Category: Creating

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How to Stop Spring Break from Breaking You!

It’s Spring Break season! If your kids are anything like mine, the sudden lack of structure has them going a little bit wacky. On top of being out of our normal routine, our Spring Break has felt more like Winter Break, especially with the 2” of snow currently on our lawn. 

Since outdoor activities are a bit limited at the moment, we’ve had to come up with our own fun! I thought I’d share some ideas of things to do in case your Spring Break isn’t going how you had planned. The best part of these activities is that they involve learning or practicing skills in some way, but most of the time your child won’t even notice it’s a learning activity! Win-win!

  • Coloring pages- the internet is full of free printable coloring pages for any interest, age, or skill level. Or, you can click here and download the freebie I posted last week!
  • Easter Egg Match- cut out several plain white egg shapes and decorate them however you’d like. Then, cut them in half using different kinds of cut lines (zig-zag, wavy, scalloped, etc.). Spread them out and have your child match up the halves. 
  • Alphabet Match- On a large piece of paper (even the back side of wrapping paper will work!), write all the letters of the alphabet (choose either lower case or upper case). Next, on 26 different small pieces of paper or sticky notes, write the letters in the case opposite of what you wrote on the large paper. Put each paper inside a plastic Easter egg. Hide the eggs around the house, and as your child finds them, have them open it up, find, and tape the correct letter match on the large paper. Other options for this activity would be to match numbers, shapes, colors, or pictures. It is easily adapted for any age.
  • If weather permits, take a walk around the neighborhood. Before you go, create a simple list of things to find while you are on your walk. Take your list with you and do an outdoor scavenger hunt while you walk. Mark off the items on your list as you find them. 
  • Do some themed days! Have all activities and snacks tie to your theme. Learn about your theme, if applicable. Possible themes might include Disney, insects, colors, letters, or a specific place.
  • Make and deliver a treat and card to someone in your neighborhood who might be lonely or need some cheering up.
  • Create a spring time mosaic— draw a simple spring-themed shape (Easter egg, bunny, flower, etc.) on a plain white piece of paper. Cut up pieces of varying colors of construction paper into small squares. Have your child glue them onto the traced shape, covering the whole space. Cut out the shape and enjoy your child’s masterpiece! 
  • Think of different simple objects that can be built from Legos or other building blocks. Write them on small cards. Have a building competition where you pick one of the cards and everyone has to build whatever is on the card. Have fun seeing the different things your kids (and yourself) come up with! 

Hopefully your Spring Break is less winter-y than ours has been, and hopefully you’re able to find at least a few minutes each day to slow down with your kids and have fun. Use one or more of these ideas to inspire some fun, creative play and watch the magic happen! 

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Spring Coloring Pages- Free Printable

It’s finally feeling like Spring where I live– is it where you are? The warmer temperatures are a welcome thing after a cold winter! To celebrate Spring finally coming, I designed a couple of free printables for you to use in your classroom! Below you will find a downloadable coloring page as well as a page of bookmarks that can be printed and colored.

Enjoy these pages, but please only use them for personal or classroom use. They are not to be resold or shared as your own. Thank you!

Spring Coloring Page-2Download
Spring BookmarksDownload
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Valentine Bookmark Printable

If you’re looking for a fun last minute, super simple activity to do with your students, I’ve got you covered! All you need is a printer, paper, scissors, and something to color with! Click on the link below to download and print off four Valentine bookmarks. Leave them black and white, or color them in!

*Please do not sell or distribute this file. It is intended for only personal or classroom use.*

Valentine’s Day BookmarksDownload
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Valentine’s Day Fun: Preschool Edition

A few days ago, a photo memory popped up on my phone from a few years ago of my older kids doing a Valentine’s themed activity. I remembered it being a lot of fun for them, and remembered it being super easy to set up. I tucked the memory back into my mind, thinking that if I had time in the next few weeks, I’d set it up for my preschool aged kids. Well, as luck would have it, neither of those kids have school on Mondays, and we were all going a little stir crazy yesterday, so off to the craft store we went, returning with a pack of pipe cleaners. A few minutes later, my kids were happily playing!

The concept is simple: form several pipe cleaners into hearts and toss them in a pile on the floor. Give your kids some different objects that they can use to pick the hearts up— things like straws, plastic forks, tongs, chop sticks, popsicle sticks, clothes pins, etc.— and watch them go! Having them simply pick up the hearts is the most basic task with this activity. There are also many other variations, such as:

  • Assign a color and have them work on only picking up that color. Provide papers that match the colors of the hearts and have them sort the hearts onto the pieces of paper. This is great for color recognition and matching.
  • Have them transfer the hearts from one place to another. This helps with hand-eye coordination.
  • After they pick up each heart, have them create a pattern. Early math skills are in play here as they figure out a pattern to make.
  • See how many hearts they can fit onto their pick up tool, without any falling off. They can count their hearts once their tool is full.
  • Have them stack their hearts as they collect them, seeing how tall their stack can get before falling over.

