Bug Week Kids Crafts

This week our homeschooling curriculum was all about bugs…the kids loved it!  This was a great unit with all of the cicadas out and the flies, gnats, dragonflies, butterflies, etc.  And tons of fun crafts, too!

We started out by cutting out bug pictures and classifying them by how they move: crawl, slither, or fly.  Then we glued them on different pieces of construction paper.  Both kids really enjoyed this activity.  They even acted out crawling and flying!

Then we made construction paper flowers with pompom centers and pipe cleaner stems.  I had the kids put their thumbprints on white construction paper with yellow paint, and we made little bees and glued them onto Popsicle sticks.  Also a big hit.  This was a great way to teach them how bees get nectar from flowers and take it back to their hives to make honey.  Top that off with a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and this is a wonderful bug activity!

Finally, and by far my favorite craft of the week, we made a ladybug tic tac toe game.  The bodies of the ladybugs are cut up cardboard egg cartons painted with acrylics.  Of course, anything that involves painting goes over really well with my kids.  Once those were dry, we glued on 1″ pompoms for the faces, two googly eyes and black chenille stem antennae.  Colton did a lot of the gluing…we just used tacky glue for most of it.  He has been loving bug week!  I hot glued the ribbon on for wings because the tacky glue just wasn’t cutting it.  The board is just orange poster board with black construction paper squares glued on.  This was one of my favorite crafts so far because it was something the kids could really help with plus they learn how to play tic tac toe.

The rest of the weekend is going to involve a 10 Commandments train and a Cat in the Hat hat painting.  I was going to do those today, but I really want to laminate the 10 Commandments train.  And I just found out that my dad got my mom a laminating machine for Christmas.  How did I not know this for six months?!?!?!  She asked if I would like to use it…um, yeah, duh.  So I’m going to laminate those tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Happy crafting!

Daddy Gifts on a Budget

I would have just labeled this post Father's Day gifts, but my hubby has the unfortunate luck of having a birthday that falls right between our son's birthday and Father's Day, so I'm including the simple birthday gift idea.  It can still be used for Father's Day, too.  But I will start with the Father's Day gift we did for my hubby this year.  It's an adorable painted plaque with the kids' handprints.  The original idea came from here.  I loved the smaller squares and found some perfect ones at Michaels, but my kids' hands were just too big.  So I ended up going with the rectangular beveled plaques and a larger background plaque.  I also really loved the staining on the original, but I just didn't have time.  One thing about having a hubby who doesn't work outside the home is that he is always around somewhere :).  So I had less than an hour to throw this project together.  I'm happy with how it turned out for the time I had.  And I think he will really love this.

For the simple birthday gift, I made some fake movie tickets on the computer with a blank movie ticket template and a watermarked image from Iron Man 3.  I put them in a silver envelope and finished with a classy black ribbon.  A very simple idea, but it will lead to a much-needed date night!!  He was thrilled with this!

The last homemade gift idea we used was for the bird lover in our lives, my dad.  The kids picked out the birdhouse at Michaels and painted it...well, mostly Colton painted it.  But it turned out adorable.  And homemade gifts are always well received by those doting fathers and grandfathers, especially when you are on a budget.

Wishing all of you a Happy Father's Day this weekend!

Homeschooling Crafts: Weeks 6-7

It's been a while since I've posted homeschooling craft ideas.  Between the craziness at work and Colton's birthday, it's just been too hectic.  But we have been working on some fun themes.  Week six was all about giants - dinosaurs, whales, skyscrapers...everything huge!  The kids absolutely loved it.  We did dinosaur puzzle and read dinosaur books.  The Bible stories of the week were, of course, David and Goliath and Jonah and the Whale.  Both were big hits with the kiddos.

As for crafts, we did these fun foam bird mobiles.  It's just foam pieces cut into the shapes of the bird body and wings.  The wings are glued into a slit in the body and then held in by yarn threaded through hole punches - one in the center of the wings and one on either side of the slit.  The kids decorated them with foam stickers and markers, and then we glued on some fun feathers we picked up at Michaels.  This was definitely a fun hands-on craft for the kids, and one they are enjoying in their rooms.

 

Then we broke out the paint...always a treat for the kids!  I cut out butterflies on painting paper and had them paint one side using Qtips as brushes.  Then we folded them with the paint on the inside so the design would transfer symmetrically.  It worked out a little better with Kaitlyn's (bottom)...by the time we got Colton's folded, the paint had dried some.  But, like I said, anything with paint keeps them both happy :).

 

The other painting craft we did was supposed to be a starry night scene.  Part of this weeks lesson is about moon stages and nocturnal animals, so this fit right in.  Believe it or not, Kaitlyn's is the one that actually turned out really well.  I was pretty surprised since Colton is usually the neater little artist!

We also did a lesson on coins, so of course we had to do some coin rubbings.  The kids had some trouble keeping the coins still under the paper, so I made them an example sheet to learn the names, sizes, and values.  But they had a lot of fun with this one anyway!

And I"m going to end with a couple more flower pictures!  There is so much beauty in every season, but I absolutely love the flowers...God showing off :)!  Our day lilies came out like crazy this week, so I had to give them some picture love.  Kaitlyn was so amazed by their beauty!  Hope you're all having a blessed week!

Glittery Jesus Fish Mobile

This is quite possibly my favorite craft to date…a glittery Jesus fish mobile.  I found the idea here.  Now if you’re like me, the thought of setting your kids loose with glitter will make your stomach turn.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not a bad clean up at all.  The kids absolutely loved painting glue and sprinkling glitter.  And Colton adores the Jesus fish anyway, so this craft was right up his alley.

And the finished product…  We wrote I Heart Jesus on the cardstock.  Colton did a great job writing his own!

The other craft we did this week was a paper plate bird.  They’re cute, but they weren’t nearly as big a hit as the Jesus fish mobiles.

Mother's Day Kids Crafts

For the week of Mother's Day, we did a foam house family portrait.  It’s just foam tacky glued to poster board with family pictures.  The kids had fun with this one and it looks cute.  Then we did curlicue signs for my mom, sister, and grandma.  These are cardstock backings with decorative paper on top.  The “writing” is strips of construction paper rolled up.  Those little curlicues took forever to make.  So this ended up being a mostly me project since the kids lost interest pretty quickly.  Both of these ideas came from a craft idea magazine my parents found.  We also made Mother’s Day cards.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of those.  But they were inspired by a craft from Oriental Trading.  We cut out the kids’ handprints and a folded flower pot shape from cardstock.  We glued one handprint on the inside of the front flap of the flower pot and the other handprint on the inside of the back flap.  Then we decorated the fingertips with foam flower stickers.  It turned out pretty cute…wish I had remembered to get a picture….

Wood Animal Craft

Here is a little frog and a butterfly made out of little wood shapes (they sell these in a large bag at Michaels).  The original idea called for painting these, but we are doing a lot of painting this week, so I opted for just having the kids use markers.  I helped fill in the color a little bit.  Then we just used Alene’s tacky glue to put them together.  You can also add a magnet to the back.  I was going to do that, but the kids are enjoying carrying them around and playing with them too much.

Weather Chart

This is a fun little weather chart we put together several months ago using printouts from the Nick Jr. website.  It’s been an awesome tool for the kids to learn about weather and days of the week.  I’m thinking a laminator would be a good investment, though, since it’s showing some wear and tear.