Kids crafts Archives - Joanna Anastasia

Kids crafts

Easter surprise craft & printable

March 31, 2017 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

There’s so many reasons to be exited for spring and Easter! There’s the gorgeous spring weather that finally let’s us explore nature and the outdoors, the traditional egg painting and the egg hunting with kids. Then there are Easter family gatherings and last but not the least, new Amazon’s award winning children’s series springtime special, the Tumble Leaf ” Spring-a-ling Surprise”!
And while I’m quite strict when it comes to screen time and kids, I’m always so happy when I can find new educational and well made kids shows!

So to celebrate spring and Easter, we got inspired by this sweet whimsical and beautiful episode, and decided to make our own version of the Tumble Leaf Easter eggs. And my girls could not have been happier!

So if you your kids still don’t know the Tumble Leaf series, then let me assure you, that they’ll love it! This series is beautifully made, with gorgeous aesthetics and captures my kids attention every single time! But what I love the most about it, is how it inspires my girls to craft and play after they finish watching it! And when I look at them, concentrated and with their eyes wide opened, it melts my mama’s heart!

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So after watching this new spring episode, we decided we’ll make our very own spring surprise eggs! And you can craft along with us, since I have prepared a printable for you, that you can cut out and color with your kids! Just download and print the 3 page sheets and you’re ready to go!

All you need to do:

Print out the coloring sheets I made for you.You can get the full three pages printable coloring sheets here
Let your kids color them, and then help them cut the eggs, pots, butterflies and bunnies out!
Prepare glue, and let them put together their own Easter Surprise eggs!
Don’t forget to watch the episode, and find out what are the names of your eggs and what signs of spring has Fig the Fox uncovered !

As for my girls, we might make many more Easter surprise eggs, because as Rose pointed out, we need to have as many as Bloom the bunny in the Tumble Leaf!

And how many will you make?

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, all opinion remain my own.

Teaching kids how to recycle and reuse

February 1, 2016 / Kids crafts / 1 Comment

We all recycle paper and plastic and glass in our homes. We all know how important it is to reduce the waste and reuse old objects. Thanks to my city’s initiative I even do compost. But I realized that my kids don’t really understand the very essence of recycling nor they understand why we do it.

So I decided to show them the meaning of recycling in a way that they can understand, and that’ll look appealing and useful to them: reusing their old and broken crayons!

We took our crayon box and sorted all the broken crayons aside. I asked them first what should we do with these broken crayons, and my older daughter proposed throwing them away. Now, that was a clear signal to me that I should put more effort in teaching her about the importance of reusing things!

So without explaining to her what exactly are we doing, I asked her to help me with taking the papers off the broken crayons. I wanted her to first see for herself how we can recycle broken objects in to something useful, before telling her what will happen.

We sorted the crayons in to colour groups : yellow with orange, blue with purple, and green with brown. We’ve put every group in to a different silicone cup, and off to the oven set up for 300F for around 15 minutes.

When I took the melted crayons out of the oven, my daughter was very surprised, but she still didn’t understand why are we doing this.

When the melted crayons finally cooled down, and I popped new and funny shaped crayon cups out of the baking sheets, finally she understood: we made something new out of something old! Yes. Instead of creating waste we reused what we already had.And that is recycling and reusing.

She’s still a bit young for learning about the climate change, the polluted oceans and Arctic ice melting. I spread her all the explanations about the dangers of not reusing what we have. I think that simply seeing the utility of this craft made her see why it’s better to reuse then to throw away things.

And then she started drawing with her new crayons, and later in the afternoon she used them as cupcakes for her dolls. And so I think that she understood what it actually means to recycle. And how fun it is, when we can make something new out of something old!

And hers what you’ll need to make your new crayons:

Broken crayons
Cupcake moulds (I suggest silicone)
Oven

Take the papers off your crayons, place them in a cupcake moulds, and put in the oven heated to 300F for around 15 minutes so they’ll melt completely. Take them out to cool down. Add some glitter. Pop out once they’re cooled down, and have fun!

Valentine’s day card, that your child can make on its own!

January 22, 2016 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

Valentine’s day is approaching, and I know you’re hungry for new ideas! Remember how I was writing about paying attention to not overstimulate our kids? And guided crafting was one of the things to look at? So, I’m happy to say, that this craft is equally a fruit of unguided creativity, and of a guided crafting with mom. So kids get to express themself, and then they can make something really nice too, a win-win!

My girls love crafting, and this card here is their collaborative work, with just a tiny bit of help from my side. But if your kids are confident with scissors, then they can make this card entirely on their own!

What you’ll need :

A big sheet of white paper
Red and pink paint

2 pink cardboards
scissors
Glue

First step is unguided painting. Let kids ( even an older baby or a toddler ) paint whatever they want with pink and red paint. You could even give them pompoms to paint with (especially toddlers love painting with unusual materials!) Then let it dry.

Take two, equal in size pink cardboards. Set one aside. Fold another one in half, and cut a half-heart. Set it aside.

And now cut the painted sheet of paper in to long stripes. Take the other pink cardboard, and glue on it the pink and red stripes. Make sure there’s no space in-between stripes left.

Now place the cardboard with a heart on top ( add glue to the edges so it stays).
Your Valentine’s card is ready!

We’ll be making more of these, since my daughter decided that she wants to send one to each of her grandparents, and aunts and uncles. And are your kids making cards for friends and family?

Recycled cardboard Christmas tree: easy winter craft

November 30, 2015 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

When the first snow appeared out the window we decided that it was about time for a winter craft. Because homeschooling isn’t only about letters and numbers, but also about fine mother skills, creativity and simply having fun together ( and making mess, just wait and see!).

