Play and Learn with Goldfish (Seedlings ages 2-5)

A favorite snack for kiddos is often goldfish so buy the colored ones and have some fun with them & use them as a learning tool! We had fun counting goldfish, sorting them and then making Goldfish Bowl art project with them. Many were eaten as well. I rarely buy the Goldfish Colors so they thought of this as a special treat – sometimes it’s the little things!

Orange Octopus (Single Stem Post)

We did the letter O this week (that post coming soon) and read the book Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway. We also sang a song called Orange Octopus from DLTK so we thought we would make an Orange Octopus. This idea was a collaborative effort with Roly Poly (4 yrs) and myself. Ever since my older son, Hornet made a cute frog mixing blue and yellow to make green in a Ziplock bag I have been wanting to do that idea, which worked great for our orange octopus. It was Hornet’s idea for the cheerios (or O’s as we’ve been calling them this week) for the suction cups on the tentacles. Speaking of tentacles, we did some test to see what material would work best. Surveyors tape looks cool but it doesn’t hold the cheerios very well. Felt holds the cheerios but you can’t let the glue sit very long because it soaks in and we also needed to use tacky glue to have the felt stick to the Ziplock. Paper works good as well but tacky glue is also best for attaching tentacles to the bag.  

Enjoy this single stem idea of Orange Octopus for
Sprouts and Seedlings (toddler/preschool and elementary age)...

The Stuff

The FUN!

Ziplock bag Yellow paint Red Paint Tape (I use clear packing tape) Orange felt or paper Glue Cheerios White circle Black marker

1. Put a dollop of yellow paint and a bit of red paint into a Ziplock bag. I taped the top with clear packing tape. 2. Kids squish the bag together to make orange! 3. Cut 8 tentacles out of felt or paper and use tacky glue to glue to bottom of Ziplock bag.   4. Glue cheerios to the tentacles. 5. Make eyeballs with white circles and marker and glue or tape down to the bag. We taped ours.   Let dry and display! We have ours in the window and the light looks cool coming through them!

Add yellow and red paint to a bag and tape the top.

Squish the paint to make orange!

Glue cheerios (suction cups) to the tentacles.

Glue everything together, let dry and display!

Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway

More ideas…

Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Orange Octopus!
Happy Crafting
~Sara

Under the Sea (Bouquet Theme)

 Ok, maybe my favorite event to date! We started out reading Mister Seahorse (yes, another Eric Carle book!), singing a couple cute ocean songs and checking out a small sample of my giant ocean collection. We then had three craft centers that the kids rotated through, a snack and then a crowd favorite…Frozen Ocean!
*You may click on the picture collages to make them larger.
Here are the details for an
Under the Sea Event for
Sprouts and Seedlings (toddler/preschool and elementary age)...

Under the Sea BOOK, SONG and TOUCH

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle Ocean songs (check out Perpetual Preschool – “Goldfish, Goldfish” and Everything Preschool – “I’m a Little Fishy”) Ocean items to touch (shells, crabs, sea stars, barnacles, etc)	Check out the book from your library or buy from your local book store or my fave online book store, half.com. Print off song lyrics	1. Read Mister Seahorse and discuss how the different babies are carried and different camouflaging. 2. Sing the ocean songs a few times. We added motions to the “I’m a Little Fishy”! 3. Let the kids touch ocean items.

We did the three crafts in centers with and a helper at each one.
The kids rotated to each center!


Bubble and Fish Prints
I combined two of my favorite print techniques for this picture.
Bubble wrap and yes, real fish!

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Bubble wrap Blue paper Fish (head and tail on) Paint (some people water it down or use ink for the fish prints but I have always had good luck with just regular tempera paint) Foam paint brushes	Put paint on plates (we used cupcake tins for shades of blue, green and  purple for the bubble prints)	1. Cover the bubble wrap with shades of blue, green and purple paint. 2. Flip bubble wrap upside down on blue paper (or just put the paper down on top of the bubble wrap). Rub lightly. Set aside. 3. Paint one side of fish ~we used orange and red. *I like to move the fish to a clean paper/newspaper before we print because they tend to get the paper behind the fish full of paint which will then transfer if it is not moved. 4. Take the blue bubble print paper that was made earlier and put this down facing the painted fish. 5. Lightly press on the back of the blue paper being careful not to shift the paper. Make sure that your fingers press along all of the fins and tail. 6. Peel off and look at your very fun print!