As I watched my kids play with this super simple activity, I got thinking about some other activities I have done in the past when my older kids were preschool age. Most of these activities can be set up with little effort, and require materials that you may have around the house (or can buy for very cheap at the dollar or craft store). 

Pipe Cleaner Beading

Give your child a pipe cleaner and a handful of pony beads. Have them put the beads onto the pipe cleaner. This encourages fine motor hand-eye coordination. They can also create patterns, count their beads, and name colors as they go. 

Paper Heart Sort

Using whatever paper you have on hand, cut out hearts of varying sizes and colors. Have your child sort them from largest to smallest, smallest to largest, or by color if you have more than one color of paper. Again, kids can count hearts, make patterns, and recognize colors as they work through this activity.

Valentine Necklace

Cut a heart out of craft foam or felt and attach a piece of yarn, ribbon, or string of some kind. Give your child a bunch of pony beads and have them make a necklace. As with other activities, this one also allows for kids to work on small motor hand-eye coordination, counting, patterning, counting, and color recognition. 

Another great thing about these activities is that they are practically mess free! There’s no cutting, gluing, or coloring. Sure, the beads could spill, but that’s about the biggest mess that could come from all of these activities! Pro-tip, though— if you do the bead activities, have your child sit on the floor. That way, if the beads do spill or drop, they aren’t going to bounce all over your kitchen floor.

Not only are these not very messy, they are also great activities for promoting several learning skills and coordination skills. And, as a bonus, mom or dad might get a little break for a minute while the kids play and learn! 

Let us know in the comments if you use any of these with your kids or class!

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Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King in the Classroom

With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day approaching, I thought it would be a good time to provide you with a few ideas you can use in your classroom to help your students understand and honor the life and impact of Dr. King. These ideas can be used and adapted for all ages and grades.

Watch the video of Dr. King giving his famous “I have a dream” speech

Sometimes hearing and seeing an event take place can make a greater impact than just talking about it. For younger students, have them listen to and watch the speech and listen for the things Dr. King hoped for. 

For older students, have them watch the speech, then provide them with a physical copy of it. Put them into small groups and have them do a close reading of the speech and discussing what makes this speech so powerful.

You can find the speech here.

Have students create their own “I have a dream” piece

This activity can be presented many ways. Students can create their own speech about their hopes and dreams. You can also have students create a “dream board” where they make a collage of pictures and words showing their dreams. You might also have students write a poem about the things they hope for.

Talk about what “the content of their character” means

Together as a class, brainstorm positive characteristics of people they know. Talk about what character is and how it can shape who you are. Then, have students write (length will depend on age and ability) about the content of their own character and what they hope to be remembered and known for. 

This gives students a great opportunity to analyze what makes a good person and reflect on their own characters. It provides an excellent text-to-self connection.

Create a timeline of the life of Dr. King

Have students— either in groups of individually— create a timeline of events in the life of Dr. King. Have them use the internet to gather pictures and information to create their timelines. 

This activity provides students a chance to research, learn, then practice putting things in chronological order.

Talk about bravery and courage

Dr. King was incredibly brave and courageous for doing the things he did. Talk with students about times they have had to be brave. Discuss what it means to have courage. Have them write about their own experiences with bravery and courage.

Discuss equality vs. equity/fairness

Many students don’t understand the difference between equality and equity. Take the opportunity to teach them the difference and why it matters. The discussion opens up a world of possibilities in talking about how we should treat people and how people need different things to succeed based on their own personal circumstances. Students can create a piece of art or writing showing their knowledge and understanding of these concepts.

Research famous quotes by Dr. King

Have students research famous things Dr. King said. Let them pick their favorite, then have them write it out and create a piece of art around the quote. Encourage them to match their art to the feeling of the quote. 

Plan a day of service

Dr. King was a big proponent of service and believed that everyone could serve. To honor this legacy, plan a day of service with your students. If possible, plan and execute a large scale service project together. If not, encourage students to find smaller ways to serve and help those around them. Service is something that benefits both the server and the served. It provides students with an incredible chance to look outside themselves and see others in a different light. 

However you choose to, I hope you take a minute to at least talk about and acknowledge the impact that Dr. King had and continues to have on our world. His legacy is one to not be forgotten, and it’s important that we continue to teach the rising generation that everyone matters and everyone has a voice.

