Paper Flowers

Yesterday, on one of my rare visits to the shops (I much prefer browsing second hand and charity shops than going to malls or large stores, but I wanted to get my nieces and nephew something for Easter), I found the We R Memory Keeper Flower Punch Board on special for $25 at The Warehouse, reduced from $40.  I find it hard to go past a craft bargain, and I love paper flowers, and anything that helps to make the process less fiddly and time consuming has got to be good.  So I bought it and took it home and I have been making paper flowers ever since!

I thought I would share how easy it is to make them using the punch.  As with all crafts, however, it does take time, so do make sure you have a bit of time to spend making them.

The punch comes with instructions, a paper creaser, and a tool for rolling around the petals, to create a curve.

The board states the measurements (both in inches and cm) for the different sizes of flowers.  Cut your paper into strips according to the size you want to make.  A paper cutter is helpful for this, otherwise use a craft knife, mat and ruler.  I cut several sheets of paper at a time, and used both 80gsm paper and 120gsm paper.

 Place your paper vertically and line up along the 'Start' line.  Push the punch down (this creates the petal shape) and use the paper creaser to crease the paper along the indented lines.  Move your paper down to line up your horizontal crease next to the line marked on the board (this will make more sense when you use it).  Push the punch down to create the next petal, and repeat until you have created 8 petals (the larger sizes use two strips of paper, so you will create 4 petals at a time). 

This is what it should like one you have completed one strip.  I do 3 strips at a time.  I think 4 strips might be a bit too much for the punch to cope with easily, but 1-3 strips works well. 

Once you have completed a strip, accordion fold along the creased lines (fold back and forth along the lines).  Again, I did this 3 strips at a time.

 Continue folding back and forth until you have completed the strip.  It will start to form a circle.

 The folded strips of paper.  You can see that one side has the pleats showing - this will be the back of the flower.

 Put a dab of glue on the end tab and stick down on the last petal.  .

The completed flower.

A variety of flowers, in different sizes and colours.

 Layer the flowers on one another. I have made a variety - some are 3 layers, some are 4 layers, and some are 2 layers.  I layered a large flower with an extra small flower.

 When you are happy with the arrangement, put a dab of glue in the middle of each flower and press the next layer into it.  I found it easiest to go from the bottom up. 

 You can cut off a petal (or 2 or 3) to make the flowers more 3D.  These flowers above have 7 petals instead of 8.

 Cut out a small circle (doesn't have to be a perfect circle) to stick in the middle.

 I cut out a larger circle to cover the backs of the flowers.

 Snip into the middle of the circle (especially when covering flowers with 7 petals or less) to give a neater finish.

 Put glue onto the circle and stick down, covering the folded pleats.

 The backs of the flowers.

You don't have to layer the flowers.  I created daisies by using the extra small size, and placing a circle of yellow in the middle.  I used metallic paper for these daisies.

You could use pages from old books to create a vintage or shabby chic look.  Experiment with printed paper, coloured paper, different weights, etc.

I haven't made stems or leaves yet.  The instructions detail how to create leaves using the punch.

Some ideas for using paper flowers: 

birthday decorations

party decorations

card making

attach a flower onto a present

string flowers together to create bunting

make posies

baby shower decorations

table decorations

Mothers Day

decorating Easter bonnets

Spring crafts

string up and attach to a coat hanger or a stick, to create a mobile.

Felt Story Boards

 The story of Ranginui and Papatuanuku.  I created this in felt, to help tell the Maori creation story. Details were drawn on felt using fine black Sharpie pens.  Do not use a Superfine nib - it catches on the felt.  Acrylic felt is best to use - aside from being half the price of wool felt, I find that wool felt is more likely to pull and become fluffy.

 The brothers trying to push Ranginui and Papatuanuku apart... Tangaroa (God of the Sea); Rongomatane (God of cultivated food); Tumatauenga (God of War) and Tawhiri Matea (God of wind).

 Tane Mahuta lay on his back and pushed Ranginui up into the sky.

 The brothers turned Papatuanuku over so she couldn't look up at Ranginui; Ranginui's tears formed the rivers and lakes and oceans; Tawhiri Matea went to live with his father in the sky; Ruaumoko stayed in his mothers womb.

