A Coloring Valentines card

Last year for Valentine's day, my then Kindergartner made THESE valentines to share with his classmates. I kinda like the idea of a sugar-free valentine, so I kept with that idea again this year. And here you have it, a coloring valentines card for the kids!

I've had these heart crayons pinned on Pinterest for a very long time, and FINALLY decided to give it a go. We have a ton of crayons around our house, all the broken, not sharp crayons that kids run from and never seem to use anymore. I really just needed to dump them, but for some reason, I never can. Now they are being put to use (and whatever is leftover I seriously am going to dump!).

So, first step, take all your crayons, 'shell them', break them up, and melt them. I melted mine at 230 degrees, for 15 minutes. Then let them cool for at least 45-60 minutes.

I used a silicone heart mold from the Dollar Tree. Definitely use something cheap and something you wont feel bad about tossing after you're done. The wax pretty much leaves it's mark after you're done. I plan on throwing this one away rather than trying to clean it out (it was only a buck!).

Then I made up these coloring cards. Print page 1, then flip it over and print page 2.

Lastly, have your child fill out the To: and From: on each card and assemble. We used baggies to put ours together, but you could also use a dot of hot glue on the back of each crayon heart and forgo the bag, making these even more super cheap valentines!

An important note I added to the downloadable PDF of these cards...

Now you have downsized your crayon stock, saved a couple bucks, and made a really fun and colorful valentine for the kids!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

High Five Valentine | Sticky Hands!

This year for our kindergartens valentine's gift, we decided to go with a non-candy item. My boy loves toys or any kind, so why not do something he would like (because usually that means at least 50% of the kids in his class would love it too!).

First, I bought some Sticky Hands on Amazon. They came in individual bags, which helped out a lot!

Then I made up THIS valentine card to staple over the bag. Print it, cut them out, then fold each one in half.

Then put the kiddo to work. He had to write the To's: and his name on all of them, then I made him staple them on. For some reason, the stapler is an amazing toy/tool that my kids are always begging to use!

And there you have it! An easy, fairly cheap, and really fun valentine for the kids.

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk | Preschool

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk.

As a gathering activity (if you do preschool with more than one child) we started with this coloring page of Jack climbing the beanstalk. I created this page, with a clipart from google and inserted the ‘J J J j j j’ text (in Print Clearly dashed font).

  [you can download it HERE]  

Then I read this Jack and the Beanstalk book by Usborne. My kids really like this one. Before I read it, I made them point out the the J on the cover and title page. 

After reading the story, we worked on counting with beans. I printed off THIS simple tracing number page, and they traced the number and said which number it was. Then I put glue dots on the numbers and they counted them as they added the right amount of beans to each number.

[download this page HERE]

When we were done counting, we went back to the Jack and the Beanstalk book. I found this fun printable (from Learn, Create, Love) that I cut out and put on popsicle sticks. We then went through the story again and the kids picked up the corresponding prop in the story. It was fun to see them try to figure out which ones they needed to put down and which ones they needed to pick up. Re-telling the story also helped them remember it a little better.

Our next project used the same printable as above, but this time we used the coloring pages. They colored the pictures, and I helped cut them out. Then we glued them on a big piece of construction paper. They matched the following: the mom with the cow, the old man with the beans, and the giant with the hen. I drew a J that they traced and spelled out the rest of ‘ack and the Beanstalk’

They didn’t color the ‘Jack’ picture, but instead I took a picture of them pretending to climb. Then I used Power Point to remove the background so that it was just a picture of them. That part isn’t necessary, because you are going to cut out around them anyway. You can either print it on regular paper or sticker paper. Then they can stick themselves on the beanstalk, like they are Jack climbing it!

Our last project for this preschool day was finding ‘magic beans’ in a bin of rice/wheat. I love making them use these plastic tweezers to pinch the beans to pick them up when they find them.

To make the ‘magic beans’ I just spray painted dry beans with gold spray paint. I actually did this about 30 minutes before preschool started. Because they are so small, they dry really fast. Spray on one side, let dry for 15-20 minutes, then flip over and spray the other side. Don’t over spray them, or they will be sticky and wont dry fast!

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk

Chocolate Pretzel Turkey bags

This was a fun project to do with my boys. We made these pretzel turkeys for their teachers (school and church). I was inspired by THESE pretzel turkey cups that my sister made. Since were were giving these away, I thought a bag would be better than a cup!

First step, dip the pretzels in chocolate. I used the Honey Wheat Braided Twists (instead of the pretzel rods), if only because I like the taste of these pretzels better ;)

I used red, orange, and yellow Wilton chocolate melts. I gave each boy a small cup with melted chocolate and showed them how to dip them. They also had a few lectures on ‘not licking the chocolate or their fingers until they were done’ and ‘only eat the broken ones’. Man they had a hard time with those rules!!

