Easy Craft Project - Make a Tree Picture with Coffee Filters

 
Are you looking for an easy craft project to do with your kids?  Here is a project my daughter and I did.  We made a picture of a tree using coffee filters.  This craft project is easy, simple, cheap, and fun.


Supplies You Will Need:

• 3 Coffee Filters 
• 2 Sheets of Construction Paper (1 Brown)
• Glue
• Scissors 
• Crayons

Directions:

Step #1:  We made a small picture on standard size construction paper.  You can make a lager one as well.  For the smaller size, we cut the bottoms of the coffee filters out.  So we were left with the round bottom.

Step #2:  Color the coffee filters.  You can use green or a collection of green, red, brown, and orange for fall colors.

Step #3:  Cut out a tree trunk on brown construction paper.  If your child is good with scissors, just trace the outline for them and let them do the cutting.

Step #4:  Glue the tree truck to the full sheet of construction paper (the background).

Step #5:  Glue each of the colored coffee filters to the page (on top of the tree truck).





Above was a picture of our final product.  Below is a picture of a larger tree we also made the same way.  We just used full coffee filters and a large sheet of construction paper.

Doing craft projects with your child is a fun activity that is great for whenever, especially a rainy day.  What is nice about this preschool craft project or kindergarten craft project is that most parents already have all the needed supplies at home!

So Many Things To Do...Not Enough Time

My daughter and I love doing fun stuff together.  On Friday night, there is so much going on.  She really wants to go to the last scheduled home football game for the varsity football team.  That game starts at 7.  We are doing one more cookie sales pitch in the neighborhood at 5.  The Science Center is having their free Halloween event which goes from 6-9.  We have gone to that the last two years, but I think we are going to skip it this year.

Girl Scouts

My daughter is in Girl Scouts.  This is her second year as a Daisy; next year she will become a Brownie!  I love the program.  My only complaint is that there aren't a lot of kids.  When I was a Brownie haha over 20 years ago, I remember a roomful of girls.  Sarah's Daisy troop has 9.  I understand how hard it can be though with sports, school, work, and life in general.

Girl Scouts are pretty well-known for their cookie selling.  Where we live, in Central New York, it is now cookie time.  So my daughter has been out and about selling Girl Scout cookies.  Due to safety, I know that a lot of parents decide to skip the door-to-door sales.  We decided to give it a try since we live in a small town.

My daughter Sarah and I, along with her friend Emily and her mother, went around to our neighborhood twice.  We are lucky to live in a small village were there are a lot of nice people and lots of houses grouped pretty close together.

Never having done door-to-door selling before, I will admit that I was a bit nervous!  I am so proud to say that I live in a GREAT community.  Even those who said no were very nice and pretty chatty with the girls!  I am so proud of Sarah and her friend Emily.  They are doing a really great job and are learning a lot being out in the community with her mom and I.  They have done so well that we are going to go out one more time in the community selling cookies.

Girl Scouts is a great program and it does a lot for girls; they do fun and educational things.  I know that cookie season varies around across the country and even in the same state, but please keep this in mind if a Girl Scout knocks on your door or if you come across a cookie booth sale.

Fun Preschool Activity: Visiting a Children’s Museum

I am a very big fan of children’s museums.  I am lucky that we live right near the Science Center in Ithaca, New York.  With that said, my all time favorite place is the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.  The only downside is that it is a two-hour drive for us, so we don’t get down there much.

We are looking to go soon as it is getting colder outside; cold and rainy or snowy days are the best to visit a nice warm, fun, and inviting museum.

Do you have a favorite children’s museum that you like to take your family too?

This is a picture of my daughter and her dad on our last trip to the National Museum of Play just over a year ago.  Doesn't that look like a lot of fun!

Fall Is Here!

With the fall season up and running, it is starting to get a bit cold! On that same note, it is one of the best times to talk a walk. Walking is a great activity for children of all ages.

Right now, when we go for a walk we are examining the changing seasons. Basically, we are collecting leaves! Another fun activity is to go out with our digital camera. My daughter and I take turns snapping pictures. When we are done, we return home and print some of those pictures to make a collage.

Do you and your family have a favorite fall activity?

We Moved!

It has been forever since I updated this blog. My daughter is now in 1st grade, but I love the preschool/kindergarten age and we still do a lot of fun projects that are great for this age group. Therefore I am going to continue to update my blog even as my daughter gets older.

The main reason why I have been missing is due to the fact that we bought a house! We rented our apartment for seven years (such a long time), but we are now homeowners!

We live on a great street in the village. We have a nice backyard with a little hill on it so Sarah is excited and is already planning her sledding birthday party in January.