This little winter craft is really fun for all ages. If you have toddlers on your hand, let them paint the cardboard Christmas tree. If you have preschoolers, they can even cut the tree out and assemble everything all alone. And if you don’t mind cleaning the glitter for days and days to come, then both of them can sprinkle their trees with glitter ! (Yes, I did have glitter for days after.Yes, it did drive me crazy..)

What you’ll need:

Cardboard ( can be old envelopes or a cereal box)
Scissors
Glue
Paint ( green and white)
Glitter

Cut out the Christmas tree. Cut two at the same time, so you have two matching shapes.
It doesn’t need to be perfect! If you’re using a cereal box, or an old cardboard envelope, just glue the printed sides together, and then cut out the tree (this is what we did with one of the pre-assembled-tree-in-making)

Now cut a line from the bottom up in the first one, and from the top down on the second one.

Paint them in green or white, and sprinkle with glitter. Although if you don’t want to have glitter everywhere, just skip this step. Although it’s much more pretty with glitter..

Slide the matching tree sides together, and let it sparkle!

If your kids are older (and I’m assuming more patient then mine are) you could give them some mini pompoms to glue to their trees, or cut out little stars and add them too.

Whatever you decide, I hope you’ll have fun!

Montessori homeschool: letter tracing with paint.

November 12, 2015 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

It’s been over two months now since I decided to start our part-time home preschool. Although my daughter didn’t really realise that there’s something new going on, since we would always paint and craft on the days when she’s staying with me at home. The only difference now, is that we paint and craft including letters and numbers. So even though I call it homeschool, for her it’s playing, crafting and creating with mommy.

This is really the core of Montessori approach to learning: allowing a child discover and create, while using natural, every day objects. It definitely means less iPad games and apps, and more paint and crayons! ( But if you know me, then you know that I believe in balance, so my kids do get to use technology..just reasonably, like when mommy is exhausted and needs a break 😉 )

So while learning about letters, what’s important is recognizing the sound, connecting it to the shape, being able to recognize the shape and naming objects starting by that letter. My daughter would come to me and say that L is like her name, and M is like mommy, before she would be able to recognize the shape of these letters.

And so these activities let kids learn the shape, while connecting it to the sound. Also, it’s easier for little hands to trace instead of write right away. That way they learn the movement of the hand while tracing and are ready to learn to write the letter later.

What you’ll need:

Paper
Pencil (for you)
Paint and paintbrush

Draw letters with little circles. You can start with one big letter A : on the very first day I think this is exactly what we did. Here, I drew a couple of both capital and small letters a for her to trace with a paintbrush.

We repeated the sound, and we came up with words ( in polish) starting by the letter that she was tracing.

Tracing letters with pompoms :

This is basically the same activity, but since we’re using a different material, it gets a whole new dimension for a child. It’s like a mix if sensory play with letter learning, and my daughter really loved this one!

What you’ll need :

Paper
Pencil ( for you)
Paint
pompoms

Of course while we did that with Lili, my toddler Rose wanted to join in, and so she was painting with pompons, and I had a quiet 30 minutes for another coffee 😉

As you might have read before, I’m raising my kids bilingually, so all the activities we do at home are only in Polish, while her three-times-a-week daycare is in French. That’s why I don’t have any printables here for you, I’m simply sharing my experience. But I do have a very we’ll curated Pinterest homeschooling board with plenty great printables and resources!

Montessori homeschool : activities with baking pans

October 16, 2015 / Kids crafts / 0 comment

During our halftime homeschooling adventures, we do a lot of Montessori inspired activities. Usually right after breakfast, still in our pyjamas, we sit at the kitchen table and we take on the letters and the numbers. I want my daughter to feel like we’re playing, creating and discovering, so I usually use the playful approach to learning.

Here are two activities that look like a great fun for a child ( while secretly, are learning situations). I don’t know about your kids, but as soon as I take any baking gear out, for them it’s a party! So here I use baking sheets and muffin tins, for sorting and convenience. And for captivating my preschooler’s attention obviously 😉

This first one is a counting activity that also develops fine motor skills.

What you’ll need :

Muffin tin
Scraps of paper
Small objects:
pom-poms and pipe cleaners cut in pieces

Write numbers ( up to 12) on paper scraps and place them in muffin tins. Then let your preschooler match exact number of small objects ( like our pom-poms and pipe cleaners) with correct number.

Encourage your child to count aloud with you every time they fill another tin with tiny objects. At the end of this activity my daughter finally stopped forgetting the umber 4, so for us it was a success.

Now this one is using a baking sheet in order to prevent all of the small pieces of paper to end up on the floor ( nobody here wants that, right? I don’t know about you, but me, I’m usually planning our activities around one simple rule: is it going to end up as a huge mess?). Oh, and also to interest my preschooler.

So, this activity is an invitation to create. With a baking sheet full of shapes, piece of paper and a glue your child has only one instruction : make something. It can be an animal, a bug or a car. Or a monster. Sky is the limit. So here, apart from developing imagination and creativity, your child will also advance their fine motor skills. And you might get a 30 minutes of calm. ( it’s a win-win!)

What you’ll need :

Baking sheet
Colourful crafting paper
White sheet of paper
Scissors
Glue

Cut the crafting paper in to different shapes: circles, half-circles, triangles and rectangulars. Keep the size diversified, so your child can have a choice of shapes and sizes.

Talk to your child while they assemble their creature; ask them what is it, where can it live, what does it eat. If they are making an object, ask them what’s the use for it, and who can use it.

And what are your favourite playful homeschool activities?

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