I admit it, I can be a perfectionist and that isn’t always the best trait when it comes to children and craft projects. There have been more times than I can count where I struggled to resist the temptation to tell my boys the ‘right’ way to do a project. One way that I found to give Nugget and Goose the freedom to create on their own terms is a ‘Creation Station’. This is simply an intentional collection of themed items that encourage kids to be creative. Today’s Valentine’s Creation Station is an invitation to create valentine’s cards and artwork and my boys have had so much fun with it!
What to Include in Your Valentine’s Creation Station:
Like any good Creation Station, I began by gathering a large assortment of materials that I felt could be used creatively for Valentine’s Day cards. My Station included the following:
Crayons in shades of pink, purple, and red (with a house full of boys every card would be camouflage otherwise!)
A variety of Valentine’s themed stamps with red and pink ink pads
Pink & white heart shaped doilies
Assorted Valentine’s cardstock
Heart & Valentine’s themed stickers
Markers in shades of pink, red and purple
3D lovebug embellishments
Assorted plastic gem stones
Small foam conversation heart stickers
Glue & glue sticks
Scissors
The most important thing was to set the tray out and then let the boys choose their own paths for card making. It would have been easy to attempt to guide them into a more traditional card style, or even to demonstrate what I determined to be the ‘proper technique’. This really would defeat the purpose of a Creation Station. The idea is to encourage creativity which means there is no wrong way to do a project.
Project Review:
After 2 weeks, this Valentine’s Creation Station is still a huge hit! Most evenings while I cook dinner the boys use the Creation Station to make cards. I love seeing the focus and effort that they put into each card – and the pride when they complete their work!
Word of warning: introduce ink pads with care! I thought Nugget had it under control … until he didn’t! He decided stamping is more fun for faces than cards *eek!* Fortunately this ink is VERY washable.
Looking for some books about Valentine’s Day? Click Here!
We are rolling right on through our farm themed tot school unit, and so far we have been having a blast! If you missed Part I, be sure to check it out. There were some really great crafts, recipes and activities for preschool or tot school. Today, our farm unit is going to the birds – literally! All of our crafts and activities revolve around poultry, so we will be feeding poultry, gathering eggs, gluing feathers and much more. Let’s get started!
Feed the Chickens Counting Mats
I think counting mats are such a fun way to combine fine motor skill development with early math skills. Plus, they make counting just a little more fun. I designed these mats for counting up to 20, although you could easily use only the first 10 to match your child’s skill level. On each card I have featured one or more bird from the farm, and these birds are hungry! I recommend using dry corn kernels but you can use any dry beans or small counter that you have at home. As always, any small object (such as corn kernels) can post a choking hazard to small children so use your own best judgement.
While Goose enjoyed working his way through all 20 counting mats, Nugget had fun helping by trying to name what type of birds were on each card. It’s always great when a learning activity can include both an older and younger sibling!
Visit my Digital Resource Library to download and print your free copy of my Feed the Chickens Counting Mats. Don’t have an access code? Easy! Just sign up below and one will be emailed to you right away!
Fruit & Veggie Search Sensory Bin
I wish I could take credit for this activity but all the credit for this one goes to Kim at Life Over C’s. Definitely check out her site for some fantastic learning activities and to download the printables for this fun activity.
This activity features a printable mat showing a wide assortment of fruits and veggies, along with a matching set of fruit and veggie cards. A quick pass through the laminator and a few Velcro tabs later and you have a fun and educational sensory bin search! I used Popsicle sticks and card stock to make garden signs that I adhered inside our sensory bin with a hot glue gun. This was definitely one of our cuter activities, and digging through the beans to find each fruit or vegetable kept Goose occupied for quite a while.
When we began I figured this would be one of those short-lived activities that wasn’t challenging enough for Goose but was a bit advanced for Nugget, boy was I wrong! It turns out that Goose’s fruit and veggie vocabulary isn’t quite as advanced as I thought and he learned a lot as he dug out each card and then let Nugget help him find the match.
Of course, soon the tractor was digging out the vegetables, and I had to watch Nugget like a hawk to be sure he didn’t try to eat the black beans, but overall I would call this one a win!
Decorate Your Own Rooster Craft
For this project we decided to create our own pet roosters! Goose named his ‘Captain Picklepuss’, which is of course a very respectable name for a rooster. We decorated our roosters using glue, feathers, crayons, and pretty much anything else Goose dug out of our craft closet. The end result was a rooster that would be the talk of any barnyard, I’m sure.
Visit my Digital Resource Library to download and print your free Rooster Printable. Don’t have an access code? Easy! Just sign up below and one will be emailed to you right away!
