I like using seasonal and fun things like candy canes to teach about things that I want Sean Patrick to learn or to practice.
Sean Patrick is familiar with patterns and he likes to finger-paint a lot, but he still needs a lot of practice so we are still working with AB patterns.
So, we are going to finish these patterns by taking turns.
For the first candy cane I will paint one color and he will paint the next.
Then, we will switch for the second candy cane. He will paint with the color I used the first time, and then I will paint with the other color.
Finally, I am going to ask him if he wants to make up another pattern on a blank template.
Here is a short video of us painting our second template – it is spur of the moment iPhone videoing so you get to see the real-life clip of our flighty pattern painting moment.
I do not have time to post pictures of my little ones doing these crafts at the rate I am making these printables for the “24 Days of Christmas Printables!” (You can like the album on our Facebook page to get notifications when I add new ones each day). I am enjoying filling our playroom with options.
This gingerbread man template is great for choosing to use it however you feel up to it maybe after reading a Gingerbread Man book you check out from the library or after making a gingerbread house in time for Christmas.
Each day the kids get excited about the templates because I give them options like:
Do you want to decorate the gingerbread man with glue and sprinkles?
Do you want to color him or paint him?
Can you trace the gingerbread man with markers?
Can we give him sticker buttons and yarn hair?
These templates just make it easy to use however you feel up to it.
My kids had a blast choosing which template Christmas Tree they wanted to paint this morning. They chose the colors they wanted to paint with and they carefully tried to fill in the circles using their q-tips.
These templates are perfect for q-tip painting, dot-painting, fingerpainting, or glueing and decorating.
We talked about what a real Christmas tree looks like (the colors, shapes, accessories, etc.) and we talked about the size of the tree using non-standard measurement (two hands tall, one forearm tall, 4 toy eggs tall, etc.).
I was itching to do some q-tip painting with the kids but I didn’t feel like googling to find a good turkey art template.
So,
I made three turkey art templates –
1) I made a plain template that you can color, decorate with feathers, glue and glitter, etc. Or, just use any other material you have in your house that you don’t have to shop for.
2) The next template is a turkey that is easy to fill with larger circular materials like pom poms (cotton balls), dot paint, big circle stickers, etc.
3. And, my inspiration for making these… the turkey with feathers perfect for painting with q-tips. Small incentive stickers also fit in these circles if you want to use it more that once!
[Click HERE to become a member to get unlimited access to ALL The Mommy Teacher Printables including this one!
OR CLICK HERE to purchase these Turkey Templates individually from my TeachersPayTeachers Store.]
And here is what some of our time looked/sounded like:
First, I asked Sean Patrick which turkey he wanted to paint first. He told me that he wanted to paint with dot paint first.
So, we put the template with the large circles in front of us first. He picked “blue” paint and I encouraged him to fill in the circles on each tail feather, one at a time. I demonstrated how he could do this on my template in front of me quickly.
(Notice we have already discussed colors, shapes, parts of a turkey, and one-to-one correspondence; your children are learning even when you don’t realize it).
Then, I asked him questions like “How many more do you have left to fill your whole turkey?” “Can you find any feathers that have three circles?” “Which feather has the most circles?” And “What do you think this turkey would say about his new blue tail feathers?” (That last question was just for fun but it gets him thinking outside the box.”
Before moving on to the next template, I encouraged him to color in the other parts of the turkey so he learned/reinforced (beak, wattle, feet, feathers, wings, and I had to google “snood” – the part on top of the head – because I had no clue what it was called).
For the q-tip painting we worked on patterns. I always treat patterns as if I have never taught him about what they are by saying something like, “Oooooooh let’s make a pattern. A pattern is something that repeats itself over and over and over and over and over again.”
“If mommy makes a red and orange pattern I would sing my song red-orange-red-orange-red-orange the whole way through so that I don’t forget my pattern or what comes next.”
If he doesn’t want to do a pattern I don’t stress about it…. this is his time to express himself. I’m just close enough to build on what he is learning.
Finally we did some finger painting to experience the sensory exploration of smearing paint all over, and the science exploration of seeing colors mix together.
Most importantly, we had fun! Isn’t that what it is really about after all?
My mother-in-law just did a super fun and easy Halloween craft with the kids (and me…she brought extra supplies because she knew I’d want to do one too!).
We made ghost and pumpkin window peels/decals and decorated the kid’s bathroom for Halloween. We had so much fun doing this super easy craft that I think we might just have to make our own window decals for every holiday!
Materials for Ghost Window Decals:
transparency sheets
white paper
school glue
permanent marker
googly eyes (optional)
nail polish remover
Step 1: Place a blank paper underneath your transparency (easier to see that you are not writing on your table with a permanent marker).
Step 2: Draw your picture onto your transparency using your permanent marker.
Tip: My 6-year-old had the genius idea to TRACE a picture. Look through a few coloring books or print a picture off the computer of a simple shape to trace.
Step 3: Pour a whole lot of glue inside the outline of your picture and use your finger to “paint” the picture.* Make sure the glue is thick and even across your entire picture. It’s ok if the glue goes out of the lines, you can trim that off later.
Step 4: Place your transparencies on a flat surface to dry. You will be finishing your craft tomorrow. When all of your glue has turned from white to transparent, it is dry. (We let ours sit for about 24 hours).
Step 5: Using a small amount of glue, place googly eyes on your ghost. Wait for the glue to dry.
Step 6: Peel off and stick to your window or mirror! (Getting it started to peel off is the tricky part. Try bending the transparency while using your finger nail to lift it from the sheet. Then gently peel it off.)
Step 7: Use nail polish remover to erase the permanent marker from the transparencies and begin the craft all over again!
*To make COLOR decals, when doing Step 3, add a few drops of food coloring to your glue and mix together while you are spreading it. For our pumpkins, we added 4 drops of yellow to 1 drop of red in the glue and mixed it together to make orange.
Another option is to use fabric paints instead of glue, but 1. I love finger painting with glue, and 2. using glue is a cheaper alternative to fabric paint.
