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Miss Katie here reading you a story with a challenge at the end!

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Last Updated on . Originally Posted on By

Chances are you have made at least one coffee filter butterfly in your life. Personally, I've made many! Working in the craft industry, especially making kid's crafts, presents me with plenty of opportunities to show kids how to make this classic butterfly craft that not only their parents probably made when they were little, but their grandparents too! Coffee filter butterflies are easy to make and oh so beautiful!

Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft

This particular craft has been popular for many, many years. In fact, when my (now) 17-year old son was in first grade, I came into the classroom and made these coffee filter butterflies with the students. The pictures in this post are actually quite old too! These photos were taken in 2009!

Kids love making butterfly crafts. These are colorful, unique and easy to make. All you need is a coffee filter, some watercolor paints and a pipe cleaner. This is a great opportunity to talk about butterflies, caterpillars and spring as well.

Supplies you will need:

Things you may find helpful:

Helpful crafting tips:

For a more vibrant butterfly, be sure to paint all white areas of the coffee filter with paint.

Tie a piece of fishing line around the "neck" and suspend from the ceiling. They will look like they are flying!

Instead of using all the colors on one filter, make some with warm colors (red, yellow, orange) and some with cool colors (blue, green, purple).

Flatten the coffee filter and place it on a plate or newspaper, the paint and water will soak through. Set aside on paper towels to dry.

Fold the pipe cleaner in half. Remember, you are only using half of a pipe cleaner to begin with.

Fold the coffee filter accordion style, in about ½" pleats.

Twist the pipe cleaner around the filter to secure it in place.

Bend the tips of the pipe cleaners over about ¼" to create the antennae.

Fan out the butterfly wings.

You can hang these from the ceiling or make them into a mobile. Fishing link works great because you can't see it, so the butterflies appear to be flying! I hope you have fun with this craft, there's a printable version down below.

Keep your extra coffee filters on hand to make these beautiful watercolor luminaries for spring, and don't forget to check out my collection of colorful crafts for kids for more fun project ideas.

More butterfly crafts

Coffee Filter Butterfly

This classic coffee filter butterfly craft is always popular with kids. Coffee filters and watercolor paint turn into beautiful butterflies that your kids will love!
This post originally appeared here on May 14, 2016.

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Coffee Filter Butterfly: kid's craft, coffee filter butterflies

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Last Updated on . Originally Posted on By Chances are you have made at least one coffee filter butterfly in your life. Personally, I've made many! Working in the craft industry, especially making kid's crafts, presents me with plenty of opportunities to show kids how to make this classic butterfly craft that not only their parents probably made when they were little, but their grandparents too!

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We love sidewalk chalk because it's a fun activity for kids (and adults) of all ages to do outside. This puffy sidewalk paint recipe only requires a few materials and it's such a clever spin on the traditional store-bought sidewalk chalk. Kids will love painting with this DIY sidewalk paint this summer!

RELATED: Sidewalk Chalk Ideas

Puffy Sidewalk Paint Recipe

This sidewalk chalk paint squirts out easily and stays "puffy" when it hits the concrete. Kids can easily draw pictures or write words with this liquid chalk! You can make the chalk any color you'd like, or make a whole rainbow of colors! Dish soap is added to this recipe to make clean-up super easy.

Supplies Needed To Make Puffy Sidewalk Paint

This recipe will fill up a small squeeze bottle of puffy sidewalk paint. If you want to make multiple colors, double or triple the recipe and just divide the mixture before adding the sidewalk chalk.

We had no issue rinsing off this sidewalk paint. We suggest you have a high pressure hose ready to rinse off when you're done and while the paint is still wet. Do not leave it out in the hot sun for too long. We suggest testing the puffy sidewalk paint in an inconspicuous area and then try washing it away with water. This sidewalk paint should rinse off easily with regular water like sidewalk chalk does. However, do not allow it to sit for too long in the sun and we do not recommend doing this activity in high heat temperatures.
Notes on Staining:
A note about sidewalk chalk: Sidewalk chalk is designed to be washable but can sometimes stain newer driveways or sidewalks if the surface still has open surface pores in the concrete which can absorb the colorants. Always read the packaging of the sidewalk chalk you purchase.

How long does the sidewalk paint last?

This paint will need to be used the same day. The water and flour will start to separate and go bad after that. We found using small squeeze bottles were easy to use in a day's activity.

Clean-up Tips

Clean-up time! When you are finished, simply spray it down with a garden hose on the highest pressure setting. The dish soap should help make the clean-up easier. We recommend you spray while the paint is still wet and do not let it dry in the sun. If this happens, get a brush broom to help scrub some of the paint off while spraying with water.

If you are still having difficulty cleaning up, wet the paint and wait 5 minutes. Then spray the area with the highest pressure setting on your nozzle and as close to the paint as possible on a slight angle.

NOTE: make this the same day you plan on using it. It must all be used within a day or it will start to go bad. Also do not leave the paint inside the squeeze bottles overnight or the pressure from the mixture may cause the tops to pop off.

Steps To Make Sidewalk Paint - that's puffy!

Once you make this fun paint, you won't want to buy the store brands! Kids will love that they can get involved with both mixing it up in the kitchen and playing with it outside!

If you are interested in trying a store-bought sidewalk paint, we recommend this kind by Crayola.

See this list of over 100 summer bucket list ideas - check off each item this summer with your kids.

See more sidewalk chalk ideas - these are all so much fun to do!

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This DIY Puffy Sidewalk Paint is so easy to make! No need to buy store-bought when you can make this simple recipe with only a few ingredients.

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Need some ideas to help keep your child active? We have created a fun What's Your Name Kids Exercise Challenge! Perfect for getting the kids moving while having fun too.
Sign up for our free Newsletter stuffed full of ideas, competitions and offers. PS Did we mention it's free? Please share this with your family & friends if you liked it!
So get the kids into their exercise gear and trainers and have a bit of fun with our What's Your Name Kids' Fitness Challenge! They can spell out their name find the exercises to match the letters of their name and have a go at them.

You can also download our Fitness Challenge in PDF Format.
Recommended Reading: 101 Easy Changes to Make That Can Help Prevent Childhood Obesity and Get Active with these fun Obstacle Course Ideas for Kids
We hope you and your kids enjoyed this fun kids exercise program. Let us know how you go on in the comments box below.

Jill is one of the co-founders of Mykidstime and a mum of 2 girls

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What's Your Name Kids Exercise Challenge

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Need some ideas to help keep your child active? We have created a fun What's Your Name Kids Exercise Challenge! Perfect for getting the kids moving while having fun too. Sign up for our free Newsletter stuffed full of ideas, competitions and offers. PS Did we mention it's free?

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Smack The Number

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My boys are almost 3 and very excited to know their numbers! With a summer storm brewing outside I thought it would be fun to do a quick number practice game to help them get moving and work on their number recognition. This is a really easy activity that requires no prep and just a couple of supplies - and it's FUN!

This post contains affiliate links. See my Disclosure Policy for details.
To play Smack the Number, you just need a set of foam numbers and a fly swatter.

I started out having my boys line up each number in order. They love to do this and sing a song they learned by watching Number Land, which is a really cute Leap Frog show about numbers that they just love! I'm convinced it's how they've learned their numbers so fast.

Once they were all lined up we got out our (clean) fly swatters! They started by smacking each number that I called out.

Then I just let them swat the numbers around - they loved this! And since they're made of foam, no harm done to the floor or our toes.

We really enjoyed playing this game - it gave them a chance to practice their number skills and have a little fun too. Next we'll try it with our ABCs!

Check out these great counting books too!

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Smack the Number Activity for Toddlers & Preschoolers

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My boys are almost 3 and very excited to know their numbers! With a summer storm brewing outside I thought it would be fun to do a quick number practice game to help them get moving and work on their number recognition.

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Number Toy Hunt for Preschoolers | Toddler math, Math activities preschool

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Sep 17, 2019 - Counting and exploring numbers is easy to do when you are out and about and when you are playing at home. Today we are sharing a simple Number Toy Hunt activity that you can do at home using a few simple materials and your child's favorite toys. This activity is part of our third annual Back to School Basics series tha…

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Welcome to Green Kid Crafts! We combine art and science to make STEM fun and accessible so that kids can begin to see themselves as scientists, artists, and makers. We offer many project ideas, like this dancing rice experiment, on our blog, and we also send tens of thousands of kids across the country a monthly science and art subscription box full of fun projects through our company's subscription program. Voted the best kids subscription box by Red Tricycle and winner of the Academics' Choice Brain Toy Award, both kids and parents love our award-winning STEM subscription box!

My daughter has been experiencing and loving making our own baking soda and vinegar reaction for years. Sometimes we add food coloring or glitter. Sometimes we create play dough volcanoes to fill with baking soda and vinegar and watch the reaction erupt all down the side of our colorful mountain. There comes a time, though, that we needed to do something different. This time it was time to watch a dancing rice experiment.

Dancing Rice Experiment

This was more interesting and exciting to watch than I expected! And even more importantly, my daughter was obsessed. We actually did this 'dancing rice experiment' more than once. It was THAT exciting.