 Felt train with numbered carriages; ideal for putting in numerical order, number identification, fill the carriages with the corresponding number of items, etc. Felt numbers glued onto felt cut-outs of carriages.

 The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I used fabric paints and fabric markers to paint the details on the food.  The leaf, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly are all needle-felted.

The story of The Little Red Hen.  Details applied using fabric paint, fabric markers, and a fine Sharpie pen.


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Easter ideas and activities for young children

 I have been busy creating Easter themed resources to help promote numeracy and other skills.  The chicks were simple to create, using a basic template.  I have discovered a really easy way to create templates and stencils:  get a clear plastic sheet - I use acetate, but you could use a sealed clear laminating sheet; bring up a picture that you want on an ipad or tablet (or you might find a picture in a child's colouring book); place the plastic on top, and trace it with a permanent fine-tip marker pen.

 These chicks were cut out of craft foam using a template.  I got 20 chicks out of one A4 sheet.  I numbered ten chicks from 1-10, and left the other ten blank.  Craft foam is really easy to use, to draw on, to cut, and doesn't rip or tear so is durable with young children.  You could use the chicks for singing "5 Little Ducks" or convert that song to "5 Little Chicks". You could play games by throwing a dice and giving your chick that many eggs.
The numbered chicks can be used for ordering and sequencing; a fun game is where you take away one chick and the child has to figure out which number is missing. Also once the chicks are put into numerical order, give each chick the corresponding number of eggs.

I created a little egg template and drew around it to create lots of mini paper eggs - I used strips of card to make the eggs.

Easter Egg hunt.  We will be having an easter egg hunt this year.  I find that when you hunt for chocolate eggs, some children find lots of eggs and others get disappointed because they haven't found many.  The way I deal with this is by not hiding chocolate eggs - we hide paper easter eggs that the children have coloured in (which develops pencil control and skill; and colouring in easter eggs can help to motivate even the most reluctant artist). We usually spend a week making paper Easter eggs, ready for the Easter egg hunt.  This means we can hide lots and lots of eggs,  and the children then trade their paper eggs for a chocolate egg.  I use a simple cardboard template that I made a number of years ago now, and still use every year, and draw around it in black marker pen.  I draw some patterns in on some eggs,and the rest I leave blank for children to create their own designs.  The children colour them in and cut them out.

Pompoms

These pom-poms were really simple and fun to make and just used the bits and scraps of wool that I had.  Add a little orange felt triangle and two googly eyes to a yellow or orange pom-pom and you have a little chick.  Add two green felt feet and two googly eyes to a green pompom, and you have a frog.  Or just have a little basket full of bright colourful pom-poms and children can pretend they are Easter Eggs.  I will do a separate blog-post detailing how to make the pom-poms. 

 The Easter Bunny

These bunnies were created with a simple template that I made, and traced around it onto white craft foam.  I got 10 Easter bunnies out of 1 x A4 white foam sheet.  I filled in the details of the face and ears with felt tip pens and a black fine tip Sharpie.

You can use these bunnies for counting songs, stories, small world play and whatever else you or the children can think of.

Carrots for the Easter Bunny

These carrots are for feeding the Easter Bunny.  They are made out of craft foam. I drew one carrot, cut it out and traced around it to create the rest of the carrots.  I coloured in the tops of the carrots using a green sharpie, and drew the details in using a pencil.

 Easter Eggs - Number Matching

This is a simple numeracy activity that involves matching the number of dots to the the correct numeral.  These eggs were made out of craft foam, using a cardboard egg template. Once I had cut out the eggs, I used a Sharpie pen to write the numbers and do the dots, and then I cut the eggs in half. 

Cutting and Paper Folding
The children at school love cutting - cutting up paper, cutting up magazines, cutting out pictures.. if it is able to be cut, they want to cut it.  I have recently started showing children how to fold paper to cut, to create designs etc.  This is a really simple activity that teaches children about symmetry, as well as developing cutting skills, as it requires cutting around curves, which is a tricky skill for children.
Simply fold a piece of paper (it doesn't have to be in half), and on one side, draw half a rabbit. Cut out. Draw on eyes, nose, and mouth.

