Paper Loop Ladybug

Spotting and Dotting with paint is a lot of fun and super simple when you use cotton buds /q-tips. Inspiration for our cute spotty ladybug can be found here.

You will need
Red paper
Green Paper
Black Paper
Black Paint
Cotton Bud/ Q-tip
Wiggly Eyes
Scissors
Glue
Black Marker Pen

To Make
1 .Cut the red paper into strips (roughly 4 strips to an A4 sheet)
2 .Draw a line length ways down the middle of the red paper strip stopping just over half way
3 .Cut an oval shape from the black paper for the lady bugs face and 2 thin strips for the antenna
4 .From the green paper cut a large leaf shape
5 .Glue the wiggly eyes onto the ladybugs face
6 .Glue the antenna onto the ladybugs face
7 .Glue the face onto the red paper where the black line ends
8 .Spot and Dot the black paint onto the ladybug using a cotton bud
9 .Let dry
10 .Glue one edge of the red paper and stick together to make a loop
11 .Glue the ladybug onto a leaf - The wiggly eyes make the ladybug front heavy so gluing it to the leaf makes it sit nicely

You may like to have a few extra pieces of paper on hand as Neevah wanted to keep spotting and dotting the paint while waiting for her ladybird to dry

We Play - Playdough Garden

Don't forget to stop by Childhood 101 We Play where you can find lots of other great play ideas....

Neevah and Liam love playing with playdough and would play with it everyday of the week if I had it out for them. Today we tried something a little different with our playdough we collected some leaves, twigs, gumnuts and flowers and set about making a playdough garden

First we made some green and brown playdough

Playdough Recipe
2 cups of plain flour
2 tbs Cream of Tartar
2 tbs Cooking Oil
1 cup Salt
2 cups of Water
Food Colouring

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan (except food colouring) stir over medium heat for 3 - 5 mins or until the mixture congeals. Once cool add food colouring.

Collecting twigs and leaves

Making a playdough tree

Pushing some gumnuts into the playdough

A fairy visiting Neevah's Garden

My favourite part of Neevah's Garden
great workout for her fingers pushing all those little gumnuts and flowers into the playdough

C is for Caterpillar

At the beginning of spring we had a few caterpillars in the garden some where little and brown and others where big, hairy with a red head. Since we have a bit of a bug theme here at the moment C for Caterpillar seemed like a natural choice after all we made B is for Butterfly back in February.

You will need
Coloured Paper - we used 5 different colours
Scrap White Paper or Wiggly Eyes
Pipe Cleaner
Scissors
Glue
Marker Pen
Crayons - optional

To Make
1 .Draw a large C on one piece of coloured paper
2 .Cut out circles from a few different coloured pieces of paper making them roughly the same diameter as the width of the C - we used 9 circles for our caterpillar
3 .If you are not using wiggly eyes cut out 2 small circles from the white paper and make dots in the center to make eyes
4 .Let your child colour the C with crayons if they want to
5 .Cut out the C
6 .Glue the C onto the remaining piece of coloured paper
7 .Glue on the circles
8 .Glue on the eyes
9 .Cut a pipe cleaner in half and glue on to the head as antennae
10 .Draw a smile with the marker pen

Ladybug Ladybug Fly Away Home

Ladybugs are one of the coolest bugs if you ask me but then I really do love red. I don't think we have ever found a Ladybug in our garden but that didn't stop us making a cute ladybug today and learning a new Nursery Rhyme.

Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.

All except one,
And that's little Ann,
For she crept under
The frying pan.

You Will Need
Black Paper
Red Paper
Black Pipe Cleaner
Black Sequins
Scrap of White Paper or Wiggly Eyes
Marker Pen
Glue
Scissors
Sticky Tape

To Make
1 .From the black paper cut a ladybug shape and from the white paper cut 2 small circles for eyes (skip this if you are using wiggly eyes)
2 .Draw around both your childs hands on the red paper - these will be the ladybugs wings
3 .Cut out the hand shapes
4 .Glue the eyes onto the ladybug
5 .Glue on the ladybugs wings
6 .Glue the black sequins onto the wings - if you don't have black sequins you could use buttons or paint to make the spots on your ladybug
7 .Fold the pipe cleaner in half and tape it to the back of the ladybugs head
I found this idea while browsing Google Images but the link was broken so I am nable to link back to the original. If you know of a working link to this craft idea please let me know :)

Colourful Paper Plate Snail

The warmer weather has arrived and with it we have had an influx of bugs in the garden and even a few venturing inside. Around a week ago a little snail came to visit it was spotted making it's way across the room, the kids enjoyed looking at it and watching the way it moved (they wouldn't hold it) before we returned the snail to the garden.