Materials Needed

White Vinegar

Baking Soda

Instant Rice (non-instant rice is too dense for this project)

Clear Jar

Water

Food Coloring (Optional)

How To

1. Fill the Clear Jar 3/4 Way Full Of Water. If desired, mix in food coloring.

2. Add in 1 TBS of Baking Soda and Stir. Mix completely.

3. 1/4 Cup Of Uncooked Rice. Note that instant rice is needed for this project! Non-instant rice is too dense and won't result in a "dancing" reaction.

4. Add in 1-2 TBS of White Vinegar.

The reaction didn't happen at first, I had to add in a little more vinegar than I had initially expected. When we did, though, it was awesome. The top fizzed slightly but then the rice just started dancing around the jar. It was fantastic.

I am glad we added in food coloring. It made the effect of the dancing rice experiment look even more cool. It almost looked like a black light show or some sort of light show. This experiment truly was fun.

This can be a fantastic example for children to show cause and effect as well as chain reactions. A reaction can occur with just baking soda and vinegar, but when the other ingredients are added a different reaction occurs.

This science experiment would be excellent in a preschool or lower level elementary classroom setting or at home. Children will enjoy the dancing of the rice. Maybe even turn on some music and tell kids to dance like the rice.

Love this project? Receive tons of science art art kits like this each month by joining Green Kid Crafts' award-winning kids subscription program!

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Dancing Rice Experiment | An Entertaining and Simple Project

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Welcome to Green Kid Crafts! We combine art and science to make STEM fun and accessible so that kids can begin to see themselves as scientists, artists, and makers. We offer many project ideas, like this dancing rice experiment, on our blog, and we also send tens of thousands of kids across the country a monthly science and art subscription box full of fun projects through our company's subscription program.

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A salt volcano is a simple science experiment which has a super high groovy factor. Your kids want their science projects to be colorful, dazzling and immediately gratifying. You want them to learn something about the amazing natural world. Well, a salt volcano is where it's at, man.

While they are making a salt volcano, kids will learn about liquid density and you will experience 1970s déjà vu. You will dream about orange shag carpets, hanging bead curtains and your beloved lava lamp!

Let's get started!
What you need:
A bottle or jar

One cup of room temperature water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Salt; rock salt works best, but table salt will also work

Optional: food coloring
Salt Volcano Instructions:
1. Pour water into the jar.

2. If using food coloring, add it now.

3. Pour in the oil. Do not mix!

4. Sprinkle the salt into the jar.

5. Observe what happens!
Salt Volcano Science:
Water and oil are immiscible liquids. That means they don't mix. When you sprinkle the salt into the water-oil mixture the salt sinks to the bottom. As it sinks, the oil clings to it. When the salt reaches the bottom, it will begin to dissolve and as it does so, the oil that was on the salt rises to the top.

This experiment teaches kids about density. Oil is less dense than water, which is why it floats on the surface, and why the escaped oil from the salt wants desperately to reach the top again. Salt denser than water, which is why is must sink to the bottom.
Salt Volcano Variations to Make It Even More Fun:
We had fun experimenting with the food coloring. Instead of adding the color before the oil, try adding it after and watch what happens. Will you wait until the color mixes to add the salt, or will you add them at the same time? What changes when you use smaller or larger salt crystals? Does it matter if you add more or less water?

Experiment!

The Salt Volcano is also a great classroom project for STEAM curricula! Our STEAM Kids book is chock full of STEAM projects just right for 4-8 year olds. You will definitely not want to miss out on the amazing ideas inside it!

eBook | Amazon Print | UK/EU customers: eBook
More science to try:

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Salt Volcano: Groovy Liquid Density Science Experiment

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A salt volcano is a simple science experiment which has a super high groovy factor. Your kids want their science projects to be colorful, dazzling and immediately gratifying. You want them to learn something about the amazing natural world. Well, a salt volcano is where it's at, man.

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Amazing fun and learning often come from incredibly simple materials, which is exactly what happened with this preschool STEM activity. My youngest was home with a bad cough but by noon we were both climbing the walls. I asked if she wanted to test out a fun activity for me before I took it into my classroom, she was game! This building activity is great because it attracts children that might not be eager to play with blocks but the shaving cream is just too novel to skip, and for children who do love blocks the addition of shaving cream gets them thinking about one of their favorite activities in a new light. What I do know if that this was a ton of fun and every single thing for this STEM activity for preschool was bought at the dollar store.

Gather your materials. You will need some foam blocks, shaving cream, and a plastic tray.

Start by putting foam blocks on the tray and spraying some shaving cream in a corner.

Ask your engineer in training if they think shaving cream makes good glue for towers. Don't show them, just ask and see what happens with this preschool STEM activity. In class, I would do this at the table with a couple of children and myself prompting only if needed.

Start building. She started carefully...

but then started to really explore!

And then she returned to building towers. Until every block was used up.

Picture Books About STEM

( Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

Check out our list of wonderful STEM picture books for kids by clicking on the image above!

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Preschool STEM Activity - Foam Blocks & Shaving Cream Towers - NTFFC

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Amazing fun and learning often come from incredibly simple materials, which is exactly what happened with this preschool STEM activity. My youngest was home with a bad cough but by noon we were both climbing the walls. I asked if she wanted to test out a fun activity for me before I took it into my classroom, she was game!

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We just love Spring and all of the rainbows it brings! Today are sharing a fun rainbow ribbon streamer craft to do with the kids. We made both a rainbow ribbon wand and a ring version. They are so much fun to move around, let blow in the Spring wind, or dance with!
*This post contains affiliate links.
The featured book this week is A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman. In this book a little boy tries to catch a rainbow and then imagines what it would be like to play with a rainbow.

One of our favorite parts of the book is when the rainbow follows the boys and he "whirls and twirls" with it. We thought it would be fun to make our very own rainbow that we could whirl and twirl and play with too, just like in the book!

Make a Rainbow Ribbon Streamer Wand or Ring for Movement Activities!

For this activity, we wanted to use a stick that we found on a nature walk. It worked well as a ribbon wand for Big Bro. However, I though using a ring would be better for Little Bro. That way he could run and dance around without poking himself. Plus, I thought it they both had sticks that it would turn into a sward fight instead of a rainbow. So the ring version was great! We really liked both, so I'll share how to make both here.
** Choose either the stick (wand) or ring version based on what you're comfortable with your child using.
How to Make a Rainbow Ribbon Streamer Wand:
Materials:

Ribbon in rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. We used purple instead if a separate indigo and violet. We were able to find these at a dollar store!

scissors

duct tape

a stick

tacky glue (or hot glue)

How to make the Rainbow Ribbon Streamer Wand:
First, stack or line up the colored ribbon and cut them to the desired length. We found 2 feet worked well for us.

Next, line up the ribbon in rainbow order, side by side. Cut a piece of duct tape, making it slightly wider than the ribbon pieces lined up side by side.

With the duct tape sticky-side-up, stick one end of each ribbon piece onto a long edge of the duct tape. Start slightly in from the short edge.

You made need to trim the two short edge of the duct tape after sticking the ribbon on.

Next, attach the stick to the opposite long edge of the duct tape and press and roll the duct tape around it.

Use tacky glue or hot glue to glue the ribbon side of the duct tape down to the stick to finish.

Let this dry and then the ribbon wand is ready to use!

Make a Rainbow Ribbon Streamer Ring:
Materials:

Ribbon in rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. We used purple instead if a separate indigo and violet. We were able to find these at a dollar store!

scissors

duct tape

a ring: I had one that I recycled a while ago, but these plastic or wooden rings can be found in craft stores.

tacky glue (or hot glue)

How to make the Rainbow Ribbon Streamer Ring:
First, cut the ribbon to the desired length. I chose to make them about 2 feet, meaning the finished length after looping through and tying would be 1 foot.

Next, take your first color (red) and fold it in half. Loop it through the ring, and then pull the ends of the ribbon through the loop. Pull through to the outside of the ring.

**Next, tie a knot to keep the ribbon from moving all around or coming loose. You can also use glue under each ribbon to hold them in place.

Continue attaching ribbon using the same method for each color in rainbow order.

Remember to tie a knot for each color after looping and pulling through. This helps them from coming loose. You may also want to use glue to help hold them in place.

Now you have your rainbow ribbon streamer ring to dance with!

More great rainbow activities from the Virtual Book Club for Kids!

There is a new book every week in the Virtual Book Club for kids! Join us in the facebook group to get involved and see all of the fun activities. Here are some of the activities for Rainbow week, featuring the book A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman.

Roll A Rainbow Numbers Game - School Time Snippets

Rainbow Lacing Number Bonds - Rainy Day Mum

Rainbow Texture Explorations for Toddlers - Inspiration Laboratories

An Easy Rainbow Colored Fluid Dynamics Experiment for kids - Mama Smiles

Rainbow Play Dough Color Mixing- Teach Beside Me

Rainbow Streamer Craft - Views From a Step Stool

Rainbow Ribbon Wand and Ring for Movement Activities - To Be A Kid Again - You are here

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Rainbow Ribbon Wand and Ring for Movement Activities - Creative Little Explorers

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We just love Spring and all of the rainbows it brings! Today are sharing a fun rainbow ribbon streamer craft to do with the kids. We made both a rainbow ribbon wand and a ring version. They are so much fun to move around, let blow in the Spring wind, or dance with!

