It's time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge! The kids love these challenges so much that sometimes I will find them "hosting" their own challenges for each other or their friends. And I adore watching each of their creative processes. Seeing how they create and modify and recreate until they are satisfied is fantastic. You can actually see how they are thinking. This month's creative material is flowers. I have to say that for me this … [Read more...]
Caterpillar Puppet and Song
We have been caterpillar and butterfly obsessed around here! We ordered caterpillars from Insect Lore and have loved watching the the caterpillar life cycle in action. We have lots of caterpillar books, but the favorite this year is A Caterpillar Grows Up by Melvin and Gilda Berger. They love the photos and one of their favorite facts is that caterpillars have 12 eyes. So when we were making our caterpillar puppet the first thing we added were the … [Read more...]
Upcycled Soda Bottle Planter
Earth Day is coming up and everyone is looking for cute planet-friendly crafts to do. One of our favorites is this upcycled soda bottle planter my 6 year old made for school! It's Earth Week at her school and each grade had a different upcycled project to make. The kindergartners had to make planters and she decided to make a "girl planter" -- of course. She liked the idea of a see-though planter so I cut the top off of a soda bottle for her to … [Read more...]
Egg Carton Computer and Jelly Bean Toss Game
It's time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge! The item this month is an egg carton and we definitely have lots of those in our craft cupboard right now! Last Friday the big kids each got an egg carton to create something with. The almost 4 year old got right to work cutting even though he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to make yet. After he had cut the cup section into 3 parts he announced he was going to make a game and would know … [Read more...]
Making a Leprechaun Trap
We made a leprechaun trap today! I first heard of the idea from friends and thought it sounded great -- creative, fun, St. Patrick's Day themed -- but my husband was skeptical, "You are going to ask the kids if they want to build something to trap a leprechaun in? Doesn't that seem mean? And a little creepy for little kids?" "No!" I assured him, "It will be fun. They love to use their imaginations and build things!" And I was right they do. … [Read more...]
Rainbow Car Paintings
What do you do with two kids who love cars and rainbows? Car painting, of course! Our supplies: Paint in individual containers (in our case old container lids) Small cars that can be cleaned with soap and water Paper in trays (cookie sheets) A dish of water for the car wash Paper towels Then they drove their cars through the paint and then on their papers. In between colors the cars went through the "car wash" to … [Read more...]
Shaving Cream Rainbows
To continue our fun with color we played with shaving cream paint! Not only is it fun on so many levels, it's a perfect medium to use when exploring color mixing. The texture of the shaving cream allows kids to truly see how two primary colors become one. To make shaving cream paint you add a couple drops of food coloring to a mound of shaving cream and stir them together. We mixed ours in a muffin tin so each secondary color was in between its … [Read more...]
Seed Planting
As I've said before we loved The Lorax movie. The book has been a favorite of ours for years and I love how much even little ones take away from the story. But the movie brings it to a whole new level. The message of conservation is now larger than life and set to music. As soon as we left the kids wanted to plant their own seeds and help the earth. Even my 3 1/2 year old was talking about how trees make our air better. Woo hoo! So, this year … [Read more...]
