Craftivity Corner

Allison McDonald
Creative crafts, book suggestions, and tips to make time for learning in your busy day.

archives

October 28, 2010
Graphing Trick or Treaters
My son is still pretty little and we don't venture too far on Halloween, choosing to stay in our neighborhood and limiting his candy consumption. One thing we are doing this weekend is making a graph and recording the costumes that knock on our door. 1. You will need a large piece of paper, marker, ruler and either a pencil or some fun pumpkin stickers. 2. Sit down and decide on some popular costumes with your child, depending on how old they are and how keen they are choose a few or many different costumes to track. Here is out list : Princess Firefighter Witch Pumpkin Spider Man Cowboy...
Early Learning, Halloween
October 27, 2010
Easy Math Activity
My son loves cars and trucks and I have an unhealthy obsession with office supplies. I don't need half the labels and posts its I have in my house so for this activity I used some of my surplus up while my son learned too! 1. Gather your materials. You will need some colored binder reinforcements,markers in coordinating colors,and a piece of construction paper. 2. Draw a pick up truck with tires in the back. Add numbers in the middle and a circle of color around the number. 3. Invite your child to come and add the same number of reinforcements as the number in the same color to the page...
Early Learning
October 25, 2010
Family Pumpkin Patch
My son's preschool class went to the pumpkin patch last week and we have been playing farm and pumpkin patch at home most days since. For this craft we actually used our first names but since I try to keep my kids names offline I just used our titles for the web version! 1. Gather your materials. You will need some precut pumpkin doilies ( dollar store), green and brown markers , a large sheet of white construction paper and glue. 2.Start by giving your child the markers ( paint would work too) and have them make the vines, and dirt. 3. While they do that write the names of your family on...
Halloween, Kids Crafts, Thanksgiving
October 22, 2010
Adult Made Halloween Crafts
Halloween brings out the crafty in many of us who aren't so crafty , I may make kids crafts a lot but adult ones... not so much. Here are some fun adult halloween crafts for you from around the web. I love this very refined pumpkin from Organize and Decorate Everything Check out this cool Halloween Shirt from A Girl And A Glue Gun I think I may have found my new favorite blog! My son would love this Spider Pillow from Ameroonie Designs I love these crackle pumpkins from Fern Creek Cottage, I need to make some of these for my kitchen. Need a tasty but so gross cake for Halloween? Look...
Blog links, Crafts
October 20, 2010
Food For Thought! - Lunch Lessons
I am a big fan of using every day things, and events to teach young kids. Meal times are a great time for that. One of my favorite way to do that is to make a theme for lunch, here are some of the meals that were hits at our house. Color Meals Red - Pasta with red sauce, Strawberries and Red peppers! Green - Scrambled Eggs with chopped spinach , Green apples and broccoli. Yellow - White cheddar mac and cheese, Bananas and corn! Letter Meals B- Banana, Blueberries and Roast Beef Wrap. C - Cheese Sandwich, Carrots, and Cranberries. P - Pasta, Snap Peas and Peach yogurt. S - Soup,...
Early Learning
October 18, 2010
Thumprint Pumpkin Card
Make this easy and cute pumpkin card for Halloween or Thanksgiving. 1. Gather your materials. You will need a blank light colored note card, orange and green ink pads and an orange marker. 2.Press your thumb into the orange ink pad. 3. Press onto paper, using your pinky dip it into the green ink and make stems. 4. Add Happy Halloween in marker and you are all set!
Halloween . Arts and Crafts
October 17, 2010
Pumpkin Sort and Count
I love using holidays as a novelty with lessons. My son is so excited about Halloween and short but useful activities like these are more fun with a Halloween theme. Also if you don't celebrate Halloween you can still use the pumpkin fall theme. 1. Gather your materials. You will need a few jack-o-lantern containers, tongs and some orange , yellow and green pom poms. 2. Put your pom poms in a dish and let your child sort them using the tongs. You can have one of each color in the containers to start or make it more challenging and have them do that step independently. 3. After filling...
Early Education, Sorting
October 14, 2010
Halloween Tricky Treats
