Little Sprouts by Lindsay

NEW WEBSITE!

2013-04-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have moved to a new website! Visit me now at www.mycreativedays.com

April Showers Preschool Collage - Categorizing Activity

2013-04-03T11:56:00.003-07:00

This was a fun little project we did today. I drew umbrella parts on a piece of paper and had the kids cut them out. We glued the umbrella on a piece of longer white paper. On the bottom of the paper, I wrote, "things that can get wet" on one side and "things that cannot get wet" on the other (I separated the sides with a column). We then searched through old magazines to find things that would fit into each category. This was a great activity to get the kids thinking about the difference in the two categories and then categorizing their magazine pictures.

This is what we started with.

The kids cut out the umbrella pieces.

We glued the umbrella on top of the white paper and then I added the words and columns. We started searching through magazines for things that could and things that could not get wet!

This is what we came up with (sorry about the blurry picture???). It was funny because when we found the hamster picture, the kids were kind of "on the fence" about whether or not it could get wet. So, we put it on the line between the two so we were covered!!! I just love the little "extras" you get when creating with kids. You never know what kind of discussions will come up!

At the end, we had to add raindrops to the umbrella. The kids used a Bingo Marker to make the raindrops! We had a lot of fun with this collage and learned a lot too!

The Alphabet Tag Game - Simple Letter Recognition Activity

2013-04-03T11:34:00.002-07:00

This activity is so easy to set up and the kids will love it! It is great for working on letter recognition skills. I called it The Alphabet Tag Game so the kids were really intrigued to get started!

I wrote a few letters on a piece of paper (for more advanced kids, you can write more letters on the paper, but for less advanced kids, too many letters can be overwhelming). Then, I gave each child a Bingo Marker. I told them that they need to find and "tag" (put a mark on it) the letter I say. So, I would say, "Find and tag the letter "A". The kids would find the letter on the paper and put a mark on it. They LOVED this activity because it was more of a game! They wanted to find and tag each letter! You could adapt this game for any level. You could do these versions of the game: sight words, numbers, math problems (have them tag the answers), opposites, uppercase/lowercase letters, animal sounds.... the possibilities are endless.

We tagged them all!! Yay!

DIY - Rustic Burlap Pennant Garland

2013-04-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

I have seen burlap garland in stores and LOVED it! Of course, after looking them over in the store, I knew I could make one at home! I am not a person who can sew AT ALL, but I thought I needed to "stitch" the "pennants" on so they would last longer?? Some of the stores just had them hot glued on the string (which would be fine), I just wanted mine to last a little longer.

This is what I did:

I made a "pennant" template out of lightweight cardboard. I then took some burlap I had and traced the template on it with a pencil. Then, I cut out the shape.

I cut out 10 of these "pennants".

I took a BIG needle and some neutral yarn an started stitching away! I took some craft rope-like string and folded the top part of the pennant over the string and then just stitched it like the picture shows (I am sure there is a name to this stitch, but I sure don't know what it is).

This is what it looks like all done.

I tried to show the final product in a sunny place. I will be using this for parties and our yard sale this year. I plan on pinning some stenciled letters on the front for whatever occasion it is for! Wouldn't this be cute on a lemonade stand???

Another April Showers Craft for the Kiddos

2013-04-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is another easy craft when talking about April showers with the kiddos!

First, I cut out these raindrop shapes out of black construction paper. Then, I put contact paper on the back of them so that the inside of the raindrop was "sticky".

Then, I had the kids put square pieces of blue tissue paper on the "sticky" part of the raindrop.

When they were done, I put another piece of contact paper on top (stickyside down) of the tissue paper. I cut off all the excess contact paper around the edge of the raindrop.

Now, we moved on to our umbrella. I had two pieces of the umbrella that the kids had to glue together (the handle and the top of the umbrella).

Then, I had raindrop shapes cut out of construction paper for the kids to glue on their umbrella.

Afterwards, we glued on foam letters for our names and I punched holes in the umbrella and black raindrops. I tied fishing string to the raindrop and the umbrella so they look like they are "falling".

