Posts tagged ‘crafts’
Chipper Recycle Craft + Snack: Garden Lady Bug
Spring is in full throttle and summer is right around the corner! Now is the perfect time to get outdoors and explore your gardens! Finding little creepy crawlies with your little ones is not only a fun exercise, it instill an inherent curiosity in your child. That curiosity will push them to explore and learn about not only the great outdoors, but all aspects of the world. Education should inspire them to find out more, not stifle their natural wonder.
Take your little one(s) on a nature walk, strolling slowly in your back yard or community garden. Take 5 minutes in each area, observing things carefully, to see what you can find! Keep a look out for lovely little ladybugs. Here are 10 fun facts about ladybugs to teach your kiddos:
- Ladybugs are also called Lady beetles or Ladybirds.
- The male ladybug is usually smaller than the female.
- A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies.
- The spots on a ladybug fade, as the ladybug gets older.
- In many countries, ladybugs are considered to be good luck.
- Aphids are a ladybug’s favorite food, making them good for your garden.
- There are over 5000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide.
- A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime.
- Ladybugs chew from side to side and not up and down like people do.
- Ladybugs are all around us! Ladybugs can be found in trees, shrubs, fields, beaches, and even houses!
LADYBUG CRAFT
What you Need:
- Egg carton or round cardboard piece
- black and red markers, paint or crayons
- scissors or whole puncher
- Pipe cleaners
- Optional: googly eyes
Instructions:
- Separate one cup from an egg carton or use any round cardboard pieces you have on hand.
- Using markers or paint to color the egg carton cup red. Then, using black paint/markers, color in the head, and make spots on the body.
- Using the point of a scissors or a hole puncher, an adult should make 6 small holes (3 on each side) at the base of the cup (these will be for the legs. Make 2 small holes (for antennae) where the top of the head will be.
- Insert a black pipe cleaner into each a side hole and out the other side for the legs. Use half a pipe cleaner for the antennae.
- Glue on googly eyes or paint on white eyes.
- Take your ladybug into the garden and try to spot some real ones!
LADYBUG SNACK
This Simple Recipe is Tasty and Cute!
Ingredients:
1-small red apple
2tsp.- strawberry cream cheese (low-fat)
1/8 cup- raisins or dried cranberries
1 or 2-red or black seedless grapes
Optional: lettuce leaves for garnish if desired.
Alternatives: peanut or almond butter instead of cream cheese. Round cereal instead of raisins, a small pinch of cinnamon. Use your imagination and what you have on hand in the kitchen.
Directions:
Wash the apples and lettuce. Arrange a few lettuce leaves on each plate. Cut apples in half from stem to bottom. Remove seeds. Lay each half of apple cut side down on
cutting board and cut in half from stem to bottom. With skin side up place both halves of apple on top of lettuce. Put a small amount of cream cheese in-between the apple
halves to adhere the apple back together (enough to have a small amount squish out the top). Stick raisins to cream cheese down the middle of apple, then use a small dab of cream cheese to adhere the raisins (see picture below) on each wing. Cut a grape in half and use cream cheese to stick it to one end of your ladybug apple for the head.
This is a perfect recipe for adults and kids to make together. It’s fun, easy, cute, and so tasty. And did Chipper mention it’s healthy too? “Healthy before sweet, can’t be beat!”
Chipper Craft & Snack: Celery-printed flowers!
Happy Sunday! This week, Chipper snacked on and played with one of his favorite nutritious foods, celery! Normally, Chipper picks up some celery every week at the super market. Did you know that celery provides anti-inflammatory health benefits? Or that the crunchy vegetable contains antioxidants such as vitamin C and flavonoids that help protect us from unwanted oxygen damage to our cells, organs, and blood vessels? It does!
This week, Chipper created flower prints from celery. It is an easy craft that can be created with materials that are lying around at home. All you need is: celery, a knife, paint, and a piece of paper! Here’s how:
First, take your bunch of celery and cut off the bottom.
