Friday Family Funtime - Make a Recycled Pencil holder

Thrifty Thursday - Coffee Can Flowerpot

Materials Needed:

• Coffee Can
• Spray Paint

Instructions:
Start out with a clean, dry coffee can. If you prefer, you can use different cans or any other container you want to recycle.
Spray paint the outside of the can whatever color you like. Let the paint dry.
Once the paint is dry, you can poke holes in bottom of cans for drainage or just place a cup holding fresh flowers or a potted plant inside. It is that easy!

Wednesday Wellness - Homemade Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

• 1½ c. unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 tbsp. peanut oil

• food processor
• bowl
• mixing spoon
• storage container
• measuring cups and spoons

Directions:
For smooth peanut butter:

1. Mix the peanuts with the peanut oil, and pour the mixture into the food processor.
2. Process the mixture until it's very smooth.
3. Store your smooth peanut butter in a sealed container in the fridge. It will be good for 2 weeks.

For chunky peanut butter:

1. Take about ¼ cup out of your 1½ cups of peanuts and set them aside.
2. Mix the rest of the peanuts with the oil, and pour the mixture into the food processor.
3. Process the mixture until it's very smooth, then stir in the peanuts that you had set aside.
4. Process a few seconds more to create the chunks in your chunky peanut butter.
5. Store your chunky peanut butter in a sealed container in the fridge. It will be good for 2 weeks.

Friday Family Funtime - Water and Pepper Trick

Thrifty Thursday - Bubble Artwork

Materials Needed:

• Tempera Paint
• Liquid Dish Soap
• Paper
• Drinking Straws

Instructions:
Stir together 1/2 cup water, 1-2 tablespoons paint, and 1/2-1 tablespoon dish soap; pour it into a shallow dish, such as a pie pan. Place one end of a straw in the paint/soap mixture and gently blow to make bubbles. Blow until the bubbles are almost over the edge of the pan. Place a piece of paper on top of the bubbles and hold it in place until several bubbles have popped and transferred their shape onto the paper - this makes a fun bubble print! Continue the process with different colors if you want. Blow more bubbles as needed. Set aside to dry. When dry, you can add drawings to your bubble pictures if you want.

Wednesday Wellness - Fruit Kabobs

Ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 1 banana
• 1/3 c. red seedless grapes
• 1/3 c. green seedless grapes
• 2/3 cup pineapple chunks
• 1 cup nonfat yogurt
• ¼ c. dried coconut, shredded

• knife (you'll need help from your adult assistant)
• 2 wooden skewer sticks
• large plate

Directions:

1. Prepare the fruit by washing the grapes, washing the apples and cutting them into small squares, peeling the bananas and cutting them into chunks, and cutting the pineapple into chunks, if it's fresh. Put the fruit onto a large plate.
2. Spread coconut onto another large plate.
3. Slide pieces of fruit onto the skewer and design your own kabob by putting as much or as little of whatever fruit you want! Do this until the stick is almost covered from end to end.
4. Hold your kabob at the ends and roll it in the yogurt, so the fruit gets covered. Then roll it in the coconut.
5. Repeat these steps with another skewer.

Friday Family Funtime - Dancing Milk

Thrifty Thursday - Bookworm Bookmark

• Craft Foam
• 
  Pipe Cleaners
• Wiggle Eyes
• Ribbon
• Fine-Tip Marker or Dimensional Paint (not pictured)
• Craft Glue
• Scissors

 1. For the body of the worm, cut several circles out of green craft foam (you can use felt or paper if you like). I cut 6 circles, the biggest one was about 2-inches across and all the others went down in size. The smallest was about an inch wide.



2. Using dabs of craft glue, assemble the worm body as shown in the photo. The biggest circle, which will be the head, is on the top and the smallest circle is on the bottom.

3. Shape a piece of pipe cleaner into a pair of glasses. Use the picture here as a guide or design your own pair. Cut off any extra pipe cleaner. Decide where you want the glasses on the face and glue them in place.

4. Glue the wiggle eyes into the glasses.

5. Using a marker or dimensional paint, draw a mouth on your worm.

6. You can skip this step if you like, but I think a little tuft of hair gives the worm a little character. Cut several pieces of ribbon, about an inch and a half long. Glue one end of each ribbon piece to the back, top of the worm's head. Let the glue dry.

