fine motor skills Archives - Because Babies Grow Up

Ghost Craft for Kids

October 14, 2014 by ajpassey 2 Comments

Scott (3) has finally decided crafts with Mom are fun. Yay! And since Ben (1) wants to be involved in everything, I’m looking for simple things the three of us can do together. This ghost craft met all my requirements and the boys loved it! My requirements for a simple, toddler friendly craft include 1. easy to manage mess, 2. hands on experience, 3. focus on the process of the craft, and 4. supplies I have on hand.

Materials for this Ghost Craft

black construction paper
chalk
white tempera paint
pom pom balls
buttons for ghost eyes or googly eyes

Preparations Needed for this Ghost Craft

I cut the black paper in half.
I drew a white ghost outline on each paper with chalk.
I made my own ghost ahead of time as an example. I had SO much fun painting with the pom poms.

The only part of this prep that I did ahead of time was to make the example ghost craft. Cutting the paper, drawing the ghost, setting out the paint and pom poms, I did all of that while the boys excitedly followed me around. We talked about the colors and the different parts of getting the ghost craft ready. It was actually a great vocabulary building experience for doing the actual craft. Scott was able to follow directions very well because he knew all the parts of the process and was ready to go. It also gave lots and lots of exposure to new words (dab the pom pom) which is super important for kids to learn and be able to say new words.

I loved watching their little hands manipulate the pom poms. Ben is gaining so much control over his fine motor movements (using the muscles in his fingers and hands). After the boys were finished painting with their pom poms we hung them up to dry and cleaned up our mess. We came back a few days later and glued on the eye balls. I hadn’t originally planned on adding the eyes, but since they painted over the eyes I had drawn, I felt like they needed something more to really look like ghosts.

Their ghosts are so cute hanging up in the art room. My mother-in-law made a cute display area on one wall. It’s a black board with giant clothes pin clips that she painted and modge podged with matching scrapbook paper. There is a clip for each child. I love that Ben is now old enough to have his own creations that hang there!

More Fun Ghost Craft Projects for Little Ones

Ghost Craft Tutorial from No Time for Flashcards

Cotton Ball Ghost Craft for Toddlers to Make from Happy Hooligans

Popsicle Stick Ghosts {Kid Craft} from Glued to My Crafts

Pencil Eraser Ghost Craft for Halloween from Crafty Morning

Spinning Ghosts Tutorial and Free Pattern from One Creative Mommy

Basic Playdough Recipe

October 1, 2014 by ajpassey 2 Comments

Just in case I misplace the handwritten recipe for home made playdough I received from my sweet sister-in-law, I’m posting it here. Bonus: you can use it too!. I love this playdough recipe because it is quick and I always have these ingredients on hand. It’s also super easy to change up by adding colors and scents to fit your mood or the season.

The first time I ever made playdough our oldest was 2 years old. Shocking, isn’t it! My sister-in-law was visiting and made it with me. Every time I make it now I think of her and and the vivid memories she has of being little and getting to play with warm playdough. It was her favorite. And I hope it’s becoming a favorite memory of my children, too. There is something so therapeutic about kneading, squishing, and sculpting warm playdough.

Basic Playdough Recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp oil
1 cup water

Stir all these ingredients together in a pan. (If you add extract or food coloring, add them now!) Then turn on the burner to a med-high heat. I use a spatula to stir as the pan heats up. As the mixture heats up it begins to thicken and will start to ball together. Once the wetness turns to thickness, take it off the heat. I usually stir it around in the pan one more time. Then pour out the playdough onto the table and knead it a little more. This helps cool it down and smooth out the playdough. Once it’s cooled down to a temperature appropriate for little hands, let your little one have a go!

Warm playdough is fun all by itself, but you can add in toys, craft supplies, sticks, anything you can think of to add tot he fun. We have a set of kid rolling pins and cookie cutters that the kids always pull out alongside the playdough.

I hope you enjoy this playdough recipe. If you snap a photo of your playdough in action, I’d love to see it! You can post it to the Because Babies Grow Up Facebook wall or if you post it on Instagram you can use the hashtag #becausebabiesgrowup.

Pumpkin Fine Motor Skill Activity

September 15, 2014 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

Continuing the fall theme from the candy corn activity last week, here’s a variation. Orange and green pony beads can be used to turn the loose leaf rings into pumpkins! And the only thing that screams fall louder than candy corn is a plump orange pumpkin. Check out our pumpkin fine motor skill activity and create your own invitation to play for your little one.

