Tag: upcycling

Drum Time

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We had a rainy day today, which made it the perfect moment for an impromptu drum session with Veronika!

I had three different sized oatmeal containers in the recycle bin, including a full-sized oatmeal canister and two smaller servings of instant oatmeal. So first I made her a set of bongo drums! If you don’t have different sized oatmeal containers, use three that are all the same but cut them to different heights. Use masking tape to secure them together, and voila!

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A wooden spoon and a few rhythm sticks were all we needed to start drumming. I also showed her the different ways we could drum with just our hands. We explored with our fingertips, our palms, our knuckles, and more.

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This was great for letting her explore all the different ways we can use our hands and fingers.

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But she liked the sticks best, and soon was giving lots of proud taps.

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We added a soundtrack of favorite songs (heavy on drum beats of course), and started up a jam session.

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Later in the day, I set up her up with a “drum circle” of bowl and pot drums. On a soft blanket, I arranged a sauce pot, a few loaf pans, a plastic bowl, and another empty oatmeal container. I sat her in the center with her mallets and put the music back on.

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Let the drumming begin!

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Don’t worry if your toddler drums in unconventional ways. Veronika enjoyed turning the vessels right side up so she could swirl the rhythm sticks around the inside, which made a fun clanging sound.

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She also loved piling the “drums” one inside the other, turning it into a stacking game and drum session all in one.

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When she discovered that the loaf pan made a spectacularly loud clang on the wooden floor, this had to be repeated several times.

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I didn’t reprimand her, since it’s not drum play until it gets a little loud! In sum, this was a fun way to explore volume, dynamics, rhythm, and so much more.

Spectroscope

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This quick project was a neat follow up to Travis’s exploration with his Rainbow Optics Crate. And to make it, we even got to upcycle the box from Kiwi Co.!

Cut any extra flaps from the box, including those that fold in to the sides and front. Tape a blank CD to the inside of one short end, flush against the back wall. Make sure your box can close!

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Trace around the end of a paper towel tube twice, in overlapping circles, so you have an opening that’s about 1 and 1/2 times as wide as the tube. Insert the tube at an angle, looking towards the CD.

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Also cut a slit on the short edge directly opposite the CD, to let in light. Tape up any other edges where light might slip in.

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Now take a peak inside! We found this worked best when we shined a flashlight directly into our slit. One person can shine the light while the other person makes sure the tube is aimed properly at the CD; you’ll see the spectrum of the rainbow appear.

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You can also try this with other light sources, including sunlight, and see which one works best!

Eerie Eyeball Cups

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With Halloween a week away, Travis is starting to demand spooky decor around the house. We put together these eerie snack cups, perfect for holding candy or portions of little snacks or dry cereal.

Cut an upcycled egg carton into separate compartments. Decorate half of them as the top of the eyes, with a circle right in the center.

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Add wiggly lines of red marker for the bloodshot veins. (Note: You can use paint, but we preferred marker since there was no drying time).

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For the other half of the cups, omit the iris and just make wiggly veins.

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Fill the bottoms with treats, then stack an eyeball cup on top.

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Spooky!

Bottle-Top Mobile

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I recently recommended a Tupperware cupboard to keep your baby busy while you’re busy in the kitchen. Here’s another DIY toy you can make that will entertain your little one for quite some time.

Collect plastic bottle lids for about a week, and then make a hole in each one. The awl tool of a Swiss army knife did the job easily; lay a piece of cardboard underneath the bottle caps so the awl doesn’t damage any surface on the other side.

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Thread the caps along twine or string.

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Tie the “mobile” between two legs of a table, at about your baby’s chest level.

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Veronika was so intrigued with this toy! She twirled the beads on the string first.

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Next I showed her how to scoot them along the string from side to side.

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Note: She also just loved the string itself, giving it tugs and boings, but supervise carefully if you find that your child is playing more with string than with the bottle caps. One way or another, this certainly entertained her.

Critter Catchall

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Travis always seems to have dozens of tiny knickknacks lying around: favors from birthday parties, tokens from restaurants or museums we’ve been too, and various other miscellany. We needed a catchall to corral all these items, and this cute critter version from Highlights was perfect. Plus it’s a great way to upcycle an empty yogurt container.

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We wanted to make a fox, which meant orange paint, but realized we didn’t have any. Thinking quickly, the project turned into a color lesson, with Travis stirring up red and yellow until we had a nice orange.

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Paint the yogurt cups inside and out, and let dry.

I cut pieces of felt for him to make all our fox parts – faces, tails, eyes, noses, and paws. Older kids can do this themselves, but the shapes were too complicated forr Travis.

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If you use tacky glue, kids can attach everything on; however, I like to use hot glue to ensure that felt projects stay put, so Travis loved watching!

Once the glue dried, it was time to fill the little fox. Travis spread out all his treasures.

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He loved finding the littlest ones that fit best in the fox!

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Now everything is in one place, and it looks cute on his shelf to boot.

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Many Mobiles

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Veronika needed some new mobiles to look at, so I had fun making her a few, very easy and (and very inexpert!) versions this morning. The best thing about these mobiles is that I could craft them at her side while she kicked and played on her playmat.

I like using mobiles during diaper time instead of in the crib; Veronika isn’t lying on her back in her crib other than at night, but she sure loves checking out what’s hanging above the diaper table during changes!

For the following four mobiles, I simply suspended the objects from a baby hanger using colorful string. No points for elegance here – but lots of points for delight!

