A Ballerina Birthday Party

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Excited2Learn

Every little girl’s birthday party shares one common thread: giggling and gabbing! And it was no different for L.’s ballerina-themed 5^th birthday party. I simply broke the party down into 30–minute segments; time for crafts, time for dancing and time for “tea.” It was a lot of fun! Here’s how L.’s party went down:

PRE-PARTY PREP

Tissue Paper Puff Decorations

1st Get 8-10 sheets of tissue paper (can cut in half if large sheets).
2nd Fold back & forth like you’re making a paper fan (about 1.5-2 inches).
3rd Tie a ribbon (long enough to hang from ceiling, lights…) around the middle.
4th Cut the two edges into peddle shapes (rounded).
5th Fan out the tissue paper and then gently open one sheet at a time on each side.
6th Hang them around your home and outside, if it makes sense.

Tables

I wrapped the little tables we were using for the tea party portion of the party in wrapping paper. I have used this same gold and silver roll for so many parties, because it’s so universal! I then used double-sided tape to attach ballerina ribbon.

To mark each of the girls’ special place at the tables, I created ballet name cards. I simply printed the ballerina, glued them down and wrote each child’s name on an index card folded in half.

Click here to download our free ballerina labels.

Our party invitations asked each girl to wear dance clothes and informed them that they would be given a tutu. We placed the tutus on coat hangers and hung them on the back of the chairs for decoration. We also made a dance mix CD of L’s favorite songs. If I did this type of party again, I would make each child a copy of the CD.

CRAFTS

Picture Frame Designing

The girls started the party off by creating their own picture frames to take home. We drew each child’s name and a simple decoration (heart, flower, etc.) with puffy paints that we let dry overnight before the party. Then the girls decorated their frames with self-adhesive jewel stickers. This was a good activity for a wide age-range of children.

Make your Own Hair Ties

We cut a variety of different ribbons that the girls got to pick from, which they tied on to their hair elastics. We found that the real fancy ribbons were hard for them to tie on themselves, so it worked best to use a separate little piece of thread to tie all the pieces of ribbon on at once for little ones.

DANCING

After crafts, we moved on to the dance party. I manned the music and skipped ahead once it seemed like the girls stopped being really excited about a given song. The average length of a song is way too long for most little ones to stay truly excited about it in its entirety. This seemed to work well, because they were dancing and laughing away!

TEA PARTY

Everyone settled down at the place settings on the tables after the dance party to enjoy quite a spread of finger foods. We served cream cheese and raspberry jelly heart sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, mac & cheese balls (Trader Joes), spinach triangles (Trader Joes), watermelon pops, cantaloupe, little pizzas, chicken nuggets, pink lemonade, apple juice, water & cake and ice cream.

With just a little bit of planning and creativity, having a large group of kids over for a birthday party can be a good experience, not overwhelming. Again, breaking activities down into timed segments definitely helps keep the flow going so everyone has as much fun as possible!

Here is a link to another fun ballerina craft.

Have fun party ideas or tips to add to our ballerina party? Please share below!

Turkey Hats for Turkey Day!

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Excited2Learn

Are you used to craziness in the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning? Us too! It can be really helpful to have an activity or craft planned to keep the kiddos entertained while adults finish up preparation and cooking. We made these turkey hats with L’s school class last year and they’d make the perfect turkey day activity—not to mention a cute addition to family photos of the holiday. I found the adorable idea on Parents.com.

Materials You’ll Need:
White paper plates
Paint (several colors)
Construction Paper
Glue
Googly Eyes
Scissors
Q-tips
Markers or crayons

Directions:

1. Cut a white paper plate in half.

2. Use crayons or markers to decorate the semi circle to make the body.

3. Cut a small circle out of brown construction paper for the turkey’s face. Glue onto the body.

4. Glue on turkey’s googly eyes.

5. Cut out a small orange triangle for the beak and small wattle out of red paper. Glue onto the face.

6. Fill mini muffin tins with various paint colors and use Q-tips to paint each groove in the paper plate a different color to make the turkey’s feathers.