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By · This content may contain affiliate links.

Young learners to love to identify and practice their names. It's a big part of who they are! We are always looking for fun and unique ways to work on name recognition. Recently, we combined a fun and hands-on way to practice (and discover) our names. Using some watercolors and a white crayon, kids can paint to uncover their hidden name. This hidden name recognition art activity gets kids excited about discovering their names by incorporating literacy, art, and the senses!

Hidden Name Art Preschool Name Activity

Materials

Getting Started

If you are prepping this activity for a class or even an individual, you will want to write out the names ahead of time onto white card stock with a white crayon.

Based on the levels of your learners, you may want to provide a visual guide of their name. We chose to set out a loose letters sensory bin for children to practice assembling their names. An index card with their name was also included for reference.

Prior to painting, we spent some time sifting through the letters to practice letter identification and then moved on to assembly. It was a fun first step in our name recognition activity.

Once the name is assembled, you may place the loose letters at the top of your work space as a guide for revealing those hidden letters!

The Big Name Reveal!

Kids will absolutely love uncovering and recognizing the familiar letters in their names! As the very first letter was revealed through the watercolors, excited squeals were shouted out over here!

As each letter is individually revealed, encourage children to clean off their brushes and select a new color. Each letter should be identified and confirmed as you move on.

The final reveal of this hidden name recognition activity should be a beautiful and colorful work of art!

To extend this name art for older children, you may direct them to trace the letters in their name with a black crayon. Do this step once the watercolors have had a chance to dry. It gives an added bit of name learning practice!

More Name Activities
Bubble Wrap Name Pop Ping Pong Name Push

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Hidden Name Art Preschool Name Activity - Fantastic Fun & Learning

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By · This content may contain affiliate links. Young learners to love to identify and practice their names. It's a big part of who they are! We are always looking for fun and unique ways to work on name recognition. Recently, we combined a fun and hands-on way to practice (and discover) our names.

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Cheerio Caterpillars - Fine Motor Skills Activity for Preschoolers

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This Cheerio Caterpillars activity helps your toddler or preschooler work on their fine motor skills, counting, and artistic expression.

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Cheerio Caterpillars (Fine Motor Skills Activity For Toddlers and Preschoolers)

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What you need is a half cup of water mixed with a few drops of what ever food coloring  a glass cup filled 3/4 of the way with oil pour the water into the cup till it’s 1-2 inches from the top then drop a Alka-Seltzer tab into your mixture and watch all the bubbles

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Miss Katie here reading Can Kittens Take a Catnap?

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Ring Toss

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Remember playing ring toss at the county fair? Bring that fun home with this homemade version of your carnival favorite. Cut out the centers of paper plates, paint them, and you've got rings ready to be tossed! This game is a fun way to teach young kids about direction and number values, or teach older kids about addition! It's a great creative project to do any day you're yearning for the fair, and it stops boredom in its tracks!

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Paper Plate Ring Toss | Activity | Education.com

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Remember playing ring toss at the county fair? Bring that fun home with this homemade version of your carnival favorite. Cut out the centers of paper plates, paint them, and you've got rings ready to be tossed! This game is a fun way to teach young kids about direction and number values, or teach older kids about addition!

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Snack Math

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Snack Math for Preschoolers That's Easy, Fun, and Engaging (With images) | Math activities preschool, Numbers preschool, Preschool learning activities

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Oct 7, 2015 - Let kids use their snack time to explore early math concepts in an easy, fun way! Grab this snack math for preschoolers free printable.

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Fork Painted Flowers 💐

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We love getting creative with our paintings! We've tried painting with toothbrushes, marbles and even magnets, so why not try painting with forks? It turns out, forks make a wonderful stamp to easily create beautiful flowers!

The colorful flowers of summer might be wilting, but we have all of the colors in this painting! Choose your favorite to make a bouquet, or mix and match with different colors. Even with summer coming to an end, we can still enjoy colorful flowers!
For this craft, you'll need:

white paper

craft paint

a paint brush

paper plate or something to squeeze the paint onto

small and large fork

Steps:
1. With a paint brush, paint the stems and leaves with green paint. You can also paint a vase for your bouquet of flowers, if you like!

2. Squeeze different colors of craft paint onto a paper plate, or whatever you are using.

3. Dip your fork into the colored paint and stamp away! Wipe your fork clean when switching colours.

Try experimenting with other things as stamps and see what kind of flowers they make. A spoon would be a great stamp for the center of a flower, and your fingertips would make wonderful petals! Try different things, explore different colors, and have fun painting flowers!

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

Original content © 2019 Super Simple. Not to be reprinted without express written permission. Terms of Service.

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We love getting creative with our paintings! We've tried painting with toothbrushes, marbles and even magnets, so why not try painting with forks? It turns out, forks make a wonderful stamp to easily create beautiful flowers! The colorful flowers of summer might be wilting, but we have all of the colors in this painting!

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We had beautiful weather this weekend, so I pulled out the supplies to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder craft and asked the kids if they wanted to make them. I got one taker.

As we were finishing, the oldest said, "that looks fun, I thought you were doing a boring activity." He's not much of a crafter; even your non crafty kids will enjoy this project.

This post contains affiliate links. See my Disclosure Policy for details.

The kids enjoyed making bird seed ornaments this winter for the birds using lard. They got so excited when a bird flew into our backyard and nibbled on the bird see ornaments that they had crafted.

Lard does not hold up as the weather warms up, so we needed new bird feeders. With Earth Day coming up, it was the perfect opportunity to use our toilet paper rolls.

We love crafting with toilet paper and paper towel rolls. I have everyone trained to save all the toilet paper rolls. We have a box just for cardboard rolls with our craft supplies.

Supplies:

Update: Many have asked for alternatives to peanut butter. I have not tried any of these, but these are suggestions I have recieved: sunflower butter, almond butter, or soy butter. This natural homemade glue was also suggested. You can find it here.

Directions:

1. Using a popsicle stick, cover outside of toilet paper roll with peanut butter.

2. Roll the peanut butter covered toilet paper roll in the bird seed until covered.

3. Thread a piece of twine through the toilet paper roll and knot.

4. Hang where birds can enjoy.

Extended learning:

This is a great Earth day craft and an opportunity to talk about earth day. Earth day is a big event with a lot of history and new stories. It's a lot for young kids to understand. We can teach them to recycle, reuse what we already have in our crafts, and to take care of the environment. In this case, feeding the birds.

Kid Craft Challenge

This post is part our Kid Craft Challenge. The challenge for this month was to create a craft from a recycled item. Check out what fellow bloggers created from recyclables below.

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Lisa // Cucicucicoo: Eco Sewing and Crafting

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We had beautiful weather this weekend, so I pulled out the supplies to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder craft and asked the kids if they wanted to make them. I got one taker. As

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Lava Lamp

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make a lava lamp with household ingredients

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How to Make a Lava Lamp with Household Ingredients

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Have you ever caught yourself being hypnotized by a lava lamp? You hold it in your hand, move it slightly, and watch as the liquid quivers and separates into different shapes and colors. Then you look at the price tag - and put it back....

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Straw Maze Activity

Materials:

Directions:

1. Place tape down onto the floor, design your tape in a maze formation

2. Place pom pom/ craft fluff on the floor at the start of your maze

3. Let the kids blow through their straws, blowing their pom pom through the maze

4. Optional: you can time each kid and see who can make it though the maze fastest

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Straw Maze Activity - The Keeper of the Cheerios

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Straw Maze Activity Materials: Directions: Place tape down onto the floor, design your tape in a maze formation Place pom pom/ craft fluff on the floor at the start of your maze Let the kids blow through their straws, blowing their pom pom through the maze Optional: you can time each kid and see who can make it though the maze fastest

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Here's a fun letter sounds activity that you can set up in just a few minutes with a muffin pan, paper cupcake liners, and small objects from around the house! We've been loving using muffin tins for learning lately. Last week, we did a muffin tin coin counting activity, and while I was setting that up, I had made a mental note to try an alphabet letter sorting activity for Janie.

This activity is perfect for kids who can recognize most of the alphabet letters and are in the process of learning the letter sounds. This usually happens around kindergarten and first grade. My fourth son could not remember what the letters were called until after he turned 5, even though he was eager to learn. My daughter is already learning sounds at age 4 (turning 5 next month). Each child develops at a different pace, so it's best to just go with the flow!

This activity would go well with our printable Beginning Sounds Memory Game.

To set up the activity, I used a marker to write letters on paper cupcake liners.

I chose capital letters because they are easier to identify. Janie knows many lowercase letters, but she still gets a few of them confused. There's all kinds of controversy in the educational world about teaching the capital letters first vs. lowercase letters first. In my opinion, it's not worth getting worked up about. They're going to have to learn both eventually, and they will. Kids who write their names in all capitals at age 5 (because they are easier to identify and easier to write) will learn the correct way just fine by age 6. My two cents...

Also, I chose to use only consonants for now. It's harder to hear vowel sounds at the beginning of words (much easier for a preschooler to hear the "t" in turtle than the "e" at the beginning of egg!). I had an old house key that I knew Janie would enjoy playing with, but I chose not to put both C and K in the muffin tin at the same time. We can do this activity another day and use the letters that we didn't get to this time.

