Simple Kid-Made Holiday Gifts

Check out my post over at We Are Teachers: Simple and Affordable Kid-Made Holiday Gifts!

Kid-Crafted Christmas

Take home gifts that are easy to construct in the classroom!

Featured Ornaments
1. Stick Stars and Snowflakes - Real Simple
(Also check out Pretty Ditty - made with glue and Foothill Home Companion)
2. Crystalized - Wymondley JMI School: Science Club
3. Heart Weave - Activity Village
4. Melted Snowman - Craft Elf
5. Paint Swirl - Crafts For Alll Seasons
7. I SPY - Craft Snob - (not pictured)
8. Yarn Ball - Courtney OQuist / Geometric Star - Creative Jewish Mom

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow!
1. Featured left: Kid Face Snow Globe - Design Mom
2. Snow Globe with Figurines - NAPSAC

Father's Day Snapshot

Create a Father's Day snapshot questionnaire! Kids answer questions about their dad and draw a photo snapshot of him in the frame.

Cute Father's Day photo keepsake book that teaches colors, by AIGA fellow Dan Bittman of Design Team One! Insert photo of kids and their dad at the end of the book!

Hot Rocks

ART - Jazz up your stones! First, go on a nature walk for flat rocks. Bake rocks at 225 F for 15 minutes on a foil lined sheet. Make sure your rocks are super dry before you bake them. Remove stones, don't touch them! Use a spatula to slide them onto your work surface. Hold a peeled crayon with the tip touching the stone. You can create swirls, lines, dots, anything you'd like! Experiment with different colors, I kept mine simple - black, white, gold, and silver. SCIENCE - Ask kids if the crayon melting is a physical or chemical change. It's a physical change of matter!

Flower Math / Art

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BKvWjr1Wt3HmhaoeC8Q7R6_-whN4AMUY/view?usp=sharing

Jurassic Amber Fossil Soap

What is amber? "Amber is the fossilized resin from ancient forests. Amber is not produced from tree sap, but rather from plant resin. This aromatic resin can drip from and ooze down trees, as well as fill internal fissures, trapping debris such as seeds, leaves, feathers and insects. The resin becomes buried and fossilized through a natural polymerization of the original organic compounds." via Academic Emporia

materials:
soap molds
glycerin soap
toy bugs
food coloring (yellow, orange, red)

how to:
1. Lightly oil a soap mold (you can use an ice cube tray or cups). Next, place your toy bugs face down in the mold.
2. Melt glycerin soap in the microwave. Squirt yellow food coloring in, or mix yellow food coloring with a teeny bit of red or orange to get more of an amber color. Once you have your desired hue, add the food coloring to the melted soap and stir.
3. Pour your melted, colored soap into the mold on top of your bugs. Let set and then pop the soap out of the mold. Now, you have your very own amber fossil with an insect encased inside!

Grow a Crystal Star

You can also create other shapes in different colors! Click here to make a rainbow!

ABC Handprints

Alligator - Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Bee - Activity Village

Cheetah - Splash

Duck - Fun Handprint Art

Elephant - Junk in their Trunk

Flamingo - 5 Minute Mom

Giraffe - Activity Village

Hippo - Jason and Lara Show

Ice cream - photoshopped

Jaguar - Fun Handprint Art

Koala - Getting Messy with Jessi

Lion - Moments of Mommyhood

Monkey - Fun Handprint Art

Necklace - photoshopped 

Octopus - Ramblings of a Crazy Woman: Jenwa

Penguin - Texas Granola Mom

Quilt - Edwards Villa Scene

Rabbit - Jill Dubien

Strawberry - Activity Village

Tiger - Splash

Umbrella - Crafts Keep Me Sane

Vehicle - photoshopped

Whale - Mommy Coddle

X-ray - Wordans

Yak - Activity Village

Zebra - Mom 2 Posh Divas

Color Changing Milk and Glue!

Variation: Conduct the experiment using whole milk, low fat milk, and water in separate dishes. What worked the best?

