Tag: stars

Twig Stars

Leave a comment

Twig Stars (10).JPG

There is a beautiful, yuletide feel to these stars, although here we are crafting them in October! Make them now, or set the idea aside for the upcoming Christmas season.

For each star, you’ll need 5 sticks that are roughly the same thickness and length; break any to the proper size if they are too long.

Twig Stars (1)

I hot glued the stars together, then set Travis up with tidbits to decorate them – berries, pine needles, a bowl of glue, and a bowl of glitter. Little pinecones would look sweet, too.

Twig Stars (2)

First dunk the berries in the glue, then immediately transfer to the glitter. He loved this part!

Twig Stars (3)

If you like, dunk in the tips of your pine needles, too, or any other nature finds you have to add to your stars. Let dry completely.

Twig Stars (5)

The next morning, we dabbed glue all over the stick stars, and added our berries and other treasures.

Twig Stars (6)

Travis got a bit impish and loved smearing glue over the leftover glitter on our work surface, too. Good thing I had things covered with a layer of foil!

Twig Stars (7)

Hang the resulting stars from twine, indoors or out.

Twig Stars (9)

As mentioned, these would be beautiful at Christmas, but will light up a windowsill or other area of your home any time!

Twig Stars (8)

Glow-in-the-Dark Constellation Cards

Leave a comment

Constellation Cards (6).JPG

This project is such a neat update on simply sticking glow-in-the-dark stars on your child’s wall or ceiling as décor. Turn it into a mini astrology lesson – as well as an art project! – and you have homemade constellations.

First, we needed to find images of constellations as inspiration. I’m no artist, so relied heavily on the ones we found in our Usborne Book Big Book of Stars and Planets.

Constellation Cards (1)

Set out dark paper and glow-in-the-dark paint and recreate the star patterns. Older kids can draw the outlines and stars themselves. Younger kids may be happier filling in the dots if you draw circles where the stars go first.

Constellation Cards (3)

In fact, Travis was happy painting his own invented “constellation” while I did the more meticulous detail of recreating what was in the book – just fine for a three year old!

Constellation Cards (4)

A couple pointers: If you have dark cardstock instead of construction paper, use that. The paint will show up better. If you’re relegated to porous construction paper like we were, make sure your star dots are quite thick, or the paint won’t show up once it’s lights out.

Constellation Cards (2)

We let the paint dry, then I connected the stars with white crayon. I added the name of each constellation in crayon as well.

Constellation Cards (5)

Note: If you prefer, you can also paint the lines between stars with glow-in-the-dark paint, but I liked the idea that Travis would see just the stars in the dark, and the constellation lines by day.

Next up was mounting the cards on the ceiling – uh oh, could mama reach that high? Thanks to a stool, she could! I positioned them directly above the lamp in Travis’s bedroom so they could “charge.”

Constellation Cards (7)

At lights out, we saw the best starry night sky! My camera could barely capture it, but do you see the glow?

Constellation Cards (8)

 

 

Galaxy in a Bottle

Leave a comment

Galaxy Jar (6)

This project is reminiscent of our Glitter Star Jars, but we liked the results and the making of it even better!

It all began when we found gorgeous pictures of galaxies and star clusters on NASA’s website – so cool to skim through and to teach your child a bit about the cosmos, even if the larger details are lost on a preschooler.

After our picture-gazing was done, we began the real fun – putting together our own glittery universe.

We dyed water with food coloring in two separate cups, one red and one blue.

Galaxy Jar (1)

To the red cup, we added a judicious amount of glitter. In the blue cup, we went wild with lots of glitter!

Galaxy Jar (2)

To assemble your universe, tear cotton balls apart slightly, and fill a clear glass or plastic jar.

Galaxy Jar (3)

We poured in the red cup, which fully saturated the cotton balls. After adding a second layer of cotton balls, we poured in the blue cup. The two layers stayed perfectly separated, which made for a gorgeous effect!

Galaxy Jar (4)

Travis had so much fun that he soon became a little scientist, concocting universes out of food coloring and glitter for quite some time.

Galaxy Jar (5)

A great start to the morning!

Galaxy Jar (7)

S Week!