Do not read this if you are hungry, you will be adding candy melts, gummy worms and cupcake liners to your grocery list without a second thought! Those yummy ghost cupcakes come from Hoosier Homemade . Get squirmy with this wormy apple treat over at Feels Like Home. Love this Jack-O-Lantern cookies from Make And Takes , especially that there is no baking involved! Check out these edible sugar skulls from Dollar Store Crafts ! I can't leave our these spider cookies I made on my main blog No Time For Flash Cards a few years ago.
Blog links
October 13, 2010
Easiest Bat Craft Ever
This is very possibly the easiest craft ever. If you need something for a Halloween party where kids would rather be eating candy but adults want something quick to take home... this is it! 1. Gather your materials. You will need 3 black cupcake liners, 1 sheet of construction paper ( purple or orange), glue and 2 googly eyes. 2. Glue a liner in the middle of your paper. 3. Fold the other two liners in half. Glue to the edges of the middle one. 4. Add eyes and let dry. If your child is keen , add a spooky scene on the paper before adding the bat.
Halloween Crafts, Kids Crafts
October 12, 2010
3 Great Halloween Books
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll is a sweet story about two mice both feeding and caring for a pumpkin without the other knowing. What I like about this book is that the mice work together for most of the book without knowing it, and when they do discover that they have both been tending to the giant pumpkin they don't try to claim it and each mouse still gets to carryout their plans of the pumpkin and jack-o-lantern contest. Nice lesson about cooperation. Happy Halloween Emily by Claire Masurel is a story about a little bunny Emily who is getting excited about Halloween but soon...
Children's Books
October 11, 2010
6 Tips For A Happy Halloween
In my life before kids one of the things I did was facilitate kids parties at a large Rec Center and I learned a few things about special events , sugar and kids. Most importantly the way to do it right, or at least try to! 1. Sleep. Young kids are amazing little creatures who are wonderful when well rested and bouncing off the ever loving walls when they are tired. Many ( my son included) gets more hyper the more they need to sleep. So plan an early bedtime, bath before bed or another sure fire way to get a good night's sleep the night before Halloween. If they are still napping - plan a...
Halloween, Parenting
October 10, 2010
Easy Peasy Dalmation Costume
My son was adamant that his sister had to be a dalmatian for Halloween, see he is going to be a firefighter and everyone knows a real firefighter needs a dalmatian! This was simple to make and inexpensive too! 1. Gather your materials. I bought a pair of all white PJs for my daughter with a matching hat, 3 sheets of black felt,scissors, black thread and a needle. 2. Cut out the dots from the felt , don't forget two big ears for the hat! 3. Pin the ears to the hat and spots to the suit too! 4. Once the dots and ears are in the right places using a needle and thread simply tac them on....
Crafts, DIY, Halloween Costumes
October 7, 2010
Fall Craft Links
These leaves from V and Co are simply beautiful! This leaf bracelet from I Can Teach My Child is pure genius! This four season tree craft from Naturally Educational is darling! Ohhh I love this acorn craft from Toddler Approved!
Blog links, Crafts, Kids Crafts
October 6, 2010
Scrap Paper Leaf
I love using scraps to make cool collage crafts. 1. Gather your materials. You will need scrap paper in fall colors, scissors, construction paper, and glue. 2.Start by drawing an outline of a leaf on the paper. 3.Add glue. 4.Rip pieces of the scrap paper and pop them on the glue. 5. Keep adding glue and paper, let dry and cut out.
Crafts, Fall, Kids Crafts, Leaves
October 5, 2010
Texture Leaf Craft
1. Gather your materials. You will need some bird seed, glue and paper. 2. Start by making the outline of a leaf on the paper with the glue. You can draw it first then add the glue or go free hand. 3. Add the bird seed. 4. After you give it some time to dry shake off the extra.
Fall, Kids Crafts, Leaf
October 3, 2010
Fall Leaf Crafts
I love the fall and the changing colors outside my window have inspired this week full of fall leaf crafts. Leaf Sun Catcher 1. Gather your materials. You will need some contact paper, scissors, tissue paper and one sheet of black construction paper. 2. Start by drawing a leaf on the back paper and cutting it out. 3. Cut a piece of contact paper off the roll and place the black paper on it, sticky side up. 4. Cut the tissue paper and place on the sticky contact paper. 5. Cut another piece of contact paper and press. Then cut the leaf out.
Fall, Kids Crafts