Egg Gathering Imaginative Play
My boys have very active imaginations and adore pretend play. I think that the creative thinking skills developed during imaginative play are vital to future success, so we put a lot of emphasis on it in our house. When shopping for toys I always avoid what Alton Brown calls ‘Unitaskers’. These toys that can only be played with in one specific way just seem limiting and are rarely the toys that see repeated play.
For this activity I made nests out of paper bags (instructions below) and then filled each nest with a few plastic Easter eggs. We were a little short on stuffed chickens so our nests included a variety of feathered occupants. After staging the nests, I also laid out a cowboy hat for costuming, and an egg carton for additional sorting practice. I gave each boy a basket and encouraged them to gather eggs and just have fun. Not surprisingly, Nugget decided to fill his basket with poultry and lovingly carry them throughout the house, carefully clucking and quacking at each one. This is such a sweet age! Goose took the task a little more seriously and was very intent on gathering all of the eggs, and opening each one in search of leftover Easter candy. As if candy would last that long in our house!
They returned to this activity several times this week, and each time they found new ways to interact with the nests. My favorite was when I walked into the room to find Nugget sitting very carefully on a plastic egg. Evidently his brother told him if he sat still long enough it would hatch! Oh how I hated to burst that bubble!
Supplies:
Several Brown Paper Lunch Bags
Scissors
Glue
Plastic eggs
Instructions:
Begin by cutting off the top 2/3 of your lunch bags. You will need 2 bags per nest. (Don’t throw away the tops – I will be showing you next week how to use them for a fun craft!)
Cut thin slices from the open edge of your bag down to the fold (see images). Don’t worry about making it perfect, messy is great for this project!
Open your bag and then crinkle it in to a ball. The wrinklier the better!
Repeat steps 1-3 on your second lunch bag, then open both wrinkled bags.
Place one bag inside the other and using a rolling / scrunching motion to create a nest shape.
Fill with plastic eggs, candy, or whatever else your little heart desires.
Our Favorite Farm Themed Books
We had so many farm themed books in our collection, that this was one tot school unit that hardly required a trip to the library. Here are a few of our favorites:
This is a book that I picked up a few years ago at a consignment sale, and it has been a favorite of ours ever since. It’s pretty short, but the novelty lies in the fact that it places you inside the tractor. It’s a fun short read perfect for a toddler who is just getting into tractors.
This is the original Otis book, although there are now several in the series. It tells the tale of a sweet tractor and his friendship with a lonely calf. The illustrations are striking and the plot is well-written enough that parents and children should both enjoy this story.
This is a cute book about the morning that the farmer overslept. I like the fact that the farmer is a woman, since too many farm books only feature male farmers. It also has a nice rhythm that makes reading it aloud pleasurable.
Moo by Matthew Van Fleet
Matthew Van Fleet is famous for his beautifully photographed and highly interactive children’s books. Each page features tactile stimulation and moving parts, sure to hold even the youngest child’s attention.
Giles Andreae is back again with this tour through the barnyard. Each page features a different animal and a short rhyme. The illustrations are fun and bright and the rhymes are playful. It’s definitely worth adding to your bookshelf.
This book can be a little tough to find, but it’s worth the effort. It’s chock full of photographs of farm animals, equipment and even produce. My boys love lifting the flaps, and I love the extra questions at the bottom of each page to encourage critical thinking or find hidden extras.
This is a fun and silly story about how a message can be distorted as it gets passed from person to person (or animal to animal as it were). It’s great for an older preschooler who can understand the concept of pass it on, but the humor might be lost on younger children.
I love love love Karma Wilson. Her books never disappoint, and always include an attractive rhyming structure along with a playful plot. If you buy one fiction book from this list – buy this one. It’s just plain fun to read!
Have you enjoyed our Farm themed tot school unit so far? Comment below!
Be sure to check back later this week to see the final portion of our farm unit. Some of the best is still yet to come!
Something about Summer just makes me think of life on the farm.
I don’t know if it’s the slower pace or the long days outside in the sun but it always is enough to make farm life appealing. At least it was until last week. Last week we signed up to have farm duty at Goose’s Montessori school. The school has it’s own miniature farm with chickens, ducks, sheep and miniature donkeys. Since there is a new baby donkey I was quick to sign up to take care of the animals for one week of summer break. Little did I know that I was going to be in WAY over my head!
In way over my head …
The first day I showed up with a 3 year old and 1 year old thinking it would be a quick visit. We would hand out a little food, pet the baby donkey and be home in time for naps. Nope! I think the highlight was when the sheep got out of their pen and I spent an hour attempting to chase / bribe them back in. Or trying to corral the chickens into the coop …. or was it when I was hauling buckets of water (PS I think it weighed at least 50 lbs!) and a donkey knocked me over and I spilled the bucket all over myself.
