Craftivity Corner

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

archives

January 31, 2012
Valentine's Day Craft Links
Love this Valentine's Tee-Shirt from Dollar Store Crafts , it's so much better than the cheesy Valentine's Day ones you can buy at the store. This felted heart from Kitchen Counter Chronicles is so sweet ! This garland from Paint Cut Paste  made from paint chips is all kinds of lovely! What a cute button heart from Hands On As We Grow. Finally a paper hug perfect to pop in the mail for those you can't give real hugs to this Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day Crafts
January 28, 2012
Great Book For Babies
My daughter loves babies and books and this book is one that I have fallen head over heels for too. Global Babies by Global Fund For Children is a super simple board book with far reaching benefits. The book's text is short and follows the theme that all babies are beautiful no matter their origin. It focuses on babies from all over the globe that look very different from each other. The pictures are bright and big and my daughter who is 18 months old loves touching each baby's face carefully as we read. My favorite part isn't the babies from far reaching places but the two very...
Babies, board books, diversity
January 26, 2012
Letter Learning at Lunch
I love fitting learning games into every day events like lunch. This game just sort of evolved and now we all look forward to it at lunch. Also it stretches lunch out for my fast to finish son . All you need are some letter magnets. I randomly grab a letter then we loudly shout out the words we can think of that start with it. Often we do a silly face or say it in a silly voice which gets my toddler giggling and clapping as my son learns while having fun.  She is also being exposed to letter recognition as we label the letters we choose. Fun, easy and full of learning.
Letters, word play
January 25, 2012
Salt Exploration
  Exploring texture and the world around them is what "busy toddlers" are all about. After my son and I made the snowman craft yesterday my daughter wanted in on the action. She loves to paint but had already painted that day what she really wanted to do was play with the salt. So we did. I poured kosher salt into a tray and let her go. We used some water color to make it blue then green ( just a dab of water color on a brush will do) . I didn't intervene too much, sitting with her every now and then asking is it rough? Does it feel hard on your hands? Does it make noise...
Sensory, Toddler Activities
January 24, 2012
Snowman - Contact Paper Resist & Salt Texture
It's been snowing like crazy here but it wasn't the right kind of snow to make a snowman so instead we made one inside. This is an easy but really cool painting project that kids of all ages can participate in. You will need some contact paper, white construction paper, water colors and brush, scissors, a star paper punch and some salt! Start by drawing an outline of a snowman on your contact paper and cutting it out. Peel it off and place on your construction paper. Cut out stars - he was trying so hard. Contact paper is tough to cut. Add the stars to the paper. Paint! My son...
Painting, Snowman, Winter Crafts
January 23, 2012
Paint Projects For Kids- Great Links
Check out these awesome paint projects! Think your kids will like them, I know mine will! I adore the painting above made by pouring and tipping. You have to see the whole tutorial at Housing A Forest, you will be adding it to your to do list for sure. This easy color mixing shamrock project from Mommy And Me Book Club is perfect for kids 1-6 who are still eager to finger paint and get messy while learning about color mixing. This is an oldie but a goodie from Frugal Family Fun - bottle flower prints. I am guessing most of you have a bottle of two ready for it's second life as a craft...
Activities for kids, Arts and Crafts, Painting
January 22, 2012
Building Reading Confidence
One of the biggest hurdles for children learning to read is building confidence in their abilities. As parents and teachers we can't see them wobbling , knuckles white on a handle bar like we can as we prepare to take training wheels off a bike but for many children the fear of failing at reading is as real as the fear of falling hard onto the pavement. You don't need a degree in education to provide a safe and supportive environment for your beginning reader. Here are 5 ways to give your child who is starting to read more confidence to keep going and trying more challenging words...
early literacy, teach your child to read
January 20, 2012
Pretend Play - Doll Bathtime
My daughter is a baby hoarder. She can spot an old raggity doll in a church nursery from 30 feet away, So of course we asked Santa to bring her lots of babies, and he did. This activity wasn't a planned post instead it was playroom fun that was going so well I grabbed my camera.  The best kind of post in my opinion! You will need some babies ( call me if you are short we have  a few extra), a laundry basket, something to pretend to be water like a blue blanket, some bath toys that are familiar to your child, wash cloth ( or old dried out baby wipe), and a towel. Go through the...
Babies and Toddlers, Dolls, Pretend Play
