Toddler Tupperware and Ball painting

This past weekend, Hubby, Chuck, and I spent a lot of time in the apartment.  To help pass the time, we read lots of books, played lots of games, watched lots of movies, and did a lot of painting. 

This week I thought I'd share four different ways that we painted with Chuck

(Who knows?  Maybe these posts will come in handy if you're ever stuck at home with a toddler too...)

Today we'll start off with method 1:  Tupperware and ball painting 

Materials:
- Tupperware
- Piece of paper cut to fit inside the Tupperware
- Masking tape
- Tempera paint
- Small ball 

Directions:
1.  Tape your piece of paper onto the bottom of the Tupperware
2.  Drip drops of paint inside of your container
3.  Add a ball into the container
4.  Close the lid
5.  Shake your container!

6.  That's it!  Open your container and reveal your toddler's Jackson Pollock-esque work of art.

I definitely give this activity a thumbs up.  It wasn't very messy (hooray!) and Chuck enjoyed squeezing the paint and shaking the container.  (Personally, I found shaking the container to be very therapeutic.)

Happy toddler crafting!

Contact paper and cellophane stained glass windows

Our weekly baby and toddler music class has now morphed into a music and craft class.  The kids are getting more mobile now, so we figured it was good to give them something to make and do with their hands.  (Otherwise, they go straight to grabbing the lovely books on the shelves or pushing the furniture around.  Cute, but slightly disruptive to the library.)

But what kinds of activities could the kids do?  Well, the activity had to be
- Suitable for children from 1-3
- Easy to prep
- Easy to set up
- Super easy and quick to clean up
- Made from cheap materials
- Fun!!! (Of course.)

Because of my love for stained glass, I wanted to try a simple stained glass activity with the kids.  Instead of using glue (too messy for the younger kids), we used contact paper to attach our colored cellophane.

Materials:

• Two identical rectangles of contact paper (I just bought a small roll from the Dollar store instead of buying the expensive large roll from the department store)
• Masking tape and clear tape
• Frame cut out from a cereal box (Note:  Make the opening of the frame smaller than your contact paper rectangles)
• Different colored pieces of cellophane cut into small rectangles

 
Directions:
1.  Carefully remove the backing from one contact paper rectangle and use masking tape to tape the sheet sticky side up to your table. 

2.  Let your child stick the cellophane rectangles onto the contact paper. (Chuck loved this part.)

3.  Remove a portion of the backing from another sheet of contact paper.  Then, slowly stick the second sheet of contact paper on top of the first (sticky side down), smoothing it, and removing the rest of the backing as you go.  (This was the toughest part. When we got bumps or bubbles, we just lifted up the top sheet of contact paper and tried again.)

 4.  Tape your contact paper rectangle onto your frame.   Decorate the frame however you want.


Results:

Here are some of the mommy and children's actual work (My sample item is in the one on top in the middle.)

Review:
They were fun to make and came out super colorful and cute.

We struggled a bit with the contact paper, but I didn't care because some of the 2 year olds actually sat still for a couple of minutes and stuck the colored cellophane onto the contact paper.  What?  A couple minutes of concentrated effort?  Awesome.  I'll take it!

One very pregnant mommy even said that this was the longest time that her almost-2 year old sat still.   She didn't want to leave because he was behaving so nicely.

Ahh, music to my ears.  Her comment just made my day.

I love seeing moms and children engaged in an activity and enjoying time together.

Happy crafting!