Long story short – I have learned that I am NOT cut out for farm life. That hasn’t kept me from designing a super fun farm themed tot school unit. Please forgive the 3 enormous posts this week – there were so many cute activities I got a little carried away!
Nomenclature Cards
It wouldn’t be a tot school unit without nomenclature cards. If you aren’t familiar with these fantastic learning tools I explain them here. I always like to start any new unit with nomenclature cards because they are such an easy way to introduce the new vocabulary that you will be using throughout the unit. I have designed my own set of farm nomenclature cards that you can download for free from my Digital Resource Library. Don’t have an access code? Just sign up below and one will be emailed to you right away!
One of my favorite games with nomenclature cards is to combine them with one or more Safari Ltd. Toobs. I used the Farm TOOB and Farm Babies TOOB. Then allow your child to match the photographic image on the nomenclature card to the Toob figurine. For us this process often devolves into imaginative play but even then the boys are learning. It usually sounds something like, “The baby horse is driving my Hot Wheels, Mommy!” “The foal is driving the Hot Wheels dear.”
Is it just my house or does every activity ultimately involve Hot Wheels?
Pigs in Mud Sensory Bin
Now this is one FUN sensory bin! Probably because it’s so messy. We used some pigs from our Farm TOOB as well as pigs from the Battat Terra Farm Animals Set , and set them loose in a tub full of chocolate pudding.
I introduced the activity with this video explaining why pigs roll in mud, and we read ‘Hogwash‘ by Karma Wilson.
Goose prefers to keep his hands clean, but even he was willing to dive into the pudding when he figured out how tasty it is. Nugget, of course, can always be counted on to coat himself from head to toe in any substance he gets his hands on.
Fast Craft: Paper Plate Lambs
Making paper plate lambs is easy, fun and the end results are surprisingly adorable! Best of all this is a craft that a preschooler can complete with minimal assistance from Mom. Elmer’s glue scrubs clean from just about every surface, right? *wink*.
Prep Work: Download my template and cut out the legs, face and ears of the lamb.
**Don’t have an access code for the Digital Resource Library? No problem! Just sign up below and one will me emailed to you right away!
Instructions:
Use Elmer’s Glue to apply the round head to the center of the plate, then glue all 4 legs to the edges.
Glue the eyes on to the face (shocker, I know. Unless you have more of a Picasso-esque lamb in mind …)
Let your child go wild gluing as many cotton balls as they would like to the plate.
When finished tuck the ears into the cotton and glue in place.
Admire your adorable lamb – and maybe give it a name.
Milking a Cow Imaginative Play
Ok, I’m going to level with you. This was a super neat activity that turned out far better than I initially imagined, however it might be difficult to replicate at home. I will show you what I did, and then offer my suggestions for how you could possible put your own spin on the activity using things you already have around the house.
To begin with you need a frame of some sort. We made our own out of this Discovery Kids Construction Fort (which we have used endlessly for fort building!) I think you could use just about anything with 4 legs, maybe even a kitchen chair?
Next, you need a rubber glove and some twine. Fill the glove with water and use the twine to secure it shut at the wrist opening. Then use your frame to suspend the glove so that it dangles in the opening. When your child is ready to begin ‘milking their cow’ use a safety pin to poke 3-4 holes in the tip of 1-2 fingers. The glove will tend to drip so please keep a bucket beneath your milking station.
Like a real cow, we found that our glove gave us the best results when we used a push-pull motion. If you feel particularly ambitious you could even decorate your frame so that it looks like a real cow. If you do that you officially win the Mom-of-the-Year Award and I absolutely want you to send in pictures!
Delicious Haystack Snack Recipe
Nugget and Goose worked up quite the appetite doing all of our farm activities today so I figured it would be a great opportunity to finish the day with a yummy farm-themed snack. These tasty haystack snacks are a sweet and easy treat!
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter (or substitute your favorite nut-free butter if your household has allergies)
2-3 Cups Pretzel Sticks, broken into small pieces
1/4 Cup White Chocolate Chips
Optional Additions: Slivered Almonds, Nutella, Chopped Nuts, Mini Marshmallows, Caramel Chips, Heath Bar Crumbles.
Recipe:
Microwave the peanut butter and chocolate chips on high for 1-2 minutes until melted and stir until fully combined.
If you wish to add any of the optional toppings stir them in now.
