Paint Chip Labels

We were at Home Depot recently getting supplies for a project, and I grabbed a few large and brightly colored paint chips to bring home. I didn't have a great plan for them, but I was figuring they would become another tot school activity like this fine motor skill color matching one.

On a whim, I stuck one inside the clear pocket of our toy storage bins. Aside from being too tall, it fit perfectly!

I cut each one in half and wrote with a Sharpie to label the bins. Adorable, fast, and free!

This is a major improvement on the white papers I had as labels previously. They had been removed and crumpled several times, and at least half were missing. I also have several extras leftover in case a few of these show some wear. But since they are thick paint chips, I think they stand a much better chance at surviving!

Have you used paint chips for anything fun lately? I have visions of these adorable bins and clothespins holding paint chips that match the room! Probably not for the play area, but it would look great in a spot above the reach of little hands.

Simple Winter Activities, Part 2

Did you see the first installment of our winter crafts and activities? Here are four more winter-themed crafts that we've enjoyed the last few weeks.

I thought this brown paper bag fireplace from Kaboose was too cute! We've used it as decoration for our TP snow people, they are the perfect size.

I took a plain brown paper bag and used a ruler to draw brink lines on the bag. Then we colored it with a red crayon.

I also cut out the rest of the fireplace out of construction paper. The link to Kaboose has a patter, but I just free handed it. Its not perfect, but it still turned out well.

Our finished product!

I saw this ice activity on Delia Creates and thought it was pure genius! I took several plastic containers I use for leftovers and filled them with water. Then I put in a few different toys, mostly taken from our bath toy collection. A few hours in the freezer turned them into blocks of ice filled with hidden treasures!

I also used some leftover sour cream and yogurt containers to make some different sizes and shapes.

I filled up a tub with warm water and stuck the kids on a towel in the kitchen. They loved playing with the giant ice cubes and seeing the animals appear as the ice melted. I also frozen some ice cube trays with colored water. First we added the yellow ice cubes. You can see the water has turned pretty yellow here! Then we added the blue cubes (lower left corner of the tub) and watched the water change from yellow to green. They absolutely loved it, especially getting to play in the water in the middle of winter.

2 Teaching Mommies has a great Polar Lands Preschool pack available for free download, which we have really enjoyed. One of the fun activities is to take this penguin printable and attach him to a old cereal box. Cut a hole in his beak and then you have a great fine motor skill activity!

During their morning snack, my kids fed him cheerios while they ate some of their own. Then we got down and used poof balls to feed the penguin. They sat together and stuffed him full of poof balls, and then I had them do "races" - a relay across the room to get poof balls then run back to feed the penguin. Its a great way to burn off some energy when you are stuck inside!

This last craft is probably my favorite. I love homemade puffy paint. We use it for tons of different art projects, and it is easily colored too. For this snowman, white was the perfect color though. Our supplies: shaving cream, school glue, three paper plates, two pipe cleaners, and foam sheets.

To make your puffy paint, mix shaving cream and glue in about equal parts. I make it a little heavier on the shaving cream side usually. I cut the paper plates to make the three snowballs for our snowman and we used paint brushes to heap on the shaving cream.

I cut a had, buttons, and the mouth out of our foam paper (but you could use construction paper too). I cut out a triangle for a carrot nose, and the blue scarf also. Since the paint has glue in it, we could just stick the foam into the puffy paint and everything held in place! 

What a great face! The puffy paint gives such great texture and depth.

We taped the plates together and hung him up on our front door!

Do you have any favorite winter activities to share?