You Will Need
Paper Plate
Coloured Paper
Thin Cardboard
Glue
Black Marker
Wiggly Eye

To Make
1 .Draw a spiral on the paper plate not only will this guide where the coloured paper is stuck it is also a great chance to talk about spirals
2 .Cut the coloured paper into small squares or rectangles - we used crepe paper but I think normal coloured paper would be better as the glue will not show through
4 .Cut out a snail body from thin cardboard - we used coloured cardboard but if you don't have any you could get your child to colour the snail body with a crayon or marker
4 .Stick the coloured paper to the paper plate snail shell
5 .Stick the eye onto the snail body
6 .Stick the paper plate shell to the snail body
7 .Let Dry
8 .Redraw the spiral on the snail shell with a marker pen

We Play - Outside Footprint Painting

Don't forget to stop by Childhood 101 We Play where you can find lots of other great play ideas....

Neevah loves making footprints on the concrete with her wet feet but is often disappointed in the hot weather with how fast they disappear. Today I mixed up some sidewalk/driveway paint so they could make longer lasting footprints and handprints outside on the concrete.

Sidewalk Paint
1/2 cup Cornflour
1/2 cup of Water
Roughly 6 drops of food colouring (I used 8 or 9 drops and it has resulted in smurf like fingers)
Mix well and then put the sidewalk paint in a large shallow container

Feeling the paint between his toes

Stamping makes good footprints

Taking big steps

Making a heel print

I love it when they share

Making handprints

The sidewalk paint washes off the concrete easily and the kids enjoyed helping with the cleanup almost as much as the did making the handprints and footprints.

W is for Wings

Neevah loves fairies especially Tinkerbell and her friends, she spends alot of time playing with her Tinkerbell dolls who like to give her other toys flying lessons. With Neevah's love of Fairies in mind today we made W is for Wings .... fairy wings of course but you could easily adapt this for bird wings or even aeroplane wings.

You will need
Coloured Paper x 2 (in different colours)
White Paper
Sequins or Glitter
Dot Marker
Glue
Scissors
Marker Pen

To Make
1 .Draw a W (upper or lower case) on one piece of coloured paper - Neevah picked red paper as she really likes Rosetta from the Tinkerbell movies
2 .Glue sequins on the W or you could use glitter
3 .Cut out 2 wing shapes from the white paper
4 .Use the dot marker to decorate the wings
5 .Cut out the W and glue it onto the remaining piece of coloured paper6 .Glue on the wings

You can find another great W is for wings at No Time for Flashcards

Muddy Tractor Painting

Muddy tractor painting is messy, very very messy but Liam had so much fun. I would recommend play clothes or painting smocks for this idea, covering the workspace with newspaper (not only will the newspaper protect the table they can paint on it once finished with their paper) and having a bucket of water handy for washing the tractor.

You Will Need
Brown Paint
Shaving Foam
Paper Plate
Green Paper
Toy Tractor

To Make
1 .Make the mud paint by mixing the brown paint and shaving foam
2 .Put the mud paint onto the paper plate so it is easy to get the paint onto the tractor wheels

3 .Have fun painting

Pushing the tractor back and forth

Exploring the mud paint with his finger

Messy work! (paint all up his sleeve)

A section of the finished painting

4 .Clean the tractor - Liam had just as much fun cleaning his tractor as he did painting

Bok Bok goes the Chicken

Neevah had her first morning of preschool / kindy (depending where you live to what you like to call it) today she was totally zonked and feel asleep straight after lunch so Liam and I got crafty and made a chicken.

You will need
Thin Cardboard (cereal box or similar)
Desiccated Coconut
Scrap of red paper
Scrap of yellow paper
Wiggly Eye
Glue

To Make
1 .Draw a chicken shape on the thin cardboard and cut it out
2 .Cut out a comb from the red paper and a beak from the yellow paper
3 .Cover the chicken cutout in glue
4 .Sprinkle the coconut over the glue
5 .Shake off the excess coconut
6 .Glue on the Eye, Comb and Beak - Liam struggled a little with the beak and eye but did the comb with no help
7 .Let Dry

Liam and Bok Bok

If I was doing this with Neevah I would have added Legs or a Nest but Liam isn't known for sitting still for long so quick and simple was great for him.