Ice Cream Cone Craft for Summer

Summer is the perfect time to discuss all the dairy products you eat and enjoy. Your children may even want to say “thank you” to the cows for all the good dairy foods we eat, including ice cream. What child (and adults) doesn't love ice cream?  As part of this seasonal celebration make this simple cut and paste craft with your family. Build an ice cream cone along with the toppings for a cool and refreshing craft.

Materials:

• Heavy-duty paper or card stock
• Construction paper
• Safety scissors
• Pencil
• Brown marker
• Glue
• Candy sprinkles
• Sliced nuts

Directions:

Step 1 – Prepare your work surface for cutting and pasting with this project. Newspaper on the tabletop and on the floor will work well to catch drips and excess candy sprinkles. Clean up will be a breeze if you prepare ahead of time.

Step 2 – Draw a cone shape on light brown construction paper. It’s a triangle shape. If you don’t have the paper, try using a piece of a paper grocery bag. Set this aside.

Step 3 – Next, invite your child to choose the colors for the ice cream scoops. Talk about the different flavors of ice cream and the colors they possess. Draw semi-circle shapes and cut at least two scoops. You may want a triple decker-cone with three scoops.

Step 4 – With all the shapes drawn and cut out, start building your ice cream cone. Begin by gluing the cone shape at the bottom of your background sheet of heavy-duty construction paper or card stock.

Step 5 – Next, glue on each ice cream scoop, having the bottom the largest and each additional scoop just a tad smaller.

Step 6 – Take a brown marker and draw criss-cross lines across the triangle so it looks like a real waffle-type ice cream cone.

Step 7 – Now comes the fun part. – it’s time to glue on the candy sprinkles and sliced nuts. Let your child choose among what you have in the kitchen pantry to decorate their ice cream. Spread on glue and shake the sprinkles on top. Once it dries, you can shake off the excess in the garbage can or onto a sheet of newspaper that can be discarded.

Praise your child for his efforts on making this yummy ice cream cone craft for summer fun. Make this a teachable moment by discussing all the other dairy products you use in your home. And why not create an edible ice cream delight to enjoy with your child today? So cool and yummy!

Happy Parenting,

Tania :)

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling, all rights reserved

Diploma Craft for Your Little Graduate

Whether your child is graduating from preschool or kindergarten, it’s time for big dreams and next steps. A diploma is the official certificate that your youngster has made it to the next level of education – it’s a notable memory. This craft is not a true diploma, but a chance for your little graduate to draw and color a self-portrait and present it in diploma style. There are a couple ways to create this project, so choose your art mediums and let’s get started.

Materials:

• White copy paper
• Crayons, markers, or watercolors
• Thin ribbon
• Computer (optional)
• Paintbrush (optional)

Directions:

Step 1 – This craft is not really messy, but you may want to cover your tabletop with newspaper. Young children sometimes color outside the lines and may mark your table on accident.

Step 2 – On a clean sheet of white copy paper your child will color a picture of a graduate. This can be a printed black line copy made with your computer or a self-portrait created by your child.  There are websites that offer coloring pages for graduation (see below). These are only two of the many coloring pages sites you can find online.  For a more creative project, have your kiddo draw and color a self-portrait of him or her on graduation day, wearing a gown and mortarboard graduation cap.

Step 3 – Invite the child to use crayons, markers, or even paint with watercolors. Let this page dry thoroughly before the next step.

Step 4 – Carefully roll the paper into a small circular tube.

Step 5 – Tie the diploma roll with a length of thin ribbon. Any color is acceptable, or you could use the shade that coordinates with your school’s colors.

Step 6 – Role-play and present this diploma craft to your child in a mock commencement ceremony.

