News with Naylors

Starfish #1 (puffy paint) : We haven't painted with puffy paint yet, so I was so excited to see a Puffy Paint Starfish Tutorial  on I Heart Crafty Things. Easton had a blast with this activity. It looked so much fun, I had to give it a try as well. We followed the tutorial, other than we added about twice as much shaving cream as suggested. Starfish #2 (cheerios) : I found this idea on the  Letter S Crafts  list on the measured mom blog. I didn't take a picture of ours, so the one below is from her blog. I placed glue dots on our starfish and Easton placed cheerios on the glue. Star Stamping : I found this  star stamping  idea on Fun a Day. We stamped a star cookie cutter in yellow washable paint and Easton stamped it onto a piece of black construction paper. I love the yellow florescent stars on black paper. Sand Sensory Bin : This Mold & Play Sand Kit  from Lakeshore Learning was a huge hit! Easton played with the sand off and on ...

Sparkly Letter S Snakes : I used a black permanent marker to draw two Letter S's on a piece of white card stock. Then I mixed a small amount of water and glue together in a bowl to make a paste. I painted the inside of the first Letter S with the glue/water mixture and helped Easton pour blue sparkles over the Letter S. I shook the paper and poured the extra sprinkles back into our container. We did the same process with our silver sparkly snake. Once the glue mixture dried, we glued on our goggly eyes and a snake tongue. Paper Plate Lego Snake : We have stamped all sorts of things, and today we tried stamping legos! Of course, we had to do the color blue - Easton's favorite. I used both dark and light blue washable tempera paint. Easton dipped the lego in the paint and then stamped it onto a paper plate. After the paint dried I cut a swirl into the paper plate to make our snake. Easton glued on a snake tongue and goggly eyes. I saw a similar idea on Craft Morning making ...

Marbled Shark : We made Marbled Christmas Trees last month. I loved how our trees turned out, so I thought it would be fun to add a marbled craft onto our Letter of the Week series. You'll need a cookie sheet, shaving cream, acrylic paint (we used blue, washable liquid watercolors), a straw (we used a skewer stick), a popsicle stick and a piece of white card stock (I drew a shark image on ours beforehand) for this activity. After our marbled paper was dry, I cut the shark images out and glued them onto black card stock.  Click here for a tutorial. Shaving Cream/Shark Sensory Play : Once we were finished marbling our shark, we played with the colored shaving cream. We added our play sharks, a separate bin with water, and our play kitchen toys (measuring cups/spoons, spatula, whisk, etc). I'm glad we were in the bathtub for this activity! Shark Matching : I printed the remaining shark activities from a Shark Pack by 3 Dinosaurs. We started with a matching game. I pr...

Snail Craft #1 (sun catcher) : I love coffee filter/sun catcher crafts! We hadn't tried using washable markers to make one yet, so it was fun to try that technique today. I found a similar idea on no time for flashcards.  Here's what you need: Large, White Coffee Filter Washable Markers Spray Bottle with Water Green Construction Paper (snail body) 1. Put the coffee filter on an art table and let your child draw all over the coffee filter with washable markers (picture one). 2.  Spray the entire coffee filter with water, so the colors bleed together (picture two and three). 3. Let the coffee filter dry - I usually place mine in between two pieces of paper towels, so it dries quickly. 4. Cut out a snail body from green construction paper and glue the snail body onto the coffee filter (picture four).  5. Hang the snail up in the window and watch the sun shine through the coffee filter. Snail Craft #2 (finger painting) : My mother-in-law bough...

I found so many great S Activities, we spent over a week doing them. You can pick and choose which activities to do in five days, or do them all at your own pace like we did. Feed the Shark : To review the alphabet as a whole, we played "feed the shark". I printed a shark template  (scroll down to find) and glued it onto a piece of cardboard. I taped the piece of cardboard onto a plastic baby wipe container. I cut out 26 little fish from construction paper and wrote a letter of the alphabet on each one. I hid the fish around the room, Easton found one and identified the letter, and fed it to our shark. He really liked this activity! This idea is from Toddler Approved . Letter S Songs : I found and printed our Letter S Songs from the Measured Mom blog. We sing these songs all throughout the week - in the car, before naps, and randomly throughout the day. Normally there are more options, so we have more favorites. However, this week we had only one favorite: Skip to my ...