art

Spooky Hands Craft

October 29, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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This shiny spooky hands craft is effortless to do and uses easy-to-gather materials. The supplies for this project can be found at your local grocery and dollar stores.

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Supplies To Collect

white corn syrup
orange, green, and purple food coloring
paint containers and brushes
spoons
spider-themed fake nails
skull-themed fake nails
polka dot fake nails
Q-Tips
spider gems
sturdy white paper
black permanent felt pen
scissors

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Taste safe corn syrup paint ingredients.

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Traced hands and supplies needed to make spider, skull, and skeleton hand-themed crafts.

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Making The Spooky Hands Craft

Using a permanent felt pen, help your early learners trace their hands on a sturdy piece of white paper. Stitches can be drawn on one of the hands. Assist with cutting the shapes out.

Together, mix a few drops of food coloring into containers of white corn syrup with spoons. A bit of yellow food coloring added to green makes it lighter and brighter. A few drops of yellow and red can be stirred to make orange. Combining red and blue makes purple.

Set out the paper hands, corn syrup paint, and paintbrushes. Invite your little learners to decorate each hand in one shiny color.

Add fake nails, Q-tips, and spiders. Let your little learners stick the loose parts into their tacky, painted hands.

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Supplies needed to create a green skeleton-themed painted hand.

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Supplies needed to create an orange, spider-themed hand.

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Supplies needed to create a purple spooky hand with stitches.

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Allow the sticky projects generous time to dry.

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Green painted hand, decorated with Q-tip bones and orange skull-themed nails.

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Orange painted hand, decorated with spiders and spider-themed nails.

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Purple painted hand with stitches drawn on and polka dot nails.

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Other paint colors and nail art can be used to take advantage of seasonal supplies and make the craft project your own.

This spooky hands craft is easy and fun…the perfect combination! Which hand theme is your favorite? Share in the comments section below.

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Spooky hand art using shiny, taste-safe paint and spider and skeleton-themed loose parts.

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Toilet Paper Roll Monsters

October 21, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky 1 Comment

Toilet paper roll monster craft and activities. Easy to make watercolor painted monsters to use with stacking blocks or a red split lentil-based sensory bin.

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For most of the year, there has been a plethora of recycled crafts and activities posted on blogs and social media, and toilet paper rolls have been a “hot” material for craft and sensory projects. Debuting in this post are spunky toilet paper roll monsters. They are so simple to make and can be used with toys or in sensory bins for imaginative play.

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Supplies To Collect

toilet paper rolls
black permanent felt pen
liquid watercolors or food coloring
paintbrush
napkin or paper towel
googly eyes in various sizes
scissors
glue stick
hot glue gun

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Making The Toilet Paper Roll Monsters

Invite your early learner to add a mouth and teeth to toilet paper rolls with a black permanent felt pen.

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Mouths and teeth drawing on paper roll monsters.

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Set out watercolor paints along with a paintbrush and napkin.

Liquid watercolors for painting toilet paper roll monsters.

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Encourage your little one to paint the cardboard rolls, dabbing the paintbrush on the napkin in between hues to remove excess water. The inside of the paper roll tops could be painted as well.

If a paper roll starts to come apart because of wetness, attach large paper clips to the loose parts. After the paint dries, use a glue gun to reassemble the tube.

Paper clips attached to a toilet paper roll that has come apart after being painted.

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When the toilet paper rolls are dry, ask your little learner to add googly eyes. Adhesive wiggle eyes are the easiest to attach. A glue stick or glue gun can be used to add non-adhesive eyes.

Toilet paper roll monsters ready to get their hair snipped and fashioned.

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Eyes can be drawn on the monsters with the permanent felt pen if craft eyes aren’t available to use.

Offer your early learner scissors to snip and style the top part of the paper rolls into “monster hair.”

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Toilet Paper Roll Monster Imaginative Play

These peppy monsters can be set out with a construction toy such as stacking blocks for your little learner to use in imaginative play.

Toilet paper roll monsters with stacking blocks ready for imaginative play.

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The monsters are the highlight of this red split lentil-based sensory bin your early learner will love sifting through. Included are loose parts and stacking blocks that double up as scoops.

Toilet paper roll monsters in a red split lentil-based sensory bin perfect for imaginary play.

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Which of these toilet paper roll monsters is your favorite? Share in the comments section below.

Toilet paper roll monsters on display on stacking blocks.

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Related: Monster-Themed Snacks

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Horse Chestnut Leaf Art Activities

October 12, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

A horse chestnut leaf featured in five easy to do art projects that are suitable for all ages.

