Forest Easel Painting

I was thrilled when Rashmie from Mommy Labs asked me to be involved in her Forest Fiesta project to help celebrate World Environment Day!!! Today many bloggers are participating in this Forest Fiesta project to help their children understand the value of our forests by creating "Art" that has a forest theme.  I've been talking to Cassie about Trees and the importance of them for the past couple weeks and also shared with her the video: Of Forest and Men which was made for the purpose of raising awareness of the importance of forests. Even as an almost five year old she understood some of the content that this video was telling and asked many questions! I encourage everyone to watch this video here and you will be moved! For this project Cassie created an outdoor easel painting of a forest scene. You can check out the progression of her painting from start to finish below. Other "forest scenes" will be featured in the Linky after this post.

We don't live right next to a forest so I figured being outside with "real trees" would be great inspiration for Cassie! She started out with the tree trunks and some branches.

I told her to make at least 5 trees to make it look more like a forest! She added more trees, branches, and the beginnings of some grass.

Some leaves were added along with more grass! C was really getting in to this! Mommy was proud!

Still more grass and leaves were added! Looking great!

The last touches were made with more grass! C said, "I am done!"

Here is the artist with her finished painting! Very PROUD, indeed!!!

Hope we've inspired you to really think about the importance of our forests on our Earth! I told Cassie that by making this painting that she was helping the forests by making people understand how important they are to every living thing!

Be sure to check out all the other great posts below about Forests!

(or link up your own idea!)

If you don't have a blog you can share your idea on facebook at Mommy Labs page here or my page here.

Thank You Mommy Labs For Inviting Us to Your Forest Fiesta!

***Be sure to check out Mommy Labs Forest Art too here.

This post is linked to:

It's Playtime
Show and Tell
Craft Schooling Sunday
No Time For Flashcards
Sunday Showcase
The Play Academy

Seven Sensational Ideas for Creating a Marble Run

Our last post was about the Marble Run that we created out of our collection of recycled materials and just in case you didn't see it... check it out here. We were inspired by so many ideas from so many wonderful blogs to create our Marble Run! I've created a list of Seven Sensational Ideas for Creating a Marble Run for this post and you will be amazed with all of them!  If you have created a marble run leave a link to your post in my comment section and I will feature your idea either in a future post or on Facebook! In the meantime... check out these Seven Sensational Ideas for Creating a Marble Run: Click on the captions underneath the picture!!

1. Craft Stick Marble Run from:

Journey Into Unschooling

2.  Recycled Marble Run from:
Clan of Parents

3. Cardboard Box Marble Run from:

TinkerLab

4.  Cardboard Box Ramps from:

Hands on: as we grow

5. Marble Racetrack from:
Serving Pink Lemonade

6.Making the longest marble run ever from:

Norfolk Homeschooling

7. Toilet Paper Tube Marble Run from:
Two Chicks and a Hen


Have You Made A Marble Run? Please share your idea!

Have we inspired you to create a Marble Run?


What is your favorite Marble Run featured here?

This Post is linked to:

Show and Tell
No Time For Flashcards
Craft Schooling Sunday
Sunday Showcase
Preschool Corner

Recycled Marble Run Fun!

We finally decided to get on the bandwagon and create our own Marble Run! So many blogs have been inspiring us....click on the link after this post for our inspiration. We made a Marble Run from our Magna Tile Toys here, but it was much more creative and enjoyable to create a "Run" from the ground up! We used all kinds of recycled materials that we have been collecting for the the past few months! Check it out:

Here are all the recycled tubes, oatmeal boxes, raisin containers, yogurt cups, food boxes, milk cartons, and egg cartons we had to choose from!

We started by cutting apart tubes and making tunnels from cylindrical boxes! We've eaten a lot of oatmeal and raisins in the past few months! We used tape to temporarily hold the recycled materials together so we could test out our runs and ramps.

Here is Cassie testing out this newly formed ramp. Our marble run went through a lot of changes as we were building and testing things out.