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Here are the four variations I made:

The first was easy as pie; simply tie small stuffed animals onto string and loop onto the hanger.

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This one had the added bonus of sound, since a few of our animals squeaked or mooed.

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The second was equally easy; I threaded large gold jingle bells onto string, and looped onto the hanger. She absolutely loved running her hands across this one, so I placed it over her playmat later, too.

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Just be sure to supervise any play baby does with dangling strings.

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For the third, I cut cardboard into various small shapes – circles, triangles etc.

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Cover the shapes with aluminum foil. Punch a hole into the cardboard, add string, and loop onto the hanger.

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These were so sparkly when sunlight hit them!

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The final mobile was the least elegant of all, but also got big smiles. I stapled string to a few empty food boxes with bright colors, and then looped the string onto the hanger.

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These were fun for her to bat at and hear them knock against each other.

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In sum, there’s lots of visual delights here! We’re going to keep all these versions on rotation and change up what’s hanging from her mobile hook so she never gets bored.

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Coffee Can Drums

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The spin drum we made the other day was such a big hit (pun intended!) that we continued the musical fun with this easy upcycled drum. It’s similar to the oatmeal- and soup-can drums we made about a year ago, but you can never have too many drums in your home collection.

Trim construction paper or craft paper to fit around an empty coffee canister, leaving it about an inch longer than the can at the bottom.

For decoration, we worked in some fine motor skills practice! Give your child any small circular object and have them trace it on the paper.

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While Travis turned his attention to other toys, I hot-glued the construction paper to our can, folding over and gluing the excess paper on the bottom.

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Then we continued the tracing, this time making the circles on a strip of colored duct tape.

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Cut out the tape circles (another grown-up step; cutting duct tape is a sticky affair), then give them to your child and let them line up the sticky circles with the ones on the paper. Travis enjoyed this part!

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For the head of the drum, I snipped the narrow end off of a balloon, and stretched over the can. “Mom, you’re not very good at this,” Travis accused. Phew, got it on the third try! Secure the balloon with another piece of colored duct tape.

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We threaded some ribbon around our drum as the final decorative touch. I also hot-glued pom poms onto the ends of unsharpened pencils to be the drumsticks, although this would have worked better if I had had larger pom poms in our craft bin!

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My happy drummer boy!

Space Goggles

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We recently decided that books about space demanded special space glasses to go with them – the better to blast into the universe! These space goggles from High Five magazine fit the bill perfectly.

First, upcycle an egg carton from neighbors or relatives (we don’t buy or eat eggs). You only need to cut out 2 segments of the carton for the goggles, but we painted a full six segments just for a larger surface.

Travis pretended his yellow paint was really banana puree, which made for some silly fun during the painting process.

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We added a few drizzles of puffy paint for good measure.

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Once the paint dries, separate the egg carton into segments. Add pom poms with glue.

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Here is what Travis preferred to do with his glue and pom poms – my threenager!

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One more round of drying, then I poked a hole in each side of the goggles and threaded through a pipe cleaner. These are the pieces to go behind your child’s ears.

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Time for blast off! Add a jet pack and you’re ready to fly. Or, to read anyway!

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Pumpkin Emotion Learning Tool

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Okay, we probably should have made this jack o’ lantern-themed craft back in October, but it was still cute to play with here in February! With a lot of big preschooler emotions going on lately, the craft is a fantastic way to get talking about emotions, facial expressions, and sorting through the big feelings your kids might be feeling, no matter their age!

The first step is to upcycle an empty baby wipes container (the kind in a plastic bin), by covering it with orange felt.

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We tried using regular school glue, but waiting for it to dry proved too much for Travis, so I hot glued the felt on.

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Next, I set out craft sticks and asked him to help me brainstorm emotions. In addition to common ones (sad, happy), he said a few that made me laugh, like “when I’m waiting to play with Daddy’s camera stand.”

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Next, I cut shapes out of black felt to go with the emotions we had created, and set all the pieces out in front of him.

We put our craft sticks in the top of the wipe container, and pulled one out – “surprised” was the first.

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I asked Travis which mouth went with surprised, and so on. This turned into a great game not only for identifying the emotions we feel, but also what other people look like when they experience those emotions.

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And of course, it’s just fun to set up the pumpkin with silly faces.

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As a bonus, all of your craft sticks and felt pieces will store inside the wipe container when you’re done, ready for the next time you want to play.

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Paper Bag Valentine Satchel

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This project is a neat way to upcycle any paper bags you have from the grocery store, just in time for Valentine’s Day! The finished satchel makes a great gift for teachers, grandparents, or friends.

To start, I traced a heart (using red marker of course) on a brown paper bag, and guided Travis’s hand with safety scissors to cut out.

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Once you have the first heart, trace onto a second piece of brown paper and cut out so the two sides match.

I added red dots around the heart as guidelines for Travis to hole punch – Valentine’s Day 2018 is quickly becoming the year of the hole punch for us!

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Next up help your child develop their lacing skills by threading a shoelace through the holes. I picked up a cheap heart-print shoelace on Amazon in keeping with our Valentine theme. If you want your gift recipient to use the heart as a real satchel, don’t lace along the top, and knot the ends of the shoelace to form a handle.

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We decorated our satchels with stamps. I set out a few that felt Valentine’s-ish (hearts, lips, and flowers), and suggested Travis use red ink, although he preferred blue. No problem, it’s his creativity!

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You can add a note to your recipient on the back as a final touch, or leave it blank.

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