Sorry about the poor picture, (I could not stray away from the sun glare) but when you put these in the window, the raindrops look like stained glass windows!

**You can adjust this project based on your child's skills. For older children, have your child cut out the shapes (umbrella top and handle) needed for this project. They can also cut the pieces of tissue paper needed. Most projects can be adjusted for your child's skill level.

Educents - Free $10 Gift Card!

2013-04-01T12:52:00.002-07:00

Educents is a new website set to launch tomorrow! They are going to offer educational items at a discounted price! I love that! I love educational products for the kiddos, but a lot of times, they are so expensive. If you click here, you will be able to sign up and then they will send you an email confirmation with a free $10 gift card code! You can't beat that!!!! I am excited to see what they have to offer!!!!

May Flower Alphabet Preschool Activity

2013-04-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here is another great "May Flower" and/or "April Showers Bring May Flowers" project. I wanted to come up with a flower craft that would incorporate some letter recognition.

Here is what you will need for this cute flower craft:

A Half of a Plastic Easter Egg
Flower Petals Cut Out of Construction Paper
Glue
Green Marker

The first thing I did was cut out the flower petals and wrote the letters we are working on on each petal. Then, we took a half of a leftover plastic Easter egg and glued it in the center of light-weight cardboard. This was the middle of our flower (to see other ideas you can do with leftover plastic Easter eggs click here). Then, I put some glue lines around the flower middle so the kids knew where to put the petal when they were prompted. Next, I lined up the petals on the bottom of the paper and would say, "Find the "A" petal and put it on your flower." They would find the "A" petal and put in on a glue line. We did this through all the petals and ended up with one pretty cool flower! We added a stem with a green marker. This little craft (which is very easy to set up) was fabulous for letter recognition and listening to direction skills!

April Showers Brings May Flowers Preschool Activitiy

2013-04-01T11:05:00.002-07:00

It is April 1st and time to start some new themes and activities that will go along with the change in season! Here is one of the activities we did today:

Raindrop Counting Activity:

I cut out raindrop shapes from different colored blue paper. Then, I drew clouds on a piece of white paper with a number inside each cloud. The activity is for the kids to read the number and then glue that many raindrops in that cloud. This is a great activity for preschoolers and/or kids working on number recognition and counting! Happy Raindrop Counting!

Happy April Fool's Day!

2013-04-01T05:46:00.002-07:00

I would love to hear from you to see what pranks you are planning for today! I would love to try some new ones out on the family!!!
I would also love to hear what pranks were played on you! Did someone fool ya today? I would love to hear the stories!!!!

Things To Do With Left Over Plastic Easter Eggs

2013-03-31T14:54:00.001-07:00

Everyone has tons of plastic Easter eggs left over after Easter . I came up with a small list of different things we have done in the past with the eggs after the season.

Here are some of those ideas:

The eggs are great to use as scoops in a sand box or dirt pile. You can't imagine how well a plastic egg can move dirt! Just think of the egg castle you could make at the beach!

Guessing game anyone? Fill the eggs with different things (feathers, coins, marbles, beads, rocks, etc.) and have your kids gently shake them and guess what is inside! My kids love this!

They are perfect in a play kitchen because the kids can actually tap them and "break them open". My daughter loves to use these instead of the wood ones because the wood ones aren't as "interactive".

They make for "egg-cellent" little bug catchers in the spring and summer. They are small enough that little hands can hang on to them and a lot of them come with small holes on the ends which make great air holes for the little creatures inside.

Speaking of bugs ........... get crafty! These bright little eggs would make great bugs! Add some googly eyes, puffy paint and/or permanent markers and let your imagination fly!

My daughter is into Lego Friends and she has tiny little pieces so we use the eggs to keep all these pieces together (this would work for small Barbie accessories too). Put them inside an egg carton to keep it all together.

They make great molds for clay and play dough play.