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Every Child An Artist

Today I took my kids to a local children’s art studio. We spent a solid two hours there, making art, playing, and having fun. I’ve got five kids, ages 9, 7, 6, 4, and 3, and all of them were occupied the entire time we were there. It was the best $30 I’ve spent in a while. Not only was it a change of scenery and something to do for the afternoon, it also provided so many opportunities for my kids to think creatively and experience art in a very hands-on way. 

The art center is set up with several stations, each one providing a different kind of art or medium to try. There were paint stations/rooms, building blocks, a sewing room, sensory bins/tables, a little library, table for playing with clay, a workshop to recycle “garbage” into art, and more. The options for creating were endless, and there was something for all ages. 

I was impressed by the opportunities for learning that were inherently part of the art process. In the paint room, they were able to mix colors on their papers (and even on the walls!) to see what new colors could be made. One station had foam blocks with shaving cream as the “glue”. This allowed my kids to not only feel the art they were making, but also gave them a chance to experiment with how much shaving cream they needed to get the blocks to stick together.

At the recycled garbage/scrap table, they were able to get really creative with every day items— toilet paper tubes, cardboard boxes, ribbon and fabric scraps, straws, empty bottles, and so much more. They got to use their imaginations to create all sorts of things, and when they couldn’t get something to work how they wanted, they had to problem solve and figure out a new way to make it work.

Another station had kids take a plain white paper butterfly and choose somewhere in the studio to camouflage it. They could take paper scraps with them to color match, then would return to the table to create their butterfly. They were then allowed to tape up their butterfly wherever they had decided to camouflage it. I loved this activity for a few reasons— it got them thinking about colors, forced them to use spatial reasoning to get their design to match up with wherever they were putting their butterfly, and also gave them a chance to really try hard to make the camouflage work. 

As an English teacher and book lover, of course my favorite part or the whole studio was the little library. Tucked away in a quiet corner, there were a few small shelves of books and some cozy chairs to sit in while you read a book or two. It was the perfect little corner to sit and relax. 

I think we’ll be coming back to the art studio! My kids had a fantastic time and came away with some art work and a sense of pride in their creations. It was a good reminder to me that creating art is a great way to learn and is essential for kids. Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” If we provide kids with opportunities to think creatively and to actually create, they can do so much. We need to continue to provide these kinds of opportunities for them in and out of school settings so that they can carry those creative skills into adulthood. After all, the world is a more beautiful place with art!

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Is the Mess of Making Art Worth It?

This morning I woke up and came down to the kitchen to find my six year old and almost five year old happily painting and making sun catchers. There was paint all over the table, all over their hands, and other supplies scattered about. At first I was annoyed. I mean, waking up to a mess isn’t ideal, and it really wasn’t what I wanted to wake up and see first thing on a Monday morning. But… when I saw how happy and proud they were with their creations, I just couldn’t be be mad. And what’s more, when their little sister came down wanting to make one, and they happily worked together to help her do that, I really could’t be upset. It was a good reminder to me that messes are part of childhood and part of learning. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned as a mother and school teacher, it’s that messes can be cleaned up.

Hands-on experiences are crucial for developing minds and hands. It is so important for little hands to really get into what they are doing. Immersing themselves in the creative process allows kids to be more engaged and to learn from what they are doing. 

Think about a child playing with kinetic sand or play-doh. To get the full experience of playing with those things, a child needs to use their hands to manipulate and create. It’s not enough to just look at it. Creating art is, by nature, a hands-on experience, regardless of the medium being used. 

Creating not only inspires great thinking; it also helps develop a plethora of other skills. Coloring promotes proper pencil/crayon/marker holding. Painting helps develop hand control. Cutting with scissors and gluing small pieces are both great for helping refine fine motor skills. Thinking through the process of what to create and how to create it gives rise to creative thinking. If creating with other people, it allows for cooperative creation and learning. When the creating is finished, children can learn valuable clean up skills, and can learn the importance of picking up their messes and leaving their area clean and tidy. 

Another thing that stems from creating is a sense of pride and accomplishment. Upon finishing, kids are able to immediately see the results of their hard work. They can display their creations and can feel proud of themselves for what they’ve done. This feeling of accomplishment can help foster confidence that can carry over into other areas of their life. 

Creating art really is much more than just paper, scissors, markers, and glue. Sure, it entertains kids and is fun. But, really, it aids in so many other areas of development and life that it is a very valuable tool. 

So the next time your child asks you to let them create something, and you’re tempted to turn them down, take a minute and think about the benefits of creating, and maybe you’ll reconsider!