Classroom Art Project for Auction

My baby is in school!  Preschool, and just two days a week, but still.  She loves it, and I’m thrilled about that!  And I get to volunteer with her class, so more fun for me too!  Our school has an auction every year to raise money, and each class makes an art project to sell there.  I spent many happy hours on google over this project! =) 

 

If you are setting up for your own auction project, here are the ideas I liked best from my hunt around google.  You can also check out my pinterest board to see pictures that I found inspiring!

1.)Handprint Quilt

2.) Artwork Quilt (Have the kids color squares.  It usually works best to give them a theme, like draw self portraits.  I decided our kids were a little too young at this part of the year for this to work out well.  Maybe next year!)

3.) Thumbprint Picture (make the thumbprints look like balloons lifting up a drawing of the school.) 

4.) Take photos of the kids in the shape of letters and frame them to spell out words like Dream, Laugh, etc. (Again, I had worries that my three year old wouldn’t lie still long enough to form letters, much less getting several three year olds to cooperate.  Maybe for kindergarden =)

5.) Paint reusable grocery sacks. (This is one I’d actually use!)

6.) Handprints on cute furniture, like a bookshelf.  I liked the idea of doing one of the book slings as well.

7.) Create a poster combining the kids art.  My sister in law did this Andy Warhol style picture that combined all the kids pictures in different colors.  So pretty!

8.) Decoupage traced hands onto a canvas.

  

Source: google.com via Chrissie on Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/chrissiebair/class-art-project-ideas/

Fairy House =)

Serenity had a playdate with Grandma and ended up watching Tinkerbell’s Fairy Rescue on repeat for the rest of that day and the next, so I thought it would be fun to have a little fairy project!  (Not that it’s ever hard to convince me of that ;) 

We went on a hike with Daddy (a short one as I was a few days overdue by that point) and we collected bark, rocks, twigs, leaves, and a few nuts.  The next morning (already I’m only going out before 9am!) we went out to a special spot in the flower bed and built a little house!  It’s very simple, we just poked twigs in the ground, used bark for the roof and a big flat rock for the floor.  But it’s cute, and Serenity liked filling it with “presents” of nuts, dandelions and other flowers for the faeries!.  Probably when we do other hikes we can expand it, or possible make a few little faeries to go in it!  It’s in a flower bed so it doesn’t get mowed down.  Such fun!

Fruit Loops Necklace...

Well, today we pretty much had a nutrition fail.  We started with cinnamon rolls for breakfast... which could possibly have been redeemed later in the day.  But while we were grocery shopping I decided to pick up some Fruit Loops for a little craft activity I'd been thinking about doing.  Well, once she saw them, that's all she wanted to eat!  And then we made the necklaces, she ate more!  She loved the necklaces, and we did little patterns and good educational stuff while we worked on them... so that sort of redeems the fact that I've been dealing with repercussions of her sugar high and my crash all day long right?  =)

 

In the Jungle

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle… the lion may sleep, although Serenity didn’t.  Today, I asked Serenity if she wanted a game with cars or with the jungle, and she picked jungle.  So while she “napped” (actually while she rolled around in her room singing) I cut out a bunch of leaves, made vines, and covered her princess tent with a green blanket to make a jungle.  When she got up, I gave her a pair of binoculars made from toilet paper rolls to search for jungle animals!  We wandered around, saving monkeys and bears and turtles and bringing them to our jungle!  Eventually, we got to the point that we were saving sheep and ducks, so we got a big red tub to hold the farmyard animals, and put the polar bears and penguins on the stairs.  So we started with the jungle and ended up with a nice little talk about what animals might actually live there. =)  It was a blast, and she loved saving the animals.  (She is addicted to Diego after all =) 

We also tried several games I found on a post at Totally Tots.  Basically we sang the Animals in the Jungle (to the wheels on the bus tune) and then acted out the animals.  The monkeys were by far her favorite, although we had fun walking around like Tigers too. 

Later we did a few jungle art projects.  We decided to color a jungle, and I thought it would be fun to try out the painting the marker with water idea I saw here.  So Serenity colored with greens and browns to make a jungle.  I was surprised at how much she colored, often she just does a line or two and wants to switch to crayons or actual paint.  The water was a bit messy as she ended up pouring instead of painting, but it was interesting to see what it did to the marker. 

She also asked for an elephant to color, so I printed one and she used her Do-A-Dots to finish it. 

