DIY Toddler Activity Ideas Part 7

It has been another long weekend that I wish I would have made more time to accomplish some DIY projects.  Here are some of the great ideas that I have come across, please feel free to share any of your own activities as well!

Toilet Paper Leaf Stamps

crafty morning

This is a great activity now that September is here, and it is easy and fun looking :)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials:
Toilet Paper Roll
Paints
Paper 
Printable fall tree sheet (or draw your own tree)
Tape
Scissors

Directions:
Start by cutting an empty toilet paper roll down the middle and continue cutting until it makes a small leaf shape. Bend the edges to get the corners pointy and tape it together.
Print out the tree sheet and cut that same toilet roll into three parts so they can be used for each color paint.
Once once all of the leaves are stamped you can use a small paintbrush to color in the leaves. You can also add more leaves at the bottom of the tree to make it look like they fell off.

 Alphabet Fossils

playdough to plato

This looks like such an amazing fun time.  I  really want to do this with Liam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
Rolling pin
Cookie sheet
Magnetic Alphabet Stamps (such as would be on the fridge)
Paint Brush
Container with Sand
*Dinosaur Toys

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 250° F.
Mix together salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. *Do not add too much flour, as this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
Roll out the dough to about 1/4” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
Use the Letter stamps to imprint each letter, or you can also use a toothpick to create them.
Bake for 2 hours and allow to cool completely before using.  *If you don't want to bake them you can also leave them out for a good 3 days to dry completely. 

You can then bury the letter fossils and any additional dinosaur toys and allow your child to excavate for them.  The paint brush is useful for brushing off any remaining sand. 
You can then place them in alphabetical order or use them to spell words.

 Homemade Lava Lamp

slsmithphotograpy.com

I LOVE lava Lamps, so this is one I definitely want to try











 
Ingredients:
Empty Water Bottle
Food Coloring
Vegetable Oil
Water
Alka Seltzer

Directions:
Fill each bottle about 2/3 with the oil.  Fill the rest of the way with water leaving about an inch of air to the top.  Add 10 drops of food coloring.  Break the Alka Seltzer into 4 pieces.  Drop the pieces in one at a time.  *Wait until the bubbles stop before adding in another piece or it will start to get cloudy.  

Nature Names Craft

littlefamilyfun.com

This is such an excellent idea for teaching letters in names and for playing outside.  I love thus one.

Supplies
Cardstock
Glue
Nature items

Directions
Hand each person a brown paper lunch-sack or even a plastic bag
Go out in nature (your backyard, a park, campground, the beach, anywhere!) and find things that you can use to create the letters of your name: such as sticks, rocks, leaves, grass, pine needle, flowers, berries, shells, bark, dirt etc.
On a piece of cardstock, write your name (or have it prewritten).
Use glue to get your nature items to stick to each letter to spell your name!


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

Jello Ocean Bath

Homemade Liquid Sidewalk Chalk

Penguin Activity Game

Kool-Aid Dyed Pasta

Cardboard Owls

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

Jello Ocean Bath: DIY Kid's Activity

 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 knew he would love this activity!  I have found it to be quite the ordeal to find blue raspberry jello, so I had to search for awhile to get enough boxes to do this activity; I ended up adding in a lime jello for good measure.  Liam had such a blast and played for over an hour in it.  He was a little sad when the jello fully dissolved into the water.  The only drawback I found was that his feet, hands and knees were semi-dyed blue for most of the day but after his bath at bedtime it's almost completely gone.


Supplies:
4-5 Boxes Blue Raspberry Jello
Small bag of Smooth Round Stones (Such as used for candle accents)
Variety of sea life toys

Directions:
Mix the jello together.  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!

