While traditional Dodgeball is my favorite campers sometimes need variations to keep it interesting.
Learn how to make a dreamcatcher! These paper plate dreamcatchers are so pretty, and they're incredibly simple to make! Keep bad dreams away as you make this easy kids version of a dreamcatcher. Make a Dreamcatcher A dreamcatcher is a Native American item which is traditionally hung over a child's bed as protection. Dreamcatchers allow good dreams through, while catching and stopping bad dreams. Most kids will enjoy this craft, but a DIY dreamcatcher is particularly great for kids who have trouble with nightmares. You can work through the problem together as you make the craft, and the dreamcatcher will
Does your school system have summer school or summer camp? I hope so! Summer camp is the perfect setting for STEM activities- many of which can be completed outdoors. Kids love STEM and summertime is the perfect time to continue to work on those collaboration skills. I have some super engaging challenges to share with
These paper flowers are super easy to prepare and to make! Make enough for the classroom, preschool, or daycare in just about 10 minutes
Summer is a time for fun and adventure. Our list of summer camp ideas are sure to grab the kids attention. These 30 summer camp activities for kids w
The best summer art camp ideas for kids.
The following post is from our kid's craft contributor EJ: We're SO excited for the Olympics to start! This week I've been trying to introduce/familiarize my children with the various events the Olympians will be
Inspired by my previous post, I have created a series of 6 doodle sheets that are free to download. I have produced them at A5 size (though they could be made smaller or larger if you choose) and they can either be printed off and used as they come, or trimmed and laminated to make re-usable doodle sheets, as illustrated here. If laminated, they should be used with special dry-wipe pens to allow them to be wiped clean. I also punched a hole in the corner of each sheet and tied them together using a keyring so that I could carry them about more easily. You are free to use these however you choose (except commercially of course!) However if you do wish to use them, please consider making a small donation to help support my personal blog. You can do this by clicking on the button below, or by using the Ko-Fi widget in the sidebar. To get your doodle sheets just click on the each image to open up the full size image, then right click to download a copy. Garden-Doodle Masterpiece Doodle View Doodle Knight Doodle Undersea Doodle Space Doodle
Looking for a fun and simple science activity that’s sure to entertain the kids?! In this quick, five minute experiment, little chemists mix up their own homemade bouncy balls.
These 51+ fun and easy camping crafts are perfect to get the kids excited about camping - preschoolers to big kids will LOVE these camp inspired activites!
Keep your kids entertained all summer long with these DIY summer camp ideas. Printable daily schedule included! Most ideas you can do at home with supplies you already have on hand. Holy canoli how is it summer already?! While I start counting down the days to summer break in October, what I always forget about
Get your students ready for the Summer Games with these fun, engaging Olympic classroom ideas for all the subjects!
Don't you love simple crafts!? These pipe cleaner butterfly rings are so pretty and they're really easy to make. Pipe cleaner crafts are so much fun, especially when you can make something really awesome in less than 5 minutes using nothing but 2 and a half pipe cleaners! You don't need any glue, and you don't need any fancy supplies. Just pipe cleaners and a pair of scissors. This is such an awesome low mess craft for kids... and tweens, and teens, and adults... it's pretty great for all ages! These pipe cleaner butterflies are Part 2 in our pipe
Are you looking for around the world games to play with your kids and as a family. I have some fun ideas! We recetnly went on our local morning show here in Dallas (Good Morning
These camping crafts for preschoolers are a fun activity to do before or after camping or whenever you wish you were camping. They’re perfect for doing at home, school, library, or daycare!
The Olympic torch relay signals the exciting run-up to a new Olympic Games, and this colouring page is a great way to get the kids involved too.
Check out this easy butterfly craft for kids! Using just a few cheap craft supplies (hello Amazon), kids can paint butterflies with tissue paper! What a fun idea! These beautiful painted paper butterflies are made even easier with our free butterfly printable. This may be the perfect craft idea for spring and summer!
Make an easy paper trophy craft to give a deserving person an adorable award! This is fun for Father's day or Olympic games!
Lots NEW! Olympic themed drawing activities, lacing cards, jigsaws, posters and all sorts - we've lots more fun Oympic printables for you to explore here.
