Ducks 'n a Row

preschool crafts

N is for Nest – Preschool Craft Fun!

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n is for nest kids craft

 

Combine a simple science / nature lesson with this fun preschool letter N craft!
Read them a storybook about a bird building a nest and add a little question / answer time:
What is a nest?
Who builds the nest?
What is it for?
What is it made out of?

Where do you usually find bird nests?

“Bird Build A Nest” children’s book!

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N is for Nest preschool craft with FREE printables – below!

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This blog contains Amazon affiliate links. ❤️

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Education Activity For Kids:   How To Make A Bird’s Nest

N is for Nest Preschool Craft
 
You will need:

Crayons
Glue Stick
Child-safe scissors
Brown paper lunch bag 
(cut into strips)

Letter N Coloring Page 
(printed on card-stock)
Construction Paper 
(yellow and blue pictured here)
Laminated Eyes – Beak – Bird Eggs Page 
(free printable below)
This activity will help your preschooler with his/her cutting skills (essential for Kindergarten readiness.) Your child also will have fun with coloring, gluing and following directions. Make one in advance as an example of what the final product can look like but, when children do it, allow for lots of creativity. I’ve seen birds eggs with eyes and beaks!!! LOL
Directions
Prepare the lesson by printing the Letter N page on card stock for sturdiness. Draw the body on one color of construction paper or colored copier paper. Draw the wing on a different color. Allow your child the fun of cutting them out.

Print your Eye-Beak-Bird Egg page on card-stock paper and laminate it for durability. Again, your child can cut some out or you can join in and help on this one. Your call. I try to have them do as much as possible themselves.

Your preschooler should color the letter N first and then glue the bird on. Using shredded paper lunch bag, the child glues a patch for the nest. Glue the eggs in the middle of the nest and it is done! A masterpiece.
Bird watching over her eggs in the nest. Letter N is for Nest preschool craft.

 

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Extra Wide Scotch Laminator for home, school or office!

extra wide Scotch brand laminator

 

Enjoy!

signature

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“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

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Kids need wisdom, too!  ..

 

Proverbs for Kids

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And now … for the dog (or cat)… the pet hair is not their fault!  It used to drive me crazy to go to work and find my clothes were still covered in fur, though I diligently worked at getting it off my clothes.  The solution was to take care of it before it could ever get on my clothes.  I needed to  get a BETTER vacuum cleaner!

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Well, I did get one and I have been LOVING that same pet hair vacuum cleaner for over 13 years.  It is a basic Shark Navigator Lift Away and still runs like brand new.  They have niftier versions out there, now, like with LED headlights but, in all candor, this one still does the job like a dream come true.  It IS my dream come true!

Best vacuum for pet hair I have ever owned! #tips

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And the one (below) is the  Shark Rotator LiftAway with LED HEADLIGHTS I was talking about!

Shark Navigator vacuum with LED lights

Letter O is for Owl Preschool Craft

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Letter O is for Owl toilet paper roll craft #kids
The Letter O is for Owl is one of the easiest crafts I have had my preschoolers make. I wanted to make sure that they could be successful at doing it so, instead of using this craft for a lesson in  paper cutting, I pre-cut the wings and other pieces myself: wings, feathers, eyes and beaks.
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This blog contains Amazon affiliate links. ❤️

 

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Googly eyes for crafts
Don’t worry, this lesson is educational. There is PLENTY of learning for them to do, as you can see. Each child looked at the sample owl that I made and modeled theirs accordingly. They had to identify what was a wing or a feather. Those shapes are very similar. They used their creativity in selecting colors and placement of pieces.
And, take a look — everybody’s craft looks like an OWL! Yipee!
owl crafts
Toilet paper roll owls made by preschoolers – ages 3 & 4.
In addition to the craft, we gave our students an owl matching game to do.
O is for owl preschool craft; toilet paper roll craft

 

How To Make A Letter O is for Owl Toilet Paper Roll Craft

O is for Owl toilet paper roll craft #preschool #kids

Craft Supplies

Free printable templates for beaks, wings, feathers and eyes linked below.
colorful adjustable children's scissors

Instructions

Pinch two sides of one end of the cardboard toilet paper roll to make “owl ears.”
Print owl eyes on white card or cover stock.
Print beaks page on yellow or orange copy paper
Print wings and feathers page on a variety of colors of copy paper.*
*An alternative to that would be to print on white copy paper and have the child color the parts in with crayons or markers.
Cut the eyes, wings, feathers and beaks out.
Glue all the pieces on the toilet paper roll.
Tip:  use Elmer’s glue to attach the wings. Glue stick works fine for the other pieces and takes less drying. Your child will have to press the glued pieces with her hand for a minute to make sure that it sticks.

