DIY: Kool-Aid Dyed Pasta

This is a great way for what many people call "Sensory Learning."  It is suggested that you get a sensory bin (any kind of plastic shallow tray or bin) and then you want to have various colored objects of all shapes and sizes and then you child can learn from these things and play with them.  Personally I think that a lot of these things can double as art supplies if you have some glue on hand, to include this project.  I actually find that I will most likely use this more for doing other artistic and crafty ideas instead.  Already I want to make a pasta necklace :)  *Kiwi-Strawberry does not turn out very pink, looks similar to the orange flavor. 

Supplies: (Per Color)
1 Cup Rice or 1 Cup Pasta
1 packet Kool-Aid
1-2 tsp Rubbing Alcohol
Gallon or large plastic Ziplock bags
Tin Foil
Cookie Sheet

Directions:
First add 1 cup of pasta to each bag.  We decided to use a different kind of pasta for each color.  After the pasta is separated into the bags pour 1 packet of  Kool-Aid on top of the pasta.   Add 1-2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol to each bag on top of the previous two ingredients.
Seal the bag shut and shake it up.  Let it sit for at least 15 minutes to saturate.  Cover the cookie sheet with tin foil.
Next, pour the wet pasta onto the cookie sheet. and get it as flat as it will go so that you can dry it overnight (or for at least 6-8 hours).  When it is dry, the rice will be all clumped together; separate the rice grains with your hands.
Now you can use it for sensory learning or to make additional arts and crafts projects like I intend to do.  My son was already having fun counting and telling me the colors. 

Get out your supplies

Show your excitement :)

Pour the pasta into the baggies

Get ready to add the Kool-Aid

Pour the Kool-Aid over the pasta, add the rubbing alcohol and tightly seal the baggies

Vigorously shake up each bag

Get that dye to stick to the pasta

Happily wait for the dye to sink in

Lay it out to dry overnight and then play :)

If you would like to see the past DIY activities that we have completed together, check them out here:

Cardboard Owls

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

Cardboard Owls: Children's DIY Activity

I have been collecting cardboard rolls for awhile now and with the collection I have been getting, I needed to either use them up or start to get rid of them.  When I cam across this cardboard owls activity, I know that it would be a great way to utilize some of them.  This ended up being a fun and easy activity that Liam thoroughly enjoyed and was fun for me as well.  There was adult supervision required and I did most of the cutting so that we could get wing shapes, but Liam (my 3 year old son) was great and sorting, gluing and attaching things.  I would definitely do this or any similar activity again and now we have cute little owls sitting around the house. 

Supplies:
Cardboard tubes (1 for each owl if toilet paper, 2 owls per paper towel)
Scrap Paper
Pipe Cleaners
Googly Eyes
Colored Poms
Glue Stick (Tacky Glue works even better)
Glitter Glue (for optional hair that my son insisted upon haha)

Directions:
Fold the top of the toilet paper rolls down toward the middle to form the owls ears.
Cut up various scraps of textured and colored paper and  pipe cleaners to use.  Apply glue to the various textured papers and pipe cleaners.  Attach wings, textures, nose pom, googly eyes, and any other decorations you want to use. Beads and buttons would be fun too.

Get your supplies out!

Fold the cardboard tops to make ears

Sort your art supplies for ease of use

Pretend to cut your hand (jk you can skip this step haha)

Attach the googly eyes and a pom nose

After attaching wings and legs on the first owl search for a nose for the second one

Glue on the nose

Check out the owls with awesome glitter hair

Put the eyes on the 3rd owl

Extra concentration helps eyes stick on better

End with glitter glue hair

Revel in their owlity cuteness

If you would like to see the past DIY activities that we have completed together, check them out here:

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

DIY: Children's Activities Part 3

With Liam being on doctor's orders to stay home until Monday, we have already enjoyed two days off together and we are going to need some fun projects to keep us busy for the rest of the weekend.  We will definitely be engaged in one or more of these activities!  I have been wanting to do the alphabet train one for awhile now, but we also will pick and artsy craft as well :)  Please submit any and all suggestions to me!  We love to stay engaged in all kinds of fun new activities!

Alphabet Train

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I absolutely love the idea of this one!  It is both fun, time consuming, hands on, and a great learning experience!









Supplies:
Paper
Alphabet Letters (Of you can just draw your own letters onto the paper)
Items from around the house that start with all of the letters in the alphabet!  

Directions: 
Lay out the paper in a "train" and add the letters!  Now go around and find the items that match up with the letters.