We found so many interesting things to sort in our muffin tin! A toy horse, a frog, a spoon, a lid, a dog, a button, a tiny roll of tape, dice, a bracelet, a ball, a crayon, etc...

We put more than one item in each opening. If you want this to be a totally independent activity, it might be good to choose just 12 items to sort. If a child got to the end and knew that the remaining item did not match the remaining letter, they would know that there was a mistake somewhere. Just a thought. We had fun stuffing the muffin tin with objects, however!

Have fun learning! Be sure to stop by our Muffin Tin Coin Counting activity as well.

Here's another playful letter sounds activity - Alphabet Town.

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Muffin Tin Letter Sounds Activity - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a fun letter sounds activity that you can set up in just a few minutes with a muffin pan, paper cupcake liners, and small objects from around the house! We've been loving using muffin tins for learning lately. Last week, we did a muffin tin coin counting activity, and while I was setting that [...]

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What you need
:small paper plate
:glue
:googlie eyes
: something to make eyebrows and a mouth
Glue it all together take a picture and post yours I’d love to see how cool they turn out

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Miss Katie here reading a book called Sammy the Seal

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Top 20 name activities for teaching children to recognize their names in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Fun hands-on learning activities for kids.

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Name Activities for Preschool

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I spy with my little eye 👁 something....

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Let’s go fishing 🎣 🐠 🐟 for numbers

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Play the Fish for Numbers Game! | Activity | Education.com

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Is your kid struggling with number recognition? Here's a great way to go fishing for numbers that will feel more like play than counting practice.

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Rock painting 🎨

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Rock painting is all the rage. From rock hunting to just painting on rocks for fun, everyone is getting into this entertaining and easy craft.

Rock Painting Ideas for Kids

With all the beautiful rock art floating around, we wanted to make sure that the littlest crafters don't get left out. Some of the story rocks and intricate paintings are too much for kids to craft. So we decided to search for some fun crafts that are perfect the smallest rock hunters. Grab some paints, a handful of rocks, and your little ones and let's start stone painting!

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting Twitchetts!

Looking for some beginner inspiration? Check out these rock painting ideas!

If you enjoyed these stone painting ideas, you'll love this!

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Simple Rock Painting Ideas for Kids ~ Over 25 stone painting techniques for the younger kids

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Rock painting ideas that are easy! These beginner rock painting techniques are perfect for kids too! Stone painting is all the rage. From rock hunting to just painting on rocks for fun, everyone is getting into this fun and easy craft.

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Monster Art

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Paper Plate Monsters Craft | Monster craft, Toddler art

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Aug 7, 2013 - So we have been enjoying a few monster themed activities over here lately.We shared with you all our Monsters, Inc. Playdough Mikes and today we want to share our paper plate monsters. Of course we made ours in Mike,s image but you can really mix this craft up and have your own fun with it. …

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Lemon 🍋 Volcanos 🌋

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DIY - Lemon Volcano. Easy Science Experiment for kids!

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Great Outdoor Games

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When the weather gets hot, it's hard not to fall into a nostalgic daydream of your sunny, summery childhood.

Instead of being stuck inside at work all day, you hung out with your siblings, best friends, and neighbors. Pretty sweet deal, right?

So, why not recreate your childhood? Grab your friends, head to a nearby park, and play like it's 1999 (Or 1969, 1979, 1989 ... we're not judging.) all over again.

1. Four Square

Before you and your sibs battled over who was the mayor of your house on FourSquare, you might've played Four Square, the old-school recess classic.

2. Tag

A quick game of Tag settled which sibling was destined for the track team and which was destined for the library early on in life.

3. Monkey in the Middle

Older (read: taller) siblings loved Monkey in the Middle because it could go on for hours over their poor, shorter siblings' heads.

4. Red Rover

You secretly hoped to be called over in Red Rover, giving you an excuse to run directly into your crush's arms.

5. Hide and Seek

You may or may not have played Hide and Seek at your eighth grade graduation party with the intent of "seeking" your middle school boyfriend for a kiss. You may or may not have broken up a week later. Love hurts.

6. Hopscotch

You had to be careful with hopscotch; if you stepped on a crack, you would break your mother's back.

7. Jump Rope

Jump rope with friends at recess was always so much fun. So why aren't your aerobics classes at the gym just as entertaining?

8. Red Light, Green Light

All those years of playing Red Light, Green Light as a kid finally paid off when you got your license. Score!

9. Spud

Spud looked like a fun, innocent game on the surface, but you chucked the ball at your brother's head every time he got on your nerves.

10. Horse

Nineties kids shot hoop after hoop in Horse until they could make baskets blindfolded, just like on Hey Arnold.

11. Simon Says

Simon Says practice as a kid made you a pro at following your boss's directions at work as an adult.

12. Marco Polo

The soundtrack of childhood summers: "MARCO?" "POLO!"

13. Freeze Dance

Accusations of cheating always ran rampant, but freeze dance was still one of the best games to play at birthday parties and in big groups.

14. Musical Chairs

Way back when, you played musical chairs with your friends. Now, you scramble for a seat at parties because your shoes hurt too badly to stand for the duration of the party.

15. Telephone

Before "Telephone" became the greatest Lady Gaga/Beyoncé collaboration of all time, you played telephone - and rarely ended up with the innocuous phrases that started the game.
Homepage image: Flickr, lincolnblues

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15 Outdoor Games That Will Make You Miss Being a Kid

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When the weather gets hot, it's hard not to fall into a nostalgic daydream of your sunny, summery childhood. Instead of being stuck inside at work all day, you hung out with your siblings, best friends, and neighbors. Pretty sweet deal, right? So, why not recreate your childhood?

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Monster Footprint Hop

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With Halloween just around the corner I thought the boys would enjoy this Monster Footprint Hop and boy was I right! They went back through it over and over at least 10 times each! Such a perfect gross motor activity during Halloween season or anytime of year really! Perfect for a monster-themed party or event too! And the best part is that it only took 10 minutes to set up!

MATERIALS NEEDED TO MAKE A MONSTER FOOTPRINT HOP: (affiliate links)

* Construction paper in various colors

* Masking Tape

WHAT TO DO:

1. Start by collecting various colors of construction paper. Be sure to get even numbers of each color so you have 2 footprint sets.

2. Then trace the outline of a monster print (basically a large oval on the bottom and then four pointed claws on top) on one of the sheets. I am not an artist at all and was easily able to sketch this out.

3. Cut out the monster print.

4. Hold this print over about 6 sheets of construction paper and cut more matching prints out. Repeat until you have all your prints cut out. For kids working on their scissor skills you could trace the monster print on all the pieces of construction paper and have the kids cut out the prints.

5. Take a small piece of masking tap and apply it to the bottom of each footprint.

6. Place each print on the ground with a matching print.

7. Be sure to turn sets of prints different directions to make the course more challenging.

VARIATIONS FOR DIFFERENT AGES:

* For preschool kids, have them work on color recognition by shouting out the colors they are jumping on as they move through the course.

* For elementary kids have them count by twos when they are jumping through the course.

Check out the below video to see the boys in action!

For more fun Halloween ideas, check out our other Halloween activities here.

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Monster Footprint Hop * ages 2+ ⋆ Raising Dragons

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With Halloween just around the corner I thought the boys would enjoy this Monster Footprint Hop and boy was I right! They went back through it over and over at least 10 times each! Such a perfect gross motor activity during Halloween season or anytime of year really!

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Marble Maze

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STEM Challenge for Kids: Design a Paper Plate Marble Maze

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In this STEM challenge for kids, children will create a paper plate marble maze game inspired by pinball machines using just a few common craft supplies and a m

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Author: Susie

Making sticker lines: about the easiest fun around

I've said it 1000 times: activities do not have to be complicated to be amazing. They don't have to take hours to prep. They don't need boatloads of supplies. Simple activities - like sticker lines - are some of the best activities out there.
RELATED: Wondering how I'm teaching my kids each day? I'm using a play-based approach! Check out Playing Preschool.
The truth is in the dot stickers

Dot stickers are magical. Dot stickers are perfection. Dot stickers are absolutely the stuff activity dreams are made of.

First - they're versatile.

Second - they're easy and quiet.

Third - they have a LONG life span.

From a young toddler just a bit more than one to my almost six year old... dot stickers have a place with every age.
RELATED: Looking for more dot sticker activities? Check these out!
Let's make this crazy easy activity in under 5 minutes!

It just doesn't take long to set this up. I think it's more of a 3 minute project but I'll say 5 just to be safe.

Here's what you need for sticker lines:

Busy Toddler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more about these links in my disclosure policy.

First, I rolled out a giant piece of paper, cut it, and drew my squiggle lines.
Materials
Sometimes, I do this activity on the ground but for this time - I wanted to put it on the wall.

RELATED: Here's another great activity using butcher paper.

There's a reason it's on the wall...

Kids need to be doing activities / work on vertical surfaces to build up arm strength (and a whole lot of other good things).

Making this little change from doing it on the ground to on the wall actually does so much good for my daughter (4).

