My daughters are really interested in ocean life and can not wait for our first trip to the beach this year, which is happening at the end of the month. While I love the ocean, and enjoy going to the beach, I am a bit weary of what lies beneath the waves, and rather sit on the sand. The last time I went into the ocean ( a few years back), something rubbed against my feet and I jumped onto a strangers back to get away from it. Turned out to be seaweed… In my mind, jumping on that stranger was totally justified. They didn’t mind, they found it rather funny actually. I’ll just keep my toes in the sand and out of the ocean this year.
Anyway… since summer is around the corner, and our first beach trip is upon us, I thought we could make some ocean themed crafts.
Paper Plate Fish
This adorable little fish was quick and easy to make. I had everything we needed in the house which is an added bonus. It is always great when I don’t have to order materials.
What You’ll Need:
Paper plate
Paint
Paint brush
Cupcake liners
Googly eyes
Glue
- Cut a triangle out of your plate. Save the triangle.
- Paint the plate any color you would like. Let it dry.
- You can use the triangle you cut out as the tail of your fish. Glue it to the back of your paper plate. Pointy side in.
- Glue on the googly eye.
- Fold each cupcake liner in half and then in half again. Glue them down onto the plate. You can make any pattern you would like. Cover the tail with the cupcake liners as well, and add a top fin.
Paper Plate Octopus
While I love making this octopus with my daughters, you have to watch the pointy ends to the pipe cleaners. I usually cover them in some way when my daughters are using them. Also, make sure an adult is always present when your child is making or playing with this octopus as the uncooked pasta noodles can be a choking hazard. Aside from that, this craft was so much fun to make and my daughters spent a great deal of time placing and removing the pasta noodles to create different looks.
What You’ll Need:
Pipe cleaners
Paper plate
Google eyes
Construction paper
Paint
Paintbrush
Uncooked pasta
Food Coloring & Vinegar (optional if you’d like to dye the pasta)
Single hole puncher
How To:
- If you are dying your pasta noodles, prepare them a couple of hours before you start this project so they have a chance to dry. There are so many different methods online to follow if you’d like to do this. I do suggest finding a method that uses vinegar instead of alcohol in case your child licks the pasta.
- Paint your paper plate and let it dry.
- Once your plate is dry, punch 8 single holes into the bottom of the plate.
- Push the pipe cleaners in the holes and tie them around the back of the plate. Make sure the pointed ends stay around back and doesn’t make their way to the front.
- Glue two google eyes by the octopus’ tentacles.
- Cut out three circles from construction paper and glue them to the top of your octopus.
Now you can let your child put the pasta onto the tentacles. They can try out different patters, they can count, whatever you’d like. If they lift the plate the noodles will fall off. You can secure them if you would like. We like to keep them loose so that we can keep trying out different looks.
Coffee Filter Turtle
My daughters and I love turtles! When we saw a version of these coffee filter turtles on Instagram @kidsactivitiesblog we knew we had to make our own version. They are so adorable, we wish they were real!
What You’ll Need
- Coffee filters
- Markers
- Green and blue construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Glue
- Water and pipette
How To:
- First cut out the legs and head for your turtle. Glue the legs and head down as seen below. Glue the googly eyes to the turtle’s head.
2. Flip your coffee filter upside down and flatten. Draw a pattern.
3. Using your pipette, drip water all over the coffee filter. Let it dry. You can glue the coffee filter down onto the turtle’s body or just place it on top so you can keep changing out the shell. Up to you.
If you would rather your turtle have a raised shell, try out the turtle down below.
What You’ll Need:
- Coffee filter
- Green and blue construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Glue
- Scissors
How To:
- First cut out the legs and head for your turtle. Glue the legs and head down as seen below. Glue the googly eyes to the turtle’s head.
2. Flip your coffee filter upside down so it looks like the raised turtle shell.
3. Cut out green cirlces (or whatever you’d like to add to your shell) and glue them on the shell.
4. Place the shell over the turtles body. We didn’t glue this one down. We wanted to make many different shells and change them out.
