Finger traps

via Geekdad

Instructions for how to make a finger trap over at Instructables.com

Paper school

(This idea came home from school.)

Materials:

• large sheet of construction paper
• markers
• scissors / x-acto knife
• photo of child
• magazine pictures of children playing with toys, reading books, colouring etc
• glue
  

Instructions:

• fold sheet of paper in half length-wise
• decorate front to look like this
  
  
• have an adult outline and cut the doors and windows such that they fold open outwards
• open up sheet of construction paper and have child glue images to be seen through the open window and doors
  
  
• be sure to place photo of smiling child's face to occupy a window
• fold the school "closed" and open the windows and doors to show children playing and your child's smiling face
  
  

recipe: Sidewalk paint

We were first introduced to commercial sidewalk paint when it was given to us as a gift. Toddlers and pre-schoolers love this stuff, so I was delighted to find this easy recipe for making sidewalk paint in Andrea's post "How to play hopscotch."

Materials:

• cornstartch
• water
• food colouring (for white paint, don't use any food colouring)

Instructions:

• mix equal parts cornstartch and water
• add a few drops of food colouring
• paint!

Notes to self:

• the images shown were made with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup cornstartch and 3 drops food colouring
• I had better luck with adding 7-8 drops food colouring for that volume of paint
• red/pink paint needs more food colouring than green
• the paint can be pretty watery to apply, but dries opaque and easily sweeps / washes off (it's not as thick, bright or wear-resistant as the commercial product)
• if you don't add enough water, you get Oobleck
  
  

  "If you quickly smack oobleck with your hand it immediately turns into a solid, instead of splashing or moving. If you slowly move oobleck it reacts like a liquid."

• Oobleck can be particularly frustrating to paint with. Although you can pour it out of its container, the minute you apply any force with a brush, it solidifies!
  

House collage

This was created at our local Ontario Early Years Centre.

Materials:

• a sheet of paper cut like the shape of a house
• pieces of coloured construction paper cut into squares, rectangles, circles
• optional: cut out pictures from magazines (doors, windows etc) or stickers
• glue stick or white glue

Instructions:

• put house shaped paper down
• apply glue and cut shapes / pictures to decorate the house

Paper crown

(This idea came home from school.)

Materials:

• construction paper approx 26" long by approx 6.5" high
• scissors
• stickers
• invisible tape
• optional: markers, crayons, sparkles, paint
  

Instructions:

• have an adult cut the points in the crown (the ones in the pictures are about 3 inches high
• have the child apply stickers or otherwise decorate the crown
• wrap the paper around the child's head and tape on the outside
• remove from child's head and add additional tape on the inside
• NOTE: people often uses staples in lieu of tape to hold the crown together. There is a risk of hair getting caught in the staples. There is also a risk of children cutting themselves if a staple should open up part way.