Snow Bound

What to do when stuck in your house for more than a week because of the “Snow of the Century.”  Well, for me, it was clear out all the activities I’d been saving in my google reader.  Here they are:

Homemade Kazoos 

Snow Paint

Play-doh Snowman kit

Valentines (several different kinds, but my favorite so far is this shape bear from Ramblings of a SAHM which we just added several extra hearts to.  It was for Daddy.  Serenity would make Valentines for Daddy every day if she could =) 

Lots and lots of Do-a-dot activities

 

Baking Valentine Rice Krispies

 Serenity was actually helpful in the kitchen this time!  She helped measure ingredients, pour, and stir!  It was so much fun we did way too much in the kitchen this week.  Cupcakes and Rice Krispies and snow ice cream... not good for my "healthy" diet.  Oh well, we had a blast!  I just pulled a stepstool in for her so she could reach the counter.  Oh, and she even cracked eggs!  Of course, I was right there to make sure they landed in the bowl, but it's a step =) 

Snow Ice Cream

So far, I’m lucky.  Serenity doesn’t seem to mind too much that she hasn’t left the house in more than a week, and that she’s only played outside a few times with her Daddy.  She did get to have Daddy work from home all week, which was nice!  =) 

Our Snow Turtle

Our "sled"- A tub with a luggage strap for pulling around our yard.  Eric and I don't drive in snow =)  He's from Cali and I'm from Tulsa... not enough experience to make it worth it to get out!

As for me, I’m either nesting or just lacking in other things to do because I went on an organizing kick.  I cleaned and organized my entire downstairs, except for the office closet which is a major challenge that will need to be addressed at bedtime.  Of course, this means I reorganized things like the pantry which will probably need help again when I finally get out and buy groceries.  Sigh. 

You would think I would have had tons of time to blog, but instead I’ve been digi scrapbooking like a maniac at nap and bedtimes to take advantage of a great sale at Inkubook, where I buy my photobooks right now.  So I am finally finally caught up to New Years in my scrapbook!  I’ll post some of my favorite pages soon! 

Well, if you’re like me and expecting more snow this week, hopefully some of these activities will come in handy =)  I’ll be out looking for more to do!  Maybe this week will be a sewing week since last week was all scrapbooking. 

Advent Activity: Hand and Footprint Reindeer

Well, today was one of those days =)  We had just gotten in at midnight, and Serenity woke up sick at her stomach in the middle of the night.  Needless to say, I didn’t manage to fill the advent calendar before we got up.  On the plus side, Serenity was feeling much better by morning, and ran right to it saying, “We need to check my advent calendar!!!!!”  So I used the, “look, there’s a monkey!” tactic while sneakily slipping an activity into the calendar.  The activity was Craft!  I have a looong list of ideas for crafts that I’d love to do this season.  We’ll see how far we get, but today we did a handprint reindeer.  I saw the idea here at Oopsey Daisy. 

It turned out super cute, but I do have a few notes to add on the process.  First, she says to angle the hands more than she did, and so I angled the paper sharply because trying to position a toddler’s hand is easier said than done.  Second, I noticed that it’s important to put the heel of the foot slightly under the top of the handprints, so that it looks like the antlers are on top of the head.  Otherwise it ends up looking a little bit like Krusty the Clown, a very scary prospect.  Serenity was delighted with her Rudolphs!  She did insist that the reindeers be red, which is why our handprints are red instead of green like the example.  Everything must match in Serenity’s world!  

A Little Cardboard Fun

Well, I got off work a little bit early and so had some baby-free time to get a little preliminary Christmas shopping done.  Which is dangerous for me, because I really can't seem to hold presents until Christmas if I have more than a month to wait.  I bought a steering wheel to add to Serenity's outdoor playstructure, and then immediately pulled it out for her to play with =)  She really loves this Dora episode where Isa the Iguana is steering a boat, and after watching her play with it on the floor for a day or so I had this little brainstorm...

Yes, my living room is now filled with a big, cardboard sailboat.  We've had a blast with it though!  It's pretty simple to make.  I cut off about a foot and a half from the bottom of a dishwasher box, and then cut out a shape that looked boat-like to me for the bottom of the boat.  Making the sail was a little more complicated, I used a long piece of cardboard and wrapped it into a tall rectangle, and then cut slits in the bottom of the boat and slid the flaps at the bottom of the rectangle into it, and taped it down.  I used one of our silk scarves for a sail, and rigged her fancy new steering wheel on a cardboard box.  You could make a wheel out of cardboard too though!  She's had a lot of fun with this, pretending to fish, asking me for a yellow coat and blue hat (like Little Bear wears in Gone Fishing) and of course, turning the wheel.

 

This would be great fun for a sailing birthday party =)  I drew on the waves, but you could let the kids decorate it with paints or poster markers.  

