Have you tried your hand at apple printing?

I suppose it’s a traditional Fall craft, but since apples find a way into our pantry year-round, I thought this was a fun project to share in these weeks leading up to Summer. You know, when you might need something fun to keep the kids entertained during the long summer days.

Apple Prints are an old stand-bye that my children always enjoy. The other day, 4-year old N asked me for some paint and apples so that she could make envelopes for all of her teachers. She had another plan for filling the envelopes that involved a sprinkling of sequins and some hand-made drawings. My two-year old is always game for printing, and in a matter of minutes apple printing was in full force!

Ingredients

• Apples, cut in half vertically
• Paper plates — to use as paint palettes
• Washable tempera paint or Biocolors
• Covered Table
• Large pieces of paper
• Clear space to contain the drying prints
• Damp rags for wiping messes and dabbing painty fingers

The Set-up

• If you have a precious work surface, cover it with a cloth or paper. We use brown kraft paper and oil cloth (pictured here).
• Have your child choose a couple colors of paint. I like to limit it to two colors to keep the whole matter simpler. Squeeze the paint onto some paper plates. When you’re done, these can be dropped in the recycling bin.
• Place a big sheet of paper in front of each child.
• Place a damp rag next to each child. My kids always get painty fingers when we do this, and constantly get up to wash hands. The rag saves them the trip until they’re completely done.
• Hand each child one apple, cut into two pieces.
• Invite your child to stamp away!
• Place completed prints in a drying area.

This project is great for little and big hands alike. My two-year old was challenged to press the apples down hard enough to make her prints show up while my four-year old worked on creating color patterns of apple prints.

While I had to do a little bit of maintenance, such as collecting completed prints, while the kids printed, I enjoyed stepping back to allow them to experience the medium and develop independent ideas.

Some people are opposed to using food as a source of art-making because it can send the message that food can be wasted. With so many people going hungry, I understand the argument for this. My children’s nursery school won’t use food for art-making, which is the case with many nursery schools around the world.

However, compared to making prints from rubber stamps which can be derived from felled trees and rubber, apples and other vegetables seem like a decent alternative. In addition, so many of our traditional art-making materials are derived from food and other naturally found products. If you have an opinion on the matter I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Ideas to take this further

• When the prints dry, use a Sharpie permanent maker and add designs to your apple prints
• Print with other vegetables such as okra, celery hearts, and carrots
• Make prints from found objects such as egg cartons or bubble wrap
• Source more ideas from this Pintererst Board that’s dedicated to Apple Crafts
• If your child really enjoys printing, try your hand at Cookie Sheet Monoptints

A Question for you…

What do you think about using food for art-making?

Hi friends! Is it starting to feel like summer where you live?

We recently pulled out the Slip-n-Slide and popsicle-eating is in full effect.

In case you’re starting to get the summer bug, I wanted to share something fun that’s been brewing behind the scenes over here.

I’ve been working hard with a handful of my favorite creative, playtime bloggers and I’m excited to reveal some of the magic of Camp Mom: Summer Activities Pack with you today!

What’s Inside:

• Jam-packed 84-page downloadable PDF
• 45  simple and FUN activities with FULL instructions and supplies
• Plus, 40+ MORE ideas and links
• Printable summer planning pages
• Includes a host of activities for ages 2-8
• Adventure ideas and tips – you can have adventures without leaving your backyard!
• Tips for success: How to manage sibling conflict, how to enjoy a museum with your kids, how to talk with children about art
• Book recommendations

Not sure if it’s for you. Check out some of the sample pages…

 Order your copy of Camp Mom: Summer Activities Pack today

Just $14.99

Click here to order

Are you thinking about summer camp yet? If you’re super-organized, you may already have a plan in place. And if not, there’s still time! We’re not planning on summer camp this year, but if I was this is where I’d begin…

When I was out for dinner the other night I spotted this awesome poster for Camp Galileo.

I don’t know about you, but this is not the summer camp of my childhood!

Power Tools. Innovating. What??

Here’s a snapshot of my summer camp memories: Peeling glue off of my hands all afternoon while drinking gallons of fruit punch that came from a jug of pink powder mixed with water. Hmmm.