Then, dip the bottom portion of the celery stalk in to paint and stamp away! Chipper used red paint.
The celery stalk ends up creating these fun, flower shaped objects.
Here’s Chipper‘s end product.
Chipper cut up the rest of the celery stalk and enjoyed it with some peanut butter.
According to an article by Harvard Health Publications, peanut butter has fiber, vitamins, and mineras, among other nutrients. Unsalted peanut butter contains a terrific potassium-to-sodium ratio, which “counters the harmful cardiovascular effects of sodium surplus….even salted peanut butter still has about twice as much potassium as sodium.” In addition, many research studies have concluded that people who “regularly include nuts or peanut butter in their diets are less likely to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes than those who rarely eat nuts.”
With this craft and snack, teach your child the importance of being creative and snacking right all at the same time!
Let’s Go Chipper for creativity and healthy snacking!
Chipper Craft: Recycled Spring Blooms
Spring is here at last! What better way to celebrate than by spending some time with your little one’s making a craft? Crafts are not only great fun, they make pretty, sentimental decorations for around the house or classroom and they help develop your little one’s mobile skills, creativity, and coordination. Try making some Spring Blooms using recycled toilet paper rolls this season. This craft will teach your kids how easy (and pretty!) reusing trash can be.
Learn more about Spring with your little one’s as you make the craft and talk about the importance of recycling. Make your own garden this season! Planting the seed, watching them grow, and seeing them bloom is a valuable experience for children of any age. It’s also another great way for you to connect and spend time with each other. Children are natural gardeners: They’re curious, like to learn by doing, and love to play in the dirt. Working in a garden, a child can experience the satisfaction that comes from caring for something over time, while observing the cycle of life firsthand. Gardening gives children a chance to learn an important life skill, one that is overlooked in standard school curriculums. Gardening is also a great way to teach environmental awareness by exploring the workings of nature.
What You’ll Need:
- Empty toilet-paper rolls
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Kid-friendly scissors
- Bamboo skewers or stick with a pointy end for stem (pencils work great!)
- Paint or Markers
- Paintbrush if using paint
- Tissue paper or recycled paper colored and crumpled
- Green cardstock or construction paper (Alternatively, you can use recycled cardboard or paper and color it with markers or paint)
Instructions:
- Draw a ring 2 inches from edge of tube. Repeat on other end. Then, from each 2-inch ring, draw cut lines every 1/2 inch. Snip along each line to make petals.
- Fold petals back to create flower. Paint flower and bamboo skewers; let dry. Cut out green leaves and glue to skewers.
- Push the skewer through one end of the flower’s center until it just touches the other end. Crumple an 8-inch square of tissue paper and place in the center.
Let’s Go Chipper this Spring!
Chipper Recycle Craft: Saint Patrick’s Day Leprechaun
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Celebrated as a recognition of the Irish and Irish culture in America, Saint Patrick’s Day is observed through the prominent wearing of the color green, parades, fun, and religious observance! Saint Patrick was a Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. For those who religiously observe St. Patrick’s Day, they attend mass to thank God for their patron saint.
In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, Chipper made a fun paper plate leprechaun this week! Made out of simple materials you can find around your house, this craft is the perfect low-maintenance activity for you and your little one.
Here’s what you need:
To make this cute paper plate leprechaun, first take a sheet of green construction paper and cut out a top-hat shape. The size of the hat will vary depending on the size of your plate.
Secondly, cut out a strip of black construction paper and an empty yellow square and glue (or tape!) them on to the hat. These will be the embellishments on the hat.
Next, take your red construction paper and cut out 1mm wide strips. 
Next, glue the red strips on the outside perimeter of the paper plate like so:
With a marker or chopstick, roll each strip from the outward most point to the plate. Your goal is to curl the red strips so that it becomes a fun beard for the leprechaun!
Glue the hat onto the plate. 
Using markers (or crayons or colored pencils) draw on a face!
