The Preschool Homeschool

Here are two Christmas crafts we did yesterday. I had all materials on hand, all I had to do was print out the templates provided at The Best Kids Book Site to complete the projects.

We did a reindeer headband and a deocrated stocking. For the reindeer she decorated it and we used white pipe cleaners for the antlers. I had to staple two strips of brown paper together for a large enough band. We didn’t use glue for this project because I found that the pipe cleaners weigh down the reindeer, if you print him out using regular paper. We stapled this craft together.

She decorated the stocking with crayons and glitter and glued some cotton on top. She loved both of these projects and they’re great for independent preschoolers. Here’s some pics of our crafts:

I stumbled across a free downloadable zip file while searching for some Thanksgiving Day activities for me and my daughter to work on this next week. We have already made turkeys from our handprints and did a turkey coloring sheet, but I wanted something we could work on that we will actually use on Thanksgiving. This zip file has a variety of different graphics that you can use in all different ways. I used my editing software to print out the turkeys in a circle with four on a page, and we’re going to color them and use them as coasters for Thanksgiving dinner. I hope you enjoy this free Thanksgiving resource. Find the free zip file HERE.

October 30th is National Candy Corn Day. If you’d like a little bit more information about the candy corn, you can visit Candy USA for fun facts. In the spirit of National Candy Corn Day, why not create your own candy corn out of yellow, white and orange paper. This is a fun simple craft to go along with any information you teach your child about candy corns. Since this learning lesson is about candy, I’m sure you’ll have a very attentive audience.

Candy Corn Craft:
Supplies

1 piece of construction paper, any color you like. She picked red.
1 piece of white paper, orange paper and yellow paper
1 glue stick
Scissors
Crayons or markers to decorate it

Draw a template of a candy corn on the construction paper. A candy corn is basically a triangle with rounded edges on the bottom instead of pointed edges. Separate the candy corn into three sections with a pencil. Using the template as a guide, cut and size a piece of white, yellow and orange paper to fit inside the candy corn template. Once cut to size, let your child glue the pieces on and the decorate it with crayons, markers, glitter etc….

Here’s a pic of Avlyn with her candy corn…..you probably can’t tell, but this is a candy corn inside a pumpkin with snow falling around it. Happy National Candy Corn Day!!

Here’s a very simple but extremely fun activity for preschoolers. This is great for a physical activity or a halloween party. You can use this same idea to make Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, too.

Cut out jack-o-lantern face pieces from felt or paper. If you want, you can buy those premade pumpkin faces made from felt or stickers that they sell this time of year. Blow up a bunch of orange balloons. This game is the most fun when there are bunches of floating pumpkins. Blow up the balloons and let the kids stick the face pieces on to make a balloon jack-o-lantern.

Once the faces dry, give each kid a balloon and let them bounce and hit their floating pumpkins. To play a game, have the kids stand in a circle and hit their balloon towards the person next to them without letting it drop. All the balloons should rotate around the circle and then the kids can have fun finding their pumpkin from the “patch.”

For a 2 person game, stand across from each other and hit the balloon pumpkin back and forth. For more fun, use 3 balloon pumpkins and make sure they don’t hit the ground.

Here’s a simple, fun craft project for the fall. If you make a bunch of these, you can have your own patch. By stuffing some bags full and some not so full, you get different sized pumpkins. Another fun idea is to get some plastic garden fencing and set it up in a corner of your house. Toss your pumpkins in the corner and add to it a little each day, and watch your pumpking patch ‘grow’.

Supplies:

Brown paper bags

Orange paint

Black crayons or markers

Green pipe cleaners

Leaf cut-outs

Newspaper

Start by stuffing the paper bag with crumpled newspaper and twisting the top closed. Punch a hole into the top of your leaf cut-outs and string them through a green pipe cleaner. Wrap the cleaner around the top of the bag and close it. This is your stem and leaves.

Give your child a sponge or paintbrush and let them paint the pumpkin orange. One idea is to use an old laundry detergent top, glue a piece of kitchen sponge to the opening, and let the kids dab the paint on with this sponge painter. After the paint dries, your child can draw jack-o-lantern faces or leave them plain.