Next time you have the choice between an activity on a table or one on a wall - give the wall a chance.

I got the dot stickers ready with this "one weird trick"

How's that for a click bait header? I couldn't help myself.

Whenever I'm working with dot stickers, I always make sure to remove the inner white part to make the stickers just that much easier to remove.

This makes dot sticker peeling something that my kids could do alone from about 16 months on. WIN!

What's the goal in sticker lines?

The goal is to cover the lines with stickers.

Think fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, independent work time.

My daughter did this activity in about 3 - 15 minute chunks throughout the day. It was there when she needed it to be there.

Sometimes she did random stickers.

Sometimes she made simple patterns.

It was all up to her and how she wanted it to look.

It might look like a simple set-up...

But trust me, sticker lines is a fantastic activity full of so much goodness. Even though it's an easy one without much complication - this is still one perfect activity.

When will you try sticker lines?

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Sticker Lines: Fine Motor Activity - Busy Toddler

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Author: Susie I've said it 1000 times: activities do not have to be complicated to be amazing. They don't have to take hours to prep. They don't need boatloads of supplies. Simple activities - like sticker lines - are some of the best activities out there.

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With this quick and easy finger paint your child can finger paint for just pennies. It's perfect for using on paper or in the bathtub. The dish soap makes this finger paint wash out of anything my girls have painted with it. Keeps for at least a week in airtight containers.

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Neighborhood Fun

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Make the most of neighbourhood walks with this fun, printable family scavenger hunt. It's great for families with children of all ages.

To play along, print a copy of the family scavenger hunt printable (instructions for downloading and printing can be found at the bottom of this post), decide where your family will walk and head off with a pencil and clipboard to see what they can find. You can print one copy for the whole family, or make a copy for each child in your family.

You can also invite your children to use a phone or camera to take photographs of the things they find in your neighbourhood that suit each item on the checklist. These photos can later be used for journalling about your scavenger hunt adventure.

And you might like to follow up this neighbourhood scavenger hunt by completing our printable Alphabet Scavenger Hunt as a family challenge on your next family walk! Or you could try our five senses Nature Scavenger Hunt.

How to Download & Print Your
Printable Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Click here to download: Let's Take a Walk! Scavenger Hunt Printable. Save the PDF to your computer. Open the PDF to print the pages you require. When printing, select "Fit to printable area" (or similar) to ensure the page fits with your printer type and local paper size.
Having trouble accessing or downloading the file? Please try a different internet browser.
Please note: All Childhood 101 printables are for personal use only, you may not use any part of this content for commercial purposes-that includes selling the document, giving it away to promote your business or website, or printing the file to sell. You may not share, loan or redistribute these documents. Teachers may use multiple copies for students in their own classroom.

Click on the images below for related ideas;
Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

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Let's Take a Walk! Family Scavenger Hunt Printable

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Make the most of neighbourhood walks with this fun, printable family scavenger hunt. It's great for families with children of all ages. To play along, print a copy of the family scavenger hunt printable (instructions for downloading and printing can be found at the bottom of this post), decide where your family will walk and head off with a pencil and clipboard to see what they can find.

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Trace and Chant

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Smack the number

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My boys are almost 3 and very excited to know their numbers! With a summer storm brewing outside I thought it would be fun to do a quick number practice game to help them get moving and work on their number recognition. This is a really easy activity that requires no prep and just a couple of supplies - and it's FUN!

This post contains affiliate links. See my Disclosure Policy for details.
To play Smack the Number, you just need a set of foam numbers and a fly swatter.

I started out having my boys line up each number in order. They love to do this and sing a song they learned by watching Number Land, which is a really cute Leap Frog show about numbers that they just love! I'm convinced it's how they've learned their numbers so fast.

Once they were all lined up we got out our (clean) fly swatters! They started by smacking each number that I called out.

Then I just let them swat the numbers around - they loved this! And since they're made of foam, no harm done to the floor or our toes.

We really enjoyed playing this game - it gave them a chance to practice their number skills and have a little fun too. Next we'll try it with our ABCs!

Check out these great counting books too!

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Smack the Number Activity for Toddlers & Preschoolers

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My boys are almost 3 and very excited to know their numbers! With a summer storm brewing outside I thought it would be fun to do a quick number practice game to help them get moving and work on their number recognition.

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DIY Cupcake Liner Umbrella Cards - Kid Craft Idea For A Rainy Day

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Rain, rain - go away! Come again another day! If I didn't know any better, I would say Wyoming got the memo late about April showers bringing May flowers... at least it's better than snow, right?

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Red Ted Art - Make crafting with kids easy & fun

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Welcome back to Kids Crafts and this week's cardboard tube robot!! I am a huge huge HUGE fan of cardboard tube crafts.. mainly because we have them in abundance in our house (*cough* I blame the Englishman). This little Toilet Paper Roll Robot is a perfect little Crafts for Boys idea!

We actually made this robot last year and it forms part of my Time On Your Hands ebook. But I decided to share him with you today. This little guy has once again inspired hours of fun in our house. Which is great for those long long holidays. He also forms part of our home made "puppet theatre", where we have a range of wonderful characters.
Materials: The Cardboard Tube Roll, metallic or blue paint, silver corrugated card or tin foil, scissors, paper, googly eyes, pen, sequins, glue, elastic band to keep everything in place whilst drying I used metallic acrylic paint, but you can replace it with tin foil or wrapping paper or ordinary paint, which you then varnish if you want to!
Step 1 Paint two strips at the top and bottom of the roll around 2cm wide in the metallic colour (or colour the whole roll, it doesn't matter really!) - as per the photo above.

Step 2 Paint some plain paper in the same colour, so you can later use it for the arms. You will need to paint both sides
Step 3 Once dry, cut out a piece of corrugated card and glue it onto the roll. You could also use some contrasting plain card, tin foil or felt

Step 4 Stick on googly eyes, a mouth (white paper & pen drawing) and sequins for buttons

Step 5 Make the arms: these are "Witches Ladders" and consist of two strips of paper folded over each other. Glue them at right angles to begin with and then take turn folding them

Step 6 Glue on arms
I used an elastic band to keep corrugated card and arms in place whilst they were drying on.

Done! You have one little cardboard tube robot. What do you think?!

If you are interested in seeing more Toilet Paper Roll Crafts take a look at these:

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Easy Cardboard Tube Robot for Kids - Red Ted Art - Make crafting with kids easy & fun

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Welcome back to Kids Crafts and this week's cardboard tube robot!! I am a huge huge HUGE fan of cardboard tube crafts.. mainly because we have them in abundance in our house (*cough* I blame the Englishman). This little Toilet Paper Roll Robot is a perfect little Crafts for Boys idea!

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Jelly Bean Experiment 🧫

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Do you and the kids love candy science? We do over here at my house. Finding ways to use up candy that does not include eating it is always a plus at my house. So what better to do with a few bags of jelly beans than to use them in a science experiment with the kids. Jelly Bean Science is easy and fun for you and the kids.

Jelly Bean Science Experiment

First we separated the jelly beans by color into separate bowls. Fun way to color sort with the kids.

Now we added water to all the bowls with the jelly beans in them. You could change up what you add to each bowl. Maybe add salt water to one, coke or sprite to another... I used only water for a reason. You will have to check back to find out why.

Now we went over what we thought would happen to the jelly beans after sitting in the water. We quickly noticed the water in the bowls changing colors as we talked.

We left the jelly beans in the water for several hours before we came back to check them. Now what happens to a jelly bean that sits in water? The color fades and the candy part becomes mushy.

We touch the jelly beans to observe the changes the water made to them. My son replied mushy!

Then he wanted to know if they still tasted good. So we taste tested them. He said they still had a good flavor but the consistency was no good. Last we looked at the water in the bowls and examined it. It had bright colors and each bowl had a fruit scent. My son wanted to taste them too. Not that yummy.

This was a fun and simple science experiment for me and my toddler to do one afternoon. Perfect way to use up some of those jelly beans in the house.

More Science Post:
Ice Cream in a Bag Simple Science Science Experiments Water Displacement Lava Lamp Experiment
This post contains affiliate links. FSPDT is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

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I hope you can enjoy this with your family too!

Follow along with us and be inspired to play on

Written by Jaime

Hi! I am Jaime, mama to three high energy boys. With three boys, life never slows down, but I wouldn't have it any other way! We love creating, learning, and crafting together and we can turn anything into an adventure.

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Do you and the kids love candy science? We do over here at my house. Finding ways to use up candy that does not include eating it is always a plus at my house. So what better to do with a few bags of jelly beans than to use them in a science experiment with the kids.

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My Little Sprout House

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Kids love learning about how things grow and these adorable Little Sprout Houses take the science fun factor up a notch. With just a few minutes of prep, you'll be ready for WEEKS of mesmerizing excitement!

Grab these sprout houses (plus 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat!) in our shop!

Getting Ready

To prep, I picked up a pack of fast-sprouting seeds at the store. A few of my favorite varieties include lima beans, cowpeas, snap peas, sunflower seeds, marigolds, radishes, alfalfa sprouts and mung bean.

My kids filled a cup with water and dropped in the seeds to soak them overnight. This extra step is an old farmer's trick for speeding up the germination process.

