Flower Power for Mother's Day!

Fingerprint Spring Flowers

Mother's Day is just a few days off and you may be wondering..."what can I create with my kids/class for all those special moms and grandmothers?"  We have a few ideas to get you started!

Flower Pot Decorations
This simple craft involves a pot, some paint, and a little imagination.  The flower pots can be as simple or elaborate as your kids like and can be embellished with glitter, buttons, bows, etc.  Fill the pot with a small flower or plant, or even some treats for Mother's Day!

Handprint Tulips
For little hands this art project is the way to go to create a sweet Mother's Day card or Spring decorations for your classroom.  These tulips will last and last and will lift your spirits!

Handprint Flowers in a Pot
A perfect paper craft for preschoolers, the handprint flowers in a pot make such an adorable bouquet for mothers or as a learning tool for exploring nature and flowers.  Your kids will love this one and it encourages their creativity!

Daisy Finger Prints
This is a simple craft for kids of all ages to create a personalized Mother's Day card or picture to share or display.  It's great for encouraging dexterity and art skills at a young age, as the kids create the daisies with their fingers and thumbs!

A Handful of Love for Mommy
My personal favorite, this handprint craft creates a beautiful butterfly bringing handfuls of love to mommy on Mother's Day!  This activity can be done with tiny hands too with help from teacher.

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Cinco de Mayo

Paper Circle Bugs

With Cinco de Mayo just a few days away, we thought you may enjoy some fun crafts, snacks, and activities to help you and your kids or classroom celebrate!  And what do paper bugs have to do with Cinco de Mayo?  Make them in fiesta colors such as red, green, white, yellow, orange and purple, and use your bugs to decorate your classroom, create a mobile, or even as party favors!

Homemade Pinata
Our homemade pinata is simple to create and you're likely to have all the materials you need at home, already!  Creating a pinata with your kids is easy and fun, and can illustrating repurposing or recycling.

Noisy Shakers
Definitely a crowd-pleaser, although you may want earplugs when all is said and done, our homemade maracas or shakers, is a perfect for preschoolers, and can then be used at music time!

Construction Paper Flags
Instead of the red, white, & blue tissue paper recommended in the instructions, substitute the colors with red, white, & green to create a Mexican flag in honor of the Battle of Puebla.  (This could double as a lesson aid too!)

Cheese Tortillas
Don't forget the Cinco de Mayo themed snacks!  Try our cheese tortillas for a snack or even as part of lunch.  Your kids can even help make and bake these.

However you choose to celebrate, enjoy your Cinco de Mayo and enjoy your kids!  We love feedback and photos so be sure to send us some or post on our Facebook page!

5 Ways to Celebrate May Day!

May Baskets

May Day (May 1st) is right around the corner and a perfect holiday to celebrate Spring and green growing things with your kids or class (if you haven't already)!  Here are some ideas and crafts to add to your celebration!

The Maypole Song
A fun little song about the Maypole dance that incorporates left and right.  You could easily create your own movements to go along with the song or actually put up a maypole and let your kids dance around it while singing!

Edible Art
A colorful and simple snack to create with your kids.  This could even be created as a breakfast surprise on May Day!

Hand-print Apricot
This cute hand-print craft is perfect for a preschool or daycare class with little hands.  It also makes a really sweet card for May Day or Mother's Day.  Add a little message and you are all set!

Paper Plate Butterfly Puppet
This craft would be easy to do with preschool or kindergarten age kids and inspires their imaginations.

We love feed back and photos.  Share your May Day results with us on Facebook!

Earth Day Ideas: Part 2

Earth Resource Wheel

There are just a few more days until the official Earth Day holiday (April 22nd in the USA), but many schools and communities focus on Earth Day topics and earth education through the whole month of April.  So...here are a few more ideas for celebrating Earth Day!

Earth Day Snack Cup Project
This is a simple idea for teaching recycling and planting seeds.  Serve yogurt or pudding for a snack and use the cups to plant seeds in.  Don't forget the dirt pellets!

Garbage Dump
This activity can be broken up into multiple parts, such as a "garbage walk" to pick up garbage from a park or playground followed by a dirt sensory table to help illustrate the importance of recycling all that garbage.

Handprint Flower
This craft is great for smaller kiddies (0 - 2 years) to create pretty flowers to give to parents or hang in the classroom.  The handprint flower can also be incorporated into an Earth Day lesson.

Need more Earth Day activities, crafts, games and recipes?  Visit our Earth Day list for more!  Enjoy Earth Day and have fun educating your kids about caring for our planet.  We love feedback and photos, so be sure to send some!

Earth Day Ideas for Your Kids!

Coffee Filter Earth

Who's ready for Earth Day (April 22 in most places)?!  We are ready at The Idea Box and we have tons of fun Earth Day crafts, games and ideas just waiting for you, your kids or your class to try.  How adorable is the Coffee Filter Earth?

Cupcake Spring Flowers
This craft is simple and fun, and can be done by little hands.  You probably already have the supplies in your cupboard!  These cupcake flowers can be used to illustrate a lesson or as a last minute filler activity if you need an easy time-filler.

Earth Day Art
A great activity to get your kids or class outside, you can use it to clean up around the house, school, church or nearby park while discussing ideas for keeping the earth clean.  Bonus - make some art out of the stuff you find on your Earth Day walk!

Earth Day Cooking Project
A successful Earth Day lesson or party must include a treat to help kids stay on topic!  The nice thing about this cooking project: you perform a little prep work and the kids create the treats.  It's a fun way to talk about the soil, gardening, or bugs and creepy crawlies!

Earth Day Flowers
This Earth Day activity is a crowd-pleaser as the kids get to make something to take home to parents or grandparents.  Take pictures of your little "flowers" and then let them add petals and leaves to the printed photos - easy!

Enjoy your Earth Day celebrations!  If you need more ideas please visit our Earth Day page for our full list!  We love feedback and photos, so please send us pictures if you try one of our activities.

Hoppy Easter!

Miss Bunny

If you like to crochet or need an Easter mascot for your class, visit our sister site for the free crochet pattern to create your very own Miss Bunny.

Egg Toss
This activity is a fun game using simple supplies, that almost every age group can play.  Since it involves tossing, be sure to use the plastic eggs!

Eggstraordinary
This craft is a creative way to decorate eggs with out the mess of dyes, stained fingers, and disaster cleanup. Well...there is still some cleanup but it's pretty manageable.  Even little hands can do this craft.

Fluffy Rabbit
Since rabbits tend to be alot of work and most parents would prefer you not send their kid home with a new pet, how about helping your kids create their own fluffy rabbits?  They are cleaner and don't require food!

Spring Lilies
This is a very sweet craft for even the littlest peeps, since it uses their handprint to create an Easter lily to share with their parents and grandparents.  This one is a quick craft with simple supplies.

Visit our Easter page for more activities and craft ideas.  We love feedback and photos so send us some!