7. Cut out two strips of construction paper and fold them back and fourth the entire length. Cut a couple slits in the bottom to make the feet. Glue them to the back of the paper plate at the bottom for legs.

We hope you enjoy making these as much as we have and that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween! (Wordless Wednesday)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Excited2Learn

13 Halloween Crafts for the Kids

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Excited2Learn

Whether your local Halloween celebration has been cancelled or postponed due to the unfortunate and in some cases tragic whether, we wanted to share some fun crafts to help kids enjoy the spirit of Halloween, regardless. Here goes!

#1 Pumpkin Coloring – Color a plain pumpkin outline using anything orange—stickers, paint, crayons, feathers, leaves or other materials you have on hand to decorate.

#2 Spider webs and spiders – Found this great idea over at Super Mom Moments. It’s not only a fun craft for kids but it also promotes fine motor skills (as many of these activities do).

#3 Boo – Glitter & glue dot pumpkins. Using a simple word that kids can handle—Boo!—trace out the letters using glue dots. Then let the kids cover the dots with glitter to make a festive front step decoration.

#4 Pumpkin Rats – For those of you who enjoy the spooky and spine chilling angle to Halloween, Martha Stewart shares this creative pumpkin display featuring rodents!

#5 Milk Jug Ghosts Lights – It’s a win win when we can create something fun as a family that also happens to be made of recycled materials. Suzanne Prochaska recently shared this idea to creatively light up Halloween.

#6 Stacked Pumpkins – If you’re really short on time but want to decorate for tomorrow, simply gather a few pumpkins and gourds of different shapes, colors and sizes and stack them together as The Decorologist highlights in a recent post.

#7 Pumpkins & Golf Tees – Many of the ideas I use with my kids are ones I’ve borrowed from my days as a teacher, because I know they’re not only enjoyable but educational. Hammering tees into pumpkins promotes fine motor skills, as do many of the above!

#8 DIY Ghost Costumes – Last year we dressed the three kiddos as ghosts. We simply drew three different ghost faces on white onesies with black permanent marker and added black/white pants, tutus, hats, shoes, and/or headbands to finish the costumes. It was extremely easy and pretty darn cute :)

#9 Owl Pumpkin – A couple years ago we made this owl by using a variety of pumpkins and cutting them and sticking them together with wooden skewers. I am not sure of the original source, but she was inspired by a picture she saw in a home decorating magazine.

#10 Halloween Playdough - We love making playdough in our house. During the month of October we like to make black and orange playdough and add glitter, pretend spiders & rats, cinnamon …

#11 Random Decorations

#12 Pumpkin Pillows – Memaw made these adorable pillows with L. She was so proud to find that she could really sew all by herself!

#13 Halloween Rocks – L. decided one afternoon that we should make halloween rocks. We got out paint and got right to work. Everyone in the family enjoyed this activity!

How to make a Daisy Chain? Fun for all ages!

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Excited2Learn

I was eager to try this out when I saw a picture of a little girl wearing a daisy crown on Creekside Learning. I remembered making flower chains when I was little and knew L. would love it because she loves anything that involves dressing up and flowers!

You can use other types of flowers besides daisies, like dandelions, that do not easily fall apart when played with by little ones. For younger children they will need help cutting the stems, but even my 4 year old was able to do it (with close supervision) after I demonstrated a few.

Step 1
Collect a bunch of flowers.

Step 2
Remove all the leaves.

Step 3
Cut the flowers to the desired length (this depends on how close you want the flowers to be to each other). We made ours 3 inches long.

Step 4
Cut a ½ -1inch slit through the middle of the stem of the flower about an inch from the bottom. You can either use a knife or your fingernail.

Step 5
Thread another stem through the slit and pull until the top of the flower is against the slit.

Step 6
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until your chain is the correct length for the item you’re making (e.g., crowns, bracelets, necklaces, belts…)

Step 7
Cut a larger slit in the last flower’s stem and fit the first flower through the slit to complete the loop.