And voila! Now you have an easy, fun, and cute decoration for Saint Patrick’s Day. Try hanging it in your little one’s room in celebration of this holiday. Chipper hung his in his treehouse room. Let’s Go Chipper for Saint Patrick’s Day!
Chipper Recycle Crafts: DIY Paper Flowers
Recycle crafts are great for the environment, low-budget, and really teach kids how to maximize the resources around them into a creative utility. With spring right around the corner, these bright paper flowers are the perfect craft to refresh a classroom or any kind of room space.
How to make a Paper Flower:
1. Color in the cardboard packaging fillers in with your favorite color marker–be sure to color both sides! These pieces of cardboard are from the packaging material between some bowls that were recently purchased. If you don’t have these flower-looking pieces of cardboard lying around, use some scrap cardboard and cut out a similar shape! Don’t have cardboard? Local grocery stores will often give them out for free.
2. Draw and cut out a small circle out of black construction paper. Chipper used a small bowl to draw a perfect circle. Similarly draw and cut out a bigger circle out of yellow construction paper. Chipper used a larger paper plate to measure out the diameter.
4. With scissors, 1″ cut strips around the perimeter of the black ovule at every 1/4″ or so. Do the same with the yellow stamen, about 2″ strips.
5. Using a thin marker, pencil or chopstick, curl the strips on both the black and yellow circles.
6. Using glue or tape (Chipper used glue), assemble all the pieces together. The order is as follows, from bottom to top: two cardboard packaging fillers, the yellow stamen, and the black ovule.
7. Create leaves by folding green construction paper in half and drawing a leaf shape. Cut them out and glue or tape them to the back of the assembled flower!
Once your little one has finished his/her floral creation, have your kids name the flower parts and functions of the parts they assembled! (Leaves, petals, stamen, ovule). By interacting with the flower in a hands-on way, kids will remember and recall the information more easily.
Learn about Metamorphosis: Chipper Caterpillar and Butterfly Crafts
Teaching our younger generations about natural processes is not just about them passing science class. It gives them a deeper understanding of the world and all it’s critters. Metamorphosis is a process some animals go through to become adults! It is a series of physical changes. Metamorphosis is especially common in insects. Genes and chemicals called hormones control the process. 
Teach your little one’s about this natural process with a hands-on craft project! First make a recycled caterpillar craft and talk about how the caterpillar must eat lots of leaves before making his cocoon. Explain that this biological transformation into an adult happens with in the pupal casing spun of silk.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
-Glue or Tape
-Constructions Paper
-Scissors
-Hole Pincher
-Pipe Cleaners or any other material to make antennas
-Google eyes or a marker/pen to make the face and eyes
-Toilet Paper Roll (for Butterfly body)
HOW TO MAKE A CATERPILLAR:
First, cut two inch-thick strips of paper in two different colors (or the same color, it’s up to you!).
Then, either tape or glue the two strips of paper together at a right angle. 
Now, just fold one strip of paper over the other, going from color to color, until your reach the ends of the paper! Then secure with glue or tape.
Add antennae by punching two holes into your caterpillar’s head, cutting an 2 inch long segment from a pipe cleaner, and stringing it through. 
Now for the Butterfly! When he’s ready, the adult unravels the silk to enter a new world of flight! Much like when your little one leaves home for college or other pursuits, the newly-formed butterfly must learn to take care of itself. Complement this information with an adorable butterfly craft made from a recycled toilet paper roll!
HOW TO MAKE A BUTTERFLY:
This is a very simple craft. First, fit a strip of construction paper around your toilet paper roll and secure with tape or glue.
Then cut out wings (best way to do this is fold a paper in half, draw half of the wings with a pencil then cut out!).
Attach wings to your toilet roll body with glue or tape and then decorate! Use glitter, googly eyes, or whatever you can find around the house. Add antennae like you did with the caterpillar or add a string to hang your butterfly creation around the house or outside!
