PIP crafts and activities

brightning · September 2010

Have you made anything crafty lately?

DD made caterpillar versions of everyone in our family. Gluing the buttons onto the popsicle sticks was a good fine motor challenge for her! They were added to our centerpiece, which was ...

Skewers with beads, tissue paper and egg cartons (and lots of Tacky Glue) to make flowers. Some of the other flowers are just tissue paper which DD folded up.

I know there's nothing here for scale, but this cake pan is about 3" wide. DD had so much fun rolling up extra pie crust dough and spreading it with butter, cinnamon and sugar. I cut it and baked, and she was SO PROUD to have a little treat that she made completely by herself.

Scrubbing pennies. Two containers had vinegar and salt. DD scrubbed with a toothbrush then cleaned with water. Really fun! We'll do this one again!

Ice cream cones! DD drew Xs all over paper and then cut into triangles (which was a challenge - she's good at cutting straight lines, but angles were tough). Glued on the ice cream shapes.

Do you like green eggs and ham? Equal parts flour, salt and water mixed up then put in a squeeze bottle (plus paint for color). She made tons of these! Good squeeze practice.

Corn!

DD wanted to make a pink bee with pink stripes. She painted the inside of a cup with glitter glue, sprinkled in sequins and glued eyes on the bottom. I cut two slits in the side of the cup for foam hearts. A ribbon around the outside is stripes (glue dot at each end).

Terrible picture, I know. I just wanted to show that we covered her table with foil then set it in the sun to get really hot. Brought the table into the shade and colored on it with Slick Sticks. It was like writing with lipstick - really smooth and gratifying to color on (then it got rained on!).

Cutting and crumpling practice. DD cut up the yellow cheese (a lot of it got painted over, though) and wanted some other details, which I cut out. She also scrunched up the black "olives."

DD wanted a police car made from Costco box, so here it is. We covered it with easel paper and added lots of details (mostly with sticky-back glitter foam). This has gotten lots of play and it was basically free.

Wow, this got long, sorry!

BrideforKen · September 2010

No, we haven't but you have inspired me!! Your crafts look so fun and neat!

Read2Me · September 2010

I love love love the corn! That is so cute! All of your crafts are wonderful- you are so creative and Dana is lucky to have such a great momma!

VTbride05 · September 2010

LOVE yours! So great!

Here are a few of ours:

We made a card with stars, stripes, and lots of stickers to include in a care package that we sent to my cousin's husband in Afghanistan

Fly swatter painting. This was fun. After the paint dried we added bug stickers.

Stained glass pumpkins with contact paper and tissue paper. We've made these a few times this week b/c they look so great around the house:

We made apples crafts a few times this week. For this craft I traced two apples and one DS covered in tissue paper and one he painted. We added ribbon for the stem:

Today we sponge painted apples and then I put cut them out and put them on nicer paper with a recent pic of DS and write "apple of my eye". It's pretty cute.

Love the ideas.... keep them coming. Because I like to share with 24+months, and your ideas are so awesome I am going to XP. Hope that's okay!

praline · September 2010

You are so creative! Here's my problem...I get so overwhelmed by how to go about getting together the things I need to do these crafts on a regular basis.

Do you have special websites you love to use? (I know about "No Time for Flashcards" and it's really nice)

Also...anyone have a list of what a nice craft cabinet at home should have to be able to look some of these things up and do them on the fly. Anyone mind sharing? We obviously have crayons and markers and construction paper...but then...not so much.

Also (finally) Brightning...could you explain how you know about these fine motor activities? I think DD could definitely use some work in this area, but I'm not sure what activities specifically to choose...gluing, crumpling? Thanks! Totally appreciate any input you could give. You should start a blog (do you have one?).

roseroseroseroserose · September 2010

Bright! These are awesome!

brightning · September 2010

Praline: Nope, no blog for me!

I have several "Mailbox" book/magazines that are very helpful. They're available at virtually all teacher supply stores. Some of the ones I have are separated by skill (crumpling, cutting, etc) and some are by letter or season. A lot of Montessori activities also involve fine motor skills.

Mary Ann Kohl writes wonderful kids crafts books that focus on the "process, not the product." Her newest one is called "Art with Anything" and has 5 activities for each everyday supply - paper bags, bubble wrap, etc. I also have her "First Art" book. Our library has a bunch, so I'm sure they're widely available.

We have tons of art supplies but I've been collecting them for a while. A lot of the items were ordered from Oriental Trading or Discount School supply - I filled DD's Easter basket with crafty stuff when she was 18 mos and have been collecting ever since. If you've got construction paper, foam paper, googly eyes, glue, kid scissors, markers, paint and crayons, you can do a lot. I use cheap paper plates all the time, too. You definitely don't need to buy everything at once and it doesn't all have to be organized. DD will just say to me, "I want to make a ___ today" and I'll just look at what we have and try to make it work. Or I'll see something I like, realize I don't have any of the supplies, and try to find a way! I keep a notebook with ideas that I like (complete with little drawings) so that I can just flip through it.

Clear Contact paper is great for making suncatchers, and we use a lot of colorful tissue paper, too. Liquid watercolor is really useful for painting, and things like coffee filters are great for making animal wings. Recyclable stuff - 2 L bottles, egg cartons, paper tubes - is free! I buy cheap ribbon when it's on sale at Michael's.

Some good sites:
https://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/toddlers/
https://www.artfulparent.typepad.com/
https://4crazykings.blogspot.com/
https://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/
This is a helpful link: https://artfulparent.typepad.com/artfulparent/artsy-ideas-to-get-you-started.html

HTH!