Flying Jelly Fish
We have seen several versions of these using different cups/bowls around the blog world. We thought they turned out beautiful and liked them hanging together!

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Empty plastic fruit cup Nail (for poking hole) Modge podge Glitter Tissue paper Yarn (cut into various lengths of about 2 feet) Googley eyes	Cut tissue paper into squares or let the kids tear them on their own Cut yarn Poke hole using a nail in the top of the fruit cup	1. Kids modge podge the inside of the fruit cups and sprinkle glitter inside. 2. Then put tissue squares on top of the glitter and add more modge podge. Let sit. 3. Kids choose 6-8 pieces of yarn and lay out together. 4. Adult help if younger – Use one skinny piece of yarn to tie around the middle of the yarn clump. Take the other end of the yarn and push it through the hole in the top of the fruit cup. Hang in a sunny spot!

 

Shaving Cream Marbled Fish
This is one of my favorite messy paintings because it turns out beautiful even if you have a very young painter. It can be adapted for any theme and is under my “Tweakable Crafts”.

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Shaving cream Paint Popsicle stick or chopstick Cookie sheet Squeegee Paper (cardstock is best) Pencils Scissors Optional – fish tracers	Cut fish shapes out of light cardboard (ie cereal boxes)	1. Use fish tracer, pencil, paper and scissors to trace and cut out a fish shape. 2. Put shaving cream on cookie sheet and smooth out with squeegee ~ about ½ inch thick. 3. Squeeze dollops of paint on top of shaving cream. 4. Use popsicle stick or chopstick to swirl paint. 5. Place fish shape on top of shaving cream and paint and press lightly. 6. Pull paper off and use squeegee to remove shaving cream and paint. *you can do both sides!

Crabwich SNACKFrom Spoonful Blog!

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Croissants (we cut them in half sideways and gave them each a half) Cream cheese w/ plastic knife 6 carrots/kid 2 olives/ kid Cucumber 2 slices red pepper/ kid *We also had watermelon	Cut cucumber (smiles) and red pepper (front claws) Cut croissants in half sideways Put food items on plates.	1. Show kids a sample crabwich. 2. Kids use their food items to create their own! 3. Then of course they gobble it down!

Frozen Ocean ACTIVITY
Ok, this is a must do for all moms/dads/teachers! I recommend just having a frozen tub of “whatever” (doesn’t need to be sea creatures) on hand for any given moment when you need an hour to get something done or just want to watch your kids problem solve. The kids LOVED this and were completely focused! It was great how they would think of new ideas and tools to free the sea creatures – those wheels were churning for sure! I got this idea from Happy Hooligans Blog!

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Large tub (I made 4 and used 2 large spinach tubs and 2 plastic shoe box tubs) Water (I colored mine with blue food coloring) Sea creatures Squirt bottles, salt, baby spoons, bowls of hot water, cups for pouring, etc.	Freeze sea creatures in colored water in large tubs – I did about 4 layers so that the sea creatures wouldn’t all be at the bottom	1. Kids use all of the supplies to free the sea creatures from the ice!

More ideas…

Ocean in a bottle
We first added some sand, then some blue glitter, then shells and moss for seaweed. Then we added the blue water. I put some glue around the lid and I would recommend putting some strong tape around the lid as well.

 

Sea Creature Relay Race
We played this later that afternoon with some neighbor kids. The water in the water table was blue and full of sea creatures from the Frozen Ocean. We added some shaving cream and it turned murky so you couldn’t see the sea creatures. Kids would run to the water table, grab a sea creature and throw it in a bucket. When it hit the bucket the next person on their team could go. Very fun!

 Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Under the Sea Event!
Happy Crafting
~Sara, Becky and Keri