Holidays Crafts and Activities

Holidays from New Years to Christmas are a great excuse to teach your preschool child with crafts and activities.

• Valentine’s Day
• President’s Day
• Easter
• Earth Day
• Cinco de Mayo
• Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Hanukkah

Mother’s & Father’s Day Crafts and Activities

Kids love to share the love with Mom and Dad on their special days. Here are some craft and activity ideas for your preschool class to help make their parent’s day just as special as they are!

Mom & Dad Rock! Paper Weights

Here’s a perfect gift for your preschoolers to make for their mommy and daddy. It’s a paperweight that exclaims how cool Mom and Dad are!

Supplies:

• Smooth rock about the size of a fist (one for each child)
• Soapy water and a scrub brush
• Paint brush
• Acrylic paint
• Black Sharpie
• Optional: Clear coat spray paint
• Glitter pens

Prior to creating this gift, the rocks will need to be washed and dried. You can have the children do this or you can clean each child’s rock the night before.

Once it’s good and dry, paint the rock all over with one color acrylic paint.  You may want to apply a second coat once the first has dried if the color didn’t completely cover the rock.

After the second coat (or first if not applying a second) is dried thoroughly, you can glitter the rock with glitter paint or speckle it by lightly tapping a paintbrush with a different colored paint over the rock.

Have the children write “Dad Rocks”, “Mom Rocks” or “You Rock” on their paperweight with the glitter pen. Allow the rocks to dry overnight.

The next day you can outline the writing with a black marker.

Optional: You can spray the paperweight with a clear coat paint to keep it from peeling and to make it last a lot longer.

Tip: When you send the paperweights home, you may want to place them in a small bag to keep the glitter from getting all over everything in the children’s book bags.

Cinco de Mayo Crafts and Activities

Cinco de Mayo Art Projects For Kids

Fall is just around the corner, and with the cooler weather comes more inside time for the little ones. Naturally, they’re going to need something fun and creative to keep them busy. Help your kids prepare for Halloween by constructing these adorable craft projects! They’re easy and fun to make and the kiddos will love displaying them for the holiday.

Maracas of Paper Mache

This craft takes a few days, but is great fun for the kids. The kids will love it when they are done because they will have their own musical instrument – Maracas!

Supplies List:

• Newspaper strips
• White glue
• Small balloons (at least 1 per child – 2 if you want them to have 2 maracas each)
• Clothes pins (the old-fashioned kind used to make dolls)
• Brightly colored tempera or craft paints
• Masking tape
• Dried beans or peas

On day 1, put a tablespoon of the beans or peas into the balloons and blow up until they are the size you want for your maracas.  Tie the balloons and secure them to the clothes pin handle using the tape. Cover the entire handle (clothes pin) with the masking tape as well. Be sure the balloons are held to the clothes pin well by placing several layers of tape where it meets the clothes pin.

Now it’s time to start the paper Mache. You may want to make sure the children have old clothes or a paint smock on the day you do this activity. Mix the white glue with a little water in a bowl. Next, dip the newspaper strips into the mixture and place them all around each balloon covering it entirely. Repeat this step, giving the balloon two or three layers of newspaper. Once you finish, hang the maracas up to dry overnight.

On day 2, make sure your maracas are good and dry. If not, give them another day. Using a straight pin or a needle (teacher, you’ll need to do this part and may want to do so before the children arrive in class on day 2) poke a small hole into the morocco to pop the balloon. Now, the children can begin painting their maracas. Once they finish decorating, hang them to dry overnight again.

Tomorrow, their maracas will be completely dry and it’s time to shake ‘em, shake ‘em, shake ‘em. Have a parade for Cinco de Mayo or play some Spanish music and let them dance and use the maracas to keep the beat.

Earth Day Crafts and Activities

Earth Day Crafts are such fun for kids. Teach the kids about the Earth and introduce some recycling and environmentalism while remaining age-appropriate.

Celebrate Earth Day with the Zoo

We celebrate Earth Day on April 22.  This is a special day to show our appreciation for our earth and all it has to offer us.  Preschoolers need to learn early about our earth, how precious it is and what makes it that way.

One way to celebrate and learn about Earth day is by taking a trip to the zoo.  Now you may not have a zoo close by or even be able to take your preschoolers on a trip to the zoo but you can bring the zoo to them right in your classroom.

