Rainbow Crafts

Marble painting ~ classic preschool art projects your kids will love

Marble Painting is one of our go to activities for busy days. It is really low mess and can easily be translated into any holiday. Among our favorites are beautiful Fall leaves, festive Christmas Wreaths, glittery Valentines Hearts, and Spooky Spider Webs. It is really one of the simplest preschool art projects we do.

Marble Painted Rainbow Supplies:

Paint ~ in the colors of the rainbow
6 marbles ~ one for each color
Egg Carton ~ for the paint pallet
Oatmeal container ! or similar lidded container
Spoon ~ to transfer the paint covered marbles
White Paper ~ Cut into a rainbow shape

Egg Carton Paint Pallet

I love using egg cartons for simple paint pallets. They are free, and can be divided into any size you need. Plus the clean-up is so simple!

We have used the same oatmeal container for about 2 years, and it still works great. Just make sure to leave the lid off when I store it. That will give the paint a chance to dry out before your next painting session.

We used a spoon to transfer the paint covered marbles into the oatmeal container. This is a good time to work on a little hand eye coordination. Once all the marbles are transferred, seal the container. Now for the fun part…encourage the kids to shake, shake and shake some more.

I love the colorful tracks the marbles leave behind. Perfect for a Rainbow!

For more Rainbow inspiration, check out our:

Rainbow Bubble Snakes

Rainbow Q-Tip Painting

Paper Plate Rainbow

Glitter Rainbow Playdough

Paper Plate Sheep Craft

Paper Plate Crafts ~ How to Make a Paper Plate Sheep

I love simple Paper Plate Crafts. With spring right around the corner, I couldn’t resist making an adorable paper plate sheep. I have to say they turned out pretty adorable!

Paper Plate Sheep Supplies:

A Paper Plate
White Shredded paper
Googly Eyes
Black paper for legs, face and ears
White School Glue

We made our Shredded Paper Snowmen using the same method. It was such a hit with the kids, that I could not wait to try it again. Be warned, it is a little messy. Like glitter, you will probably end up with shredded paper everywhere. However, it is super easy to clean up and a great way to recycle your paper scraps. Not to mention, the kids LOVE it.

Encourage your kids to squish glue all over the paper plate. Cover your work service, this is one of those projects where the more glue the better.

Once their plate is all “gluey”, have the kids to press handfuls of shredded paper onto their plates. This part may get a little messy, but the paper sweeps up really easy.

Repeat the layers of glue and shredded paper until the paper plate is looking woolly.

More glue for the face ears and legs. Glue is one of my kiddos favorite mediums at the moment. With that said, they loved making these little sheep!

The texture of the shredded paper is prefect for these little sheep. Cotton balls would be a more traditional approach, but I love how the shredded paper looks. I am sure we will be using shredded paper again soon!

I love these little shaggy paper plate sheep. Each of their expressions make me smile.

For more Paper Plate Crafts, check out our:

Paper Plate Hedgehog

Paper Plate Rainbow

Shredded Paper Snowmen

Paper Plate Pumpkins

Paper Plate Pinterest Board

Shape Hopscotch

Move and Learn ~ Indoor Games for Kids

We love active indoor games, especially when the weather is not cooperating to play outside. The kids loved jumping and running inside. Our simple shape hopscotch game is a fun way to work on gross motor skills along side color and shape recognition.

I love this simple Indoor Shape Toss Game from Learn Play Imagine. Instead of tape for our shapes, we used colored paper. The kids had so much fun jumping, twirling and hopping through the shape maze!

Shape Hopscotch Game:

I cut 6 different easily recognizable paper shapes ~ Orange stars, yellow circles, red squares, green ovals, purple squares, and blue triangles.
Tape the colored shapes to the floor with painters tape.
The object of our simple game was move and learn while having lots of fun. Mission accomplished. The kids had no idea that they were working on important skills like color and shape recognition.

I encouraged the kids jump, wiggle, twirl and hop through the shapes. Here are a few of the kids favorite ways to make it though the shape maze:

Hop from one side to the other only touching one color/shape.
Have one kids call out colors or shapes that the other kid raced to find.
Jump across the shapes following directions like…”jump 2 shapes to the right”

This simple indoor activity was a great way to get the kids moving and learning.

For more indoor games for kids, check out our:

Finger Knitted Jump Rope

Cup stacking

Balloon Racing

Elastic Band Launchers

Rainbow Activities for Toddlers

Spring Crafts for Kids ~ Scissor Skill Practice

Are looking for simple activities for toddlers? Since spring is right around the corner, we have been busy creating colorful rainbows. Your kids will have fun using their scissors to create a beautiful circle rainbow.