 

You could do the same for Easter Eggs, butterflies - anything that is symmetrical.

Easter Bunnies

 These bunnies are for small world play.  I am still figuring out the design (I'm just making it up as I go and adjust it slightly for each one). On the back of the rabbits is a little pom-pom for a tail.

Some Rabbit songs you could sing with the children...

Mrs Bunny
Mrs Bunny looks funny when she wriggles her nose
Mrs Bunny looks funny when she wriggles her toes
Two floppy ears and two big feet
I love Mrs Bunny 'cos she's so neat.

Mrs Bunny stretches
Mrs Bunny flops
Mrs Bunny hops and hops and hops and
Mrs Bunny hops and stops!


Oma Rapeti
Oma rapeti
Oma rapeti
Oma, oma, oma
Oma rapeti
Oma rapeti
Oma, oma, oma

Pako! Pako! Pako!
Goes the farmers gun
Oma rapeti, oma rapeti
Oma, oma, oma.

Run, rabbit
Run, rabbit,
Run, run, run,
Run, rabbit
Run, rabbit
Run, run, run.

Bang! Bang! Bang!
Goes the farmers gun
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit,
Run, run, run.


Sleeping Bunnies
(Tune: First verse - Baa baa black sheep)
Look at all the bunnies sleeping
till its nearly noon
shall we wake them
with a merry tune.

Why so still?
Are they ill?
Up little bunnies, up, up, up!
Jump little bunnies, jump, jump, jump!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Stop little bunnies, stop, stop, stop!

 Mister Rabbit
I love this little ditty about Mister Rabbit! So cute and a fun message.
Mister Rabbit - Youtube


5 Little Chicks
5 little chicks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother hen called, "Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck"
But only 4 little chicks came back.

(continue until no little chicks came back etc etc)

Ten Little Bunny Rabbits
(Tune: Ten Little Indians)
1 little, 2 little, 3 little bunny rabbits
4 little, 5 little,, 6 little bunny rabbits
7 little, ,8 little, 9 little bunny rabbits
10 little bunny rabbits.

10 little, 9 little, 8 little bunny rabbits
7 little, 6 little, 5 little bunny rabbits
4 little, 3 little, 2 little bunny rabbits
1 little bunny rabbit!


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St Patricks Day activities

 It's not St Patricks Day without leprechauns, and these little fellows were fun to make with help from my favourite book, Forest Fairy Crafts (see link on right).  The following are some learning experiences that I have created to help celebrate St Patricks Day this week.  I haven't really celebrated St Patricks Day in the past with children, but I have a couple of children who are part Irish, so I have been coming up with ideas to celebrate it.

This rainbow was easy to make using craft foam.  Craft foam is great to work with, a pack is just $2 at the $2 shop, and comes in rainbow colours, plus black and white - perfect for making a rainbow! Craft foam is pretty durable, doesn't rip or tear, and is easy to cut and draw on.  I created a stencil to figure out what size to make the shapes, and just cut out semicircles in the different colours that decreased in size.  It is an easy, self-correcting way for children to learn the order of colours of a rainbow, plus you can use the shapes to create circular patterns.

 Small World Play & Numeracy  

 This simply consists of a green fabric base, laminated black pots with numbers written on one side (I use these for Halloween as well), circles of yellow card for gold coins (I used my cuttlebug and a circle tag punch because that's what I have, but I would love to get a circular punch), green pom-poms, rainbows, and leprechauns.  I am wondering about adding green ribbons and other green bits and pieces, but the ribbon is likely to disappear into handbags very quickly.

Children can count out gold coins and put them in the pot, they can line the pots up in numerical order, and they can make up their own stories. 

 Felt Rainbow

This rainbow is simply cut from the different colours of felt and placed together to create a rainbow.  It is best to make a stencil to do this and give your rainbow some overlap.  As it is made of felt, it is great to use with a flannel board or that other stuff that schools often have on the wall that is easy to Velcro - felt sticks to it.  (I can't remember what it is called but it is great for felt!) If you have off-cuts, cut them up into rectangular boards to use for story-telling or for children to use with scraps of felt and felt shapes.