Pour the jello into a large mixing bowl

Add the hot water (according to amount on the box) and stir

Let the jello set in the fridge

Put the jello in the bathtub and add some warm water, rocks and ocean themes toys

My son playing in the "ocean"

He thought it was so fun and squishy

Trying to save all of the jello from dissolving

Jello collecting

 

If you would like to see our past DIY activities, check them out here:

Homemade Liquid Sidewalk Chalk

Ombre' Egg Dying

Penguin Learning Game

Kool-Aid Dyed Pasta

Cardboard Owls

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

Penguin Activity Game: DIY Toddler Activity

When I first came across this "Feed the Penguin" game I was so excited to make it!  My son is totally into Penguins, thanks to the Swedish clay-mation show Pingu.  I also loved that you can use the fish for learning.  Since associating letters with words that start with the letter is a lot of fun for Liam (my son) right now, I decided to go with ABCs but you can also use numbers or shapes or words or pictures or whatever you can possibly come up with.  Admittedly, this activity did require a bit more parental help than some of the other projects that we have done, but my son was still able to be a constant part of the process and he has had SO much fun with the actual finished product.  I hope that you can enjoy it as much as we have so far!

Supplies:
Cardboard Box (about Graham Cracker box sized)
Construction Paper (Black, White, Orange)
Goggle Eyes (2)
Scissors
Tape (use good quality tape so that your wings stay attached)
Glue
Knife
*Optional: Glitter Glue (My son loves this stuff so we wrote out letters using it)

Directions:
Wrap the black construction paper around the box and tape it on. I only used 1 piece, so it didn't cover the top, bottom or the back of the box. But you can if you want to. 
Cut an oval shaped hole for the mouth with the knife.  Initially I tried to use scissors, but a knife worked SO much better. It doesn't have to be perfect, just big enough for the fish to fit in.  (You'll want to leave paper off the top of the box so that you can get the fish out after they get fed to the penguin.)
For the beak, cut a square out of orange construction paper. Then cut an oval shaped hole in the middle.  I found this was easiest with measuring it close to the hole that had previously been cut for the mouth.  Tape the beak onto the penguin.
Glue 2 googly eyes on the penguin (or cut eyes out of paper and glue them on).
Cut out a white oval for the stomach and glue it on.
Cut out 2 orange feet and glue them onto the bottom of the box.
Cut out 2 black, oval flaps for the wings and tape one on each side.

For the FISH:

Just draw a fish shape (easiest to draw an oval body with a triangle tail attached) onto a piece of paper and cut it out (Make sure it's small enough to fit in your penguin's mouth). Then use that fish as a template and draw some more fish on a piece of construction paper. Then place 2-3 MORE pieces of construction paper underneath and cut out the fish. (Saves time cutting out 3-4 at a time!)
Once you have all your fish, get a black marker and draw a dot for the eye and a little smile on each fish.
Then draw on whatever concept you want to teach: SHAPES, NUMBERS, LETTERS, MATH, WORDS, etc.  Because we used Glitter Glue to write out letters, I let them sit over night to dry completely. 
*Optional: For extra durability you can laminate (or use contact paper on) the fish so you can use them in other games later

Get your supplies out (don't mind the paint haha)

Wrap your box in black paper

Cut a mouth hole in the box with a knife

Cut a an orange square and an oval middle for the mouth and tape onto the box for the beak

Glue the Googly Eyes on

Showcase your gluing skills with glee

Clean up any excess glue

Cut an Oval out of white paper for the belly and glue it on

Check out how awesome it is looking so far

Cut out little orange feet

Glue the feet onto the bottom of the box

Cut out 2 long ovals for the wings and tape them on

Check out the finished penguin box in all it's glory

Cut out your fishies! 

Draw on an eye and a smile and write on whatever you would like, we did letters

If you would like to see our past DIY activities, check them out here:

Kool-Aid Dyed Pasta

Cardboard Owls

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

DIY: Activities for Toddler Part 4

As I sit here on a Friday night planning on fun things for Liam and I to do I always turn to my DIY lists and try to choose at least 1 activity a weekend.  Since we were able to accomplish a couple, it was time to find some new activities to add to the list.  I am still working on a few oldies but I found some spectacular new goodies :)  Enjoy!  Please feel free to add any suggestions you have so that we can try them out!