Once your crafts are made, take them outside and see you if you can spot caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies in your own backyard or nearest park! Making a set of recycled binoculars can be a fun additional craft to take outside and explore! Your little one(s) will not only learn about this natural process but get to look for it themselves. This hands-on approach solidifies their newly found knowledge into their minds so they will remember it and connect with it throughout their lives. Let’s Go Chipper into the Great Outdoors!
Chipper Recycle Crafts: Home-made Valentines Day Cards and Decorations
February is the month of love! Show your appreciation to your friends, family and loved ones by making them a Valentines Day card or decoration. Nothing’s as special as a home-made craft. Connect on an intimate level not only by making something but by giving extra kisses and hugs this month. It’s the little things that really matter so spread your love in small ways.
Appreciate and care for the planet by making recycled crafts, it’s amazing what you can make from “trash.” Save some trees by reusing old Valentines Day cards: just cut off the cover from an old card then attach it to a fold piece of recycled scrap paper. Color it, add decorations, or cut it out in the shape of a heart. They sky’s the limit when crafting with recycled materials. Just use what you have around the house. Pink buttons would be adorable on a crafted card!
Make a “Love Bug!”
First, cut out a heart (it’s easiest to fold a paper in half, draw a half heart from the fold, then cut a long the line) from a recycled cereal or food box or any paper product that’s a bit thick.
Then add some love! Our Chipper friend Callie used red, white and black construction paper to make hearts and a red napkin to cover her big heart. She folded strips of black paper and glued on fuzzy pom pom’s for her love bug’s eyes! She used glue but tape can be used here as well. Add some googly eyes or some legs to your bug. Put it on a popsicle stick and play or hang it on the fridge.
Have fun making a love bug with a toilet paper roll and come paper scraps! Decorate with ribbons, beads, buttons and bag ties. Here they used pipe cleaners for antennae and made wings from construction paper. You can easily use recycled paper and color it red, pink and purple with crayons and markers.
Let’s Go Chipper and get crafty this Valentines Day!!!
Let’s Go Chipper Craft: Make a Helping Hand Tree
Let’s Go Chipper Craft: Make a Helping Hand Tree
Double-click, save (optional), and print! Then have your little one(s) color and cut out.
Join Chipper and friends on a playful journey that will teach kids the importance of using our hands in helpful ways with our book, Helping Hands. By positively reinforcing the good that comes when we all work together, children will be ready to lend their hands and hearts around the home, school, and community.
Whether you are a parent or a teacher, making a Helping Hands tree craft is a great activity to teach your little ones to lend a Helping Hand! Learning should always be fun too. Making a Helping Hands Tree Craft is easy. First, print out some of Chipper’s Little Helping Hands coloring sheets above and ask your little one(s) to write and/or color how the ways we can/could help out our family, friends, and the planet! Such as use recycled paper when possible 
Not you can begin making your tree by taping or gluing strips of cardboard, brown construction paper and/or recycled paper bags to a recycled cardboard tree trunk (use a rectangular piece of cardboard, whatever side you like…You can make it more tree-like by cutting the edges with scissors). All you need is some tape or glue and a pair of scissors! You can add a “hole” in the trunk as seen below just by cutting out a circular shape from black construction paper and taping or gluing it on. We made the Helping Hand Tree below for a community Chipper Camp-out at the Sequoya Country Club, CA in under 15 minutes but it might take you a bit longer than that the first time 
See a video of this fun camp out event here.
Have your kids write and/or color something they have done to help out family, community or the environment on their helping hand. Then cut out and attach the hands as leaves for your tree. Keep adding to your tree all through the year and get inspired to help out in many different ways!
Place your tree somewhere in your home or classroom to admire. Add more hands with every new way they help out! Make a fun game out of it and challenge your kids to fill up your tree by a certain date. Then have them share all they’ve done to help with friends and family and discuss other ways to help out. Our children learn by example so add a few hands of your own to the tree and connect with your kids positively.
