::Snowman Ornament::

We had a long day at child care a couple weeks ago. It was parent teacher conference day and we had the kids ALL day. So I tried to come up with some fun projects to make the day go faster. We have a ton of clear glass ornaments and I thought it'd be a good time to use them up. 

We drew faces on the ornaments with sharpies. If I were to do this again, I'd use paint pens so they ink wouldn't rub off. After we drew on the faces, we took the gold hanger off the top and filled it about half way with fake glitter snow. 

You could also put on a top hat if you could find them and pull the string through the hat or glue a scarf onto the bottom of the ornament to make him look more festive. There's lots of variations to this project. 

Peace out guys! Pin It

::Silver Bells::

Last year I was trying to think of something new to do for a Christmas art project. I wanted to do something that I'd never done and something that screamed Christmas. I raked my brain and finally remembered the song "Silver Bells." You don't really hear the song much any more but it's one of my favorite songs and thought it'd be a perfect project to adorn our room. 

We cut the bells out of foil and glued on flower. The foil was kind of a pain to cut out, but it did shine very nicely. I think if I were to ever do this again I'd just cut them out of construction paper and paint them silver. 

Laters! 

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::Penguin Projects::

I love penguins. They are by far my favorite animal. So I finally decided to make some penguins for an art project. I came up with this wacky penguin. They looked so cute all in a row. The girls had pink bows and the bows had red bow ties.

Here's a picture of the one I made. Simple shapes...nothin fancy. Right up my alley.

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::December Projects of the Past::

 Here's the projects I used for the boards from the last 2 years. A reindeer and gingerbread man.

The reindeer turned out just adorable. They looked so cute all together. Although that was a lot of pieces to trace. One of these days I'll get wise and start copying all the pieces instead of tracing each and every piece.

These gingerbread men were stupid easy. I printed a gingerbread man coloring page and had the kids sponge paint them brown. After they dried we glued on eye balls, pipe cleaner mouths, and buttons I used ribbon for the icing on the arms and legs. I wish I had more pictures of some of the faces the kids made. One drew a mustache and another a uni brow. It was a pretty hysterical bunch.

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::December Board::

Here's some happy December boards! Apparently I really like the Christmas light boarder since I used it 2 years in a row. 

Here's this year's board:

Last years board...apparently I also like reindeer:

2 Years Ago:

I'll share some of the projects with you later.
Later Gaters! Pin It

::Reindeer::

I love art projects in December. We always go all out in decorating our room for December. I like it to feel cheerful and festive. I also have to be culturally sensitive since we have quiet a few families that celebrate different religious holidays during December. So for my board this year I decided to make reindeer. Nothing more cheerful than some happy reindeer!

Reindeer Hall of Fame:

This one's my favorite! Love the eyes looking down! hehe!

They can't believe it's December already either!

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::I did a bad thing::

...So I ran out of space for posting photos on this blog. So I thought, I'll delete the photos from past posts so there will be more room. Well guess what? I needed those pictures. Now I have to go back into all my old posts and add all the pictures again. Soooooo....hang in there with me while I try to fix everything and get the blog back up and running. I'll still be posting new projects and boards, it just may take awhile to get all the old posts up to snuff!

Sorry for the inconvenience and confusion this is probably causing! Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
Until then.
Peace Out Homies. Pin It

::Scarecrow Project::

I told you I'd probably be adding something else to my board soon and I came up with a cute scarecrow that I thought would be it...but alas...it did not make it to the bulletin board (although they are very proudly displayed throughout our classroom). ;) 

This project was so simple, it's almost silly. Its made from paper lunch bags and construction paper. I like scarecrows because you can make them in October and keep them up through November. If you want to make this art project I created a template for you to print. Just save the image, print, and trace away! 

Scarecrow Hall of Fame:

 This little guy got confused...he made his cheeks into eyes. lol

Here's my template for the scarecrow. I would print it on card stock so that it can withstand multiple tracing (I usually do that so that I can save the pieces for future projects). 

