crazy elastics that get caught in the vaccuum cleaner, wept over if lost and provide lots of entertainment when spread all over the kitchen table?

For better or worse, my kids like these things and I needed them to have a place to contain them.  Also they are not allowed to wear them during class because of the distraction, but they still like to take them to school to trade at recess.  Enter the empty Laughing Cow cheese container.  After making these with my own boys we've had several playdates requesting to make them too.  I think I could trade them for some lunch money at the corner of the playground, they are pretty popular. (Also great for holding trading cards, hair accessories and any little things).

I used regular adhesive backed shelf liner to cover the containers.  I also have discovered that the labels peel off fairly easily, which I would recommend before covering.  Because the containers are paper anything sticks to them fairly well and modgepodging can make a creative cover.

To cover the sides, any wide tape works well, then slice in half with a box cutter where the container is already opened.

Once they are covered: decorate with permanent markers, stickers whatever.  They more personal, the more easily identified.  For a thin, light weight container, it actually holds a lot of silly bandz and stays closed in a backpack that is thrown around, stepped on and used as a soccer ball.

Build an Airport

Did you know a 2-litre soda bottle makes a great air traffic control tower? A covered cereal box is a great airport building. Parking paper airplanes was a problem.  The boys came up with raised blocks to set them on as they arrive and depart.  Making and flying paper planes is so much fun, and adding an airport adds to the fun!

Bottle Rockets

Thanks to my friend Sarah A. and her kids, as well as Family Fun Magazine for the really fun time.

Build an Army Base with Paint Chips and Jenga Blocks

These cool paint samples with the 'windows' are from Sherwin Williams. The cheapest army fort ever built and the perfect size for the little green guys from the dollar store. A little tape and you have tents and a building.

Capes for LEGO Minifigures

One of my favourite blogs is Zakka Life and Jessica has come up with something fun and amazing again.  I have a lot of blog-catching up to do including our last LEGO challenge winners, back to school, etc.  I know you "For the Love of LEGO Challenge" lovers will love this - capes for minifigures! My boys are wild for this idea. Go check it out.

Jessica also reminded me that there is a free LEGO Club with a free magazine.  It comes every 2 months and my boys pounce on it.  Plus, we aren't doing any challenges during the school year and they do (plus they have really good prizes).  Thanks Jessica!

Painting Rainbows

This was a fun and easy painting project.  I found this idea on Charlotte's Fancy and she has step-by-step instructions. I thought they would be perfect rainbows for St. Patrick's day decor.

I love these Bingo style dot paints, they are easy even for toddlers and so mess free.  You can get real bingo dobbers, but watch out, they are not washable and may be slightly toxic.

We got ours at Fred Meyer but they have them all over.

Classroom Craft - St. Patrick's Day, a Four-Leaf Clover

In the boys' kindergarten class this last week we made fun Good Luck cards for St. Patrick's Day.  The idea is from one of my favourite blogs - Zakka Life. She uses an ink pad for hers and they are much neater, but the kids in the class loved getting their hands in the paint even though there was an ink pad too.  We used folded over green paper for the card, glued a white square on it and painted away and wrote a few words too. They loved embellishing the cards.  Whoever the recipients of these cards will be they are definitely LUCKY!

Supplies: White and green paper, green paint, and thumbs (scissors and glue sticks are optional)

rocket launch

Over at 4 Crazy Kings they made the coolest foil, mermaid bookmarks.  This inspired me and opened up a whole new world of crafting with tin foil (it is often too fragile for the kind of things my boys like to do).  Thank you Mama King!  We were going to make book marks too (that's what I wanted) but this turned into what they wanted -which was bigger, bigger, and in the end they are hanging on the wall.

So the first thing to do here is cover a piece of paper with tin foil. We painted the paper with white school glue, but I think a glue stick would work nicely.  Next smooth out the bubbles, let dry a bit then cut out the shape you would like. I cut these with regular paper scissors, then used a craft knife and a bottle cap to cut the circle window.

E and C were excited to colour with "permanent" markers and make dents and dings in their rockets. We used yarn for the flames, glued on the back (paper side). I really like the 3-D potential this has as a supply and we plan to try out some more tin foil paper crafts soon.

Classroom Craft - Heart Leis

Here is another classroom craft we have done recently in Kindergarten for Valentine's Day.  This one is thanks to Marie at Make and Takes and Craftzine for the tutorial.  It was really easy to do the supplies in bulk: cut out and hole punch hearts, cut up straws and measure string for necklaces.  One note, I discovered that wrapping a bit of tape around one end of the yarn, prevents fraying and frustration and makes for easier lacing.  The children all loved wearing theirs. Here is E modeling his...

Also a great craft for making patterns - AB with the straw then heart, then ABCD (or whatever) with the coloured hearts.

Classroom Craft - Easy Heart Garland

Once a week I go and help in the kids classroom and the past couple of times we have been doing Valentine's Stuff,  On this day each child did a chain of hearts in a pattern on a string.  We used construction paper and it was really great because the hearts didn't slide around.  It made for an easy garland., one punch on each side of the heart.  The best part is the kids really liked doing it and over half the classroom was covered in a string of hearts (each end was tied to another and twisted around thumbtacks.

I have a lot of pictures with the kids making this but I don't think it would be right to post other people kids on my blog without asking them.  Next time I'll try and take more pictures of just the projects for you guys!

A beach scene in the winter

Sometimes you need a little tropical beach in the middle of winter.  This is a great use for leftover Christmas card boxes to help make your scene 3-D.  We used sandpaper for the sand and blue paper for the ocean.  I dug through some scrapbook paper and found some beachy stuff that E selected from, paper for the background, stickers, etc.  We lined the box with some of the paper, glued a palm tree to the front then glued everything he wanted to stand-up to stiff cardboard (thank you recycling bin).  Colouring pages also make great "scenes". Below you can see the how to for the stand up items, you can also see it doesn't have to be precise cutting, just a big enough piece to balance the image piece. Cut a small slit in each piece and slide them together so the bottoms are even.

This has been a pretty fun play set, beside the cutouts and set-up fun, we have also has a shark attack, a pirate raid and aliens land on our beach...

Santy Claus, Why, why are you taking our Christmas Tree? Why?

"I know just what to do!" The Grinch laughed in his throat.

And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.

And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Grinchy trick!

"With this coat and this hat, I look just like Saint Nick!"

Make your own Santa Claus hat -

Supplies:
- Large piece of construction paper
- Batting or cotton balls

These would also make great elf hats in green.





















E doesn't look too "Grinchy" in this shot, but that what we have been acting out. It's a favourite story around here.