Okay, so let me start by saying that Camp Galileo is a San Francisco Bay Area camp. If you’re local, this post is for you. And, there’s a whopping discount code at the end of this post.

If you’re not local, you might still be interested because I bet there’s something similar in your neck of the woods.

In Camp Galileo’s words, this is what children get out of their camps:

They learn how to fail. Not in a humiliating or dispiriting way. But in a self-assured way, that helps turn them into hardy, risk-taking creators and problem-solvers.

I love that!

A camp with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and imagination

Here’s how Camp Galileo describes their programs…

Galileo’s mission is to create a world of fearless innovators. We think kids who learn to explore and fail without fear—the essence of innovation—are happier, more creative and more confident when faced with life’s challenges. Drawing from the innovation process developed by the Stanford d.school, Galileo runs an evolving series of imagination-sparking programs for kids from pre-K through 8th grade.

In pre-K, campers may build a crude xylophone or design a lion mask. By 8th grade, they may program their own video game, design their own fashion line, or breathe life into some creation entirely of their own invention.

The Details

• Location: Camp Galileo has locations all over the Bay Area
• Ages: The program is for children in grades pre-K-8. 
• Promo Code (yes, you can save money on this rad camp!): From now until May 31st, Galileo is offering $25 off your camp registration fee with the code, 2013INNOVATE.
• Register for Galileo today. And then rest easy knowing that you can check this task off your to-do list.

A question for you…

What’s the most surprising this you remember about summer camp? And are you registering your child for a camp this summer?

I only share content that I love and/or think you’ll find useful. Thanks to Galileo for sponsoring today’s discussion.

Have you ever made a paper airplane?

Did you learn how to make it from a book? Or maybe it was from the kid you shared a desk with in the third grade?

I fall into the second camp, learning from my friends in school. And for all of the hundreds of airplanes we made, not one of them truly soared the way I expected it to.

How to make a paper airplane

Well guess what? Today I’m sharing links to instructions for making paper airplanes that actually work, along with some ideas on how to help kids invent their own paper airplane designs.

So let’s get started with How to Make Paper Airplanes while building Design Skills…

The Set-up

• A few sets of instructions for making paper airplanes. You can get these from a book or download instructions from the internet. Our favorite was The Eagle, and we also tried High Glider and Fancy Flier. I found these by doing an image search for “Make Paper Airplane.”
• Copy paper. Thinner paper is easier for children to fold.
• Markers (optional)
• Scissors (optional)
• A clear table

Step One: Select a Design

We looked through all of our designs, picked one to start with, and my daughter and I sat down and followed the directions for the first airplane. If you’ve ever made origami, it’s the same approach. Most of the steps were easy enough for her four-year old hands and mind, but I had to help her with a few of the trickier folds.

If you find instructions that are too complicated for you, then skip them and find another plane to make.

Step Two: Teach someone else how to make a plane

Once we got the hang of it, N thought our six-year old neighbor would enjoy this project and we invited him over to join us. Either that or misery loves company.

We each started with another sheet of paper and while we folded, the kids educated each other on hamburger and hot dog folds. If you don’t have a neighbor to teach, teach a parent, babysitter, or grandparent. This step does wonders for building confidence.

Step Three: Iterate and Invent New Planes

Once that first airplane was complete, it was interesting to see where the kids took the project next. My daughter, a designer to the core, got busy decorating her plane with markers. Her friend, a tinkerer at heart who has a soft spot for Legos, began iterating on the design to improve it!

As we folded, he asked me questions like, “On your Eagle, how did you make the wing tips?” And then he proceeded to invent his own series of planes with pointed noses, flat noses, and wing tips.

When my daughter jumped in to help him, I commented that they were iterating. I actually said, “Hey you guys are iterating! Do you know that word? It means that you’re building a lot of planes to test new ideas and in order to figure out how to make it better. Can you say ‘iterate?’” And then of course, they obliged me.

I swear, the teacher thing will probably never leave my soul! Do you ever find yourself in that mode?

Step Four: Take it outdoors

They tested their planes in the house and once they amassed a small fleet of planes, I heard, “Let’s have an airplane show!!” So we took it outdoors to see what the planes could do.