That’s it for today. We hope to try out different ocean themed crafts this summer. Do you know any fun ones? Comment down below?
*Adult supervision is required*
Anyone else’s children really into rainbows right now? My daughters are all about the rainbows. They want to eat rainbow food, make rainbow crafts, and paint their nails in rainbow colors. Even some of their Barbie dolls have rainbow colored hair. FYI, those barbies didn’t come like that. My daughters used markers and gave them a makeover. Better the barbies hair than theirs I suppose. So today I thought I would give them a special treat and make them rainbow pancakes and take them on a rainbow themed scavenger hunt.
Rainbow Pancakes
I’d love to say I made these pancakes from scratch but I didn’t. After being woken up at 6:30am (my daughters are early risers) I was way too tired to make anything from scratch. My eyes were barley open when we entered the kitchen. I just grabbed some Bisquick, and food coloring, and made pancakes the easy way.
We didn’t have all the colors needed to make a full rainbow, so my daughters mixed some colors together to create orange and purple. They told me that they learned all about mixing colors in camp last year so they didn’t need my help figuring out which colors to mix together. They are becoming so independent. I can’t believe they are almost in 3rd grade! I digress, back to the pancakes.
If you are not afraid of a mess, and you think your child is ready for this job, transferring the pancake batter into separate cups and mixing in the food coloring is a lot of fun. My daughters helped out with this today and only got some of the batter on the countertops. It used to stress me out when they helped me in the kitchen because of the inevitable mess, but I eventually learn to embrace the chaos that comes along with children helping out in the kitchen. It also helps that they are old enough to help clean up the mess.
When the pancakes were done cooking, I piled them on a plate and placed them in front of my daughters. They both grabbed one of each color, stacked them in rainbow order, and took a big bite! These were so much fun to make and eat. We will definitely make these again.
Rainbow Scavenger Hunt
After breakfast we got out some paint and paintbrushes and began painting our rainbows. I was a bit apprehensive about giving them paint after last weeks painting project went downhill fast, (they decided to paint each other instead of the paper) but it’s not like I can keep paint from them forever, so I crossed my fingers and handed over the materials. Thankfully all the paint stayed on the paper this time. Do your children do things like this, or is it just mine? Comment down below.
So anyway, while our rainbows dried, we took a walk around our neighborhood and documented everything we saw that was the same color as the colors of the rainbow. I have to say, it was a lot of fun. My daughters were so excited whenever they found something, and loved writing everything down.
Once our list was complete, we typed it up, cut out each word, and glued them to our rainbows. We realized we had some extra space on our rainbows so we looked around the house and found more things we could include. This was such a fun little project. My daughters loved the way their rainbows turned out. Comment down below if you give this a try. I’d love to hear how your scavenger hunt went.
*Adult supervision is required*
Press’n Seal art is something I did with my daughters when they were younger. I used it to teach them shapes, colors, and counting. They really loved it, especially my one daughter who is more sensory seeking. She loved sticking her hands to the Press’n Seal more than she liked sticking the tissue paper to it. Whatever keeps them busy, right?
So today, I decided to set this up for them again, but to make it age appropriate (they are 8) I asked them to cut out the tissue paper shapes themselves and create a scene. They made beach scenes (which included mermaids of course) and a neighborhood. This held their attention for such a long time. I was able to eat breakfast AND put away some laundry while they occupied themselves with this activity. Mom win for sure!
If you give this a try comment down below and let me know what your child created.
*Adult supervision is required*
I don’t know about you, but this three day weekend is just what my family needs right now. Being locked in our house (ok, we can get out, but you know what I mean) and homeschooling, has been interesting to say the least. Trying to get my girls to complete their assignments while they are surrounded by their toys has not been simple. This long weekend could not have come at a more perfect time.