1 Comment

s-week-14

Welcome to our S week of play! As always, thanks to Letter of the Week for some of the ideas below. Travis was funny about the letter, since my prompts that a word began with a “sss” sound made him think we were in C-week for soft c words. It turned into a joke, me pointing to our S poster, and him still saying “C!” Confusion aside, here’s some of the fun we had.

shadow-dancing-4

Shadows: We kicked off the week with shadow dancing! It was such a magical moment that it merited a blog post all its own, so please check out the link above. Shadows are also great for making animal shapes against the wall, or just observing as you walk outside in autumn sunlight.

s-week-7

Sun/Sail/Sand: A few Summer-y words made it a beach-y week here in the fall. Cute sun projects included making a sun on a stick (a yellow painted paper plate with orange construction paper for the center)…

s-week-6

… and magic sun prints.The result was cool even for me as a grown-up!

We then set up an indoor beach day with blankets for water and sand (with our sun on a stick of course!) and pulled out sand toys for make believe inside. To add to the s-themed fun, we turned one of his blankets into a “sailboat” and sailed around the room.

s-week-4

Meanwhile, there was so much to do with sand that I devoted a blog post to it. For simple sand play, just fill an indoor bin with a layer of sand and set out cars and street signs, then have your child draw roads through the sand with a stick or spatula.

s-week-10

Soccer: This word was perfect for our gross motor play of the week. Get outside and kick around a ball!

s-week-9

Shaving cream: As simple as can be; have some good old goopy fun and finger paint with shaving cream. Your toddler will thank you.

starry-starry-night-2

Stars: We had fun making a starry starry night painting, using both cookie cutters and sponges in the shape of stars to stamp onto construction paper. Travis added moons too, making for a very creative night sky! To continue the star fun, put together a toddler-sized pair of binoculars and head outside to spot the real thing before bed.

A few other things we did this week:

Fine art: Make a sand anthill! You could do this by sprinkling sand onto glue and pressing down, but we used sandpaper for our hill, and added thumbprint ants. Travis had so much fun that our anthill was soon teeming with denizens.

s-week-15

Food: Lots to choose from… we enjoyed both whole strawberries and strawberry pancakes for breakfast, and had soup one afternoon for lunch.

s-week-2

Books: It wasn’t the right time of year to play games in the snow, but we talked about the word with the help of two books: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Cat and Mouse in the Snow by Tomek Bogacki. Travis also enjoyed Sea, Sand, Me! by Patricia Hubbell and No Sleep for the Sheep! by Karen Beaumont.

Song: It was a no-brainer to introduce Travis to the Snowman, one of the most magical videos from my own childhood! More properly an instrumental video than a song, this classic hasn’t lost any of its beauty. Travis’s smile when the snowman came to life was priceless.

Math: I gently introduced the concept of subtraction with the help of a few more stars. Cut out paper stars and have your child make “shooting stars” flutter away one by one, counting how many remain. I promise it’s a coincidence that Travis was in his star pajamas!

s-week-12

There’s always lots we can’t get to of course. You might also want to play with snakes or go on a safari, or have soapy fun with dish soap. Please add your other S ideas in the comments!

Binoculars

1 Comment

Binoculars (4).JPG

Now that night is falling earlier, the stars are appearing in the sky before Travis goes to bed. Tonight, we dipped outside just before bedtime with a very special pair of toddler-sized binoculars.

To make the craft, place plastic wrap over the ends of two toilet paper rolls, securing with rubber bands. Place the two tubes next to each other and attach with two additional rubber bands.

binoculars-1

Now invite your toddler to decorate with crayons and star stickers. Travis loved selecting which stickers to use!

binoculars-2

And now it’s time for the magic. Looking through the binoculars produced wonder just raising them toward some star artwork in our apartment…

binoculars-3

Even better was heading outside, where we saw the first star of the evening (okay, it was probably a planet…but shhh don’t tell). “See that little glowing thing? That’s a star!” Travis said proudly.

binoculars-5

Numbered Stars Flashlight Game

2 Comments

numbered-stars-2

This whimsical game adds a touch of magic to your toddler’s bedtime routine, while sneaking in some early learning!

Cut stars from yellow construction paper and number from 1 to … however high you can get your child to count! I didn’t want to tax Travis all the way up to 20 soon before bed, so made stars as high as 12.

Once it’s dark enough, enlist your toddler to help hang the stars on the wall, then provide him or her with a flashlight.

numbered-stars-1

Now it’s time to hunt for the stars in sequential order. As he shined his flashlight on number 1, I would ask Travis, “What’s next?” and he eagerly began the hunt for 2, ad so on. Being able to pin a star in the spotlight was a thrill every time. Ok, so he didn’t always go in order, but he did always proudly read off the number he found.

numbered-stars-3

To add to the “star-lit” magic, we set up our little campfire (care of Koala Crate) and pretended we were really outside with the stars overhead.