ABC Fun Z is for Zebra: Marble Painting w/the Letter Z

We have had lots of fun with our Zoo Theme this past week. 

We read many fabulous stories, enjoyed lots of great crafts & activities that we will be sharing with you and even took a trip to the zoo! so much FUN!

Today we are sharing our ABC Letter Z craft with you.

This is going to be part of the ABC Book that I am creating with my 4yr. old.

It turned out so cute that even my soon-to-be Kindergartener wanted in on the fun.

Z is for Zebra

Isn't our Zebra Z cute?

Ready to make your own?

Here's What You Need:

white cardstock

blue construction paper

black foam

wiggly eye

black & red permanent marker

glue

Here's What We Did:

1. Using the white card stock I made a large Z template

2. I taped it onto a large tray and added a few drops of black paint and marbles (the Lil Diva used 4 to match her age!)

3. Then the Lil Diva had fun rolling the marbles to create stripes on the Z. After they were satisfied with their stripes we let the Z's dry.

Here's what they looked like after rolling. 

 

 To Turn the Z into a Zebra:

sorry about the lack of photos for this part - dead camera battery :(

4. I cut a mane out of black foam. The Lil Diva glued it under the Z and then cut strips to make it look like hair.

5. I cut out a tail & she cut it into strips to look like hair as well and we attached it to the lower part of the Z.

6. Add wiggly eye and draw smile & nostril (make side profile of face)

7. I had the Lil Diva copy Z is for Zebra onto the paper.

 

Didn't she do a great job? :)

We also practiced making the letter Z using our foam puzzles

and writing in a plastic baggie filled with black paint -

the Lil Divas LOVED writing this way.

Books:

Bern

Frozen Paint Art - COOL Fun on a HOT Day!

I can hardly believe that our summer is coming to an end! :(

My big girl starts Kindergarten in 2 WEEKS! Yikes!

Although school may be starting - summer is as HOT as ever!

We had so much fun exploring our water & ice themed week -

the Lil Divas were sad to see it end!

I had promised them we would try our Frozen Paint Art again

since the last time we ended up with melted paint trying to transport it in this heat!

This time the paint went straight from the freezer to paper &

it was a HUGE SUCCESS!

I just had to share because the Lil Divas had so much fun &

created so many masterpieces!!!

Aren't they great? :)

It was so easy too -

Here's What We Did:

I poured tempra paint into an ice cube tray. The Lil Divas opted for rainbow colors. I did not dilute with water as we wanted bright and bold colors for our paintings. I put the paint in the freezer for about 20 mins and let it begin to harden. Then I added the popsicele sticks (so they would remin firmly upright) and let the paint freeze overnight. The next day we had our frozen paint & were ready for some fun!

The Lil Divas painted on white contact paper (it's nice and sturdy!)

The frozen paint lasted a nice long time since we were working indorrs.

They had the opportunity to create many, many works of art :)

While my Oldest Diva was busy creating

picture after picture of hearts, flowers, trees, etc....

My Littlest Diva could not resist getting in some fingerpainting.

She loved the cold paint on her hands best. :)

This really is a fun & easy project that is suited to many age levels.

I know we will be visiting this again sometime soon.

Just look at all the great Frozen Paint Masterpieces the Lil Divas created!



As a special treat after all their hard work we decided to make some
Frozen Fruit Pops. I blended some mixed berries & yogurt and froze it in small dixie cups w/popsicle sticks. YUM! These were a hit & we have made several batches since.





Happy Frozen Painting!

Bern

Preschool Science: "COOL" Ice Art for Little Hands

We had so much fun exploring ice & water last week!

The Lil Divas were sad to see our theme come to an end.

Of course even though we have moved on to our newest theme (zoo animals) - the curiosity, explorations & fun never end.

