Snow globe Service Activity

Our December activities go hand in hand but will be done in two parts.  Part one was making snow globes and practicing Christmas carols.  Part two will be the service portion where we will deliver the globes and sing carols to residents at a local nursing home.

To make the snow globes, we used:

Babyfood jars
Gold and silver spray paint
Mini ornaments
Glycerin
Distilled water
Artificial snow
Hot glue

Of course, you can improvise as needed.

Here is a video that explains the process.

A few tips:

*Make one to use as an example.  This will eliminate a learning curve during the activity :)
*Fill the jar to the brim with water.  The girls who didn't do this had air bubbles and the snow would not fall, it stayed on the top, near the air pocket.
*We spray painted our lids gold and silver to color the Gerber markings
*Glue the lid shut.
*We didn't sand the inside of the lid, but I think it would be helpful and ensure the trinkets stay attached.
*She recommends epoxy but hot glue worked just fine
*We opted for babyfood jars because not only does it keep the over all cost down, but it also takes up less space for the nursing home patients.

Once the jars were complete, we used tissue paper and ribbon to wrap up the snow globes.  I recommend wrapping them with the lid on the top, just in case they leak :)

We bought supplies for 16 snow globes and it cost less than $20.00:
16 jars (30 cents each)
Mini ornaments (they came in sets of six and nine and cost $1.98 each)
Glycerin ($3.88)
Snow ($2.50)


When everyone completed their wrapping, we practiced a few carols.  One girl even volunteered to bring her violin along to play a song for the residents.  I was very impressed that the girls were so excited to deliver their gifts and sing.  I think it will be a treat for everyone!

Mother's Day Wind Chimes

Image and idea from designdazzle.com

This post is from Melissa and includes a couple of ideas:  

They made this wind chime for Mother's Day.  Here is a pic of their projects in progress:

She also included some ideas for Earth Day-these would be great for other topics: gardening, service, spring crafts, etc. 

"Earth Day:  We talked about Recycling, Reusing, and Reducing.  I had 2 hand outs with word puzzles, what earth day is for them to work on after we were done with our 2 activities.  

We made bird feeds out of empty toilet paper rolls.  Yarn through the tube, they slathered on peanut butter, and then rolled it in bird seed.

We also talked about how plants grow.  They were given 5 seeds, and made see through greenhouses, so they could watch the stages of the seed sprouting.  A ziplock plastic baggie, wet paper towels, seeds.  We talked about what plants need to survive and how to take care of their seed until it was ready to be planted in dirt."

Thanks for sharing Melissa!  Keep those ideas coming!

Mother's Day Gift Ideas 2014

Mother's Day is right around the corner, and I think it's great to have the girls make something simple and sweet for their mom.  I tried to pull some ideas from around the net that you might find helpful!

This one is SO cute!  It's from Paging Supermom and can be found HERE.

You need a circle punch, some cute scrapbook paper, a cheap picture frame (or you might choose to leave this unframed and stick a magnet on the back), green card stock and paper baking cups.  I love the simplicity of this and that the girls can do it all themselves.

If you want to do something more in the pampering vein, this is a great spa in a jar!  It's a copy cat of Mary Kay's satin hands scrub.  Two ingredients, some cute jars, and you've got some Mother's Day love.  Go HERE to Raining Hot Coupons for the instructions.

Here's another de"light"ful idea.  :)  I love candles, and I think most women do.  Especially if they smell good.  Here is a super cute tutorial on how to make your own in a tea cup.  The girls might have a cup they want to use or you can go pick some up at the thrift store.  This cute idea is from The Wedding Chicks and can be found HERE.

I am working on one more project that I will have up tomorrow, but I hope these ideas give you some inspiration!

Once There Was a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman!

Where we live we rarely get snow. When we do, they cancel school, and everyone has a snowman in their front yard! By afternoon all the snow melts and all that is left is the snowman for a few days. I thought it would be fun to make some cute snowmen that could hang around a little longer!

These were a few I made in December with my own children. You can go HERE for directions on how to make them. I bought socks at Target for $1 and used buttons and twine I already had. To make our noses we clipped real twigs from our trees and painted them orange with acrylic paint.

Happy Crafting!

Kristen

Christmas Crafts

I posted previously about my planned Christmas activity.
This shows the story book, ornament (OTC) and a Gumball countdown.
For the gumball countdown I bought bags of wrapped gumballs from the $ store, grabbed some index cards and an old bag of bows. They stapled the gumballs together (or taped) and created the tag for the top. I think this was their favorite part.

This activity filled they 1.5 hours and they loved it!
Note - I had them bring glue guns + the ones we purchased last year so they each had one. Made it much easier!