Tag: coloring

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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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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!