This is a collection of our our favorite math art projects and the best thing about them is that they will get math kids thinking about art and art kids thinking about math!

Turn number sequences into art

• We did this when we turned pi into a cityscape
• Spirolaterals will help your kids practice their multiplication tables.
• Create Fibonacci art with circles.
• This Fibonacci valentine from Math Four could be adapted for any time of the year.

What do your kids prefer, math or art? Do you ever do math art projects with the kids? 

The post 21 Math Art Projects for Kids appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

The coloring page features a teacher playing piano from sheet music while three exuberant children dance and sing beside the piano. Musical notes decorate the page.

Pass out the music appreciation coloring page during quiet time in the classroom, or after story time at the library. Be sure to also read these picture book biographies of women musicians. After all, March is also Women's History Month!

Print it out here (By clicking on the following link you agree to our terms of service* see end of post) -->: Musical children and piano coloring page

About the Illustrator

Award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books, Melanie Hope Greenberg loves music! She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read.

Melanie loves to talk to children about the process of writing and illustrating books. Learn about how to bring her talk to your library or school, or request teacher's guides for her books at her blog here.

Her books are favorites of children everywhere. Melanie's cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in her iconic book Mermaid Parade, which was lists as an essential Brooklyn book by the Brooklyn Public Library. Be sure to read her other books, as well!

*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like fo

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About the Illustrator

Melanie Hope Greenberg loves to celebrate Lunar New Year. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read.

All year long she leads excellent workshops about the process of making children's books! Learn about how to bring her talk to your library or school, or request teacher's guides for her books at her blog here.

Melanie is an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books! Her cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in her iconic book Mermaid Parade, which was lists as an essential Brooklyn book by the Brooklyn Public Library. Her many other books include Good Morning, Digger, Down in the Subway and A City Is.

*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like fo

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Children's book illustrator and author, Melanie Hope Greenberg designed the snow globe ready for kids to fill it! Kids can do their own drawings on the snowy landscape or cut out and place the included assortment of decorations the globe.

Snow Globe Coloring Page Craft How-To

The snow globe craft makes a fun boredom buster at home on a wintery day or an easy library story time craft.

Materials

Snow globe coloring page

• Print it out here (By clicking on the following link you agree to our terms of service* see end of post) -->: snow globe coloring page

Coloring pencils, crayons or markers

Scissors

Tape or glue stick

Optional craft material: glitter, glitter glue, stickers, sequins, etc.

Optional: Cardboard

Instructions

Print out the snow globe coloring page and color as desired. Draw inside the globe, or leave it blank to add cut-outs.

Cut out objects and snowflakes from around the globe that you wish to place inside the snow globe. For a bit of whimsy, cut out a small photo of yourself and add inside the globe!

Glue objects in place as desired and use optional materials to jazz up the snow globe scene.

If desired, cut out the main snow globe and glue onto cardboard. Next, cut around the globe and prop up on a bookshelf for all to admire!

About the Illustrator

Melanie Hope Greenberg loves to shake snow globes. She also leads excellent workshops about the process of making children's books! Learn about how to bring her talk to your library or school, or request teacher's guides for her books at her blog here.

Melanie is an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read. Her cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in books such as Mermaid Parade, Good Morning, Digger, Down in the Subway and A City Is, all of which take place in the city!

*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like for personal, library or classroom use. If you would like to share this coloring page, you MUST link to this blog page. It is expressly forbidden to link directly to the coloring page pdf file.

The post Snow Globe Coloring Page and Craft appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

We recreated the look of Scandinavian woven heart basket ornaments with a kid-friendly version using a sponge painting technique.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links that earn commission from qualifying purchases.)

Originally I planned to do the actually weaving part with my kids, and although woven hearts are not exactly rocket science, I knew that my kids would get frustrated very, very quickly. Remember, we only do EASY holiday crafts. Our version of the woven heart is so easy, even preschoolers or toddlers can make it.

The first step to making these heart ornaments is to read the SPLENDID book, Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. This is my must read Christmas book. It's a cozy story about neighbor children preparing for the holiday. You can find the book(and more!) on my list of Swedish Christmas books. The book depicts a Swedish holiday tree adorned with the ornaments!

What you need:

• Red and/or green paper
• Heavy card stock or thin cardboard to make the template, or a heart shaped cookie cutter
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• White paint
• Kitchen sponge cut into a strip with a small square shape at one end

Instructions: 

Draw half a heart on the thin cardboard and cut out to make the template. If you have a heart shaped cookie cutter you can skip this step and simply trace your hearts using the cutter.

To make the heart for the ornaments, fold the red or green paper in half. Line up the template with the folded side of the paper. Trace and cut out. Unfold the colored paper for the full heart.

Cut out as many hearts as you want!

