cintaandco

Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids

October 19, 2020 cintaandco

Halloween is fast approaching and my kids are getting super excited! Even though the holiday will look a bit different this year and trick or treating probably wont be happening where we live – I am still determined to make it as fun as possible.

These three activities are super easy to set up and lots of fun to play. They each use clear sticky contact – the type that you would cover school books with. Clear contact is such a fun craft material! I always have some on hand at home.

Please note that the materials list in this post contain referral links!

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The first sticky contact activity that I want to share with you is this ghostly yarn art activity.

Here is what you will need:

A piece of recycled cardboard

Black and white construction paper

Crayola Construction Paper (120 Sheets)

Glue stick

Glue Stick Glu Stik 8g, 2 Pack, (30840251)

Clear Sticky Contact

Contact Self-Adhesive Clear Book Covering Roll (10M x 450MM)

Scissors

Blunt Tip Crayola Blunt Tip Scissors for Ages 4 Years and Up, (16187)

Washi Tape

Colored Masking Tape,Colored Painters Tape for Arts & Crafts, Labeling or Coding – Art Supplies for Kids – 6 Different Color Rolls – Masking Tape 1 Inch x 13 Yards (2.4cm X 12m)

White Yarn

RED HEART Super Saver Yarn, White

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Here is what you will need to do:

1. Place your cardboard on a flat surface. Draw a ghost on some black construction paper and glue it to the cardboard. Cut some eyes and a mouth from the white construction paper and paste down these pieces too! Cover the cardboard with clear contact – sticky side up. You may like to decorate your cardboard with a strip of colored washi tape to finish.

2. Cut a piece of white yarn and stick it down to the contact. You can start covering your ghost anywhere that you like. We started tracing around the edge of our ghost picture.

3. Keep sticking down the yarn until you have covered your entire ghost. The neat thing about this activity is that you can be as creative as you like with how you stick down the yarn. You might like to add long, straight lengths of yarn or you may like to swirl your yarn pieces.

4. And if you have younger children, you might like to use cotton balls to stick to your ghost. They work really well too and look great!

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The next activity I want to share with you is this fun erasable tracing board. This activity is great for developing fine motor skills and once you’ve made it, can be used over and over again! It’s a great way to save paper!

Here is what you will need:

Recycled Cardboard

Spider Web Printable (See step 1)

Clear Contact

Erasable Marker pens

Paper Towel

Here is what you will need to do:

1. Start by printing the PDF attached below and paste it to a piece of cardboard. Once the glue is dry, cover the printed sheet with clear contact. For this activity, you will stick the contact down as you would normally cover a book. You may like to finish the board with a washi tape boarder.

Here is the link for the spider web PDF:

spider-web-tracing Download

2. Now trace away! Grab a dry erase or white board marker and start tracing!

3. Once you have finished tracing, simply grab some paper towel and wipe the marker away. Then you can start tracing again!

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The final activity that I want to share with you is this fun sticky mummy activity! This is such fun, and best of all, you only need a few simple materials to make one.

This is what you will need:

A piece of recycled cardboard

Black construction paper

Glue stick

Clear Contact

Scissors

White washi tape

This is what you will need to do:

1. Trace a circle shape onto black construction paper and paste the circle onto the piece of cardboard. Add some big eyes to the center of your circle. Cover the entire board with clear contact, smoothing any bubbles out with your fingers as you go. You may like to decorate the boarder of your cardboard with a strip of washi tape.

If you like, you can use this Mummy picture instead of drawing your own:

mummy Download

2. Next, grab your roll of washi tape and start adding strips to your mummy. Each of these strips that you add will represent the mummies bandages. You can either tear lengths of tape straight from the roll and attach to the board, or use your scissors to neatly snip. It’s up to you. Both ways will look great!

3. Once you have finished your Mummy, you can remove the tape from the clear contact. You probably won’t be able to use the tape again, but you will be able to reuse the board.

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I hope that you have enjoyed reading this article and find it useful this Halloween holiday! Jacinta Xx

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Early Math Activities for Kids

October 3, 2020 cintaandco

I really love activities that develop math skills! Especially activities that encourage number recognition, counting skills, subitising and 1:1 correspondence. The activities that I describe here are perfect for developing all of these early numeracy skills. And best of all, you probably have everything you need to play at home already!