Free Printable Templates for O is for Owl Preschool Craft

Owl Beaks and Feathers

This little girl is just 3 1/2 years old and look at her owl! Wow!
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Owls made by kids!
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One thing that I did not do was to show them a video. I love to find short videos to enrich the lesson. There are some great owl videos but they were all too violent for tender young 3 and 4 year olds. Owls are great hunters and amazing to watch — every film showed it — but my little ones would have nightmares seeing sweet little bunnies and mice carried away to be an owl banquet!
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Classic Children’s Book

the Owl and the Pussycat book cover

Classic children’s book:  The Owl & the Pussycat    

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Cutest Ever Baby Snow Owl Stuffed Animal!

mini snow owl toy
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R is for Bunny Preschool Craft

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The letter R is for Rabbit  — we know that.  Of course it is! And that was our theme in preschool:  R is for Rabbit. But when you show this craft to a 3 or 4 year old, they will say “BUNNY” every time! LOL That is why I jokingly say that we studied “R is for Bunny” that day!

Bunny rabbit paper plate craft for kids

So we made a bunny.  We learned about bunnies.   It was  “Bunny Day” in preschool!

This was a very fun paper plate craft. 
My students loved it and your kids will love it, too.
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 This blog contains affiliate links ♥
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Berenstain Bears Easter Story Book
Cute Bunny Paper Plate Craft for Kids

Supplies

2 white paper plates
2 cotton balls
Scotch tape
scissors
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Instructions

Color the inside circle of one paper plate, using a pink crayon.
Cut a 2 inch column out of the middle of that plate, discarding  the “column.”
The two remaining parts of that plate is one bunny ear.
Attach the ears onto the other whole plate by taping them to the back.
Glue on the pom-pom nose.
Now, glue the cotton ball cheeks very close to the nose.
Glue on two googly eyes above the nose.
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Glue the tongue on sticking out from under where the cheeks meet.

Glue the bow tie at the bottom of the face plate.

Tip: I tried attaching the ears using glue. That was a mistake. Not only did the glue fail to hold them on but it wrinkled the top of the face. I highly recommend using clear tape to attach them.

Melissa & Dough plush toy bunny

Melissa & Doug Plush Toy Bunny Rabbit  

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Above all, enjoy making this bunny rabbit craft with your little ones!  It is a fun time for all 🙂

Enjoy!

Sinea

Pom Poms for crafts

 

 

Got adorable, furry pets???  How is the pet-hair battle going?

Pet hair vacuums are a game changer! 

cat and dog

I is for Ice Cream Puffy Paint Craft

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Ice Cream Cone Puffy Paint craft for kids

As most of you know, I teach preschool. In keeping with my traditional alphabet themed lessons, this year I thought it would be fun to use ice cream for the letter “I.”  Well, my little kiddos had so much fun, it made me wonder why I had never taught it before.

For our craft, we painted a picture of an ice cream cone using puffy paint. Puffy paint is always a BIG hit. As expected, the kids LOVED it!

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Preschooler using puffy paint to create ice cream cone picture

The idea came from from Crafty Morning’s puffy paint post.  She always has great creative ideas for kids crafts. I pretty much did the same thing that she did except I gave my little preschoolers two colors of puffy paint – pink for strawberry ice cream and light green for mint.  And instead of painting it on, we glued a pom pom on top for the “cherry.”

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This blog contains Amazon affiliate links ♥

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How To Make An Ice Cream Cone Picture Using Puffy Paint

Supplies

Cardstock paper

Construction Paper (brown)

Black Sharpie Marker

Shaving Cream (foamy type)

White School Glue [I used Elmer’s}

Tempera Paint (red and green)

Glitter

Pom Poms

Paint Brushes

Pom Poms for crafts

How to Make Puffy Paint

1 cup school glue for every 2 cups shaving cream.*

*Use the foamy white kind of shaving cream, NOT the gel kind.

Using a mixing bowl, spray lots of white foamy shaving cream into the bowl. Next add the  white school glue (i.e. Elmer’s glue or a generic brand) and mix it through.  Add dabs of tempera paint and mix with a spoon till you get the depth of color you like best.  Use drops of red paint to make the pink ice cream and drops of green tempera paint to make a light green for mint ice cream.

