• New crayons,
• Free party favors
• Great gifts

I love recycling something that can be a unique result.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Thankfully, my friend Revka at “Little Fun; Little Learning” has done a post of Easter ideas.  If you’re looking for something to do with the kids, you might want to head over there.  Plus, I completed my first guest blogger post at her site, so you might want to take a look at that too.    It’s my first venture away from Thrifty Mommy.

I also saw a cute idea this week at Goodyblog.  It is making cupcakes to look like a bird’s nest.  I thought the picture was really cute.

I hope you and your family have a safe and blessed holiday!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Parents love handprint crafts.  They are great keepsakes.  I love a thrifty craft.

For the lion, I made a mixture of yellow and brown (just a little) paint to make that sort of mustard color.  I painted the children’s palms with the paint and made a handprint on paper.  For the lion’s mane, I cut up small strips of brown construction paper and rolled them around a pen to get them to curl.  Actually, I had one of my student’s help me with this task because she loves to help.  We glued the strips for the mane, made a tail of yarn, and then I added the face.  Definitely cute and simple.

For the lamb, I traced the children’s hand onto a black piece of construction paper.  If they had good cutting skills, I let them cut out their own handprint.  Then we added torn pieces of cotton for a fluffy look, wiggle eyes, and a drawn on mouth.  I’m not too thrilled with the face on this lamb, but you live and learn.  I’m sure there’s something cuter that could be done.  Maybe next year.

So, what do you think?  Do you like them?  Do you have any arts & crafts ideas for us?  I’m always looking for thrifty craft ideas.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Parents.com – info on Irish traditions, recipe for Shamrock pancakes and warm potato salad

Better Homes & Gardens – food and entertaining, crafts, cards, and decor

Teaching Heart – Contains activities for elementary school children.  Great site for teachers, homeschoolers, or moms that are just looking for a little something for the kids to do.

Kids  Domain / Kaboose – There are lots of great craft ideas for kids and recipes for you.  I see some things to try in my classroom. 

Family Fun – crafts, recipes, coloring pages, games, and more

DLTK’s Growing Together – recipes, crafts, worksheets, coloring pages, games, songs, and more

The Activity Idea Place – games, crafts, songs, art, and more

Child Fun – parent’s site with craft ideas, recipes, and other ideas

Ed Helper – ideas for elementary aged children

Family Corner – patterns, recipes, ideas, and more

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

 Just as promised, I have some pictures of the Valentine crafts that I suggested for this week.  At the top are samples of the heart collages we made.  (Once again, I love the die cut machine.  What a time saver!)  Next, are the painted hearts we did with marbles.  And finally there are the Valentine cards for the parents.  The card on the left doesn’t have the handprint made into a heart.  It is way too hard to get a toddler to hold their hand still to make a heart. For instructions on these crafts, click over to my post on Valentine’s Day Craft Ideas for Kids.

I really like to do the golf ball paint/marble paint activity.  This works for many occasions.  For Christmas, you could paint on a green Christmas tree and add some sequins or beads for ornaments.  For St. Patrick’s Day you could use this activity for a shamrock.  It’s very versatile and the kids really enjoy this activity.

For other Valentine ideas or preschool activities, try Revka’s Little Fun; Little Learning.  I met Revka online through her first blog, The Porch Light.  We began exchanging ideas and soon began calling one another on the phone.  A few months ago, Revka began her educational blog Little Fun; Little Learning.  I told her how my preschool class was studying a letter each week and Revka began doing posts on ideas for studying a letter each week.  It has been really helpful to me.  I just click on over to her site to see what links she has.  I have used quite a few of the ideas she has listed.

Let me know if you have any questions on the craft ideas.  I hope I explained everything ok.  And if you have any Valentine craft ideas, just let us know by commenting below.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Last week at school the students made Valentine cards.  I let them add hearts to the cards with my foam stampers and some hearts cut from construction paper.  I used their hands to make a heart.  To make the heart I put paint on each of their hands and pressed their hands (fingers down), overlapping the thumbs.  Handprint art is always a hit.  They also used heart stickers to decorate the cards. 

Last week they also made Valentine bags with white lunch bags.  They used markers and hearts that I had cut from construction paper to decorate their bags.  I hung them on the bulletin board so that they could get Valentines in their bags throughout the week.

This week we are going to make heart collages.  I used the die cut machine (love that thing!) to make hearts of various shapes, sizes, and colors.  We are also going to marble paint hearts.  To do this I am using hearts that I have cut from large paper.  I am dipping marbles into different colors of paint.  I will put the large heart paper in a box top (a copy paper box top works well) and then add the marbles on top of the paper.  The students will turn the box top all different ways to make marble designs on their heart.  Maybe I can take some pictures and post them later.

Here are some other sites for kid’s Valentine ideas.

Kids Domain - make chocolate candy hearts, heart bracelets, heart pins & magnets, candy pots, and more.  We will definitely play a game of Heart Bingo this week at school!

Family Fun – finger puppets, coupons, stained glass hearts, love bugs, and more.

DLTK’s Growing Together - wreaths, valentine boxes, animal crafts, and educational crafts.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Click here for the photo ornament idea from Photojojo.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy