Confetti Snow Picture

While we were using the hole punch today to make our paper snowflakes we noticed the confetti it produced looked a lot like snow. At this time of the year how could we let that go to waste! :-)

WE USED:

* thick cardboard (we used a sheet of corrugated card)
* scissors
* clear contact
* white confetti/holepunch and white paper
* coloured paper
* textas/markers

We collected some of the 'confetti' from the base of the hole punch to use as snow in our picture.

I cut the centre from some corrugated cardboard to create a frame and then backed it with clear contact with the sticky side facing out.

In this photo you can see how it is secured - I cut the contact slightly larger than the square in the cardboard sheet, then adhered it to the back around the frame edges so that the sticky surface faced to the front.

I cut some shapes from coloured paper and Bubble stuck them to the contact to create her picture. This is her drawing a face on her snowman :-)

Now for a door on her little house.

Once the picture was finished Bubble added her snow, it was a fantastic activity for concentration and fine motor co ordination.

Having a go with some craft tweezers.

Bubble's finished snow picture up on the window.

“Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Paper Snowflakes

For day 13 of our Count Down Calendar we made a snowflake display across Bubble's bedroom window. I had a small notepad of white paper squares which we used instead of cutting larger sheets and we pretty much just made up the designs as we went along. I've seen some amazing cutting patterns on the net but they all looked a bit fiddly and difficult for a three year old, so we just folded our paper and experimented with cutting different bits from them. I showed Bubble how rounding or spiking the edges made different shapes when we opened them up, and we had a go with a mini hole punch for something different.

WE USED:

* white paper squares
* scissors

We started with a square of paper from our notepad (you can also cut a larger sheet to size).

Fold diagonally to form a triangle.

And again to form a smaller triangle.

Then we experimented by cutting all sorts of random shapes and patterns along the edges. I helped Bubble using a hand over hand technique to help her guide her scissors.

She had a great time with the mini hole punch too :-) Great fine motor fun!

One of our snowflakes still folded up.

Opened up.

We ended up with lots of different shapes and patterns.

They look great stuck to the window with the light shining through them.

To fix them to the glass we just used a piece of tape across the central hole in the snowflake so that the edges were still free.

Having a drink of juice after all our hard work :-)

Ten Scents Of Christmas - Matching Cards

Today I printed out some picture cards to go with the Ten Scents of Christmas cards we played with yesterday. The girls don't know many of the ten things in their natural form so I thought it would be interesting for them to see pictures of what they were smelling. Bubble enjoyed matching them up by comparing the words written on each one.
I've loaded the photo cards we used below in case anyone else wants to use them (please note that these aren't my own photos, they are from Google Images, I just resized them and added words using Photoshop).

“Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Snowball Pompoms

Well, I have learnt two new things this week; 1) making pompoms takes patience, and 2) I have very little patience :-D
I have never made pompoms before and found the whole process terribly tedious, it must be a genetic condition because Squeak wasn't even interested in watching and Bubble wound the wool around our template a whole three times before scampering off to the greener pastures of the cubbyhouse!
However, I'm very glad that I persisted in making a small stack of them, because both girls had a lot of fun with their 'snowballs' once they were done. They stacked them, posted them into bottles, rolled them back and forth to each other, threw them into an empty toy tub and rolled them down make shift ramps. I ended up hanging a few of them in the kitchen and they do look very cute!
I think Bubble was a bit too young for the actual making of these, but they were well worth the effort for play value :-)

I used this tutorial to make our pompoms : Make Your own Pom Poms

WE USED:

* cardboard
* scissors
* wool

Ten Scents of Christmas - Sensory Cards

After seeing how much the girls enjoy playing with the scented playdough we made recently (and how often) I decided to create a game including some other 'scents of Christmas'. At first Bubble was reluctant to smell any of the satchets, but once she got a sniff of the cinnamon (really, who doesn't like cinnamon?!) she was right into it, sorting the cards into two piles - the ones she liked and the ones that were "too yucky". I'll be elaborating on this activity tomorrow using photo cards since most of the scents are of things that Bubble has never seen before in their natural form.

