Red, White & Blue 4th of July Inspired Snacks & Crafts featuring Spin Art, Splatter Paint, Blow Painting and More

This weekend it's all about the red, white & blue here in the U.S.A!

It was the perferct time to get out our paints, have fun, make a mess & create.

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Craft: Easy Red, White & Blue Spin Art Fireworks

It all started with my idea to do some red, white & blue homemade spin art fireworks.  I had been inspired by previous posts by Putti Prapancha, Teach Preschool, & The Chocolate Muffin Tree. I have been anxious to try it with the Lil Divas since eyeing those fun posts and in the name of  "fireworks" I just knew that the time had come.

What You Need:

CD

red, white & blue paint

white paper

What We Did:

1. Add drops of red, white & blue paint to underside of CD -

I found more drops of paint used = a more multi-colored the effect

2. Place the CD onto the paper & swirl/twirl/turn to your hearts content :)

3. Carefully Lift & behold!



So easy yet so fun & festive!

We will be doing this again - next time w/lots more color!

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Craft: Blow Paint Fireworks

We have done blow painting in the past by blowing (food) colored bubbles so I wanted to try it to make fireworks since the Lil Divas had enjoyed that project so much.

What You Need:

red, white & blue paint (I watered it down a little to make it easier to clow)

plastic straw

white paper

What We Did:

1. Add a few drops of red white & blue paint onto paper -

we purposefully put them close together so the colors would mix while blowing

2. BLOW!

That's it - super easy & oh, so FUN!



Blowing through a straw to make art never disappoints!

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Craft: Splatter Paint Fireworks

Next, being inspired by working with straws the oldest Diva decided she wanted to paint with our special 4th of July Firework Straws (found at Target) so of course I had to oblige! :)

What You Need:

red, white & blue paint

white paper

firework straws -

these are simply made of ribbon so you could use ribbon or just a paintbrush to splatter

What We Did:

1. dip the ribbon "fireworks" into desired color paint & splatter, splatetr, splatter! 

Here's how her picture came out

(the ribbon was weighed down by the paint so it was hard to splatter)

Then she decided she wanted to fold & smear her artwork

Here's what it looked like after that:

Sometimes sudden inspiration can lead to wonderful art!

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Craft : Painting Old Glory

A 4th of July Inspired Painting Session just wouldn't be complete without a flag or so the Oldest Diva insisted! I had one planned for another day but she was having none of that excuse.

 What You Need:

white paper

red, white & blue paint

paint brushes

What We Did:

1. I helped her make a outline by giving her "hints" to make a small blue rectangle first and then the larger red rectangle around it to form the flag

2. Then she got to painting her stripes alternating the red & white

3. She painted in her blue inner rectangle then used white paint "dots" as stars

We had a messy & fun red, white & blue art day!

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Now for some easy, fun & yummy red, white & blue snack/food ideas:

I made this healthy & easy fruit kabob flag using cut up strawberries, banana slices and blueberries on wooden skewers.

The Lil Divas enjoyed some red, white & blue jello using layered berry blue and strawberry jello topped with whipped cream

I made these flag pancakes for Memorial day but they are perfect for the 4th of July so I had to share them again - see the full how-to post here

What 4th of July crafts and/or food have you enjoyed lately?

Bern

ABC Fun F is for Flower: Food, Crafts and Learning Fun

As our Flower theme comes to a close I want to share a few of  the things we did we this past week that I didn't get to post.

A cute lunch  made in honor of our flower theme:
PB&J sandwich in a flower shape (used a cookie cutter) and a  Fruit Flower - made from strawberry slices, blueberries & mandarin orange slices

 The Lil Divas worked on Do-a-Dot Letter f's courtesy of Confessions of a Homeschooler - the lil divas really like doing these.

We also worked on a Letter Ff Hunt page courtesy of Beginning Reading

Craft: Coffee Filter Flowers

What You Need:
coffee filters
watercolor paints
paintbrushes

What To Do:
1. pre-cut the coffee filters into a flower shape by folding in half until you get a small slice - then cut the 2 sides so they represent a petal shape as seen below)

2. paint flowers using watercolors

3. flowers will be very wet - be careful not to rip and let dry fully before decorating

4. After flowers have dried you can apply sequins, jewels, etc if desired

Activity: Parts of a Flower
What You Need:
tissue paper in desired color for flower
green foam (stem)
green construction paper (leaves)
brown pipe cleaners (roots)
markers
blue construction paper (background)

What To Do:
1. We made flowers using the tissue paper (a rose & sunflower)
2. we cut the brown pipe cleaner into pieces to look like roots, a stem from the green foam & leaves from the green construction paper and the lil divas assembled the flower
3. Then using word cards I had made they labeled the appropriate parts of the flower.