The next morning, the kids grabbed six cotton balls each, dipped them in water and squeezed out the extra so that it was wet but not dripping. They slid them into a Ziploc and dropped in a couple of the seeds.

I printed the Little Sprout Houses on cardstock to give them extra durability and make the colors really pop. Since the templates for the houses are pretty unforgiving, I cut them out with scissors myself instead of having the kids help me.

Then, we flipped the houses upside down and taped the bag to the back.

Watching the Little Sprout Houses

We grabbed a couple pieces of tape and hung the Little Sprout Houses on the window.

The kids checked in on their houses several times a day and, after almost a week, they were THRILLED to discover a teeny tiny sprout emerge from one of the seeds.

That was all it took! Soon after that, the seeds sprouted quickly and we soon moved them into our garden!

The Science Behind It

A seed needs water and warmth to grow. The Ziploc bag creates a mini green house that makes warm, moist air from the sunlight shining through the window and the water contained in the cotton balls. The happy seed quickly sprouts.

Snag Your Little Sprout Houses

Grab these sprout houses (plus 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat!) !

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Kids love learning about how things grow and these adorable Little Sprout Houses take the science fun factor up a notch. With just a few minutes of prep, you'll be ready for WEEKS of mesmerizing excitement! Grab these sprout houses (plus 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat!)

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Sponge Darts | Summer activities for kids, Summer activities, Activities

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Last winter, you may recall that I shared a series of indoor activities that we used to entertain ourselves throughout a brutally cold January and February. Things like Toilet Paper Trails, Stomp & Pop Balloons,

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I love teaching kids about shapes. There's just something simple and fun about it, and it's always been one of my favorites. This shape sorting activity has been a staple in my life for almost a decade now - because it's that good.
WONDERING WHAT I TEACH MY KIDS EACH DAY? Check out "Playing Preschool", my easy at-home preschool program.
What you need to know about teaching shapes.

The thing with teaching kids about shapes is that often we show kids a flat representation of the shape and work on them memorizing how it looks.

Once they can spout off the names of a few shapes, we think it's done. They know their shapes!

But actually, that's just the beginning.

There are TWO keys to teaching shapes.

1. Kids need to recognize shapes in their environment, to recognize that a clock is a circle or a table is made of rectangles. The more we can expose kids to identifying shapes in their environment, the more well-rounded their understanding of shapes becomes.

2. Attributes: memorizing how a shape looks is the base of learning shapes. The next level is attributes - being able to describe why something is a shape or the specific characteristics of a shape.
Understanding that a square has 4 sides, 4 points, and each side is the same is a BIG skill and one that we have to teach our children. They need to know why and what shapes are.

Here's how this shape sorting activity teaches those skills

This simple shape sorting activity is easy to set up but packs a big learning punch.

(this list contains affiliate links. Read more about these links in my disclosure policy.)

Painter's tape

Random toys / objects from around the house

Materials:
I grabbed my 3-year-old for this activity. First, we made a circle, square, and triangle on the carpet. Please forgive the terrible circle I made. It worked for us (wink).

I went through the family room toys and the kitchen searching for items that were square, circle or triangular. It didn't take long before I had a mountain of objects to work with.

How did I teach this shape sorting activity?

We first started by tracing the outline of each shape and talking about the attributes.

"This is a triangle. It has three sides and three points."

Then she started sorting.

While she sorted, I stayed close and asked questions - good questions, the kinds that need more than a yes or no answer.

"How did you know that yo-yo was a circle?"

"Why didn't you put that book in the triangle?"

This is about going deep with our knowledge of shapes

We want our children to go beyond the surface, to move past simple memorizing, and to really know and own their learning / knowledge.

By taking shapes off the paper and into the real world, we give our kids the chance to dig deep with shapes and expand their understanding even more.

When will you build a shape sorting activity?

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Shape Sorting Activity: Go Beyond Memorizing - Busy Toddler

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I love teaching kids about shapes. There's just something simple and fun about it, and it's always been one of my favorites. This shape sorting activity has been a staple in my life for almost a decade now - because it's that good. WONDERING WHAT I TEACH MY KIDS EACH DAY?

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Activity Sneak Peak:

Under 1 minute set-up time

Requires only TWO household items

Multi-sensory and fine motor skills

Works on learning counting, colors, and sorting

For ages 12 months+

This pompom whisk activity is so simple and only requires 2 items. This sensory activity will help to improve fine motor skills (using the small muscles of the hands and fingers) and you can keep the activity going further to teach counting and color sorting.

My 2 year old was so excited for this activity and couldn't wait to get started once I showed it to her.

Your toddler will love the bright colors and softness of the pompoms. They're also so versatile to use over and over on other DIY projects or activities.

Related Post: 9 Simple Ways to Get Your Toddler to Learn Their Colors

What you will need:

What to do:

This activity is so simple!

1.Just stuff a bunch of pompoms through the slots of a whisk until it's completely full. You can use plastic or wire. It makes no difference.

2. Demonstrate to your child how to pull out each pompom from between the wires. Teach them to use a pincer grasp (thumb and pointer only) to grab each pompom one-at-a-time.

3. Allow them time to complete it all on thier own.

4. Once they are finished pulling out all of the pompoms, have your child count them all.

5. Place one of each color out to start color sorting.

6. Have your child separate the pompoms into piles by color.

7. Have them sort the pompoms into their coordinating color pile as they say the name of each color.

8. You can go back to counting by now counting how many of each color are in each pile.

Note: Be careful if your toddler still tends to put things in their mouth as these are small enough to slip inside. They won't like the feel of it in there, but watch them carefully.

Related Post: Edible Finger Paint for Toddlers

Skills that this activity addresses

Play is one of the best ways to encourage our children to learn everyday. So many activities are teaching and encouraging your child, even though they may not even know it.

They can learn new vocabulary, problem-solving, cause and effect, shapes, sizes, colors, animals, and so many more skills through everyday play.

Hopefully your toddler will have fun playing with the pompoms, that they won't even realize that they are learning!

You can pretty much find skills that will be improved through any playtime activity. For this Pompom Whisk activity, the following skills are being strengthened for our toddlers:

Language/Vocabulary: Hearing and talking about different objects (pompom, whisk, soft, fuzzy, colors, numbers)

Cognition: Learning and understanding new concepts (pull out, sort colors, counting)

Fine motor skills: Strengthening and coordinating the muscles of their hands by using a pincer grasp to pull pompoms out. Also, working on bilateral coordination (using two hands together in different ways) by holding the whisk still with one hand while using the other to pull out the pompoms.

Sensory: Feeling and seeing different textures can be calming or stimulating for a child. They will get to explore the softness of the pompom and hardness of the whisk.

Related Post: Painting with Water: A Clean Toddler Sensory Activity

Ways to incorporate cognition and language

You really can and SHOULD incorporate cognition (knowledge) and language into any activity you are doing with your little one. Just merely talking through the steps that they're performing will help build their vocabulary and understanding about new words and concepts.

Remember that your toddler is constantly listening and absorbing everything around them, including language. Repetition and overuse dramatically increase your child's ability to learn and retain new words.

Here are a few ways to build cognition and language during this activity:

Point to a pompom and say or ask, This is pink or What color is this?

Ask them to point to the green pompoms, pink pompoms, etc.

Work on concepts like in, out, on top, under, sort, count

Vocabulary words such as pompoms, whisk, colors, numbers, pile

Ways to work on fine motor skills

Fine motor skills allow us to use the small muscles of our hands and fingers. They enable us to grab, manipulate, turn, twist, and hold objects.

Bilateral coordination also allows us to use both hands together in a coordinated manner usually to transfer objects and stabilize with one hand to manipulate with the other.

This activity can help develop these skills in a variety of ways.

Have your child only use a pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) to pull out and sort pompoms.

Transfer the whisk from one hand to another

How did your toddler like this activity? Write in the comments below!

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PomPom Whisk: A Toddler Fine Motor and Learning Activity

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Activity Sneak Peak: Under 1 minute set-up time Requires only TWO household items Multi-sensory and fine motor skills Works on learning counting, colors, and sorting For ages 12 months+ This pompom whisk activity is so simple and only requires 2 items. This sensory activity will help to improve fine motor skills (using the small muscles of the hands and fingers) and you can keep the activity going further to teach counting and color sorting.

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Hi! Miss Katie here reading you a story by Dr. Seuss! I hope you enjoy!

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/ggevj6lff4f595u/IMG_9517.MOV?dl=0

Hi all I hope you are all healthy and doing great. Miss Erin hear reading How To Be A Lion. He is a very good friend and can’t wait for you to listen. So grab you favorite stuffed animal 🧸 and enjoy

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Hi everyone,
After a few hours this is what it looks like🌈

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Here is Birklee’s walking water experiment. It takes a few hours with food coloring. Will post a picture when all done😊

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Here is Birklee’s walking water experiment. It takes a few hours with food coloring. Will post a picture when all done😊

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3/4 cups of Water(ever other cup), Food Coloring ( we used green, red and orange), six glasses and five paper towels folded in half.

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Torn rainbow 🌈 activity

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Can paper towels walk?

