STEM Challenge with Recyclables

Dig through the recycling bin and use recycling to encourage your kids to build and explore. This engineering STEM challenge for kids is perfect for Earth Day too!

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When it comes to coming up with a quick boredom buster activity or loose parts play idea for the kids, I look no further than my recycling bin. The possibilities are endless with all the different materials that can be found in the recycling bin. 

This STEM challenge for kids using recyclables encourages kids to build and explore without using glue and without using tape. What will they build?

The No Glue, No Tape Earth Day STEM Challenge for Kids

Since I wanted the kids to be able to explore all the possibilities with the materials and still return the items to the recycle bin, I challenged my kids to build a list of creations using only the materials on hand. No tape and no glue were allowed.

Come check out what five year old K built and grab the list of prompts for this STEM challenge.

{Click here to read the full post on CBC Parents.}

DIY Upcycled Bubble Blowers

Quick and easy DIY bubble blowers for kids made from the Bunch O Balloons adapters.

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Nothing beats blowing bubbles in the backyard with the kids! It's a quintessential summertime activity! We recently one-upped our traditional bubble blowing thanks to a brilliant idea from my mom (Hi, mom!!) by creating these super simple DIY upcycled bubble blowers for kids.

How to Recycled Water Balloon Adapters into DIY Bubble Blowers for Kids

You will need only two things for to make these DIY upcycled bubble blowers:

• Bubble solution

• Leftover adapters from Bunch O Balloons water balloon packs

After enjoying our first water balloon fight using the Bunch O Balloons pack, I wondered what I could do with the leftover adapters. It seemed like such a waste to just throw them out. Plus, at this rate, I will collect so many of them by the time summer officially arrives. So my mom suggested trying to turn them into bubble blowers...and they totally work!

Remove any broken balloons attached to the end of the adapters, if applicable. If your pack came with the nozzle looking hose adapter, then you can screw it on, but not all of our packs have come with this adapter. Don't worry, the bubble blowers work perfectly fine without (as you will see in my video at the bottom of this post).

Simple dip the ends into the bubble solution and blow!

Depending on where you place your fingers on the adapters, you can either blow billions of teeny tiny bubbles, like in the above photos, or you can make bubble snakes. Just blow slowly or hold your fingers closer to the ends of the adapters near the bubbles. My boys loved trying to catch the bubble snakes!

Want to see the DIY bubble blowers in action?

I demonstrated this idea in a Facebook live video, which you can see below. It's super short, but you can see how awesome these bubbles blowers work!

Awesome way to reuse Bunch O Balloons adapters
Awesome way to reuse Bunch O Balloons adapters (affiliate link for product used in the video: http://amzn.to/1rwAKDD)
Posted by And Next Comes L on Thursday, May 5, 2016

Other Awesome Spring & Summer Activities You'll Love 

Letter Tracing Activity with Rocks & Chalk

Sight Word Parking Lot Outdoor Activity

More Spring & Summer Activities for Kids

DIY Christmas Marble Run with Jingle Bells

Need a Christmas boredom buster activity? Try this epic Christmas marble run using jingle bells!

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Nothing says Christmas like a cardboard tube sword fight or two after wrapping presents. Right?

Well, guess what...those cardboard tubes from wrapping paper can also be used to make your own marble runs at home. Or for bucket drumming, among many other things.

And, since it's Christmas, we're giving it a good ol' seasonal spin by using jingle bells instead of little balls or marbles. So not only will the ball get rolling, but it will make a little music as it does. Jingle all the way, in other words...

So why not try making your own Christmas marble run with jingle bells? Your kids will have a blast and, who knows, you might be able to finish wrapping up all those gifts too.

How to Make a DIY Christmas Marble Run for Jingle Bells

You only need a few materials to make your own epic Christmas marble run for jingle bells. You just need to rummage through the recycling bin or finish wrapping gifts first. Just don't use up all the tape in the process because you'll need that too.

Now, you can choose to cut the cardboard tubes like we did, if you want to extend the length of the marble run course. We probably wouldn't have had enough otherwise. Or you can leave them as tubes. It's up to you. Be sure that the jingle bells you are planning to use are going to fit in your tubes.