Our friend guessed that the pointy-nosed planes would get more distance and said he was “amazed that the flat-nosed Eagle flew the best.”

All in all, we spent a good hour on this project, and in the end not only did these kids have fun bonding and playing together, but they came away with some new design skills, tools for developing an innovator’s mindset, and good ol’ fine motor skill practice. 

A question for you…

Did you ever make paper airplanes as a child? Where did you learn how to make them? And how did they fly?

Do you have bees, birds, squirrels, deer, possum, or other creatures milling around your neighborhood?

It’s been wild animal week here at Casa Tinkerlab. We had two big discoveries at our house: a wasp nest in the eaves by our back door and a bird nest tucked into a hole along the siding of our house.

Sad story, we found the bird nest on the ground today, and all of the eggs were gone, probably discovered by a band of squirrels. My two-year old has been keeping a watchful eye on that nest and her first thought went to the mama bird when she said, “I think I hear the mama bird.”

Sure enough, we saw the mama nervously flying around some nearby bushes, and my heart sank for her. We carefully collected the nest and put it back into its spot in the event that the mom can use the nest again.

This wasp nest, on the other hand, was something that I was determined to remove myself. No sad feelings here. Sorry if you’re a wasp fan, but rest assured that no wasps were harmed in the process. Basically, I knocked it down (quite heroically) from it’s post with the end of a broom.

My kids were impressed.

The nice thing about finds like this (as long as no one gets hurt along the way) is the opportunity to learn from them.

Of course my kids had tons of questions about the wasp nest. At first we thought it may have been a growing beehive, so we started to search for information on bees, and then we learned that it was in fact a wasp nest. We also noticed it first came out of our eaves it was round and firm, and that it sank into itself after about half an hour on our dining table.

My four-year old loves to join me in web searches for information, so we started off with searches like “bee hive” and “how do bees build their hives?” The hives looked nothing like our little specimen, but by this point my daughter had an idea and she asked me to collect images of bees and related images that you might find in a garden.

I started a Photoshop file and dragged black and white images to a file, resized them to make them all fit to scale, and then printed the images on her request.  She then spent over an hour carefully coloring in and cutting out her images, and then creating the composition you see here. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a pond, but that’s no big deal when you have a market to fill in the blanks.

Projects like this encourage children to be curious, explore, and tap into their imaginations.

Directions

1. Pay attention to what your child finds interesting in nature
2. If you’re on a walk or hike, take along an field pack: a backpack to save collected objects, camera, magnifying glass, binoculars, pencil, and a notebook to draw or write in.
3. Go the library to find books on the topic or search the internet for more information or videos. YouTube is often a great resource for investigations like this. Like this, ahem, educational video on how to remove a wasp nest.
4. Make something that documents your new-found knowledge. How does your child want to interpret his new knowledge? Maybe it’s drawing, building, cooking, writing a story, talking about it, or taking photos?

More ways to discover nature and follow a child’s interests

Eight Ways to Follow a Child’s Curiosities

Finding Nature with Kids

Build a Nature Table

A Question for you…

What treasures, animals, and natural discoveries have you observed around your home?

Highlights from The Creative Table Project

If you’re not familiar with the Creative Table Project, it’s an Instagram treasure trove of real world inspiration for any parent, caregiver, or teacher who’s looking for ideas that boost kids’ creativity or who wants to share snippets of their life experiences as inspiration to others. This week’s post is a great example of how I like to set up creative invitations that encourage creative and independent thinking for preschoolers.

There are currently over 1500 Creative Table tags on Instagram so of course it was hard to choose which ones to share with you. This small collection from the past couple weeks is lovely for the breadth of ideas. Following each image is the name of the the person who shared it and their description of the image. Enjoy!

Note: If I’ve shared a photo of yours against your liking, just shoot me a line and I’ll take it down promptly!

Creative Table Inspiration…

It only seems to fitting to begin a Creative Table roundup with a young maker who’s invented her own drawing table. My heart is melting. From Jackie at My Little Bookcase. For a related twist on this, set up an invitation to draw under the table and see what happens.

