Valentine's Day Stamp Art Use Pipe Cleaners as Stamps
Crafts and Projects · Jobs of a Preschooler

Use Pipe Cleaners as Stamps

Brigitte BrulzLeave a comment

I have been having fun finding crafts and activities for parents and teachers to do along with my book Jobs of a Preschooler. As I find projects, I add them to my Pinterest Board (link to my Pinterest board) entitled Jobs of a Preschooler, which I wrote about here.

Recently, I have been seeing pictures of people folding pipe cleaners into  a variety of shapes to use as stamps. My daughters decided to do a similar project and turned some piple cleaners into hearts. Perfect for a Valentine’s Day theme!

Here are their colorful heart shaped stamps made from pipe cleaners:

Use pipe cleaners to create stamps!

Using their handmade stamps, they had fun painting their own little creations. Here is one project:

DIY stamps with pipe cleaners

Here is the other:

Such a simple and fun art project to do with the kiddos. Just make sure to keep the pipe cleaners away from any kitties! My cat loves pipe cleaners for some reason, and he was eager to play with one of the painted pipe cleaners that accidentally fell on the floor. Needless to say, I had a little bit of paint to clean off his paws and the floor!

Happy painting! What are some other fun-shaped stamps you can create using pipe cleaners?

Using pipe cleaners for stamps

Build a bridge with items on hand. Be a Builder by Building a Bridge
Crafts and Projects · Jobs of a Preschooler

Be a Builder by Building a Bridge

Brigitte BrulzLeave a comment

Be a builder by building a bridge…try to say that ten times fast!

In the book Jobs of a Preschooler, the little girl has a job as a builder on one of the pages.

Jobs of a Preschooler- I'm a builder...

Your little ones can also become builders by building a bridge.

Recently, I told my daughters to build a bridge with whatever supplies they could find in our craft supplies. The bridges had to fit across two stools that I set 8 inches a part and had to hold 150 pennies without breaking.

One daughter found a paper towel roll, which she cut open. Then, she taped craft sticks on the sides of the paper towel roll hoping they would make her bridge stronger. Once the edges of her “bridge” were taped to the stools, she began loading it with pennies. Here is the bridge with 150 pennies- it survived!

Build a bridge to hold pennies

My other daughter decided to tape numerous craft sticks together like a large raft.  It didn’t look as sturdy as the paper towel roll bridge, but it also succeeded. Here it is with 150 pennies still intact.

Build a bridge to hold pennies

This project can be done with various distances, supplies, and weights. Although both of my daughters built rather flat bridges, they could be made with various sides and supports.

For more building ideas, check out a guest post I had on Hands On As We Grow entitled 25 Ways to Build Towers Without Blocks.

Happy building!

 

Crafts and Projects · Ramblings

Creating Eye-Catching Pins

Brigitte BrulzLeave a comment

A few months ago, I started learning about Pinterest. It seemed like a fun platform to display quotes I like and pictures for crafts, activities, and fun information to do along with my books (currently Jobs of a Preschooler and Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles). After reading some books (I love books!) from the library (I really really love the library!) and watching a few videos online, I created a Pinterest account.

I have had fun learning how to create boards, make boards private or public, add pictures, follow others, and organize items. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to continue adding items periodically to my Pinterest page. As a result, I have been trying to save five pins at least five times each week to my boards. So far, I have over 350 pins on my public board and over 150 pins on my private boards. Needless to say, I have had fun pinning on Pinterest and exploring all of the fun ideas others have pinned!

You can follow me on Pinterest (link to my Pinterest page) if you would like to stay updated on the pins I add to my boards. If you only want to see pins on certain topics, there is an option to follow specific boards.

On my Pinterest page (this links to my Pinterest page), I currently have 6 public boards:

  • Jobs of a Preschooler
  • Fun Crafts
  • Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles
  • Quotes for Writers
  • Quotes for Parents
  • Quotes for Homeschoolers

The Jobs of a Preschooler board is filled with all kinds of fun crafts and activities to do along with the book Jobs of a Preschooler. I currently have it divided into 13 sections:

Jobs of a Preschooler now available!

The Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles board is currently divided into 9 sections:

Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles Available

I added some of my own pictures as pins; however, they did not look as gorgeous as the majority of the pins that I have seen on Pinterest. So, I started trying to figure out how to create better eye-catching photos. I noticed a lot of people online kept mentioning a graphic design program called Canva, which has a free option. Since free fits within my budget, I decided to give it a try.

Last night (around 10PM), I created my free account in Canva. Once I figured out how to use the basic tools (free online video tutorials saved me a lot of time!), I started adding my own pictures and creating nicer eye-catching creations.

Notice, I said nicer. I am not a graphic designer, and it certainly shows in the pictures I created; however, they look a lot better than what I had before.  The two pictures shown above for Jobs of a Preschooler and Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles are two of the pictures I created last night using Canva.

Using Canva was addicting! I had so much fun playing around trying to create pictures to put on my Pinterest boards that I stayed up until 1 AM this morning.

I started pinning some of my pictures to my Pinterest boards, and then I realized that the pictures saved on there looked so much nicer than my website pictures. So, I plan to update some of the pictures on a few of my past posts some time in the next week.

Hopefully, future pictures will look a little nicer…no promises, though!

Do you use a program to make pictures look nicer? If so, what do you use?

Potato experiment Be a Scientist With an A-maze-ing Potato
Crafts and Projects · Jobs of a Preschooler

Be a Scientist With an A-maze-ing Potato

Brigitte BrulzLeave a comment

Your child may have fun being a scientist like the girl in the book Jobs of a Preschooler with a potato maze experiment.

To make the maze, follow the steps below.

  1. Gather the needed supplies: potato with an eye, shoebox with a lid, cardboard, scissors, a knife, and tape.
  2. Cut a large circular hole in one side corner of the shoebox. (I found the knife worked best for this.)
  3. Tape two pieces of cardboard (cut to fit) inside of the shoebox on opposite sides to create a maze.
  4.  Set the potato with the eye in the shoebox on the side away from the cut hole.
  5. Close the lid and put the shoebox in a spot where the sun can shine through the hole. (You want light to only come in where the hole is.) Have your child hypothesize what will happen.
  6. After a few days, see if there have been any changes to the potato.

Potato experiment

As you can see above, the eye of the potato sprouted and started to make its way through the maze to the hole on the opposite end of the box. It should continue to make its way through the maze as it grows towards the light.  This is a fun experiment to show how plants grow towards light.

Jobs of a Preschooler- I'm a scientist...

For another similar science experiment to show how plants grow towards the light, you may want to check out the shoe-box maze as seen on Plants for Kids with step-by-step photo instructions.

Here are more simple science experiments you may want to try with your little ones.

 

 

Penguin crackers to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day Celebrate National Penguin Awareness Day
Crafts and Projects · Jobs of a Preschooler · Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles · Writing Appearances

Celebrate National Penguin Awareness Day

Brigitte BrulzLeave a comment

(This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you if you make a purchase after clicking on a link. Thank you!)

There are many national days, which can be fun to celebrate. Last year, I had a lot of fun celebrating National Pickle Day with my book Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles. You can read all about my fun Pickle Day celebration by clicking here if interested.

Did you know January 20th is National Penguin Awareness Day? A few years ago, my daughters and I had a lot of fun celebrating penguins. I hung up black and white streamers, we watched a penguin movie, read penguin books, and did a bunch of other crafts and activities. This year, I wrote a post for Hands On As We Grow about numerous activities you can do with the little ones in your life to celebrate penguins. You can find those activities on Hands On As We Grow here if you would like.

What are some interesting celebrations you have celebrated with your little ones?

My daughters and I decided to be little chefs like the girl in Jobs of a Preschooler by creating our own little snack to celebrate National Penguin Awareness Day.

From book Jobs of a Preschooler...Preschooler being a chef

Using cream cheese, black olives, carrots, and round crackers, we created little penguin treats. I found this idea on Fantastic Fun and Learning. Here are the finished penguin snacks that my daughters created:

Penguin crackers to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day

They were almost too cute to eat. They received thumbs up reviews just like in Jobs of a Preschooler when the little girl was a taste tester.

from book Jobs of a Preschooler...preschooler being a taste tester

What are some fun snacks you have enjoyed making with your little ones?