Cupcake Wrapper Flowers

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This is one of those crafts that was really a mommy project, while Travis played with all of the materials alongside me. Children in pre-school on up will love to help you put the flowers together though! When our flowers were finished, Travis loved “planting” them – more on that below!

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To start, I shaped bright cupcake liners into various flower shapes – some with rounded edges and some with points. The cupcake liners were by far Travis’s favorite part of this craft, and he stacked them and filled them with pom poms while I worked.

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For older children, you can trace the shape of the flower to cut, and have them practice with safety scissors.

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Once you have enough flowers, trace a leaf shape on green construction paper and cut out. Kids will love helping to use a hole punch on each leaf.

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Fold a green pipe cleaner in half, and thread one or two leaves onto each. Carefully poke the pipe cleaner “stem” through two or three cupcake wrappers, folding over the end to secure in place.

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We tried gluing pom poms to the center of a few of our flowers, but they didn’t stay on very well. Oh well, they looked pretty even without the embellishment!

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You can display your spring flowers in pretty vases…

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Or plant them in dirt, as we did with an old prop from a Koala Crate.

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Newspaper Flowers

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Here’s another pretty addition to our spring flower play! This time we used a rather interesting concoction of homemade paint to make flowers from newspaper.

Travis loved the painting process. In cups, combine equal parts white glue and water, then add a few drops of liquid watercolor to each. The mixture is best applied with a foam brush.

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Travis was very deliberate deciding which color should go where!

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Our goopy newspaper then needed to dry overnight in the bathroom.

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The next morning the paper is very stiff – a bit like papier-mache. I cut it into flower petals, while Travis got in great cutting practice alongside me, using his safety scissors.

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Glue 5 or 6 petals together in a spiral. Travis had sort of lost interest, so I did this step solo.

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Once the glue dried, we attached a green pipe cleaner stem to the back of each flower with tape.

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Play with the flowers any way your like…

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Or they even make a fantastic addition to a real flower display!

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Brownies

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By far the densest, chewiest, and thickest vegan brownie recipe I’ve stumbled across, Travis loves these (not to mention the batter before it cooks), and has no idea that many of the ingredients are good for him! Add chopped walnuts if you like, both for crunch and omega-3s.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup packed pitted dates
  • 1/2 cup packed pitted prunes
  • 1 and 1/2 cups water
  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 1 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/3 cup carob powder
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. Combine the dates, prunes, and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Continue to cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat and let stand.
  2. Meanwhile, combine the oat flour, rice flour, carob powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Transfer the date mixture to a blender, along with the maple syrup, canola oil, and vanilla; process until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until well combined.
  4. Spoon the batter into a 9×9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

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Finger Cymbals

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We always love adding to our homemade instrument collection, so I thought this project looked cute. The instruments were branded as “cymbals” although honestly they seemed more like castanets to me! But whatever you call them, the project is cute and easy.

Save 4 bottle caps, and have your child paint them in any color. To keep fingers from getting too messy, clip the bottle cap to a clothespin for easy application – genius!

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We let the caps dry overnight, and then I cut two strips from cardboard to be the base. Fill each bottle cap very full (almost overflowing) with glue. Turn over and press onto the cardboard. Repeat with a second cap, so that when the cardboard is folded in half, the two caps will click together.

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Let dry completely – then get clicking!

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Paper Towel Flowers

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Be prepared for several crafty flower posts in the next week or so. I have a case of spring fever, plus another flower-based theme I’m working on (stay tuned for more on that!…). So for starters, here is a lovely and easy flower craft that toddlers will adore.

Watercolor and paper towels makes for an innovative painting experience, because with just a light touch of the paint brush, the color will bleed across the paper towel. Travis had fun testing the limits of this for a little while.

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We were using liquid watercolors for the first time, but you might consider sticking with regular watercolors. I confess, it was this mama who knocked over our yellow for the first spill, and Travis later decided to pour the watercolors back and forth to mix them, which resulted in a spilled cup of blue. So… User discretion advised!

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Despite the silly mess, we ended up with three covered pieces of paper towel to turn into flowers.

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Let dry completely, then invite your toddler to rip the paper towel into pieces – this part is sure to be a big hit!

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I arranged the pieces into three piles, each stacked in order from largest to smallest. Fold up into a flower shape, and secure with a clothespin stem.

