Marble Painting Apple

You will need:

construction paper

paint

cake pan

couple of marbles or glass beads

I cut out an apple for our fruit theme this week. I put it in a cake pan and squirted a little bit of yellow and green paint. I put the beads in and had my son just roll them around to paint his apple. Really easy and mess free painting!

Transportation- Printable Blog

I found an AWESOME blog browsing on Pinterest. Our theme this last week was transportation. I printed off these awesome preschool activities. They have games, handwriting practice, puzzles, etc. I put them in a sheet protector so we can reuse them in the future.

Airplane In the Clouds

You will need:

2 large wooden sticks

1 small wooden stick

cotton balls

markers

glue

construction paper

Color and decorate the sticks. Glue them to make an airplane, then glue your airplane on to the construction paper. Take the cotton balls apart and glue them on your paper to make clouds.

Slippery Soap Poster

We talked about hygiene yesterday. This was our craft. You can print off the soap in black and white or color here. We put it together and glued it on a piece of scrapbook paper and colored around it with markers. We'll probably put it in the bathroom to remind him to wash his hands.

Macaroni Kid

We've started having themes for each week and mini themes of the day that go with that week. It's mostly to help me think of ideas in a way that it makes more sense for me. So this week is All About Me week. Yesterday we talked about My Body. We made this little Macaroni kid for our art of the day.

You will need:

Macaroni

construction paper

marker

two dry beans

glue

I drew a little guy with toes and fingers and everything. I had to help my son put the glue on the lines, he's still learning :) Then he put the macaroni to build a little macaroni kid, and we used two black beans for the eyes. We talked about his body parts and how many of each part he has.

Toilet Paper Roll Rocket

If you have an empty toilet paper roll just go here for a huge list of printable templates of cute things you can color and glue on your roll. We made a rocket!

I Spy Jar

Here's a fun quiet activity for church or any other time you need the kids to be quiet. I found it here. I didn't use as many objects, but maybe I'll use more next time. I put ten objects and I took a picture of them and taped it to the outside of the plastic jar. Then I put rice in it and closed the lid very tight. I'll probably end up hot gluing it too.

Shaving Cream Bath Paint

Found this great idea here. So fun and inexpensive!

Color Scavenger Hunt

I made a little chart with several names of different colors. Then we used these orange tubes from a game to spy for things in our house that are each color. You can use paper towel rolls as your spy tubes to search for your objects. It was a hit!

Sword

You will need: hot glue, two large wooden sticks, two regular size popsicle sticks, paint, brush.

A parent can hot glue the two large sticks overlapping them about an inch or so. Then hot glue one of the smaller sticks on each side about four inches from the "handle" of the sword.

The child can paint the sword as desired.

Now have fun pretending to be He-man (like my son)!

Five Little Monkeys

I found these cute printable finger puppets here. You can print them out in black and white, color, and then have fun with the five little monkeys song.

Balero/ Cup-and-ball toy

You will need: plastic cup, mod podge, tissue paper,sponge brush, yarn, foil.

Make a small whole on the bottom of your cup using a razor blade. Rip tissue paper into small pieces. We used two different colors.

Brush mod podge all around your cup and stick the pieces of tissue paper to it. Layer it making sure that the pieces don't go past the bottom and top edges. Cover the whole surface of the cup. Brush another layer of mod podge to the top and let dry.

Cut a piece of yarn long enough to wrap around the cup twice. Make a ball out of foil and tie it with your yarn. Put the yarn through the whole on the cup and tie double knot at that end to secure it inside.

To play: hold the cup right side up with the ball hanging down. Swing the ball. Then, gently tug to try to make it land inside the cup. Have fun!

Fish Art

What you need: Glue, construction paper, scissors, markers, glitter glue

Cut "scales", a face, two fins, and a tail out of construction paper. Glue the face and the tail at either end of a piece of paper. Make an outline of a fish body as a guide for your child. Glue scales in a row right next to each other starting from the tail end. They can overlap a little to cover the whole body of the fish.

Decorate the tail and fins with markers and draw an eye and a mouth. Use glitter glue or any other thing you may have to decorate the scales.

I made the one below and my son made the one above.

Just Three Balloons

I blew up three balloons, and who would've thought that this would entertain a boy for hours! We played a few games. First, we tried to keep them in the air as long as possible. Then we played where I would throw them and my son would try to catch them before they fell to the ground. It was a hit!

