Super Easy Summer Craft For Kids~Paper Plate Fans

Summer Easy and Fun

Paper Plate Fans

I am dying in this heat!

Here in Ohio, the last three days have been above 90F.

I was not made for Winter...but this heat, no rain, no breeze is about to kill me.

I have this very persuasive four year old that is determined we are going to do a craft every day..Every. Single. Day. this week. OUTSIDE!

Yes, she is also very specific. 

So...an outdoor craft that is quick, easy, and...cheap!(saving up for my iced coffee!)

I jump over to my wonderful Pinterest board filled with tons of great ideas. Seriously, my biggest addiction next to my babies and coffee!

I found this craft...

over @ The Pinterested Parent

By the way...She is awesome! Check out her stuff! I have been following her for awhile and she always has something new.

These are so cute and easy to make.

The supplies are things you probably already have on hand. Bonus!

Supply List:

paper plates

popsicle sticks or "crafting sticks"

Elmer's glue or glue gun and sticks

crayons, paint or markers

scissors(my brain is melting. I just had to google...how to spell scissors!)

optional:

stickers, googly eyes, stencils, foam stamps...

Directions:

Cut plates in half(2 fans)

Decorate, design and embellish your half plate

If using paint or anything glued, wait until dried.

Glue 2 popsicle sticks into a "V"(wider is better) for gripping your fan/handle

Then glue the other 2 ends to the back of your "fan"

(press firmly)

Allow to dry

Fan away!!

So, I survived the heat and we got them all finished. I think we made about 8 in total. I even got the middle daughter to join in!

They turned out super cute and...very useful!

Now...fan mommy!

I hope you give these a try and always check back for more fun, cheap, easy crafts!

We have great ideas!

CoffeeWastedMomma kid craft ideas!

Happy July!

Share your fun ideas!

Homeschool/Preschool Week #6

Homeschool/ Preschool 

Week #6

This week we are in full swing Fall...

Here in Ohio, we are starting to wake up to those cool, crisp mornings. The sun is rising a little later each day and the leaves are starting to change colors and fall in the breezes.

I am finally starting to take advantage of these days and really get into our Fall theme. I want to soak up as many days outdoors teaching Little E as much as I can before the frost and days of too cold weather come. It is such a beautiful time of year. Even if it only makes me want to hold on to those lazy summer nights a little tighter.

All the letter "A"s...

We are finishing up our letter A week. I have been trying to think of as many "A" words that I can to teach her while we are out and about. Apple, Acorn, Airplane, Ants...

We've wrote, traced, and done our letter finds almost everyday this week.

She has also been practicing her short a sound.

Alphabet...

I found a wonderful alphabet puzzle at the Dollar Tree. It is super colorful and has nice, big letters that are easy to recognize! We have a printed off sheet with the alphabet and we used that to compare and match the letters. She did so great with this. I mixed up all the pieces and had her search for each letter/puzzle piece in order. The pieces are different colors, so if she seemed to get stuck or struggle finding the correct letter, I would give her a "hint"...like "The piece you need is a purple piece."(there are about 5 of each color) so maybe only A, M, R, V ,Z would be purple. 

Scavenger hunt and nature...

Last weekend we spent the day at Papaw's and took advantage of the 734 ton of trees and fallen leaves on his acre backyard. The girls ran around around rolled in the leaves all afternoon. They gathered leaves and tried to find as many different ones they could. We found big, small, red, orange, green, skinny, fat, round and pointy ones!

I even found a cute, free  Printable Scavenger Hunt over @ MomDot

It is designed for smaller children. I think we found everything except the "green beetle" that Little E kept insisting we needed to locate!

(It was an image(artwork) on the page, not on the actual list. LOL)

Graham Cracker Haunted House...

We also made our very own "haunted house". I can't talk about this enough! We went over each color and we did work out a pattern with our candy corns. She counted each candy chip as we placed them on her little house and talked about the different shapes we needed to build our house. There were so many fun ways to work in a lot of learning into this project. And, it was fun! You can see more about that over here >>>DIY Haunted House

I hope you all had a wonderful and productive week!

Check out even more fun Fall activities here>>  More Fall Activities @ A Mom's Impression.

