Leandrea | Globs of Glue

Back to School: First Day of School Morning Celebrations

August 7, 2014 by Leandrea

Heading back to school after a long summer is a momentous occasion. It can be very hard waking up super early to head to a classroom full of kids and a teacher you may not know. Have some first day of school morning celebrations is a great way to make your kids smile. Our first day of school starts with doorway streamers and balloons. After my girls are asleep the night before school I stand in the hallway and tape streamers and balloons to their closed bedroom doors. When they wake up in the morning they will feel like Rocky, so you may want to play a little Eye of the Tiger to start the day off perfectly.

Planning a First Day of School Morning Celebration

What You’ll Need

Balloons
Streamers
Tape
First Day of School Printables or handwritten/homemade signs
Confetti
Special Breakfast Ingredients (Whatever your special breakfast is….waffles, pancakes, Cookie Crisp…it’s a special day….so it calls for a special breakfast)

Make the First Day of School Memorable

While your kids are asleep the night before school, hang streamers and balloons to their door. This is totally like a beaded curtain from an era before I was born, but cheaper and easier to recycle! The balloons added to the top of the door is the finishing touch, but if you don’t have balloons, don’t sweat it!

After walking through a streamer shower head downstairs to have a fun breakfast. Maybe it’s a breakfast bar and you break out some candy (gasp! It’s ok, it’s the first day of school) or you make a homemade Belgian waffle breakfast with all your family’s favorite toppings. Our special breakfast is waffles with whipped cream and fresh fruit….and bacon too!

Tuck a Back to School note or lunch box joke printable in your child’s lunch box or backpack.

Filed Under: School Crafts Tagged With: school

Homemade Mother’s Day Gift Idea: Tissue Paper Flower Bouquet Craft

May 11, 2014 by Leandrea

Flowers that last forever make a great homemade Mother’s Day gift. Combine a tissue paper paper craft with a handprint craft and many moms’ hearts will melt. This is a bouquet of flowers that can be displayed year after year and don’t need to be watered. It’s win-win!

Here is what you will need to make a Tissue Paper Flower Bouquet

Construction paper – one color for the background and green for stems (12×18 is great for this project)
Skin colored construction paper – you can purchase this at your local craft store
Tissue paper. Purchasing precut Tissue Paper Squares will save you a lot of time
Glue – liquid glue is better than a glue stick for this project
Scissors

To create this simple Mother’s Day craft cut several thin green strips that will serve as the stems. Six is a great number of stems for a 12×18 piece of paper. Using tissue paper that is cut into small squares, have your child crumple them into little wads or wrinkles. Glue the tissue paper onto the top of the flower stems. Your child’s personality will really show here. Some children will only put a few tissue paper flowers on their project while others will fill the paper with the biggest bouquet they could possibly make. Using skin toned construction paper the child will trace his/her arm and hand and cut that out. That hand will then be glued across the stems of the flowers so it looks like the hands are handing the flowers to you.

This craft would be great to give a grandparent as well. Other fun places to display this craft are a nursing home or office. Really, the possibilities are endless!

Do you have a favorite Mother’s Day craft to share? I would love to see a photo.

Be sure you check out our other Mother’s Day Crafts for more inspiration!

Construction Paper Craft: Handprint Flowers Mother’s Day Craft

May 8, 2014 by Leandrea

Mother’s Day is a great reason to get out the craft supplies and create. When you make construction paper crafts they can be kept for years and years. These Handprint Flowers for Mother’s Day are very cute and can be framed, laminated, or just hung on the fridge.

Here is what you will need to make Handprint Flowers

Construction paper –white or black are nice background colors, but any color (other than green) that a child picks will work well with this craft.
Paint – My favorite is the Crayola Washable Paint. It really is washable and comes off furniture and skin very easily.

To create this simple Mother’s Day craft all you need to do is paint your child’s hands and press them onto the construction paper. I chose to cross the girls hands so their thumbs pointed out rather than in. Once the handprints are on you can draw a stem and some leaves. I outlined these for my girls and they were able to fill them in with green on their own. It definitely gives a project personality when a child does as much as he/she can do independently. We don’t strive for perfect, we strive for fun and memories. This construction paper craft gives us both of those things!

This craft would be great to give a grandma. You could frame it in a simple frame or laminate it to preserve it for as long as possible.

Do you have a favorite Mother’s Day craft to share? I would love to see a photo.

Be sure you check out our other Mother’s Day Crafts for more inspiration!

Filed Under: Mothers Day Tagged With: construction paper, mother's day

Letter X Craft: X is for Xylophone

May 8, 2014 by Leandrea

When it comes to preschool, finding a Letter X show and tell item is tough! The list includes xylophone, x-ray, and X Men (are those still around?). This is a great time for a Letter X Craft. Grab some construction paper and you can make a simple construction paper xylophone kid’s craft

Here is what you will need for a Paper Xylophone Craft

Construction paper – primary colors
Scissors….a paper cutter will be your best friend to get perfect rectangles.
Glue sticks
Black Marker

To create this construction paper craft I created rectangles out of construction paper. I made a rainbow of same size rectangles to see how the project would look and fit onto my black construction paper. Then I cut approximately 1/4″ to 1/2″ off the edges of the colors as the descended down the paper. Using a piece of brown construction paper I made mock sticks that we glued onto this craft. Using a black maker I made an “x” on the sides of the xylophone pieces to give this project a finished look. Depending on the age of the child, he or she could do that task after some modeling. Doesn’t this craft look remarkably similar to a real xylophone?

So the next time you think about the letter X and wonder what in the world will you send to school with your child, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You can send in a project that starts with the letter X instead of thinking about words that end with X (box, wax, ox, fax, sox, apex).

This was one of our very favorite easy crafts for kids to create. The girls loved the rainbow aspect of the project…and globs of glue make every project just a little bit better!

Do you have a favorite Letter X or preschool craft to share? I would love to see a photo.

Filed Under: Easy Kids Crafts Tagged With: construction paper, kids crafts