Crafts: Noah's Ark Paper Plate Craft

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Materials

• crayons (or paints, markers, etc.)
• paper plates
• scissors
• glue sticks 
• optional (pictures of animals) 

Steps

1. Introduce the story of Noah's Ark to your child(ren) with appropriate materials. I have listed some materials at the end of this post to help you get started.

2. You will need two plates per child.  One plate for the background and one to form the boat and rainbow. Cut one plate in half and cut that half to form the boat and rainbow.

3. Color the plates. The larger, intact one should be colored blue for the sky and water.  The boat and rainbow can be colored appropriate colors (or whatever color you little ones would like to use).

Coloring the sky and water. 

Coloring the boat.

4. Glue the boat and rainbow onto the larger plate.

Getting all the necessary materials. 

5. Optional. Before gluing the boat onto the paper plate, your child can attach animals to the plate to ride in the boat. Children can either draw their own animals or find pictures to glue onto their craft. 

2 year old's finished project. 

Resources

123 Homeschool 4 Me's Noah's Ark Craft
Arsty Craftsy Mom's Noah's Ark Craft

Looking for More Paper Plate Crafts? 

Our children have made paper plate pigs, snakes, and chicks.

Learning about the Four Seasons and Building Fine Motor Skills

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Studying the four seasons, especially if you live in an area where the temperature and seasons do not drastically change may not always be easy. To help our children understand and learn about the four seasons, we created different Seasons Bottles together.

Materials

• clean, clear plastic bottles
• pom-poms
• shells (The ones I used were from a collection I had for years. I did not purchase any for this project.)
• sand
• raffia
• ribbon
• snowflake sequins
• artificial leaves
• artificial flowers 
• small Christmas ornaments 
• glue (hot glue gun) 

While completing the project, there are many ways you can expand this beyond just talking about the four seasons. For example:

• You could count out the number of items you are using in each Seasons Bottle
• Compare and contrast the shapes and sizes of items used
• Use the same items for each but in different colors or designs (for example red & green pom-poms for the winter one with yellow ones for the summer one) 
• Listen to the sounds the items make in the bottle as you gently shake it 
• Use items that require cutting and have your child practice using scissors 
• Use different stickers to decorate the outside of the bottles

Winter

My son helped put the items in for winter including snowflake ribbon and red and green pom-poms.

Autumn

My daughter helped with the Autumn bottle by putting in orange raffia, leaf ribbon, and orange and brown pom-poms.

Spring 

This one is still waiting to be completed as we gather materials for it. What items would you include? 

Summer 

We placed small sea shells in this bottle and when we get sand from our next trip the shore, we will put some of that in the bottle as well. 

If your children are older, you can have them collect the various items from your home, the store, and neighborhood for your seasons bottles. 

After they are completed, I would recommend gluing the lids onto the bottles.  

Resources 

Mama. Papa, Bubba. Season Sensory Bottles. 

Sun Hats and Wellie Boots Discovery Bottles: Four Seasons 

Looking for more activities? 

Creating activities for younger children can be fun and exciting but all your projects do not need to look like the fancy ones you may find on Pinterest. As long as you and your children are having fun and learning, then you are creating happy memories. 

I created weather-themed bottles that are similar to these for the seasons as well as projects with felt and ribbons to help them build their fine motor skills.  And don't forget there are many more ways in which children build their fine motor skills from sorting buttons or beads to playing with clay. Learning can take place every day! 

Crafts: Veggie Tales Cardboard Tubes

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For my son's fourth birthday party, we held a Veggie Tales themed party.  As there are not many options for decorations, I created a lot on my own.

These cardboard roll Veggie Tales characters can be made with or without your children's help.  I painted them all myself but your child could easily do the painting and even the decorating depending upon their age.

Materials

• clean cardboard tubes of various sizes
• paint 
• paint brushes 
• construction paper
• markers 
• scissors 

Laura, Mr. Nezzer, Mr. Lunt, and Madame Blueberry 

Steps

1. Gather your materials.

2. Paint your rolls (depending on which characters you want to create, you will need different colors).
Green: Larry, Peas, Mr. Nezzer, Pa Grape, Archibald, Petunia, Junior, the scallions
Red: Bob
Orange: Laura, Jimmy, Scooter, the Peach
Blue: Madame Blueberry
Yellow: Mr. Lunt and Jerry

3. After your rolls are dry, draw faces on your characters.

4. Cut out needed materials for your characters and attach them to the dry, painted rolls.

Larry, Bob, and the French Peas 

We used our characters as decorations and after the party the children have been playing with them.  After almost two weeks, they are still in pretty good shape considering they are just cardboard.

Jimmy and Jerry Gourd

Pa Grape and Archibald 

Petunia and Scooter 

Resources

I saw this image on Pinterest and thought, hey I can make those!
My Party Ideas - Veggie Tales Pinterest Board.
Official Veggie Tales Webpage

We have enjoyed all these movies together as a family!

I linked up with the following blog(s):

Crafts: Veggie Tales Balloons

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We celebrated my son's fourth birthday with a Veggie Tales themed party.  Since their party items are a bit harder to find and those I did find, were a little too expensive for our budget, I made a lot of decorations for his party myself.

These are our Veggie Tales Balloons.  I used 7 inch and 9 inch balloons.  We also made others for the porch including Jimmy and Jerry Gourd.

Larry Cucumber 

Bob the Tomato 

French Peas 

close-up of Mr. Nezzer 

Pa Grape and Mr. Nezzer 

Scooter and Archibald Asparagus 

close-up of Archibald Asparagus

Mr. Lunt

Junior Asparagus 

The characters who wear hats (like Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape) as well as the asparagus were a little more complicated to draw.  Mr. Lunt was especially difficult as he doesn't have any eyes because they are always covered up by his hat, hair, or something else in the cartoon.

Resources 

Little Lamb Gallery Inspiration's Veggie Tale Party 
Crafty Geek Mom's Veggie Tale Party 
My Pinterest Party Ideas - Veggie Tales 

Here are some Veggie Tales items for your little one.  (P.S. I really liked Celery Night Fever.  Very funny.)

Looking for more Veggie Tales posts? We also created cute stained glass to decorate the windows, cardboard tubes, as well as other decorations and games for our son's birthday party.