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How to Make an Ice Cream Cone Craft with Puffy Paint

  • Print the words “I is for Ice Cream” on a piece of cardstock paper.
  • Cut a triangle out of brown construction paper.
  • Make criss-cross lines on the brown paper using a black marker to make it look like a waffle cone.
  • Glue the cone paper onto the lower half of the page.
  • Mix up two colors of puffy paint.
  • Give your child two paint brushes and let them have fun painting scoops of ice cream above the cones.
  • Optional:  Sprinkle some glitter on the “cone” and glue a “cherry” pom pom on top.
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TIP:  A mistake that I made for this first time of doing this craft is that I made the cone a tiny bit too big.  It  forced the children to paint their ice cream cone higher on the page and it partially covered the words “I is for Ice Cream Cone.”  Next time I will place the title “I is for Ice Cream Cone” at the bottom of the page and may just cut the brown paper for the waffle cone a tiny bit smaller, too.

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Ice Cream Cone Puffy Paint craft for kids

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How about you?  Have you ever made a puffy paint craft?  

Make a really cute ice cream cone craft with your kids using homemade puffy paint! It is so much fun! #kidscrafts #preschool #kindergarten #painting Share on X

Click here for all of our preschool crafts!

Alphabet inspired preschool crafts

Enjoy!

Sinea

 

 

 

Glitter for arts, crafts and makeup, too!  Teens LOVE it!   

Glitter for arts ,crafts and makeup!

 

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And now for the big question:  how’s your vacuum?

When we had 2 yellow labs, I was in great frustration about all the white dog hair on everything.  I am a dog LOVER.  I never want to be without one.  But the shedding was annoying and my vacuum did very little to help me clean things up ... till I found THIS vacuum cleaner.  It is a SHARK.

shark vacuum

 

T is for Turtle Craft For Little Kids

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T is for Turtle paper plate craft for kids.

T is for Turtle Paper Plate Craft

Little 3-D marshmallow eyes give this turtle paper plate craft for kids dimension. It is cuter than cute! 

Oh, how I have looked forward to teaching this lesson. In previous years we did T is for Tee Pee, T is for Turkey and T is for Teeth. It was time to do Turtles – especially with the fond memories I have of “my own” turtle named Manfred.  *amazing story below

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This blog contains Amazon affiliate links ♥

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Things we learned about turtles:

  • Some live on land, some live in water.
  • The ones who live on land have stumpy legs. Sea turtles and other water-dwellers have webbed feet.
  • Turtles can be itty-bitty small or huge!* (tortoises)
  • Turtles are reptiles.
  • Turtles eat a variety of foods. Some eat vegetation. Some eat insects. Some eat animals.
  • Baby turtles hatch from eggs using a “tooth” to chip their way out!
  • More: Fun Turtle Facts from Science Kids

 

  Good Night, Little Turtle!

My Tortoise Story

 

T is for Turtle and T is for Tortoise, preschool lesson
My Tortoise Story: affectionately remembered in my kid-memory as “the best day ever!” Long long ago, in a place far, far away (Upstate New York) there was a second grade class … MY second grade class and there was a little 8 year old girl, that would be me. Though it was far in the past, the images will stay with me forever. During recess, our class was playing outside on the playground. Suddenly, I kid you not, a huge and I mean GIGANTIC tortoise slowly crept out of the woods. He was so big that two children hopped on his back, to the great distress of the shocked teachers. They couldn’t move fast enough. “Get off. Get off!”  and ” Keep away from his mouth!” They did get off but he was soon surrounded by a sea of wondering children. Can you imagine our parents when they asked us how school was that day? LOL!
We named him “Manfred.” Somebody called for help. I remember the police being there. It isn’t clear to me whether we were still outdoors when he was taken away but he did become a permanent resident of the local zoo. Manfred kept his name and he lived there for decades. He passed away a few years ago and it has been said that he was well over 100 years old. When I read the news, for a moment there I felt like a friend had died. Manfred the Tortoise will always have a special place in my heart.
20 inch stuffed animal plush TURTLE toy AD

T is for Turtle Paper Plate Craft

This craft is simple and fun to make. I had run out of googly eyes but came up with this brainstorm – marshmallow eyes! I had mini’s on hand. I cut them in half, put a dot of black paint on each and Voila! Eyes! I like them better than the googlies.


kids crafts, T is for Turtle, paper plate crafts

Supplies
Plain white paper plate
Green construction paper
Turtle part template on white paper
Marshmallows: mini and large
Small paintbrush
Cotton swab
Tempera Paints
Stapler
Tape
Black marker
White school glue
T is for Turtle
Directions
Cut the small marshmallows in half.
Paint a black tempera paint pupil on each marshmallow “eye ball”*

You will find that they harden a bit in a short period of time.