Dip the small square end of the sponge in white paint. Make impressions on the heart shaped paper in a checkerboard pattern to mimic the traditional design of Swedish woven heart ornaments.

Kids can decide if they want to mimic the look of a woven heart or just stamp freestyle. Follow your kids' natural creative instincts!!

Cut several narrow strips of paper red and green paper. These will be the handles. If you want the ornaments to be traditional basket hearts glue two hearts together, applying glue only along the bottom-side edges. Then, affix one end of a paper strip to the top of one heart, the other end to the top of the other heart to make a basket handle.

If want single hearts instead of baskets, simply glue the strip on the ornaments as a loop for hanging.

Finally, adorn your tree with the ornaments and then go read more Christmas picture books!

So what do you think? Is this "woven" paper heart not the easiest Swedish Christmas craft ever? If we can do it, so can you!

More: Swedish Christmas books and Scandinavian folktales are perfect for snuggle time after your ornaments are on the tree.

Or, make our cutest ever tomten garland and then read some tomten books.

The post "Unwoven" Swedish Heart Ornaments: Easy Christmas Craft appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

Playing the dreidel game and collecting as much chocolate gelt as possible is a timeless Hanukkah tradition. Now that your kids have made their own dreidels, it's time for them to make their own gelt! (And not because you ate all the chocolate coins you bought last week. Oh, no, that is NOT the reason…)

Fortunately, this type of gelt will not require you to find specialty chocolate molds or figure out if you can get away with microwaving chocolate instead of melting it over the double boiler (who does that, anyway?).

MORE: Our favorite Hanukkah picture books

All kids look forward to receiving foil-wrapped chocolate gelt, but making paper coins is a fun and creative activity that uses way less sugar! Plus, if you are having a family gathering, making paper gelt is a fun Hanukkah party activity

Materials

You only need a few items, which you likely already have!

• Yellow, or golden-colored paper
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils
• Scissors
• Glue or glue stick (optional)
• Foil (optional)
• Stickers (optional)

Instructions

Making paper gelt is very easy. First cut out circles from yellow paper, in various sizes to make the coins. Depending on the age of the child, an adult may need to help with this step.

Next, the kids decorate the coins with markers, crayons, colored pencils. We also like to cut foil and glue it onto the paper coins. Kids can also use stickers for decorations.

How to Use

Once kids have decided they've made enough paper coins, divide the coins up and use them to play the dreidel game. Sure, some kids have probably made more coins than others and may balk at having to share, but a little reminder that the coins get redistributed during the game will be all you need to calm them down.

You can use them in conjunction with chocolate gelt, or on their own. Let me tell you, trying to win large piles of these paper coins can actually be pretty motivating!

Tip

The coins are also a fun touch to add to Hanukkah cards. Set out the paper coins with glue and paper, and the kids have a simple Hanukkah card for the grandparents!

For another fun Hanukkah craft, check out our LEGO menorah, an easy, fire-free way for little kids to participate with lighting the candles on Hanukkah.

See more super duper easy Hanukkah crafts for kids!

Idea and photos from Carolyn, formerly of the blog, The Pleasantest Thing.

The post Easy Hanukkah Paper Craft: Make Your Own Gelt! appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

Step by Step

1. Place a large sheet of wax paper or parchment paper on your work surface.

2. Squeeze the glue onto the paper in the shape of a snowflake. If kids want to make other shapes, including abstract shapes as my son did, let them! This should be a fun, creative project for kids, not a quest for perfection.

3. If desired, sprinkle wet glue with glitter.

4. Allow to dry. Drying time will depend on how thick the glue is. I recommend allowing the DIY clings to dry overnight.

5. Once the clings are dry, peel off the paper and press them onto clean glass. In order to prepare the glass for the best possible adhesion, spray with a solution of vinegar and water and wipe dry.

The nice thing about window clings made with glue is that you can reposition them again and again. Be aware, however, if the window glass is not clean, re-adhesion will be negatively affected.

Tips

We found plain white glue window clings to be satisfactory, but in subsequent years we tried new techniques that produced slightly better results. So if you don't have the success you want with white glue try these tips:

• Use puffy fabric paint instead of glue. This produced a very good, long lasting DIY window cling.
• Apply a solution of water and dish soap to the glass before applying the window clings.
• Moisten the back of each window cling with water before applying to glass.
• Instead of squeezing out plain glue, pour glue into a paper cup, add a few drops of dish soap, mix. Brush the glue mixture onto your paper to make designs You will want to paint the designs thickly.

More DIY Snowflake Decorations

Don't limit your winter decor to glue-made window clings! Here are some more EASY ideas!

Cut snowflakes from cellophane and adhere to windows with a solution of dish soap and water. Follow our easy snowflake "stained glass" instructions here.

Every year I go nuts making paper snowflakes and use them for a variety of purposes, like our DIY wall-papered Christmas tree and paper snowflake wreath. Read about other ways to incorporate paper snowflakes into your winter crafting fun.