These activities are actually an extension of a recent blog article I posted entitled “Build A City.” You may have read it already? As well as working on the early math skills I listed above, these activities also introduce some simple addition and subtraction principles.

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This is what you will need:

Printed copy of the downloadable files

Lego, duplo bricks or building blocks

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Build a Tower

For this first activity, simply print out the “Build a Tower” file – you will find a link at the end of this paragraph. Then build a tower, stacking the number of bricks or blocks in each square. You will notice that the squares on the page are at different angles. This encourages your child to manipulate the angle of their tower on the page. This manipulation of angle is great for developing fine motor skills.

Here are the files that you will need. There is a black and white one, where you can match any color bricks to the squares, and a colored file. For this one, you can match colored bricks to each square.

build-a-tower-bw-1 Download

build-a-tower-color-1 Download

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Add a Tower

You will get to practice some easy addition in this activity. Begin by printing out the downloadable file – again, you will find this file at the end of the paragraph. Then simply add the blocks together to build the towers.

Here is the file that you will need:

add-a-tower Download

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Subtract a Tower

You guessed it! This next activity is subtract a tower. Start by printing the downloadable file and then substract the blocks. Place the resulting stack onto the corresponding square.

Here is the file that you will need:

subtract-a-tower Download

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I really hope that you enjoy building these towers! Enjoy! Jacinta Xx

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Easy Halloween Math for Kids

September 29, 2020 cintaandco

I always associate googly eyes with Halloween crafts! Googly eyes make the best number counters, and are the perfect tool for helping kids learn some early math skills in a fun and engaging way.

Here are my favorite easy googly eye activities that will have your kids learning their numbers in no time this Halloween.

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This first activity is so super simple to put together. I started by cutting some black construction paper into the spider shapes. I actually used my Cricut Maker to do this! If you don’t have a Cricut, simply cut some circles from paper and then glue down 8 little paper strip legs.

Once your spiders are prepared, label them with numbers. You can do this with marker pen, stickers – anyway that you please! I used a white paint pen. Then ask your child to place the spiders in order on a flat surface. If you have younger children or students, order them yourself.

Then simply match the corresponding number of googly eyes to each spider. You can paste the eyes down with white school glue and make an awesome art piece. Or if you are like me and like to re-use your resources, simply use the eyes as counters. By keeping the eyes unglued, you can simply clear the eyes away and play over and over!

This googly eye activity is perfect for learning about number recognition, 1:1 correspondence, subitising and number order. You will also notice that there is a fair bit of strategy involved as well. As we used different size googly eyes, your child will have to work out which size eyes they must use to make sure that they all fit on the spiders.

!Caution! Remember that googly eyes are a choking hazard. Closely supervise your children when they are using any small craft objects and embellishments, especially googly eyes.

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I love this bright and colorful spider activity! To put this one together, we simply traced and cut out circles from colored construction paper. We then pasted down some googly eyes and attached 8 pegs to each spider. As well as developing fine motor skills, this activity also develops 1:1 correspondence and subitising. It is also fun for learning colors too!

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The above is another super simple and super fun Halloween math activity. To play this one, simply grab some colored origami squares and lay them out on a flat surface. Then, label each square with a number. You can label the squares with any number that you like, depending on your child’s math ability and how many googly eyes you have! Then simply match the corresponding number of googly eyes to each square. Again, you can glue your pieces together, or keep them unglued so that you can use them over and over again!

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My kids love this activity! To play, simply line up some craft sticks on a flat surface. We used the larger size craft sticks for this activity. Then label each stick with a number and match the corresponding number of eyes to each stick. This activity is perfect for developing 1:1 correspondence, number order, counting and fine motor skills – it can be tricky lining all those eyes up on the sticks. Again, there is a decent amount of strategy and creativity required to fit the different size eyes onto the sticks, especially if you label them with numbers greater than 9!