Happy Wednesday! 

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::November Boards of The Past::

November is one of my favorite months, I love doing fall boards. Here's my boards from the last 2 years. 

 My board from 2 years ago. One of my favorites

 Last years board. 

We made turkeys, Indian corn, and torn paper acorns.

I love fall and winter. They're my favorite seasons to decorate for and my favorite seasons to make crafts for.
I'll tell you how we did the turkeys in another post. The picture doesn't do them justice but they were really cute and popped off the board.
Can't wait to share more fall projects!
;) Laters! Pin It

::Indian Corn Cobs::

This is one of my favorite projects I've ever done. They turned out fabulous and were very cute on my board. 

The first time we made these, I turned them into corn stalks. The next year they were just accents on my boar

They were very simple, I printed a corn coloring page for the kids to color. Then the kids glued on buttons to be the corn kernels. To make it more sturdy I glued the corn onto construction paper and then cut it out. 

It was a simple project that turned out great. I loved the way the buttons looked on the corn. So cute!

Happy gluing friends! :) 

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::November Board::

Here's my November board. It's very similar to one I did two years ago...I still might add some more things to it but I'm not entirely sure.

 We made corn this year similar to the Indian button corn I did before, 

only this year we glued on actual popcorn for the kernels.

 I added a little friend to the board. A hungry crow spying the corn! 

It's a good thing I have a scarecrow to keep things safe!

Keeping things simple this month. ;) 

After while crocodile! 

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::October Wrap Up::

Here's a couple more art projects I didn't have time to post. 

We made some "creepy, scaredy cats."

And some q-tip skeletons

We had a blast decorating our room for Halloween, we pulled out all the stops and covered every space we could with projects. Now it's time to gear up for November, I have lots of projects I want to do, we'll see how many I'll actually get to. 

Later gators! Pin It

::Eye-Spy DIY::

This next project I wish I would have thought of on my own, but pintrest to the rescue once again! I made an "eye spy" bottle for down time when there's not a lot of kids there to play with. The funny part is that the other staff got in on the game to see if they could find everything on the list. I think this would also be a good restaurant or car game to keeps idyll minds occupied!

Here's what ya need: some kind of clear bottle or jar (I used a VOSS water bottle because I like the way they look). Make sure the the bottle is completely dry before you start filling it with your goods; I also took the label off so that you could use all sides of the bottle on your quest to find all the items on the list. 

Next you'll need rice or salt to be a filler and a bunch of mini items for the kids to search for. I used buttons, felt cut outs, and other miscellaneous items. I typed out my list and laminated it so that it could withstand lots of use.

Start by adding some of your filler and then add a couple of your "eye spy" items. Then add more filler and more items, repeat these steps until you've filled the almost the whole bottle. I left a little room at the top so that the filler could shift around. Finally seal the lip of your bottle with some hot glue or E6000 and close up the cap so that it doesn't pop open and make a mess!

I tied my list to the lip of the bottle so that it's always attached (you should probably do that before you seal the cap so that it's nice and tight on the bottle). Simple and easy project. This could easily be a fun project to do with kids, which makes it all the more enjoyable after its finished. 

Here's the list of items I put in my bottle:

Red Star Button

Orange Button

Red Cherry

Pink Flower

Wooden Apple

Green House

Wooden Gingerbread Man

Snowman Button

Brown Flower

Green Star

Rubber Band

Paperclip

Toothpick

Pink Feather

Red Jumping Bean

Chain

Ring

Blue Star

Pink Ribbon

Stick

Penny

Straw

Yellow Heart

Leaf
(a fake one is best because real leaves will dry out and crumble in your bottle)

Bow Tie Pasta

Rock

Wagon Wheel Pasta

Peace out guys!

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::Pin Art::

Remember when I told you about bead art? Well guess what...Here's another lifesaver. Pin. Art. We use this every year during December. It's one of our kids favorite activity. I got to thinking though, why do we only do it during Christmas time? Why can't we have pin art during different seasons? So I made some fun prints for Halloween.