Bunny Collage

www.busybeekidscrafts.com

I love how simple and adorable this is!  Plus the supplies are easy to come by and uses stuff we already have around the house :)








Supplies:
Construction Paper
White Paint
Q-Tips
Shallow container/paper plate
Cotton Balls
Scissors
Glue
Black Marker

Directions:
Cut out a green strip of "grass" and glue it onto a piece of sky blue paper.
Pour some white paint into a shallow container or paper plate. Make your Bunnies out of two thumb prints. One for the head, and one for the body. Make as many bunnies as you'd like, anywhere in the meadow.
Break off the ends of your Q Tips and glue them on top of your thumb prints to make the bunny's ears. Glue on a small wad of cotton ball for the tail.
Cut out a sun from yellow construction paper and glue in on your scene. When the paint is dry, draw on the eyes, nose and whiskers.
Other options to add to your collage are green pieces of tissue paper stuck on as grass, or cotton ball clouds, be creative!

 Salt Painting

http://jugglingwithkids.com

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. 
I keep wanting to do this one and find that I need to buy salt haha.






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. 

 Feed The Penguins Learning Game

 

littlefamilyfun.com

I can't lie, I am very excited about this activity.  Liam also has an obsession for the Swedish clay-mation show Pingu.  So he is totally into penguins.  Also we can throw learning in with counting and letters on the fish :)  What a spectacular idea. 













Supplies:
Cardboard Box (about Graham Cracker box sized)
Construction Paper (Black, White, Orange)
Goggle Eyes (2)
Scissors
Tape
Glue

Directions:
Wrap the black construction paper around the box. I only used 1 piece, so it didn't cover the top, bottom or the back of the box. But that's ok. :)
Cut an oval shaped hole for the mouth. It doesn't have to be perfect, just big enough for the fish to fit in.  (You'll want to leave paper off the top of the box so that you can get the fish out after they get put in.)
For the beak, cut a square out of orange construction paper. Then cut an oval shaped hole in the middle.  Tape the beak onto the penguin.
Glue 2 googly eyes on the penguin (or cut eyes out of paper and glue them on).
Cut out a white oval for the stomach and glue it on.
Cut out 2 orange feet and glue them onto the bottom of the box.
Cut out 2 black, oval flaps for the wings and tape one on each side.

For the FISH:

Just draw a fish shape onto a piece of paper and cut it out (Make sure it's small enough to fit in your penguin's mouth). Then use that fish as a template and draw some more fish on a piece of construction paper. Then place 2-3 MORE pieces of construction paper underneath and cut out the fish. (Saves time cutting out 3-4 at a time!)
Once you have all your fish, get a black marker and draw a dot for the eye and a little smile on each fish.
Then draw on whatever concept you want to teach: SHAPES, NUMBERS, LETTERS, MATH, WORDS, etc.
(Optional): For extra durability, laminate the fish so you can use them in other games later! (I actually just used clear contact paper).

Jello Ocean Bath

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!  I have found it to be quite the ordeal to find blue raspberry jello, so I am still in search mode.










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!


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

Kool-Aid Dyed Pasta

Cardboard Owls

Alphabet Train

Make Your Own Rainstorm

Orange Sugar Scrub

Meditation Bottle

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

DIY: Easter Arts & Crafts for Kids

If you know me, you know that I like to find at least one fun and unique thing to do with my 3 year old son every weekend.  With Easter fast approaching, I have been looking around for some fun ideas for us to do.  A couple of the ideas I have been waiting for months to do for Easter, and some are new and fun!  Feel free to steal any and use yourself.  I would love to see pictures of your end results!

