Smashingly Fun Sidewalk Paint

Here is a really fun and simple way to make sidewalk paint. We found this idea in The Big Messy Art Book: But Easy to Clean Up. My kids had a blast doing this activity! Making the “paint” is just as much fun as using the paint!

Here’s what you need:

• sidewalk chalk
• ziplock bag
• hammer or mallet
• containers (butter tubs work great)
• water
• paint brushes

Simply put sidewalk chalk in a ziplock back, seal it (try to remove as much air as possible as you seal), then let your kids smash the chalk with a hammer (supervising closely of course, to avoid injuries!). You want the smashed chalk to be extra fine, so you may need to help your child break up the smaller bits. A mortar and pestle would work out great — too bad I didn’t think of that before!

After the chalk is good and smashed, transfer it to a container and slowly add water while your child stirs until it reaches the consistency of paint. Now see what your kids can create using their new sidewalk paint with brushes! Don’t limit yourselves to just brushes though — we had loads of fun making hand and footprints with our paint too!

This sidewalk paint is extra fun because it dries quickly and the colors brighten up as they dry. This is especially fun with the hand and footprints. You can watch as a fresh, dull, pink footprint dries into a super-duper bright pink footprint right before your very eyes! Almost magical, really

Creature Creating with Blocks (and printing too!)

Every child should have blocks. In a preschool setting or in a home setting, blocks are a must. Just read this wonderful article on the Preschool Playbook blog about the importance of blocks and how the block center is, in fact, the most important center. In a nutshell, block play is an open-ended activity that involves the whole child: physically, cognitively, socially, and even emotionally (how proud they are of their beautiful, magnificent creations!).

For such an open-ended toy, I have typically been closed-minded on the possibilities of play. Until recently, when I thought of blocks I thought: TOWER! You have blocks; you build towers — tall, tall towers. Well my preschooler set me straight on my narrow thinking. When I dumped the blocks onto the floor, she got straight to work on “building” creatures. All the creatures in the collage above are 100% designed and assembled by my 3 year old. Observing this creativity is such a pleasure; she creates things I never would have dreamed of!

I love each and every creature she creates, and I wanted a way to “keep” them all. Photographing is always great, but I was looking for something a little more fun. Then I thought it would be neat to sketch her creations. Before I knew it, we also decided to trace the blocks themselves. Sketching is essentially more creative, but tracing is a whole lot of fun too!

We both took turns tracing and sketching. My favorite variation of this activity is depicted below: my daughter created what she called “Duck on a Boat.” As she was assembling her duck, I copied her work block-for-block right alongside her… only my assembly took place on a sheet of paper. When she finished designing, I traced around the blocks. She completed the project by adding color to our traced image. Voila! Duck on a Boat… on paper! (Love how she added water and a face!)

Don’t let the fun stop after the blocks have been assembled into masterpieces and, if you choose, the work has been saved via photograph, tracing, sketching or even modeling with clay (the clay just popped into my head… adding it to my ToDo list now!). Keep the creativity going by asking open-ended questions about the work. See if you can get your preschooler to tell you a story about what she has created. Better yet, record the story onto paper. Children are fantastic storytellers, as I’m sure you know!

The possibilities are endless. Now go get the blocks out and play!

Fun and Yummy Hot Dog People

Here’s a fun and delicious lunch idea for the kids: Hot Dog Men! I found the recipe on allrecipes.com; click here for complete instructions.

All you need is a slice of bread, slice of cheese, a hot dog, and ketchup and mustard for decorating. After a few simple slices with a sharp knife and a nice little bath in boiling water, your hot dog person is ready to take its place on a prepped slice of cheesy bread. Now you can give him or her mustard and ketchup eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, hair, or whatever you wish!

Our hot dog people were still hot when I put them on the cheese, and my kids love how the hot hot dogs left a melty impression!

Next we are going to try to make these fun and wacky hot dog octopi! Can’t wait!!

Paper Lollipop

I asked my preschooler what kind of project would she like to make for the letter L, and she answered “Lollipop!” without hesitation. I think she was under the impression that this was going to be an edible project! Unfortunately, you cannot eat these paper lollipops, but you will have a lot of fun making and playing with them.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 piece of construction paper, folded in half
• 1 large popsicle stick
• compass (optional)
• scissors
• glue
• art supplies for decorating (we used two of our favorites: Crayola Slick Stix and oil pastels)

I love having an excuse to use my pink compass; perfect circles are so much fun to create! Whether you use a compass or not, draw a circle on your folded piece of paper. Cut out your circle, and now you should have two symmetrical circles to make up the front and back of your lollipop. You can let your preschooler go ahead and start decorating at this point, or you can first draw a spiral like I did.