Do you ever read a post and go, seriously why didn’t I think of that? Well that is totally how these little rainbows came about. I recently came across Happy Hooligans post on how to make a rainbow from a circle. Such a brilliant idea! Instead of painting rainbows, we decided to put our scissor skills to work.

Circle Rainbow Supplies:

Construction Paper ~ in rainbow colors
6 different sized circles ~ we traced bowls, cups etc. You could also use a compass
Scissors
Glue

The kids helped to trace our circles, although this step proved to be a little difficult for little fingers. No worries, I ended up doing most of the tracing.

The kids then began cutting out their circles. The larger circles were pretty easy ,but the little purple one proved to be the most difficult.

Now to my kiddos favorite part…gluing. Our homemade glue sponges would have worked perfectly as well. Working ROYGBV order the kids glued their rainbows.

I love the was they look and could easily be a beginning introduction to Kandinsky.

Trick to making a simple rainbow:

Once the glue dried, simply cut the stack of circles in half. That’s it. You now just created 2 beautiful rainbows!

Rainbow Activities for Toddlers

For a couple of my little ones, this was one of the first times using scissors. It was a fun challenge for them. They were totally determined to master the skill. I adore how their little rainbows turned out.

For more Rainbow inspiration, check out our:

Rainbow Bubble Snakes

Paper Plate Rainbow

Rainbow Q-tip Painting

Credit Card Art

Art Birthday Party

Wax paper Resist

Art Activities for Kids ~ Wax Paper Resist

We have been exploring a new art technique, and loving it. I am all about simple art projects for kids, and love finding new ways to encourage kids to be creative! My kids had fun exploring and creating amazing patterns with our simple wax paper resist! The results are amazing!

I am thrilled to be a part of a new art series all about exploring easy art projects for kids. Did you see all the amazing watercolors posts that were shared last week? I can’t believe all the talented and creative women in this group.

This week we are focusing on resist art for kids (I’ve included links to all the participating blogs at the end of this post).

Wax Paper Resist Art for Kids

We’ve tried a number of different resist techniques on Housing A Forest and love them all. Have you tried using oil pastels and watercolors; drizzling or painting with rubber cement or the classic favorite a simple white crayon? They are all simple techniques that are perfect for little fingers. However, today we are trying something new, and I have to say it may be my new favorite way to create a resist.

Wax Paper Resist Supplies:

Wax Paper ~ the stuff that is in your kitchen drawer
Iron ~ set it to a dry setting (NO steam)
Ironing board or heat resistant surface
Glossy White Paper ~ regular printer paper will work too, but the results will be less vibrant.
Spray Bottles filled with Liquid Watercolors or food coloring
Shallow plastic bin to contain the mess (optional)

Have the kids crumple the wax paper into a ball and then flatten it out. We took 2 different approaches to how we crumpled the wax paper. You can either make a ball, or make calculated folds (like origami). You will see that both produce beautiful results.

(Please take precautions when using a hot iron with kids. You know your kids the best, so use your best judgement and be safe)

Next, sandwich the piece of wax paper between 2 pieces of glossy white paper. Make sure the glossy side is facing in.

My kids enjoy using the Iron under close supervision. For this project, they ironed the paper layers by slowly moving the iron back and forth. Make sure they keep the iron moving, or you will over melt the wax paper. We used a similar technique when making our Watercolor Crayon Shavings.

Sorry this is not a great image, but you get the idea.

This is what the paper looks like in the sunlight after it has been ironed. You can see the faint waxy pattern that was transferred. Instead of simply crumpling the paper this time, my son cut circles and then made calculated folds.

Colorful Resist patterns

Ready to make your beautiful resist pattern pop?

Once the ironing is complete, place it glossy side up in the bin. This will help contain the colorful spray. Randomly spray watercolors over the entire paper. The pattern left behind from the wax paper will begin to emerge as the paper is covered in bright spray. Magic!

I love the beautiful organic resist patterns left behind from the wax paper.

There were lots of giggles as the patterns appeared. I have to admit, I was giggling right along with them. The patterns are so beautiful!

This resist technique is commonly used for making card backgrounds. I attended a workshop years ago, which is where I first learned about creating a wax paper resist background. Until then, I had no idea that wax paper could be so beautiful.

The image below was created using calculated circle folds (like origami). Amazing! We will be exploring this technique further. It was so easy and the kids loved the process.