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What are your favorite Halloween math activities? I have so many, it’s difficult to fit them into the one post! Thanks again for reading! Jacinta Xx

Here is a fun Halloween symmetry activity for you to try with your children.

halloween-symmetry Download

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Halloween Scissor Crafts for Kids

September 25, 2020 cintaandco

Halloween is the perfect holiday for practicing scissor skills! I have heaps of fun ideas that will have your kids perfecting their scissor skills in no time. Best of all, you will only require a couple of inexpensive and simple materials – and these activities are FUN!

Keep reading, you will find a FREE printable at the end of this article that will make practicing scissor skills with your kids and students a breeze!

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Below is my favorite and most simple scissor skill activity. To play this one, you will only need some strips of paper, a marker pen and of course, some scissors. For this activity, we used specialized children’s scissors.

Children’s scissors are great for learning how to snip and cut. They are the correct size for little hands (so they are not too heavy or too big, which helps with accuracy of cutting), they have a real safety blade that actually cuts (plastic scissors often fold paper rather than cut through it, making them frustrating for little kids to use) and have that little spring lever connecting the two handle pieces together. This spring is fabulous! The reason being, that kids only have to get their hands working in the one direction to close the scissors, then the scissors spring back open on their own. This makes using scissors so much easier for preschoolers.

!CAUTION! Remember to always carefully and closely supervise your children when using scissors!

To put this activity together, all you need to do is cut some strips of paper, label them with a variety of lines using a marker pen, and then if you like, add a little ghost to each end of the strips. I used my Cricut Maker to cut the ghosts out and then pasted them down. You could simply draw them out or use a Halloween themed sticker if you have one. Then ask your children to cut along the lines in the direction towards the ghosts. You can make your lines as easy or tricky as you like – depending on your child’s skill level.

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I posted the below activity on my Instagram earlier this week. I have to be honest and say that I don’t really love the pictures (I have almost deleted them at least 10 times! ha ha!), but I do really LOVE the idea of the activity. It’s a fun variation on the above idea, and is a great and easy way to practice scissor use!

For this next activity, I simply cut out the ghost shapes on white printer paper, drew some lines on the ghost tails with black marker pen, and then we cut along the lines with scissors. Again, this activity allows practice of cutting in a specific direction. You may notice that these scissors are different to the ones pictured above. They are still children’s scissors, but they have a sharper point (compared to the safer, blunt tip scissors above) and are a little heavier. These scissors are good for children who have some experience using scissors.

This final ghost cutting activity is one of my favorites! Again, draw and cut a ghost shape onto white printer paper and make snips along the tail. Then for some extra fine motor practice, take a pen or a pencil and roll the snips of paper towards the body of the ghost. Then once you reach the body, remove the pencil and you will see that the paper has curled. These curly tail ghosts are just the cutest!

If you have younger children, you might want to use cardstock to use in these cutting activities. Cardstock is a little less flimsy than printer paper, making it easier for kids to handle and cut.

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Thanks so much for reading! I hope that you find these activities helpful these Halloween holidays! Jacinta Xx

Here are some fun printables for you to practice those scissors skills:

halloween-scissor-skills Download

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Halloween Number Match for Kids

September 23, 2020 cintaandco

I first posted this super easy activity a couple of months back as a fun way for kids to practice their early number skills. The idea is to simply match the corresponding number of sticker or googly eyes to each number. This activity is perfect for practicing number recognition, number order, 1:1 correspondence and subitising skills.

Once you match the stickers to the numbers, it kind of makes the numbers look like monsters! So come October, this activity will be a super fun Halloween game too.

I have used stickers in the above pictures to label each number, but you can also use googly eyes! You can even use the googly eyes like counters, rather than gluing them down, so that you can play over and over again.

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This is what you will need:

Copy of the FREE printable file

Stickers or googly eyes

White school glue (optional)

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This is what you will need to do:

1. Print the free downloadable file.

2. You can now play any way that you like! You can use googly eyes to decorate your numbers, either gluing them down, or if you would like to use your print out over and over, simply use the googly eyes like counters. That way you can move them into place, and then clear them away.

!WARNING: Remember that googly eyes are a choking hazard. Always closely supervise your children and never give googly eyes to mouthing babies to play with!

3. I used some fun sticker eyes that we had at home to label the pictures that I posted over on Instagram. If you don’t have these stickers, you could try drawing some eyes with chalk or a white gel pen.