It’s time for The Kids Craft Stars monthly craft challenge! Every month we have a challenge between a few blogger friends and I, to in-cooperate a different craft medium or technique into a simple kid craft. This month’s
Little athletes will love testing their logic skills with this fun word search that's all about the Olympics!
All kids love going to the zoo, so this smiling zookeeper girl will have them remembering back to their last trip to see the lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
The main hallway of Zilker Elementary is now the Zilker Museum! Every student has a piece of artwork on display...it is a sight to behold. This year the art show is also interactive because you can scan QR codes to find out more about how we created the art, or find out more about the artist who inspired us to create. Fifth Grade's Hundertwasser Collages Fourth Grade's Wayne Thiebaud cupcake Sculptures Third Grade's Weavings Third Grade's Keith Haring Collages Second Grade's Georgia O'Keeffe's Flower Paintings First Grade's Eric Carle Collages First Grade's Quilts Kinder Pablo Picasso Guitar Collages Mr. McNitt's class made these awesome house prints and added color with chalk in Ms. Jepson's art class. Every year students continue to amaze me with their talent in art! I sincerely hope you had time to see this art show in person.....what a lucky art teacher I am to be able to work with such creative art students!
These 30+ Summer Camp Themes and Descriptions will give you fun activities and ideas to fill your days with exciting Summer Themes. Summer Camp Theme Ideas for Preschoolers and youth camp, This page is full of great summer themes to explore nature, arts and crafts, Science, STEM, ocean activities, kindness and so much more.
I'm so VERY excited to present my very first guest blogger on MiniMatisse. I met Mark Rode a couple months back at a training and we share our social media information with each other. I have been so impressed with Mark's Instagram that I asked if he would write a blog post about this amazing project. Mark is an Elementary Art Teacher at Oxbow Creek Elementary in Champlin Minnesota. He explains that his inspiration came from another teacher in West Australia, Ann Farrell. I'm a fan of her work as well! Please be sure to check out her blog, Use Your Coloured Pencils. Mark maintains an amazing Instagram account, @oxbow_creek_elementary_art. He is also active on Twitter, follow him @oxbowart. Here is what Mark had to say about this captivating project. I taught this project to my first graders to kick off their unit on form. It took two 60 minute classes, but next year I may stretch it to three, as it was difficult for some to finish on time. There are so many great books on dinosaurs too, and having time on the third day for reflection would be ideal. Nevertheless, I felt like this project was a great way to begin working in three dimensions, as it let students figure out how to make something stand up and occupy real space with familiar materials and subject matter (who doesn’t like dinosaurs?). After teaching this lesson, I had multiple students bring in other versions to share that they had made at home, as well as some other paper sculptures, which I felt was a good sign. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. I even wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up! There is still a big part of me that gets excited about them, so it was really fun to share this excitement with the kids. Of course, in every first-grade class, there are always a few dinosaur experts who love to share their unique knowledge on this subject as well, so I introduced the project by displaying pictures of a variety of dinosaurs and facilitated a lively discussion. We talked about different characteristics that we noticed, as well as compared and contrasted the different types. I then told them that they would be making a dinosaur sculpture, and demonstrated how to begin. I told them that they were going to get two pieces of tagboard, one wide and one narrower. They would also get a sharpie marker and a stencil for the body shape and legs (these were made from brown tag. I usually don’t use stencils, but I made an exception with this step, as the success of the final work was heavily contingent on getting these shapes right…). I told the students to trace the body shape on the large sheet of tagboard, right in the middle. After that, they added the other features (neck, head, tail, horns, designs, texture, etc.). I then told them to trace the leg stencil on the smaller sheet. Depending on the type of dinosaur, they would either do this once or twice (an Allosaurus walks on two legs vs. a Brachiosaurus that walks on four). After adding details, I told them they had to cut out the dinosaur and the legs. They then had to flip the body over and add details on the other side (it is important that they cut out first before flipping). Finally, they added color on all sides with a marker. I told them that scientists don’t know for certain what color the dinosaurs were, so it was really up to them to color their dinosaur how they thought it would have looked. This, I believe, gave them more creative agency, and I think, in the end, they looked more interesting because of it. On day two, we reviewed the steps. I then said that I would give them a piece of matboard for the base and that they had to draw the setting for their dinosaur (bird’s eye view). They also had to make a few slits (one on the top of each leg and one or two on the bottom of the dinosaur). I then showed how to make it stand by carefully connecting the slits together. In order for it to be sturdy, it does require some wiggling and finessing. When they got to this point, I told them that it was really important for them to try to get it to stand up. This was challenging for many, but it was good for them to work through it and problem solve. I also stressed the importance of helping each other out. Once they got the legs on, I added hot glue to the bottom of the feet and glued the dino to the base. Most students were able to get it to stand, but there were a few that needed some assistance from me. At the end of the class, we all had our dinosaurs on one table and it was such a pleasure to see them all together! This project was predominantly product based, but also gave a lot of room for creative decision-making. The goal was to have the dinosaur three-dimensional. The main concept was form, although we also talked a lot about shapes, lines, and textures. Here are some of the project samples that Mark was so generous to share with us. For more images of this project and so many other amazing projects, please be sure to follow Mark on Instagram @Oxbow_creek_elementary_art.
How to play Shipwreck!
How cute and fun are these CRAB HATS? Such an adorable Summer craft for kids. Easy to make with the printable template.
I love getting new craft supplies, I'm like a kid at Christmas! So I couldn't wait to get started on some new crafts with the Fun Chalk markers we received this week. The kids love using these non-toxic
This week was our first week back and, boy am I tired! My class is great though...very inquisitive and eager to learn. They take their work seriously and are actively working most of the day. Who could ask for more?? We did quite a few things this week, but I want to share with you one "get to know you" project we did that really came out great. I seriously can't stop staring at it! I saw this pin on Pinterest. I love how it looks and thought it would make a great welcome sign. Now, on the pin, the hands seemed to be just colored in. I wanted something a bit more. So we started with creating Circle Maps about ourselves. What made us special? What are some things that have shaped us? Where did you go in your life? etc....Most of the kids finished these Circle Maps in class on the first day of school. I then asked the students to trace their hands and arms on a piece of 11 x 17" piece of paper. They then had to draw, write, decorate, etc...the traced in hand with items from the Circle Map. The goal was to teach their fellow classmates about themselves in a visual way, without giving away too much information (ie: I didn't want them to write paragraphs.) That is pretty much how far we got in class. So, the first homework assignment the students had to finish the project at home. I gave them this sheet so that they could be a bit more focused on their project and add a bit if they wanted. (but if you are going copy-less, just forgo this. They can write the information on a sheet of paper instead.) The next day, the hands came back to school...and they were great! I had the kids get into groups and share what they decided to put on their hands and why. The kids learned a lot about each other in that 15 minute session! You can see some of them used words as well as pictures to tell about themselves. I love the one directly in the center of this picture! Others just used pictures, like the one in the middle here. When I went to put them around a piece of poster board, like in the original pin, they didn't fit :( I think if I had used a smaller piece of paper to trace their hands to begin with they might have. Oh well! I decided to put them up as if the hands were all in a line, raising up.....and it came out great! I overlapped the hands, so I was able to get 5 or 6 on one piece of large construction paper. I then mounted them on my wall. I love it! All in all, this was a fun little project that served as a great way for the kids to get to know each other and make a nice display! What is something you do during the first week of school to help the kids get to know each other and for you to learn a little about them? Follow me on Snapchat for even more teaching ideas!
Outer Space Craft Ideas - Galactic Starveyors VBS Theme
One way to get kids interested in the Olympic Games is to host your own Olympic Games event. We have made it easy for you by providing everything from Olympic Games event printables, to suggested games, printable medals, and even suggestions for the food to provide...
With warmer temperatures, kids are bound to spend more and more time outdoors. Many kids dream of going camping. Whether your camping trip is in the great outdoors, in a backyard tent, or an indoor fort, there are bound to be memories made. Not only do I have a fun camping craft to share, but I also have some great camping books for kids that you can pair with it!
There's just something about summer crafting that calls for pinwheels! Do you know how to make a pinwheel? It's probably easier than you think! I have a quick tutorial for you here today for this
Bring the thrill of camping to your home with our free coloring pages! Download and print to color campfires, RVs, and outdoor scenes.