Also, you might have to experiment with the placement of the tubes as you set it up. That way you can make sure the jingle bells will roll from tube to tube. Or you can simply connect them all into one long path if that makes things easier.

To get the full details on how to set up this Christmas activity, head to CBC Parents to learn more.

{Continue reading Christmas Marble Run with Jingle Bells on CBC Parents.}

Jingle Bell Christmas Busy Box

Looking for busy box ideas or fine motor task boxes that are Christmas themed? Try this super simple Christmas busy box!

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My kids have been enjoying lots of activities using a container of jingle bells. We've used them for threading, a STEM activity, some mirror play, and even added them to a sparkly sensory bin. 

But then I remembered this fine motor toddler busy box and decided to give it a Christmas spin!

This jingle bell busy box idea requires zero prep, but is tons of fun for toddlers and preschoolers.

Christmas Busy Box Idea with Jingle Bells

For this preschool jingle bell activity and busy box idea, you will need:

• An empty baby wipes container

• Jingle bells

That's it, you're ready to go!

This Busy Box Idea Makes a Great Fine Motor Task Box!

Opening and closing the empty wipes container is great fine motor practice, as is putting those jingle bells into the small hole in the container. Three year old K loved to fill the wipes container up with the jingle bells and then violently shake the container. It offered great auditory input!

And that's it! Told you it was simple!

Other Preschool Jingle Bell Activities You'll Love

Christmas STEM Activity with Jingle Bells & Magnetic Tiles

Jingle Bell Oral Motor Christmas Activity

Jingle Bell Threading Activity

This post was part of the Fine Motor Fridays series. Here are some other posts from the series:

Santa Hats Cup Stacking Game from Lalymom

Kinetic Christmas Tree from Still Playing School

Velcro Christmas Tree from School Time Snippets

Christmas Busy Bags: Fine Motor Pipe Cleaner Tree from Powerful Mothering

Painting with Ornaments from House of Burke

Christmas Lights Slime Sensory Play from Little Bins for Little Hands

Easy DIY Outdoor Music Station for Kids

Wanting to build an outdoor music station for kids? Then try this DIY recycled outdoor music station idea! It's quick to make and expensive too.

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I love the idea of outdoor music walls and stations for kids. And I've been wanting to make one for my kids for quite some time. Especially after building our giant rainbow xylophone last summer. 

I keep seeing so many amazing outdoor music wall ideas and music fence ideas out there. And I kind of want to build them all...seriously.

However, the idea of building a permanent structure in the backyard just doesn't make sense. I just couldn't imagine a music wall lasting through our horribly long, cold winters.  

So I wondered if there was a way to build a temporary outdoor music station. One that could be set up in the spring and then taken down in the late fall. There had to be a something that would work for our climate.

Well, I managed to come up with a perfect solution for us! And, as an added bonus, it didn't cost me a dime to make. How is that possible you wonder? Well, it's because I upcycled some things I had on hand. So here's our recycled outdoor music station that takes only 10 minutes to set up.

How to Make a DIY Outdoor Music Station for Kids

We've been spending a lot of time working in our backyard, prepping for building a garden. In particular, we've been transplanting fifty billion cedar trees to prep for building a garden.  Seriously, why did the previous owners of this house plant so many cedar trees?!  Anyway, while moving our extremely tattered swing, it dawned on me that the frame would make a perfect frame for a DIY outdoor music wall or station of some kind.

I mean just look at how hideous our swing is. It's been through one too many cold winters and has definitely seen better days. But I knew right away that the frame would be perfect for the outdoor music station idea that I had in mind. Or, at least, I hope it would work like I wanted it to.

First things first, I removed the old tattered swing and cushions. About time I retired it, hey? Then I added some metal banging surfaces (more details below). And then voila, a delightful little music making space. The frame itself is even great for making music.

I scoured our garage for any recyclables that we had to make this music station. I ended up finding a rusted cake pan, a green metal flower pot, and some tin cans of various sizes. I also added some jingle bells to the inside of one tin can. An idea that was part of My Nearest and Dearest's music station.

Once I had gathered all of the supplies, it was time to prep them for hanging on the frame. I punched holes into each item using a nail and hammer. The green flower pot already had a hole from where a handle used to be so I didn't have to punch any holes there. 