Our ten scents of Christmas:

Cinnamon - ground spice
Pine Tree - cut needles from a pine tree in our park
Cranberry - crushed dried cranberries
Clove - whole dried cloves
Peppermint - essence on cotton pad
Almond - essence on cotton pad
Vanilla - essence on cotton pad
Spice - ground allspice
Chocolate - sweetened cocoa powder
Ginger - ground

I really wanted to add Nutmeg and Cherry to this list, but was all out of both nutmeg spice and cherry extract. I think they'd be a great addition though!

WE USED:

* cardboard strips (cut from a cardboard box)
* small plastic snap lock bags (available at craft and dollar stores)
* marker/texta
* sticky tape
* items to fill the bags (see list above of what we used)
* needle

These sensory cards were really simple to make - I cut strips from a box we had and used a marker to write the names of our 'scents' on each one. Each scented item was added to a bag and then taped to it's corrosponding card.

The essences were added to a cotton pad cut to fit inside the bags.

I used a needle to create tiny holes in the pine needle and cloves bags, but all of the other scents easily permeated their bags and needed no piercing.

I loved this game as much as Bubble did, the room smelt so warm and festive with all of these scents in the air.

Handprint Tree Skirt - New Traditions

I love starting family Christmas Traditions, we have a few that we've done since Bubble was born and a few that have been added every year since then. This year I've added this to our little repertoire - handprinting our tree skirt. This isn't actually my idea, I saw it listed as a yearly tradition by someone on a parenting forum a few years ago and have been meaning to do it ever since! It took a couple of minutes to paint the girls hands and print them onto a corner of the skirt, then add the date with black laundry marker, I can't wait for a few years time when we have a few rows of little hands all lined up.

WE USED:

* Fabric paint that contrasts well against the colour of your tree skirt (we used white)
* Laundry marker
* Tree skirt

Cardboard Box Baubles

We're a bit behind now on our Christmas Count Down, but we'll be catching up over the next few days :-) Thankyou for all the messages and lovely comments about Squeak, she is responding really well to treatment and almost back to her busy little self.

Today we made a cardboard decoration to hang above the table (our Day 9 activity), it turned out so lovely that we will be making a few more over the next couple of days once I've raided our building's recycling room!

WE USED:

* large cardboard box (we recycled a large sized postage box)
* scissors
* ruler
* large dinner plate or circular object (bucket, stool seat, mixing bowl etc..)
* pencil/pen/marker for tracing
* paint (we used white acrylic to go over the writing on our box, then red washable for decorative painting)
* pen/craft knife for piercing cardboard
* string/wool/twine

Using your plate (or other circular object) trace and cut out two big circles from your cardboard box. Use a ruler to locate the centre and draw a line from anywhere along the side to this point. Using scissors cut a narrow slit in the cardboard discs by following this line.

We used acrylic white paint to cover the print on our postage box, you could also use glue and collage over it, or cut childrens artwork to size.

Once the white paint was dry Bubble and Squeak decorated each side with a different painting style; handprints, wax paper mono printing (just like this post here, but using wax paper), toothbrush painting and painting over paper doilies.

Once the paint is all dry slide the two slits cut into the circles together to form a sphere-ish shape. Pierce the top with a pen, craft knife or something with a sharp tip and add string to hang.
Just thought I'd add that our cardboard did start to warp a little after we painted it, so once dry I put the discs between wax paper sheets and put heavy books on top for a few hours - they came out flat and strong again.

The photos don't really do it justice, it looks just lovely above the table and as it spins you can see all the different artwork panels one after the other. I think if we can find a big enough box to make a really giant sized one it would look even better, so we'll be on the hunt tomorrow!
* please note: if you live in an apartment and notice a random woman upturned in the recycling cage tomorrow be sure to say 'hi' :-D