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This walking water science experiment is so much fun and super easy to do! My kids absolutely loved it! It even comes with free printable recording sheets for kids as young as preschool! Check out the video to see how easy this walking water experiment really is. This rainbow activity is perfect for spring science!

Walking Water Science Experiment

Ok, this might just be our favorite science experiment! The whole family (adults included) were completely mesmerized with process. We all couldn't believe how quickly the water traveled up the paper towel and neat it was to watch the colors mix together.

We have wanted to try it out for a long time now and I am kicking myself for waiting so long. I don't know why, but I thought it might be difficult to do or take a long time. I was way wrong. It was very easy and we started seeing results right away!
Related: Simple Spring Science and STEAM Activities
The walking water science experiment is great at any time of the year, but it is especially perfect for spring. I love doing rainbow activities in the spring, so this was a great addition to our rainbow theme activities.

If you are looking for simple science to do with the kids and something that will really WOW them, this is definitely one to try.

You only need a few simple supplies that you probably already have around the house.

Setting Up the Rainbow Science Experiment
Supplies Needed:

Printable walking water recording sheets (button to download at the bottom of the post)

Small plastic cups or glasses

Paper towels (*read my tips below for picking the right ones)

Food coloring in primary colors

Water

* The pick-a-size paper towels are best because then you just use half sheets for each cup. If you only have full sheets, then cut them in half. I've also heard that more absorbent paper towels work better too. I buy the cheap store brand ones, and our water moved pretty quickly from cup to cup, so I am not sure how important that is. It may have went quicker with something more absorbent though.

1. Print out the recording sheets and make copies, if needed.

2. Place 7 cups in a row and pour water in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th cup. My cups were about 3/4 full. I have since heard that fuller is better.

3. Add 5 drops of red food coloring to the 1st cup and the 7th cup.

4. Add 5 drops of yellow food coloring to the 3rd cup.

5. Add 5 drops of blue food coloring to the 5th cup.

Doing the Walking Water Experiment

You want to try to use the same amount of food coloring in each cup. When I did this with my kids they did drop an extra one or two in since they can't control it well, but I just added a drop or two more to the others to even it out.

6. Take a half sheet of paper towel and fold it in half lengthwise and in half again lengthwise.

7. Trim off some of the length so that there isn't too much excess paper towel that will stick up in the air between each cup. This will make the water walk more quickly.

8. Place one half of a rolled paper towel in the 1st cup and place the other half in the cup next to it. Then another paper towel from 2nd cup and into the 3rd cup. This continues until you have placed the last paper towel that drapes over from the 6th cup to the 7th cup.

9. Stare at the cups and watch what starts happening. You should quickly be able to see the colored water begin to crawl up the paper towel.

10. Don't forget to do the first part of the recording sheet. Students will predict what they think will happen.

This walking water experiment is AWESOME!

Keep checking back every couple of minutes. Soon you will be able to see that the water has crawled all the way up the paper towel and is beginning to walk back down into the empty cup next to it.

Since the cup on either side of an empty cup has colored water in it, the two colors begin to mix in the empty cup. So cool!

Keep coming back throughout the two hours or soon and observe what is happening.

Question to Ask

What do you think will happen to the water?

What is happening now?

Why do you think the colors are changing?

Why might the water be able to move up against gravity like that?

How this Science Experiment Works

The water moves up the paper towels through a process called capillary action. The paper towel is made from fibers and the water is able to travel through the gaps in the fibers. The gaps in the paper towel act like capillary tubes and pull the water upward. This is what helps water climb from a plant's roots to the leaves at the top of the plant or tree.

The water is able to move upward against gravity because of the attractive forces between the water and the fibers in the paper towel.

I even removed one of the red cups and made a color wheel so I could introduce the kids to that as well.

I hope your kids have a great time with this super cool walking water science experiment!

Check out these other science experiments and activities for kids.

This lava lamp science experiment is always a hit with the kids!

If you haven't tried this magic milk science activity, you have to! It is so awesome and super easy to do.

This leak proof bag science experiment will make your kids jaw drop! It's hard to believe, but it works.

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Rainbow Walking Water Science Experiment for Kids

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This walking water science experiment is so much fun and super easy to do! My kids absolutely loved it! It even comes with free printable recording sheets for kids as young as preschool! Check out the video to see how easy this walking water experiment really is.

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Nature Scavenger Hunt

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Get out & explore with this FREE Nature Scavenger Hunt printable list!

We love to get outside and explore new places as a family -- whether it's hiking a new trail, going on a scavenger hunt or finding a new playground!

Print off this FREE outdoor scavenger hunt and see if you can find all the items on the list on your next outing.

Today's highlight is an Outdoor Nature Scavenger Hunt that's perfect for your next park visit, hiking adventure or walk in the woods!

Scavenger hunts are such a great activity -- either as a group or even a friendly competition.

We also enjoy taking this Playground Scavenger Hunt with us during the summer when we scout out new places to play.

Outdoor scavenger hunts add that extra plus of allowing the whole family to relax in nature for a while.

Tips for your Nature Scavenger Hunt:

Here are a few lessons we've learned from our many scavenger hunt adventures along with affiliate links for items we like to have with us:

Bring along a clipboard so it's easy to check off items as you see them.

Try to practice the 'leave no trace' policy -- meaning check off the items as you find them instead of collecting them to take with you. Or better yet, use your phone and take a picture of each of the items on the list as you find them.

Notice our pencil choice? We like to have bright colored pencils so when someone drops it, it's easy to find on the forest floor :)

Have more than one person doing the hunt? You can just bring along a different color pencil for each person so it's easy to track who found which item.

Remember, you'll be outside to dress accordingly (reminder for the kids) and bring along water & some snacks (these outdoor scavenger hunts always make us hungry!)

We also have a few favorite nature books -- always a great idea for story time before heading out on the hunt!

Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature (this one is lovely year-round but especially in the Spring!)

Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the Natural World -- perfect for kids of all ages (adults too!) this gorgeous book is a wonderful field guide to nature.

Things to Find on an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

I really wanted to offer some challenges for the hunt and also wanted to include some terms & items that would give an element of learning to the activity too.

So you'll find words like 'coniferous' tree -- which is any type of evergreen tree that has cones for their seeds.

And your kids will need to scout out moss on a tree -- they might just call it 'fuzzy green stuff' like our kids did until we told them it had an actually name :)

I also included some interesting challenges that require a good eye -- like "find animal tracks in the mud or dirt"!

Oh my gosh you guys! Shoes!!

How did I forget to mention that in our tips list {smacks head!}

I'm going to go off on a tangent for a second because last month, we headed to a new trail to do some hiking but guess what we forgot to pack -- a pair of good outdoor shoes like these affordable Northside sports shoes for the whole family!

It was one of those mix-ups -- we had our hiking shoes in a bag and I thought my daughter grabbed the bag, she thought I grabbed the bag, we were trying to get our crazy dog into the car too and the next thing we knew, we were hiking in ....

... flip flops :(

Flip flops are NOT good hiking shoes!

We had to cut the hike short and both of us had blisters between our toes the next day.

So be sure to wear a comfy pair of shoes.

We love having the hiking/water type shoes (also called sports sandals) because

1) they let your feet breathe so they don't get too hot and

2) you never know when you're going to come across a creek or pond and want to wade in :)

Plus, they dry out quickly too!

Northside Shoes was so great to send our family some of their amazing shoes so we could try them out. They are super comfy, very versatile and fit really well. I love the adjustable toggle strap on the front (and my daughter LOVES the pink camo colors :)

They're perfect if you're visiting an area with a creek or pond ( psst... try these 20 Activities for a Day at the Pond or Lake if you do!)

Be sure to get in some outdoor exploring on your scavenger hunt --it's not all about checking off the boxes and just going home.

Enjoy some time together outdoors too.

That's why I included challenges like " a rock big enough to stand on" and " find a path into the woods".

If you're at the park, spend some time relaxing with these 30 Games to Play at the Park.

And I LOVE the last item on the list -- " something you didn't expect to see"!

We've run across a LOT of unexpected things on our park adventures -- we saw a coyote this week in the park near our school (I know, kinda scary but it was close to dusk and we know they live nearby)

And we've also encountered deer, snakes, a snapping turtle and a wild turkey!

Life can get really interesting near the woods :)

But the latest unexpected item was actually man-made --

A local Eagle Scout created a bee house and installed it in the park as part of his Eagle project.

How cool is that!!

With the recent plight of the honeybees, we're hoping that a colony might take up residence here this summer.

Use these Honeybee Books & Activities with your kids to learn more about how to support these insects.

See, you never know what you'll find on a park visit.

Print off your FREE Nature Scavenger Hunt & get out to explore a park or trail near you!

More Outdoor Nature Scavenger Hunt Ideas:

Go on a Bug Hunt {free printable adventure}
20 Summer Scavenger Hunts DIY Nature Journal with 50+ printable activities

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FREE Nature Scavenger Hunt {with printable!}

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Get out & explore with this FREE Nature Scavenger Hunt printable list! We love to get outside and explore new places as a family -- whether it's hiking a new trail, going on a scavenger hunt or finding a new playground!

