Leprechaun trap with a tissue box

Activities that keep kids thinking are what I like. Even though Saint Patrick's Day has past, we still have new Leprechaun traps popping up around our house. This one was made using an empty tissue box. A tissue is lightly draped over the top with enticing sparkly decorations of ribbon from past gifts. The Leprechauns have a ladder to help them get to the pretty sparkly ribbons and then they fall through the tissue into the trap. The fall is short and soft, so no Leprechaun is injured.

Draw an American Robin: directions for children

Drawing of an American Robin

Start with a pencil in hand, and lightly sketch the lines, so if you want to change them they're easy to erase.

1. Draw a circle for the Robin's body.

2. Draw a smaller circle on top of the first circle for the head.

3. Draw a long thin triangle off the back bottom of the body circle. This long triangle will be the tail.

4. Draw a line from the back of the head to halfway down the tail. This will be the top of the wing.

5. To finish the wing, make a soft half circle under the straight line from the bottom of the head to the tip of the wing.

6. Make another soft half circle at the bottom front of the body to mark off the reddish orange of the tummy.

7. Add legs with slanting lines with three claws.

8. Put a beak on the front of the head.

9.For the eye, draw an oval with a smaller circle inside. The oval will mark the white around the eye, and the circle will be the Robin's brown eye.

10. Outline the Robin with non-toxic colored markers. Use yellow for the beak, black for the head and the oval around the eye, and brown to color in the eye ball. Keep outlining the body and wings in gray, the tummy in orange, and the legs and feet in black.

11. Erase all pencil lines. You should be able to erase them even through the marker.

12. Color in with crayons. I used yellow for the beak, and black for the head. For the body and wings, I first used gray, and then brown, and finished the tips of the feathers with black lines. The tummy I first colored with orange-red, and then went over it with orange.

There's your finished Robin. Also check out the sounds Robins make at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds. They've got 3 different songs and 6 different calls. I never knew, and I've grown up admiring these birds. All About Birds also has some good videos. There's one of a mother and her babies I think is especially cute.

Drawing a bunny with circles

Using a pencil follow the steps making a large circle for the bunny's body and a smaller circle for the bunny's head.

The circle for the bunny's back leg is larger than the circle for the bunny's front leg. The circles for the paws are little circles.

After all the circles are completed, with a pencil, add ears--half circles together--dots for eyes, a small triangle for a nose and two half circles for the mouth. Also put little lines on the paws.

When the bunny is completely drawn in pencil, Use a black non-toxic marker to trace over the face and claws. Then with a brown non-toxic marker trace only the outline of the bunny. Finally trace the front of the legs and paws with the brown marker.

Erase all the pencil lines.

Color the middle of the ears with pink crayon. Then color in the whole bunny except the tail lightly with a brown crayon. If the tail gets colored by accident, the crayon may be able to be erased with a regular pencil eraser.

Draw a baby chick with circles

The first chick in the top picture, I drew using non-toxic markers, and the second I drew using crayons. If your child starts using markers, have him finish with the markers, so the original lines of the circles are hidden and only the form of the chick is seen.

I have the steps above. The chick starts with a large circle for the body using a yellow marker or crayon, and a small circle for a head. Add a tail to the body, and color in so the circle lines are not seen. Add an orange beak. With black, make a dot for the eye, a half circle for the wings, and slanted line for the legs with three little lines for each foot.

Leprechaun house from a strawberry basket

We like to call this a leprechaun house and not a trap because it is a place a leprechaun would like to stay and relax.

A clean strawberry basket turned up-side-down and with a door cut into one side is a good start. Just draw and color a rainbow and a pot of gold, cut them out, and staple them to the back inside of the leprechaun house.

There's a house with a cozy pot of gold feeling for your local leprechaun.

Thursday, September 20, 2012
I'm looking through my past posts and noticed that we used staples to secure the pot of gold to the basket and truely staples attach the paper to the basket easier than glue or tape. To keep little fingers from playing with the back of the staples and getting pricked it might be nice to put a few pieces of transparent tape over the staples behind the pot of gold. It'll make the leprechauns feel more  comfy and secure too if they want to play in their backyard. ;)

Fish aquarium from a plastic applesauce container

Here's a quick little craft. The trick is using the right paint for the water of the aquarium, and a permanent marker for the fish.

Just use a single serving, clean applesauce container. Paint the inside. We find RichArt's® Clean Colors® Non-Toxic Washable Paint Metallic Blue works the best. Other non-toxic paints we have for some reason don't stick as well to the plastic as this color does.

On the outside draw as many fish as you'd like with a permanent marker. Tada! Instant fish aquarium that mom doesn't even have to clean! =)