In the summer, we have thrown them in our bags when we head to the splash pad. Just an extra toy that they can use in the water.
You can donate them to any place that hosts an Easter Egg Hunt each year.
You can bring them out in the summer and have a educational egg hunt like the one I posted about here. This is a fun way for the kids to get in a review without doing boring worksheets!

These are just a few ideas that we have used in the past that I thought you might find useful.

What do you do with your extra eggs after Easter?

Geocaching - New Age Treasure Hunting!!! Family Fun!

2013-03-31T14:35:00.001-07:00

On Easter Sunday, my husband brought out this new little "gadget" he has been wanting to try! Introducing...... the geomatejr. Who knew this little gadget would bring so much adventure to our Easter Sunday?! You can order one of these green little "machines" here . I also found out that there are free apps for your phone that will do the same thing. Love that!!!!

I am so excited to tell you all about this little activity! If I would have known how much fun our family would have had with this, we would have done it a long time ago. The kids were enthralled with the "treasure hunt" aspect of the whole thing. I was loving all the exercise we were getting. The kids were enjoying the hunt so much that they didn't complain about all the walking! My husband liked being out in nature and exploring our local park in this way. Usually, we go to feed the ducks, play on the playground and then head home. Today, we were exploring the park in a whole new way!

Okay, let me tell you about our time geocaching and give you some pointers that I wish we had on our first trip out. The first thing you need to do is head to geocaching.com and look up your local area parks. This website will tell you if there are "treasures" hidden in your local park. Next, pack a little "geocaching pouch" to take along with you. You should have a pencil (or something to write with), your geomate.jr (or your phone with the app), little trinkets to leave in the "treasures" you find (you will see below why I say this) and also pack a garbage sack to pick up all the trash you will find along your geocaching route. What a great way to teach the kids about cleaning up the earth! Make sure you are dressed in comfortable shoes and clothes because you will be walking a lot. Now, head to your local park and start searching! Once you get to the park, the geomatejr will tell you which direction to go in and how many feet you have to reach the "treasure". When we got to our first location, we didn't know what we were looking for, but once we found our first "treasure" it was easier to locate them. YOU HAVE TO LOOK CAREFULLY because they are all different - I missed a lot of them. They blend very well with the surroundings. You will see in the pictures below what I mean and how you could easily miss them. Some of the treasures had little notebooks and pencils inside them and others had little trinkets in them (this is where it would be nice to bring your own trinket to replace the one you took for the next person traveling on that geocaching route).

I thought this would be a great activity to do if you were camping! What a great way to change up the camping scene and explore where you are! Below you will see some pictures from our little adventure today. I would highly suggest doing this with your family. It is something different and has many good benefits: bonding with your family, exercise, cleaning up your park, adventure, enjoying outside and nature and so much more! Just plain family fun!

This is the gadget that guided us on our "treasure hunting adventure"!

Our geocaching future was so bright, we had to wear shades!

I was FREEZING, but enjoying the fun!

The geocachingjr was great for the kids to use. Very easy to read and navigate!

This is how it looks in action. We are heading to our first "treasure".

Our first treasure was hidden inside a tree. It really blends in so you have to look hard!

This one had a piece of paper and pencil in it to write your name on.

Gabrielle is writing her name on our first find.

The next one was hidden up in a tree. It was kind of high so the kids had a hard time spotting it. This one looked different than the last one so you have to keep your eyes peeled!

Landen was able to get it down.

See how different it looks from the last one we found.

There were little trinkets in this treasure.

One of the last ones we found was under some bleachers. This was the hardest one to locate! It looks like it is part of the bleachers! This one also had a little notebook with pencil in it to write your name and date.

All in all, this was a great day and a new and different activity for our family. We are excited to go geocaching through the other parks in our area!

On a side note, we did find out that you can set up your own "treasure" spot to maintain and hide for "geocachers" to find! You can find out more information at geocaching.com.

I would love to hear if your family has tried geocaching!

Lisa Leonard Designs - "Meaningful" Pieces!

