I just can’t with these craft stick people. My daughters and I are obsessed! Their crazy hair is our favorite part. We have been trying out different hairstyles on them all day. Our favorite so far is rainbow hair. Besides being adorable and fun to play with, they are also educational. You can use them to review so many skills. We are going to review odd and even numbers with our new friends, but there are so many other possibilities. You can review numbers, colors, patterns, addition, and subtraction, just to name a few. If you’d like to make these craft stick dolls too, scroll down.
What You’ll Need
People Craft Sticks
Markers
Pasta
Food Coloring
Vinegar
Zip lock bag
Measuring cup
How To:
- Pour two cups of pasta into a zip lock bag, add 1/4 cup or vinegar, and several drops food coloring and shake the bag until it is fully mixed in. Let the bag sit for ten minutes and then pour the pasta out onto a paper towel to dry.
- While you are waiting for your pasta to dry, you can color in your craft stick people.
That’s it. They are so simple to make and so much fun to play with. My daughters didn’t even mind doing math with their new friends. As long as they got to play with the pasta hair, they were happy as can be.
Comment down below and let me know what you think. Until next time.
*Adult supervision required*
Our family goes on a lot of walks. Especially now that we have an adorable 2 year old dog. On these walks my daughters often find things that interest them and ask me to hold on to it. It could be a leaf, a little flower that fell, or even a wood chip! They love nature and never want to leave anything behind. We’d get home and I would have a handful of things that I didn’t know what to do with.
I wanted to encourage their exploring nature, so I made them magnifying glasses that would allow them to keep their little treasrues safe. They love looking into the magnifying glass to see what they can find as we walk around, and get so excited when they find something to stick to it.
What I really love about this magnifying glass is that it is a great way to teach your child about nature. They may see things through their magnifying glass that they can’t collect, but may be curious about. They will be full of questions as you walk around.
Here’s how we made our magnifying glasses.
What You’ll Need:
Cardboard
Sharpie
X-ACTO knife
Press’n Seal
Scissors
How To:
- Draw a magnifying glass onto the cardboard.
- An adult can use the X-ACTO knife to cut it out.
3. Place the magnifying glass onto press’n seal. Sticky side up.
4. Cut the press’n seal so that it is only behind the circle.
5. Cut a small circle in the middle of the press’n seal so your child can peek through to find their treasures. ( Look at the finished magnifying glass at the top of this post to see how to make the little circle)
That’s it! You can write on your magnifying glass, color it. Whatever you would like. I hope your little one enjoys playing with this as much as my daughters’ do.
Comment down below with your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you.
*Adult supervision is required*
When your mom is a teacher, you never know what is going to happen when you see her take out a muffin tin and some baking cups. She could be baking something delicious, OR she could be making a learning game. Today, I decided to save the baking for another day, and made a learning game instead. My daughters were slightly disappointed until they got to play the game. They were completely engaged which was nice to see and forgot all about baking. If you would like to see a video of them playing, visit my Instagram @thiscraftygirlmom
What You’ll Need:
Muffin tin
Baking cups
Marker
Pom poms (two different colors)
Index cards
How To:
So, for this game you can review any skill. Letter recognition, sounds, sight words, even math, to name a few. Today, we decided to review sight words.
- Write 12 sight words in marker on the baking cups and index cards.
- Place the baking cups in the muffin tin.
- Hand out the pom poms and place the index cards between both players.
- Each player gets a to pick a card and place their pom pom in the muffin tin that shows the same word. The first player to get three in a row wins!
I ended up writing all of the sight words for their age on a bunch of baking cups and index cards, and we kept switching them out. They played until we reviewed them all! Mom win for sure!
Sight Word Palm Tree
What I love about this sight word craft/activity is that it is completely personalized. Your child gets to use their handprints as leaves, and you can include only the words they really need to review on the coconuts. My daughters enjoyed tracing their hand and trying to figure out how to place the rectangles so it looked like the tree was leaning. They had a fun time which is a positive when they are completing a learning activity.
What You’ll Need
- Green, brown and white construction paper.
- Scissors
- Glue
How To:
- Trace your child’s hand and cut out the handprints.
- Cut out little rectangles to make the tree bark
- Cut out circles (coconuts).
- Write the sight words on the coconuts.
- Glue down the tree bark first onto the white paper, then add the handprints and coconuts.
You do not need to glue down the coconuts. Your child can simply place them on the leaves, say the word, and then remove them to work on new sight words as they learn more.
That’s it for today. I hope you like these activities. Comment down below. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
*Adult supervision is required*
Summer is coming, and while I can not wait to put away our homeschool schedule and turn off zoom, I do want to find a way to sneak in some learning over the next couple of months. This tie dyed paper towel activity is one way I plan on sneaking in some academics this summer. My daughters love this activity because they think they are just playing around even though there is learning happening.
I’ve used this activity in the past to review letters, numbers, shapes and sight words. And now, even though they are older, I still use it to review other skills. Today, for instance, we got out our pipettes, markers and paper towels, and worked on fractions. Every time I said a fraction, they would find it on the paper towel, and use their pipettes to drip water on it. Their favorite part was watching the fractions disappear into a mess of blended colors. It really is fun to watch.
They didn’t complain once about doing math because they were having so much fun. AND they actually asked for me to draw out more fractions so they could continue blending the colors together. WHAT! More fractions? Mom win for sure. Ok… I really don’t think they realized we could just draw any random picture and get the same results, and thats why they asked for more fractions, but hey, I’ll take it.
That’s it for today. If you want to see a video of us doing this activity, head over to Instagram @thiscraftygirlmom. Until next time.
*Adult supervision is required*
The end of the school year is fast approaching and I have begun preparing some review games for my daughters to play during the summer. Memory match is one of my favorite games to use to review skills. My daughters don’t even realize they are learning, they think they are just finding matches. You can use this game to review so many skills. I decided to create a sight word memory match game.
Materials
Wood circles ( any shape)
Mod podge
X-ACTO knife
Scrapbook paper
How To
An adult should make this activity.
Cut your scrapbook paper into squares.
Paint a layer of mod podge to one side of the wood circle and place the scrapbook paper square on top. Gently press and smooth out the paper to prevent wrinkles. Set them to the side to dry.
While you are waiting for the paper to dry, type up and print out all the words you would like to include in your game. Cut them out and place them to the side for later.
Flip your circles over and carefully cut off the excess scrapbook paper using an X-ACTO knife.
Paint a layer of mod podge to the unfinished side of the circle and place one of the words you printed out on top. Paint another layer of mod podge over the word.
Once everything is dry, flip your circles back over to the side that shows the scrapbook paper and paint a layer of mod podge over it. This will give your game a finished look while protecting the paper.
If you give this game a try, comment down below and let me know which skill you reviewed.
*Adult supervision is required*