 Salt Painting

This is a great and easy way to have a fun painting time at home with not too much of a mess.  I have seen a lot of people try this and similar things out in the past and have been wanting to try it with Liam since he is totally into creating different works of art. 







Supplies:
-Construction paper/cardstock
-Paintbrush and/or medicine dropper
-Colored water (we used about a tablespoon of water with 6-7 drops of food coloring)
-Salt
-Glue
-Little bowls for colored water



Directions:
Have your child draw a picture with glue.Then sprinkle the glue with salt.  We did this on top of a piece of cardboard, but a baking sheet will work well too. Next have your child take a paintbrush or a medicine dropper and drop colored water, one drop at a time onto the salt.
Some tips: Make sure they lightly touch the salt with the brush.  It also helps to have a bowl to clean the brush in between colors...otherwise you lose the colors start blending together and you lose the vibrant colors because they become murky. 

Jello Ocean Bath

Borrowed from growingajeweledrose.com

 

 

 Messy activities in the bath are such a fantastic idea.  You get to be all messy and yet you don't have a huge mess to clean up!  Also if the mess is too much, just rinse it out and then wash your child up as they are already in the bathtub playing!  Liam loves the bathtub anyway, so I know he would love this activity!










Supplies:
4 Boxes Blue Raspberry Jello
Small bag of Smooth Round Stones (Such as used for candle accents)
Variety of sea life toys

Directions:
Let the jello set up.  Put it into the bottom of the tub and add some warm water to make the bath warm enough to play in.  Add the stones and toys and let them get in and have a ball.  This makes for a great sensory and learning experience! 

Cardboard Tube Owls

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I have been saving up toilet paper rolls in hopes of a fun activity to come along to use them up in when I came across this one.  Owls are so much fun and Liam loves playing with googly eyes!  This seems fairly easy and minimal mess kind of activity and I need to use up these toilet paper rolls! 







Supplies:
Cardboard tubes (1 for each owl if toilet paper, 2 owls per paper towel)
Scrap Paper
Pipe Cleaners
Googly Eyes
Felt
Tacky Glue

Directions:
Fold the top of the toilet paper rolls down toward the middle to form the owls ears.
Cut up various scraps of textured and colored paper, pipe cleaners, and felt scraps to use for the craft. Cut the orange felt into little triangles to use for the beak.  Apply glue to the various textured papers and pipe cleaners.  If  you  use Q-tips to dip into your glue it can make a lot less mess with younger children.  Attach wings, textures, beak, googly eyes, and any other decorations you want to use. Beads and buttons would be fun too.


If you would like to see the past DIY activities that we have completed together, check them out here:

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

Make Your Own Rainstorm

I came across this fun activity not too long ago and knew that Liam and I would have to try it out soon.  My son is obsessed with whether or not it is raining outside, so I am sure that he would love creating a rainstorm!  We decided to make two attempts since it was SO much fun the first time!  Liam was actually ready for us to do it again!  I found that the best way for the rain to actually trickle down was to get the food coloring on the edge of the vase so that it would find a way through the "clouds."  Also as the vase sat for awhile with all of the colors in it, I noticed that the longer the shaving cream was in the water the slower the food coloring trickled down later in the day.  Anyway it is a ton of fun and really easy to do!  We had absolutely no mess, except for rinsing out the vase at the end.
*This was also quite amusing for my cat watching in the background ;)


Supplies:
-Drinking glass or vase
-Food coloring
-Water
-Shaving cream


Directions:
Fill drinking glass or vase with water and then top the water completely with shaving cream (clouds).
Then add blue food coloring to the "clouds".  (This works best to concentrate the food coloring in a couple of areas as opposed to singular drops here and there depending on your food coloring, the one I have comes out really thick so we didn't need much).  You can also add to the fun by adding multiple colors.

 First Attempt

 

Supplies are all set out

Put shaving cream on top of the water

Add the blue food coloring for the rain

Watch it trickle down the vase in amusement

Pretty rain :)

Our water is now blue

Add more colors and watch how they mix together

Pose happily for a picture :)

Second Attempt

Rinse out the vase and refill with clean water

Add shaving cream on top (This time I spread it across the top of the water)

Add drops of food coloring at a couple of spots on the edges of the vase and shaving cream so it can easily break through

Now they blue is going, let's add more color!

You can more clearly see the mixture with a little less food coloring

Checking out the colors from the top view

You can see 3 different colors mixing together in here

Liam was content to just sit there and watch for quite awhile