Sunflower Handprint Art

Sunflowers are so bright and cheery, and this handprint art reflects that, bringing a little sunshine into the house no matter the time of year.

It was easy to put this together, with construction paper (blue, pink, and green), yellow paint and a black marker. Tripp got some practice with scissors and cutting while I cut out the shapes. We added the dots together and I went over "left" and "right" while we chose which hand to use for each flower petal. A cute little thumbprint bee completed the picture.

A Toddler's Little Garden

A few weeks ago we put together a little garden area for Tripp. We collected a watering can, plant stand, pots, and plants (daisies and peppermint) from Home Depot, plus some solar powered tulip lights from the Dollar Tree. An enjoyable hour was spent in the sun transplanting the plants and putting together the little garden spot.

The garden spot

Each morning we try to remember to water the plants and watch them grow. It's been a bit of a challenge in the Arizona heat and I think we need to rethink our placement or our plant choice, but overall, it was a really fun activity to do.

Planting some solar tulips

Painting With Water

This is a fun activity we did recently at my library's play/parenting group for ages 0-5. It was super simple... all that was required was a bucket, water (soap optional), and various types of sponges.

The kids were turned loose on the courtyard and got to "paint with water" - i.e. clean the place up! Most of the kids really enjoyed seeing how they could make marks on the wall and ground with the water. Tripp was surprisingly diligent and I liked seeing all of the nooks and crannies the kids found to "paint" in. When one kiddo found a spot, everyone clamored to try painting there. Plus, no clean up... they already did that for us.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best and most fun!

Fireflies Craft - Fingerprints and Handprint

This sweet project was fun to do with Tripp (22 months old) and will be a reminder of how small he was this summer.

For this project, I used:

• Construction paper (green, blue, yellow, and black)
• Washable paint (yellow and white)
• Aluminum foil
• A black pen - you could use Sharpie, or go fancy like me and use a Sakura Pigma Brush

My process:

1. First, I wrote out the Fireflies poem on yellow construction paper. Please forgive my awful handwriting! Here is the text of the poem, which is by Meish Goldish.
   Glowing, glowing in the night
   Fireflies shine a yellow light.
   Flashing signals to their mates,
   Such a bright sight each creates!
   Glowing, glowing in the night,
   Fireflies shine a yellow light.
2. Next, I cut the yellow construction paper in the shape of a beam of light (sort of). I also cut out the blue jar and the black shape for the flashlight itself.
3. Tripp and I read the Fireflies poem together and I talked a little about fireflies and the colors of the construction paper.
4. I glued down the two parts of the flashlight.
5. I painted Tripp's hand white and we pressed it down on the handle of the flashlight to look as though he was holding it.
6. I painted Tripp's thumb yellow and we pressed it down on the blue jar. We repeated this process until we had five cute fingerprints.
7. When the fingerprints were dry, I added little wings with my brush pen.
8. We glued aluminum foil to the top of the jar to look like the lid.
9. Finally, we glued the jar down and called it good!