Cereal Box Garage

I had an empty cereal box and wanted to make something fun for my son. I googled "cereal box crafts" and found this post on another blog http://frugalfun4boys.com/2010/10/05/cereal-box-parking-garage/

(I guess she got it from familyfun.com)

I actually just looked at the pictures and made up my own. I didn't have toilet paper rolls so I just made tubes out of cardstock. It probably doesn't look as presentable as I'd wish, but my 3 year-old doesn't mind. :) He's having fun so far!

Potato Stampers

What you need:

two small potatoes

small knife

paint

construction paper

Wash two small potatoes. It's better if they're small for little hands. Cut them in half and carve out the shapes you want on each. Use a different color for each shape and stamp them on a piece of construction paper. Have fun!

Lion Plate Mask

What you need:

paper or foam plate

brown and orange paint

brush

orange construction paper

glue

tape

brown crayon

black marker

popsicle stick

scissors

felt triangle for nose

Paint the edge of the paint orange and the inside brown. While it is drying cut out strips of orange construction paper and scribble some lines on them. Then take your scissors and curl the paper as if you were curling ribbon. When the paint dries cut out eyes and glue the strips around the plate. Tape a popsicle stick to the back so your child can hold it in front of his face. Glue the nose and draw a mouth with a marker.

Egg Hunt Snack Time

So I have a little boy who is not a big fan of eating. He's not picky, he just doesn't eat much when he does decide to eat. I came up with this idea to get him excited about eating snacks. I fill his easter eggs with small crackers, raisins, even a few with mini marshmallows. I hide them around the house and he goes around eating them and putting them in his basket. He asks me to do this all the time. He loves it!

Noise Maker

What you need:

empty toilet paper roll

scraps of paper

scissors

mod podge

uncooked rice

sponge brush

This was another easy one. We cut small pieces of paper. Then I helped glue a larger piece of paper on one end with mod podge. Then my son glued the little papers onto the roll using mod podge. We "mod podged" the top of the paper too to make it glossy. Then filled the tube about one fourth full of rice. I finished it up by sealing the other end with another piece of paper. When it was dry we put on some fun music and marched around making some noise!

Wind Sock

This is a very simple craft.

What you need:

Construction paper

watercolor paints

tissue paper or streamers

glue or stapler

piece of string

So I'm all about making things with what I have. We painted the construction paper together with watercolors and stapled it together when it was dry to make a cylinder shape. Then we cut out long strips of tissue paper (if you have streamers that would be easier) and we stapled them to the bottom of our cylinder. We stapled the string to the top of the cylinder. Voila! We had a wind sock. Easy!

Nutrition Relay

So I've had these big cards from my teaching days with me and I though I could have a little nutrition lesson with my son. We talked about the names of the foods and how food gives us energy. (It was short! He's three and he has a very short attention span) Anyway, to help him practice the names of the food, and get him moving, I put the cards against the wall in another room. I had about 15 or so. I would tell him what food I wanted and he'd run and get it. He thought this was really fun. I thought you could do something like this with any topic really, like shapes, letters, colors, etc. It's a great way to get him moving (and tired) and learning something new.

Sheppard Software

I was informed about this wonderful website with great learning games for children. They have all kinds of topics for all ages. Check it out. My son loves playing the pre-k games. He's actually getting better at using the mouse every time.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/

Metamucil Slime

What you need:

1 tsp Metamucil

8oz water

microwave safe bowl

microwave oven

Time required: 15 minutes

1. mix 1 tsp of metamucil with 1 cup of water in a bowl.

2. Microwave for 4-5 min.

3. Let the mixture cool slightly, then repeat step 2

The more you repeat it the more rubbery it will be.

4. After 3-5 runs in the microwave pour slime on a plate or cookie sheet to cool.

(You can store it at room temperature in a baggie for months. It will last indefinitely in a sealed bag in the refrigerator.

Kids will love playing with this slime/flubber. Not intended to be eaten :)

I didn't come up with this recipe. My husband got it from a cub scout day camp he attended last week.

Animal Obstacle Course

For this activity I printed off four or five pictures of animals and set up an obstacle course around the house. When my son reached each animal he would run, gallop, crawl, or flap his wings like that animal. He had fun pretending with this game. It's a great game to release some wiggles, especially if you're having an inside day.

Puppet Theater

I used a large t.v. box to make this easy puppet theater. My son and I painted it together.

Materials:

cardboard box

hot glue

box cutter

paint

glue

scrapbook paper for the stars

old fabric for the curtains