preschool – Page 3 – Pepper Scraps

A Craft a Day: K is for King

At first I was going to do K is for knight but then realized with Zane learning phonics this may confuse him. I decided to change it to K is for King. We are doing a lot of the same activities I’m just changing it all to be about a king instead of a knight.

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.

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

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 letter you can find it here.

The Crafts:

Mini Sword Snacks – I actually used sword toothpicks that I use for the boys bentos, but if you are concerned with your children with something sharp you can use pretzels instead.
King of Kings Crown – A fun, easy and inexpensive project. I love that everything in this project you can at the dollar store. Plus it let my boys have a freedom to draw, paint, color however they wanted.
Knight Collage – I know this is more knight than king, but I told Zane that this was a King Knight. This project took a little prep on my side as Zane is still learning scissor skills so I cut out all the pieces beforehand. But if your child is learning or good at scissor work this project is great!

Paper Plate Crown – What I love about this project is that you can pull out any odds and ends you may have from other projects to decorate these crowns. You can use stickers, gems stones, marbles, pom poms, scraps of felt, and any other kinds of odds and ends.
Card Board Castle – Create a castle for your little King (& your Queen). I first saw this castle and loved it, but their isn’t very much that my boys would be able to do to create this. Then I found the colorful artistic castle created at Frugal Family Fun Blog. Perfect! You can let your children freedom of decorating their castle with markers, crayons, tissue paper, and more.
Shield Collage (Bonus Craft) – Cut out a shield from cardboard and use tissue paper to cover the cardboard. Then let your child use stickers to decorate their shield and create their own “coat of arms”. Supplies: Cardboard, Glue, Stickers, Tape

Supplies: assorted fruit, pretzels or sword toothpicks, craft foam, Popsicle sticks, decorations for crown, hot glue, elmer’s glue, styrofoam balls or pool noodle, cardboard, misc decorations for the walls,, paint or markers, craft knife or good scissors, Construction paper, Tin foil, Yellow and black pipe cleaners, Feather, Black pen or marker, Knight Template, plate, stickers, scissors or exacto knife, random craft scraps

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!

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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 Craft A Day: Must Have Crafting Supplies

I was recently talking to a friend about her wanting to do more crafts with her daughter but she really didn’t want to buy lots of supplies. I can understand this as we are always on such a tight budget. This week we will be taking a break from our usual link of crafts and talk about supplies for you and your kids.

I thought this is perfect timing to talk about what you should have stocked up. As school children are about to rush through the doors to a new school year you are already purchasing school supplies. Or if you only have little children then this is still the best time to buy your supplies. Stores are trying to entice moms to do their school supply shopping at their location and are offering amazing prices on certain items.

Basic Preschool Craft Supplies:

white glue
markers
stickers
pipe cleaners
craft foam
craft felt
construction paper
pom poms
popsicle sticks
tape
googly eyes
scissors
crayons
paint & paint brushes
basket to organize everything

You know what’s the best thing about this list? You can find all these items at the dollar stores! That means with a $15 investment you have a great start to your crafting supplies.

Of course you may find you need more items than this, but this is a good start. Keep your eyes open when you see a clearance section at a store or use your imagination when you walk through the dollar store. Look through the ads right now as Back to School is in full force.

Or check out the clearance sections a week or two after Back to School to get even better deals. Right now I’ve found Crayola crayons and markers on sale for 99 cents and pencil boxes for 59 cents (great for organizing). Find your local store’s website and check out their ads online! It’s quick easy and you can find some great deals.

Next week we will be back to our regularly scheduled a Craft a Day post.

A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: J is for Jelly Fish

Of course I had to be all about ice cream, especially with summer finally choosing to grace us with it’s presence in Oregon. But summer and playing outside is distracting us from our crafts, so we only did half of them this week. That’s okay we still had fun!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

The Crafts:

J is for Jiggly Jellyfish – Jello, marshmallows, and carrot make up this adorable snack. I actually just used the premade cups, cut the jello in half to make them a little flatter and decorated. The boys loved these! Oh and if you use the premade jello clean the cups and save them for the Flying Jellyfish craft!