Let’s Go Chipper and Lend a Helping Hand today!
Chipper Crafts: 7 Recycled Christmas Crafts for Kids
One week till Christmas! Are you ready for the festivities? Celebrate in style and try decorating with some of these cute crafts made from recycled materials. They are fun and easy to make and a great way to spend some time with your kids. The Holidays are about spending time with the ones you love and making everything sparkle and glow (from the inside-out). 7 days left — 7 crafts: Time to get Crafty this Christmas!
1) Corky Rudolph Decoration:
All you need for this simple craft is a recycled cork (which should be plentiful during the Holidays), a brown pipe cleaner, a red bead or pin, and some googly eyes! Don’t have ornament hooks? Just bend some paper clips out–they work great! Don’t want to buy googly eyes? Just draw some on with a permanent marker, cut some out with paper, or find something around the house like buttons, push pins, or pom poms.
Instructions:
Twist you brown pipe cleaner around your cork in the middle and then shape ends into antlers. Then ass your nose and eyes: use glue (hot glue gun works best but any will work if you let dry long enough) or just stick in a push pin nose. Then attach your ornament hook/paper clip/string, hang on your tree or around the house, and voila! You have a quirky Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer decoration!
2) CD Ornament:
Put your Recycled CD in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to get this spider-web effect!
Add a photo and some ribbon or recycled wrapping paper for a sentimental decoration to save through the years or give to a loved one!
Create a personalized ornament add to your collection by using a recycled CD! Not only does it provide a sturdy base for your ornament, but you can design some neat looks with its circular shape. This would is a great project to showcase your family’s holiday photos through the years. Or get nuts with some puffy/glitter paint! Anther idea is to color your CD with some markers, add Elmer glue, and let dry for a pastel colored CD decoration.
Recycled CD’s become beautiful tree hangers!
Represent your 4-legged family member this Holiday Season!
3) Clay Pot Snowman
Use an old plant pot or a recycled plastic cups to make snowmen! Find some wrapping paper or use recycled paper first and wrap your pot/cup using tape or glue. Then use markers or puffy paint to make your snowman face! Torn fabric or ribbon can be used to decorate the top. Just cover a cup with some paper, poke a hole in the top with scissors to hang (with string, ribbon or a bent paper clip), and let your child use their imagination to make a original ornament!
4) Egg Carton Silver Bells
Transform a simple egg carton cup into a fabulous bell ornament! This is a simple project, good for a parent and young child to make together on a winter night!
Materials Needed:
- Egg Carton
- Foil
- Large Needle
- Thin ribbon or yarn (thread works too since these are quite light!)
- Scissors
You can do the parts that need scissors and needle depending on your little one(s) age(s). Your child(ren) can wrap the foil and hang the finished bell. Each bell is made using one cup cut from an egg carton. Start off by cutting off an egg carton cup and trimming around the edges. Cut a piece of tin foil about 6-inches square and wrap it around the egg carton cup and tuck the extra foil into the inside of the cup. Set the foil wrapped egg carton cup on your table upside down (open side should be on the table). Poke a small hole in the center of the egg carton cup using a needle. Cut about 12-inches of narrow ribbon or thick yarn. Holding the two ends of the ribbon together, tie two or three knots on top of each other. Push the other end (the looped end) up through the hole so that the knot is inside the bell. Pull the ribbon up as far as it will go. Your bell is now ready to decorate if you like. You can decorate with stickers, glitter, or anything else you have around or just leave it plain. Hang on your Christmas tree and enjoy!
5) Festive Container
Make a fun container perfect for a Holiday gift of cookies/etc. using a recycled Pringles potato chip container or a coffee container or a oatmeal container 
(pretty much any container you have used that has a sealed top). You can even send these in the mail!
