Supplies:

Green Pipe Cleaners
Popcicle sticks (plain or dyed ones)
Green marker or highlighter
Googly eyes or white construction paper circles with marker eyes
White paper to make teeth
White glue

Color your popcicle stick with a green marker or crayon.
Wrap 2 pipe cleaners tightly around the stick to make a body and legs. (You can add a drop or two of glue on the bottom of the stick to make it stay on better.)
Glue on eyes and teeth. Don’t forget the nostrils!

Go on a scavenger hunt in your house and find hats, shirts, vests, furry things, silky things and anything else you can use for a costume. Old Halloween costumes are also fun to mix and match!
Create mustaches, crowns, crazy eyes or lips out of paper and tape straws on one side of them.
Use a sheet or curtain for a backdrop.
Put on costumes and pose together using a parent’s phone to take pictures. If kids are old enough, have everyone take a turn being the photographer.
See how many different costumes you can make from stuff at home.

SUPPLIES:

  • Tin foil
  • Bowl
  • Scissors
  • Pennies
  • Water

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cut a piece of tin foil 5 x 6 inches.
  2. Fold up the sides of the boat so it will not sink and hold a cargo of pennies. Get creative and see if you can develop fancy boats.
  3. Place the boat in the bowl of water. Begin adding pennies for the boat's cargo.
  4. See how many pennies your boat can carry before it sinks.
  5. Have some friends over and try this experiment with them. See which one of you can create the boat that will carry the greatest amount of cargo.
  6. Be sure to dry the pennies before you begin adding them as cargo because remember water has weight!
  7. Have the person who created the boat begin adding pennies to their boat while another person counts the number of pennies as they are added to the boat.
  8. Try different ways to distribute the weight of the pennies on your barge so you can carry the maximum number.

Reuse your old biodegradable packing peanuts and make a craft! You can tell they are biodegradable because the texture will be somewhat “cheeto” like and if you put water on 2 pieces they will stick together.

Make a fun pattern out of your packing peanuts and then dab a little water on the pieces you want to stick together. Hold for a few seconds while they dry.

You won’t be able to paint them because any liquid will cause them to melt.

Have fun finding out what you can make.

How to enter the contest, visit: https://www.education.com/contests/

When you love learning, there's no limit to what you can achieve! Apply to the Limitless Learners Contest to win money for college, plus a donation for your elementary school or local library.

Win $500 for college plus $1000 for a school or library!

Have a box? Why not create something for your child? A train station? Oven? Castle? The sky's the limit!

Supplies:

  • Round-ish rocks
  • Feathers or paper cut in the shape of wings and tail
  • Googly eyes or paper and markers
  • Glue
  • Yellow or orange paper (or use markers to color white paper.)
  • Scissors

How to:

  1. Wash your rocks if you’ve gathered them from the roadside like we did and allow to dry.
  2. Glue on feathers for wings and tail.
  3. Glue on googly eyes.
  4. Fold a scrap of orange or yellow paper in half, snip a triangle out from the fold, and glue on for a beak.

From: https://www.thecrafttrain.com/rock-chick-craft/

Need a fast Mother’s Day card? Make one with what you have at home!

Supplies:

  • White paper (or paper bags)
  • Colored paper (or magazine pages)
  • Pencil with eraser
  • Markers or crayons
  • Scissors
  • Glue or tape

Fold a piece of colored paper in half. Draw a bubble shaped M. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. You can turn it over and hide the lines. Cut 2 Ms at once on the folded paper.

Trace your hand in the middle of your white paper to make a sun. Color it with markers or crayons and add eyes and mouth. Write your special message underneath. Glue or tape your Ms onto each side of the sun.

Mom will love it!

Make an easy Mother's Day card!Make an easy Mother's Day card!

Supplies:

  • Tape
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Yarn or Twine
  • Different colors of copy paper, construction paper or use paper from old magazines
  1. Cut strips of paper 1 inch wide.
  2. Roll your paper into a circle to make the center of the flower. Tape shut.
  3. Make more circles or shapes and glue or tape onto center circle.
  4. String them up around the house to decorate for Spring.

