Pipe Cleaner Earthworms

Last week I ran my annual preschool nature camp. Every summer for one week I run a small, morning only camp for 3 to 5 years at a local historical site. The beautiful grounds, gardens, and natural water sources give us lots of opportunities to explore nature. Unfortunately, the weather last week stumped me a little as there were several rainy mornings. However, one rainy morning lead us to the fun of exploring Earthworms!

Despite the rain, we got outside and looked through the gardens and mulch to find several different worms. And when we got back inside? We created these adorable pipecleaner earthworms. We also paired the experience and craft with several books about earthworms, which meant kids also learned several interesting facts about worms.

Easy Cardboard Bird Feeder

As we're solidly in the middle of winter, it is a great time to be thinking about the wild creatures who are surviving the winter outside. We decided to create some easy cardboard bird feeder treats to hang outside for the wild critters in our neighborhood.

If you've been reading our blog for a while now, you know we love projects that use materials you can easily find already at home or at a local store, and this project is definitely one of them. 

Polar Bear Ornament

As a blogger, it's always so fun to participate in a blog series with other bloggers as you get so many new ideas! That's how I've felt checking out all of the posts in the 10 Days of Kid-Made Ornament series hosted by Mama Miss. Every day it's been running I've found another idea that I love. And even better, all the ornaments are based on books so I've also found several books I'm looking forward to reading too!

For our post in the series we were excited to create an ornament inspired by the book "Santa Claus and the Three Bears."

 Of course a polar ornament, or more specifically making sure we had at least three polar bears, seemed like a great ornament fit.

Shark Week (A Simple Summer Theme)

So although we were headed on vacation a few weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to have a Simple Summer Theme we could still explore. As we were at the ocean we went with a theme that matched - Shark Week!

I packed a few things I figured we might do in between trips to the beach and in case of bad weather. But, we had such a great week exploring a new place, hanging at the beach, and enjoying some amazing weather that we barely got to any of the activities.

Instead although we got to a few activities fit in on the trip instead we wound up having something closer to a "Shark Day" when we got home from vacation. But it was a great way to come back home and unwind from the trip.

Cardboard Tube Easter Bunnies

The Easter holiday is almost here. This cute craft is pretty easy to put together and doesn't take too long to finish. Best of all, they use something you probably even have laying around: cardboard tubes!

We love finding ways to use up things we already have on hand, and for that same reason we're usually hanging on to things like cardboard tubes. You just never know when you might have a project with them, just like these fun Cardboard Tube Easter Bunnies!

"Our Big Heart" Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

Last year we really enjoyed participating in the Multicultural Kid Blogs Martin Luther King series, so much so we were really glad to join in again this year. Last year we were inspired to focus on his messages of peace by reading several peace books for kids and creating peace doves.

This year we learned a little more about the man himself and his "big heart." 

Create a Dinosaur Pop-Up Card

This is a fun design for a pop-up card that we've used a few times now for friends' birthdays. We like to call it a "dinosaur" but with a few changes in color it could also be a monster!

We had the chance to make one this past weekend for a friend of Big Brother's sixth birthday. It's also a great project now that the new movie The Good Dinosaur is almost out in theaters!

Footprint Birdie Birthday Card

Sometimes we plan out projects that we know will turn into a post, and sometimes something turns out so cute we just have to share. That's how it was with this Footprint Birdie Birthday Card we created for a family member this week.

This week was our "Pamma's" birthday, and the boys were excited to pick her out a hummingbird feeder as a gift. To go with her present we decided to put together this sweet card. 

A Color of His Own: Chameleon Watercolor Project

We love connecting projects to books, and we're always inspired by the amazing group of bloggers who participate in the Virtual Book Club for Kids (you can also check the club out on Facebook) as the group comes up with some great extension activities each month. This month's author was Leo Lionni. We chose to read and do a project using a book we've really been enjoying lately, A Color of His Own. 