Pumpkin Decorating

Today's activity was making faces for the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch last week with Serenity's cousins.  I made a paper with choices of shapes, and Serenity decided what would go on each pumpkin, and after I cut out the sticky foam she put it on all by herself!  She's getting pretty good at placing eyes, nose, and mouth in a reasonable position =)  And we added leaves for hair.  She seems to like the shapes to match, if she uses triangle eyes she wants a triangle nose, if she does circles she wants everything in a circle.  It's cute, she has such an organized soul.  Where on earth did it come from? =) 

The big pumpkin had two sides, it was so much fun once we started we didn't want to stop =) 

Rainbow Activities

We have a little bit of a rainbow obsession going on here right now.  Serenity absolutely loves to organize things.  She lines up all the instruments in music class by type, she groups animals, but her favorite thing is to sort by color.  She makes towers of legos all in the same colors, and she just loves matching!  So it's no surprise that we do a lot of rainbow crafts and activities.  Here are some of our favorites:

Right after we got the Do-A-Dot markers in the mail, I came up with this little activity.  I drew lines in a rainbow arc and encouraged her to mark on the lines.  I was really surprised that she was able to do this so well, as she wasn't even two at the time.  This rainbow is my favorite of her first year art projects =) 

Recently I got some brightly colored stickers in the Target Dollar Spot (my very favorite place to shop) and I gave Serenity a big pile of them to sort by color.  She had a blast with this, and even decided that she needed her penguins all lined up on the same color wave. 

We also made some rainbow cupcakes, as found on Family Fun.  We didn't even bother icing them, they were delicious and cute =)

Here are a few of our favorite rainbow books!  What Makes a Rainbow


Duckie's Rainbow
Fairy Colors

Toddler Activities: Making Maps

Well, it's official.  I have a little Dora the Explorer fan.  Serenity loves everything to do with Dora, so we've started to incorporate some of her stories into our games and activities.  We spent one day making maps!  In every Dora episode the map comes on with his "catchy" tune, and shows three places Dora needs to go to get to her destination.  I asked Serenity where she needed to go, and she chose "Benny's Barn,"  "Bubble Bridge," and "Tallest Mountain."  I cut out foam shapes for her and she put them together to form pictures of the places she wanted to go, and then a little winding path to get there.  For a finishing touch, we rolled the map up and added a face just like Dora's map.  Now she loves to run around the house with her Backpack and Map pretending to be an exploradora =) 

Birthday Parties: A Princess Presto Tea Party! (Super Why)

***I added a tutorial for the book club tent!
*** I added a tutorial for the Super Reader Photo Board!
*** I added a tutorial for the photo backdrops!
*** I added a tutorial for the capes! 

For Serenity’s second birthday of course the theme had to center around Super Why, her favorite show, favorite books, and favorite toys.  Oh yes, we have the whole SuperWhy lineup, which isn’t actually that many things so I had to make a lot myself.  Which was why it was fun! 

 

To begin, as they entered the party every kid got to transform into superheroes!  (As they do in every show to solve the problems!)  I had made a bunch of capes in satin and provided lots of sticky foam for the kids to decorate them with!  Then there were the superhero accessories, like glittery wands, crowns, various helmets, and tools.  Everyone loved this part!  Some of the older ones came back to decorate more later. =)  Even Serenity wore her cape and crown for a little while!  I made hers with a little felt appliqué.  I can do a tutorial on that later! 

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After they transformed into super heroes, the kids came in and found the book club!  In the show, this is where the characters meet to solve problems.  I made this myself from an old duvet cover and a lot of wonder under and felt!  One side has a door with detachable pencils to mimic the look of the book club.  The back has a big book with felt letters that Serenity uses to write words!  One side has a window and some pockets that were supposed to hold books, but they tend to fall out so smaller things work better.  And the last side has a little paper doll princess with accessories that can be switched out!  I’ll do a full tutorial on how I did this if there’s interest =) 

Next up was the tea party aspect of the party.  Serenity loves a good tea party, and one of the Super Readers, Princess Presto, does too!  So we made an elaborate tea party with centerpieces, a fancy feather boa wreath, and a princess chair!  Serenity helped me decorate tea cups.  We also had fancy tea party fare for the food, little sandwiches cut into hearts, sand tarts, and strawberry shortcake. 

The kids favorite activity involved finding Super Letters.  Using my friend Jennie’s cricut (oh how I covet that particular toy!) I cut out red sparkly letters that spelled Happy Birthday, and then made a big board with Velcro so I could hide the letters and assemble the sign as the kids found them.  They LOVED this game!  It was amazing, they were so excited as they found each letter and brought it to me.  After we made the sign they wanted to do it again, so Eric stole letters and kept hiding them throughout the party! 

We also staged some fancy superhero photos with canvas backdrops I painted and a huge photo wall with cutouts.  My dad built it of course, and I painted the mural using his projector.  The older kids loved sticking their faces in so they could be Super Readers in the Why Flyers.  For younger kids, I recommend putting up a big mirror so they can see themselves right away in the photo.  The little ones just wanted to play with the front side of the mural, they didn’t quite get it.  But it was a blast!!!

We also did our traditional fishing, but that deserves another post. 

Whew!  It was an awesome party!  My favorite compliment came from my nephew, Barrett, who said “Aunt Chrissie sure knows how to throw a good Super Why party.”  He also plans to name one of his children after me.  Oh yeah, he’s four by the way.  Love that kid =)