Recycled Water Bottle Bubble Blowers

Ok, I thought I was going to be able to keep up with the kiddo crafts while in the process of moving but I was wrong! My house is half-boxed up & the rest needs to be boxed in the next week. Not to mention, I'm having a birthday party for M1 on Monday (with an empty house) before we leave town. Can you say crazy??!! So I've decided that the crafting may have to be put on hold for a week or three! Bare with me & I promise we'll be back. In the mean time, I'm just going to feature other's kiddo projects to keep your little ones busy.

These bubble blowing bottles are actually on my list of to-do's with M1 & M2. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine & then about a month ago I saw the featured on HowDoesShe.com They look so fun & I look forward to giving them a try. Click HERE for the full tutorial. Let me know if/when you give them a try. I'd love to hear your results!!

Enjoy! s.b.

Earth Day Coffee Ground Fossils

I'm going to continue with at least one more Earth Day project this week (if not more). I think it's ok since we should be doing things to help the environment all year round, right?!! This project is a messy one that reuses coffee grounds & a 1/2 cup of leftover coffee. I found this one HERE @ Kaboose.com. Definitely caught my interest & is completely different from anything we had ever done w/ M1 & M2. We read over the directions & then chose to do our own thing, so ours are not exactly like the ones on Kaboose. They turned out great & it was a super fun activity for the girls.

Supplies- *Salt, *Coffee Grounds, *1/2 Cup Coffee, *Wax Paper, *Large Bowl, *Spoon, *Flour, *Measuring Cup, *Cookie Cutters or Objects to Press into the Fossil

1. Stir the together 1 c. coffee grounds, 1/2 c. cold coffee, 1 c. flour, and 1/2 c. salt.

M1 enjoyed all the measuring & mixing.

2. Lay out a large piece of wax paper.

3. Once mixed well, grab large portions of the mixture & flatten like a pancake. Lay the pancakes onto the wax paper.

4. Then you're ready to start creating your fossils. We started by making one with M1's hand.

It got quite messy, but it was so fun. Luckily, it was very nice out & we were able to do this all outside!

5. If you choose to do a hand print, great! If not, go ahead & use your cutters & random objects to press into the dough to create fossils.

We used a few animal cutters that were part of our Play Doh collection, but you could use anything...small animal figurines, coins, rocks, etc. M2 even got to participate! Her little hand is pictured below.

6. Allow time to dry & set. We let ours sit out for an entire day & they dried well. M1 has been playing with them outside. She enjoys hiding them & then searching for her fossils.

 

Enjoy! s.b.
p.s. We are in the process of selling our home & relocating due to a job change for my hubby. Why tell you this??! I'm apologizing in advance if there are weeks that I'm not posting as much as usual. Hopefully we're settled soon & it's a smooth process! We've done some packing already but the crafting stuff will be the last to get boxed up!

Coffee Filter Earth

Happy Earth Day to all! I'll be posting a few other Earth Day activities over the next few days too.
Here is the "Earth" that M1 made the other day. This is a fun project that I did with my younger students years ago & it was one that came to mind while thinking about Earth Day activities. I found similar directions HERE at DLTK's. I've seen other activities like this one that use food coloring & wax paper v.s. markers. (You could definitely search that if you're looking for something a little more difficult.) But in my case, this was nice & easy for M1. What kid doesn't love to scribble?

Supplies- *Coffee Filter, *Spray Bottle w/ Water, *Green & Blue Washable Marker, *Scotch Tape, *Newspaper

1. Tape the coffee filter down to help it stay flat. I taped it onto a round piece of plastic to protect our table.

2. Have your child scribble green "land" & blue "water" all over the filter. (If your child is a bit older, you may want to have a picture of the Earth for them to copy or use as a guide to make it appear more realistic.)

3. Transfer the filter to a piece of newspaper.

4. Have your child pick up the spray bottle & spray water all over the colored filter. It will start to bleed right away. Spray until it's blended to your liking. (We reused an empty bottle of stain remover, cleaned it out & filled it with water.)

