Sunset Craft for Kids

Celebrate the wonder and beauty of nature with this easy craft for kids! This is a perfect summer craft for kids. It's also a fun craft for a preschool ocean theme, or even a space preschool theme talking about the sun! (We have some other great space themed activities for kids HERE.)

Supplies:

• Construction Paper: orange, yellow, dark blue, light blue
• Scissors
• Glue

How to Make it:

1. Cut a medium sized strip of light blue paper, and some thin curvy strips of the dark blue paper.
2. Cut a half circle from the yellow paper for the sun, and 7-8 rays to put around it.
3. Glue the yellow half circle onto a piece of orange construction paper.
4. Then glue the light blue strip over the bottom of the sun, so that the top is peeking out.
5. Glue the dark blue curvy lines on top of the light blue paper. 
6. Glue the rays above the sun.

All done!

And check out these fun books to go along with this craft!

   

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Phases of the Moon Pie

My boys LOVE them some Moon Pies!

I knew there had to be a way to incorporate these goodies into our Space-Theme this week! 

I saw a cute idea over on The Celebration Shoppe, and decided to do something similar, adding in a little educational twist.

Supplies:

• Box of Moon Pies - (I like the mini ones. Good size for the kiddos.)
• Melting chocolate, OR, chocolate frosting.

Here's what you do:

• Unwrap 5 Moon Pies and lay them out.
• Melt the chocolate and put it in a ziploc baggie. Snip the end off and pipe the chocolate onto 4 of the pies, like the picture shows:

• Show your kids the phases of the moon -- Full, Gibbous, Half, Crescent, New -- but talk quickly b/c they'll be itchin' to eat 'em! Yummy!

Counting Sun Rays - Preschool Activity

We counted Mr. Golden Sun's rays as part of our Space-Theme this week!

Supplies:

• Craft Foam (or construction paper) - orange & yellow
• Scissors

Here's what you do:

• Cut out a circle and 10 rays (or more-depending on how high you want your child to practice counting).
• Place the circle down and have your child put the rays around it, counting them as they go. 
• You could also use this to practice adding or subtracting.

Rocket Run - Preschool Learning Activity

As part of our Space-Theme this week, LB and I played this awesomely easy rocket game! It can be adapted to teach or review practically anything you're working on with your kids: speech sounds, numbers, letters, sight words, shapes, colors, spelling, etc.

Supplies:

• Paper Rockets (I bought this little packet at the Dollar Store 3 years ago (originally used HERE). But you could also just cut out rocket shapes using construction paper, or use toy cars and pretend they are flying in space--imagination can work wonders!)
• Chalkboard -- OR -- black paper, black fabric, or even a bucket! (covered in stars so it looks like space)

Here's What You Do:

• First, set the chalkboard/paper/fabric/bucket on one side of the room/house and then go sit on the other side with the rockets.
• I wanted to work with LB on his speech a little bit. So I used a picture word book and pointed to a picture. We would say it together a few times and practice making some of the sounds he's still learning. After we said the word a few times, I gave him one of the rockets (with sticky-tack on the back) and we counted down, "3, 2, 1, Blast off!!" and he took off running to where the chalkboard was and stuck the rocket on. 
• Again, you can review ANY concept you want with this game! It would be fun to review 
• ABC's 
• numbers
• shapes
• colors
• words
• anything & everything!

LB absolutely LOVED this game! It was a fun way to practice sounds with him (and we even had some major speech-breakthroughs during this game!), AND it was a fun way for him to burn off some of that endless energy!! Win-win.

Preschool Space Book

To start off our Space-Theme for the week, LB and I made a space book to learn about some of the things that are in space. 

Supplies:

• 2 pieces - black construction paper
• other colors of construction paper
• stapler
• scissors
• glue
• white crayon

Here's what you do:

• Fold the 2 pieces of black construction paper in half and staple them together to make the book.
• Using the other colors of construction paper, cut out different shapes of the things you want in the book. We included: Sun, Earth, Moon, Star, Planets, Rocket
• On each page write what will go on that page with a white crayon. Also, draw stars all over the pages with the white crayon.
• Sit down with your child and lay out all the shapes telling them what they are. Then open the book and read the word on the first page and ask them to find that shape. Have them glue it in the book on that page, and continue on. 
• When all the shapes are glued in, sit and read it together and talk about all the cool things in space!

Here's a closer look at LB's Space Book:

Rocket Craft

We made this fun rocket craft to go along with the book "Little Rocket's Special Star," by Julie Sykes. 

(In the picture above, LM(5) made the rocket on top, and LB(2) made the one on the bottom.)

Supplies:

• Craft foam
• Cardstock
• Scissors
• Glue
• Marker

Here's what you do:

• Cut out the shapes of the rocket from the craft foam. You'll need:

• 1 large rocket shape
• 1 green curved strip
• 2 red rocket fins
• 2 red boosters
• 2 orange fires

• Have your child glue them on the cardstock following the picture on the book.
• Then have them draw a face.

Tin Foil Monsters

We made some shiny monsters for Halloween. Which, also, kind of look like robots! 

So I guess this is a fun way to make either kind of creature!

Here's how we did it:

• Cut out card board squares.
• Wrap tin foil around the cardboard.
• Draw a face on (permanent markers work best since they don't rub off).
• Cut pipe cleaners (chenille sticks) for arms and legs.
• Push the arms and legs into the tin foil / cardboard.
• You could also add some hair using yarn, pom poms, or anything. My boys didn't want to.

Happy Halloween!

Watermelon Stars

I found this idea on oh! Desserts.

We used our star cookie cutters, once again, to cut stars out of watermelon. It was a fun addition to our lunch and the boys keep asking for more!

Cookie-cutter Painting

For this painting craft we used 3 star cookie cutters of different sizes. We dipped them in paint and stamped them on the paper. The picture above is done by LM(4).

The boys really had fun with this. Cookies cutters are a great tool to use for creating simple and great artwork!

Constellations

I found this idea on No Time For Flash Cards.

We talked for a bit about how sometimes stars in the sky make pictures called constellations. Then I drew pictures for each of the boys and had them place star stickers on them to make a constellation. LB(1) did the car. LM(4) did the house.

Star Trail

Our theme last week was:

STARS!

I found these cutout stars at the dollar store. You could also cut out your own stars, but I figured it was worth a buck not to. :)

We took turns making trails with the stars throughout our house. And at the end of the trail, we would put a book that we'd read. A couple of the books even had stars in them: an added bonus.

Counting Plates

Here is a simple way to get to know numbers, and counting. I just used 10 paper plates and wrote numbers 1-10 on each one. I found a packet of these paper rockets at the dollar store (pack of 25 in the school section). LM loves these rockets so this is all we've used so far, but you could use these plates to count just about anything!

We took one plate at a time and counted that number of rockets as we placed them on the plate.
We also laid out all the plates and would practice number recognition as I said a number and he found that plate. (We also used the beanbags to place on the number I would say to him.)