 Colour Mixing on the Lightbox

 I created this rainbow for the lightbox.  It uses red, yellow and blue transparent paper, with the aim of teaching children how the rainbow is made up of the primary colours, and their overlapping creates the secondary colours.

I had red and yellow transparent paper (Chromatico paper is great to use and is tear resistant) but I didn't have blue, so I used blue tissue paper and covered one side in clear contact paper to make it durable. Hence you don't see the green and the purple in the photo, but once you put it on the light table, you will be able to see it.

These things will be set up all week, but we will also have a Green Day on the 17th where everyone can come dressed in green. We will have green playdough with mint leaves available to put in it, green water in the water trough, green slime, blue and yellow paint...  The last time I put mint leaves in our drinking water, children exclaimed "What are all these leaves doing in the water!" so I am yet to decide whether to do that again. 
I have a heart punch, and 3 hearts put together makes a clover, so I will get the children punching hearts out of green paper and creating their own clovers.  Craft punches are great for developing children's strength in their fingers and hands.

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Insect and Bugs and theme

 Insects and bugs seem to be a recurring interest with 4 year olds, and as you continue to teach over a number of years, you often see the same theme or interest emerging in your room.  It is worthwhile spending a bit of time and effort making resources that link with children's various interests, as you will use them and re-use them in years to come.  And I find that games and activities that directly link into children's interests are more likely to be used and played with, and facilitate learning and conversations.

 These insects are a simple number identification game.  I drew 6 different insects (two are yet to be coloured in), with the numbers 1-12 on them.  Children spin a spinner (numbered 1-12) and place a counter on the corresponding number.  The idea is to be the first to cover up your numbers from 1-12.  I did think you could use two dice with this, but then you would never get number 1.  But you could make using two dice optional, and children choose whether to throw one dice or two.

 You could number the insects 1-10, but I chose to do 1-12.

 I used soft pastels to colour in the various insects.  I find soft pastels are an effective way to fill in colour, they fill in space quickly, can be blended easily, and are forgiving. They come in lots of beautiful bright shades, and I really like the soft effect that they provide.

Simple Board games

 These are simple board games I created using stickers and a hole punch.  They are dice and counter games, that allow 4 people to play at once.  Each child puts a counter on their butterfly/insect at the top.  They take turns to throw a dice, and move their counter that amount of spaces.  First to reach the end is the winner.  Encourages number identification, recognising patterns (on dice), 1-1 counting as they move along the board, taking turns, waiting for their turn, and following rules.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This was a favourite story of mine as a child.  I have created it out of felt for use as a mat time resource.  I painted/drew the details onto the fruit and food items using fabric paint and fabric markers. You can also use permanent markers on felt.  The life cycle of the caterpillar is needlefelted, however, so it is 3D and will not stick onto a board, but you could replicate it in felt.  The children also like to retell the story using the felt pieces.

Paper Butterflies

These butterflies are super simple to make by folding paper in a concertina fashion.  Find out how to make them in this tutorial here.

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Sensory play ideas

Sensory play is such a crucial part of children's development.  According to Rudolf Steiner, the development of the lower senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell, and balance) affects the development of the higher senses.  The lower senses are developed during the early years, so it is important that we provide children with lots of different sensory experiences. 

 Water play. 

This was a water play activity that I set up today.  A selection of containers (large and small, tall and shallow), syringes, eye droppers, sponges, and icecube trays.  A couple of tubs filled with coloured water - blue, yellow, red.  I like to use primary colours with young children, so children can see the effect of using these colours and the multitude of colours that children can create using them.

One of the children started using the syringe and dropping coloured water into the icecube trays. By gradually mixing colours they were able to create a beautiful range of colours in their tray.  The child even said "Look at my beautiful colours that I'm making". They worked carefully and purposefully, to create colours and to explore what colours they could create.  One comment from the children was "We are doing science experiments". 

This was a popular table throughout the day, and to prevent the floor getting soaking wet and slippery, I brought the table outside. 

