Sticky Wall Rainbow

3 / 12 / 1312 / 2 / 13

Gracen just recently started talking about rainbows a lot, which couldn’t have come at a better time with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner. Since her Valentine’s colouring matching sticky wall activity was such a hit, I decided we’d do a variation of it for the week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.

This time, using the same method as I did last time, I drew a quick rainbow with clouds on the contact paper.

And instead of construction paper cut-outs, this time I included tissue paper pieces (in coordinating rainbow colours) and cotton balls for the clouds.

I thought Gracen might ask what the cotton balls were for, given that the rainbow drawing really didn’t include any white, but not the case. She immediately dove into the bowl and started filling up the clouds.

Clearly, the cotton balls were the favourite of this activity. If I would have known, I would have attempted to dye cotton balls in all of the rainbow colours and skipped the tissue paper all together, but maybe we can try that another time.

Once all of the cotton balls had been used in one way or another, she began sticking the red tissue paper pieces on, lining them up just so. After a few, she looked at them sideways, then looked at me and exclaimed, “A row, Mum! Just like a real rainbow.” For the next week or so, I can almost guarantee that Miss G will be working on her rainbow rows.

♥

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Sticky Wall Colour Matching Game

2 / 15 / 139 / 22 / 13

One of the little activities I set up for Miss and her friends to enjoy at our Valentine’s tea was this sticky wall colour matching game. The idea came from No Time for Flashcards (an amazing activity resource for kids of all ages) and although I followed Allison‘s instructions pretty closely, I made a couple of little changes along the way.

Needed for the project was construction paper in rainbow colours, a heart-shaped paper punch, permanent markers in coordinating rainbow colours, and clear contact paper {which can be purchased at dollar stores and home hardware stores}.

First off, I punched out tons of hearts and mixed them up really well in order to make the activity more challenging.

Next, I rolled the contact paper out on the floor (paper backing side down) and drew rainbow-coloured hearts inside one another on the non-sticky side of the contact paper (using permanent markers for this part is key).

The following morning I peeled the paper off of the corners, and taped the sheet up to the wall before peeling the entire backing off. As you can see, I attempted to make it look cute by taping it to the wall with my black and white polka dotted washi tape, but it simply didn’t cut it. The ugly masking tape had to be brought out, but it worked perfectly.

When Miss G’s little friends came over, they began popping up the hearts all over the place {somewhat to Grae’s dismay}. And though most of them didn’t get put in the ‘correct’ places, they had a lot of fun with it. In fact, at one point I think we had 3 toddlers pressing their faces onto the sticky wall and slowly pulling them away before sticking them back on again. ☺

Of course, once everyone had gone, she got straight to fixing things. The beauty about contact paper is that the paper hearts can easily be removed and reattached if need be.

Grae worked hard on her project for a good long while and it’ll stay up for the next while for her to revisit when desired, which I know will be often.

♥

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Cupcake Colour Matching Felt Board Game

10 / 20 / 123 / 22 / 14

After seeing how Lindsay from The Little Red Horse turned my felt board DIY into an awesome birthday gift (check it out here), I decided to *borrow* her idea and whip up something similar for one of Grae’s little friends whose party we attended this weekend. (Thank you, Lindsay!)

I liked the idea of a creating a colour matching game, but wanted to try something different than ice cream cones this time around… Something a little more October birthday-ish, so cupcakes it was!

All I did was cut out cupcake tops (with a candle attached for gluing purposes), cupcake liners and candles in coordinating colours, and little yellow flames.

Then, using Aleene’s OK To Wash-It glue, I attached the coloured candles and flames to the cupcake tops.

Voila! An easy little felt board game that allows munchkins to practice colour matching by pairing up the tops and bottoms of the cupcakes.

Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of the finished product, but the felt board looked exactly like Gracen’s, said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” across the top, had two of the felt cupcakes in the middle (because the little boy was turning two) and said “JACKSON” (the little boy’s name) across the bottom. We also included the rest of the alphabet, the other cupcakes, and a jack-o-lantern face designing game each in a little bag separately.

Gracen loves her felt board, so she was very proud to give one to her little friend come party time. ☺

♥

Egg Carton Button Sorting

9 / 28 / 129 / 29 / 13

Matching is HUGE in our house right now. Coordinating is simply not good enough for Miss G anymore. Everything. must. match. To the point where she will pick a treat (organic fruit leather) with a blue package while grocery shopping because she is wearing blue pants, cutting her carrots requires an orange knife, and wearing white socks isn’t happening if there is no other white in the outfit. So when I came across an empty egg carton during my usual nap time house cleaning, I decided to use it to put together a little matching game rather than recycling it.

I had everything else I needed on hand… Acrylic paints in primary colours, plus white and black, a paintbrush, an old rag, and some water.

I simply painted each egg spot by swirling the paint up from the base to the top edge.

I made sure to include the basic rainbow colours, plus black, white, and grey, and of course aqua because, well… it’s the best colour ever.

Afterwards, I gave the inside of the lid a quick coat of white paint.

Now if I’m being honest, Gracen awoke from her nap before the paint was fully dry and she was so excited to play her new game that we took it to the bathroom and used the blowdryer on it.

When it was fully dry, I poured a bunch of buttons in the lid, removed the clear ones, and asked, “Do you want to play?”

With a prompt “Yes!” and zero direction, she got busy matching the buttons to the colours painted in the cups.

Grae loves playing and the nice thing about this little game is that when she’s finished, she just closes it up and everything is contained and ready for next time.

♥