March brings spring snow so make a colorful, spring-like snowflake!

Supplies:

  • Large coffee filter
  • Newspaper or cardboard to protect table
  • Dot markers or regular markers
  • Scissors
  • Glitter glue

On newspaper or cardboard, dot the entire coffee filter, let dry. Fold in half, in half again, and in half again so that it looks like a slice of pie. Cut point off, cut designs on all sides. Unfold and decorate with glitter glue or glitter and glue.

spring snowflakesspring snowflakes

spring snowflakesspring snowflakes

Supplies:

  • White or yellow paper
  • Googly eyes or white paper and Markers
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Fork
  • Cup to use to trace circle
  • Orange paint or use catsup and/or mustard!
  • Paper plate for paint

Trace circle onto the piece of paper by drawing around an overturned cup with a marker.
Draw the lion face. Make paper eyes with your scissors and glue or glue googly eyes on the drawing. Dip the flat tines of a fork in paint that you squirted onto a paper plate (or use mustard and/or catsup). Place the fork on the paper around the circle to make a mane. Let dry!

Love ooey, gooey slime? This is a great recipe to do at home. Click on the link below to see the directions to this cool project.

Missing Spring? We have some weeks to go but in the meantime, try making this mixed media spring art. Mixed media only means using different art supplies to make a picture.

Supplies needed:

  • Markers (I used a black sharpie)
  • Color paper scraps
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • White printer or construction paper
  1. Make a fun, crazy garden by cutting out your colored scrap paper pieces.
  2. Imagine your garden by placing pieces, then glue down.
  3. Add fun drawings to complete your garden.

Happy Spring!....soon.

mixed media spring artmixed media spring art

What does the Fox say? I love you!

Supplies:

  • 1 Large heart - orange
  • 1 Medium heart – white – cut in half
  • 2 small hearts – orange
  • 3 small black circles or a black marker
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors

Instructions:

  1. Cut the white heart in half.
  2. Glue to the large orange heart.
  3. Turn 2 small hearts upside down and glue on the back for ears.
  4. Glue on black circles for eyes and nose or make eyes and nose with a black marker.
  5. Write a love note on the back.

What does the fox say?
I love you!

Todd Parr, children's author, shows how he makes a book on his website, www.toddparr.com. He's given permission to share his material too. He's not only famous for great children's books, but valentines too.

Supplies:

  • White or light colored paper
  • Markers or crayons

Directions:

  1. Fold any size piece of paper in half. Fold one side up to meet the first fold.
  2. Create a picture of an animal or person on the folded paper. Make sure to put the mouth of the creature at the fold.
  3. Then open up the picture and make your creature look scary!
  4. Fold it back up and show the folded picture your friends and family. Say, “Isn’t it cute?” Then open up your picture quickly for a fun joke.

scary pictures projectscary pictures project

scary pictures projectscary pictures project

Supplies:

  • Bowls or containers to use to make the ice
  • Large tray with sides or cookie sheet
  • Salt
  • Liquid watercolors or food coloring – please note that food coloring can stain
  • Droppers and/or a spoon

Instructions:

  1. Fill a variety of bowls or containers with water and freeze them at least overnight. Different sizes and depths are preferred.
  2. Remove the ice shapes from their containers and place them on the plastic tray or cookie sheet.
  3. Give your child a bowl of table salt – the cheaper the better. Have them sprinkle it on the top of their ice. They can also use a dropper to drop warm water on.
  4. Watch as ravines form down the side of the ice as the salt melts it!
  5. Squeeze a little bit of a food coloring onto the ice and watch what happens! The food coloring or liquid watercolors will highlight the ravines, crevasses, and tunnels that are forming.
  6. Discuss how salt melts the ice.

