Preschool Art - Shiny Foil Christmas Collages

 
I’m always surprised at how inspiration can strike simply by going through what we already have. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that we’ve been cleaning out and organizing some of our space in the past month or so, and part of this included my craft storage area.  As we went through a huge bin of paper products, I found some pretty Christmas cards that I had saved, in the hopes that I’d come up with something to do with them.

Most of the cards had some sort of foil or glitter or something sparkly on them.  I cut out the pretty parts, and teamed them up with some glitter snowflake stickers, and sequins, and cut some glitter Christmas shapes from foam (stockings, candy canes, triangle “trees”, circle “ornaments”, stars). 

And what shines better than aluminum foil?  So I set everything out for M one morning.  I included some window markers too and glue of course:

This was definitely one of the biggest hits we’ve had lately.  M loved this little art project, and it was so much fun I even got in on the action a bit. :)  The white window marker shows up so nicely on foil and made the perfect snow:

Eventually we realized that our window markers are in pretty bad shape and drying out.  So I brought out the window crayons (which I normally loathe, because they are such a mess to clean off of windows).  The window crayons were perfect for this (permanent markers work well on foil too) and, while you do have to be careful at first since they will smear onto anything that touches them, they do dry and are then perfectly ok.  They went onto the foil so smoothly and have such bright colors, that I think these will be our “aluminum foil crayons” and window crayons no longer. No clean up for mom that way. ;)

Finished collages:
  

This was such a blast (for me too)!  If you are looking for a quick art project without so much prep, just peel off some aluminum foil, get out those window markers and crayons, and let the kids go to work! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart, Christmas Style (week 10)

 

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

Our very first ever gingerbread house; making it was a lot of fun
and very messy. :) 

{ M is 4 years old }

Again this week we are taking it easy peasy, focusing on simple fun while preparing our hearts and home for Christmas.  I’m combining activities from last week with what I’m setting out for this week.  Do not feel overwhelmed by the number of activities – they are not all from one week!  

I picked up a lot of easy, pre-packaged crafts from Target and Michael’s.  These are just for fun.  I haven’t done this before because I’m not a big fan of pre-packaged crafts; if I weren’t sure that M has a ton of opportunities to create open-ended art (and if you know us, you know he does!), I probably would’ve passed these up.  However, they have come in soooo handy when I need a little time to finish up my own projects.

        SHELF ACTIVITIES: 

Christmas sensory bin – this has pretend snow (Cluster Stuff fiber fill – you can find this at Walmart), mini ornaments, a cinnamon candle, tinsel, “ice” (red, green, and clear gems that look like ice to me), pretty ribbons, jingle bells, glittery snowflake ornaments, pine cones, tongs, and a glass dish, and a tiny nativity set (really mini ornaments): I think this will be the final sensory bin for this boy.  He is getting too old for this type of thing to hold his interest.  He enjoys looking at all the items, but then wants them to have more of a purpose.  This turned into a very messy art attempt with items scattered all over the place, resulting in this little bundle of ornaments strung onto a ribbon:

Christmas shapes and push pins – M places one of the little pictures on the corkboard, then outlines it with push pins (great fine motor work!):

Make-a-snowman – I found these great little face stickers at Michael’s and cut out some snowmen for M to make:

A couple of the finished ones – aren’t they funny?:

Christmas play dough and cookie cutters: M has picked this activity a few times this week.  I think he is really enjoying it.  He made holes in some with a straw, and we are going to let them dry.  I think I’ll put the dried ones out for him next week along with some glitter glue to decorate.  These may end up going to a couple of lucky grandmas. ;)

Christmas arrangement – M loves doing this kind of thing!  I set out a variety of Christmassy things for M to poke into a block of florist’s foam, and a little star-shaped silver box to hold it:
Making his arrangement (sorry for the dark photo; I’m still trying to figure out this new camera):

Finished:

Snowflake matching game – these snowflakes are very detailed and a lot look similar, so it’s a great visual discrimination activity:

Number matching – I printed this from Making Learning Fun, then wrote in numbers 1 –12 on both the numeral and the tree, and M matched the circles up with numbered stickers (he thought this was not “intewesting” at all; so much for that, I guess):   

Ornament name spelling – I made these last year and M strung them onto a piece of string, which we then hung on the wall; this year I stuck magnets onto the back of them and he’s been spelling his name as well as “Mommy” and “Daddy” (cheat sheets are right there on the fridge for help):

 These ornaments are a free printable, but they
are simple to make on your own too!

Gingerbread Letter Match – we used these to match up mommy and baby letters: 

Christmas rubbing plates – I had these from last year and M loves them so I brought them out again. I simply used templates to draw shapes onto cardboard, then traced them with hot glue to give them raised lines.  Place paper over the top and rub with a crayon to see the shape appear.