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Horse chestnut tree leaves are sizable and showy and have that “wow” factor. They are deep green compound leaves with five to seven leaflets that live on a tree that is beautiful throughout the seasons. The palmate leaves are showcased along with large, spiked flowers in spring. They turn golden yellow in autumn and are accompanied by dramatic, prickly lime green fruits that are coverings for ultra-smooth nut-like seeds called conkers. The leaves are a spectacular subject for art. Featured in this post are five horse chestnut leaf art activities that are easy to do with your early learners.

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Horse chestnut tree flowers in spring. — Flowers in spring.

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Horse chestnut tree with fruit in autumn. — Leaves and fruit in autumn.

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Horse chestnut tree conkers on the left, and broken fruit casings on the right. — Conkers and empty fruit casings.

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Horse Chestnut Leaf Art Activities

Leaf Print

Set a horse chestnut leaf face down on a table with a paintbrush and tempera paint. Invite your child to paint the leaf, turn it over, and press it down on a sturdy piece of art paper.

Horse chestnut leaf paint print invitation.

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Have your little one rub all over the painted leaf carefully, and remove it from the paper.

Horse chestnut leaf paint print in a black and white color scheme.

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A blackish paint produces an unexpected, striking black and white color scheme.

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Leaf Dot Art

Invite your little learner to place a large horse chestnut leaf on a piece of paper, and decorate the area around it with dot markers.

Dot marker art with a horse chestnut leaf.

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Horse chestnut leaves are perfect for dot marker art.

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Removing the leaf reveals a white silhouette.

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Watercolor Resist Leaf

On a large, sturdy piece of paper, help your child trace around a horse chestnut leaf with a black pastel crayon. Carefully remove the leaf, and encourage your little one to add a midrib and veins to the leaflets. Offer a paintbrush and containers of liquid watercolors for painting the drawing. Food coloring hues mixed with small amounts of water can also be used.

Horse chestnut leaf watercolor resist art project set up.

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Horse chestnut leaf watercolor resist art project.

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View a video tutorial of this watercolor resist leaf art project.

Watercolor resist leaf art video tutorial.

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Crayon Relief Leaf

Ask your early learner to place the compound leaf under a piece of thin paper. Offer a selection of peeled crayons. Have your little one rub over the leaf with crayons held upright or laid flat.

A pastel rainbow color scheme adds softness to this art project.

Horse chestnut leaf rubbing with crayons.

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Foil Leaf Rubbing

Place a horse chestnut leaf face down on a table. Lay a slightly larger piece of aluminum foil over it. Help your child gently press the foil over and around the midribs, veins, petiole, and edges of the leaf.

Horse chestnut leaf aluminum foil rubbing set up.

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Horse chestnut leaf aluminum foil rubbing.

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If you are lucky enough to have a horse chestnut tree close to where you live, it can be fabulous to study and photograph throughout the seasons. And horse chestnut leaf art activities add ambiance to home or classroom decor from spring to autumn.

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Do you have a favorite horse chestnut leaf art activity or a preferred leaf for art? I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below.

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Corn Theme Activities

September 6, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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Corn is a symbol of autumn and a garden plant with so many uses. We love it in foods, but it is also found in products such as oil, glue, hand soaps, cosmetics, and varnish. And corn cobs in an array of hues are showstoppers in fall décor. The versatile vegetable can be enjoyed by children in the corn theme activities below.

Corn Maze Visit

A corn maze visit is a farm-infused adventure everyone should have. Aside from the obvious nature challenge of finding one’s way through a giant corn maze, the experience offers so much more.

At my 2019 visit to a local site called the Edmonton Corn Maze, I saw children and adults embracing wholesome activities everywhere I turned. The outdoor venue offers:

The theme for the 2020 Edmonton Corn Maze.

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a corn maze with a pattern that can be viewed from up in the air. The 2020 theme is “Stronger Together.”
large motor opportunities such as hay bales to climb, wagons to pull, huge inflatable pillows to bounce on, and pedal carts to ride.
farm animals to admire up close. The “Goat Gang” pen was my favorite.
learning opportunities such as stations with facts about corn and farm animals, information panels about ecobuffers, and “Cornumdrum” questions to solve.
panels with “Funny Farmer” jokes.
play areas with small mazes and board games.
a toy-filled, sizable corn bin for young children to immerse themselves in.
a “U Pick” Sunflower Patch.
photo opportunities.
picnic areas.

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Corn Theme Activities

Follow up a trip to a corn maze or vegetable department in a grocery store by offering early learners hands-on activities with corn. Here are some options:

Corn Cob Exploration

Give little ones a chance to explore corn cobs. Talk about the parts of the cob: the soft silks, lime green husk, golden kernels, and shank. Allow them to remove the silks and husk from a cob of corn.

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A cob of corn with silks and peeled husk.

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Corn-Based Sensory Tray

Offer early learners a corn kernel and split pea-based sensory tray. Safari Toob farm animals, farmer, tractor and wagon, carrots, and sunflowers are the perfect size for this tray.

