Fall Leaves Garland Craft

Activity completed November 2015.

I first spotted the idea for this fall leaves craft on Raising Arizona Kids. It was a perfect fit for a Tuesday afternoon at home since we always buy Viva paper towels and we had plenty of pipettes and food coloring on hand.

The idea is simple: draw or trace leaves on paper towels with Sharpie, then use the droppers to drop colored water onto the towels. When they're dry, cut them out and string them up for a pretty seasonal garland.

One thing I enjoyed in contrast with the original blogger's leaves was the colors on each leaf. Ours turned out with lots of colors on each leaf and it looks so pretty, particularly in person. Tripp likes any craft where he gets to use those pipettes!

Pipette Salt Painting - Everyday Math Activity

This was a project that didn't work as well as I was hoping. It may be one we revisit in the future though!

I wanted to do a project with number shapes and pipettes (because pipettes are Tripp's favorite way to make a mess - I mean art! Ha!). I'd seen blog posts like this one that seemed fun, easy, and not overly messy, so I got our supplies and we headed to the playroom craft table.

Supplies:

• Cardstock
• Pipettes
• Glue
• Table salt
• Watercolor, or water with food coloring
• A pencil

This project was great for everyday math learning, numbers literacy, color mixing, and fine motor exercise.

I drew the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on paper and had Tripp help me trace them with glue. Then we added salt and tried our hand at the pipettes. However, Tripp's love of spraying the colored water all over the place was our downfall. You have to be a little more mindful and slow with this project, so that you can see the salt absorbing the color. This is one we'll come back to when he's a little older!

It's still fun to see him learning and reacting to new things, though!

Waterfall Pipette Art

I found this idea on the website Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. Tripp's not quite 2 yet, but he will be at the end of the month, and I thought he'd get a kick out of the pipettes and the streams of paint. So off I went to Amazon, ordered a pack of 100 pipettes, and found a Sunday with some free time.

I set up paper on Tripp's easel. I put it on top of an old sheet we use for any painting activities - he recognizes it now and knows when it's time for paint, and it's a lifesaver for cleaning up. I let him pick out the colors for the paint. He chose red, yellow, and blue, which I watered down in old Tupperware containers. Then I showed him how the pipettes worked and it was off to the races. He really enjoyed this activity!

Supplies:

• pipettes
• paint
• containers for paint
• water
• paper
• something to prop the paper up vertically on, such as an easel

This activity benefits:

• fine motor control (getting paint into and out of the pipettes)color recognition
• color mixing (as the yellow and blue mixed, for example, you could see streaks of green)
• knowledge of gravity and the difference between vertical and horizontal
• social skills (communicating which color to use, asking for help)

 Our finished product...

Of course no little artist's day is complete without kitty snuggles.