If you don't know what pin art is, I'm going to tell you. It's very simple. All you have to do is take a "dotted" picture and attach it to a piece of construction paper (I usually staple it once or twice in the upper corners). Then you take a push pin and poke the holes. When the whole picture has been poked you detach the "dotted" picture and you have your picture. We usually hang ours in our window so that the light can shine through and so everyone can admire our work. ;)

Here's the pin art pictures I made for October. If you want to use these, just click on the image and then right click and then save.

Laters guys!

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::How Do I Do It?::

I've been asked many times from many people how I come up with my ideas for crafts. That's a slightly difficult question to answer because it's a process. I use many methods to come up with crafts. Because I have been doing this for so long and I have repeat kids every year, I try not to do the same crafts over and over again. That means after about my second or third year I had exhausted every single craft book we had on file. I had to start using the internet and my own devices to come up with projects.

A lot of times I come up with a concept that I want to use for my bulletin board and try to find projects that complete that idea. But that only works for so many days, I still have a lot of time to fill with projects. I always try to do at least 3 projects a week; that way I have one floating day to prep or just relax a bit. Plus there's other parts of our room to decorate (like the ceiling!) ;) (at our site Fridays are toy days, so we don't break up into groups like we usually do which means we have no time for projects) What usually happens after I've mapped out my plan of attack on my bulletin board I move on to the projects that I want to do for fun.

For either type of project, I come up with the idea. Sometimes I flush it out myself and come up with my templates to trace the project out. Sometimes I draw a blank and have to turn to other websites and blogs for projects. A lot of times I'll think "I want to make _______." We'll use a penguin for an example. I'll Google search "penguin crafts" or "penguin kid projects" and see what I can find. From there I'll either use what I find and make templates to trace out the project pieces or I'll combine 2 or 3 different images into one cohesive project. More often than not I don't like what I see and combine multiple things into one idea. Many times I'm just looking for inspiration and ways to flush out my own ideas, other times I'm lazy and want someone to do my thinking for me. ;)

With pintrest, things have become much easier. I can just search what I want and lots of things come up. I usually start there and then go to Google if I don't see something I like.

Here's some websites that I've used in the past, both for projects and time fillers like word searches or mazes. I don't really use them much anymore but they're a good starting point and wonderful resource to have on hand.

 The first and one of my very favorites is Kaboose, they have lots of fun and unique projects. They also have cooking projects if you're brave enough to try cooking with your kids. This is probably one of my favorite sites. The second is FamilyFun. They also have wonderful projects as well as group games and easy recipes. The third site I've used is DLTK Kids. This site is generally for the younger crowd. There's a lot of paper projects as well as mazes, word scrambles, and word searches (that could work for the older kids). The last is Coloring. It's a site chalk full of FREE coloring pages. Seasons, holidays, animals, and all sorts of people. The selection is endless for your kiddos. 

So that's how I do it. No rhyme or reason to it. Just good ole creativity and the ever faithful Google. I keep a sample of all my projects in a file box. I want to remember what I've done and it's always a good starting to point to see what I've done and how I can improve. I highly recommend doing this...plus it's always fun to look back. I'll show you how I do it later. :)

Happy crafting friends!
PS if you need more inspiration you can check out my "All Things Child Care" board or my "Bizarre Holidays Lesson Plan" board. Pin It

::The Marvelous World of Bead Art::

Have you heard of bead art? Fuse beads? They are a child care teacher's bread and butter. They keep kids busy for hours...

This is the patterns we have at school from S&S Worldwide. We order a lot of supplies from them. That bucket of beads lasts us for most the year, and that's with some where between 15 and 20 kids doing bead art everyday. Among these shapes we also have squares, hearts, octagons, and circles. I've seen Christmas and sea animal shapes also.  