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Covid-19 Time Capsule

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This project will help your children document their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Time Capsule is created by LONG Creations. LONG Creations offers digital printable art for your home and kids.

Important information for those sheltering in place:
Coronavirus: Your Local HQ - Click here for more information about your community
Finding the Helpers
Community Guide for Take-out or Delivery
Business closings/changes in services
Community Events canceled/postponed
Live-stream music entertainment for the family
Charter to expand Showtime, Epix to all video subscribers

Comments

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This project will help your children document their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Time Capsule is created by LONG Creations. LONG Creations offers digital printable art for your home and kids. Important information for those sheltering in place: Coronavirus: Your Local HQ - Click here for more information about your community Finding the Helpers Community Guide for Take-out or...

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Let’s Dance 💃

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The Dance Freeze Song | Freeze Dance | Scratch Garden

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Brain 🧠 Break

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Cut and laminate these 20 fun brain breaks activity cards to help refresh and energize your students during task work

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LEGO Counting! How high can you count?

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Counting fun https://pin.it/5xzQrx9

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Sneak some science into your play time! Mitch and I have been designing popsicle stick catapults lately and it's been so freakin' fun. ( Check out more catapult designs here.)

Design this Easy Catapult with craft sticks, a spoon and rubbers bands

We first ran into this popsicle stick catapult design at the Magic House maker workshop. The idea is pretty simple and there's lots of variations. Try out a few and run some tests to see which one works best- like our Spoon-a-pult 2.0!

This design is easy and the spoon holds your projectile pretty well. It only takes 3 rubber bands, which is especially handy if you're rummaging through your junk draw to find crafting supplies.

Let's begin!

Tada! That was easy!

Make Projectiles for Your Catapult

You can experiment with different kinds of projectiles for your popsicle catapult-really anything that can fit on the spoon will work. Mitch and I tested all kinds of things-wads of paper, super balls, foam balls, foil balls or rocks (if you're outside).

Because this is meant to be an indoor project, I recommend making aluminum foil balls. They have just the right amount of weight to travel far, aren't round enough to roll under the couch and won't hurt anything that accidentally gets in the way.

Marshmallows are also great for catapult flinging!

Mitch and I made a little video if you want to see how it's built and little demo at the end. Enjoy!

This catapult has a lot of upward thrust-not a very good distance shooter. It's great for younger kids to build because it's so very simple.

Build a BETTER Catapult

Mitch and I have been working on improving our catapult designs - check out the Binder-a-Pult 2000 with a range of 20 feet!

Make it Bigger with Pool Noodles

Mitch and I also made a super easy catapult from pool noodles! This contraption is pretty cool for little kids to make and because the pool noodles are so flexible it doesn't throw anything very hard. Perfect for indoor play once summer is over!

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Simple Catapult with Popsicle Sticks and a Spoon

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Sneak some science into your play time! Mitch and I have been designing popsicle stick catapults lately and it's been so freakin' fun. ( Check out more catapult designs here.) We first ran into this popsicle stick catapult design at the Magic House maker workshop. The idea is pretty simple and there's lots of variations.

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Art

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https://www.tipsandcrafts.net/crafts/how-to-create-fairy-lanterns-with-mason-jars

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Hi everyone miss Brittany here, reading one of our favorite household books! What’s on of your favorite books? I miss seeing everyone smiley faces !

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Hi everyone miss Brittany here, reading one of our favorite household books! What’s on of your favorite books? I miss seeing everyone smiley faces !

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Escape to the beautiful smokies with this virtual tour

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Ranger Rhonda is a Supervisory Park Ranger in the Resource Education division. She is also a Navy Veteran and a former homeschool mom. Her motto is, "Life adventures come in many forms, and sometimes in unexpected ways. Welcome them, appreciate them, but most of all, enjoy them!"

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Ranger Rhonda is a Supervisory Park Ranger in the Resource Education division. She is also a Navy Veteran and a former homeschool mom. Her motto is, "Life adventures come in many forms, and sometimes in unexpected ways. Welcome them, appreciate them, but most of all, enjoy them!"

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Watch the movie 🎥 UP with your family

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What you will need for the balloon 🎈 experiment 🧪

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Check out this cool balloon 🎈 experiment 🧪

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Combine a fizzing baking soda and vinegar reaction with balloon play with this easy-to-set-up balloon science experiment for kids. Find out how to blow up a balloon with just baking soda and vinegar. Grab a few simple ingredients from the kitchen, and you have amazing chemistry for kids at your fingertips. The science you can play with too!

BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR BALLOON EXPERIMENT

EASY SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS

Do you know this self-inflating balloon experiment was among our top 10 experiments? Check out more fun and simple science experiments for kids.

We love everything science and have been exploring ways to create fizzing reactions while having fun through play. Science that fizzes, pops, erupts, bangs, and explodes is awesome for kids of all ages!

One of the things that we strive to do here is to create science setups that are extremely hands-on, maybe a little messy, and a lot of fun. They may be somewhat open-ended, contain an element of play, and have a lot of repeatability!
We also have a fun Valentine balloon experiment and a Halloween balloon experiment for you to try!
All you need are a few common kitchen ingredients to make blow up balloons. Read on for the full supply list and setup.
It's so easy to inflate balloons with this simple chemical reaction kids can easily do!
HOW DOES THE BALLOON EXPERIMENT WORK?

The science behind this baking soda and vinegar balloon science experiment is a chemical reaction between an acid and base. The base is the baking soda and the acid is vinegar. When the two ingredients mix, the balloon baking soda experiment gets its lift!

That lift is gas, carbon dioxide, or CO2. As the gas tries to leave the plastic container, it goes up into the balloon because of the tight seal you have created. Check out states of matter experiments!

The gas has nowhere to go and is pushing against the balloon it blows it up. Similar to how we exhale carbon dioxide when we blow up balloons ourselves.

We love exploring simple chemistry you can do at home or in the classroom. Science that isn't too crazy but is still lots of fun for kids! You can check out more cool chemistry experiments.
Read more about the science behind baking soda and vinegar experiments.
WHAT IS THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD FOR KIDS?

The scientific method is a process or method of research. A problem is identified, information about the problem is gathered, a hypothesis or question is formulated from the information, and the hypothesis is tested with an experiment to prove or disprove its validity. Sounds heavy...

What in the world does that mean?!? The scientific method should be used as a guide to help lead the process. It's not set in stone.

You don't need to try and solve the world's biggest science questions! The scientific method is all about studying and learning things right around you.

As kids develop practices that involve creating, gathering data evaluating, analyzing, and communicating, they can apply these critical thinking skills to any situation.

Learn more about the scientific method and how to use it.

Even though the scientific method feels like it is just for big kids...

This method can be used with kids of all ages! Have a casual conversation with younger kiddos or do a more formal notebook entry with older kiddos!

BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR BALLOON EXPERIMENT

Don't have vinegar for this experiment? Try a citric acid like lemon juice, and check out our citric acid and baking soda experiment here.

SUPPLIES:

BLOW-UP BALLOON EXPERIMENT SETUP:

Step 1. Blow up the balloon a bit to stretch it out some, and use the funnel and teaspoon to add baking soda to the balloon. We started with two teaspoons and added a teaspoon for each balloon.

Step 2. Fill the container with vinegar halfway.

Step 3. When your balloons are all made up, attach them to the containers making sure you have a good seal!

Step 4. Next, lift up the balloon to dump the baking soda into the container of vinegar. Watch your balloon blow up!

To get the most gas out of it, we swirled around the container to get it all going!
Optional Art: Go ahead and use a sharpie to draw emojis, shapes, or fun pictures on your balloons before filling them with baking soda.
BALLOON EXPERIMENT TIPS

My son suggested we try different amounts of baking soda in our experiment to see what would happen. Also, will the balloon size grow bigger if more vinegar is in the bottle?

Always encourage your kids to ask questions and wonder what will happen if...

This is also a great way to encourage inquiry, observation, and critical thinking skills. You can read more about teaching the scientific method to kids here.

Make predictions! Ask questions! Share observations!

Be cautious with the amount of baking soda you add, as the reaction will get bigger each time. Safety goggles are always great for young scientists!

You could see the difference in the baking soda we put in the balloons! The red balloon with the least baking soda inflated the least. The blue balloon with the most inflated the most.

What else can you do with baking soda? Check out these unique baking soda experiments!

MORE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS WITH BALLOONS

Have leftover balloons? Why not try one of these fun and easy balloon science experiments below!

Printable Science Projects For Kids

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Baking Soda and Vinegar Balloon Experiment - Little Bins for Little Hands

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Set up a baking soda and vinegar balloon science experiment for kids. Blow up balloons with a fun chemical reaction.

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Dream Catcher

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Virtual tour
Sit back and enjoy 🦁🐯🐻oh my 🍿

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Enjoy this fun science activity with our own local news anchor.

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Alicia.chenery@mccardinals.org
Ashley.McComb@mccardinals.org

Jennifer.blackmon@mccardinals.org
depew_brittany@yahoo.com
erin.holmes@mccardinals.org
katie.merkel@mccardinals.org

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Zoom is for us to stay connected wherever we are be it home or school.

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Miss Erin here reading a story for everyone! 

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Miss Erin here reading a story for everyone! 