Next, I used some 50-lb fishing line to hang up the materials. I found the fishing line at the dollar store a while ago and have a stash in my craft desk for random projects like this. Anyway, I just knotted the fishing line multiple times until it was too big to slide through the hole. Then I tied the other end to the frame of our sturdy music station.

Armed with wooden spoons and a metal whisk, the boys went to town on the new music station.

The tin cans and pan make for awesome outdoor musical instruments. And, when hit, they swing back and forth a bit, which got quite the reaction from K!

Haha...and you should have seen the other hilarious photos that I took of him.  Especially when he figured out how to climb the side of the swing's frame.  He stood in all sorts of weird positions with tongue out or puffed cheeks, drumming away.  So not only did the boys make music, they also did some gross motor play by climbing the music station.  I guess you could say that I made a DIY recycled outdoor and climbable music station.

So that's our DIY recycled outdoor music station! It was quick and easy to set up and tons of fun for the kids.

Other Outdoor Play Area Ideas & Inspiration You'll Love

DIY Roads for an Outdoor Play Area

Preschool Outdoor Loose Parts Play in the Backyard

How to Make a DIY Rainbow Xylophone

Yarn Wrapped Planets Craft

Looking for space crafts for kids? Try these yarn wrapped planets crafts! They're also a great fine motor craft.

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I've always loved the look of yarn wrapped crafts and I figured my oldest son could try the technique out to make some really cool planets crafts. 

The result is a set of beautiful yarn wrapped planets.

What You'll Need for this Planets Craft Idea

Here's what you'll need to make your own version:

• Cardboard

• Yarn

• Scissors

How to Make these Yarn Wrapped Planets Crafts

First you need to the cardboard into the rough shapes and sizes of the planets. Please note, they are not to scale. I eyeballed the sizes.  

Next, you'll cut slits all around the planets to help keep the yarn in place. Your cardboard planets should now look like those shown below.

Once you have the cardboard planet shapes, it's time to start wrapping them in yarn!

My mom brought up two bags filled with yarn for me a few months ago and luckily, there happened to be all the right colors in the bags to make these planets. I placed the coordinating yarn next to each planet to make it easier for J to make the planets.

However, I did not anticipate how much J would struggle with this activity.  His fine motor skills are pretty good, but he found this craft challenging. He climbed onto my lap and we worked on the planets together until he got the hang of things. By the time J got to Mars, he was starting to figure it out.

Wrap and pull, wrap and pull, wrap and pull...I kept chanting that to help keep J focused on the technique. Saturn's rings added another challenge, but he eventually did it.

Every time he finished a planet, we would place it in the correct order and say the planets' names together. A few days later and he can still rattle off the names of some of the planets and point to the correct one. I'm impressed with what J remembered from this activity!

And the end results are totally fabulous!  How awesome did these yarn wrapped planets turn out?!

Other Space Themed Activities You'll Love

Planet Crafts for Kids

Free Printable Planets I Spy Game

Space Sensory Bins for Kids

This post was part of the Fine Motor Fridays series. Here are some other ideas from this series:

Pouch Cap Sheep Printing from House of Burke

20 Fine Motor Skills for Toddlers from Powerful Mothering

Prewriting Fine Motor Activity from School Time Snippets

Fine Motor Cherry Blossom Tree Artwork from Still Playing School

The Carrot Seed Fine Motor Activities from Stir the Wonder

Spelling with Tin Can Drums

My boys like to make noise and banging on drums is just one way that they do it.  We have explored tempo using drums, played rainbow drums on the light table, and made bucket drums in the past.  However, I wanted to somehow incorporate some literacy learning into a drum activity, especially since J is reading, spelling, and writing, and K is already reading quite a few words by sight too.  I wanted to encourage them to learn some new words and practice spelling them.

So I took an approach like you would see in an episode of Word World.  That show is brilliant.  The way the make all the characters and objects out of the letters in the word is amazing.  So I made a tin can drum for each letter of the word "drums."  I also wrote "drums" on one can as a visual reminder of what word I wanted the boys to spell.

I simply used a permanent marker to draw the letters on the tin cans.  I then grabbed some chopsticks and let the boys have at it!  

