Tag: cotton balls

Cotton Ball Snowman, Two Ways

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A snowman made of cotton balls is a toddler classic for a reason; after all every toddler seems to love soft, puffy cotton balls, and they really do make adorable snowmen!

The first version Veronika and I made today involved more parental work than the second. I traced 3 sizes of circle cookie cutters on contact paper, then cut out. Tape down to a piece of construction paper with double-sided tape so that the sticky part of the contact paper faces up. Now have your toddler cover with cotton balls!

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The three circles will immediately resemble the head, torso, and bottom of a snowman. This was a great opportunity to point out the relative sizes of the circles.

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I then cut a few additional details from construction paper which Veronika could help glue on, including an orange carrot nose, a red scarf, and black circles for buttons and eyes. Make sure to have your toddler help squeeze out the glue, which is great for those little finger muscles!

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The second version we made allowed Veronika to be more in charge. This time, we simply smeared a glue stick onto construction paper in circular motions, a big circle on the bottom and smaller on top.

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After sticking on cotton balls for the body, I then gave Veronika pom poms to add for decorations. This was a great way to give her agency over how the snowman turned out.

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If your child wants to add a background, use a white crayon for a snowy scene. For all that, Veronika’s favorite part of the whole activity was dumping cotton balls from one container to another, which was just fine.

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As I said, toddlers love those fluffy little cotton balls!

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A Day at the Races

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Veronika loves zooming toy cars around the playroom, so today we made up a new way to stage a “race” at home.

I marked a start and finish line for our race track with strips of masking tape, then set out a few cotton balls (our cars!) and straws.

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Veronika was immediately interested in all the materials, and it was time to start our engines. I showed her how to huff down into a straw, which is great practice for kids.

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Together (because she couldn’t do it alone yet), we raced our cotton balls from start to finish.

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Preschoolers will probably want to make it a true competition, racing their cotton ball against a parent or caregiver!

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Veronika soon wanted to add her toy cars to the race. Whoops, she couldn’t use the straw to move the car, but she tried. Which was faster: little red car or mommy’s cotton ball?

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A race to the finish!

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Don’t be surprised if all the materials are just as exciting as the race. Veronika loved playing with leftover cotton balls, making this a sensory game in addition to the imaginative play.

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Overall, you probably can’t expect a true race against a 2-year-old, but you will have silly fun.

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Picnic Scene Craft Challenge

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Travis loves the open-ended craft challenge he finds in his Highlights magazine every month, having crafted robots and camping tents in the past, among others. Today, we wanted to make a picnic scene using nothing more than colored paper, cotton balls, and paint.

I loved the little method that Travis came up with. First he needed a paper base, and he chose green grass. We glued down a separate square of colored paper for the blanket.

Everything else in the little scene was made of cotton balls, which he dipped into paint and then glued on!

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It definitely was a five-year-old’s take on a challenge for kids as big as age 12, but I loved watching his process. There was green cotton ball grass:

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Orange cotton ball food:

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And pink cotton ball people! He then made some black cotton ball ants.

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He loved carefully pouring the paint onto each cotton ball before gluing them down, and enjoyed it so much that he wanted to make a second version. This time his pink person dined on yellow lemonade.

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Cotton Cherry Blossom Painting

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We had a little fun exploring different tools that we could paint with about a week ago, and that turned into the idea for this quick springtime craft. Soft items like cotton balls or pom poms are perfect for making the delicate flowers of a cherry blossom tree!

To start, I drew the outline of tree trunks for me and Travis, with plenty of branches to fill in. Big kids will probably like to draw their own trunk!

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Attach a clothespin to each cotton ball, and set out a big dish of pink paint – exciting!

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I showed Travis how to dip in the cotton ball and then press and lift off the paper to recreate these pretty springtime blooms.

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His was a bit more smeared, but he still liked the mechanics of the craft.

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We ended up with two pretty cherry blossom trees, one by Travis and one by mama. Big kids may wind up with something closer to this:

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We’ll have to cap things off with a visit to see the cherry blossom trees in the neighborhood!

Pinecone Snow Owl

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These cute owls were the perfect craft to put together on a day with two-foot-high snow drifts outside our window!

Our inspiration came from the picture of this adorable little guy.

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All we needed were pinecones and cotton balls to recreate him indoors, and luckily I had both on hand.

Tearing apart cotton balls always feels so fluffy and fun!

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Travis helped push the cotton into the pinecone, until we had mostly filled it in with white.

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As an alternative, we tried using a white feather boa for an even fluffier look, winding it in between pinecone sections.

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These owls turned out so fluffy though that they looked more like snow gerbils!

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To finish our owls, we added googly eyes and little beaks cut from brown felt.

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They’re nice and warm inside and away from the snow!

 

Paper Plate Sheep

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We made one final animal this week to cap off farm play (see my previous posts for our Koala Farm Crate and Little White Duck). Full disclosure: Travis wasn’t very into crafting this sheep, but he loved playing with it!

First, glue cotton balls (or white pom poms) all over a paper plate. It was hard to coax Travis into this step, only because he much preferred throwing the cotton balls all over the living room!

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Once the glue dries, you can add two popsicle sticks as legs. Travis helped color them black, although I had to guide his hand to make sure the thin popsicle sticks received enough marker! Paper towel is just so much more fun to draw on, of course.

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We glued on the legs, and then added a rather abstract-art eyes and smile with black marker. Then it was time to trot the sheep around the house!

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Sticky Winter Wall

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We loved this idea so much from our blogging friend at D.I.Y. Unlimited Fun that I had to put the game together right away for Travis! Luckily, I keep contact paper on hand for precisely these situations.

I attached a large rectangle of contact paper to a low wall, sticky side out, and provided Travis with various “wintry” items – cotton balls, cotton pads, and white q-tips.

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He barely needed me to demonstrate before avidly diving in to create a winter scene.

When we made a snowman, he came up with the cotton pad hat and q-tip arms all by himself.

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I also showed him how to make snowflakes with q-tips in a pretty pattern.

 

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His favorite discovery was that the cotton balls left behind a bit of fluff if you pulled them up off of the contact paper. He loved dabbing one onto the paper several times, leaving a “snowy” scene behind.

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Thanks for the fantastic idea!