The last activity I would like to share was a "cool" one! :)

We combined a little Science Activity + Art and came out with some "Cool" Ice Art.
(This activity was inspired by a post I saw on The Artful Parent)

What You Need:

balloons

water

measuring tape

food coloring

paper & pen (for older preschoolers)

*For younger tots you can just skip ahead to the art part of the activity if you don't think they'd enjoy or get the experiment part. Honestly my Lil Divas had so much fun with this - you must try it!* 

What We Did:

1. We filled up balloons with water and then measured them.

2. I made a simple data collection table and we recorded measurements for each balloon.

3. We put the water balloons in the freezer overnight

4. The next day the Lil Divas were running to check on their balloons!

They were so excited to see that they were frozen and so heavy!!!

5. We measured the water balloons and found that they were bigger!

The solid ice had expanded the balloons size!

The Lil Divas were most impressed with how much heavier they were in ice form.

I really wished we had weighed them so we knew just how much heavier they got!

That would definitely be an addition I'd suggest to anyone that is going to try this!

We had these large blocks of ice & the Lil Divas loved playing with them!

I just knew we had to do somehting with them and the Oldest Diva suggested we paint them. I'm sure our frozen paint activity had her mind going & I was wondering how we could do it.

Then I remembered an activity I'd recently seen about ice & salt! :)

So, out came the salt & the fun began!

6. Pour salt directly onto ice block.

Notice the Lil Divas were very generous with the salt. :)

Instantly the ice started to crackle & pop and lots of little craters were formed!

The Lil Divas were in awe.

7. Drop food coloring into the holes

Again, notice we were very liberal with the food coloring.

I tried to get them to just add a few drops but they were not to be stopped! :)



Can you blame them?

Look at how pretty this looks.



As the food coloring slipped through the holes and combined with the melting ice it created a wonderful work of art to behold. The inside of the ice was alive with color.



We left our works of art out for the entire day.

The Lil Divas enjoyed checking up on it and watching it melt.

A very "cool" art project!

Bern

Water Fun: Frozen Finger Painting

The Lil Divas are fully enjoying our water themed week!

Each day they excitedly ask about what I have in store for them

& can't wait to get to the fun.

The other day we had a playdate with some dear friends &

the Lil Divas insisted we bring along our day's activity - Frozen Finger Painting!

I have seen this on many blogs lately & knew we had to try it!

There is no better time to play with something cold

than during this sizzling summer heat.

I opted to use our tempera paints versus food coloring or water colors.

I wanted to ensure bold colors on our canvas

and this seemed like the best way to do it.

What You Need:

 tempra paint in desired colors

(we also used some gold glitter paint)

ice cube tray(s)

water

pipette

stirrer or paintbrush for mixing

straws or wooden popsicle sticks



What We Did:

The Prep Work:

1. I poured paint into each section of the ice cube tray

2. Using the pipette I added water

(so as not to overflow & mix colors) and mixed.

3. I put the ice cube tray into the freezer for about 30mins.

4. I added the straw halves to each color and put back into the freezer overnight.

The next day they were nice & frozen! 

The Craft:

Note: I decided to use a thin canvas for this painting activity -

mostly because I was worried the paper would tear as the ice paint melted.

After driving in the hot car for 15-20 mins to get to our detination

our ice cube paints had begin to melt :(

We put it back into the freezer for a few mins. but the kids wanted to get outside.

We got their bathing suits on and went out

& to my dismay the ice paint was melty! :(

Here's the 1 picture I got of the actual ice paint being used

and even here you can see my Lil Diva had "painted" her hand

and was making a handprint on her canvas!

The Ice Painting That Wasn't:

Melty ice paint = straws falling off the already melting cubes.

Melty ice paint cubes = squished paint on little hands

and squished paint in little hands led to "cold"frozen finger painting instead!

We ended up with lots of this!

Not my original intention but we made the best of it

& the kids had fun with it anyway since MESS=FUN!



To show that this idea can be fun for children of all ages

I have to share with you that even my friend's 1 year old got in on the fun!

She was my "star" participant!

She LOVED getting the cold squishy paint on her hands

and smearing it all over the canvas!

She kept asking for more.

It was so cute & her finished product was awesome!



Here are the finished "fingerpaint" materpieces:

I have to admit I feel like I need to do this again. 

Even though the kids enjoyed it,

I can't help feeling like we still need to try our original idea of frozen painting.
So be on the look out for that because it will be coming!

Books:

Bern

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