After the decorating is complete, glue your circles together with the popsicle stick in between the two. I had a last minute idea to stick some folded paper towels inside to give the lollipop a little more shape. I had to work quick because I already began gluing, so I hastily trimmed and used a piece of paper towel that happened to be right next to me! It worked out rather nicely, though it could have used a bit more padding. I’ll be ready for it next time!

So my preschooler didn’t get to eat a lollipop, but she had tons of fun, imaginative play with her paper lolli

Discovery: Fairy Bread

While browsing around on allrecipes.com, I came across this simple yet intriguing recipe. It’s called Fairy Bread. Never heard of it? Well, unless you are from Australia or New Zealand, I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. I certainly hadn’t! I can’t believe this isn’t a common treat here in the US! I think we’ve been sadly missing out on this fun and delicious snack!

Fairy Bread is commonly served at children’s parties in Australia and New Zealand. It’s super easy to make, which is just one reason why I love it. My preschooler made her fairy bread all by herself!

All you do is spread butter on bread, then sprinkle with sprinkles! That’s basically it, but you can liven it up by using cookie cutters to make fun shapes. Crusts can be cut off or remain on, but I’m guessing most kids will want them banished! You can also use different kinds of spreads besides butter, like Nutella!

I am so excited about discovering fairy bread with my preschooler (and my first grader too–he loved it!). I can tell this is a sweet treat that I will keep in my family.. and one day my children will be making it for their children

Paint Blot Kite

K is for Kite, and everyone loves kites! And who can resist some good ol’ fashioned paint blotting? We decided to combine these two great loves into one simple project: Paint blot kites! Mind you, these kites do not fly but they’re still a lot of fun to create and beautiful to hang from the ceiling or hang on the wall!

To go along with our project, I printed this letter K coloring page for my preschooler to color while I drew and cut-out our kite shape. It’s always nice to have a simple activity like this ready in case you need some time to prep things.

Once the kite shape was cut out we got right to work on decorating. My preschooler insisted on using a marker to draw a face, arms, and legs (as she always does!) first, and then we dropped tempera paint randomly on the kite. Next we folded it and she pressed and smoothed the paper and opened it up again and Voila!… an awesome paint blotted kite! We taped yarn to the back of the kite and tied a few pieces of ribbon to the yarn to make “bows.”

That’s it! Mission completion

Quote to Remember

Child care and home care, if well done, can be more creative, make a greater contribution to the world, bring more pleasure to family members, than 9 out of 10 outside jobs. It is only our mixed-up, materialistic values that make so many of us think the other way around.

–Dr. Benjamin Spock

I Heart Doodles, and You Should Too

Whether your child likes to doodle on paper, a marker board, Magna Doodle, or even the wall (heaven forbid!), try to take the time to capture these spontaneous masterpieces as often as possible. Some of my most favorite creations have been from such doodling. It’s through doodling that you can really see creativity coming to life in your kid(s).

I always have a camera near by, and at the very least I can quickly grab my mobile phone to snap a speedy pic. My preschooler is notorious for erasing her creations quickly, so I’ve had to learn to be a quick draw with the camera!

Remember to get the story behind the doodle, if possible. In the pic above my daughter drew her dad on the left, and on the right she doodled “balancing crabs.”

A Preschooler’s Take on Jasper Johns Numbers

We finally got around to trying out this neat little Jasper Johns Numbers project I blogged about here. Just as I had predicted, it was easily adapted for my preschooler. Of course, it’s basically just a handmade coloring page, but I think it’s special nonetheless.

Not only am I pleased with the outcome of the artwork itself, it was also a great numbers lesson for my little one! It’s an all-around win-win project: quick, easy, fun, beautiful, and educational too

Kid-Created Mini Cinnamon Rolls

We found a brilliant recipe for Yummy No-Bake Cinnamon Rolls for Kids on allrecipes.com. These were super easy and very delicious. You know you’ve discovered something special when the first words that come out of your kid’s mouth are “Mmm! It really tastes good!!”

Here’s what you need:

• 2 slices white bread, crusts removed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon water, or as needed

For full instructions, please visit this link.

I am so pleased with this recipe. It really is so easy, a preschooler can do it! You know it’s a hit too, when it involves a rolling pin!

This will definitely be something we make again, and again, and again, and…….