5. Allow some time to dry & you've got one cool Earth!

If you're interested in doing a bit more, I've also seen them glued onto a piece of blue or black construction paper once they're dry.

  

Enjoy! s.b.

Award!!!

I was shocked to find out that I received my first blogger award this weekend! A fabulous follower & fellow blogger Kim @ A Girl and a Glue Gun passed the award on to me & I feel so honored!

Sorry, no acceptance speech but I am supposed to share 10 things about myself & pass this award on to another fellow blogger, which I will do towards the end of this post.

Now, 10 things about me...my husband would be much better at this than I am. (He's always got something interesting to say!)
1. Each of my family members' names begin with a consonant, followed by an "ar"... Sara, Gary, etc.
2. I am addicted to sugar (candy, desserts, cookies)... I eat pretty healthy & work out to justify all the sugar I eat in a day.
3. In high school, I was a tour guide @ Lambeau Field although we do not live in Green Bay now.
4. We're in the process of trying to sell our home & will be re-locating due to a new career opportunity for my husband.
5. I am a teacher but CAN NOT stand the thought of chalk...instant goose bumps!
6. I love television & I watch it way too much once my kiddos are asleep. Private Practice, Parenthood, Cougar Town & anything reality.
7. I eat the same breakfast (a bowl of Kashi cereal) & lunch (Vanilla yogurt mixed w/ more cereal) every day.
8. My hands are always cold & even turn purple due to Raynaud's Syndrome. It got me out of doing recess duty for many years!
9. I love Thursdays because it's the day that the new USWeekly arrives in my mail box. It's great nap time reading.
10. I really do enjoy all the kids crafts that we create... sometimes even more than M1 & M2.

Ok, so now I pass the award on to Michelle over @ Dilly Dally & Flitter She has some amazing posts on her blog featuring great projects for all!  With all the crafts for little ones we're always doing around here I can use a good "mom" project every now & then.
I have a few Earth Day projects to post in a week or so, but Michelle has a head start on reusing! I know you all have these laying around your house....

So why not turn them into this...

Head on over to her site for the full tutorial.

Her blog isn't necessarily for little ones like s.b.creatively but I'll be posting a kids project similar to this one (using similar recycleable containers) the week of Earth Day.

Enjoy! s.b.

Get a Head Start for Earth Day

Tomorrow (March 20th) is the day that the United Nations & many other countries mark as Earth Day. Although here in the U.S. we don't actually celebrate Earth Day until April 22nd, I thought I'd share a quick post on how we can reduce & reuse all year long! I have a few other Earth Day art activities that I'll post as we approach April 22nd. But for now, let's celebrate with the others.

Here is a fun way to reduce kitchen garbage by reusing all kinds of things in your child's pretend kitchen. Above are a few pictures of M and M's play kitchen with all of their "stuff" in it. All great examples of how to reuse daily household garbage & add to your child's pretend play at the same time.
1. In an attempt to keep things somewhat organized, I reused shoe boxes to keep all of their small food pieces together & create a home for all of the dishes. I reinforced the boxes with pieces of packaging tape, which has extend their shelf life & kept them from coming apart from daily use. I printed the words "food" & "dishes" on the boxes so M1 could keep things in their place & it helps make it easier to find things.
2. I also kept a bunch of "garbage" from the kitchen so the girls would have some real-looking food items to play with. Obvoiusly some of them had to be washed out & cleaned up a bit before they made their way into the kitchen. Examples include milk cartons, graham cracker boxes, empty spice containers, small cereal boxes, egg cartons, baby food jars, & other plastic food containers work great. Both girls also enjoy grocery shopping in their kitchen by loading up their big plastic shopping cart.
3. Larger plastic containers, (like the yogurt one seen above) also double as great utensil holders. And an empty dish soap bottle for doing the dishes!
Do you have any fun ideas for reducing, reusing & recycling that includes your children? Share them by leaving a comment below. I look forward to hearing your ideas. Maybe some new Earth Day blogging opportunities?
Enjoy! s.b.