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Toddlers can make and enjoy this fun and easy musical craft!
What you need:
Decorate paper plate with markers.
Fold, staple halfway & fill with rice (don't let toddlers do this as it's a choking hazard). Staple all the way around.
Shake & have a dance party!
momstown has more fun and easy musical instruments to make.
Calling all pirates to an anchors-away pirate themed birthday party!
Crafts
Every pirate needs a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope! Use paper towel rolls and decorate with markers, sticker, or glue on tissue paper.
You can also have kids make their own compass! Click here for full tutorial.
Make your own Pirate hat is pretty simple to do with construction paper and glue or staples. momstown KW made Arrrr Matey hats at an event and pretended they were shipwrecked.
Activities
Play pirates! Arrrrr....! Set up a fort in the family room or in the backyard - equip guests with pirate hats, eye patches, and pirate scopes and let them use their imaginations!
Set up a treasure hunt in a sandbox outside, or inside as a hide and seek game. Make little maps for kids to follow and help them find the treasure! What they discover can be part of their loot too!
Decorations
Pirate napkins, plates and tablecloth - along with our dressed-up pirates - were a hit at this party! Cover the Table with brown craft paper and tell the kids to "decorate" the treasure map - draw all over the map/tablecloth! Use black balloons to bring the dark pirate theme!
Don't forget adults can get in on the fun and become live 'decor' in your own costumes! Our momstown Edmonton North held a pirate themed party and moms had a blast as pirates!
Food & Cake
This 3 year old had pirate cupcakes! Enough for all his friends to enjoy. First decorated with pirate ships and treasure, the guests got to add their own sprinkles and decorations before they ate them!
Have a pirate picnic - land ho!
Loot Bags
Little pirates can take home their costumes (hat, scope, eye patch) and their 'treasure' from the hunt!
Our momstown arts and craft-ers usually share our own craft ideas, including crafts made from recycled material, alphabet crafts, and even crafts babies can do! But sometimes in the midst of all that creating, we come across a pre-made product that catches our eye - and is worth a blog post!
One such creation is Crayola's Model Magic - it's an amazing medium that my kids have put to good use in many different forms, including Presto Dots, and Color Fillz Mosaic. What is it? Model Magic is an "soft, easy-to-use modelling material that air dries within 24 hours".
Here are three reasons I love this product:
1. It has the sensory appeal and fun factor of playdough - but NO mess!
2. Mixing colours works just like plasticine or paint - you can add red and yellow to make orange - so it's a great teaching tool for primary colours and colour wheels!
3. It goes a long way. You can't reuse model magic that you leave to air dry, but you can keep in airtight tubs or ziplocks to use the next time. Most of the sizes I've tried give enough for one 'finished' project but lots left over for another day.
My kids have made many of the Presto Dots guys (like the one pictured above) over the past few years (and they actually turn out almost as good as the picture!), as well as used Model Magic freestyle to make their own creations (my preference!).
But a recent family gathering with kids aged 3-7 let me really put Model Magic to the test. We had two separate crafts - a Presto Dots activity for the 3 and 4 year olds, and a Color Fillz mini Mosaic for the 6 year olds. How did we fare?
The Mosaic craft was more complicated but for the 6 year olds, no problem (packaging states ages 6+). There were two mosaics to choose from (and 2 boys) so it worked out perfectly! There were examples in the instructions regarding colour placement but the kids did their own thing.
You basically take small bits of model magic and put them into a mosaic frame, then peel the backing away to review a pretty cool creation. It takes overnight to dry (and it was humid so a bit longer in our case!). There is also a neat colour mixing guide for kids to use if they need some reminder on their primary and secondary colours!
So I'd say 2 thumbs up on this one!
The Presto Dots craft is aged a bit youn
ger (packaging states 5+) but the pizza and popcorn creations weren't of any interest to the 3 and 4 year olds. Just too complicated and they weren't interested in following the instructions. However they LOVED playing with the Model Magic, and made lots of colour combinations, balls, snowmen (stacked balls!) and little snakes. So it got lots of play value, and we had lots left over to use for another time.
My verdict - for younger kids - go with a tub or multipack of Model Magic in primary colours, and forget the proscribed 'make it look like the picture' version! Older kids - you can't seem to go wrong, let them pick out their own favourite and have fun!
This July, momstown is reading The Sandcastle Contest by Robert Munsch.
Brought to us by Scholastic Canada, this quirky and engaging story is a perfect Munsch tale for summer! Did you know that Robert Munsch loves to tell his readers where his story ideas came from? Click here for more details on the two experiences that combined to form The Sandcastle Contest - it might inspire your kids to think there could be a story written for them one day!
Accompanied by the amazing illustrations of Michael Martchenko, the story follows Matthew and his family as they head out on a family camping trip - with their car piled as high as can be imagined (and depicted!). We learn early on that Matthew really really loves sand! He even wanted to bring his sandbox along.
When the family drives to a beach, he finds out there is sandcastle contest going on - and the prize is a bathtub full of ice cream! Matthew gets to work - his sandcastle is so good that the judges don't believe it's made of sand! He has to prove it to them by knocking his castle right over... but he wins the bathtub full of ice cream to share with a new friend.
momstown chapters all over Canada enjoyed this book at their Tales for Tots or Baby Bookclub playgroups!
momstown Barrie had a great time with this book at their story in the park playdate! momstown Guelph enjoyed a good read with a snack at a local park, and momstown Calgary North did a sandpaper craft to accompany their book club.
momstown Newmarket-Aurora included a fun sand in a bottle activity to accompany the reading, while momstown Winnipeg did glue and sand art to complete the beach theme! momstown Burlington enjoyed the book and then used bread crumbs as sand to make a super beachy craft!
Munsch's ability to make kids the real stars of his stories (and the adults often the brunt of their antics) seem to be part of his charm in engaging young readers. My kids loved the fact that the judges couldn't tell that Matthew's sandcastle was made of sand, and also really enjoyed imagining a bathtub full of ice cream! Try some fun Munsch activities - brought to you by Scholastic Canada.
Quack says the duck!
Turn a Q into a quacking duck with this fun and simple craft from momstown!
What you need:
First, draw an O on your construction paper.
Then add the feathers on with glue - they form the 'tail' of the Q and the tail of the duck! Cut out a yellow triangle for the duck's beak and complete your quack-quack!
It's fun to turn the alphabet into activities for kids! momstown has lots more - try out:
T for Tiger stripes - patterning practice!
H is for Happy - lots of gluing and colour work too!
R is for Road - becomes an imaginative play activity!
A twist on a T craft - tiger stripes!
Truly tested with toddlers too!
What you need:
Draw an upper case T and have your child make an orange/black pattern to colour on the stripes!
Look how well our tiniest tyke's tiger stripes turned out!
Many momstown crafts are designed with young toddlers in mind. Try:
