Thanksgiving chain

Most years we make a Thankful tree, however this year we wanted to try something different. After thinking of a few different ideas, we settled on making a paper thankful chain. It turned out cute and was a fun decoration to have for our Thanksgiving day.

Snowflake pumpkins

My boys love to make snowflakes! So when I came across this idea to make Jack O'lantern 'snowflakes', I knew we had to try it! The boys and I had a fun time making and displaying these this year.

Pharaoh's Crook

For my oldests History lesson we have been studying all things Egypt. One of his art projects was to make a Pharaoh's Crook. I knew we'd never be able to make just one, so we made it a family project. Daddy made the crooks out of newspaper/magazine paper and masking tape. The kids then painted their taped crooks the colors of their choosing. They were quite happy with the results and play with them often. And bonus- only some of the times do I have to take them away for improper usage. :)

Paper pumpkin ornaments

For our October kids book group we read our favorite Halloween book Jack O' Lantern and made these fun pumpkins! We enjoyed having these as decorations for not only Halloween, but also for Thanksgiving!

Jelly Bean bracelets!

My visiting teaching companion and I wanted to make this fun craft for the ladies we visit for the month of April, and the kids thought it looked like so much fun! (Really I think they just wanted some jelly beans...) So I took the leftover supplies and whipped them up some jelly bean bracelets of their own. As you can imagine, they didn't last long, but they talked about them for days!

Sadly, it ended up being too hard to push the needle through the jelly beans, so it wasn't something they could participate too much in. They did have fun directing the order of the jelly beans and the color of their ribbons though.

St. Paddy's Day Rainbows

The week before St. Patrick's Day, we read a lot of books on St. Patrick, the Irish and Leprechauns! I decided we'd make some fun rainbows- and I'm really glad we did! All that color really makes the room bright!

The finished product with their pots of gold!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

We got to go to a little playgroup where the kids enjoyed making these fun hats! So cute!

Snow Candy!

We are reading the Little House in the Prairie Series right now for school and decided to try out some Snow candy!




Unfortunately it ended up being the last snow of the season that we tried this with, but we will definitely be making more next year! It was yummy!

Valentines Day banner

This idea came from Martha Stewart I believe...

This is the biggest heart banner (the medium one didn't get a picture...)


And then because we still haven't taken down our Thankful Tree, we decided to decorate it with the littlest hearts!

Valentines Day Cards

We got this fun little idea from Pinterest! So cute and very simple. The older boys did this without a problem.

melted crayon hearts

This week for our art project we sharpened lots of crayons, laid them between wax paper, covered it with a towel, and laid an iron on top of it. Later I traced a heart on top, cut them our and hung them on the windows. The boys loved to see the crayons when they were only half melted! They had a lot of fun with this project. Idea found here.

sorry, it was late when I remembered to take a picture...

Constellations

In science the boys were learning about stars, so we took a break from the textbook and dived into a little star 'gazing'! We looked up a few constellations, learned a little about them, then 'charted' them onto paper. Idea found here.

Pumpkins

I had my husband draw a pumpkin for me on a paper (I'm no artist) and I then copied the pumpkin 4 times. The kids then had fun coloring and cutting out faces for them! Easy yet fun art project.

Bats!

The boys and I had a ton of fun making these bats for all. over. the. house. Really, I think there are four walls that are covered in bats throughout my house! I really like them! I'm sad to have to take them down soon...



The template was found here.

Skeletons!

We made these paper skeletons this year and then I let the kids pose them however they wanted!

Link to the templates found here.

New side bar option!

I may be one of the few who still look at and update on this blog, but I thought it would be fun to have a section on the side bar for crafts that we want to make with the kids, but haven't gotten around to yet! The two that I have added were on my craft blog (under my to make section) and I wanted somewhere else to store the kids'. What better place than a kids craft blog?! :) Feel free to add to it (or email me the links) the list whenever you feel like it! Happy crafting!!

Fingerprint Flags

We found this fun flag project, and I thought it would be a cute way to get their little finger prints on something cute that I could keep! :) I haven't taken a picture of the finished project yet...maybe soon though!

For now, here is what you'll need! -Minus the kid whose finger prints you want! :)

Marshmellow sculptures

My boys were in heaven with this little project!!




All you need are:

mini marshmellows
toothpicks
and your imagination!!

*And, yes, they did get to eat the mallows afterwards! :)

Soda erruption

Here is a cool science experiment to do with the kids.


What you will need

A 2 litter bottle of Diet Coke (Apparently diet Coke with caffeine works the best, but any carbonated soda can get a similar reaction.)

• Mentos Candies (About 1/2 a package per bottle.)
• You just drop the mentos into the bottle As quickly as you can and watch it erupt. The first link says that you can turn it into a rocket if you quickly replace the cap and turn the bottle upside down. But when we did it, we only got 3 mentos in the bottle before it erupted all over me. So I don't see how it could work unless supper man tried it with his supper speed :) It was cool and we will certainly do it again.

An explanation and history of the experiment can be found here from wikipedia.

I basically told the girls that carbon Dioxide is what makes the pop fizzy and bubbly. When you drop the candy into it, there are lots of VERY little holes in the candy and the holes react to the carbon dioxide to make TONS of bubbles out of the pop. Since bubbles are bigger than the pop there is no more room left in bottle, so the bubbles/foam shoot up into the air.

I first got the idea here from mintagehome.blogspot.com
I got the picture from google images, there is no way I could get a picture of this on my own.

American Flags

The Fourth of July is coming up!! I found this really great idea for kids to make their own flags! And out of popsicle sticks! (Maybe if you're a nice mom, you'll let the kids eat all nine popsicles they need to get their sticks, instead of just buying them like I did. My poor kids! :) )



Soo...You'll need everything pictured here plus some white cardstock or printer paper. (I don't know why that didn't make it in the picture...that white square is actually a piece of cardboard.)

After painting the sticks ( 2 red, 2 white, 2 white/blue, 3 red/blue), 'paint' the piece of cardboard with glue and assemble the sticks to resemble a flag. Once that is finished drying, glue on your stars and then attach some string/ribbon/yarn onto the back for hanging!!