Pumpkin Fine Motor Skill Activity

To create the pumpkin, place orange beads on both sides of the open ring. Then place one green bead and close up the ring. Sammi and I did our first ones together, each doing our own ring. After that, she quite happily made a few more pumpkins. I also set out black beads to create a Halloween feel to the activity.

Little fingers are hard at work building muscle and gaining control as they hold the pony beads, position them correctly and thread them onto the rings. What I loved most about this pumpkin fine motor skill activity is that my kids were self-motivated to work on this project. I didn’t even need to show them what to do, I just set out the materials. I only showed them how to make a particular pattern. But they found their own reward in the actual activity. Because there was no coaching or encouraging from me, they stayed with this activity far longer than other activities I’ve presented where they did not take to the activity so readily.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Our craft and activity time is typically accompanied by music. We’re particularly fond of Kindie Music (Indie music for kids and families) and found Joanie Leeds song Falling to be a fun welcome to fall and fall activities. Check out our recent review of Joanie’s latest album, Good Egg.

Candy Corn Activity with Pony Beads

September 12, 2014 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Ah, fall is coming on here in upstate New York! But the real indicator that fall is approaching is the flood of candy corn anything on my Pinterest feed! Thanks to a messy craft room and a desperate need to make dinner, I had an original idea for a fine motor activity, a candy corn activity no less! It was like the heavens parted and creative energy poured in.

This Candy Corn Activity with pony beads developed as the kids and I played around with the pony beads and the loose leaf rings. Their enthusiasm for threading the beads on the rings fueled that creative energy. As I put together an invitation to play the kids were dancing around me their little fingers reaching it to touch the beads and help arrange everything just so. That’s when I knew this was a golden activity!

Sammi (8) and Elli (6) helped me sort the beads into bowls, one each for orange, yellow, and white. I don’t think Scott (3) would have lasted very long at this task. They were all quite engaged in this candy corn activity which gave me just enough time to get dinner ready.

In fact, they were quite sad that it was time to put away the pony beads and loose leaf rings in order to set the table for dinner. I convinced them with promises that they could pull them back out after dinner. They finally conceded.

Materials Needed for Candy Corn Activity

Pony Beads: white, yellow, and orange
Loose leaf rings

Candy Corn Activity for Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are so important for little ones to develop. Strong, coordinated fingers can hold pencils, write letters, tie shoes, zip up sippers, do buttons and so many other little activities that will be expected of your child as they enter school.

Music to play by

From our fun mail yesterday, we selected The Pop Ups new album Appetite for Construction to accompany our candy corn activity. The energetic, upbeat music was a perfect soundtrack for this fun work on fine motor skills.

On Monday I’ll be sharing a variation of this activity so please come back and check it out!

Making Writing Fun With Duck Tape

November 4, 2013 by ajpassey 2 Comments

At the Family Forward Conference in August we had an awesome crafting session with Duck Brand duct tape and Cricut. It was all about getting families into a creative place together. We love crafts at our house so this was right up our alley. We got some awesome Duck tape paper to run through the Cricut machine from the Cricut folks. Then we got to head over to the Duck tape booth and pick out a roll of duct tape for each member of our family. We’ve been riding high on that Duck tape since!

Encouraging Writing with Duck Tape

We have some early writers in our house now and so I’m always looking for ways to make writing more enticing for them. The girls always love to make books and write letters when it’s self initiated, but sometimes I have a project I’d like their help on and then they aren’t always game. So, when we had letters to write to friends and family who needed a little extra love and support, we brought out the Duck tape to help encourage their writing along!

We decorated the paper with Duck tape before we wrote our letters. Then we decorated the envelopes. We even used the Duck tape to frame where we write the address to help them get it in the right place and to know how much space to devote to writing the address. Knowing how to read the addresses on an envelope is also part of literacy development.

And hopefully, this decorated envelope and letter will brighten the receiver’s day. And maybe a few postal workers’ days along the way!

Find more ideas on using Duck brand duct tape on their Facebook page, on their website, on their Pinterest boards, or on YouTube.

How do you encourage your children’s writing?

DIY Halloween Treat Bags

October 30, 2013 by ajpassey 1 Comment

I am so lucky this year to be a home room mom, twice! Last week we had Elli’s Kindergarten class party. Lots of moms and grandmas showed up to help and enjoy the party with their little ones. Because I was so focused on that, I kinda neglected Sammi’s class. Her teacher didn’t want a party, just treat bags. So, just in time, I got a letter sent home inviting parents to send in candy and come help fill bags if they wanted. All that was left was to get the treat bags. Enter my talented mom!