2013-03-28T12:33:00.001-07:00

I won a gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs and I just received my necklace in the mail! The packaging is so cute! I love the little bag with the "enjoy" tag on it. I am also really happy with my necklace and can't wait to wear it! If you are in the market for a special "meaningful" piece of jewelry, I would highly recommend making a stop at Lisa Leonard Designs.

Earth Day Fun For Kids and Families

2013-03-27T11:54:00.002-07:00

Earth Day is fast approaching and I think it is a perfect time to challenge yourself and you family to be more "earth friendly". On the way to school today, I opened up a discussion with my kids about Earth Day to hear what they had to say. My daughter said "It is the day we celebrate Earth's birthday!" (too cute). We talked a little about conserving energy and other ways we can help protect our earth. My son said, "I think we should keep all lights off and no TV for the entire day on Earth Day!" I said, "Wow, do you think you can do it?" His reply was, "I am up for the challenge".

My blog is full of ways that I repurpose, recycle and upcycle things that would have otherwise went to the landfill. I love a good trash to treasure story and I can't pass up on ANYTHING that I think I can do something with! ;0)

Below, is a small list of some of those projects. All of these things were either found on the curb or it was something we weren't using anymore as it's main purpose (we needed a new garage door so we turned our old one into a lemonade stand!!!) so we repurposed it for something else.

I love incorporating a holiday/event to teach the kids something new and fun and to also base our activities around it. Below is a list of some great activities you can do with your kiddos on Earth Day:

Another way to incorporate Earth Day is to talk to your kids about recycling and repurposing. And, always have recycled "stuff" on hand. I keep a basket full of toilet paper rolls, wipe tubs, egg cartons, tops to squeezable applesauce, Kleenex boxes, etc. right by the art table. The kids are able to use it for crafts and projects. Here are some of their recycled creations:

A great way to get the whole family involved in an Earth Day activity is a scavenger hunt! I planned one for my family and everyone loved it (even my hubby!). It is a great way to get outside and enjoy nature and all that it has to offer! Check out our scavenger hunt here.

Preschool "B" is For Bunny Easter Activity

2013-03-27T11:10:00.002-07:00

For this activity, I cut out the letter "B" from some light weight cardboard. Then, I cut out a pair of bunny ears from the same cardboard. I gave the kids glue and cotton balls and told them to glue cotton balls all around their "B". We then added the ears to the top of the letter. In the end, we added a light blue bunny tail (so it stood out from the white cotton balls) and a pink nose (the nose and tail were pom poms) and a googly eye. For the inside of the ears, we added some pink polka dot duct tape!!! You could add some whiskers to your bunny too! The kids loved making a bunny out of the letter "B".

Preschool Carrot Patch Math Activity

2013-03-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

I came up with a cute little math activity to do with the kiddos today. It is perfect for a spring and/or Easter theme! Great for this time of year!

The first thing I did was draw 5 triangles on orange paper and added some lines on them to make them look like carrots. I had the kids cut out the triangles (working on cutting skills and shape recognition here). When they were cut out, I wrote the numbers 1-5 on the carrots. Next, I gave the kids a piece of white paper and had them color it with a brown crayon. This was our "dirt" for the carrot patch. Then, I had the kids glue the carrots in numerical order on the "dirt patch". They made need some help with this part (at the point, they are learning number recognition and numerical order). While they were gluing on the carrots, I cut out "carrot tops" from green foam (you could use ribbon, green paper, scrapbook paper, whatever you have). Now, to plant or carrot patch, we had to look at each carrot's number and glue that many "carrot tops" on it (this is great for counting). In the end, we had a flourishing carrot patch!

Here are some pictures to show you what we did:

Now that is how you grow a carrot garden!!!

Recycled Kleenex Box = Cute Creation!

2013-03-27T08:10:00.004-07:00

Okay, so what do you see when you look at an empty Kleenex box?......