Materials Needed:
- Container
- Items to Decorate (see below)
- Glue
Instructions:
Clean out the inside with paper towels letting them absorb most of the oil that might be left in the can or whatever was in your recycled container. Then using paper, fabric, or wrapping paper cover the outside. Hot glue works best for the fabric and wrapping paper; white glue or tacky glue is sometimes better for construction paper. Both work fine though so use whatever you have. Now get creative! Decorate with markers, glitter and sequins–sky’s the limit!
If you are using this container for cookies, put waxed paper inside once the outside is decorated. Stack cookies into the can just like the chips used to be. If there is a little space at the top and another cookie won’t fit you can use a little waxed paper to act as packing. Put the top back on and you have a wonderful cookie gift for friends, family or Santa!
6) Old Bags, New Look
Why spend money on new gift bags every year? Re-use, Reduce, and Recycle! Save sturdy store bags throughout the year. As the holidays approach, the family personalizes the bags (and covers any store names or logos) by gluing on old holiday cards.
Materials Needed:
- Sturdy store bags
- Glue
- Old holiday cards
- Wrapping paper
- Glitter pens
Stickers
Instructions:
Glue old holiday cards (you can also added pieces of wrapping paper) to sturdy store bags you’ve saved. You can embellish the bags with glitter pens, adding stickers and other decorative touches. Save money, have fun, and give customized gift bags to all your loved one this year!
7) Home Made Dreidel from Plastic Bottle Caps
Here’s a Hanukkah craft that’s also a Hanukkah game! Spinning tops are a traditional Hanukkah toy, so what better activity to engage the kids this Hanukkah than with a simple technique for making their own brigade of spinning tops? These tops spin so amazingly well, it’s almost hard to believe!
You’ll Need:
- plastic bottle caps: either from regular soda bottles, wide mouthed juice bottles, or bottles like vinegar bottles
- toothpicks or wooden skewers
- a thick needle or sharp item, such as a hat pin or those metal things you use to hold poultry together for roasting (employed by an adult only)
- colorful electrical tape (optional)
- quick drying glue (optional
How To:
- Make a hole exactly in the middle of the bottle cap. Some caps have a small bump there, if not eyeball it. A hole not in the center will result in a imbalanced top.
- Enlarge hole if necessary by moving needle around while still in the hole.
- Insert tooth pick or skewer through hole, trim second side of toothpick (dangerous) or shorten skewer.
- Secure toothpick with a few dabs of glue, though usually not necessary, and decorate with small pieces of electric tape.
- Have fun!
HAVE A CHIPPER HOLIDAY SEASON EVERYONE!
Chipper Recycle Crafts: Make a Christmas Snowflake from Paper
Paper Snowflakes are a classic craft for Christmas time! They are easy to make yet also challenge your creative skills. And they make great decorations for around the house or on your tree during the Holiday Season. All you need for this craft are a pair of clean hands (you don’t want a dirty snowflake!), a pair of scissors, and some white paper (use recycled paper and save some trees if you don’t mind a bit of text/etc. on your snowflake).
1) First, make a square from your paper. The easiest way to do this is to fold a triangle from one corner and cut of the extra (as shown below). Or you can be more tree-friendly and try making 2 squares in each 11X8.5″ piece of paper.
2) Second, fold into a triangle and then fold that triangle in half once again to make it a smaller triangle:
3)Now, imagine the triangle in thirds, and fold the right third over. If you want to be precise and have a protractor, each “third” in this step is a 30 degree angle. Fold the left third over.
4) Lastly, cut off the top of the paper at an angle. Make sure to cut if off so that all remaining layers of paper are equal. Cutting at an angle is what makes the points of the snowflake. Eventually, you’ll learn to cut at different angles to make snowflakes with points that are more or less sharp.
5) This is where your imagination comes in! Begin cutting away from the sides of the paper. Usually, cutting small triangles from the sides is easiest, but don’t forget to try other shapes.
Now reveal your snowflake and find a place to hang it somewhere in the house or hang it on your tree! See how many different styles you come up with. Like in nature, no two snowflakes will look exactly alike! Let’s Go Chipper and get crafty this Holiday Season!