The house we bought was built in 1880 and it is a VERY beautiful house, but it needed a lot of work. We are still right in the middle of remodeling and we are doing it all ourselves with the help of friends and family! Over half the house has been gutted and put back together and the rest will soon be done.

Our started to blog about our DIY home improvement project if anyone would like to check it out.

In our bedrooms, we are pretty much lacking permanent flooring (we have old wood floors that could possibly be sanded, finished, and restored), and trim around the windows and doors. With that said, I am kind of excited about Sarah’s room. I’ll post a picture below.

She was able to decide where she wanted everything to go and she picked out the paint colors herself!

Fun Preschool Activity: Having Share Day at Home

My daughter has always done share day at school (in First Grade, Kindergarten, and Pre-K).  It was one of the days that she looked forward to the most.  Although we live with our daughter and obviously know many of the items she has, we sill enjoy doing share day at home.  Her dad and I even pick an item to share.  We haven’t been doing share day as much as we used to, be it does happen at least one a month in our house.

Cool Preschool Themed TV Shows Reviewed: Handy Manny

Of all the neat shows designed for preschoolers, Handy Manny is one of my favorites and it is my daughter’s favorite as well. Why? Because her dad is a construction worker. It was one of the reasons she was attracted to Bob the Builder too. However, I must say that Handy Manny is hundred times better.

In each show, Handy Manny and his tools help the residents of Sheetrock Hills (friends or family) repair something. However, a number of lessons are learned. Best of all, Handy Manny is bilingual, meaning children start to learn a few Spanish basics.

Our favorite episode is actually a Handy Manny Movie I believe; Handy Manny’s Motorcycle Adventure.

Here are some fun resources for you and your children:

Handy Manny Computer Games

Handy Manny Printable Coloring Pages

Handy Manny Books, Movies, Toys, and Games

Handy Manny Books


















Handy Manny Toys

Easy Craft Project: Foam Door Handles

I love foam craft kits; they are so cool!  They are also pretty cheap.  I bought these foam door hangers in a kit from the Dollar Tree.  The only cost was the door hangers; we decorated them with items we already had in the house!

Things You Will Need:

Foam Door Hangers
Glue
Markers
Stickers
Other Embellishments (Foam Shapes and So Forth)

Directions:

Step #1:  Gluing a bunch of embellishments on foam door hangers can get kind of messy when small children are involved, so first start out with putting newspapers down on the table.

Step #2:  Give each person (child and yourself) a door hanger.

Step #3:  If anyone wants to write their name, now is the best time to do it before the door hanger has a bunch of stickers and shapes glued on.

Step #4:  Start gluing shape cutouts and pom poms or add your stickers now.

Step #5:  It is best to let the glue dry before you try and hang this on the door or else all your glued embellishments may slide (haha speaking from experience)!

Free Preschool Worksheets to Print – The 4 Seasons

Here are some preschool worksheets I just uploaded to my website. Over the next few days, I am going to post some of the new worksheets here too. As always, these worksheets are free to print and I always have a collection of black and white and color print for you to choose from.

These are what they look like:


Spring Preschool Worksheet - Black and White Print

Spring Preschool Worksheet - Color Print

Summer Preschool Worksheet - Black and White Print

Summer Preschool Worksheet - Color Print

Fall Preschool Worksheet - Black and White Print

Fall Preschool Worksheet - Color Print

Winter Preschool Worksheet - Black and White Print

Winter Preschool Worksheet - Color Print

Note: These preschool worksheets were created with the clipart provided by Microsoft. If you have a valid copy of Microsoft Word, you can easily create your own worksheets too!

Decorating Sun Visors & Other Foam Hats

Browsing around my local Wal-Mart, I visited the craft section.  There I found a lot of cute foam hats for children to wear and decorate.  We purchased a few sun visors and princess hats.

These items make for a great, fun, and easy craft project for kids.

Supplies You Will Need:

Foam Hat(s)

Markers

Stickers

Glue

Other Embellishments (Pom Poms & So Forth)

Directions:

This craft project for kids is very simple!  Set a bunch of items in front of them, such as markers, stickers, and so forth and then let them go to town.  Watch as your child has fun decorating their own hat!

Strong National Museum of Play Video – Sarah and Sesame Street

This short video clip is from our trip to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. It doesn’t have any sound, but is still kind of cute.

They have a Sesame Street exhibit and lots of mini-activities inside. One is where your child can appear on television with Sesame Street characters, like Elmo. I thought this was really neat! Here is my daughter. She kept trying to hug Elmo.