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To add a dose of reality to our flowers, we then scented them with perfume! Travis was astounded that our flowers had a real smell, and soon was running all about the house waving them. A great spring craft.

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Banana Ice Cream

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Banana Ice Cream (1)Better known in our house as “Banana Swirl” (thanks to Daniel Tiger!) this healthy and yummy treat is easier-than-pie to whip up, and will delight your kids.

The first step is to peel your bananas, as many as you want, depending how many kids want the ice cream. Figure on 2 bananas to make 1 serving of banana ice cream for a toddler. Ripe bananas work best!

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Travis loved helping to peel them and then use his butter knife to slice them into imperfectly-perfect chunks. Freeze the bananas for at least one hour.

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I wish we’d frozen the bananas a little longer, but Travis was impatient! Soon it was time to give everything a whirly swirl in the blender until perfectly smooth.

Yum, banana ice cream.

Pasta Bead Sequencing

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Here’s another fantastic activity for the Kool-Aid dyed pasta we made a few weeks back. We’ve already strung together bracelets with our pasta beads, but this time I used the pasta for a slightly more educational purpose.

Using the template available from Kiwi Crate, I printed out pictures of the pasta beads arranged by color, and then had them laminated. You can skip the lamination, but doing so means you can do this activity again and again!

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Encourage your child to line up the beads in the order that’s shown on the card. As an alternative, give him or her a pipe cleaner, to thread the pasta in order.

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Travis is a little young to accomplish a task like this from start to finish still, but he loved selecting a pasta piece from his bag and placing it on the correct color. We’ll work up to completing the whole sequence on pipe cleaners as he gets older!

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This activity would be perfect for on-the-go moments when you need to keep your kiddo occupied, like a restaurant or waiting room.

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Update: At closer to 3, Travis now loves doing this activity directly onto a pipe cleaner!

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Make a Rain Meter

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Rainy March sure came in like a lion, and seems to be ending the same way! Meaning it was the perfect time to make a rain meter! Travis wasn’t especially interested in making this craft (another clever suggestion from High Five magazine), but he sure loved the results!

To make the rain meter, we laid a fork along a piece of masking tape and made 5 notches. Label them 1 through 5, having your child count along with you.

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Place the tape on a plastic cup, then secure the cup some place outside where rain will fall. We taped ours quite securely to the balcony because our rain storm involved a lot of wind!

The next morning, we could check on our results. When I told Travis the liquid in the cup was rain, he was amazed. “Can I hold it?” he asked. “Can I touch it?” I have to admit, I’ve never put my fingers in a cup of collected rain water either, and it was neat to think that they started out as individual rain drops!

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After the first storm, the rain was just above our 1 mark. We intend to keep collecting through upcoming April showers to see how much spring rain we get!

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Spray Bottle & Watercolor

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Travis has recently loved using a spritz bottle to “clean” alongside me. I’ve set up safe zones in which he can do so without getting the whole house wet – bathtub tiles, his chalkboard – but thought he’d love it if I granted him permission to spritz from the spray bottle in a rather taboo way… With colored water!

To make our “paint” we added one pack of Kool-aid – in black cherry thank you very much – for a nice dark result.

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I set Travis up with paper and newspaper to spray to his heart’s content, but it quickly became apparent that neither was absorbent enough.

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A switch to watercolor paper saved the day! We loved exploring the ways the bottle could make small dots from further way, and big wet blobs when held close to the paper.

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As a bonus, your “paintings” will smell fantastic once finished, making this a nice project for the senses as well.

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Be forewarned: Kool-aid stains, so you need to be careful or things will get really messy. You might consider waiting and doing the activity outside in the warm weather!

Stress Ball

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“Terrible twos” don’t have to be terrible. A simple too like a stress ball can help your child calm down in a rough moment – and help you stay joyful as a parent! We talked a lot about feelings lately with our Koala Feelings crate, and helping your child identify frustration is a key first step in quelling a tantrum.

Ready to help your toddler squeeze away emotions? Grab a balloon, a funnel, and cornstarch. Lacking a funnel, we actually used an old party horn, which was shaped perfectly!

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Inflate the balloon a couple of times to stretch it out, then insert the funnel. Gradually add your cornstarch until the balloon is filled; you may need a kebab skewer or pencil to help push the cornstarch down – Travis loved this part.

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Now it was time to give a squeeze; he thought it was very cool how soft and squishy it was. The stress ball would also work great in situations where your child is nervous or scared!