When they were done with the pretzels, and while the chocolate was drying, we worked on the bags. I printed out a coloring picture of a turkey head on sticker paper, and cut them out with my Silhouette. I also printed out a simple “I’m thankful for you” sticker that they could write their name on. So they worked on coloring those.

     

Stick the head sticker to one side of the clear cellophane bags and the “I’m thankful for you” (or “Happy Thanksgiving”) sticker on the other side, and fill with different colored “feathers” (the chocolate dipped pretzels), and tie it up.

The best part of this project was watching the boys hand them to their teachers! So stinkin adorable!!

Every child is an artist - Picasso

I’ve been working on an art wall for a little while now and wanted to add this [prefect] quote by Picasso.

First, pick out a board or canvas you want the quote on. I used a chunk of particle board I had laying around, but you can easily use a canvas or even some cardstock for this project. Let your little artist paint away. I love the sporadic, crazy painting that he did over the letters. It’s perfect for the art wall & for the quote!

We used Crayola washable paints, but obviously any paint will do (as long as you trust your kiddo with it!)

My first thought was Pink lettering. Didn’t like it.

Instead I went with white vinyl. MUCH better!

OR…! You can just order one of these sweet little wood blocks with the same quote -

Available at Remembories (pick your own color)!

Both make for a great addition to our art wall, I’m using the one my little B painted. I still have a few finishing touches to add to the wall, but it’s almost done!

Minion Birthday Party!

My now 3 year old is OBSESSED with Minions. Whenever we asked him what he wanted for Christmas, his answer was always “MINIONS!!”. So, of course he had to have a Minion birthday party!

MINION INVITATIONS:

I made these invitations (using Microsoft Publisher…nothing fancy here!), one clipart from a Google “minion clipart” search, and this font (LasVegas-Jackpot) . I set up the invitation as a 4” x 6” because I like to print them at Wal-Mart & have them in hand within the hour. The boarder of the invitation was a bunch of repeated blue & yellow stripes laid behind everything and later cropped to the 4” x 6” size. Obviously I put in the birthday boy’s actual name & our actual address & phone number, but you get the idea.

**I’ve been trying to make their birthday parties more about the fun rather than the presents. We do a little family birthday party where we give them presents, but when it comes to their friends…all they really want is to play & have cake! That’s why I put *no presents necessary*. Hopefully makes it less stressful for the parents too!

I did a lot of Pinterest & Google searching for ideas for kids 3 and younger to do. I love teaching my boys preschool, so I wanted to do some activities like that. So here we go…

THE MINION PARTY FUN:

First, color. It was a great “gathering” activity. While we waited for everyone to show up, they colored as many Minions as they could (and played after they were done).

The next project was painting a puzzle. My little man LOVES puzzles almost as much as he loves minions. I was going to have the kids make something similar to this Minion footprint on their puzzles, but that was a little too much work (we did a practice run the night before).

So instead I just gave them some paint & let them do whatever they wanted on it.  They had fun with that!

 

Lunch came next. I made some pizza & while it finished cooking, I gave the kids some bananas & some stickers I made with my Silhouette.  They dressed the bananas up to look like little Minions & then they got to eat them and/or take them home with them.

This is the clipart I used & imported in my Silhouette program (couldn’t find the actual link anymore, SORRY!!):

MINION CUPCAKES!

Inspired by Betty Crocker, I made these Minion Cupcakes. Not much needed aside from the cake; blue cupcake liners, yellow frosting, big marshmallows, & black gel (or frosting). I was also planning on making a cake for our family part (again, Betty Crocker inspired), but it stuck to the pan. So I opted for Minion cake balls!

MINION GIFT BAGS:

I have a ton of these brown gift bags, and since I couldn’t find yellow bags ANYWHERE in my town, I went with these. I again made some stickers to go on the outside & put some fun Minion stuff inside.

1. Minion stickers (I made, using my Silhouette & clipart like THIS)
2. Minion tattoos
3. Minion Fruit Snacks (any grocery store)
4. BANANAS!!(candy, of course, with stickers to go on another banana at home)
5. Their painted puzzles

MINION DECORATIONS:

Lots of blue & yellow – streamers, balloons, flag banners, etc! The streamers, we put up. Nothing else to it. The blue balloons stayed blue balloons, and the yellow balloons were dressed up to be minion heads! I used goggle & mouth clipart & taped them on. The flag banner was a matter of yellow, white & blue cardstock paper, but into triangles & flags, with Minion stickers on top (taped to some yarn). Pretty easy to make.

Overall, super fun birthday! This kiddo is now 3 & still as crazy as a Minion!!