Cotton Ball Ghost

My son loves Halloween. So, even though it is almost Valentine’s Day, he really wanted a ghost project. I did some searching and found my inspiration from No Time for Flash Cards.

First, I drew a simple ghost shape on cardstock. My little man cut it out. Again, we really need some cutting practice. (And still do.) He spread glue all over the ghost and put down cotton balls. I cut out some simple eyes and a mouth. Then, he glued that down. And voila! A very simple ghost.

Here is our creation:

 

Valentine's Day Heart Garland

The inspiration for this project came from Right Start Blog.
 
Since it is close to Valentine’s Day, the project was easily modified. To get the heart shapes, I folded one edge of my paper tube, using a butter knife (or you can use a bone folder) to get a nice straight edge. Then, I creased the top of the tube to get the heart shape. I cut 1” pieces. One paper towel tube gave me enough hearts, but it will depend on the size of garland you make.
 
I punched small holes at the top and bottom of each heart. Then, my little man painted them all red. If you are adventurous, like me, use acrylic paint for a nice coat. If you are not so adventurous, washable paint is fine but will need several coats.

 
Once paint is dried, cut standard pipe cleaners (chenille stems) in half. Make a small curl in the bottom and thread through holes. Make a loop at the top for hanging. Cut your ribbon to the length of your mantel (or however long you want your garland). I had my little man attach the hearts to the ribbon. And voila! A very simple but cute Valentine’s decoration.
 
This project lends to any color you desire. I chose a monochromatic design.

Here is our creation:

Cutting Projects

Today’s project came out of the desire to teach my little man basic cutting skills. Over the years, I have seen some scary cutting in Kindergarten. Though, I admit I have been reluctant teaching him this skill after he cut the tip of his finger off at daycare over a year ago.
 

My goal was to work on proper grip and correct direction. He was not quite ready to hold the paper and turn it. That will come with more practice.

 

I found some great paper projects at education.com.

You can filter the site by project and by age group.
 

Here is the project we did:

 

If you are looking for some more complex projects, we found some great playsets at Spoonful, which is sponsored by Disney. My husband and my little guy had fun with the Avengers playset that I cut out.

 

Waterless Snow Globe

I am still on a winter and snowman kick. So, I thought a waterless snow globe would be perfect.

I found several projects for snow globes. Some used glass jars, but I wanted something my little man could play with later. One site, The Rice Babies, had a nice simple idea.

 

I used supplies that I had on hand. We had just gone to Dairy Queen, so I used the lid of the hot fudge sundae. Other supplies included wrapping ribbon, cotton balls, stuffing, card stock, muffin paper, and glitter. I cut a piece of card stock to fit snuggly in the bottom of the DQ lid and then used the muffin paper to completely seal the bottom off. My little man glued everything together (including putting the snowman together) and sprinkled glitter into the lid for just a nice extra touch.

 

Here is our project:

Shape Snowman

The inspiration for this project came from Mamas Like Me.

She has a great blog post called “31 Days of January Crafts for Kids,” if you want some other great winter projects.

 

We love the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and have read it several times, so this project really connected to me. Also, I just did a project with shape pictures in my Kindergarten class. ☺

 

So, here is our shape snowman:

A Winter Scene

I was inspired for this project by Red Ted Art.
 
However, I wanted to step up the project just a bit. I had seen a few projects that used puffy paint. For a winter scene, I thought that would be perfect for snowflakes.
 
First, I cut out a tree and snowman and mounted them to our project paper.

 

Then, my little guy covered the whole picture with blue and purple finger paint.

 
Lastly, I mixed some homemade puffy paint. There are a lot of recipes out there, but I didn’t have the ingredients for the shaving cream version or self-rising flour for the other version. So, I did a little experiment. I used 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons salt, ½ teaspoon of baking powder, and then added warm water until it was the consistency of paste. We used Q-tips to add the puffy paint snowflakes, and just for the fun of it, I went over the top of the snowman. We put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds (may be 10-30 seconds, depending on your microwave).

 

Here is our final creation:

 

Finger Puppet Theater

So, looking for fun craft projects online, my son saw a finger puppet theater from Katydid and Kid. It wasn’t a craft for him to do, but he does love imaginary play. (He did punch out some stars for me. ☺) So, I spent my day making the theater. This website had a great tutorial:

I didn’t have a dowel, so we used 2 straws pushed together.

 

I found some great free finger puppets from the Toymaker. (I am sure she would appreciate a donation for her great puppets.)

 

Here is our creation:

Salt Dough Halloween Figures

Halloween in January? I guess so. My son saw me searching through craft projects online, saw salt dough ghosts on All Free Crafts, and kept asking me to make some.
 

Salt dough is very versatile. You can make everything from ornaments, figures, to handprint/footprint keepsakes. The ideas are endless.

Tip: You can add paint to the mixture, but be aware that it fades tremendously. My suggestion is to paint when done instead.

 

Working with dough was great motor practice. I showed him how to squish, pinch, roll, and flatten. Then, I showed him how to make an eye with a toothpick, and he caught on pretty fast to make all of the features. We also used a small metal spatula for cutting and making lines.

 

I really thought that once I had the salt dough made that my son would forget about the ghosts he had seen. I was wrong. In fact, when he and I were done making a ghost a piece, he wanted pumpkins and a gate to go with them. He made some other figures, but I am posting the Halloween ones because they seemed to be a theme of his.

The ghosts and gates show what the dough looks like before being painted and before being completely dried. I painted the pumpkins, since the colored dough faded.

 

Here is our creation:

(My ghost is on the right.)

Side note: My son did love playing with the figures, too! ☺