Last night, my daughter saw a bunny puppet! Like always, she was in the crafting mood and came up with this adorable little treasure. I love keeping a basket of recyclables for the kids to use any time they want to be creative. I think leaving this kind of stuff within their reach can only lead to endless hours of fun and creativity!! I mean....... who knew a Kleenex box could be so cute!

This is our basket full of recyclables....... I mean, basket of endless possibilities. Set a ton of this stuff out on Earth Day and have your kids create and explore with all this great stuff!

Vintage Chair Redo

2013-03-26T15:32:00.003-07:00

I bought this chair at an estate sale (you can see what else I scored at the sale here). It is an old chair that I thought had so much character!

I wanted to paint it a fun color and have it as an accent piece in my house. This is how it turned out:

The chair was a little "shaky", but we reinforced it a little. I didn't want it out for people to sit on (I don't know if it would have upheld to well), but I thought it looked so cute with this vintage quilt on it and a cute spring basket (holder of small toys for now) on top! I love it!

Bunny Bait Classmate Easter Gifts

2013-03-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is another holiday already! Time to start thinking about a little "treat" for our classmates and teachers.

This year, we put together "Bunny Bait" for the classmates and "Bunny Poop" for the teachers!

You will need:

Easter grass
wedding gift tins
M&M's
dark chocolate pomegranates (or any chocolate covered candy that will look like poop)
raffia
tape
tags (you can make these, or buy them - I used my Cricut machine to cut out egg shapes)

Put Easter grass inside the tin and then add the M&M's or chocolate candies. Close the lid and tie the raffia around the tin and add your tag!

Target, Walmart and Michaels have these in the wedding aisle.

I love the crinkle Easter grass!

You can find raffia in any craft section - might be kept towards flower "stuff".

These are the classmate tins put together! Aren't they so cute!

I used my Cricut to cut these out and I wrote "Bunny Bait" on them and my child's name.

Wrapped them with raffia and added the egg tag! Very spring and Eastery!

This is what I used for my "Bunny Poop".

I added the grass and then laid in my "poop" - tied with raffia.

Added the egg tag that said, "Bunny Poop". The teachers will get a kick out of these!

Homemade Easter Bunny Pails

2013-03-25T12:25:00.002-07:00

I thought it would be fun to make our own Easter pails for our Easter Egg Hunt this year! I love a good homemade/DIY project..... especially one you can involve the kiddos with!

This project was very easy and the pail are really durable! They will last through all your hunts this year!

You will need:

oatmeal canister
white paper
googly eyes
something for the nose (I used pink foam sheets that we cut into triangles)
marker
pipe cleaners (chenille stems)

First, wrap the canister with white paper. Cut bunny ear shapes out of white paper. For the inside of our ears, we used decorative duct tape. You could use anything you have for this part (scrapbook paper, construction paper) or color in the inside of the ears with markers or crayons. I glued the ears to the back of the canister and then we added googly eyes, our pink nose and I drew on the "mouth" and whiskers with marker. What a CUTE BUNNY! For the handle, I punched a hole on each side of the canister and used black pipe cleaners (the handles are DURABLE)!!!!

I wanted to show you that if you didn't have any oatmeal canisters, you could also use Kleenex boxes. The good thing about these boxes is that the kids won't lose the eggs when they are bending over because of the plastic that is on the hole on the top! I would do the same thing with the box that I did with the canisters. Cover it with white paper and then add ears, make the face and viola - Easter Bunny Kleenex Pail!

Cheap Easter Basket Fillers - Think Outside the Box!

2013-03-21T18:03:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to show you once again how you can save money and use past holiday stuff to work for upcoming holidays and gifts!!! I was shopping at Walgreens a few weeks ago and I came upon a tall shelf in the middle of an aisle. There was a sign on it that said "Valentine Clearance". I started looking through it all and I found some great stuff that I will be able to use for Easter baskets!

These "sets" were $1 each!!! I could not pass them up!

I just took the valentine stuff off this dog and now he will be perfect holding or sitting in an Easter basket (I have many little ones that are really into dogs right now!)

These were only 10 cents each. Cute Easter basket fillers!