I offer my children something similar to this hand-drawn coloring page set up all the time, and it’s always a hit. While it may seem close-ended, the parameters set forth by the black and white design give children a starting place to come up with unique ideas. From Jen at Mama Papa Bubba

This set-up is so inviting. I want to dive right in to drink homemade lemonade and make paintings with the leftover tissue paper alongside Stephanie from Spanglish Spoon. For ideas on how to set up a tissue paper collage activity with a toddler, you might also enjoy this simple set up.

If you’ve ever spent a lot of time and thought setting up an activity, only to have a child take it in a totally different direction…this one from Cassidy at Freshly Planted is for you. Know that you’re not alone, and that moments like this are signs of your child’s ability to think for him or herself.

We got a sneak peak at the next Kiwi Crate, and the paper making project was an instant favorite.

I have received countless comments from parents with younger children who get into art materials, pull everything off tables, and generally make it difficult for older siblings to put on their maker-cap. This image from The Iowa Farmer’s Wife is here to remind you that it’s a phase that will quickly pass. And that you might actually miss these early days.

If you ever thought about introducing your child to the work of well-known artists, setting up a sensory table to help them dive into the physical world of the artist is brilliant for little hands.

More ideas on exploring modern art with kids over here.

This lovely open-ended invitation to make Mother’s Day gifts is full of so many possibilities. Don’t you want to jump right in? We once made soap for mother’s day and it was a huge success.

Since today is officially Earth Day, I thought we could end with an easy and workable nature-based mosaic from our friends at the Children’s Creativity Museum.

See all Creative Table posts here.

If you’d like to play along, read these guidelines and then tag your Instagram photos with #creativetable. And here’s a look at our last roundup for another view of what’s possible.

Are you on Instagram? Instagram is one of my very favorite tools and you can find me at @tinkerlab. I hope to see you over there!

A question for you…

What’s on your creative table this week?

Setting up Creative Invitations like this is one of my very favorite ways to encourage children to explore new ideas and develop a visual language. Here’s the basic premise:

• Clear the table of anything that won’t be used in the invitation
• Artfully arrange the materials to provoke ideas
• Limit the choice of materials to just a few items
• Provide clues about how to use the materials, but keep the project open-ended so that original ideas can flourish.

Sticker Composition with Frames

Before I went to bed, I set up two sheets of paper that were simply marked with a hand-drawn frame. Next to to the frames were a few sheets of rectangular color coding labels. You can find these at Amazon or any office supply aisle. Alternatively, you could set this with circle stickers, some other favorite sticker, pieces of colorful tape, or squares of construction paper and a bottle of glue.

I also placed a stack of plain paper and rolls of colorful tape in the middle of the table, just in case my kids wanted to use other materials. They didn’t.

Here’s how my two-year old used the materials.

And here’s how my four-year old put her composition together. The beauty of creative invitations is that children will meet them where they’re most capable.

If you’d like more ideas like this one, you might enjoy reading about the Creative Table project, checking out these highlights from the Creative Table Project, or browsing the hundreds of brilliant set-ups on Instagram by searching #creativetable,

A Question for you…

How old is your child, or how old are the children in your class, and what creative project have you been working on?

Note: There are affiliate links in this post, but I only share links to products I love or that I think you’ll find useful. 

Earth Day is our annual reminder to slow down and appreciate the bounty of the earth and all of the blessings it gives to our lives. As an avid recycler and upcycler, I’ve always loved Earth Day (April 22 this year), and I wanted to mark it with a round up of activities from some of my favorite sites, categorized in three themes: Natural Materials, Recycled Materials, and Outdoor Art.

This post originally published in 2012, and it’s been getting so many hits this week that I thought we could all benefit from seeing it again.

I grew up in a beautiful concrete jungle known as Los Angeles, we were surrounded by hills and mountains, lived just a few miles from the beach, and nature walks were not entirely impossible. I was lucky to grow up with a backyard full of fruit trees and overgrown bushes that created shady hideouts.

My own children have a small garden that’s all theirs and we try to extend our understanding and familiarity with the land to surrounding nature preserves, redwood forests, beaches, and marshes.

I hope you’ll find some inspiration here, and if you have more ideas to share, please add them to a comment so that others can enjoy them too.