A couple websites with graduate coloring sheets:

http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/color/cpgraduation.shtml

http://www.familyshoppingbag.com/img/thumb/jump/749/Graduation_Group#.VVShXl6ElFI

Congratulations to your child, Happy Parenting,

Tania  

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling, all rights reserved

Colors All Around Us

Dear Friends,

As we prepare our preschoolers for "Back to School" let's review colors this week. There are colors all around us and using these activities will teach our children to recognize and appreciate the beautiful hues we have close by. Check out these projects and if you enjoy them, please share this page with a friend.

Until next week,

Happy Parenting :)

Colors make our world beautiful in many ways, through nature, food, clothing, crayons—the list is endless. It’s important to emphasize colors in our daily lives as they stimulate a child’s imagination and delight their sense of sight.

There are plenty of activities designed to help children become aware of the many colors that surround them. Here are a few ways to teach colors to children:

• Use the seasons to help teach your child about colors—green in spring, white in winter, orange in fall, blue in summer and so on. Make drawings emphasizing the colors of each season.

• The use of toy blocks, cards, paints, and crayons can help your child develop color skills and learn to name them.

• Talk a walk outdoors (or even in the house) and look for a particular color. Say blue for example, and then ask if a toy is blue, or is the car parked out front blue?

• Choose a day of the week and make it “color day”. Make projects, wear clothing, cook foods and read books about that color.

• Hot glue crayons to a strip of tag board. Then provide a second set of crayons and invite the children to match the colors.  

                                                             

• Read a good book involving colors. Some favorites are:

          The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle

          Colors (Slide ‘n Seek) by Chuck Murphy

          Colors (Children’s Collection Board Books) by Anne Geddes

Color Match—

Pick up free paint chip cards from your local paint store. Choose cards in shades of red, yellow and blue. At home, cut each rectangular chip apart. Spread these across the table and have the children match each hue.

Paint and Sniff—

When painting a picture with poster paints, add a few drops of baking extracts to give these paints a flavor (scent). Painting with scents is a fun and sensory experience for children!

Strawberry Extract = Red

Lemon Extract = Yellow

Peppermint Extract = Green

Orange Extract = Orange

Chocolate Extract = Brown

Anise (Licorice) Extract = Black

Color Wands—

Dance to the beat of music waving colorful streamers in the air. Use toilet or paper towel tubes for the wands. The children can paint the cardboard tubes and then enhance them with crayons, markers or stickers. Next, attach crepe paper streamers to the wand with a stapler. For a variation, add ribbons and/or colorful strips of cloth.

Color Hokey-Pokey—

Have colored circle stickers in four colors. These are easily found in office or craft stores. Every child gets a sticker on each hand and each foot (having one of each color on each body part). Play Color Hokey-Pokey by singing, “Put your blue dot in, put your blue dot out, put your blue dot in and shake it all about. You do the Color Pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about. BLUE!” Continue playing with the other colors.

NOTE: This article has been published in several regional parenting magazines across the country, including Parent Guide News and Metro Parent (SE Michigan).

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons   
Crayon photo by Tania Cowling, all rights reserved

It's a New Year in the Preschool Department

I've started (or actually gone back to) a site where I have developed two channels for preschool educators, parents, homeschooling parents and caregivers. Suite101.com has allowed me to create two preschool channels -- one for everyday themes and activities and the other for holiday projects.

I'm hoping you will find some time to visit these channels, as well as others you may find interesting. You will see articles from me and other educators on these links. Take a peek! I hope you will find interesting activities to share with your children and students.

Preschool Education: Tips, Tools and Resources

Holiday Projects for Preschoolers

If you're looking for crafts, songs, educational activities and more - you have come to the right place!

Until next time,
Tania

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Welcome Everyone!

Hello and welcome to my new blog full of creative activities and crafts for preschool children. Many of these ideas can be used in schools, homeschooling, by parents and grandparents. Check back often for instructions on crafts, games, lesson plans, new books and toys on the market and so much more.

Feel free to comment and email me for things you need and ways to enhance what I have posted. The site is new and under construction, but the first links will be up very shortly.

Happy Holidays,
Tania K. Cowling