As always, Don't forget to go back and check out our previous weeks through my blog and leave us any tips or ideas you have came across this week! We love learning!

DIY~ Halloween Graham Cracker Haunted House

Our Preschool "creepy" (completely edible) Haunted House

Are you a Momma looking for a fun, creative project to make with your littles?

Are you looking for something that isn't going to take up your whole day just getting it ready?

(I know the attention span of a four year old! If prep time is more than 10 minutes...She's out!)

Then, this project is for you...and your little!

I too love a good craft that we can make together. There are always so many "grown-up" projects going on everyday, it's nice to slow down and do something together with them.

I found this idea over on Pinterest, of course!

FoodJunkie~ DIY Haunted House

Her houses turned out much more appealing than ours but that's fine with me.

Sometimes it's the process not the end result.

Little E was totally into this project from the beginning and well,....so was I.

We made a few changes and made it our own. Which, I believe is the whole point in this. You can take the basics and make it anyway you'd like. Each one is different.

Our Haunted House!

What we used: 

Graham Crackers(any brand)

Chocolate frosting

Orange frosting(bottle type)

Variety of candies(we had Reese's pieces, sprinkles, and candy corns)

Base, board, or plate(something to build on)

Zip lock bag or piping bag

We started with parchment paper to cover our cardboard base. I had her help me hold the sides and I piped the chocolate frosting to get the walls to "stick". This does take the finesse of pressing hard enough, and long enough for it to grip but, not so hard that you crush and collapse your crackers! It is a trained skill. LOL

Once we got the four sides on, the roof just kind of sat on top. I did try to pipe some frosting along the eaves to get the effect of it being attached.

After that it was pretty much sprinkle, candy and frosting mayhem!

We had a blast and it was quite sweet! Literally!

Luckily, this entire project is completely EDIBLE! I know, I know! Bonus!

I love finding these cute, little, quick craft ideas! There are so many fun ways to spend time together and maybe even learn a new craft. I love learning new things and hope to teach my littles to love learning. Even, just making a graham cracker haunted house!

We hope you enjoy and will try to make your own "Haunted House"!

What is your favorite Halloween craft?

Easy Fall Craft~ Making Trees...Homeschool Week #2

Do you need a quick, easy and cheap Fall/Autumn craft to do with your toddler or preschool aged child?

This craft can be done with minimal supervision and not a huge mess.

You will need:

A printable tree trunk(Printable Tree Trunk)Free!

Construction paper(shredded or torn)

red, yellow, orange, brown...

and a glue stick!

That's It!!

This whole project cost seriously, like $2.00

Glue sticks are $1.00/2 pack

and the construction paper was $1.00 for like 200 sheets

How easy is this?? Right?

Here is a link: Autumn Tree Craft

By the way, I printed off like 4 of the trunk sheets and my little has been making these for days!

Each one turns out different...She made one with all red leaves.

At first, being the OCD that I am, I tried to arrange and show her how to place them at the tips of the branches and then work her way around or in toward the trunk.

Well, Yea, she wasn't having that! She just wanted to haphazardly glue them anywhere!

And, guess what?

It turned out GREAT! I loved it! She loved it, and was so proud of her little Fall Tree!

We went over each color and why they fall off the trees.

"The trees deed(Dead*), Mom?"

"Why"?

She really was fascinated with learning about why they go from green(and stay on) to changing colors and fall off.

I've honestly been sort of slacking this week with the homeschooling. 

I've been out of sorts and she has been restless and fussy.

We've read a ton of books about school and whatever else she finds, we've tried to work on the letter A. I found some cute Autumn themed worksheets about Apples, Acorns, etc. She wasn't really into those too much. But I have discovered she loves the "Letter finds". Basically, it is a word find sheet, only with letters mixed up and each sheet wants you to find a particular letter.

Those are great and they have capital and lowercase.

(I'll have to find a pic of her A sheet)

I'm sure I will have a ton more things about Fall/Autumn and the crisp season coming.

I've got a ton of material yet to do on this.

I hope you enjoy this fun littel craft as much as we have.

Also, check out these great finds:

Fall Patterns Worksheet

Fun Fall Activities For Kids

In case you missed our intro to homeschool/preschool and week one,

Check us out here:

Preschool~ week #1

Happy Learning!