This is the sweet tale of a little chameleon who is looking for one color to stay all the time, but keeps running into that challenge that chameleons change color. In the end, he winds up finding a friend to always be with so they can at least always be the same color together. 

Frog Pond Playdough

Truly one of my favorite sounds in the world is the sound of the spring frogs in the woods around our home, especially that first night I hear them as it means spring is here. I was pretty excited to notice it for the first time last week. So now that the frogs are here, it means it's time for the boys and I to start exploring the world of frogs.

We started that exploration by reading a few books and playing with some frog pond playdough this week.

Simple Circus Animal Birthday Party Ideas

Last month we celebrated Little Brother's 2nd Birthday. It's amazing to me not only how quickly this birthday came up, but that he's already been two for a whole month!

Usually we have the boys' birthday parties either at home or at a small town hall we can easily rent. In the past we've done both an Outer Space Birthday and a Construction Birthday at our local town hall. But this birthday wound up overlapping with another event, and it was easier to use a restaurant space. This meant I really had to simplify what we were planning for activities and how much I was bringing into the restaurant.

Little Brother's love of animals did inspire some fun with Circus Animals. Here are a few of our Simple Circus Animal Birthday Ideas. 

Pigs in the Mud (Pretend Sensory Play)

Spring is almost here, but before we get there we need to get through our fifth season here in our part of New England: Mud Season. With the warmer temps this week we're getting closer to "mud season," but we're still not there quite yet. So we created some pretend mud to help us as we wait a little longer for the real thing.

And of course, where there is mud it's always fun to include PIGS!

Groundhog Paper Bag Puppet

This post is going up a little late for the day, but this morning I felt so bad for the poor groundhog. Between the Superbowl and the large snow storm hitting the East Coast, he barely got a mention on the morning news.

And of course we hate to let a holiday pass us by, so why not honor the groundhog on this snowy Groundhog Day at home?

We've enjoyed making paper bag animal puppets before, they're quick and easy to assemble and take very little prep time. (Check out our dragon and owl puppets here.)

Look Whoo's Counting Paper Tube Owls

We've continued enjoying reading and learning about owls this week. A coworker made some adorable, cardboard paper tube owls at the beginning of the year to decorate a classroom space in the school. This combined with a favorite owl book inspired an owl themed math activity.

Look Who's Counting Paper Tube Owls

Owl crafts are all over the web and Pinterest these days. I'm not sure exactly where those at school found their inspiration, but it looked something like these. 

Owl Paper Bag Puppets

Over the last year we've been excited to hear owls close to our house in the woods behind us. So with the days now shorter it seemed like the perfect time to start learning about our owl neighbors. We've been reading several books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as talking about owls and their sounds.

Our first owl craft was a quick and easy one, Owl Paper Bag Puppets. 

Owl Paper Bag Puppets

We've made paper bag puppets before when we created our "Puff Dragon" paper bag puppets. It's such a fun and fast way to create a puppet, and can be made as a variety of animals. 

Cereal Box T-Rex Statue

When little kids think dinosaurs they of course think of T-Rex first. So for dinosaur week we had to do something where we made our own T-Rex!

Before crafting we learned a few things about the tyrannosaurus rex (some of them are well known facts, but to 4 year old Big Brother it was great information and mostly new.) 

A Few T-Rex Facts (from the Usborne Book of Dinosaurs)

• T-Rex dinosaurs are meat eaters, or carnivores. They ate other dinosaurs and sometimes scavenged. 

• They were so heavy they could probably only run for short distances at a time. 

• Its hands only had two little claws. 

• Its teeth had edges like saws. 

Foolish Tortoise Painted Rocks

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids author was Eric Carle. We love Eric Carle, and own many of his books. We read several all month, but choosing one for our project and post was hard. In the end, we went with The Foolish Tortoise because it was one we didn't know as well.

Big Brother has been asking for a while to paint rocks, and this seemed like a perfect extension project. The book tells of a tortoise who takes off his shell, only to learn how much it needs it for protection. We painted the rocks to look like the shells and added felt bodies.