Butterfly Project: Chrysalis

Materials One un-blown-up balloon per kid Some paper to tear up–junk mail, old drawings, catalog pages…anything. A pot and access to a stove or microwave Flour and water Small bowl and a low glass or another bowl How Blow up the balloon to desired chrysalis size and tie it. Your child should tear up the […]

Butterfly Project: Eggs on a Leaf

Materials Construction-type paper Glue Something to be the eggs: IKEA beads, perler beads, ditalini pasta (you can even have your kids paint them first), buttons, those 3D stick-on gems, even paper punches. A straw or a stick A glass or little bottle How Trace a leaf shape onto construction paper for your child to cut, […]

Butterfly Project: Caterpillars

Materials Egg carton of any kind Scissors Tempera or acrylic paint and brushes or a piece of spongeOR markers OR colored paper and glue How An adult needs to cut the egg carton in half (creating two 1×6 strips). This gives you the chance to make two caterpillars. Then give your kid painting materials and […]

Coin Sorting

Materials Four small cups, bowls, or plates A bunch of loose change Setup If your child doesn’t know the coins apart yet, start the sorting for them by getting one penny, one nickel, one dime, and one quarter next to each of the four containers. Let them sort the coins. Variations If your child is […]

Baking Breadsticks

This was very easy to do with kids, and they baked in about 15 minutes. After they do it once with you, kids can do the measuring, kneading, and dough shaping on their own, and it’s very satisfying for them. Materials one medium bowl flour, baking soda, and salt OR self-rising flour milk olive oil […]

Lanterns

Materials One empty toilet paper roll per child A few markers, crayons, or paints Tape, glue, or stapler Optional Materials Stickers Tin foil Magazine cutouts, like you’d use for a collage Wrapping paper Setup Show them how to measure the paper to cover the whole tube. For younger children, cut the paper to the right […]

Paper Chain

Materials Scissors Tape, glue, or stapler Any kind of paper: look for slightly thicker paper, but anything will work. Try construction paper (especially random half-colored on pages), old coloring book pages, magazine covers/pages, junk mail, wrapping paper, paper from your office recycling bin Setup and How Make for your child two sample strips first so […]

Making a Crown

MaterialsAny kind of paper or tagboardScissorsSomething to color withAny kind of tape How-Cut the paper lengthwise into two or three strips. Keep the strips the same width: a width between two and six inches works well. -Tape the strips together lengthwise to make one long strip.-Measure your child’s head with the strips and cut, leaving […]

Knot Tying Frame

MaterialsFile folder, preferably without pockets, does not need to be newTwo shoelaces or pieces of yarn (or any kind of thick-ish string)Scissors Setup HowClose the folder. Step by step, show your child how to tie a knot, two or three times. Keep the knots rather loose, so they’ll be easy to undo.Then have them practice. […]

Rainbow Coloring

SetupDraw a rudimentary rainbow with six stripes.Have your child find six crayons/colored pencils/markers in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. HowIf your child knows rainbow order, ask them to color in the rainbow in rainbow order.If not, make a tiny rainbow on the bottom corner of the page showing rainbow order, and see if […]