Easter Egg Sun-catchers

Easter Egg Sun-catcher

I just love this activity, it is fun, a bit messy and something that can be hung up int he window!  Liam loves things that we can hang up and that will last for a very long time :)

Supplies:
Confetti
Easter Grass
Contact Paper
Painters Tape (or other heavy duty tape)
Double-Sided Tape (Just in case you need to seal the eggs better)

Directions:
Place the contact paper on the table sticky side up using painter’s tape to keep it on the table. Add the confetti and Easter grass to stick onto the contact paper.  Add it to your heart's content and throw it around all over.  Seal it by adding a second sheet on contact paper on the top.  Cut into an egg shape or several egg shapes.  It is possibly that you may need to extra seal with double-sided tape in case the confetti is too thick.  Hang and enjoy!

 

Magic Balloon Treats

Magic Balloon Treats

I have been wanting to do this one for MONTHS!  I have been waiting for Easter on purpose!

Supplies
Water Balloons
Yarn or String
Crafting Glue
Candy


Directions:
Place candy inside of the balloon.  Blow up the balloon.  Mix equal parts crafting glue & water, wrap around the balloon.  Wait until dry and pop the balloon.

Striped Easter Eggs

Striped Eggs

I love how this look is both very clean and colorful looking.  It doesn't seem to be immensely challenging either, which means that my son will be able to help with it!

Supplies:
Hard Boiled Eggs
Easter Egg Dye (or food coloring)
Electrical Tape

Directions:
Partially wrap eggs with electrical tape.  Dye the eggs.  Allow to dry and remove the tape.  Do it again in an alternating direction with a different color.  Dry and remove the tape, there you have it :)

Shaving Cream Egg Art

Shaving Cream Egg

Last year we tried doing the shaving cream and food coloring method to dye our Easter Eggs and it did NOT turn out the way it was supposed to.  I do think that paper may work better with the colors though, and I do not currently own a squeegee....

Supplies:
A surface to use, tray covered table, etc
Shaving Cream
Cardstock or Construction Paper
Acrylic Paints (Food Coloring gel works best)
Squeegee
Something to stir the paint (Spoon, toothpick, paintbrush)

Directions:
Spray out enough shaving cream so that the surface area is larger than your paper.  Spread it around to make the surface smooth.  Squirt paint or dye onto the shaving cream.  Make shapes, or swirls or zigzags in the color.  Cut the paper into shapes (in this case Easter shapes).  Press the paper down onto the colored shaving cream and let it sit for a few seconds.  Remove the paper and let it sit shaving cream side up for a few minutes to soak in the color.  gently squeegee the shaving cream off of the paper which will leave the color behind.  Allow to dry before hanging or using as a card.


Ombre Dyed Eggs

This looks very pretty and very low mess.

Supplies:
Hard Boiled Eggs
Food Coloring
Cups

Instructions:
Place eggs into cups or containers that will allow them to sit upright.  Add enough warm water to cover about a quarter of the egg.  Add enough food coloring for it the color to show darkly in the water.  Let sit 10 minutes and then add enough water so that the eggs are now half covered.  Let sit for another 10 minutes and cover up to the 3/4 mark.  Sit for another 10 minutes and cover completely.  After 5 minutes of total immersion you can remove to dry.  *Keep in mind that 40 additional minutes in warm water may cook the egg yolk a bit more.

Plastic Egg Snake Toy

Plastic Snake Toy

This is a great way to utilize your leftover plastic eggs and turn them into something fun and awesome :)

Supplies:
Plastic Lacing Cord
Newer Style Plastic Easter Eggs with two holes on the top and bottom
Googly Eyes
Red Paper Tongue

Instructions:
Cut the plastic lacing cord to about 3 feet long.  Know the end.  Threat the cord through on of the top shell openings.  Continue threading the cord through the eggs alternating from the left and right holes as you go.  Knot the end of the lacing cord when you have threaded all the top egg shells.  Decorate the snake head using the bottom of on of the eggs.  Attach googly eyes and a red paper tongue to the snakes face.  Snap it in place onto the last top egg shell.  Bend and slither and play.  

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