And that’s it! A really fun and super easy activity to play with your children or students this Halloween.

Before I forget, here is the FREE printable:

monster-numbers Download

Thank you for reading. Jacinta Xx

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DIY Rocket Launch for Kids

September 21, 2020September 22, 2020 cintaandco

Here is a super easy science craft for kids. These rocket launches are actually amazing! And, all you will need to make one is two paper cups, two elastic bands and a pair of scissors. Then if you like, you can add some extra construction paper decorations to turn one of the cups into a rocket, but this is not essential. The launch will work with plain, undecorated cups too.

This craft is perfect for kids of all ages. Preschoolers will be amazed playing around with these, while older children can use them to help explain important physics principles such as force, mass and acceleration.

This is what you will need:

2 paper cups

2 elastic bands

Scissors

If you would like to make a rocket, you will also need:

Colored construction paper

Tissue paper

Tape

(You can see that I also put some aluminum foil in the picture. We didn’t use this in the end – it was really hard to wrap around the cup securely. By all means use it if you would like though!)

This is what you will need to do:

Make 4 snips in the cup. Then, snip each elastic band once to form a long piece of elastic.

2. Attach the two elastic bands to the cup. The trick here is to not pull the elastics too tight. You want to retain the original shape of the cup, or as close to it as possible.

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3. Tie each end of the elastic band to secure. Trim any excess elastic.

4. You can now launch your paper cup! To do this, place your unaltered cup upside down on a flat surface. Then gently press the elastic bands on your second cup down on top. Let go and watch the cup fly.

5. If you would like to turn you cup into a rocket, tape some strips of colored tissue paper to the inside of the cup.

6. Then cut some pieces of colored construction paper to decorate the body of the rocket. I added two windows and some fins. But you can decorate your rocket any way that you like. You might like to add your name or even a nose cone! Just be careful not to make it too heavy. Heavy cups won’t launch very high!

7. Once you have decorated your rocket. Press it onto the launch cup, let it go and watch it fly!

I hope you have making your own rocket launcher. Jacinta Xx

Times Tables Games for Kids

September 16, 2020September 29, 2020 cintaandco

There are so many fun games that you can play to help your kids learn their times tables. These times tables wheels are one of our favorite ways to play and learn. They are great as they allow for both memorization and self correction. Children can play and learn on their own or in groups in a classroom. And, you can answer the times tables as you go around the wheel or pick and choose each multiplication sum at random. There are so many fun ways to play!

Times table wheels are so easy to make! And once you have made a set, you can use them over and over again for lots of learning fun.

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This is what you will need:

Print out of the times tables wheel file

Colored construction paper

Scissors

Glue

This is what you will need to do:

1. Print out the times tables wheel file. You will find the file here:

times-tables-wheels Download

2. Cut around the perimeter of the circle and snip along the lines to the center circle to separate each number. Fold the sections back.

3. Paste the wheel down onto a colored piece of paper. Make sure that you only glue the center of the circle to the paper. You will need the snipped sections to be free so that you can fold them back to reveal your multiplication answers.

4. Write the answers to each sum under the folded pieces of paper.

5. Play!

I hope this makes learning times tables in your house more fun! Enjoy! Jacinta Xx

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Chromatography Science for Kids

September 13, 2020September 29, 2020 cintaandco

I love this super easy chromatography experiment for kids! It kind of reminds me of the actual chromatography techniques I used in the lab as a student. Most importantly though, this experiment is fun! It is so magical watching the colors appear.

Paper chromatography is a scientific technique that is used to separate and identify individual components within mixtures. It can be used to identify proteins and even genes in a mixture of liquids. In this activity, we simply use chromatography to make the colors magically appear on our robots.

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This is what you will need:

Paper towel

Washable marker pens (the pens must be washable for this experiment to work).

Black permanent marker

Shallow plate or dish

Water

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This is what you will need to do:

1. Tear the paper towel into individual sheets and fold each piece in half. Open the paper towel and draw on the right hand side of the fold with the washable markers. You can draw anything that you like. We drew robots for this experiment. And if you prefer, you can lightly draw your pictures with pencil first and then color with markers.