Christmas race game (I bought this last year, possibly from Target) – we roll the die and add numbers to get from the start to the finish line, then we subtract to get back to the start line:

Christmas patterning – these are also from last year.  I made my own, and then Kylie came out with some of her own and shared them with everyone.  You can find her lovely printable here.

Jingle bell wreath activity – I set out some pretty gold jingle bells and a red pipecleaner so M could make a little jingle bell wreath for his room (or wherever in the house it ends up as the case may be, and is):Isn’t it pretty set out in this glass dish?  It was very appealing and the first thing M went for that morning.

Finished jingle bell wreath:  It sounds so pretty too!

Ornaments to color and lace – These are the kind that have black fuzzy lines, which made it easy for M to color without going outside the lines:

Christmas window clings – I like to put these out on M’s shelves as just “something fun to do”; we change them with every season:

I set up an activity to make a Christmas countdown paper chain:This was actually done on Nov. 30th, I’m just a bit late with posting it. M cut all 24 strips of paper and we chained them together with Christmas stickers. The finished chain:

Another “fun&busy” foam magnet craft:

EXTRA ACTIVITIES:

“Ice skating” on wax paper – this is so much fun, sometimes the entire family does it, hee hee.  Try it out if you are looking for a high-energy activity on days too cold to go outside!

A first attempt at making paper snowflakes:

Art – I’m no longer posting about M’s weekly art box and his creations, but I think I’ll post my favorite artwork each week as part of our school posts.  This was my favorite from this week…It’s M on a pogo stick, and was drawn with glow in the dark paint. :)  Honestly, I think he wants a pogo stick for Christmas, but since the kid can already out-bounce Tigger, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for him to have one!

Marshmallow building:

We used big and small marshmallows and toothpicks to create a few things.  This was supposed to be a science activity of sorts… how can we create a bridge that will stay up, or one that can bear weight, and that kind of thing.  It turned into more of an art project than anything. :)  I thought M would enjoy the engineering aspect of this, but perhaps we’ll have to try it again at a later date.  For now we are a bit sick of marshmallows (they are hard to resist, you know!).

 

There’s been a lot of sledding with Daddy:

And a lot of shoveling: This is M shoveling out our backyard so it will be easier for the squirrels to find acorns, ha!  He loves those squirrels, rabbits, and birdies. :)  He’s made several bird feeders with bagels and peanut butter and we have had a lot of fun watching the squirrels fight over them!  It reminds me of when I was a child and loved all the little animals so much. :)

I’ve been in high gear cleaning and organizing mode lately.  We’ve been going around the house, stripping it bare of anything unessential. :)  I get like this sometimes and can’t stop myself.  M has been a huge help with sorting things into small containers and baggies, and being my “take this somewhere” and “go find me this” guy. :)  So, a lot of life school has been going on, and I am grateful to have a helper. :)  It feels good to purge before the influx of stuff!

This is the last of school for the year.  I’m hoping to post some fun Christmas arts and crafts projects, but no more school posts until some time in January!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner, Friday Wrap Up,and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Mini Apple Pies

 
We are overrun with apples at this time of year.  Normally I make an apple pie or two, some caramel apples (M’s favorite!), and what we don’t just munch on gets sliced up and dehydrated (yum!).  We are fortunate to have our own, fairly small, apple orchard.  But this doesn’t stop us from going to commercial apple orchards too!  I am in love with Honeycrisp apples, and this is one of the types we don’t grow ourselves, although I’m hoping that changes in the next year or two. 

When I saw this fun idea for miniature apple pies over at  My Montessori Journey, I knew we had to try it! 
The apples we used are Firesides – a crisp, juicy, mostly sweet apple.

These aren’t really a cooking apple, but when you have an abundance of them you use them in anything and everything. :)  I think they turned out very tasty in our mini pies.

First roll out your pie dough.  Ours was store bought – once upon a time I wouldn’t have gone that route, but let’s be honest – those days are over for at least a while.  I am all about ease and convenience right now. ;)
M used an empty margarine container to cut circles from the dough.  They were just about the right size for our muffin tins.  Place them in the muffin tins so just a bit overlaps the top.


Peel, slice, and chop the apples.  Place a good amount in each pie.  We used 3 large apples to make 12 pies.

Add a dash of flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, and allspice (or nutmeg) to each pie.  As you can see you don’t have to be exact or even add the same amount to each pie.  In fact, a 4 year old can do this just fine. ;)  
Cut out more circles with a cup and place the circles over the pies, then cut a slit in the top.  
Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Delicious!

We tried this with frozen blueberries and strawberries too – yum, yum, yum!  Just add brown sugar and a little flour to the frozen fruit.

Have a beautiful day! :)