Supplies Needed:

• Recycled toilet paper rolls
• Tissue paper
• Google-y eyes
• Dowel rods or chopsticks. A stick collected from nature would work too!
• Tape or Glue
• Construction paper
• Pipe cleaners (one per critter)
  

Steps:

Step One:

• Cut the paper roll down to the size you’d like your critter to be

Step Two:

• Fold your tissue paper in half 
• Cut a section off; approximately about an inch
• Fringe one section of the tissue paper leaving around 1cm gap at the top
• Unfold the fringed paper then cut into lengths long enough to wrap around the paper roll

Step Three:

• Place a piece of tape (or glue) along each section of your fringed paper
• Stick to the paper roll to look like an animal’s fur
• Layer the pieces of tissue paper over the top of each other around the paper roll, until you have completely covered it in “tissue paper fur”
  

Step Four:

• Fold a piece of your construction paper in half and sketch a large heart shape for the wings
• Cut pieces of pipe cleaner for antennae and tape (or glue) those on
• Tape (or glue) the Googly eyes, and heart shapes into place
• Tape (or glue) the dowel rod or chopstick into place at the bottom of the roll
  

 

Required Materials:

• Pipe cleaners
• Bubble liquid

Optional (but Recommended) Materials:

• Pony beads (to make a patriotic one choose red, white and blue beads)
• A cookie cutter (to make a patriotic one try a star-shaped cookie cutter)

Directions:

1. Wrap the pipe cleaner gently around the cookie cutter until the pipe cleaner is molded into the shape of the cutter (note: if it loses its shape at any point, simply place it back on the cookie cutter to get the shape again!).
   1. If you don’t have a cookie cutter just carefully shape your pipe cleaner.
2. Attach a straight pipe cleaner onto the shaped one; now you’ve made your wand!
3. Add the pony beads to your wand in any pattern you would like, and secure them at the bottom by looping the last bead around the pipe cleaner. This step is just for looks – you can skip it if you don’t have beads!
4. Ask your parent for a small bowl with some bubble solution and enjoy a day of bubble blowing in the summer!

Activity by Stephanie Zafferano, Fiske Site
Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.iheartcraftythings.com

Materials:

• Rocks
• Tempura Paint 
• Paint brushes
• Sharpies (optional)

Instructions:

1. Decide which animal you want to make. For example if it is a giraffe you will need enough rocks to make head, body, legs, and a looooooong neck.
2. After you collect a bunch of rocks lay them out so that they are in the shape of your animal. Seeing the shape laid out will also help you decide how you want to paint and what details you want to add.
3. Keeping your animal in its shape, begin painting the rocks one at a time. This way you won’t lose track of which body part you are on, especially if you are adding details like only 4 spots for the rocks that make up the neck, and 5 on the spots that are part of the body.
4. Once the paint dries you can add details using your sharpie or another paint color, like the giraffe’s spots.
5. Once they are all painted and dry, mix them up or put them in a bag and see if another member of your family can solve your puzzle!
6. There are so many different things you can create with painted rocks, the giraffe puzzle is just one idea, you could make another human, an animal, a bunch of letters to build names or words, and even characters!

Activity by Amanda Cardinal, Upham Site
Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.hellowonderful.co

Materials:

• Felt
• Marker
• Glue
• Large paper clips 
• Scissors
• Hot glue (optional)

Instructions:

1. Outline your designs on the felt with a marker. Simple shapes like stars, circles, and hearts are easiest to cut out. If you want to do more complicated designs like animals, we recommend drawing them out on a piece of paper, cutting it out, and using that as a template on your felt to prevent waste.
2. Cut two pieces of felt for each shape as the paper clips will be ‘sandwiched’ with felt. The back piece doesn’t need to have a design on it but you can add one if you would like.
3. Cut out smaller designs to go on top of the large base that will become the front of your bookmark. Strips of felt become stripes, small circles can be polka dots, and triangles are great for the nose on a face! Glue your decorations to the larger pieces of felt.
4. Lay your felt bookmark facedown and place a paper clip on it with the double U side off the felt. If you want a more secure hold, ask an adult to add a drop of hot glue where the paper clip touches the felt. This step is optional.
5. Add regular glue on top of the back side of your felt and paper clip. Don’t forget to put glue on the inside of the paper clip! Take your identical felt shape and press it into the glue to make a paper clip sandwich. Let your bookmark dry completely before using!

Note: Sticky back felt makes this project even easier! You do not need glue or drying time if your felt has an adhesive back. Just be careful when making your paper clip sandwich—you may only have one chance to get the felt stuck together properly!

Activity by Tiana Chu, Floating Teacher

Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.projectswithkids.com

What you’ll need:

• Markers (permanent and washable)
• Paper towels
• Water in a small tray
• Scissors

How to do it:

1. Take 1 piece of a square paper towel and fold it in half. Then, cut the paper towel so you have a small square with another small square behind it. 