2. Fold the paper towel back over and trace around your drawings with black permanent marker. Add as much detail as you like.

Here is a picture of the four robots that we drew.

3. Pour a small amount of water into the bottom of a dish or container.

4. Gently drop your paper towel directly into the water. The colors that you have drawn will magically appear.

The most important part of this experiment is that you use washable markers. The experiment doesn’t work as well, if at all, if you use permanent, non washable markers for your coloring.

Here is a super fun robot memory match game for you! Thanks so much for reading! Jacinta Xx Enjoy

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robot-memory-match-game Download

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Phases of the Moon for Kids

September 10, 2020September 29, 2020 cintaandco

Our kids are really interested in astronomy and all things space at the moment! So we made this cute and super simple space craft for them to help learn about the phases of the Moon.

When you look at the night sky, have you ever noticed that the Moon appears to be a different shape each night? In actual fact, the shape of the Moon doesn’t actually change, but rather how much of the Moon that we see from earth changes. These shape changes are called the phases of the Moon.

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The shining Moon that we see each night is caused by the Sun’s light reflecting off the Moon’s surface, as the Moon itself doesn’t actually give or emit any light. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the Sun lights up different parts of it.

When the Moon looks as though it is getting bigger, it’s called a ‘waxing’ Moon and when it appears to be getting smaller, it’s called a ‘waning’ Moon. When the entire face of the Moon that we see from Earth is fully turned towards the sun and illuminated, its called a Full Moon. As the Moon continues its orbit around the Earth, the face pointing towards us gradually becomes hidden from the sun and we can hardly see it at all. This is called a New Moon. Each phase of the moon is thought to be seen every 29.5 days.

There are 8 phases of the Moon. You will find them summarized in this document:

phases-of-the-moon Download

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You may have also heard of the term ‘Blue Moon’ which is used to describe a second full moon in one calendar month, and a ‘Super Moon’ which is a Full Moon or a New Moon that occurs when the Moon orbits at its closest distance to Earth. Super Moons appear slightly larger in size than a normal Full Moon.

I didn’t take the best pictures of this activity sorry! We were having so much fun working together that we forgot all about the camera 🙂

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This is what you will need:

Black cardstock

White paint

Paintbrush

Scissors

Tape

Print out of the moon

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This is what you will need to do:

1. Cut a circle shape from the card and flick some white paint onto the card with a paintbrush. These flicks of white paint will represent the stars in the sky. I don’t have a picture with just the circle cut out I’m sorry – you will have to imagine this step. Then, print out a picture of the moon and tape to the back of the black card. (I simply googled the term ‘Moon’ and then cut and paste my favorite picture that I found into a word document before printing to size).

2. Use tape to secure the top and the bottom of the picture, but leave the sides of the picture unattached. We used black tape to secure our picture so it’s a little difficult to see.

3. Next, take a second piece of card and cut a curve around one edge.

4. Thread the curved card through the side opening in between the paper and the card frame.

5. Pull the card across to the right to make the different phases of the moon.

You can also flip the card around to make the phases on the other side of the moon – if that makes sense!

Here is a template that you can cut and assemble to make your own phases of the moon diorama.

phases-of-the-moon-diy Download

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Bubblegum Art

September 8, 2020September 29, 2020 cintaandco

I posted this activity over on my Instagram a couple of weeks back and wow was it popular! The girls and I had been home and were bored, so we searched through Pinterest for a fun art activity to try together. We stumbled across a similar activity and instantly knew that it would be fun!

Here is how we put our own little spin on this fun art activity.

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This is what you will need:

White A4 paper

Cardstock

Black marker pen

Coloured markers, pencils or crayons

Scissors

Balloon

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This is what you will need to do:

1. Draw a face with black marker pen onto a piece of white paper.

2. Color the picture.

3. Add a pattern to the background and lots more color. We pasted some confetti onto the cheeks!

4. At this point, paste your picture down onto some card. You don’t have to do this, but the paper on its own might be a little flimsy to hold when you are blowing your balloon.

5. Use your scissors to make a small hole where the mouth would be. Remember that scissors are sharp. Always be careful when using scissors and closely supervise children using scissors.