Stir Broken Pretzels into your melted peanut butter mixture and spoon dollops of it onto a baking sheet covered in a Silpat Mat or wax paper.
Let cool in a refrigerator for about an hour.
There’s way too much sugar to call this snack healthy, but I think it’s just right as a special treat after working hard and learning all morning.
Did you try any of our farm-themed tot school activities?
Which did your kids like best? Are there any other farm-related activities you would like to see later this week?
Check back later this week to see Part II and Part III of our Farm Themed Tot School Unit!
Father’s Day is three days away. That means that if you don’t have your gifts yet it’s time to get your fanny in gear. Not to worry though, I’ve got a great card idea and a cool looking mug that will be perfect for Dad, Grandad, or any other special someone who deserves a little recognition. These two fun father’s day crafts should be just the thing to kick off Father’s Day – but if you need more you should check out my post on how to make a ‘Hot Wheels Back Massage Shirt’. Intrigued? You should check it out!
“You Mean the World to Me” Card
Dads are amazing aren’t they? Always ready to step in and kill that spider or open that pickle jar. What would we do without them? Show Dad that he means the world to you with this crafty card!
Supplies:
Clear Contact Paper
Blue and Green Tissue Paper
Construction Paper in two colors (I used black and orange)
Scissors
Instructions:
Use 2 plates or bowls (or stencils if you are so prepared) to trace 2 concentric circles on a sheet of construction paper, then trace the larger circle on a piece of contact paper.
Cut out both circles, including the inner circle on the construction paper. You will have one large circle cut out of contact paper and a ring of construction paper.
Peel the backing off of the contact paper and stick the construction paper ring to it. This will leave a sticky clear circle in the middle.
Cut or tear small squares of tissues paper in both colors. This is a great chance for your preschooler to practice cutting with some safety scissors!
Let your child stick the tissue paper squares to the contact paper to make their very own ‘earth’ design.
Use your accent colored construction paper to trace your child’s hands and cut them out.
Tape or glue the hands to the back of your world and use them to write your message to Dad. Here are a few ideas to get your started:
Dad, you’re out of this world!
You mean the world to us Daddy!
Pops, my world would be lost without you!
Colorful Father’s Day Mug
If you have kids, you probably rely on your morning coffee to survive. Unless you’re my hubby who has somehow managed to reach the ripe age of 40 without developing a caffeine addiction. I can’t decide if that’s admirable or just insane. Either way, this coffee mug craft can easily be adapted for your favorite friend or family member. It does require permanent markers though so it might be best to save for preschoolers and older children. Or even make one yourself – they’re easy and fun!
Supplies:
One White Mug (I found mine at Walmart for $0.87!)
A set of letter stickers – the color doesn’t matter so feel free to use up some ugly ones that are laying around the house.
Assorted Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers
An Oven
Instructions:
Clean the mug thoroughly, wiping with rubbing alcohol if necessary to remove any oils and residue.
Use stickers to spell out the name or message that you wish to show on the mug. In this case I spelled out ‘Grandaddy’.
Let your child use the markers to decorate the mug, be sure to color over the letter stickers thoroughly.
Once finished allow the mug to dry for 24 hours, then carefully remove your stickers. If they don’t want to peel right off, a shot of hot air from a hair dryer seems to do the trick.
Set your mug on a cookie sheet and place in a COLD oven. Allow the oven to heat to 400 degrees with the mug inside so that it is gradually warmed. Then set timer to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the oven and let the mug cool inside. If you absolutely must remove it early, use oven mitts – it will be very hot!
Enjoy your mug! I have read that oil based sharpies will survive the dishwasher but I have chosen to hand wash mine with soap and water and it is holding up nicely. I believe this craft could easily translate to use on a plate or serving dish but I am not sure how food safe it would be. You should be fine with your markings on the outside of your mug though.
How did your mug turn out? Did the recipient just adore it? Tell me all about it and show me a picture in the comments!
Dk Tractor Shaped Board Book
Otis by Loren Long
The Grumpy Morning by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Moo by Matthew Van Fleet
Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo by Giles Andreae
Lift the Flap Farm by Hinkler Books
Pass It On! by Marilyn Sadler
The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson
and 
. Then allow your child to match the photographic image on the nomenclature card to the Toob figurine. For us this process often devolves into imaginative play but even then the boys are learning. It usually sounds something like, “The baby horse is driving my Hot Wheels, Mommy!” “The foal is driving the Hot Wheels dear.” 
, and set them loose in a tub full of chocolate pudding.
‘ by Karma Wilson.
(which we have used endlessly for fort building!) I think you could use just about anything with 4 legs, maybe even a kitchen chair?
or wax paper.
