Indian Corn Toddler Craft

Any craft involving paint is always a hit with Beatrix, so this was a great Thanksgiving project for us!

We used Lego Duplos to stamp lots of little circles with red, orange, yellow, and brown paint on some white paper. 

Then we went on a walk to look for some cornstalk leaves to use as the corn husks in our project.

Once the paint was dry I cut out a corn shape from the painting. I trimmed some corn leaves and taped them down first. (You could also cut leaf shapes out of brown paper bags and crinkle them up a bit for some texture.) Then we taped the corn down on top. And there you have it! So cute to hang up and display for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Sensory Bin

To make this colorful Thanksgiving Sensory Bin I used this method to dye my rice (except I forgot to add the water - it still worked out just fine, it just took a bit longer to mix!) I also added a few teaspoons of cinnamon and other fall spices to each bag. It smells so good! 

I filled a quart-sized bag with rice for each color. I used orange, yellow, orange mixed with yellow, and dark blue. I added some mini pumpkins, an ear of Indian corn, some feathers, and some mini pie tins. It looks so beautiful!

She has had fun scooping and pouring the rice. She likes it when I bury her hands or feet in the rice. It does make quite a mess, but we try to keep it contained to the tablecloth we use as a playmat. Then I can pour it back in!

Monster Ice Sensory Soup

Halloween-themed sensory fun! Just add some food coloring to water in an ice cube tray and float some googly eyes on the top. Pop them in the freezer. Once frozen, add to some clear water! You could use this as color mixing discovery play as well - use red water and blue ice, for example. Since we did multi-colored ice, our water turned brown.

Beatrix enjoyed whisking the soup, which caused the ice to melt fairly quickly.

She also practiced using her tongs to fish out eyeballs.

Happy Halloween! 

Sticker Pumpkin Activity

Beatrix loves to play with stickers and this is a new and fun way to do just that!

All you need is a pumpkin and some stickers! We used some adorable Halloween stickers we got at a Halloween party we recently attended. Beatrix especially likes that she can peel the stickers up and reposition them over and over.

We have done this activity three or four times now. It is a great project for her to do while I am preparing a meal. She does occasionally need a little help peeling up the stickers, but if I lift the corners of a few of them at a time she is good on her own for a little while.

When she is done, it makes a cute little centerpiece for our table! (And then it is right there ready to go for when she wants to add some more stickers!)

Easy Pumpkin Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Last week Beatrix and I needed something to do. She had been asking to paint for a few days now, so I wanted to do something with paint. A little quick thinking and this is what I came up with. We both had a blast making this adorable little Jack-O-Lantern!

I cut a piece of paper into a rough pumpkin shape for her to paint. She used yellow and brown in addition to orange (she wanted more than one color.) *tip - a brown paper grocery sack makes an excellent paint mat!*

I told her to fill the whole paper with paint, leaving no white spots. She took this instruction very seriously! She got every last white space using both a brush and her hands. While she painted I cut shapes for his face and a stem out of craft foam. Construction paper would also work well. (An older child would enjoy doing this step for themselves.)

We let the pumpkin dry while we ate lunch, then it was time to give him a face! We talked about where our eyes, nose and mouth are located on our face, to give her an idea of where to put each shape. I had her arrange the face and then I glued each piece on in her chosen location with white glue. I also glued the whole pumpkin to another sheet of paper. I set the whole thing under a heavy book to dry. She was so proud to see it hanging on the wall when she woke up from her nap! 

Halloween Sensory Bin

It has been awhile since my last post, but now that the weather is starting to get cooler again, I should be updating more regularly. We spent the summer outside, learning to slide and teeter-totter, jumping in puddles and going on walks. Beatrix's gross motor skills improved by leaps and bounds this summer as she explored the great outdoors! 

The birth of our son in December, coupled with more time indoors once winter comes, has got me planning easy (and somewhat quiet!) indoor activities to engage and occupy Beatrix. I picked up a nice tub at Walmart for about $10. to use as our sensory bin. It has a tray that fits on top that will come in handy for tools and utensils, and the lid snaps on securely. 

I put together our Halloween sensory bin with items from Dollar Tree!

• Tri-colored dried pasta noodles
• Pom-poms in various sizes
• Googly eyes of various sizes and colors
• Spider and bat rings

I dumped everything together, gathered some scooping and pouring tools, and waited for the perfect time to introduce this to Beatrix.

I laid a tablecloth out on the floor to give Beatrix a "boundary" as to where she needed to keep the little pieces and also for easy clean-up. I laid everything out while she was otherwise occupied and waited for her. Soon enough she came running over and was very interested in what she saw.

She spent time looking at each "ingredient" in the bin, and then moved on to testing each utensil. She took this as very serious work

After some time, I showed her how she could wear the rings. Beatrix enjoyed rolling the pom-poms between her hands and spent a lot of time doing this (and asking me to do the same.) We enjoyed playing and experimenting with the different materials together.

She thought it was funny to put the googly eyes over her own eyes.

Experimenting with rolling the pom-poms down her leg!

We spent a solid hour and a half playing with this sensory bin, so I'd say it was a big hit!

Thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon with some more fun ideas!

Flower Arranging | A Toddler Activity

April showers bring May flowers!

My mom gave me the idea for this activity and Beatrix is really enjoying it! I bought a few bunches of fake flowers, rescued a few "vases" from the recycling and - voila! Hours of springtime fun!

Please excuse the jammies :)

Working hard!

Beatrix's beautiful bouquet!

Boys and girks alike would enjoy this activity. We have mixed it up by counting the flowers as they go in the vase, sorting the different flowers into different vases, and just using our imaginations!

Flowering Tree Q-tip Bundle Paint Stamping

Wow, life has been crazy since I last posted. Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things in these next few weeks!

Today Beatrix and I did a painting project!

Isn't it cute? She really did a great job!

I drew a quick tree with a brown crayon (you could cut one out of brown construction paper for added dimension, that would be really cute!)

To make the stamp, take a small handful of q-tips and tape them in a little bundle. I chose pink, green, and white paint. I was going to mix the white with the pink and the green to make them lighter, but I forgot to leave out a q-tip for mixing and Beatrix was getting antsy to start. It got all mixed up anyway!

We started with the tree upside down so she would be more likely to paint the branches. She really got into filling all the white spaces with paint!

So proud of her work! I did direct her just a little bit, I suggested she use green at the bottom like grass and rotated the paper to help her find empty spaces to paint so she didn't have to drag her arms through the fresh paint. But ultimately she was the artist!

The finished product! This would be a great Mother's Day gift for grandma's or an easy project for dad to do with the kids for their mom! I also think it would be fun to do one for each season as they come. This would make a really pretty fall tree with oranges and yellows, don't you think?

I hope I will get back in the habit of posting more often - I have a few fun Spring ideas up my sleeve!