I had the Easter baskets from last year Easter clearance. I added some $1 coloring books and then some Valentines clearance finds (play dough, helicopters, crazy straws). I will not be spending loads of money on candy and I think the mommy's like that a little better because the kids get so much candy at Easter!

I just wanted to blog this to show you how you can think outside the box and really put cute things together on the cheap. I didn't take a picture of all my baskets, but you get the gist of what I did. I didn't spend over $10 and was able to put together seven baskets!

Another Cabinet Flip!

2013-03-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Before........

After! I love it!!!!! I painted it robin egg blue and sanded it all around to distress it. My husband added the hardware that we got at a yard sale in a free box!!!!!

DIY Canvas Art

2013-03-21T17:50:00.003-07:00

I have seen some really cool canvas art in stores and thought I could do something similar myself. I have also seen some cool ones on Pinterest and posted them on my Pinterest boards and some of my favorites are found here. I went out to hunt some local thrift stores to find some canvas (because buying a canvas at a craft store is SO EXPENSIVE!) and this is what I found:

Cute, but not what I am going for.

I painted over the picture with a blue/green paint.

I then added a word and some branches and a little birdie! Cute!

I Love My Cricut!!!

2013-03-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

For anyone out there that likes DIY projects, crafts, scrapbooking, stencils, decorating, etc., you need a CRICUT!!! I love mine so much. It makes being creative so much fun!

The Cricut made it so easy to put this saying on our wall!

The Cricut makes projects a lot more easy!

My Cricut in action!

I would love to see what you have created with your Cricut!

A New Take of the Easter Egg Hunt -Fun Learning Game for the Kiddos

2013-03-20T19:08:00.001-07:00

It is spring break this week in our school district and I wanted to come up with a fun game for the kiddos to play. I wanted a game that incorporated some learning/review from school, but also fun to keep their attention. I had different aged kiddos here so I had to make it "fit" to everyone.

This is what I did:

I took some small pieces of paper and came up with 26 different learning/review questions and/or statements. Here are some of them I used (you could come up with a billion if you had the time):

name three fruits
name a jungle animal
count to 65 by 5's
name the city you live in
I drew a picture of a clock and then asked what time it said
the person who writes books is called a what?
write your phone number
what is half of 10?
what two colors make purple?
if there are 5 bunnies and they each have three jelly beans, how many jelly beans are there in all?
how many ways can you spell "to"?
write three ways to show the number 3
7+____ = 12
write a complete sentence
what does a sentence start with?
what is this "?"?
show the tally marks for the number 12
write your address

After I wrote each one down, I put it inside a plastic Easter egg. I then took a permanent marker and numbered all the eggs. I split the kids up into teams and gave each team a clip board with a piece of notebook paper numbered 1-26 (the number of eggs I had). I hid the eggs around the house. The difference in this hunt is that you have to go around with your team, find an egg, read the paper inside and write your answer on the corresponding line on the notebook paper and then finally, PUT THE EGG BACK so the other team can get to it. The team that finds all the eggs and answers them wins! At the end of the hunt, I read aloud each question and each team said what they had! This turned out to be a fun game and the kids didn't even know they were working on reading, writing, teamwork, basic skills, listening and so much more!!! You could make this as big or small as you wanted to. You don't even need teams, just do it with a few kids. And, you can adjust it to any level!

This was the pile of eggs at the end of our hunt!

Showing you what I did with clip board and notebook paper for their answers.

All of the kids loved the game!

I would love to hear if you tried this at home and if your kids had fun with it too!

DIY & and ? Art!!!

2013-03-19T12:40:00.002-07:00

I have seen some canvases in the stores that simply have signs and symbols on them. I really like them, but they are usually pretty expensive, so I decided to make my own! I had two canvases in the basement and made my own "symbol art". I like the & and ? so I went with those.

Here is how they turned out!

I painted the canvases a turquoise color and then I added the symbols in black (made from my Cricut) and then I went over it all with some brown paint to make them look a little aged! I love them!