Lavender Scented Water Beads
I bought the water crystals at the $2 shop, and soaked them at home in water with a few drops of pure lavender oil.  The beads soaked up the the oil and had a really strong scent of lavender. I chose lavender because of its calming, soothing effect. You could also use roman chamomile, or a blend of calming essential oils.  I poured the lavender beads into the sensory tub at school, along with scoops, spoons and jars, and the children filled up the jars and then emptied them out, sometimes from one jar to another, or sometimes pouring them straight into the tub.  This was popular throughout the day.  You do need to watch out for water beads and crystals getting spilt on the floor, as it does make it slippery. We did it on the vinyl floor, and kept a dustpan and brush handy to sweep up the spills, and children also helped to pick up their beads that they dropped.


Bubble Blowing
A really simple but fun activity we did this week was simply containers of tap water with dishwashing liquid in it, and straws. The children blew through the straws to try to create bubbles.  And it was awesome! The bubbles rose really high and children tried to connect their containers of bubbles to other containers of bubbles.  Bubbles were all over the table, and you could actually see the water drip off the bubbles onto the floor, which looked really cool.  I put a towel down on the floor to catch the water.  Children worked together, and one bowl had 3 children blowing bubbles all at the same time, which created great big bubbles rising up over the top.  You do have to remind children to blow, not suck.  I get them to practice blowing first before giving them a tub of water.

Sand Play

 I mixed a tub of sand with cornflour, and provided a variety of containers, scoops (the scoops from tins of Baby Formula are great), tweezers, shells, pebbles and acorns.  I love mixing cornflour with sand, as it gives the sand a really light, fine texture and feels nice running through the fingers. This table was really popular throughout the week, and you do need to keep the dustpan and brush handy!

Flour and Glitter

 

I used a combination of flour and glitter, and strawberry-lime herbal tea to make it smell lovely. The herbal tea was about to be thrown out, so I grabbed it to utilise in our sensory play.  I added scoops, tweezers, containers, trays and dishes to fill up.

At the end of the week, I added warm water to give a completely different sensory experience. 

Rice 

 This was rice mixed with strawberry-lime tea, and filled with treasure.  Children were given tweezers and trays to fill with their treasure (The treasure was a mix of buttons, broken jewellery, pebbles, wooden bits, stars, beads, glass nuggets, and pom-poms).   One day the rice was filled with alphabet magnets and children found the letters of their names.  The strawberry-lime herbal tea added a really nice dimension to this as you could smell it every time you sat down at the table.

Oh, Lovely Mud!

This was a Mrs Wishy Washy provocation to allow children to retell the story themselves - I modelled using the tubs at mat time as I told the story (I adapted it slightly using the farm animals that we had), and then kept it at the sensory table for the children to play and engage with.  I filled the tub with a mix of bark and dirt from the garden and a bit of water.  I added farm animals, a tub of warm soapy water and an apron for children to wear and pretend to be Mrs Wishy Washy.  This table even got the most resistant, unwilling and unsettled child to engage and begin to enjoy themselves.

Cornflour Playdough

I really like using cornflour to make play dough with, as it is a pure white colour and is able to take other colours easily. I find when making playdough with flour, it is a creamy-grey colour, and  if you add red colouring, it goes pink, and black playdough turns grey.  But somehow the playdough made from cornflour allows the colours to keep its true colour - black playdough is black, and red is red.  

I wear gloves when making this so that I don't scold my hands, and the gloves also help prevent my hands changing colours when I add the colouring.

Cornflour dough also has a neutral smell, so it is perfect for adding herbal teas, scents, spices or essential oils to.  Playdough made with flour has a really strong smell that I find is quite overpowering when trying to add other scents - it doesn't work so nicely.

Ingredients:

3 cups Cornflour

1 - 1 1/2 cups Salt (experiment a bit to find out your preference)

3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar

about 2-3 Tablespoons oil

2 cups boiling water

Put all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix together.

Tip out onto table.

Knead and mix thoroughly with your hands - this takes time.  Knead, push, roll, pull, drop onto the table like making bread. You may want to add 1/2 cup more water - just add a little at a time.  

Add colouring and scents and knead through again.

When making playdough with flour, I find one cup of water to one cup of flour is perfect, as the flour absorbs the water, but the cornflour reacts differently, so experiment a bit to find out what works.  With the cornflour dough, you might need to add water during the week as it does start to dry out.  

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