If you have a package of Wikki Stix, they make great rainbow snowflakes for the window! Take a look at how my kids fashioned them:

The post DIY Snowflake Window Clings (Winter Kids Craft) appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

Sailors stand on the deck of a large ship, waving flags as they pass by. Since this is general navy ship illustration, your children will enjoy personalizing it for their own country. Perhaps they will give the ship a name, either the name of a ship on which a love one has served, or invent one of their own.

If your family is attending a parade for the holiday, bring along a handful of coloring pages to pass out the other children who are getting antsy while waiting for the festivities to start, or give finished coloring sheets to parade participants.

However you choose to use the coloring pages, don't forget to talk to your children about what it means to honor the service of others on Veteran's Day.

Print out the pdf (By clicking on the following link you agree to our terms of service* see end of post) -->: Navy ship coloring page

About the Illustrator

Melanie Hope Greenberg is an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read. Her cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in books such as Mermaid Parade, Good Morning, Digger, Down in the Subway and A City Is, all of which take place in the city!

*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like for personal, library or classroom use. If you would like to share this coloring page, you MUST link to this blog page. It is expressly forbidden to link directly to the coloring page pdf file.

The post Veteran's Day Coloring Page appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

You may not immediately of science and art as natural partners. After all, science is traditionally taught as being defined by data and testing, while art is the result of spontaneous creativity. However, these science art projects for kids demonstrate there is beauty in science and give kids a way to explore the artistic process through scientific exploration!

Don't forget to explore how math and art projects will wow your kids, too!

Spin Art

Harness the power of centripedal force to create unique art with a common kitchen tool: a salad spinner! Drop washable paint (for easy clean-up) onto plain paper and place in the bottom of the spinner. The rotation makes the paint fly in a circular motion, creating interesting designs. Get the details for how to make spinner art at home here. Afterward, use the paper for cards, bunting, and wrapping paper.

More Science Art Projects

Over at Babble Dabble Do, Ana shares how to make amazing salt pendulum paintings.

The creative genius behind TinkerLab shows kids how to grow their your own geodes to learn about the scientific method and chemical reactions.

Pink Stripey Socks has some creative suggestions to explore art materials like a scientist! What a fun way to encourage artists to apply scientific principals to their work.

Over at Left Brain Craft Brain, you'll find instructions for a great last minute boredom buster that combines creativity with science as a way to learn about the science behind flight.

Want more activities that combine science and art? Our STEAM Kids book contains over 50 projects! Learn more about STEAM Kids here.

The post 12 Science Art Projects: Explore and Create appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.

The haunted mansion template was designed by author and illustrator, Melanie Hope Greenberg, who does all our monthly coloring pages. The house features empty windows so children can draw in the house's spooky residents. Along with the free printable, we'll give you instructions for how to turn the coloring page template into a 3D house to use as a backdrop for Halloween storytelling.

How to Make the Haunted House

The haunted house template makes putting together the 3D spooky mansion a breeze! This is a great craft for either the classroom, after school at home, or anytime you need a fun boredom buster or Halloween craft.

Kids will love giving the haunted house their own flair by drawing creatures like black cats or witches peering out of the windows and doorways. Add a pumpkin or two, and a Frankenstein monster. Perhaps a witch will fly by on a broomstick!

MORE: Halloween picture books with diverse characters

Cut out the haunted house. You can either cut carefully around the silhouette of the house or leave a wide margin as we did, to accommodate a (second) moon and flying ghosts.

Fold carefully along the dotted lines. Note that the lines don't go to the top of the template, but you'll still want to fold the length of the paper.

If you've printed the house out on card stock or a similar heavy paper, that may be all you need to keep the house standing.

If, like us, you used regular office paper, cut a piece of cardboard to the size of the house. Mark where the fold lines should be and fold the cardboard. We used the cardboard from a cereal box. You may find it easier to score the cardboard with your scissors before folding.

Next, glue your house to the cardboard, and stand it up to create a Haunted House playscape!

Do your kids want to create a whole spooky village? Use our village shop printable coloring page templates and draw in some creepy faces in the windows.

Don't forget to print out the Halloween finger puppets!

About the Illustrator

Melanie Hope Greenberg loves to dress up as a mermaid for Halloween, but alas, she doesn't live in a haunted mansion. You can visit her at her unhaunted website.

She is also an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read. Her cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in books such as Mermaid Parade, Good Morning, Digger, Down in the Subway and A City Is, all of which take place in the city!

*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like for personal, library or classroom use. If you would like to share this coloring page, you MUST link to this blog page. It is expressly forbidden to link directly to the coloring page pdf file.

The post Haunted House Template, Free Printable Coloring Page (3D Craft) appeared first on What Do We Do All Day.