Farm sensory tray with a corn kernel and split pea base.

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Corn And Pig Sensory Tube

Set out a farm-themed sensory tube. This one is a clear plastic water bottle filled with pig figurines, gems, and corn cobs and kernels. You’ll find the pigs are super good at hiding!

Corn kernel, pig, and corn cob sensory tube.

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Corn Cob Paintings

Offer corn cobs in three unique painting experiences.

Activity Number One

Invite little ones to drip paint on a large piece of paper placed in a rectangular box, and then drop in a corn cob. Ask them to tilt the box gently from side to side. The cob will move the paint around.

Invitation to make a rolled corn cob painting.

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Activity Number Two

Another technique is to ask children to paint the corn cob with one or more colors of tempera paint, and lay the cob in a box lined with sturdy paper. Invite them to tip the box from side to side so the cob “paints the paper.”

Invitation to paint corn for rolled corn painting.

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The pictures below feature Indian corn-inspired painting.

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Corn cob painting inspired by Indian corn.

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Activity Number Three

A third way is to slice a cob in half with a sharp knife. Invite early learners to dip the halves in different colors of paint and press them on paper to make corn cob prints. The corn can be washed or wiped down with a napkin between colors.

Invitation to make paint prints with sliced corn cobs.

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Now back to what most people do with corn…eat it! If you are looking for inspiration for cooking with corn, check out the post “40 Fresh Corn Recipes“ on The Food Network. You are bound to find new ways for your family to savor it.

Cauliflower Theme Activities

Beet Science and Sensory Activities

Pumpkin Color Activities

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Carrot Theme Activities

August 18, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

One of the easiest vegetables to grow in an indoor or outdoor garden is carrots. This makes carrot activities ideal for hands-on nature experiences with young children.

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Carrot theme sensory, art, and baking activities.

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We usually think of carrots as orange, but did you know that they come in a variety of colors? You can purchase a rainbow bunch, which has purple, red, orange, yellow, and white carrots. Being a lover of all things colorful, I chose rainbow carrots for some of the carrot theme activities.

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Carrot Washing Station

A carrot washing station, set up outdoors or in a sensory tub indoors, offers early learners a farm day experience.

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Save the tops of the carrots for your little ones to use with a mortar and pestle. View the post by Fairy Dust Teaching called “SMASH, CRUSH, DESTROY! How To Use A Mortar And Pestle In Your Sensory Play” for more information about introducing these implements in early learning activities.

Carrot tops with mortar and pestle for early learners to explore.

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Curled Carrot Hair Portraits

Curled carrots make statement hairdos! On a sturdy piece of paper using felt pens, draw a face. Or have your little learners draw one. Invite them to add carrot hair to the face. Since natural human hair is made up of an array of colors, rainbow carrots work fabulously in this challenge.

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If the carrot curls straighten, they still make striking hair.

Rainbow carrot hair portrait. An all-ages art activity.

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Carrot Contour Drawings

Contour carrot drawings are the perfect follow-up activity to reading a storybook such as “The Carrot Seed” by Ruth Krauss. And carrots make a superb subject for guided drawing.

Start by showing early learners a large carrot (with a green carrot top.) Hold up the carrot in one hand. Ask them to follow along with their eyes as you air trace around the outside with your other hand. Discuss the long, thin, triangular shape of the carrot, and the delicate lines in the carrot top. Afterward, offer green and orange felt pens and large pieces of paper for little learners to create one.

Below are drawings preschoolers have made.

Carrot drawings completed by preschoolers.

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Carrot And Bunny Sensory Trays

Little learners love sensory trays with scooping, pouring, sifting, and counting opportunities. Below are two garden-themed trays. They prominently feature carrots and bunnies…a natural pairing!

The first tray has a green split pea base and is simple to put together. It includes:

plastic carrot cup with lid
rubber bunny woolies
ladle
wooden numbers

Split pea-based sensory tub with bunny woolies, numbers, ladle, and carrot cup with a lid.

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This second sensory tray is brimming with bunnies, carrots, numbers, and gems. Green split peas and black beans are the base ingredients.

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Carrot Measurement

A rectangular piece of sturdy cardboard, measuring tape, and washed carrots are all that is needed to give early learners practice in measuring the length of these crunchy vegetables.

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Along with offering carrots in early learning activities, include them in snacks too. And this Roasted Rainbow Carrot recipe from the Food Network Kitchen makes a colorful and appetizing addition to any meal.

Do you have a favorite carrot activity? Share in a comment below.

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Related: Jumbo Carrot Paint Prints Video

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Printmaking with jumbo carrots. The paint colors used are inspired by rainbow carrots. This is an all-ages art activity.

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