We found since we were building higher structures that we needed a base to put everything on! Thankfully we had some huge cardboard pieces in the basement! Cassie wanted to lay all over the cardboard.

Once we knew what structures were working we used a glue gun to hold things together. The glue gun worked well for fast joining of pieces! It was a little dangerous working with a glue gun on the floor because we had shorts on! It worked out well though!

In the end we made two runs off the highest tower.  We used other containers for support underneath and added a couple tunnels too.

Cassie tested out the two ramps and found one to be faster!  The one with the steeper hill in the beginning was faster (The right ramp)! I guess this could be a preschool physics lesson of some sort?

Cassie and I had a lot of FUN building our Marble Run! We also enjoyed playing with it and testing out all the marbles.  Isn't it amazing that you can create your own toy? What a valuable lesson to teach children! I'm so glad that we have all this inspiration from such great blogs to do such wonderful activities!

Have we inspired you to create a Marble 

Run???

Seven different Marble Runs that inspired us  can be found here.

This post is linked to:
NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS
CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY
PRESCHOOL CORNER

SHOW AND TELL
GET CRAFTY
IT'S PLAYTIME
Sunday Showcase
High Paw

Father's Day Portrait

Lately I've been trying to think of a Father's day project and gift for Cassie's Daddy. C's Daddy is not Mr. Fix-it, Mr. Sportsperson, Mr. Yardman, or even Mr. Barbecue man...so it is always tough to know what to make! I think he would like a tie rack, but maybe next year. We decided to create a portrait of Dad!! This portrait was made very much the same way as Cassie's Sensational Self Portrait that we did a few months ago that you can see here. Here is her finished portrait of her Daddy and now you can see where she gets her Red hair!!!

Here is Cassie's self portrait from a few months ago (post is here).

So Cassie started out with a paper plate and drew a circle and neck. She filled it in with oil pastel for the color of Daddy's skin. 

Then Cassie drew eyes, nose, and mouth...and glasses! We almost forgot those!

Next we used torn tissue paper for hair! We just used glue to attach the hair! I suggested gold glitter for his glasses and C said, "NO!" I tried to make it more exciting....but no luck!

Here is the portrait of Daddy again! I think it is so precious!

Now, here is Daddy!! Do you think C got a good likeness of her Daddy?

What Are You Making For Father's Day With Children?

This post is linked to:
Sunday Showcase
Craft Schooling Sunday
No Time For Flashcards
Preschool Corner
Show and Tell

KIDS GET CRAFTY

Super Easy Shaving Cream Bathtub Paint

I Love this idea and Cassie has already requested it at least 5 times in the past few weeks: Shaving Cream Bathtub  Paint!!!  Very little preparation....each time we do this it has been very spontaneous! I saw this idea over at this beautiful blog: Meet The Dubiens and thought it was too good to be true....but it truly was a HIT! Sometimes the most simple ideas produce the best results! All  you need is some shaving cream,  food coloring,  paint brushes,  and a container for the paint.  We used a styrofoam egg carton which worked really well because it floated in the water as C painted! We've used this same egg carton over and over again! You could use any container such as a muffin tin, ice cube tray, or even separate containers. Add some shaving cream and a few drops of food color in each section...mix...and you are ready to paint!

Cassie didn't paint anything amazing, but she really had a good time exploring and playing! 

She had some good clean fun! Don't worry the food coloring came off from my white tiles!

Cassie started painting all the features of the bathtub: the faucet, soap dish,  and  the circle above the drain. I suggested tic tac toe on the square tiles!

For a girl who hates finger painting (she likes hand prints), this was a GREAT SOLUTION for exploring paint with her hands!!! Looks like there is finger painting going on here!!!!

***Stay tuned for more Bathtub fun...

This Post is Linked to:
THE PLAY ACADEMY
FOR THE KIDS FRIDAY
HIGH PAW
NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS
CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY
SUNDAY SHOWCASE
PRESCHOOL CORNER
SHOW AND TELL