Activity: Imaginary friend

Let you child create imaginary creatures using paper cups and art supplies. Here's how it works:

Photo courtesy of: www.mpmschoolsupplies.com

Cut out a small circle on the side of the cup (big enough for your finger to fit partially through (to make a nose)). Then let the child draw on the eyes, ears, hair, mouth, etc. Now you can turn the cup into a puppet by putting your finger through the hole for the nose, and making it talk. For older kids, you could have them make the same creatures, but then have them help the little kids put on a puppet show. As far as decorating materials go, you can use pens, markers, crayons, colored pencils, glitter, yarn (for the hair), pipe cleaners (hair or arms, legs, etc). Pretty much the sky is the limit. If you have extra scraps of fabric, you can let the kids make clothes. But of course, the difficulty of the activity will be based on the child's age and understanding.

This photo courtesy of: http://seewhatwedidtoday.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

Have you ever created imaginary creatures using sups? Something else?

Photo courtesy of: http://tangrila.blogspot.com/2012/07/halloween-paper-cup-spider-craft.html?m=0

Activity: Matching Counting, and Colors

My friend Tara was recently able to get two infants down for a nap at the same time, thus allowing her one-on-one time with her 3 year old (Emma). Together, they got out craft box to do some, as she puts it, "big girl" stuff. When I saw this activity on her blog, I saw immediately how awesome it was, and decided that it needed to be shared. I asked her and she officially said that I could copy her post and share it with you all. Here's what Tara says:

I cut up some pipe cleaners so they were all different lengths. Then I traced them onto a piece of paper and numbered each one. Emma matched each stick to the correct one on the paper.

 After she matched them up, I taped down the top and got out the beads.

I helped Emma count the correct number of beads for each pipe cleaner. She then strung the beads onto them.

She loves to sort and match colors, so when she had finished stringing on the beads, we took them off and she sorted them into little bowls.

If you don't have pipe cleaner, you could use string, or straws might be thin enough to string the beads on as well. The advantage of pipe cleaner is the beads stay where they are placed instead of falling off. Makes it easier and less frustrating for those little hands and fingers.

Next time we do this, I will probably put down a cookie sheet first. Not too many beads fell off the table, but it would have kept them from rolling so far.

Those poor pipe cleaners....

I got together with some other moms this past spring and one mom showed us how to play with pipe cleaners and a strainer (the kind you would use after cooking pasta).  At the time, I thought that it was a clever idea, but in all of our usual busyness, I quickly forgot about it. It wasn't until recently that I remembered as I was trying to figure out something for Mia to do while I was working on some household and bugdgetting things. I got out the pipe cleaners, strainer, and of course my camera, and sat down with her on the floor. I started poking the pipe cleaners through the holes at random, and watched a big smile spread across her face. She caught on quickly and has spent a lot of time working her way through the holes with no complaints.

It doesn't look like it in the picture, but Mia actually had nearly 20 pipecleaners out at one point. 

For those of you with toddlers or pre-schoolers, have you tried this? Did it work for you? Do you have any tips or hints to share?