Natural Materials

• Build a Container Fairy Garden (above)
• Make a Play Garden, a carved out space just for the kids to dig and plant in.
• Pinecone and Peanut Butter Bird Feeder
• Get out the acrylic paint and make some Painted Sticks, from Paint Cut Paste
• These Gum Leaf (or almost any other leaf) Necklaces are so sweet, from Let the Children Play
• On your next beach trip, collect some Shells and Paint them, from Paint Cut Paste
• Grow Wheat Grass Indoors {the fastest growing plant}
• I can’t get over these beautiful Nature Prints made with Sculpey, from The Artful Parent
• These Fabric Sunprints are a science experiment and art project wrapped up in one.
• 18 Tips on How to Garden with Kids will guide you in the right direction, from Kids Activities Blog
• Nature Collage with Leaves and Markers
• For Water Painting with Toddlers, all you need is a bucket of water and a brush
• Painted Stones. Gasp. So pretty! from Garden Mama
• Earth Day Garden Flags to spruce up the garden, from Paint Cut Paste
• Take your sketch book outdoors for Leaf Printing in a Nature Journal, from The Artful Parent
• Nature Box Dioramas made from leaves, moss, and other natural finds, from Art Club Blog
• Corn Husk Doll. The classic recipe, from Garden Mama

Recycled Materials

• Tin Can Drums (above)
• Upcycled Box Bugs that are so beautiful you’ll want to make one yourself, from Mother Baby Earth
• Recycled Garden Collage, from Laugh Paint Create
• Upcycle Baby Food Jars into Summer Candle Votives
• Milk Carton Plug Ring – this makes me laugh, from No Time for Flash Cards
• 34 Recyclables to Upcycle for the Kids, from Hands on: As we Grow
• How to Make Paper. With or without kids. It’s so easy.
• Recycled Trash Sculpture
• New computer or furniture? Make a Recycled Styrofoam Sculpture, from The Chocolate Muffin Tree
• Abstract Recycled Print with styrofoam trays
• Build a Garden Water Wall from Recycled Materials, from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning
• DIY Wind Chimes with Tin Cans, from Hands on: As we Grow
• 15 Recycled Paper Roll Crafts, from No Time for Flash Cards
• Simple Styrofoam Prints
• Make a Trashy Collage for Earth Day, from Teach Preschool
• Quick and Easy Water Bottle Flowers with Markers, from The Chocolate Muffin Tree
• 75 Egg Carton Projects from some of brightest kids’ activity blogerrs around

Outdoor Art

• Build a Mud Pie Kitchen (above)
• Nature in Art: Nature Study and Georgia O’Keefe, from Simple Kids
• Six Ways to Take Art Outdoors
• All you need are some leaves and construction paper to make Construction Paper Sun Prints, from A Mom with a Lesson Plan
• Brilliant idea for teaching colors, outdoors with a Flower Color Wheel, from A Golden Gleam
• Got paint chips? Make an Outdoor Color Match Game, from Inner Child Fun
• Walk around and document the neighborhood with a Photo Documentary
• Hello Andy Goldsworthy! Make some Land Art, from Mommy Labs
• Take photos of colors in a Rainbow Scavenger Hunt
• Make your own Nature Journal, from a Mom with a Lesson Plan
• 6 Backyard Playscapes for Fun and Learning, from Let the Children Play
• Giant Painted Mural on paper taped to a fence
• Slide Drawing – tape paper to a slide, add some crayons, and go!
• Drawing Shadows to track the passage of time. Great for long summer days.
• Four Messy Outdoor Crafts, from She Knows

Do you draw? If so, how do you create time to make a sketch?

I try to make a habit of sketching something every day. When I get really busy, which seems like a lot lately, I’m terrible at keeping this promise to myself. If you know my blog, you might remember that I started the Tinkersketch challenge last summer. Basically, it’s a simple challenge to make a drawing every day. And to motivate us to play, you were invited to share your sketches on Instagram. Sound familiar?

Like some of you, I began this challenge with a lot of energy, but then, like I said, I got busy. And maybe you did too. But even though I haven’t been good at sharing my sketches with you, I do make an effort to jot notes or images down every day.

