St.Patrick's Day Art Activities!

• Green Shamrock shapes ~ glue green sparkles on them  
• Shamrock mobile! Simply use a hanger with different lengths of string and tape or glue little shamrocks on the strings! If you really want to get fancy you can twist green ribbon around the hanger!
• Buttons in various sizes and colors ~ glue (or wire through the holes) buttons together starting from largest on the bottom to smallest on the top, creating a rainbow tree shape! Rainbows intrigue the leprechauns to come to your house!

• St. Patrick’s Day headband! Measure a strip of paper around your child’s head (you may need to strips taped together) Tape the band together when you have the right size. Next you have several options! You can create a mini leprechaun hat with black paper and tape/ glue it on the front of the band. Or you can take two green pipe cleaners and tape them on each side of the band (creating antennas) and tape shamrocks to the top of each one!

• Take 7 small jars (baby food jars are awesome, or spice jars) ~ fill them with water ~ using only red, blue and yellow food coloring ~ create a rainbow! Mix the primary colors to create the secondary colors. This is a great science experiment too! Each jar will have one color of the rainbow, place in a sunny window for a beautiful decoration!

• Glue/ tape four green hearts into the shape of a shamrock and hang in the window!

• Shamrock rings ~ use green pipe cleaners ~ shape the middle of the pipe cleaner into a ring to fit on finger, then using the rest of it, twist into a shamrock shape, ( two loops for each end of the pipe cleaner and then push in the top of the loop slightly to create each 'petal') twist the end under the ‘ring’ to secure in place.

St. Patrick's Day Fun Activities

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner! Here are some fun ways to celebrate!

 

Fun Ideas:

• Green toilet bowl water
• Painted mini feet around the environment ( make your hand into a fist, pain the side of your hand green and stamp, use your fingertip dipped in paint to create toes)
• Create an environment that looks like a ‘mischievous’ leprechaun may have visited – turn chairs upside down, turn picture frames backwards, move things into areas they wouldn’t typically be in! Really have fun with it!
• Create a leprechaun trap (http://littlehandslotsoflove.blogspot.com/2011/03/leprechaun-trap.html) , and in the morning leave a map inside so the children can see they didn’t catch the leprechaun but he left them a map! Have a hidden ‘treasure’ of some sort at the X marks the spot! (Some great treasure ideas include: Lucky Charms cereal, Shamrock stickers, 'gold' coins, anything with a rainbow on it such as pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. or anything green! Such as socks (silly leprechaun!)
• Have fun with rainbows, put crystals in the window, make rainbow cupcakes or pancakes, use rainbow sprinkles on things such as the rim of their milk glass

Cool Games:

• Duck Duck Goose! Variation – Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Rainbow! (Or Gold!)
• Doggy Doggy Where’s Your Bone? Variation – Leprechaun, Leprechaun where’s your gold
• Shamrock Search - Cut out many shamrock shapes and hide them around the room. Have the children search for them like an Easter Egg hunt.

Great Songs and Fingerplays:

Where or Where? Sung to "Where oh Where has my Little Dog Gone?"

Where, oh where has my pot of gold gone?

Oh Where, Oh Where could it be?

It's black and big and full of gold,

Oh Where, Oh where could it be?

Did You Ever See a Leprechaun? (Did you ever see a lassie?)

Did you ever see a leprechaun, a leprechaun, a leprechaun

Did you ever see a leprechaun go this way and that?

Go this way and that way and this way and that way

Did you ever see a leprechaun go this way and that?

I'm a Little Leprechaun To the tune of I'm a Little Teapot

I'm a little leprechaun dressed in green
the tiniest man that you've ever seen.
If you ever catch me so it's told
I'll give you my pot of Gold!

Five Little Shamrocks 

1 green shamrock, in the morning dew,

Another one sprouted, and then there were two.

2 green shamrocks, growing beneath a tree;

Another one sprouted and then there were three.

3 green shamrocks, by the cottage door;

Another one sprouted,

And then there were four.

4 green shamrocks, near a beehive

Another one sprouted,

And then there were five.

5 little shamrocks, bright and emerald green,

Think of all the luck these shamrocks will bring.

Gingerbread Playdough

This activity will have your home smelling
like Christmas in no time! So fun!

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg

In a saucepan mix the dry ingredients together. Add spices to the smell you like. Mix water and oil together. Add them to the dry ingredients and stir. Cook the mixture for two or three minutes stirring. The dough will clump together and pull away from the sides of the pan. Take the dough out of the pan and knead it until it becomes soft and smooth. Allow to cool and store in an air tight container

Two Very ‘Cool’ Ice Crystal Projects!

The first of these two awesome projects is not edible, as it uses soap. However the second of these ‘ice crystal’ experiments is edible, yummy! Both projects require adult help as they deal with boiling water. If you are planning on doing both projects, we strongly suggest labeling the jars clearly as to which one is edible and which on is not.

1^st Project – Borax Ice Crystal Snowflakes!

You will need:
Borax soap (found in laundry section of grocery stores)
Boiling water
Pipe Cleaners
Food coloring (optional)
Wide mouth jar
A pencil
A piece of string

Instructions: Make the snowflake shape. Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections. Twist the sections together at their centers to form a six-sided snowflake shape. The snowflake will need to fit inside the jar.
Tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake arms. Tie the other end of the string to the pencil. You want the length to be such that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar.
Fill the wide mouth jar with boiling water.
Add borax one tablespoon at a time to the boiling water, stirring to dissolve after each addition. (The amount used is 3 tablespoons borax per cup of water.)
You can tint the mixture with food color.
Hang the pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil rests on top of the jar and the snowflake is completely covered with liquid and hangs freely (not touching the bottom of the jar).
Allow the jar to sit overnight, do not lift or move the snowflake during this time.
Approx. 24 hours you will see spectacular crystals!