Seed Power - A Numbers Matching Game

What You Need:

Flower cut outs (I used a flower shaped notepad)

Number cut outs

markers

What To Do:

1. With a marker color in seeds on each flower cut out for the desired numbers you would like to use. We used 1-20 (I am reviewing 1-10 for the lil Diva and 11-20 for the Oldest)

2. To Play: 

- I set out the number cards (1-20) in mixed up order and made a pile of the flowers (also mixed up)

- The Lil Divas took turns picking a flower and couting the seeds and then finding the correct number card.

It was an easy and fun way to review counting & number recognition

Hope you enjoyed our Flower/Garden Theme as much as we did! If you missed any of our activities just click the link to check out everything we did!

Bern

** linking this to Childhood 101 - We Play!, Sharing Time,  Get Crafty,  Read, Explore, Learn , For the Kids Friday, and Preschool Corner, Feed Me Books Friday  It's Playtime

Earth Day Part 2 - Food & Games

Just wanted to wrap up our Earth Day Activities and share the last few things we did today.

First, the Littlest Diva decided we should all wear some green today - so we did! Cute idea!

All day we worked extra hard at remembering to save electricity, water, etc. It's of course important to do everyday but today the Lil Divas were extra vigilant! :)

For lunch, I made Earth inspired sandwiches -

It was just cream cheese (I added a drop of food coloring to make the blue and green) on toast but they found is festive!

As a special treat after dinner we made Earth cookies as well -

They were regular sugar cookies and I added a drop of blue food coloring to vanilla frosting to make the water and then we used green icing to add land. They were a hit - then again cookies are never turned down in the Lil Diva house! :)

Finally, we played Earth Day Bingo as a family at the end of the night. I made the printables myself and am sharing them here ---> Earth Day Bingo

How did you celebrate Earth Day?

Bern

Rainbow Theme: Skittles & Jello Food Fun

Skittles Math

What You Need
bag of skittles
Skittles Math Sheets

I randomly gave each Lil Diva 20 skittles out of a bag to use for our graph.

We worked on analyzing the graph and did some addition problems using the template I made (provided above)

Then they made some Skittles patterns

and since you can't have fun with Skittles and not "taste the rainbow"  here's a kid-friendly snack idea:

Jello Rainbow Snack This took 2 days of prep time but the girls really helped along the way and it was fun (except for when they kept asking if it was done, lol!)

What You Need:
clear cups
jello in rainbow colors - we used strawberry, orange, lemon, lime, berry blue & grape

1. Make the jello according to the package directions.
*You will be making 1 color at a time - leave approximately 3 hrs. for hardening time before adding the next color. This is why it was a 2 day process but it was worth it - it's really easy to do & so fun to eat!*

2. Divide the liquid up among your cups - I used 9 oz. cups and poured approximately 1/4 cup of jello liquid and it made 12 cups total which were filled just below the top. It worked out perfectly.

I started with the bottom of the rainbow - purple/grape and worked my way to red/strawberry at the top.

Here we are halfway done (purple, blue & green)

 
My Lil Helpers mixing the jello

A completed Rainbow Jello Cup

You can add a whipped cream cloud if you like :)

 Then, enjoy!

What, doesn't everyone eat their jello wearing a tiara, lol!

No rainbow day is complete without some art so after tasting the rainbow we decided to "paint the rainbow"

Painting Rainbows

We hope you enjoyed our Rainbow Theme!

Next we will be exploring Spring Weather.

Bern

**I have linked this to Sharing Time,  Get Crafty,  Read, Explore, Learn , For the Kids Friday, and Preschool Corner **

Rainbow Theme - Rainbow Fun w/ Food

Book:

Froot Loop Fun

What You Need:

box of Froot Loops (or comparable) cereal

glue

cotton balls

white background paper

pipe cleaners

Activity #1 Froot Loops Rainbows

What To Do:

Prep: I used a large dinner plate to make an arch on the paper for a starting point

The Lil Divas then glued on the froot loops following the order of the rainbow. I did not make additional lines - I just told them to glue the next color right under the last & it worked very well!

Add cotton ball clouds for a cute finishing touch

Activity # 2 - Rainbow Bracelets

I gave each Lil Diva a white pipe cleaner and told them to add the froot loops in rainbow order
*be sure to measure for appropriate length around wrist & leave room to twist it closed!*

 
They loved their rainbow bracelets & of course they did not last very long due to nibbling! :)

Rainbow Fruit Salad

We used the following:
strawberries
tangarine oranges
pineapple chunks
green grapes
bluberries
purple greapes
whipped cream - clouds

Enjoy,
Bern

**I have linked this to Sharing Time,  Get Crafty,  Read, Explore, Learn , For the Kids Friday, Creative Juice Thursday and Preschool Corner **