The weather is getting nicer, and we have been able to go outside this weekend and enjoy each other’s company without interruption. No schedules and absolutely no ZOOM calls! Just us four spending some quality time together.
To start off our long weekend, I did a couple of Memorial Day themed crafts with my daughters. It was so nice to sit down with them and just have some fun. Ok, I am a teacher, and I did sneak in ONE educational Memorial Day themed game. Just one! I couldn’t help myself. Scroll down to see what we did.
Flag Themed Flower Pot
These flag themed flower pots were so simple to make and will be something my daughters can enjoy for months to come. We can’t wait to see what grows! (You can paint stars instead of dots if you prefer)
Uncle Sam Craft
This Uncle Sam craft is another easy and quick craft for kids to make. All you need are some craft sticks, paint, googly eyes and some hot glue and you’re good to go!
Memorial Day Themed Memory Match
Every holiday I like to come up with one educational game to make sure my daughters understand why we are celebrating. Memory match is one of my daughters favorite games, and so I made it Memorial Day themed and they were more than happy to play. Scroll down to see how to make this memory match game.
Materials
Wood circles (any shape)
Paint
Paint brushes
Mod Podge
How To
Paint one side of the wood circles, red, white and blue.
While you are waiting for the paint to dry, type up, print, and cut out some questions and answers relating to Memorial Day.
Paint the unfinished side of the wood circle with mod podge, place the questions/answers down and paint over it with another layer of mod podge. Let it dry.
Flip the wood circles back over to the painted side and paint a layer of mod podge over it to give it a more finished look. That’s it. It doesn’t take too long to make and it is a fun way to talk about Memorial Day with your children.
I hope everyone has a fun weekend! Comment down below and let me know how you celebrated?
*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*
My daughters and I have been seeing these chalk mosaics all over the place. Every time we take a walk around our neighborhood, a new one pops up on someone’s driveway.
Today, we decided to give it a try. Let me tell you what, it is not as easy as you would think. Maybe, unlike me, you never thought it was easy. I can not tell you how much painters tape I went through to create this little mosaic for my daughters to color in. I really hope my husband didn’t need that tape for another project … there’s none left!
While it didn’t come out exactly the way I envisioned, perfection was never the goal. Having fun was, and we really did have a great time creating this mosaic.
Have you tried creating one? If so, comment down below and let me know how it turned out.
*Adult supervision is required*
The weather is becoming nicer, (thank goodness guys, being quarantined with children when it is cold outside is not ok) and we have been enjoying all that Spring has to offer. We’ve been riding bikes, going for long walks, and searching for rainbows on rainy days.
I think seeing a rainbow is one of my daughters’ favorite things. It is always such big deal, even though they have seen over a dozen. There’s a magical quality to a rainbow that even adults enjoy.
We won’t be seeing any rainbows in the sky today, so we thought we would make some to put in the house. We searched on Pinterest this morning and found an adorable rainbow coffee filter craft and just had to try it out. We love a good coffee filter craft.
What I love about this craft is we had all the materials needed to complete it in the house already. We didn’t have to order a single thing! I love when that happens. Scroll down to see how we made them.
Materials
Coffee filter
Markers
Spray bottle filled with water
Scissors
Googly eyes
How To
First, you will need to flatten out your coffee filter. And FYI, coffee filters DO NO like to lay flat, so do the best you can. Now you can start coloring your coffee filters. Go around in a circle in rainbow order.
Now it is time to spray your coffee filter and watch as the colors blend together. My girls love this part! Make sure to protect the table underneath the coffee filter.
Set them aside to dry and start working on your cloud. We cut ours free hand and hoped for the best. We glued on some googly eyes, drew on a smiley face and they were good to go.
Check on your coffee filters and see if they are dry. If they are, cut them in half to form your rainbow. Glue the cloud to the coffee filter rainbow and you are all done!
Comment down below if you gave this a try. I’d love to hear how they turned out.
*Adult supervision is required*