Ice Crystal Project #2 – The Edible one!

You Will Need:1 1/2 cups of white sugar (possibly more)
3/4 cup of water
Small saucepan
Tall glass or jar
Piece of clean cotton string or thread
A pencil

Instructions:
Pour the water into the saucepan and bring to a boil.
Pour the sugar into the water and stir until no more of the sugar will dissolve (you will still be able to see little grains of sugar floating around at the bottom of the pan). If all of the sugar dissolves at first, add a little more until you can't get any more to dissolve when you stir it.
Keep cooking the liquid and stirring it until it is clear, but not for more than 5 minutes, or it will get too hot and turn into hard candy!
Turn off the stove when it starts to look clear.
Pour the sugar water into the glass or jar, but go slowly to make sure that none of the undissolved sugar from the bottom of the pan goes into the glass. Fill the glass about 2/3 full. (You might have enough for two glasses.) Add food coloring if desired.
Dip the string into the solution so that half of the string is coated. Take the string out and let it dry. It doesn’t take long
Once the string has dried, tie the clean end around a pencil and put the dipped end back into the glass of sugar water solution, balancing the pencil across the rim of the glass. Make sure the string does not touch the bottom or the sides of the glass, or your crystals will not form right!
Carefully move your glass to a place where it won’t be touched. Check it each day to watch the crystals grow. Within a few days, you should start to see a few crystals growing on the string. In approx. one week, you will probably have a lot of crystals on your string.
When your piece of ice candy is as big as you want it to be, take it out of the glass and hang it in a clean glass to dry. Then you can take the pencil off, cut the extra string off, and enjoy eating your sugar crystals off the string!

It's Raining, It's Pouring, the Kids are Saying 'Boring!'

It’s raining. It’s not just drizzling or sprinkling… it’s down right pouring! Welcome to the fall season on the west coast!
The question is… what do you do with your children when cabin fever is setting in?
Sure, you could dress them head to toe in slickers n’ boots and hope they don’t get lost in some giant mud puddle outside, as you try to get a little bit of sanity in your day. By ‘day’, I mean days, weeks, months, you just never know when the rain will end on the west coast!
Or… you could check out this list of ideas and links, staying warm and dry, and get started on some amazing and fun quality time! Soon, you will be looking forward to these rainy days when you can hibernate inside together and really enjoy some treasured experiences.
Now, I know what you are saying, ‘it’s pouring rain and I’m not going out to get a bunch of crafty supplies,’ no worries! Our first list is a 'No-Craft' list! If you are, however, a crafty parent, we have a second list of some fantastic ideas for crafting with your little ones.
 
• Turn on music! Easy! Music always brightens the day and drowns out the sound of the rain. Once the music is on…
• Dance around together! If you have some scarves, they are a perfect prop for children to dance with. Play ‘follow the dancer around the house’, up onto the beds, down the hall, under the table, where ever you choose!
• Make some hot chocolate or tea and get busy baking your favourite treat! (And dancing of course! No one said you can’t dance with a measuring cup in your hand!)
• Play cards, or make a card house!
• Do a puzzle together ~ hope you are still groovin’ in your seat!
• Get a bowl for each child and fill it up with their favourite snacks. Find pillows and cozy blankets. Turn down the blinds and turn on your favourite family movie! It’s the middle of the morning? No big deal! The kids will love it!
• Play board games! You know the ones that have been sitting and collecting dust all summer? Yeah, those ones!
• Snuggle up in the blankets with some favourite books to read together! Spy Books are fantastic, they are super interactive and create some great early learning opportunities!
• Let your little one have a warm bath with some shaving cream (you can color it with a tiny bit of food colouring) and a paintbrush and let them ‘Picasso’ the bathtub!
• Go online and send e-cards to people, just because! Let them know you are thinking of them. Often we get so busy to remember to let people know how special they are to us. This is a great activity to model caring and giving to others. Making others feel good, just because. And making others feel happy makes us feel good!

Ok, here’s the ‘Let’s get Crafty’ list!

• Tis the season to start thinking about a few new Christmas decorations!
• Gingerbread houses!
• Christmas tree decorations! This is really endless in possibilities!
• Glue sparkle on small pinecones
• Use a baker’s clay (see LittleHands link below for a recipe) and cut out shapes and paint them
• Use white pipe-cleaners and make snowflakes
• Lace red and green buttons onto ribbon or pipe-cleaners
• Lace red, white and green beads on to pipe-cleaners and make candy canes
• Popcorn and cranberry garland!
• Handprint felt wreaths! And so much more! (See LittleHands link below for instructions)
• This is a fantastic facebook page with links to many ideas to keep little ones entertained and craft ideas to do together! Ideas and Inspiration for Crafty Parents
• Here’s is a website that is absolutely endless with ideas! Printable games and pages, crafts, etc. FamilyFun
• Looking for gifts to make together for loved ones? Or just some easy crafts to do together? Little Hands Lots of Love Blog
  
  Whichever activity you choose, take a deep breath and just enjoy this precious time. The rain helps us slow down and ensure we spend much needed time together.