Find stuffed animals that represent the different animals found in a zoo.  Look at the dollar store, rummage sales or even ask the children to bring in stuffed animals they may have at home.  Try to get as many different animals as you can find.  This will help create a more realistic zoo.

Use cardboard to make your zoo areas.  You can draw on the cardboard to duplicate the habitat of different animals. Some animals live in trees, some in the desert, and some in grass or high weeds and so on.  It doesn’t have to be fancy just enough so the children get the drift of how these animals live.  Place your animals around the room as they might be found in a zoo atmosphere.

Find books that talk about the different animals and how they affect our earth.  Point out each animal in your make believe zoo.  Have the children discuss what they know about each animal and their environment.

Let the kids walk around the zoo.  They can talk to each other about the animals and feel as if they are really right at the zoo.  Just let them enjoy their little trip.  Top the day off with a snack of popcorn and peanuts.  No trip to the zoo is complete without those snacks.

Giving your preschoolers an idea of why Earth Day is so important can only start them on the right track of doing their part to help our earth continue to prosper.  Showing them why animals are so important to this is one way of letting them know everything has a purpose on our great earth.

Plants Are an Important Part of Earth Day

Plants are a very important part of keeping our earth healthy.  Children love to learn about plants, flowers and even trees. It peaks there interest and they want to know we have them. Earth Day is a great day to talk to your preschoolers about our earth and the necessity for all the plants we have in our world.

Use books to help explain to the children about different plants.  There are many types of books that have pictures of different plants and explain them in very simple detail.  You may think your preschoolers aren’t interested in seeing a plant but they are.  They watch Mom and Dad in the garden or planting flowers and they want to know why.  Books can help them to understand the why.

Take them outside and point out the different types of plants, flowers and trees.  Not only will they get a kick out of seeing these but they may find things that are a surprise. Like a squirrel in a tree or a worm in the grass.  This will definitely peak their interest and will start the questions rolling.

Help them to plant their own plant.  It doesn’t take much. A Styrofoam cup, some dirt and a few seeds are all they need.  Show them how to fill their cup with the dirt. Talk to them about how the dirt is important for the seeds to root and grow.  Find a book that shows how the plant progresses from start to finish.  These pictures will give them an idea of what they can expect as their plants grow.

Let them plant their own seeds in the dirt.  Walk them through how to place the seed in the dirt and push it down so it can get the nutrients it needs to begin to grow.  Help them water their plant and let them know it’s necessary to continue to water their plant if they want it to grow into a pretty flower.  As the plants grow talk to them about what stages they are in and how the plant will bud and then finally be a flower.

Kids may act like they don’t care about the world around them especially that plant growing in the window.  In reality it does peak their interest and they do want to understand why they are important.  If nothing else they want to know how to make those flowers grow so they can give Mom that pretty bouquet to set on the table.  Teaching them the significance of plants to our earth at an early age will insure they are responsible in helping to keep our earth alive and healthy forever.

President’s Day Crafts and Activities

President’s Day Crafts are such fun for kids. Teach the kids about the President’s and introduce some history in the process.

President’s Day Finger Puppets

Trying to teach preschoolers about some of our holidays can be a little bit frustrating.  What 3 year old cares about President’s Day?  They know it means something because they have heard Mom and Dad talk about it and how it has affected their day or week, but they have no idea what it’s all about.

President’s Day finger puppets are a great way to help preschoolers understand what this holiday is all about.  They are easy to make and the kids can have some fun with them while getting a little information about why we celebrate this day.

You will need a penny and a nickel for each child.  You will also need blue and black construction paper, tape and glue.  Cut the construction paper in strips. Measure the strips to each child’s index finger on both hands.  Once you have the strip measure red, glue it so it fits like a tube over their finger.

Tape a penny to the top of the black construction paper tube and the nickel to the blue one. Cut a piece of black construction paper to look like a stovetop hat. Tape it to the top of the penny for Abe’s hat.  Now cut a piece of blue construction paper into a triangle.  Tape it to the top of the nickel for Washington’s hat.

Slip the tubes over the children’s fingers so that the money faces the inside of their hand.  Now they have puppets to put on a little play about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  Tell them some facts about each president and explain to them why we celebrate their lives.

This gives your preschoolers a fun lesson in President’s Day and what it’s all about.  They learn while playing and having fun.  Before you know it they will be telling everyone they know about President’s Day and why it’s so special.  Won’t they all be in awe when their preschooler knows what it’s all about?