Jellyfish Dogs – I know a second food related craft, but can you blame me these are so cool! You just stick the speghetti into the hot dogs and cook following the pasta directions! Easy peasy & tons of fun!

Flying Jellyfish – Another craft that I totally failed at. I recommend putting the hole in the cup before having Zane decorate them. When I tried putting the hole in the glue didn’t hold to the plastic so kind of destroyed the craft. And I was so excited because cutting the yarn would have been a really good scissors practicing activity.
Jellyfish Invasion – We didn’t make it to this craft, for one rare week I didn’t have tons of produce bags this week. Oh well, I still think these turn out really neat!
Coffee Filter Jellyfish – Both boys had fun creating their jellyfish and this is such an easy laid back craft. This is also a great toddler craft!

Supplies: jello cups, carrots, mini marshmallow, mini chocolate chips, hot dogs, spaghetti, Snack Cups, glitter paint, yarn, grocery bag, tissue paper, scissors, curling ribbon or yarn, tissue paper, coffee filters, pens, spray bottle with water, google eyes, glue dots or glue

Are you Supermom?

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A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: I is for Ice Cream

If you are new to A Craft a Day

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

The Crafts:

Homemade Ice Cream In Baggies – Loved doing this! What a great snack to make! Though I recommend with young kids have a helper on hand. Neither boy was good at shaking so I got pretty cold keeping both bags going. LOL

I Spy Bottle – Do you remember the rainbow rice? Well here we are using it for an I activity. (I know not ice cream related, but oh well.)

Ice Cube Art – Since the weather finally turned warm in Oregon I decided this was the perfect time to try out ice cube water colors. I’ve seen it other places besides the ice cream cone template here, but thought this was just perfect!
Puffy Ice Cream Cones – I wanted to do this so much, but with summer comes many other fun things to do. I will put it back in my idea drawer and use it again.
Pretend Play Preschool Ice Cream Store – I used the cocoa recipe linked here, but otherwise used my favorite playdoh recipe to make up our “flavors”. Just earlier this week Zane asked me to do playdoh so this was perfect.

Supplies: sugar, half and half, vanilla, coarse salt, ice, gallon ziploc, quart ziploc, all kinds of small items, rainbow rice, glue, camera, hole punch, ribbon or binder ring, ice cream tray, food coloring, popsicle sticks, glue, shaving cream, cream of tartar, flour, salt, oil, cocoa powder, mint extract, strawberry koolaid, vanilla, food color, plastic containers, Elmer’s Glue, printed labels, ice cream scoop

Are you Supermom?

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A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: H is for Human Body

This week we didn’t do a lot of actual crafts as just learned. I found some really neat activities so I thought I would share them with you.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

The Crafts:

Skeletons Snacks – I saw these and thought they were great! I didn’t put them on cupcakes, we just put them on plates.

My Body Felt Board – If your little one is good at cutting you can have them cut the pieces out on this project, but with Zane I just cut them and showed them how they worked. He loved learning about bones in his body.
Layers of the Body -I was planning on making these layers with elmer’s glue and tissue paper, but again I wasn’t supermom so we didn’t make it to this project.
With & Without Bones – Since Zane was so intrigued by having bones I thought this would be a great activity to explore it more. Especially since he asked “Why do we have bones?”
Homemade_Food_Pyramid – This was a great activity and I was surprised at how quickly Zane picked up that we eat sweets very rarely and we should eat lots of fruits and veggies. This was also great to work on his cutting skills. You can find an example of the new food pyramid here.

Supplies: marshmallow, food pens or food color and toothpick, white chocolate covered pretzels, toothpick or lollipop stick, felt and/or cardboard and/or craft foam, scissors, glue, tissue paper, saran wrap, large precut triangle marked like the food pyramid, magazine and/or shopping ads, scissors, glue, gloves, flour, popsicle sticks

Are you Supermom?

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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

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?

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!

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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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