Practical Homeschooling » arts & crafts

Free Printable Islamic Coloring Pages

Laura — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:20:22 +0000

If you’re looking for resources to teach your children about and Islam (we are nearing the end of the holy month of Ramadan), I have a page on Squidoo full of coloring pages on numerous topics in the religion of Islam.

For Islamic coloring pages, click here.

Easy Origami #1

Laura — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:07 +0000

Building origami used to be one of my most passionate pastimes. The sheer possibilities of what you can do with a simple pieceof paper simply amazes me. This image to the right is the Black Forest cuckoo clock designed by Robert Lang.it is folded from a single sheet of paper with a ratio of 1 to 10.

While it takes many years of learning and tons of experience to get to this level, children as young as three years old can learn to make very simple origami projects, like the ones in this post.

We will be building three simple pieces in this post.

a butterfly
doggie head
a samurai hat

Butterfly

Use one square sheet of paper. Turn over so that the colored site is down.

Fold in half along the diagonal.

Fold again in half.

Fold back first thing.

Fold back second wing.

Your completed butterfly. Now it's time to decorate it.

If you press down on the part that I highlighted in blue, you will find that it looks like it flies.

Doggie Head

Place one square sheet of paper on the table, colored side down.

Fold paper in half along the diagonal.

Fold again in half, then unfold.

Fold down the years.

Fold back the top and bottom parts.

Decorate the face, then it's complete!

Samurai Hat (Kabuto)

Begin with a square sheet of paper.

Turn the page over so that the colored site is down on the table

Fold in half along the diagonal.

Fold again in half.

Unfold.

Fold down one corner to the center line.

Do the same with the other side.

Fold up the corners.

Make the wings by folding the points towards the outside.

Take a single layer from the bottom, and folded upwards leaving about one quarter of the top showing.

Fold up the excess paper.

Flip over the hat.

Fold up the back piece.

Your hat is done!

Make Your Own Edible Crayons

Laura — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:16:24 +0000

Made with nuts, seeds and marshmallows, these crayons are free of artificial colours and truly neat! This idea and images were totally snagged from Luxirare. You can even colour with them!

It`s something I’d love to do with my girls, but since I’m still layed up in the hospital, I’ll have to wait till I’m out and I remember to gather the necessary ingredients.

To see how these health bars were made, please visit the original site here.

Halloween Mini-Unit Study

Laura — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:54:31 +0000

There are 10 days left until Halloween, and what better way to get kids psyched for the event than to do a unit study on the subject!

A bit about Halloween…

There are perhaps as many stories about the origins of Halloween as there are people to tell the story. It seems like the story of the Celts is the most common form, but there are also theories about it being tied-in to Noah’s Ark, or to Olde Ireland.

Here is some information about it’s origins, but the closest we will perhaps ever get to the truth is pure speculation.

From Wikipedia

The story of Halloween

Halloween-Ancient Origins

From Suite101

Old Jack

The Magic Pumpkin

Halloween Story

Star in your own Halloween story!

Arts and Crafts

Spider pinata

This is an awesome idea if you plan on throwing a Halloween party for the children!

Ghosts and jack-o-lanterns wreath

Footprint ghost

Paint-bucket jack-o-lantern

Milk container pumpkin

Coffee filter vampire bat

Colouring Pages

Here are some links to GOOD QUALITY colouring pages.

Funschool colouring pages

Activity Pages

Ghost word-search

Halloween Maze

Spot the differences

10 Autumn Crafts to Make With Your Children

Laura — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:51:02 +0000

Unless you live in a place like Edmonton (Alberta) where we’ve already received our fair share of snow, you are probably admiring the changes that autumn brings onto us. Bring autumn inside with these great craft ideas!

1. Fall wreath

This small wreath is made with artificial leaves (found at a dollar store), a little raffia, and a paper plate. Very easy for the little ones to do, yet interesting enough for older children, as well!

Instructions can be found at Free Kid Crafts.

2. Apple magnet

This is a cute one from Family Crafts at About.com.

3. Leaf placemats

Another nice idea from Family Crafts is this nice leaf placemat. If you have a laminator, you could even laminate the leaves by having the children insert the leaves into the laminate sleeve as they’d like them. You can then pass them through the laminator.

4. Corn on the cob

Yum! You know it’s fall when the corn starts selling for as little as $2/dozen. This project from Kaboose.com uses cotton balls to make the corn kernels.

5. Faux stained-glass leaves

Another Kaboose-original, these window decorations look so nice in the sun!

6. Handprint autumn tree

Use your child’s hand to help design this tree with autumn foliage.

7. Tissue paper fall leaves

This is one I’m going to do with my girls next week, they look so nice!

8. Shimmering autumn leaf craft

This is one for the older kids, and moms! I think I’ll try this closer to Christmas!

9. Fall leaf nut or candy bowl

This one is from Amazing Moms, and it’s really a creative way to recycle an empty margarine container.

10. Corn husk dolls

What autumn would be complete without a cornhusk doll. The site I linked to has a pretty good description of how to make them, except that many people recommend they be constructed with green husks, not dried ones.

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