homes

How to make a gingerbread house with no gingerbread

Here's a super construction craft from momstown that doubles as a snack! And it's easy to make with graham crackers instead of gingerbread.

 

graham cracker house

 What you need:

  • Graham crackers
  • Royal icing (hardens well when dry)
  • Treats like gum drops, smarties

If you do this at a playgroup with lots of kids, make a smaller square house with a little roof of only 2 crackers. If you're at home with your child, you can make a larger 'cottage' as pictured above!

 

gingerbread house graham crackers

 

momstown Winnipeg did a whole village of these gingerbread houses at a gingerbread playdate!

Posted by Teacher Mom on 11/04/2011 - 12:27
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Placemat Weaving

This is a throw-back craft that we can probably all remember doing as kids!

placemat weaving

It's pretty neat to see kids try this for the first time, they are impressed with the pattern they make.

 

placemat weaving What you need:

  • Construction paper
  • Glue
  • Scissors

Start by folding a piece of construction paper in half. Cut strips into the construction paper but STOP before you reach the end (this forms the 'loom')

 

placemat weaving Then, show your child how to weave over and under the loom with a different coloured strip of construction paper (use the same size paper to make it fit easily). The next row will weave the opposite way.

 

 

 

 

 

placemat weaving This step is optional, but I suggest adding a dab of glue to the end of each strip so that the weave stays together.

 

 

 

 

 

placemat weaving

Kids can experiment with different patterns by adding a third colour strip into the mix. It's a great way to practice fine motor skills!

 

placemat weaving

 

One weaver decided to add some decorations to the mix as well! A very personalized placemat.

 

 

Try these other easy to do crafts with construction paper from momstown:

Shape House

Paper Boats

K is for Kite

 

 

Posted by Teacher Mom on 09/07/2011 - 19:42
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Birds in a nest

We were lucky enough this spring to have a dove build a nest on a windowsill that we could view from inside. We really got a closeup of the nest, the birds, and the eggs!

 

 

As a result my son fell in love with the idea of birds, baby birds, mommy birds, etc. and we made our own homemade nest to house our growing family of 'pom pom birds'!

 

 

What you need: (for the nest)

  • pipe cleaners
  • Q tips
  • cardboard (I used a cereal box carton)
  • glue

For the birds - see the Egg Carton Easter Chick craft from momstown - they are basically pom poms with googly eyes and a beak glued on.

 

birdsnest craft

 

Help your child squeeze a circle of glue around the edge of the nest (cardboard cut into a circle), and glue on Qtips and pipe cleaners (cut to about 3 inches long). We talked about how birds build their nests and how much work it can be!

 

When you're done, you can place your birds in the nest and keep them safe!

 

Posted by Teacher Mom on 04/11/2011 - 19:47
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Three Little Pig Houses



As we talk about homes this month in momstown, it`s fun to incorporate a well known story as well. The Three Little Pigs is a favourite story here and my kids love to yell about the huffing and puffing the houses down!

This is an easy gluing craft to do with any age.

-    construction paper & marker (to draw the house shape)
-    glue
-    items that resemble the Straw, Stick & Brick homes (we used Shreddies cereal for Straw, Toothpicks for Sticks and Popcorn and dried navy beans for Bricks)

Draw a house and simply get busy gluing and creating your three houses! Fun & easy! If you want to make a pig to go with this Three Little Pigs craft - try our easy water bottle pig craft!

Check out the blogs of this craft and event held by momstown Burlington & momstown Milton!

Posted by momstown mama on 11/17/2010 - 18:03
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Sugar Cube Pyramid Igloo building - like Animal Mechanicals can!

Kids love to explore the idea of building things, taking things apart, putting them back together, and assembling their own creations or figuring out puzzles. It's one of the ways they learn spatial awareness and develop cognitive skills. The Kids' CBC's Animal Mechanicals show 'builds' (ha!) on this theme as all of their characters live in a 'snap-together-take-apart' world where problem-solving and teamwork is key!
At momstown we love to get kids creating and problem solving through fun activities. During a 'Homes' theme month, momstown Hamilton got busy building houses of shapes and sizes.

 

 

What you need:
  • Bricks (sugar cubes)
  • Mortar (icing!)
Although it was a bit sticky even the moms got in on the crafting. The hardest part about this craft was keeping the kids from eating their pyramids before they were built.
Kids learned some valuable spatial lessons too - pyramids get smaller as they go up so part of the fun was counting along with the number of "bricks" we needed to build each level.


 

To say these are the sweetest houses ever built is an understatement!


 

You could send kids on a real Animal Mechanical mission and could expand this activity - here are 3 more suggestions that incorporate problem-solving, building, and fun!

 

1. Try building squares and rectangles. This is a great way to learn the difference between a square and a rectangle - count how many cubes each side has!

 

2. Cut out paper shapes and estimate how many sugar cubes it would take to fill the area - a little geometry for preschoolers - why not?

 

3. Use sugar cubes to graph and tally - have your preschool count and make their own simple graph. How many doors does our house have? How many windows? Use the cubes to represent 'one'.

Posted by momstown mama on 11/16/2010 - 23:26
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Decorated Houses

Our momstown Newmarket-Aurora chapter hosted a playgroup themed to My House, your House.
They created their own homes using glue, shapes and markers. Great times were had by all!




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies:

- Construction paper cut into house shapes

- Stickers, foam shapes, fun decorations

- glue & markers

 

Help your child decorate their house - either use their imagination to the house they would love to live in or talk about making it look like your house. Any way they choose with be perfect!

 

Posted by momstown mama on 11/15/2010 - 11:55
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