Handprint Turkey

Lily had been asking for about two hours to do a turkey craft, but I didn't feel like pulling out the paint so I couldn't find one on Pinterest to fit the bill. (Though I did find other crafts that used elements of this one, because hey, this is glue and construction paper, not rocket science.)

So, I decided that instead of making paint handprints, we'd trace the hands and turn this into a construction paper and glue craft.

I traced the kids' hands on orange construction paper (How do we have NO brown construction paper?!  How can a pack of construction paper contain NO brown?!  But I digress..)  I decided to make a left and a right, so there would be two turkeys on the finished craft.  Then I snipped out various colors of construction paper into basic feather shapes. Lily and Jack each chose a background color of paper, and I drew two dots to show them where they should glue their feathers.  I think if I had it to do over, I'd draw lines going out from the dot and tell them to put their feathers on the line.  It would just make it easier.  Anyway, they pasted down a few feathers for each turkey, and then I helped them to glue their handprint on top.  We added beaks and google eyes, and they each drew little turkey legs.

With a little more prep beforehand (cutting out the feathers, getting the google eyes etc) this craft would have gone more smoothly.  But I was happy with how it turned out, and the kids got their turkey craft. :)

Gingerbread Math

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This is a great game for counting skills, basic math facts and number identification.  There isn't a printable version of the gingerbread man on the site, but I made my own pretty quickly by copying a gingerbread template and then adding my own numbers.  I did 2-12 so that my kids could use two dice and practice not just counting the dots on one die, but also adding together the dots from two.  (They still count the dots, but then I reinforce the basic math facts by saying, "Four on one die plus three on the other equals seven.")

When the child rolls a particular number, he or she marks it off on the gingerbread man.  (You can use a dot marker, but I just had the kids color over it.)  I put three of each number on the paper to keep the game going.  However, I've found that the kids tire of the game after a few rounds, so next time I may just put one of each number on there.  I think my kids will enjoy it more as they get older.

Magnetic Letters and Sight Words

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I'm always looking for fun ways to use our magnetic letters.  It can be great to use the fridge, but moving the letters to a roasting pan has renewed the kids' interest in them.  I used the sight word cards I'd made for the clothespin spelling game. Because we have upper and lowercase letters, the words can have up to two of the same letter in them.  The kids end up reading the word, then focusing on the individual letters, and reading the word again.  Great practice!

Dot/Number matching

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More fun with clothespins! I love how it helps with fine motor skill practice and dexterity while giving the kids time with math work. They are LOVING clothespins!  


For this activity, I just used a piece of card stock and drew 10 rectangles, and then drew numbers 1-10 on clothespins.  The original post had the dots (or snowflakes) in a circle divided in ten pie pieces, but I decided to make it a little easier but just using the rectangular shape.  

The only negative was that some of the clothespins were upside down when you pinned them on, so I ended up cutting this down the center lengthwise.  Now I have two strips and all of the clothespin numbers are right-side-up. 

 

Spelling with Clothespins

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This is a great activity because it gives the kids a little fine motor skills practice while playing with spelling.   I made a little pile of sight words on cardstock and printed letters on clothespins.  (One of each consonant and a few of each vowel, though you really only need one of each to start.)  

At first I just had the clothespins spread out on the floor, but then I printed the alphabet on cardstock and we clipped the clothespins to that first to make them easier to find.  I think that helped a lot.


Great practice at sounding out words, identifying letters, putting them in order...and lots of fun!

Counting box

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The original version of this game focuses on fine motor skills.  The children use tweezers to pick up beads and put them in the carton.  I plan to add that to this activity in the future, but for now I just used it as a counting game. 

The kids put one bead in #1, two in #2, and so on.  I didn't have enough for them to keep all of the bead in there as the numbers got higher; I plan to add some beads so that they can do it that way.  

Autumn Trees

 
 This is similar to lots of other crafts out there, though I didn't get it from a particular site.  I cut a tree trunk freehand from some construction paper, and supplied each kid with glue and a pile of squares cut from some of their painting projects. (They like to cover the whole paper; I've used this in other crafts too.  Nice texture.)  It was a simple craft, but fun to see where they decided to put their "leaves."

Patterns

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Great little printables for practicing patterns...involving GLUE! What more could a kid want? I found that the beginning level was pretty easy for the kids, so next time I may use some of the intermediate patterns and cut out some extra shapes for them to glue on.  Gluing made this a lot easier--no frustrations over not being able to draw the exact shape. Just lots of fun figuring out the patterns!

Pumpkin Sight Word Game

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This little sight word game seemed like fun, and Lily and Jack enjoyed it.  I "laminated" the pumpkin cards so we can use them again (using clear contact paper); that way I can just print the little coloring sheets in the future.  

You draw one sight word pumpkin, then say the word.  Then you color in the corresponding pumpkin on your coloring sheet.  It was simple and easy.  This set included like, my, I, and see.  The repetition (two of each word) was great for practicing the sight words.

I'll probably make a few more of these games with other sight words! 

Leaf Hedgehogs

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We have so many leaves on the ground outside that I was happy to find a cute, easy craft to use some!

You can print the template here, or check out the original post (click "Translate" to view the page in English).   


Collect some leaves outside.  Ours were dried, but I think if I do this again, I'll iron the leaves so they lay flatter.  Medium to small leaves worked best.

I glued the hedgehog templates to construction paper to make them a bit heavier.  It stood up better that way to all the glue and leaves.  Two cute hedgehogs, coming right up!



 

Finished Ladybugs

Yesterday we painted the paper and plastic plates for our ladybug craft. Today we finished!  The original post used fabric for the dots and ladybug faces, as well as giant googly eyes.  We went with what we had on hand: black construction paper.  They turned out great. (And, of course, the kids insisted that the ladybugs needed smiles...)  Now we have a whole family of little ladybugs!

Heart Handprints

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I am a sucker for handprint and footprint crafts, but as the Type-A mommy I am, the idea of my children covered in paint in the living room is slightly terrifying.  They did just fine.






 We managed to capture one hand print heart for each child before I set them free to finger paint or whatever.  Lily liked making "flapping turkeys," which involved a lot of handprints.  Jack liked making designs.  I like that I have sweet little handprints to remember this time in our lives.