Are you still looking for a fun and easy, age appropriate, no-carve pumpkin decorating idea that will keep your toddler busy for hours? Look no further! Ever since seeing Meri Cherry’s Pumpkin Party, decorating pumpkins with tinker trays has become a yearly tradition – we seriously love these pumpkins sooo much! Before decorating pumpkins you…
Loose Parts
Halloween Games and Activities
We always have much fun celebrating Halloween! Here are some of my favorite activities and games you can use with your preschoolers and kindergarteners. Face Painting Face Painting never fails to excite children, especially when they get to paint their own faces! We had much fun celebrating our strengths and special powers of who we…
Mixed Media Autumn Wall Hanging
One of our favorite art projects involves salad spinners! Yes, really. Spin painting is a mesmerizing process and lends itself perfectly to color our collection of fall treasures. Plus, it never fails to create stunning pieces of artwork. Seriously, you’ve got to try this! Materials: Tempera paint in squeeze bottles Trays Tarp Salad spinners Glitter…
Leaf Imprints and Nature Necklaces
Nature crafts are great to encourage children to go outside and engage their senses. As we go on nature walks we observe the changing seasons and collect little treasures: Colorful leaves, pinecones, rocks – anything with beautiful colors, interesting shapes and patterns. Since the children were especially interested in investigating leaf veins and have been…
Fall Leaf Creatures
Invite your children to create with fall leaves! This open-ended art activity is fun and always a hit with children! What is an invitation to create? An “Invitation to Create”, also known as art prompt or provocation, is a intriguing and thoughtfully arranged array of materials that invite exploration and further investigation. It’s meant to…
Autumn Shadow Boxes
Collecting and creating art with pieces of nature encourages us to observe the changing seasons and engages our senses. During nature walks the children like to collect leaves, pinecones, sticks and small rocks etc. We talk about the different colors, shapes and textures: “Some of the pinecones are spiky!”, “The wood is so soft!” etc. …
Sun Prints
Have you ever tried sun prints? They’re a easy and versatile art activity with young children, both for indoors and outdoors! You could go on nature walks, explore and collect different sizes, shapes and colors of leaves, sticks and flowers; you could portray your shadow, make patterns out of foam shapes or use pretty much…
Superheroes Part II: Superpowers
After creating Superhero Masks and Capes the children started playing with all kinds of imaginative superpowers, from magic spells to magic weapons. Trying to take this exploration a step further, I encouraged each child to sketch their powers before sculpting them in clay. The children were so engaged in the process, and in general with…
Spring Shadow Boxes
We love making Shadow Boxes! They create the perfect depth and backdrop to capture any little keepsakes and lend themselves perfectly to display miniature scenes, three dimensional artwork and other found treasures! You can hang them on the wall or place them on a shelf and they’ll always look neat and finished! Inspired by the various…
Earth Day: Recycled Litterbugs
Earth Day is a great occasion to get creative while teaching our children to care for our planet, to keep our earth clean and to preserve its natural resources. It’s an opportunity to provide experiences that activate awareness and understanding, to experience empathy and humility at something bigger than ourselves, to stay curious, to wonder…