2. Now it’s time to draw your pictures. Use your permanent markers to draw an outline of your picture on the top layer of the folded paper towel. It’s okay if you don’t have many permanent marker colors. You only need one color to draw the outline of your picture. 

3. When you lift up the top layer, you will see that the marker has gone through the paper towel onto the layer underneath it. Now, use your washable markers to color in your picture or add more detail to it. 

Since the days are getting warmer, it might be a good idea to use something cool to make works of art. Here are a couple of ideas for Tuesday.

Ice Cube Painting

Painted Salt Sculpture

Yes, it takes a long time to dry but at least you don’t have to do anything but wait! We hope you enjoy doing art with your child for the next two weeks!

Feature Photo by Ian Williams on Unsplash

Materials:

• Sticks or wooden dowels/skewers
• Rubber bands
• Leaves/grass
• Toys with hair (dolls, horses)
• Sponges
• Qtips
• Scrap fabric
• Yarn
• Paint
• Paper

Instructions:

Nature Inspired Paint Brushes

To make a nature inspired paint brush take a walk outside and find a few straight sticks and plenty of leaves and grass. With the leaves and grass in a bunch, secure it at the end of your stick with a rubber band. Test out your new paint brush without paint first to see if it’s tied tight enough!

Yarn Paint Brushes

With skewers and short pieces of yarn use the same technique to make a yarn paint brush. Ribbon and scrap can also be used for a totally different texture.

Doll or Toy Paint Brushes

If you make sure to give them a bath when you are done, toys with hair like dolls and horses can also be paint brushes. Try giving them a ponytail or four and see what your brush strokes look like. 

Q-Tip or Sponge Paint Brushes

Qtips and sponges are another easy paint brush replacement. Cut the sponges to make stamps and tie together multiple qtips for different effects or easy flower stamps.

Activity by Tiana Chu, Floating Teacher

Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.applegreencottage.com

We recommend everyone do this outside to avoid some clean up!

Things you need:

• A large tray that can hold paint… we will probably need more than one
• A lot of different colored paints
• A long roll of white paper (or you can take smaller pieces together)
• Scissors
• A cleaning station (we recommend a hose, water, and paper towels)

How to:

1. Roll out enough white paper long enough for a child to take a few steps.
2. Pour the paint colors the child wants into the tray.
3. Have the child step into the pan and get their feet covered in paint.
4. Have them step out onto the paper and walk on the paper, leaving their footprints behind.
5. Important step! Once they are done have them wash their feet off.
6. When everyone has finished, hose down the area.

Activity by Rachel Scanlan, Bates Site

Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.emmaowl.com

Materials:

• Something to contain your garden such as an old plastic container (tupperware, recycled food containers) or spare terra cotta pot
• Any random craft materials including (but not limited to):
  • Recycled yogurt container or tissue box
  • Marbles, beads, plastic jewels
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Feathers
  • Markers
  • Scraps of cardboard or fabric
  • Pipe Cleaners
  • Tacky Glue 
  • Scissors
  • Outdoor materials:
  • Soil or Dirt
  • Small Sticks, Leaves 
  • Small stones
  • Moss, Flower petals
• Your imagination!

Directions: 

These directions are just suggestions, feel free to make it however you like!

• Use your plastic container as your base and fill it with some dirt or soil as your base.
• Create a house for your fairy using a recycled yogurt container. Cut out a little rectangle as the door.  You could also build a small house out of popsicle sticks or glue popsicle sticks to a tissue box.
• Decorate your house with gems, buttons, and markers
• You can then add a walkway with marbles or stones.  Use the popsicle sticks for a fence instead.
• Make a welcome sign out of cardboard, attach it to a small stick, and set it in your dirt.
• Create the garden portion using moss or leaves as your greenery and petals for flowers.
• Of course you could also build a tiny table and chairs or stick feathers into the dirt for some texture and color.
• The options are endless, use your own creativity!

What’s the best day to fly a kite? Winds-day!

Materials:

• Paper lunch bags
• Streamers/ribbon/anything that can blow in the breeze
• Hole punch
• Sturdy string
• Markers, stickers, etc. to decorate the kite
• Tape

Directions:

1. Decorate the paper lunch bag as you would like, using the stickers, markers, etc.
2. Open the bag and use the hole punch to make 2 holes on the open side of the bag.
3. Loop the string through the 2 holes, and tie it tightly.
4. Add streamers to the other end of the closed bag using tape or glue, or even hole punching them through.
5. When flying the kite, hole the string and make sure the bag is open to catch the air.

Activity by Stephanie Zafferano, Fiske Site
Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.somewhatsimple.com