 

turtle, preschool, kids crafts

 

Cut out the turtle parts using your template as a guide
Tape the tail onto the legs part of the turtle.
Now you will have two parts: front and bottom
Trace the front and back onto green paper and cut them out.
Staple front to one side of a paper plate shell making sure that the “dome” part of the shell will be on the correct side. You don’t want the staples and tape to show.
Do the same on the other end for the bottom legs with tail of the turtle.
Tip:    you can also use some tape to secure it.
Glue the marshmallow eyes on the head.
Draw the nose and mouth using the marker.
Using large marshmallows, DOT colored tempera paint all over the paper plate, decorating his shell.
You now have one adorable turtle!
Jet Puffed mini marshmallows AD
 

Enjoy!

Fun S is for Spring Fork Painting Craft for Kids

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S is for Spring fork painting project for kids

This Letter S is for Spring preschool craft is so easy to make that your kids will love it. No frustration – guaranteed success because we used fork painting!

Whenever we do a new craft in my classroom, I try to bring a sample for my students to see to give them some idea of where we are headed. It never stifles their creativity. Each and every painting is totally unique, which I love!

Painting spring flowers with tempera paints using forks #spring #preschoolcraft
When I started my sample copy, I was confident that I had everything I needed to do the job. What I hadn’t recognized was that my little tempera paints had gone dry. Well, almost dry. I had no transportation that day, so I couldn’t run out to buy more,  and I was up against the wire time-wise. So, I poured a little water in the paints, let them sit, and then blended them with a craft stick.  It worked!
This blog includes affiliate links ♥
Tempera paint for kids #ad
My painting is pictured here:
S is for Spring fork painting craft for preschool
This picture was made by me, the teacher, as a sample for my students to see.
fork painting for kids
Plastic forks are your paint brushes for the petals.

 

Stickers for spring

Butterflies and flowers stickers for kids #AD

 

Spring crafts for preschoolers; letter S is for Spring
Three paintings of tulips made by preschoolers, using plastic forks and tempera paints.

 

S is for Spring Fork-Painting Picture

Supplies
Card or Cover Stock
Small Paint Brush
Plastic Forks
S is for Spring preschool craft; fork painting; spring preschool lesson
Directions
Start with smocks. Little children are messy. They can’t help it.
Cover them up with an old shirt or smock before you start.
Paint stems and leaves of the flowers first, using a small paint brush and green paint.
Pour different color tempera paints on a plate.
Use a different fork for each color.
Paint tulip-shapes on the stems in various colors.
Let it dry.
Done!
Tip: if you have several children doing this project at the same time – our classroom had 13 – pre-label each piece of cover stock paper with each child’s name before they start to paint. That way the person who is labeling won’t get paint on themselves, as they might if you wait until after the picture is completed.

Enjoy!

                 
If you love this idea, wait till you see my post about ROCK PAINTING!  
Rock painting is fun!

Letter X is for Xylophone Preschool Craft

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As a preschool teacher, I have found the end of the alphabet to be quite challenging for themes. Our class has featured a different letter of the alphabet every week, from A – Z.

Now, our Z is for Zoo day [which is the final day of school] is easy. Think of the many possibilities; they are as diverse as the many creatures who LIVE in the zoo!

Letter W is for Weather day is another one that we really enjoy. There is so much to do!

Letter X is for Xylophone preschool craft #preschool

But I have found that X and Y are both hurting for good preschool craft ideas. So, this year I decided to combine two letter X’s. We featured X marks the Spot – our Dress Like A Pirate [or princess] day – and tacked on the Letter X is for Xylophone for the craft.

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You will see that the primary activity for  X marks the Spot is great fun. The children follow a treasure map that leads them to an “island” where there is a real treasure.  You can get all the details here => Letter X Marks The Spot Preschool Treasure Hunt Theme.   

Dressing like pirates and princesses and going on a treasure hunt really don’t need a huge craft project to compliment them. This little letter X craft can be built around discussion about xylophones and how to play one. If someone has a toy xylophone at home that they can bring in, all the better!

Fun and easy Letter X is for Xylophone #preschool craft! #kidscrafts Share on X

Letter X is for Xylophone Preschool Craft

 

Supplies

Card stock paper

Colored construction or copy paper

Letter X template

Crayons

Glue Stick

Preschool craft letter X is for Xylophone #kidscrafts

Directions

Print copies of the letter X template onto white card stock – one for each child

Color the inside of the X. Encourage the children to use their imaginations and do designs inside. My little group of artists almost always look at my design and try to duplicate it but we did have a few very original creations!

Cut rectangles from four different colors of paper. Each rectangle should be a bit shorter than the next. We were limited in time so I pre-cut them for the children.

Demonstrate for the children, using a glue stick,  how to “color” straight lines across the letter X and then press the colored papers onto the glue; place shortest rectangle at the top finishing with the widest piece at the bottom.

It is just that easy!

Oh, curious about letter Y?  We did Letter Y is for Yellow and learned about colors. 

Enjoy!