Baby B wasn't overjoyed with her big sister's gift so L. decided to wear it herself. I think the fact she had a temp of 103 had a lot to do with it, considering...

a week later she was more than happy to let her big sister squeeze her into these goggles. I guess it's the thought that counts!

Enjoy!

SUMMER FUN! Imaginary Play Ideas…

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Excited2Learn

? the arctic ? act out a story (Going On A Bear Hunt, Where the Wild Things Are…) ? butterfly wings ? hair dresser ? waitress ? camping ? fashion show ? concert ? secret cabinet ? spa day ? pet store ? create your own celebration ? mud pies ? doctor ? veterinarian ? restaurant ? zoo ? make a teepee ? puppet show ? doctor’s office ? pretend cookies ? dance show? pilot ? astronaut ? post office ? parade ? school ? sock puppets ? museum ? birthday party ? sailboat ? box cars ? jet pack ? office ? gas station worker ? combined drawings & pictures (see above) ? fairy garden ? veggie garden sensory bucket ? train station ? grocery store ? Koolaid playdough ? blocks ? movie theater ? meteorologist ? race car track ? library ? dinosaur ? driving ? beach ? dinner party ? fun with faces ? scientist

Any of the above activities that are in blue means they are linked to a description of the idea. Below is a list you can print and highlight as you complete a given activity. Enjoy!

Do you Believe? How to Make Beautiful Butterfly Wings

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Excited2Learn

In the eyes of many little girls—both my daughters included—the patterns and variation of colors on butterfly wings, and their ability to flutter and fly about, elevates these insects to a magical status. So when I stumbled upon a few tips for making butterfly wings at Secret Agent Josephine and UCreate, I had to try them with L and B I added a few twists of my own and couldn’t believe how beautiful they turned out! L absolutely loved making and wearing them, and we actually plan on making more wings to hang in her room as decorations because she wants to use the wings we already made so she can, “Fly around the house when I feel like flying like a butterfly.”

Here’s how we did it:

1^st – We (Auntie “Cole” helped us with this project) found a large box and cut a large piece of cardboard from it, then folded it in half.
2^nd – I drew half of a butterfly’s wings on one side and cut it out. The Exact-o knife seemed to work better than scissors.
3^rd – We folded it in half and then traced it on the other half of the cardboard. We discussed with L. what it meant to be symmetrical, which was a great built-in lesson!
4^th We drew the design on one side of the wings and we cut them out with the Exact-o knife.
5^th Once again we folded it in half and traced the designs on the other side with a marker. Then we cut them out. We used the cutouts to make the markings on B’s butterfly wings as well as adding extra detail to L’s.
6^th To decorate L’s we first used white tissue paper squares. I bought mine at Lakeshore Learning, but you can likely find them at any craft store. I mixed 1 cup of Elmers Glue with a ¼ cup of water and simply had L cover the wings with white tissue paper and the glue mixture. For younger children it is often easier for them if they first put a layer of the glue down because the tissue is less likely to stick to their brush or move in the process. Even B enjoyed helping to put down the tissue paper. After putting a layer of white to cover the brown, we added colors. L worked very hard at making sure her butterfly was symmetrical. J
7^th Depending on the glue you use it may be shiny or it may be a matte finish.
8^th We painted the backside and added glitter. I wanted to make sure the glitter did not come off, especially for B’s sake so she didn’t get any in her eyes…so we covered it with a layer of glossy Mod Podge, which also made it shiny and somewhat waterproof.

Painting and then adding glitter was definitely an easy way to go. I think from beginning to end we completed the decorating phase of B’s wings in less than 10 minutes (5 minutes for each side). We didn’t wait for the paint to completely dry, which wasn’t a problem because we had spread out paper shopping bags beneath the project.

After our wings were complete, we tried them out in our backyard. We attached the wings with two soft headbands –it was super easy and worked perfectly! I was very proud of myself for coming up with this idea :) All we did was slide the 2 headbands over the wings so they were in the middle and then slid one arm through each headband. L also used the headbands to fly the “butterflies” around the yard (see picture below).

B was squealing with excitement and L was “flying” all around the yard. Next we were off to the Butterfly Place to observe real butterflies!