Balloon Stamping

To continue with our circus theme, we painted with little balloons today. They were actually water balloons, so they had a really nice shape to them.

The kids just dipped them in the paint, and then pressed them gently on their paper.

I love the prints left behind!

The kids had fun with it. They were so excited when they found out we were painting with balloons! They filled up most of the paper because they didn't want to stop!

I probably would have gotten better pictures if I had waited for the paint to dry, but I was impatient! I love this next one, with the colors all blended.

We also played a counting pyramid game called Zimbbos.

It went with our circus theme and it was great fine-motor practice!

And another fun little thing we did was play with silly putty. I didn't have any newspaper comics, so the kids just drew their own things on paper with a pencil and pressed the silly putty on that.

It worked just the same and the kids liked stretching and twisting their own creations!

On a final note, if you decide to paint with balloons, be careful when you pop them. Luckily I did it in the garbage can!

Clowns

We made circus clowns today! We started with a paper plate. We used markers to draw in eyes, a mouth and any little decorations we wanted.

Then we glued a big pom pom on for the nose.

I traced the kids' hands on whatever color construction paper they wanted, cut them out and added it to the plate to make hair.

Some kids got really creative and used scrap paper to make hats!

I really (really!) wanted to use a little balloon for the nose, which I saw here, but balloons are not allowed in our center unless they are popped and thrown away after a well-supervised activity. And I did not want to have to pop the clowns' noses, so we used pom poms instead. We used tape to attach the hands and hats because glue does not work well on the ridges of the plates. I hung them on the wall and I added the words, "No clownin' around!' to the display.

Oh, I just love them!

**Linking up to the parties on my sidebar!**

Fingerprint Balloons

We started our Circus theme today! Our first art project was a fast and easy one. We used ink pads and made fingerprints on a piece of paper to make balloons. Can't have a circus without balloons, can ya?

Then, after washing, we drew in strings and a sky with markers.

So simple, right? And so fun!

Friends Are Like Flowers

We made really big flowers today! I took pictures of all the kids, cropped them to just the heads and printed them out as 4x6's. Then I taped them to a square piece of paper.

I should have used a circle instead of a square, but it still worked. I wanted to have enough paper for the kids to glue on petals. I made simple petals from construction paper. I told the kids to arrange 8 petals around their faces. It's best to do this by placing down all the petals before gluing so you know they'll go all the way around.

Once they liked how it looked, they used a glue stick to attach them to their picture and the square paper. Then they took another 8 petals (sometimes in the same color, sometimes in a different color) and put those on between the first set of petals.

I did have to help a bit because some kids covered their faces with the petals. But as long as I got to them fast enough, I was still able to move them. Then the kids cut strips of green paper, as many as they wanted, and I taped them together to make stems. Some even made leaves for their stems. Then I added some playful grass and the words, "Welcome Spring!"

It's wonderful to have a garden of friends in our room!

And I think that grass will be a perfect spot to put some colorful eggs when we get around to making them! In the afternoon we had a spring picnic. It was a rainy day so we had an indoor picnic, but it was still fun!

**Linking up to Show-and-Share Saturday and The Sunday Showcase!**

Easter Chicks

Get ready to say Awwww, 'cause this next craft is so cute! I was planning on putting a picture at the top of this post, but then I decided I wanted to make you all wait for it. No peeking! I used a coloring sheet of a chick as my template. (You can find it here.) I traced the body of the chick onto white paper. I flipped it over for some so all the chicks wouldn't be facing the same direction.

Can you see it? Then the kids painted it by pressing the paintbrush down onto the paper, spreading the bristles.

This made it appear fluffy.

When they were dry, I cut them out.

Can you start to see a chick now? I used Sharpies to draw in the squiggly lines around the body to help with the fluffiness. Then the kids glued on feet and a beak.

Those came from the coloring sheet as well. I traced them onto colored paper, then used a marker to add lines to make them appear more dimensional. Lastly, the kids used markers to make a wing and an eye.

Are you ready for the finished craft?

I love how some kids made the chicks look like they were walking! (I don't think that was intentional, but it's adorable!)

I even joined in on the fun!

Then (yes, there's more!) I hung them in the hall with the words, "Hangin' with my Peeps!"

(Darn skinny halls...)

Can you tell I'm really excited about this?! I love it! Okay, so did you say awww?

**Linking up to the parties in my sidebar!**

Cracked Eggs

I want to show you my Easter display from last year. The kids painted an egg-shaped piece of paper with glitter watercolors. Then I cut them in half, all jagged like they were cracked. I asked the kids to bring in a joke to share with the class. Then I wrote down the joke and taped it to their cracked egg. I displayed them in the hall with the title, "You crack me up!"

I even made the letters in the title look cracked!

It was a lot of fun for everyone walking by. They all enjoyed the jokes! Here are some of my favorites from that day:
How do you make a tissue dance?
      Put a little boogie in it.
Why was Cinderella not good at playing soccer?
      Because she kept running away from the ball.
A lion and a cheetah were having a race. The cheetah won. The lion said, "Hey, you're a cheetah!" And the cheetah said, "Naw, you're a lion!"

Cherry Blossom Branches

Before I begin, I wanted to let you know that I finally (finally!) have a facebook page for Tippytoe Crafts. This was really hard for me to do. I have been anti-facebook since the beginning, never even having a personal page. But since the point of my blog is to share my ideas, and using facebook might help it reach more people, then I guess a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I can almost guarantee you that I will only use my facebook page to link to a new post I've written. So if you already follow me here, you probably won't need to ever visit my page. But if you want to, click here.
Now on to the art.

Cherry blossoms. Don't you love them? Last year we made them with pink tissue paper (see that here), but this year I got inspired by Alphamom. I've used soda bottles for painting before, but I've never added a branch or tree. It was always for random flowers. But the one I saw on Alphamom was just so beautiful so I decided to give it a try. As the kids were dropped off in the morning, I had them paint a branch on a piece of white construction paper.

By art time, a couple hours later, they were dry enough to add the flowers. So I set out four shades of pink paint and added soda bottles. I used smaller bottles than the one from Alphamom because our paper was smaller.

The kids really enjoyed stamping with these.

 And we got some beautiful art work for our wall.

I loved doing this (that first picture in this post is mine!) and want to make one on a canvas for my home. So don't be surprised if you see a cherry blossom young-at-heart craft from me soon!