Tag: preschool

Mother’s Day Thumbprint Flower Craft

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As you can tell by the content of this blog, I love being a mom. “Mom” is really a title of honor, and I wear it with a lot of pride. You can imagine, then, how excited I get for Mother’s Day. But it’s not just for me. I have an amazing mom, the mom who taught me how to be a mom. She has inspired me, encouraged me, prayed over me, and loved me my whole life–and now she is continuing this legacy with my children. This weekend we get to honor all of the wonderful moms out there, and that’s something to celebrate!

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I usually make cards for my mom and mother-in-law on Mother’s Day, and this year I wanted to get my boys in on the action. Since they’re so young, I wanted to do something simple that would also be somewhat personalized. I found some cute ideas for thumbprint crafts and poems online, so I just melded them all together to create this craft. I will be making mine into cards, but you could just as easily frame the artwork to make a keepsake gift. Enjoy!

Thumbprint Flower How-To:

Materials:

  • White paper
  • Green marker or crayon
  • Paint (green and at least one other color)
  • (Optional) Crayons to decorate
  1. Trim a piece of white paper to your desired size (I just cut a piece of printer paper in half so I could make two pictures per card).
  2. Use a green marker to draw a stem/stems on your paper.
  3. Paint a small circle slightly above your stemIMG_2149
  4. Put a small amount of paint on a plate. Dip one of your child’s fingertips into the paint and dab it around the painted circle to make the flower petals. You will probably be able to make 3-4 “petals” before you need to get more paint on your fingertip. You can use one color for the petals or a variety of colors. When you are done painting the flower petals, wipe off your finger (unless you like your 2-year old having red fingerpaint up his nose. Just sayin’.)
  5. Put a dot of green paint on a plate. Dip your child’s thumb into the green paint and use it to make leaves on the flower stem. Now wipe off your thumb.
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  6. After your flower has dried completely, you can decorate your picture. Older kids may enjoy drawing grass, sunshine, sky, clouds, birds, etc. to complete the artwork. I also typed up the following poem to attach to my flowers:
    A piece of me I give to you
    I used my thumb and fingers, too.
    I made you this flower so you will know
    How much I love you as I grow.
    A mother’s love and tender care
    Make happiness bloom everywhere!
  7. Sign your child’s name and the year, wrap it up all pretty-like, and watch your mom swoon!

To all the moms and grandmas out there, Happy Mother’s Day! I hope you feel honored and blessed on your special day!

Resurrection Roll Recipe and Bible Story

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I love finding creative ways to teach important truths to kids. And I love it even more if I can find a way to tie food into the “lesson”. You can imagine my excitement, then, when I first discovered Resurrection Rolls.

Basically, Resurrection Rolls are a treat that you make where each step of the cooking process represents part of the Easter story. It’s a wonderful way to tell kids the Easter story AND the rolls themselves are sublime. I’ve had people make the rolls for me before, but this was my first time doing the whole project with David. He was able to help out a bit and was pretty engaged the whole time (even if he did keep trying to swipe marshmallows from my stash). I’ll definitely be doing this again next year–a new tradition has been born!

What you’ll need:

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  • 1 package of crescent rolls
  • 8 large marshmallows (plus extras to snack on while you’re waiting for the rolls to bake!)
  • 3 Tablespoons melted butter
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar plus 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • Parchment paper
  • Baking sheet
  • Bible (or use the “script” below)

How It’s Done:

IMG_1513Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, get out your Bible and open up to John 19 or find the Easter story in a children’s Bible (my favorite is the Jesus Storybook Bible). Below you’ll find the pictures and the “script” for how I told the story to David (he’s only 2 years old, so I kept it simple for him).

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Say: “Even though Jesus was perfect and had never sinned–he had never ever done anything wrong– some people did not like him. They wanted to hurt Jesus because he said he was God. They made Jesus carry a cross and they killed him. This made God very sad, but it was all part of His great rescue plan. When Jesus died, his friends took his body off the cross.”

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Do: Give your child a marshmallow
Say: “This marshmallow represents Jesus’ body. Jesus died for you and for me, because we have sinned and we need to be rescued from our sin.”

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Say: “After Jesus died, his friends came and they put special oil and spices on Jesus’ body to get him ready for burial.”
Do: Roll the marshmallow in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar

Say: “Next, Jesus’ friends wrapped his body in special cloths–almost like a mummy! Jesus had died, and they were getting his body ready to bury.”
Do: Roll the cinnamon-sugar marshmallow up in a crescent roll (it won’t look like a crescent roll). Press all of the seams firmly. Repeat for each of the crescent rolls. Place the rolls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

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Say: “Next, they laid Jesus’ body in a tomb. A tomb is like a big cave carved out of rock. Then big, strong soldiers rolled a heavy rock in front of the tomb so nobody could get in or out of the tomb. They even put a special seal over the entrance so they would know if anybody tried to move the rock that was in front of the entrance. Soldiers stood in front of the tomb to guard it day and night.”
Do: Put the rolls in the oven and set your timer for 10-12 minutes. Let the rolls bake until they are golden-brown. I even let David stand guard in front of our oven “tomb” with his toy sword.