Hot Cocoa Mix:
Materials Needed:

  • Glass Jar (We use a Starbucks® Frappuccino® Jar)
  • Twine
  • Gift Tag
  • Ziploc bag (optional)

Ingredients:

  • Hot Cocoa Mix
  • Mini M&M’s®
  • Chocolate Chips (Mini)
  • Peppermint Swirl Candies
  • Marshmallows

What to Do:

  1. Pour two servings of Hot Cocoa mix into the jar. (Depending on your mix, you’ll require different amounts.)
  2. Pour 1 Tablespoon of M&M’s and 1 Tablespoon of mini chocolate chips into the jar.
  3. Put your peppermint candies and ¼ cup of marshmallows into a bag, and carefully squish into the jar.
  4. Seal up the jar.
  5. Use twine to attach a gift tag.
  6. Your mix is ready for gift giving!

Note: If you don’t mind a little mix on your marshmallows and candies, you can leave the bag out.
For an added look, you can paint your caps. Just make sure they dry before you try to seal the jar up!

To make your own LEGO prints, all you need is:

  • Paint
  • LEGO bricks
  • Paper

Dip your bricks into the paint and stamp them onto your paper. It’s best not to over saturate the bricks. Experiment with different designs. Try using all sides of the bricks.

LEGO PrintsLEGO Prints

Supplies:

  • Paint
  • Plastic trays
  • Paper
  • Eye droppers
  • Water
  • Straws
  • Paper cups

Steps:

  1. Put paint into paper cups and use the water to thin out the paint.
  2. Put your paper on a plastic tray.
  3. Dip an eye dropper into the watered down paint and drip it onto your paper.
  4. Gently blow the paint drips through a straw to spread the paint across your paper.
  5. What kind of designs can you make?

painting with strawspainting with straws

Supplies:

  • Paint
  • Q-Tips
  • Paper plates or pie pans
  • Paper

Steps:

  1. Put paint on plates or pans.
  2. Dip the Q-Tips into the paint and use like paintbrushes.
  3. Experiment! What kind of designs can you make?

painting with Q-Tipspainting with Q-Tips

Supplies:

  • Paint
  • Paintbrushes
  • Rubber bands
  • Small box/container
  • Paper cut to fit the bottom of the box

Steps:

  1. Put a piece of paper in the bottom of the box.
  2. Stretch the rubber bands across the top of the box.
  3. Use a paintbrush to cover your rubber bands with paint.
  4. Pull on the bands to splatter the paint on to your paper.

painting with rubber bandspainting with rubber bands

  1. Cut out one large star and four small stars.
  2. Cut four strips of white paper.
  3. Fold paper strips accordion style.
  4. Glue or tape together.
  5. Draw a face.

Supplies:

  • Paint
  • Assorted cups and/or jars
  • Paper plates or pie pans
  • Paper

Steps:

  1. Put paint on plates or pans.
  2. Dip the top of a cup into the paint.
  3. Press the top of the cup on to the paper to make a circle.
  4. Experiment! You can use different-sized cups to make a variety of circles, or dip the bottom of the cup into the paint to make a solid circle instead.

painting with cupspainting with cups

Supplies:

  • Kool-aid squeeze bottles
  • Straws with different diameters, one needs to fit inside the other.
  • Masking tape
  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Duct Tape

Rocket directions:

  1. Drink all the juice and then clean and dry the bottle.
  2. Tape the small straw to the opening of the bottle. Insert a bit into the bottle, make sure air is flowing through straw.
  3. Cut paper into a square, fold over itself and tape in the shape of the top of a rocket, it should be a point.
  4. Tape the large straw at one end so that no air can escape from one side.
  5. Put the large straw over the small straw, put the rocket nose on top, and SQUEEZE bottle to shoot rocket. MAKE SURE NO ONE LOSES AN EYE!
  6. With a square of duct tape fold a triangular shape, leaving a lip of sticky tape exposed to tape onto the straw. These are fins, kids can use them as decorations but also to experiment. See if your rocket flies better or worse with the fins added.

rocketrocketrocket