Do-a-Dot Butterflies!

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As you know from reading any of my posts here (or as you could probably gather from my blog title) butterflies are big around our house.  Becca has been fascinated with butterflies from a young age, and we love to do butterfly activities.  So yes, I realize that we are stuck in the dead of winter making butterflies… but what does it hurt to dream of spring a little – even if it is January?  Plus, the awesome thing is, you can do this Do-a-Dot art and use it not for butterflies, but for your 2016 calendar!!  Not sure what I’m talking about because you just happened to stumble across this post?  Well, welcome!  And check out the info on how to make your own fabulous 2016 calendar over here.

do a dot butterflies

Here’s what you’ll need:

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coffee filters (whatever size you have on hand – we used the 4 cup ones)
clothespins (if you’re just doing the art, not making the butterfly craft, you don’t need these)
a squirt bottle with water
Do-A-Dot markers  (We have this set:Do A Dot Art Marker Brilliant 6-pack aff link)
Activity trays (or a really good plastic table cloth would work too- but the markers DO bleed through the coffee filters – esp when they get wet)

First, you’ll make your dots, then as soon as you’ve made all your dots, spray the filter with water.  Watch the marker spread!

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To make the butterfly craft, simply pinch the filters in your clothespins, draw little faces, and hang your butterflies on some fishing line or attach to a photo frame, so they appear to be flying!  We hung ours on our art display wall – they are just waiting to help hold up some fabulous art this year!

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Crystal Snowflakes

steam activities header

Today’s STEAM topic: SCIENCE

Ok, so I’ll be perfectly honest with you that I got the idea to do these snowflakes from a post I saw on Facebook, but when I went back to try and find it, I can’t even begin to locate the source.  (This is what Pinterest is for.  Yes, I know that.  But do I pin every wonderful idea I see on Facebook?  No.  I don’t have time for that.  Shoot me now.  HA!)  Ok, so now that you’ve stuck around past my disclaimer, here’s a link to the post that I DID save from Playdough to Plato where she does an awesome thing of making letter crystals to spell the child’s name.  That is so totally awesome, and I plan to do that with Becca later on this spring.  But for now, we did snowflakes.

I just cut and twisted the pipe cleaners into snowflakes and then, we followed the directions on the Noirin’s post (linked above) to make our crystal snowflakes!!  They turned out super awesome and Becca has really enjoyed looking at them over and over and touching them.  Now I need to figure out what to do with them, because I don’t want to just throw them away…

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Wacky Wednesday

  • Becca loves the show “Peep and the Big Wide World” – it’s about a little baby chick, a baby bird, and a young duck who explore the “Big Wide World” together.  A great science program for young kids, it’s available on Netflix instant view.  Coming out of her playhouse, or sticking her head out of the hole in the slide set in the back yard, she’s often heard saying, “Is somebody here in the big, (pause) wide, (pause) world?”  I wish I could do an audio clip of this on here… because the words themselves don’t do her dramatic flair justice. 
  • “You keep sweeping while I make your breakast. It’ll be ready soon I just need to make my coffee first.”  Again, her little voice just makes it.  Because of course, she had just told me to go to “sweep” (sleep), then she said that.  One of these days, she’ll say “sleep” and “breakFast”… gotta love the little things while they last.  She now says “butterflies” correctly.  No longer do we live in “boofwy” land.  So quickly she is growing.  Sigh.
  • “I’m making you a sensory bowl!” She loves her sensory activities so much – she even makes them for me!!  “Ok, Mommy, now stick your hand in this and tell me what it feels like.  Is it scratchy or soft?”

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  • “Oh Bubba.  You gotta put the puffs in your mouth.  They don’t go on the floor.” Preach it, Sister.  As soon as we finally get one child to no longer drop food on the floor (and man, was that ever a long, drawn out process!!), now the other one does it.  Of course, it’s not like at 7 1/2 months old he’s doing it deliberately.  Or, maybe he has a secret pact with Daisy…
  • “These strawberries are kinda sweet and crunchy.  But squishy too.”  I love the adjectives she’s beginning to use to describe things.  My little strawberry lover.

 

Three FREE Printables for February!

Hard to believe, but February is just around the corner!  SUNDAY it’ll be here!  So, I’ve got three planning printables here to help you get started off right!

 

 

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Here’s your meal planning calendar.

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Hosting a party for the big game?  This simple planning sheet should help keep you organized!

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Perfect for kids and adults alike, this Valentine List sheet is a fun way to keep track of who you want to share some love with this Valentine’s Day!

Mini Habitat Boxes

mini habitat boxes

 

Every Tuesday this month, I have shared with you some ideas for various animal habitat boxes.  (Arctic/Antarctic – Farm – Dinosaurs – Ocean)  But what if you don’t have abundant space to store all of these habitats?  And what if you don’t have a million storage containers big enough for everything that I showed?

That’s where these MINI Habitat Boxes come in!  Simply using a small Ziploc box, or even a washed out lunchmeat container (hello, recycling and FREE!), you can make a fun habitat box.  Whether it’s a Serengeti refuge for just four safari animals, or a woodland retreat for five, these mini habitat boxes can provide just as much fun for your kids, while making it possible to have even more variety stored in a smaller amount of space!  You could also create two different mini boxes from the same Toob of animals so that siblings could have their own habitat boxes to play in.

Shown in these boxes are a combination of animals from a variety of Toobs that haven’t already been placed into sensory boxes.  I love it that we bought several Toobs and combined them all into one big bag so that when I want to make a box, I can just go and sift through and see what we have available.  You can find the animals shown above in these Toobs (affiliate links – thank you for your purchases!):

Safari Ltd Pets TOOB

Safari Ltd Big Cats TOOB

Safari Ltd Wild TOOB