Framed School Art

Original Post: Jen Grant Morris

Our Story:
I don't like clutter, but I love the creations that my kids make (either with me, at school or at daycare) so I often take pictures of their greatest creations.  But I didn't have any ideas for how to display them until now.  I went to Picnik and created a collage of my daughters artwork.  Then I sent the picture to Costco to be printed.  I bought the frame at the Dollar Store.  Once I framed the picture, I showed my daughter and she was so proud.  We will hang it up as soon as we get an extra minute . . .

Tin Foil Art

One of my personal goals this year was to put out more invitations - especially in the Art Center.  I am not an "Artsy" person myself, so this is a personal struggle for me.  I love that I have Pinterest to help me out, though, because I think otherwise I may be lost . . .  So this idea involved Tin Foil.  It also had some wonderful small motor practicing involved as well.  Learning how to cut and learning how to glue - two fundamentals of preschool! 
One thing that I am finding about the Art Center - and all invitations in general - is that the concept is not that hard and less time consuming than the traditional way of teaching.  I just needed to make the frames.  I cut the tinfoil a little bit smaller than the construction paper (of each child's individual choice) and then stapled them together. 

It was the children's job to come up with what they would put on the tinfoil.  The majority cut out shapes from other construction paper and then finished off their masterpieces with glitter.  A simple project, but boy did they look pretty!

Stacking Cups and Bowls

We have lots of blocks in our house, but the children get bored of playing with the same blocks every day.  Learning how to build a tower is a very important part of learning.  It teachers math, science and of course, fine motor.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought of how much the kids would love this activity!  One day after school while I was making supper, I gave the kids all of our plastic bowls, plates and cups.  All I said was, "Here, what can you do with these?" and the first (and only) thing that they did was build.
My son (2) mostly just stacked his blocks in piles (sorting).

My daughter (4) made some really elaborate structures with her plates and cups.  She would get really high and my son would watch her with amazement.  This was a really fun activity and the kids have been begging me to let them do it again!

 

Counting Sticks

In the fall it's always fun to go on walks around your house and collect leaves, sticks, pincones and any other nature that you can.  You can make some beautiful artwork out of it.  We did this with our preschoolers again this year and they made some wonderful collages.  The children did not use all of their items for the collages, so there were some sticks left over.  I bought some paper cups from the Dollar Store and wrote the numerals 1-5 on each of the cups.  I put the extra sticks with the cups on the table and let the children figure out what to do.  Some of the children looked at the numeral and could recognize and count out the sticks.  Others would ask myself or their friends what the numeral was - and THEN count out the sticks.  And other would just put the sticks in the cups until it would fall over.  A little bit of physics/science learning to see just how much weight a cup can take before it topples over.

Cheesy Vegetable Soup

Mmmm, this soup looked amazing!  Especially since Fall is here and everything.  I LOVE homemade soup, but I am not the greatest cook, so I was REALLY hoping that I could pull this recipe off.  I read the other comments from the blog to turn this meal into a slowcooker-friendly meal so that it would be easier to make when I got home from work with the kids.

Here are the ingredients that I used:
1 cup carrots
2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped cauliflower

4 cups chicken broth

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

1tbsp flour

1tbsp cooking oil

2/3 cup milk

2 cups shredded marble cheese

Oregano

Garlic Powder

Black Pepper

 

Step By Step:

1. Put the first 6 ingredients into the slow cooker.  Set it to 6-8 hours on low.

2. Because I needed more control over temperature when I got home, I poured the soup base into a large pot and placed it on the stove, bringing it to a boil.

3. Mix the flour and the oil together in a seperate bowl and once the soup base boils, add the rue and then turn down the heat and let the soup simmer until it starts to thicken.

4. Once the soup has thickened, add the milk, cheese and spices (you may want to switch up the spices that you use, I just put in a little of each and then tasted as I went).