Color Heals Me is a new blog my mom just started to journal her adventures in art and art journaling. She is the doodle master! The girls and I have had so much fun learning to doodle with her. She recently created a Halloween doodle free printable. We used her doodle printable to decorate the treat bags for Sammi’s class.

First I printed out her doodle page on different shaped label stickers. Then we each took a label sheet and colored in the doodles.

Sammi and Elli used watercolors. I encouraged them to not use too much water so the colors would be vibrant and not spread.

My favorite is colored pencils so that’s what I used to color my doodles.

Once the paint was dry, I added the round stickers to the bags. I’ve had my labels for a few years (I bought a huge stack) and found they didn’t stick to the paper bag as well as I’d have liked. I wish I would have covered them with packing tape to make sure they stayed put. Sammi wrote the names of all her classmates on the bags. She loved the idea of each person knowing which bag was there and not fighting over which they thought looked the fullest. I’m so glad she’s thinking of these things and planning solutions for them.

After the bags were filled, we used the rectangle labels to close them up. Turns out it’s okay they don’t stick that well, because Sammi’s teacher had more candy to add. This was a fun project to do with the girls and made for a quick but darling treat bag for the kids in Sammi’s class.

Want to make your own? Or just have a fun Halloween coloring sheet? Download the free Halloween doodle printable and let the creative juices flow!

What’s your favorite medium: paint, colored pencil, crayon, marker? What’s your child’s?

Pleygo-Rent Your Legos!

September 18, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

One of the most common complaints about being a mother of boys is stepping on Legos! Scott is still young and we haven’t gotten there, yet, but I’m always on the lookout for things to do with Legos. You know, to be prepared! So I was excited when I learned about Pleygo. It’s a rental service for Lego sets, much like Netflix’ DVD service. You make a wish list of Lego sets you’d like to rent. Then you are mailed one. You play with it then return it and another one is mailed out to you. The shipping is included in the monthly price you pay for your package based on your plan level.

With three different plan levels, you can find something that will appease your Lego enthusiast and fit your budget! The Fan Plan allows you to receive sets up to 250 pieces. The Super Fan allows you to receive sets up to 500 pieces and DUPLO sets. And the Mega Fan plan allows you to receive up to 5,400 pieces! That is die hard, right there. You can exchange your sets an unlimited number of times in a month having one set at a time. They sanitize each set when it’s returned so it’s nice and clean for the next home.

We’ll be trying out the Super Fan level so we can get some DUPLOs for Scott. I like this risk-free way to see how interested he’ll be in Legos before we invest a whole bunch in them. We bought bags and bags of Mega Bloks and none of the kids have really enjoyed building with them. But we do have one small collection of DUPLOs and they get played with a bit more regularly.

Here’s a coupon from US Family Guide to get you started with your free month trial. It’s free if you choose the Fan Plan and $15 off the first month if you choose either of the other two plans.

Contact Paper Valentine’s Day Hearts

January 16, 2013 by ajpassey Leave a Comment

We are already excitedly preparing for Valentine’s Day around here. The girls love making hearts and decorating them. I’ve been dying to hang up some contact paper for them to decorate. I finally remembered to buy some at the store. Yay for me! And we got to work.

I cut out a heart frame from a piece of construction paper and taped that to the window first to be a guide. I taped the contact paper, sticky side out, over the heart. Then I dumped the tissue squares I bought years ago from Oriental Trading Company on a little table. Then it was the kids’ turn. And they jumped right to it.

Elli immediately began filling in he heart. She placed 5 squares on and then called it good. I encouraged her to cover all of the stickiness and make it a mosaic. I figured if she said she was done I’d leave it at that, but she accepted my request and completely covered everything inside the heart.

Contact Paper Valentine's Day Heart withTissue Paper Scott had a lot of fun exploring the stickiness. He also thought the tissue squares were fun to drop and watch float to the ground. He eventually decided to stick some to the paper. He preferred to have me hand him the squares. I asked him if he wanted a green square or a purple square as a way to bring color word association into our activity. He calls everything pink (thanks to two older sisters!) but prefers the color green.

Contact Paper Valentine's Day Heart withTissue Paper When Sammi came home she really wanted to make one, too. I just moved Scott’s paper to a different window and put up a new piece of contact paper over the black heart frame. She had so much fun with creating a scene and incorporating texture into her project. She gave her heart a face with a winking eye and eyelashes. Her heart also has hair and legs and is standing in grass. It’s so fun to see her art become more complex as she gets older.

When Elli’s heart was done, I glued the red heart frame to the front of the paper and we painted glue over it to secure down the overlapping tissue squares. It gave it a nice glossy look. Her plan is to cut it out and give it to Daddy for Valentine’s Day.

