Crafts – Page 13 – Pepper Scraps

A Craft a Day: F is for Fish

This is the week that got interrupted with illness but we really did have fun doing these crafts. Besides doing the crafts the boys got to go fishing a few time this week. Once down by the river where my husband grew up and once at a stocked fish pond that I went to when I was little.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week. Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler. If you want to learn more about the basics of A Craft A Day you can find them at a Craft a Day: Coming Back Soon. I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a you can find it here.

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

The Crafts:

School of Fish – These turned out pretty cool even though my apricots weren’t shaped perfect like theirs. Plus I lost the photos of us making them!
Good Luck Goldfish – I was a little skeptical about this working, but it worked so well I’m going to have to do more plastic wrap and Elmer’s Glue crafts!

Sun Catcher Aquarium – This was basically like the fish, but then we decorated the aquarium after it dried with fish and sea shell stickers.
Foam Fishing Set – This was a huge hit with Zane as he is just learning to fish with his daddy and is now obsessed. With this set he can now fish whenever he wants!

Supplies: dried apricots, cream cheese, pretzels, chocolate chips, tissue paper, Elmer’s Glue, plastic wrap, goldfish template, scissors, construction paper, fish and shell stickers, dowel, yarn, strong magnet, craft foam, paperclips, glue dots, google eyes

Be Featured

If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog on the following weeks post!

Crafts

A Foam Fishing Set

Zane has a new hobby that he loves, fishing! My husband is loving teaching him how to fish and the other weekend we went out two times to different places to try fishing.

I wanted to help Zane create a little fishing game. I had seen a few different examples of these, I decided to use the supplies I had at home and make our own.

Supplies: dowel, yarn, strong magnet, craft foam, paperclips, glue dots, google eyes

Pre Prep: I cut out the fish from the foam and attached the paperclips. I also cut out a fishing hook.

Step 1: Tie yarn on the end of the dowel

Step 2: Use glue dots to attach the string to the top of the hook and the magnet to the bottom of the hook
(you can cover your glue dot with a little extra foam where you placed the string to cover the exposed glue dot)

Step 3: Attach the eyes to the fish, both sides

Step 4: It’s time to fish!

You can use a towel or small rug as a “pond” inside.

Or you can use an empty kiddie pool outside.

Zane absolutely loves this game and actually cried when we had to leave to go to dinner because he wanted to stay and fish!

I’ve seen some great learning ideas you can combine with this game. You can have your children fish for specific colors to learn colors. You can write big and small letters on the fish with a sharpie and your children can try and make letter matches. You could also have the children give you a word that starts with the letter they “catch”. You can write numbers on the fish and teach your child addition, subtraction and more.

Any other ideas how you can use this to teach your children?

A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: If I had girls

As I had mentioned last week we are taking a short break from the craft a day letter series and just sharing some great crafts that I have come across.

This weeks theme is going to be girly girl crafts. If you have been following along on Pepper Scraps for a while you know I have two wonderful little boys. Most of the time my crafts are gender neutral. But sometimes I come across some amazing crafts that are just too girly for my boys. Today I will be sharing you some of these finds.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Fairy Garden – The other day I asked if he thought Zane was patient enough to do a “Gnome” garden he laughed at me. I still may make this just for me. You can also find fairies and many other things you can make for your gardens.
Dress Up Felt Board – I know girls are a little better at detailed work so they may be able to help you make these. They can at least help you design outfits to make.
Foam or Felt Food – I’m actually thinking about making these for Zarek, he loves playing with fake food. I loved this idea for “making” cookies (If you use foam you shouldn’t have to sew). More food ideas. And you may need a pretend stove for this activity too!
Weave a Jump Rope – What a fun way to start teaching your little girl hand weaving.
DIY Mobile – I loved these and may try them with the boys, but the detailed ones would be hard to get Zane to make. I love the butterflies!

Be Featured

A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: Summer Fun

After a week of being sick and sick children we took a couple weeks off of our letter lessons. I hope your summer is going great and that you are having tons fun with your kiddos!

This week I will be just sharing with you 5 great crafts that are just filled with summer!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Butterfly Bites – Butterflies made from doritos and chicken bites!
Water Sponge Toys (video) – A fun way to get cool this summer?
Recycled Bubble Wrap Travel Game – Are you going on a trip this summer? Here is a fun activity to keep your kids busy in the car.
Scavenger Hunt – How about making a camping scavenger hunt?
Make a Mini Marshmallow Popper – These just looked like tons of fun!

Be Featured

A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: E is for Eggs

I was torn this week, did I want to do eggs or elephants. I decided to go with eggs because there were so many great egg crafts but no elephant crafts. If you know any good elephant crafts please send them my way for the next time we do E.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

Are you Supermom?

The Crafts:

Chickie Eggs – These were cute and almost too easy. Zane loved putting them together I don’t know how his ended up with a frowny face but it was pretty funny. (Make sure and keep the shells for the other projects.)

Earth Mosaics – This was a great project for bible day. The boys colored pictures in the morning and we talked about how God made the heavens and the earth. Then in the afternoon we made our earth project. This is definitely a keepsake project.

More Mosaics – You can do this project in addition to the Earth Mosaic project or if you don’t have or want to deal with clay you do this project instead.
Egg Geodes – We tried this science experiment but for us it failed. If you have any luck getting the crystals to grow please let me know!!
Egg Planters – We had some extra grass seed in our garage and I hope the grass will grow in time for the letter G! Or maybe I hope to keep the grass alive for the letter G.

Supplies: eggs, carrots, black sesame seeds or food markers or sprinkles, clay, egg shells, food color, vinegar, Elmer’s Glue, alum, paint brush, glass or plastic container, hot water, grass seed, potting soil, paint

Be Featured

Crafts

How to Find Great Coloring Pages

Today a friend asked how I got the pictures of the dinosaurs for the Color Science project. I actually print out a coloring sheet for each boy for each lesson day, so I find 8 coloring sheets for each week on the letter of the week. I have gotten really good at finding coloring sheets for them. Here are some of my tricks.

I have a few bookmarks for sites for coloring, but when I’m looking for a specific subject I use Google Images.

Search Terms

The terms that I use to search include:

preschool _____ coloring sheet
preschool _____ coloring pages
______ coloring sheet
______ coloring pages

I also do letter tracing pages for Zane, these are the searches I use to find those:

(LETTER) tracing worksheet
(LETTER)(SUBJECT) tracing worksheet
tracing letter (LETTER) preschool worksheet
tracing letter (SUBJECT) preschool worksheet

You will get lots of options, plus Google will give you more search terms to try also.

Refine Your Search

You can refine your search by clicking black and white images and also clicking line drawings in the sidebar. This is great if you get a lot of photos and art in your results and want to get straight to the coloring pages.

Find the Best Page

You will have to open up a few to make sure that they are a high quality printable image.

To do this right click on the image you like and select “open in new tab”.

You will have to close the window that pops up in front of the new tab and look at the page offering the coloring sheet.

Print

Most of the sites offering a coloring sheet will have a print button available or have the page in a pdf that you can download and open.

Now you have unlimited coloring pages for your kids!

Hi I am Pepper, yep that’s my real name, it’s on my birth certificate. I’m an old school blogger going back to her roots. In 1999 I wrote out my feelings and shared my silly random thoughts.

Well I’m back! This is me sharing the real me, hoping that it shows you that hey you aren’t alone in those weird, funny, hard moments in life. I’m putting the pieces of life back together after divorce, emotional abuse and starting out on a new adventure. Want to join me?

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