January 18, 2012
Star Wars Spelling ( can be used with any theme)
My son loves Star Wars so for a fun read and spell lesson we did this! You will need some small poker chips ( dollar store! ), puffy paint , velcro dots, a marker and sentence strips. Write out character names and other words for the theme you are doing. I actually spelled Anakin wrong and my 5 year old caught it.  Place a velcro dot under each letter. Puffy paint is tricky so use a little pressure to write the letters on the poker chips. I Also made a letter match element by making all the chips uppercase and the words on the sentence strips lowercase. That way there are a number of...
Early Learning, Letters, Spelling
January 15, 2012
Weekend Pinterest Finds - Snowflakes
Have you found and got lost in Pinterest yet?  It's such a great place for inspiration and here are 5 great  snowflake crafts that caught my eye! It's a Star Wars fan's winter wonderland over at Matters of Grey where you can find not just this Stormtrooper snowflake how to but also Yoda, Bubba Fett, R2D2 , Darth Vader and many more.  Even if you aren't a fan or a parent of one like me you still can't deny the genius of these snowflakes! Parents.com 's colorful snowflake wreath caught my eye, it's not just super cute it would also be a fun group...
Crafts
January 12, 2012
Emery Board Shapes
My kids love building things and I am always on the look out for new materials to build with. Putting velcro on tongue depressors and popsicle sticks is a classic classroom material but when I saw a big old pack of emery boards at the dollar store I knew exactly  that's what I wanted to do with them. By using emery boards we added another level of sensory exploration to a shape activity.  You will need a pack of emery boards and self adhesive velcro dots . Add the velcro to the ends Make sure the pairs all match up. Add your builder! My son was shocked at first not expecting...
Sensory Activities, shapes
January 10, 2012
Snack Match - Learning Colors
My daughter eats everything. Well she tries to eat everything- we have a lot of things put up high, in locked cabinets and my son's Lego is behind a big door she can't get open. So crafting with her has been limited to big , non toxic things... until we turned her favorite snack " FEESH FEESH!"  into a lesson in color recognition. For a similar activity for older kids check out this fun graphing using goldfish over at Oopsey Daisy . You will need some multi colored goldfish crackers or you could use multi colored cereal too. Also some coordinating construction paper, a...
Color Recognition, Early Learning
January 8, 2012
Get Moving Inside.
Staying active in cold rainy weather isn't easy, well not is you want to stay dry. Here are a few family favorites of ours to get some energy out while keeping your house in one piece. Bubble Wrap Jumping. Tape some bubble wrap to the floor, set a timer and see how many pops you hear in a minute. Jumping non stop for a minute even for little kids full of energy is really tiring. This is my favorite burn off some energy trick . Hide and Seek - spy variation. I am sure you know how to play hide and seek. In this variation as soon as the seeker says "ready or not" you need to...
Early Learning, Kids Activities
January 6, 2012
Lollipop Shop - Pretend Play & Math
Pretend play is a great way to teach lessons and I love using any sort of buying or selling for teaching about money or math. We had some extra lollipops after a party and so we made a lollipop shop! You will need a tray that will let your child sort the coins, some jars, paper, ribbon, a hole punch, and lollipops. Start by making tags for the jars denoting the cost of each color of lollipop. We made each color a different price ( 1, 5, 10 and 25) I used the same color marker as the lollipop and attached them to the jars with ribbon. Then my son sorted the lollipops by color into the jars...
Early Learning, math activities, Pretend Play
January 5, 2012
Braided Necklace Craft
My daughter loves getting into my necklaces and putting them on as well as popping them in her mouth which freaks me out! I love chunky jewelry and am terrified she'll manage to bite a bead off and choke. So I made this necklace for her to pop on and because it's braided ribbon there is nothing to bite off and it's held together with velcro that is easy for her to pull off/ pull apart with any pressure. Still all children should be closely supervised when playing with any necklace. Here are the easy peasy steps. You will need ribbon in various colors, scissors, velcro fasteners...
Crafts
January 3, 2012
Easy Snow Sensory Play
I don't know about you but we got a lot of packages at Christmas that included packing peanuts. Well this easy sensory bin uses them for play. You will need them, some plastic snowflakes ( look in the craft aisle or Christmas clearance sections) and cotton balls.  A big container and some tongs ( we get ours at the dollar store). Start by putting in your cotton balls and packing peanuts. Add the smaller snowflakes. Play - while your kids are playing talk about how soft the cotton it, squishy the peanuts are and hard the snowflakes are.  Ask older kids why they think the...
Early Learning, Sensory Bin, Winter