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Say: “Jesus was dead in the tomb for three days. Let’s count to three: one, two, three. How many days was he in the tomb? That’s right, three days.”
(We had some time to wait for the rolls, so I let David play while they were baking. I kept going back to him, though, and we’d repeat this whole conversation about how long Jesus was in the tomb.)

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Do: When the rolls are done baking, take them out of the oven and let them cool (I let mine cool for about 20 minutes, and that was perfect). The marshmallow will probably have exploded out of your rolls, but that’s to be expected (that’s why we put down the parchment paper!). After the rolls have cooled…

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Say: “Three days after Jesus had died, an angel of God appeared to one of Jesus’ friends. He told her that Jesus was alive! Jesus’ friends decided to look in the tomb where they had put Jesus’ body, but when they did, it was empty! Jesus had risen! And still today, Jesus is alive. Today he lives in heaven with God.”
Do: Cut open one of the rolls. The marshmallow has melted, so the “tomb” is now empty.

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Do: Eat your yummy rolls!
Say: “These rolls are sweet, just like the love of God. God made you and he loves you very much. And some day, if you choose to love and follow God, you will be able to spend forever and ever in heaven with him and Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our Great Rescuer. The Bible tells us that the only way to Heaven is through loving and believing in Jesus. We celebrate Easter, because Jesus died and rose again so that we could have a way to Heaven.”

The Shape-Swat Game

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When I was teaching first grade I used to play  “the fly swatter game” with my students. It’s a great game that you can use to teach and reinforce basically any concept that you want your kids to learn. It’s a lot of fun, takes very little prep time or materials, and can be played for as short or as long a time as you have. You can adapt this game to work with kids as young as 2, but it’s also a lot of fun for older kids (I could even see playing a version of this game with high schoolers!).

IMG_0843To play, all you need is a fly swatter and some cards with your “learning concept” of the moment. For my 2 year old, I decided to focus on shapes and colors, but you could really use anything you want your kids to learn (see variations at the end of this post). My friend Krista told me about a website called mrprintables.com that has lots of fun, high quality free printables. I found some neat shape templates on the website and printed them off.

Then I just cut out the shapes for my “cards”.
*Note* If you want to be able to reuse your cards, glue your shapes onto cardstock or construction paper for some added durability.
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I used blue painter’s tape to tape the shapes up on the wall. Then I gave my little guy his flyswatter and showed him how to swat the shapes on the wall gently (which, in little boy speak, apparently means to strike repeatedly with all your force) .

When it was time to play, I started by saying a shape for him to find: “Find a triangle.” or “Find a square.” and he’d try to swat it. Then we played with colors: “Find a blue shape.” and “Find a yellow shape.”. Then we got really fancy. “Find a green square.”, “Find a round, red shape.” “Find something the same color as the sun.”

The fun thing about this game is that you can really make up whatever questions you want to to keep things interesting. When David would answer incorrectly or have trouble finding what I was asking for, I used it as a teachable moment to show him the correct answer and explain why it was correct. David was having so much fun playing that I doubt he even knew he was learning. Plus, he got to run around the room and hit Mommy’s wall on purpose–every little boys dream come true.

Here are a few variations of the game if you want to play at home with your little ones:

  • If you have 2 or more kids, have a race. Have both kids start at a designated spot with their fly swatters behind their backs. Then call out a card for them to find and have them race to see who can find it first.
  • Hide the cards around the room (but still make them visible without having to move anything) instead of just putting them on the wall. Make your kid run around to find the correct one.
  • Play with animal cards- say an animal’s name or sound and kids have to find the correct picture
  • Play with number cards- say a number or “what comes next: 1,2, __?” and kids have to find the numeral. For older kids, have them find the sum or solution to a math equation (3+2+? , 6-1+?, 3×2=?)
  • Play with letter cards- say a letter’s name or the sound it makes and kids have to find the correct letter. For older kids, you can use letter cards for spelling (find the last letter in the word “chair”).
  • Play with sight words (for ages 4 and up): put a different sight word on each card
  • Play with feelings (as long as you don’t hurt any–hehe!)- do a Google search for people making different faces (happy, sad, surprised, etc.) and print them off for your cards. Have your little one find the different emotions.

The possibilities are endless. Have fun playing with learning!