Here’s how…

How to keep a sketching practice (at least a little bit) alive

• I carry at least one of my favorite felt tip markers in my bag at all times. Unless one of my children finds it before I do, having the right tool makes me want to draw more.
• I carry a notebook, sketchbook, journal, stack of index cards, napkins — whatever — in my bag at all times.
• Pull out this notebook when waiting in line or when I have an extra minute to spare. All it takes is five minutes and I’m done! More time would obviously be better, but I think it’s more important to focus on workable rather than idealized goals.

A sketching story

Yesterday I was waiting, by myself (this is a rare treat), at a deli for some take-out sandwiches. In moments like this I usually pull out my phone and scan it for email updates. But it was also a great opportunity to get in a few moments of drawing. So instead of trolling Facebook, I pulled out my sketchbook and started to doodle.

My order was ready about ten minutes later, and as he handed me my bag, the owner asked me if I was an artist. I kind of stuttered over myself, not really sure how to label my current life path. At one point in my past I would have said, “yes,” but now I’m so many other things.

So my answer was, “well, I make drawings.” And then he asked me if I’d like to show my work in his cafe. Isn’t that lovely? I had no idea it was going there.

But that, my friends, is all from sitting down for a few minutes of doodling.

You may have noticed that I’m sprucing things up around here. I’m interested in carrying on with more posts that take a look at what it means to be a creative adult. Not to worry, the child-focused posts will still be around, but it seems like it’s high time to expand the world of Tinkerlab.

My plan, and please forgive me for it’s a tenuous one right now, is to make this space your home for all things creative. I’m still rather busy, and trying to catch up on sleep while also dropping coffee from my diet, but you can count on weekly updates full of ideas, tips, resources, and interviews in the space of creativity and making.

A question for you…

Do you draw? If so, when do you do it and what tools do you use? And if not, is something holding you back or is it just not your thing?

I love arts and crafts books and often dream of opening a maker space where I can share shelves and shelves of inspiring books full of hands-on goodness with my friends and readers. Wouldn’t that be fun? I just added a new book to my library that I love, and I’m excited to share it with you in this virtual maker space today.

The book is Red Ted Art by UK blogger and crafter extraordinaire, Maggy Woodley. Maggy twists crafty standbys into fresh projects with clear photographs, beautiful design, and an easy-to-follow format that children can easily peruse on their own.

But you shouldn’t just take my word for it. When an advance copy of Maggy Woodlley’s Red Ted Art showed up in my house, my four-year-old got busy with a stack of sticky tabs and marked up all of the projects she wanted to do right away! 

We’re fans of repurposing materials, and Maggy is too, which made the activities especially easy to jump right into. We began with a couple projects that we had materials for, which is easy to do with this book. A quick flip through the book’s pages promise that you can complete just about every project with easy-to-find household and craft materials such as magazines, white glue, felt scraps, paint, and bubble wrap.

Project #1: Gumnut Pencil Toppers

As far as I know, we don’t have gumnuts in our neck of the woods, but acorns are aplenty and we worked on assembling our little yellow octopus friend with just a few materials.

• To make the legs, we cut two pipe cleaners in half and then folded each of those in half.
• We painted the acorn cap yellow.
• When the paint was dry we used the glue gun to attach the eyes and legs.

While the instructions suggested assembling this with white glue, an excuse to pull out the glue gun is always welcome in my house.

Project #2: Racing Walnut Mice

The trickiest part of this project was cutting a walnut in half, but Maggy provides clear instructions on how to split a walnut at the weakest point of the nut. I had a little trouble with this (see the chip little mouse’s mouth), but no one seemed to mind.

• Draw on a mouse face.
• Glue on felt ears and a long felt tail
• Place a marble inside the mouse and roll it down a sloping book.

My kids loved the little mouse so much that we never made it to the marble rolling part, but I look forward to trying that out.

Order a copy

If you’re in the UK or Europe, you can find Red Ted Art: Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids via Amazon UK.

If you’re in the US, the book will come out this fall (yay), and you can keep an eye out for it via Amazon.

Giveaway

Contest Details: This is an international contest and open worldwide. Deadline for entries is Friday, April 12, 2013, 9 pm PST. Winner will be chosen randomly. Please leave a comment as your entry. This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Irene, winning comment #33! You will be contacted via email.

A question for you…

What are your favorite (or most surprising ) recycled items to craft with?