We use this during down time to keep the kids quiet and busy. One thing I've discovered, is that if kids aren't kept busy, they'll find trouble! So we do all we can to keep them occupied. 

You can do more with these than just make the shapes. I recently bought some beads from Michael's Craft Store for a project at my house and in it came an idea book. You can make all sorts of things from any regular shape. I've seen sheep, balloons, acorns, spiders, owls; the list could go on for ages. I took the book to work and donated it to our bead artist's and ever since then, literally everyday, I have a table or two full of kids busy. These projects are great for all ages, kinder - 5th. 

Every child care needs these. Every parent needs these. If you've got restless children...this is your way to focus their energy and keep those little hands busy. Encourage them to make patterns or different kinds of things with their peg boards (that's what you put the beads on to make the shapes). Some of our boys have come up with some fun robots and aliens- YES even our boys enjoy this! There are even some patterns that show you how to make 3-D objects like ships, castles, or even couches! We've added google eyes to some of they're creatures for an extra element and even turned some into magnets by just gluing magnets to the back.

I'll be sure to take some pictures of some of the things my kids have done. They are quite creative!

Peace Out!

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::October Boards of the Past::

Well apparently I don't have a picture of last years board (so sad)! Maybe I should change the title to "October BOARD of the Past." hehehe! But here's my board from 2 years ago. Those spider webs were a pain in the rear to put up by my lovely co-worker helped me and it really made the board fun. Sorry its not a very good picture, I took it with my very old cell phone.

We did a marble roller project. I love doing these! They turn out so wonderful! Unfortunately when we were doing this I didn't have any black construction paper so I had to use tissue paper. That was such a pain because the paper was so thin and it kept rolling with the marble. But we made it through and had some pretty awesome pictures to hang up. I added little spiders to their pictures to really get the point across. 

If you've never done marble painting before its very simple. You need a pan with sides on it (like a jelly roll pan or brownie pan- any pan with at least a 1/2 inch side is good), a marble, paper, and paint. You put the paper on the bottom of the pan and then dip the marble in your paint. Put the marble in the pan and tip the pan back and forth to get the marble rolling. You can use as many colors as you like, even add a little glitter. They always turn out great no matter what you do.

Have a spooky day! ;) Pin It

::Teddy Bear Day::

October 11th is "Teddy Bear Day." So we made teddy bear faces. Just something simple for the kids to take home. Directions after the jump.

                                               

Bear Hall of Fame

We took a paper plate and glued tissue paper all over it (painting the plate is always an option too). The kids cut out the eyes, ears, and nose and glued them on the plate. We drew on a mouth and glued on google eyes.

Laters! 

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::Spooky Time::

I don't know how many of you have the opportunity to hang things from your ceiling, but I'm a big fan. BIG FAN. I love hanging things from our ceiling. Springtime, Wintertime, Fall time, things are going up! This year I decided on bats. I'm not really into Halloween. Never really have been. But I'm always down to make our room look festive. So bats it was. Here's our batty collection (directions after the jump).

This is my bat.

 Here's my flock of bats...I have no idea what a pack of bats is called so I'm just going to call it a flock lol! ;)

 Here's the batty hall of fame!

 This little missey wanted to add red eyes to make it more spooky and somehow managed to put the wings on upside down...actually a surprising amount of kids put their wings on upside down. How does that happen!?

This one's simple. We rolled black construction paper around a toilet paper roll (you could paint but I didn't want the clean-up). Then I had the kids cut out the eyes, nose, teeth, and wings. They glued them on and used marker to draw the eyes and nostrils. You could use google eyes but we happened to be out so this was my back-up plan (PS...Dollar Tree...google eyes. All sizes. One dollar. SCORE)! I hung string from the back and then hung them from the ceiling. Golden!
I'll add a link to my PDF stencil cutouts for the wings, eyes, nose, and teeth tomorrow...I just haven't gotten around to scanning them in yet.

Peace Out Homies!
Tomorrow I'll show you my past October boards! Pin It