Explanation: "You will see that the color doesn't react like it does with the whole milk. Water will get no reaction. The fat and protein molecules in the milk are changed by the soap, causing them to roll around. Once the soap molecules are mixed evenly with the fat and protein, the motion will stop." - Steve Spangler

photo via School at St. George Place

The School at St. George Place Creation Station put a spin on the color changing milk experiment by replacing dairy with glue!

Balloon Lanterns

Visit Kleas for instructions!

DIY Shrinky Dinks!

Check out these awesome shrinky dinks made by Futuristicky! Curbly instructs you on how to make your very own shrinky dinks with recycled plastic! Put them on a necklace, charm bracelet, or ring, whatever you please. You can also just play with them!

photo via Futuristicky

Handprint Calendar

Snow Flake, Heart - Share and Remember 
4 Leaf Clover - Meet the Dubiens
Earth - Busy Hands Art
Butterfly - Michelle's Journal Corner
Fish - Bobo Gallery
Flag
Sun
Crayons - Mrs Kilburn Kiddos
Pumpkin - Dana Hinders
Turkey
Lights - Tip Junkie
Tree - Mom 2 Posh Diva

Christmas Soap!

Confetti Soap, all you need is glycerin soap and food coloring.

1. First, you melt the glycerin in the microwave, add food coloring to 1/3 of your solution, stir
2. Next, pour the solution out and let it get hard
3. Once it hardens up, cut the soap into small pieces and add to your mold (sprayed with cooking spray). 
4. Pour the clear solution over your confetti pieces, let set, pop out, and enjoy!

Treasure Soap

1. Choose trinkets to put inside your soap, then place them in an oiled ice cube tray or other soap mold
2. Melt glycerin in the microwave
3. Pour right over top of your trinkets and let set (trinkets will come out of the soap through washing)

Snowball Soap

1. Grate Ivory brand soap with  a cheese grater
2. Add a little water, not too much.
3. Mold the soap into a ball with your hands and let it set to harden

Enjoy your Christmas soap!

Blooms Recycled Paper

Making paper out of recycled newspaper and old paper scraps is a great way to show kids how to be greener. For some extra fun and to be even greener, add flower seeds to your paper solution. When the paper dries, kids can plant their paper and watch their seeds grow. 

1. You'll need to window screen/ frame for this
2. Let all your scraps soak in water overnight
3. Next, blend scraps in a blender
4. Pour the scraps out and add water in a large, deep container
5. Add flower seeds (Marigolds work really well)
6. Dip your screen in and lift up
7. Leave paper solution on the screen to dry overnight
8. Once paper is completely dry, pull off of screen
9. Cut your paper into squares and give to kids to plant!

Plant your seeds in a cup, pot, or your backyard in soil. Make sure your seeds get plenty of sun and water.

Rock Candy Science

photo via math and reading help 

Rock Candy Recipe, fun to watch and even more fun to eat! Below are two ways to create crystal candy!

Method 1 - Science Bob

materials:

1 cup water

2-3 cups sugar

wooden skewer or chopstick

clothespin

jar or tall glass

1. Pour 1 cup of water into a pot and bring to a boil

2. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and stir until dissolved

3. Slowly add more sugar and stir until dissolved

4. Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes

Optional - Divide solution into different bowls (the number of bowls depends on how many colors you would like). Add food coloring to each bowl (you can add flavoring as well if desired)

Optional - Dip half of skewer into the warm sugar solution and coat with granulated sugar (let it cool completely so the sugar is adhered)

5. Pour solution into your jar almost to the top

6. Dip the skewer into the jar straight down the middle (not touching the sides). The skewer should be 1 inch from the bottom of the jar

7. Clamp the clothespin on the skewer horizontal, so it lays on top of the jar to balance the skewer.

7. Let the jar cool and place in a safe spot

Watch the crystals grow!

Method 2

Note: Instead of using a skewer and clothespin, you can also try this method:

- While sugar solution is cooling, take a pencil and tie cotton string to the center of it 
- Dampen the string with your sugar solution, then dip in regular sugar (let dry)

- Pour sugar solution into your jar, suspend the string into the jar, and let the pencil lay flat on top

- Cover the jar with a paper towel to keep it clean

- Allow your crystals to grow 3-7 days