In hindsight, I would stick the heart frame to the sticky side. I think it would be easier to finish up if we didn’t have to place it again over the top of the tissue paper. But initially I didn’t want it to be covered with tissue paper. Another idea I thought of after the fact was covering Elli’s heart with another piece of contact paper so the heart was “laminated” to hold the unstuck tissue paper in place. But the modge podge was a fun and fine motor skill building step. Also, the texture Sammi added to her heart made it difficult to finish off. There are still sticky parts that I don’t know how to cover. Because of how she placed the hair I can’t move the heart frame to the front side like I did with Elli’s. For now it’s just displayed in our window while I continue to problem solve the situation. Any suggestions are welcome 🙂

Last Chance Halloween Ideas

October 30, 2012 by ajpassey 1 Comment

Only one day left! Happy Halloween, tomorrow. Just in case you are looking for some last minute ideas, here are some ways to celebrate with ordinary supplies you probably already have on hand.

Pumpkin Pictures

Supplies:

White glue
black food coloring/paint
crayons/oil pastels
watercolors

We drew our pumpkins and the background with pencil. Then we mixed the black into the food coloring into the glue. We painted the lines with the black glue. This created a barrier around sections that helped keep the watercolors in their section.

After the glue dried, we created patterns with the oil pastels. Once we were pleased with our patterns, we pulled out the watercolors and painted each section.

From the Archives

Halloween Wreath: We just used plastic Halloween trinkets we had collected over the season and glued them to a paper plate wreath we painted.

Cotton ball Ghost: I googled “ghost coloring page” and picked one I loved then printed it out. We glued cotton balls to fill it in. This is great for really little ones all the way up to 4/5 year olds. Especially when you let the squeeze the glue themselves. Excellent fine motor development!

What are you or your little one dressing up as this year?

Mixed Media: Where Are the Dragons

September 13, 2012 by ajpassey 4 Comments

Why Music?

Music is becoming an increasingly important part of our play. Music is great for dance parties and altering sour moods. But it’s great for so much more, too. Music is good for learning, bonding, communicating, and creating! As we have gotten to know various albums, specific songs have sparked art projects, gifts, and parties. With so many opportunities to review and share new music here on the blog, I’ve felt inspired to explore and elaborate on the connections we’re making between music and other “related arts” (as they are called at the girls’ school.)

Welcome to Week Two of Mixed Media!

In each Mixed Media post I’ll share a song and a creative project that was inspired by the song. My hope is that you will be inspired to share music with your little one in a way that gets you two (or three or four!) connected to each other and to your creative sides. This week’s song is Where Are the Dragons by Ben Rudnick and Friends. This song inspired a read-aloud and an art project!

Where Are The Dragons by Ben Rudnick and Friends

To start off, I read the book That’s Not My Dragon from Usborne Books. I love this book because it has the cutest dragons and highlights a different feature on each page with different textures. All the kids want to feel each page and invariably name the texture, e.g., knobbly, scaly, or scratchy. We also referenced the book when drawing our dragons which was most helpful for me since Scott and even Elli convinced me to draw their dragons. Sammi’s is all hers, though!

I wanted them all to use the letter D and create their dragon from that. But that was too teacher-centered for them today! Only Scott consented to use the D (he didn’t really get much choice and he loves getting his hands on the glue stick!) but he still spent a lot of time trying to pull it off the paper.

I also made a “teacher” choice by saying our only texture was sparkly because I was trying to minimize the mess. Fortunately glitter is always an exciting crafting resource and they didn’t complain. I thought of it because for a year between ages 4 and 5, Sammi’s favorite adjective was sparkly. It was even on our word wall when she first really started asking me to spell words for her to write down. She definitely loved having a sparkly dragon.

After they drew/colored their dragons, they decided what part would be sparkly. Scott absolutely loved squeezing on the glue and then sprinkling on the glitter. It took serious distraction skills to make sure Elli got her turn. When she was done he went back to his picture for round two of adding glitter. While he did that the girls wrote their names on their paper and Sammi wrote a whole sentence while Elli wrote sparkly. I really enjoy seeing them excited about writing and communicating an idea through their creativity.

We’re enjoying Ben Runick and Friends newest album, Love Is A Superpower, set to release 9/25. They’ve graciously offered to giveaway a copy of this album to a BBGU reader! Go to the review and giveaway post and leave a comment, then use Rafflecopter to manage your entries, doing as many or as few as you’d like. The giveaway is open through 9/19/2012.