Gluing and Painting Tissue Paper

Another fun tissue paper craft over here!!  I still have lots and lots of those tissue paper circles, so we are always trying to think of new ways to use them.

This was a fun little art activity because one she was tired of gluing down the tissue paper, we pulled out the paints and started painting.  It's always fun to switch things up a little!!

Today, Sweet Girl glued the tissue paper onto paper

And then painted over the tissue paper.

It was a very colorful masterpiece once she was finished.

Mess Free Color Mixing

Color mixing is fun, but it's oh-so-much more fun when it's mess free. 

I promise both you and your kiddos will love this fun activity!!

Supplies needed:

primary color paints

zip loc bags

painters tape (or some type of tape)

Start by adding two of your mixing colors into a zip loc bag (ie...red and yellow, yellow and blue, red and blue).  Close your bag and tape it down to your table or counter.  Then invite your little ones over for some color mixing fun.

Little Man just like to smash the bag....

But Sweet Girl really enjoyed squeezing and squishing the colors together to figure out what color they would make.

Once you've mixed your colors together to create your new color, slide a piece of white paper underneath your bag.  This creates a great surface to do some "mess-free" drawing.

And if you're kids are anything like mine, they will beg you to paint!  

Pull out those brushes and paper and go to town!!

Happy mixing, drawing and painting!

Enjoy!

Toddler Art: Painting a Farm

To go along with our farm theme this month, Sweet Girl and I painted a farm today.  It was a great opportunity for us to talk about what is one a farm and how fruits and vegetables grow.  Thanks so much to Laugh, Paint, Create for the awesome idea.

It was easy to create and looks pretty cool when it's all finished.

Here's how we made ours...

After I cut up four pieces of card stock, Sweet Girl painted each one a different color. 

Blue for the sky.

Yellow for the crops.

Green for the grass.

And brown for the soil.

Then we added some details to each section.

White clouds to the sky (using cotton balls).

Brown dirt to the grass (using a cotton swab).

And some crops to the yellow section (also using a cotton swab).

And here is a look at our finished farm.

We both are quite proud of the outcome!!

Pasta Fun: 9 Ways to Extend Your Pasta Box

So you have this big ole box of colored pasta and your kiddos barely pay it any attention anymore.  Sound familiar?  Ours goes through stages, but I always try to think of new ways to keep it exciting and fun for my two.  

Here are 9 great ways to extend the use of your pasta!

1. Have a tea party!!

(Pretend to eat it...obviously)

(Drink your "tea")

(Have a pasta "snack")

2. Work on spooning and pouring

This is a great activity to work on control and fine motor abilities.  You can use large or small spoons, scoops, cups, etc.

3. Pasta sort by color

Gather up plates and cups that are corresponding colors and have a sorting party.  We do ours in "race style" where we see who can fill up a plate the fastest.

4. Find the error and correct it

This is always fun for little ones.  Little Man is almost 17 months and he is really into "things being in the right place".  

5. Pasta sorting and matching 

and

6. Pasta counting

For this activity, you can sort the pasta by color and/or shape.  To try to work on some simple counting skills, Sweet Girl and I will try to make sure all the rows have 10 pieces of pasta.

7. Stringing pasta

Make a fun pasta necklace using rigatoni pasta and a shoestring.

8. Pasta patterns

Add a little fun to your pasta stringing by creating patterns with your pasta!

9. Find the pasta game

This is probably Sweet Girl's favorite thing to do with the pasta.  Just grab three cups and hide a piece of pasta underneath one of the cups.  Then move the cups around a few times and have them guess which cup the pasta is under.  (FYI...this works better on either a hard floor or table).

What are some fun ways you play with your pasta?   I'd love to hear!!  

Our Pretend Farm - Sensory Bin and Additional Activities

Sweet Girl is having so much fun playing with our tot trays this month and actually created this sensory bin, pretend farm and corresponding activities by herself!  She just told me what to cut, where to put it, etc...

She is having lots of fun...making up stories about babies and mommies, birthday parties....all that good imaginary play!  And it's been a great learning experience.

Here's what is on our pretend farm and sensory bin:

Popcorn kernels

Barn (from our string a farm set)

Mini farm animals

Various pieces of felt cut up to be a pond, a mud puddle, grass, vegetables.

Several pieces of string (as hay for the horses)

Mini basket

The ducks in the pond.

The mommy pig and the piglets playing in the mud.

Planting a vegetable garden

Here I just grabbed an ice cube tray and cut up some pieces of felt to be our "vegetables".

She has literally spent hours playing with our farm set!!

Guest Post at Life...Your Way Today!

I'm so excited to be guest posting over at Life...Your Way today!  It's such a great site with a wealth of information about home, organization, kids, living, etc.  Pop on over and check it out!  Grab your cup of coffee because you will definitely be staying for a while!

Tot Trays - Farm Theme

We are going with a farm theme for this months trays!!  We love going to farms, so hopefully we can plan a visit this month also!!

Farm animal matching

Counting pigs

I made up these counting dot cards similar to the ones used in Montessori activities.

Mommy and baby farm animal nomenclature cards

This is from Counting Coconuts.

Stringing a farm

This is a super fun stringing activity and both of my kids love it!  The pieces are great because they can each stand on their own so you can play with them as well.  Plus, the string is great because it has a long wooden piece to help you guide the string through the whole.  

Pouring milk

I'll add some water and a little bit of white paint and Sweet Girl will practice this in the kitchen.

Cutting practice

Writing and coloring farm book

I put together a simple little farm book with some words Sweet Girl can trace, as well as pictures to read/match to the words.  And there is extra space for simple coloring too.

Here's what the inside of the book looks like.

Washi Tape Fun

I love washi tape and I love using with all my crafts, but I usually never, ever let those sweet little fingers get at it!  Then, Jean at The Artful Parent mentioned how Discount School Supply now sells a variety pack, I couldn't wait to get some for us to play with!!  And it really is as fun as it looks!

The tape is pretty easy to tear and Sweet Girl had a lot of fun just tearing it off the roll.

She even made a self portrait (hmmm..she's missing an arm).

We also played around with building some letters.  I would made a letter using a few pieces of tape and then I would have her place her tape either over my letter or beside it to try to copy it.

Little Man kinda got in on the action, but he wasn't much of a fan of it because it tended just to stick to his  cute little fingers.

He did enjoy building towers with it, though...