K loved to bang the drums and say the letter names as he played, which is exactly what I had hoped for.

I also came up with a few different tunes to sing to them as they played the tin can drums.  My personal favorite was the one I made up based on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse tune...give or take.  I kind of forget how the tune ends, but you get the idea anyway.

D - R - U - 

M - AND S

D-R-U-M-S

THAT SPELLS DRUMS

THAT SPELLS DRUMS

YOU CAN BANG THEM, YOU CAN TAP THEM ALL DAY LONG

The boys then played the drums together, nicely at first.  Then soon they were drumming wildly until all the cans fell over, but that's okay, because that means they had plenty of chances to practice spelling the word "drums" on their own.  

J loved the spelling aspect.  Here he is demonstrating how to assemble the cans.

Other Ideas You'll Love

Exploring Tempo with Drum Games

50+ Music Activities for Kids

Building Rockets with Tin Cans & Magna-Tiles

Rainbow Chickpeas & Cookie Cutters Sensory Bin

Recycled Building Blocks with Washi Tape

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Do you like washi tape?  Do you like hoarding cardboard recycling?  Do you also enjoy making homemade toys for kids?  If you answered yes, yes, and yes again, well, then you are in luck!  I just happen to have the perfect solution to your washi tape and cardboard hoarding addictions!

These recycled building blocks are so simple to make.  They happened to be an enjoyable craft for my boys as well.  Mind you, anything that involves tape or scissors is always a guaranteed hit.

Want to make a set for your kids?  Get all the details over on B-Inspired Mama.

Bucket Drumming for Kids: A Fun Gross Motor Music Activity

Bucket drumming for kids is a great way to explore music at home and teach your child basic rhythms. It's a great gross motor music activity and boredom buster.

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It's impossible not to use leftover cardboard tubes from Christmas gift wrap for a quick sword fight or two. Even as an adult. But cardboard tubes also make for awesome drum sticks for this super simple music activity.

Seriously, you've got to try bucket drumming for kids. It's tons of fun and requires basically zero effort on your part.

It's the perfect combo of music and movement for toddlers and preschoolers. Okay fine, the same applies for big kids too. The kids will burn off some of their never ending energy. They also learn a little about a music and build rhythm skills along the way. And, like I said, it's just plain fun. What's not to love?

Bucket Drumming for Kids: What You'll Need

Whether you plan to work on simple rhythms, advanced rhythms, or just let the kids do their thing, here's what you'll need for bucket drumming:

• A large bucket or two - Any size or shape will work. We used large round buckets with rope handles similar to these. Simply turn the bucket upside down to turn them into instant drums.

• Large cardboard tubes, wooden spoons, wooden dowels, or anything similar that would make for great drum sticks - Or use real drum sticks if you've got them.

We personally used two large green buckets and some cardboard tubes leftover from Christmas gift wrap for our bucket drumming. My boys also experimented with using their hands and feet to drum with, as you will soon see. 

Your Kids are Going to Love this Bucket Drumming & Stomping Activity!

The great thing about this drumming activity is that it gives the kids a chance to explore music in a variety of ways. They can test out different rhythms. They can use drum sticks or try using different parts of their body to see how the sound changes. They can tilt the drums while hitting them to see how the sound changes. You can use a variety of different buckets and pails and let your kids listen to how the sounds change depending on the size of the container. There are lots of possibilities.

Like I mentioned, you can also use bucket drums to experiment with different drumming techniques. Which is exactly what my boys decided to do. Up first, they tried slapping the drum like a bongo. While also sitting on the bucket haha

Then my boys tried stomping the bucket drums with their feet. Seems like the toddler thing to do in this instance, right? 

My oldest also tried stomping the bucket while also tapping the cardboard tubes together. I guess this would be like using the kick drum while also hitting the snare or high hats on a drum set.

There might have been some jumping from bucket to bucket too, but that was more for fun than it was for music's sake. But hey, bucket drumming for kids is more than just about the music aspect. It was also about burning off some extra energy so it was definitely a win all around!

Other Simple Drumming Activities for Kids

Two Simple Drum Games for Kids

Glow Stick Bucket Drumming for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Tin Can Drumming & Spelling Activity for Kids