7. To add a finishing touch to your bookmark, use the marker or dimensional paint to write a special message on your worm.

Wednesday Wellness - Frozen Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:

• 1 8-oz. container of your favorite flavor of yogurt

• small paper cups
• wooden popsicle sticks (available in craft stores)
• plastic wrap

Directions:

1. Pour yogurt into paper cups. Fill them almost to the top.
2. Stretch a small piece of plastic wrap across the top of each cup.
3. Using the popsicle stick, poke a hole in the plastic wrap. Stand the stick straight up in the center of the cup.
4. Put the cups in the freezer until the yogurt is frozen solid.
5. Remove the plastic wrap, peel away the paper cup, and eat your pop!

Friday Family Funtime - Make A Mad Lib

One of my favorite websites, Eduplace, offers a variety of stories that you can create yourself!  "Mad Libs" are a great way for students to practice using the parts of speech.  If you get stuck on one, they offer an area for help with each type!

When you finish typing in all of the needed words, they format each story for you so it can be printed.

Thrifty Thursday - Homemade Body Glitter

• Aloe Vera Gel
• Glitter
• Small container (recycle old makeup containers or 35mm film containers, or look in stores that carry beads, crafts, or fishing tackle)

Instructions:
Fill your container about 3/4 full with the aloe vera gel. If you are using food coloring, mix a few drops at a time in with your gel until you get the desired color. Stir in a sprinkling of glitter at a time to avoid clumps. Add as much or as little glitter as you like.
You can try larger glitter and even small shapes such as stars; or, for a more shimmering look, use fine glitter.

Wednesday Wellness - Cinnamon Applesauce

Ingredients:

• 2 small red apples
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 pinches of cinnamon

• knife (you'll need help from your adult assistant)
• blender or food processor
• measuring spoons
• serving bowls

Directions:

1. Peel the apples and cut them into small pieces. Throw out the core.
2. Put the apple pieces and lemon juice into the blender or food processor. Blend until the mixture is very smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into two small bowls and stir in the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Enjoy your awesome applesauce!

4th of July Hat Craft

Materials

• Pencil
• Yardstick
• Scissors
• 1 18- by 24-inch sheet of red poster board
• Red, white, and blue curling gift-wrap ribbon, ¾ inch wide

• Masking tape and Scotch tape
• Glue stick
• Yellow and orange crepe paper
• 1 white or silver pipe cleaner
• Pushpin

 

Instructions

1. Cut a 7- by 24-inch rectangle from red poster board. Using the yardstick, draw a line across the long end of the rectangle, 2 inches beneath the top edge. Draw vertical lines at 2-inch intervals across the top edge, as shown below in 1. Cut along each vertical line to form tabs. Place the yardstick across the bottom of the tabs and bend the tabs over the stick.
   
2. Cut 20 lengths of ribbon, each 20 inches long. On a table, lay a 12-inch piece of masking tape sticky-side up. Press 10 of the ribbons onto the tape, as shown in 2. Repeat with a second 12-inch piece of masking tape.
   
3. With the ribbons hanging down, press the 2 ribbon/tape strips along the tabless edge of the red rectangle, leaving 5 inches between the strips for your child's forehead, as shown in 3. Roll the rectangle into a tube. Scotch-tape the edges to form a cylinder that will fit comfortably.
   
4. Place the cylinder, with the tabs folded in, onto the remaining poster board. Trace around it and cut out the circle. Coat the outer 2 inches of the circle with glue. Press the tabs of the hat down onto the glue-coated portion of the circle and hold in place for a few seconds. Turn the hat right-side up to dry. If necessary, lay a magazine across the top to flatten the hat as it dries.
   
5. Cut five strips of crepe paper, each 8 to 10 inches long. Stack the strips and wrap them with a pipe cleaner, as shown in 5. Pull tight and arrange the crepe paper to form a flower shape.
   
6. With a pushpin, poke a hole in the center of the hat top. Thread the bottom 1 inches of the pipe cleaner through the hole. On the inside of the hat, bend the tip against the underside of the hat and masking-tape it in place.
   

Friday Family Funtime - How to Make a Vuvuzela Sound