Learning Activities For Children » Art

Homemade Glurch ~ Like Silly Putty

Melissa — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:52:03 +0000

If your child enjoys playing with play dough and clay they will love Glurch. It doesn’t keep a form but it can be cut, stretched and colored on with markers. Do not use with children under 3 as the Borax is not safe to ingest. Keep refrigerated as it can spoil quickly.

Ingredients:

2 cups white glue
1 1/2 cups Water
1/3 cup water
3 teaspoons Borax

Directions:

Pour 2 cups of white or clear (for a transparent effect) school glue in with 1 1/2 cups of water in a large bowl. Get the solution as smooth as you can.
In a separate bowl mix 3 teaspoons of borax with 1/3 cup water. Stir for several seconds.
Pour the Borax solution into the large bowl with the glue and water.
Work with your hands until the solution is no longer liquidy. It should be smooth and rubbery.
You may need to set aside the solid portion and add another Borax/water solution to the glurch that is still liquid.
Store the Glurch in an airtight container.

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Crayon’s, Paper, Scissors

Melissa — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:01:39 +0000

If there are any 3 objects that will give my child entertainment, an opportunity to use their fine motor skills and learn other valuable skills it would crayon’s, paper and scissors.

They become so excited when they notice that they have cut a shape out and they like to build objects like houses with those shapes. My 3 year old also enjoys printing letters and cutting those out.

I will draw shapes on paper for them to cut, however they are not quite able to follow the shape with scissors yet. Still, it is great for them to practice following the shapes and fun as well!

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Crayon Shapes

Melissa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:52:47 +0000

Make new crayons with broken pieces of crayons. You can get creative and mix colours! What you need are:

broken crayon pieces that are less than 1 inch in length
disposable cupcake tin – you can find these in fun shapes as well! Make sure the tin is able to go in the oven.
Non-stick cooking spray.

Directions:

Heat oven to 300° F
Remove paper from crayon pieces.
Spray tin with non-stick cooking spray.
Fill each tin shape half way with crayon pieces
Bake for about 6 minutes. The crayons should just be melted enough to hold its shape. Especially if you are using more than one colour you don’t want the crayons to melt thoroughly.
Allow to cool before you using the new crayons.

This is a great science activity for your child where you can discuss what heating and cooling do to wax as well as discuss colours for younger children. Larger crayons are also easier for toddlers to colour with.

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Educational Memorial Day Activities For Children

Melissa — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:08:04 +0000

Memorial day is a day set aside for Americans to honor those who have died in military service to their country. It was originally called Decoration Day as after the Civil War people would decorate soldiers graves with flowers, wreathes and flags around the anniversary reunification after the Civil War.

Memorial day is a wonderful day to teach your children about the history of the Civil War and to take them to grave yards to pay their respect to fallen soldiers.

Here are some other activities you may enjoy with your children:

Teach your child how to properly fold a US flag.
Have your child make a red, white and blue bracelet or necklace. For younger children this would be a good opportunity to teach colors and patterns.
Print out printable memorial day coloring sheets for your child to color.
Help your child memorize a patriotic song or poem.
Help or encourage your child to write a letter to troops who are currently serving overseas.
Have your child write an acrostic poem (a poem that has the letters of a word written vertically and you usually begin your sentence using the letter of that vertical word) Example:

F…….
R……
E……
E……
D……
O……
M…..
Other words that could be used are American, Flag, Civil War, liberty

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