Ripped Paper Rainbows

As happy as I have been to have a real winter this year, it's that time of year where I start to crave color. Not just because the world is white - but because I know that pretty soon we'll enter New England's fifth season - Mud Season- and everything will turn brown.

So while putting together our post on Paper Plate Wreaths I got inspired to try creating a paper plate rainbow with the boys and that lead to these Ripped Paper Rainbows.

This was a great project to try on a "stay home day" that didn't require a lot of prep, materials, or project time. Yet, the result was pretty and it could easily be done by several different age groups.

Paper Plate Wreaths for All 4 Seasons

In the last few years we've discovered how easy it is to make a "Paper Plate Wreath" using a paper plate and some decorations. In fact, we find them so easy we've made them for several different seasons and holidays!

Which is what inspired collecting all of these awesome posts from other bloggers too - because if they're that easy to make, why not make one for every season of the year?

Turkey Name Plate

With Thanksgiving Day quickly approaching the last few weeks have brought some opportunities to play with turkeys.

This Turkey Name Plate activity proved to be a fun way for Little Brother to practice spelling his name while getting in the seasonal mood.

Photograph Paper Plate Flowers

Every year it's fun to think of something handmade and sweet we can make for the "grandmothers" for Mother's Day. But, we usually have to wait a little bit to share the project as my mom regularly reads our posts. (Proof that moms never stop supporting you, no matter your age or endeavor.)

We made these photograph paper plate flowers to decorate our Mother's Day gifts last weekend, and I just love how they turned out. Although we made them at home, this could be an easy classroom project too! 

In fact, the former preschool teacher in me would love to see a whole bulletin board of these in a classroom. 

May Day Tissue Flower Wreath

It's been so amazing to have some green color pop up in our world this week, it truly and finally feels like spring. And while the green has come, we're still awaiting those colorful May flowers. But as we probably have a small wait still (although really, I think it's only small) we put together these May Day Tissue Flower Wreaths.

We enjoyed making paper plate wreaths at St. Patrick's Day, so these were a great spin off for a new season. 

Kid-Made St. Patrick's Day Wreath

It's hard to believe that we're already jumping into March and thinking about the two holidays that are coming up this month: St. Patrick's Day and Easter. But, I have to say with these dreary, stalled-out, winter days going on I'm loving the bright greens and spring colors that come with these two holidays.

This project was a quick and easy way to make a kid-made St. Patrick's Day decoration. We were able to tackle it in two short project times after school (each part took less than 10 minutes) and the boys love the results.

Dandelion Sun Catcher

A few weeks ago we shared our Dandelion Soup play invitation, which was a great way to use some of the dandelions in our yard. Of course, after the dandelions turned to seed, we couldn't use them in quite the same way. Instead, we created a couple of these Dandelion Sun Catchers.

Several times now we've made paper plate sun catchers from nature as inspired by these nature collage paper plate sun catchers from Hands On: As We Grow. 

Four Seasons Wheel

Last week we shared our post for 10 Books to Read to Learn about the Year & the Four Seasons. To extend from our reading we created this fun project one day when Little Cousin was here visiting too.

Four Seasons Wheel

We created a similar wheel this summer at our Preschool Summer Camp with a weather based theme, so this was also an extension from our summer project.