Here is another at-home activity from Nancy that she did with her (almost) 3 1/2 year old daughter. LOVE this idea!
Cutting & pasting… so simple, yet so much fun! Getting to ‘destroy’ paper by cutting or ripping it, not to mention getting those little hands all gooey with glue! No wonder kids love working with their hands. The sense of pride and accomplishment when they’ve finished the project to their liking is also a great way of teaching them to make decisions, and to feel proud of what they can create.
My daughter loves doing art more than any other type of play (as you can probably tell by the activities we’ve been doing). I’m positive that something great is going on with her learning when she’s so happy doing arts & crafts : )
This idea came to me one day when I was sitting looking at the weekly flyers and my daughter told me “That goes in the recycling, NOT the garbage”. I thought; why not have some fun and give these flyers a second life before tossing them in the blue bin? And let’s practice our colors and foods at the same time – score!
You can make a learning day surrounding this activity. Listen to the Parent’s Choice Award 2012 song “Vegetables on my plate” by Patience Clements. Warning: It’s a real snappy song, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself happily humming it for the next few days ; ) And borrow a few books from the library, some suggestions: “Baby Food” by author Margaret Miller, “Chew, chew, gulp!” by author Lauren Thompson. Or go to your own kitchen and find and explore different foods, the smell, the feel, even the taste maybe?
Materials: Grocery store flyers, gloopy glue or a glue stick, scissors, markers, paper.
Optional: paintbrush and a container for the gloopy glue.
Cost: Free
Activity Steps:
▪ Pour your gloopy glue in the container and set aside.
▪ Use your markers to make squares of different colors on the paper.
▪ Cutout lot’s of images from the flyers, get your child to help if they can. Be sure to cut out lots of colorful foods for each square you did.
▪ Glue the foods according to color on the paper!
▪ Have fun : )
Tips: You can also vary this by doing a square for each food group! You can help your child as much or as little as they need with this project.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Poured the glue out AFTER having cut out the images so my daughter wasn’t so fixated on the glue and paintbrush. Ha! Ha! Ha!
