The second article I wrote for Elegant Lifestyles Magazine’s June 2023 issue, “Day Tripping, Summer Day Trips, Six Places That Will Make Your Day,” features places I’ve gone and places I’d like to go. I’ve hiked in Hacklebarney State Park, visited the Morris Museum and have been to Lake Hopatcong, but the other places are on now on my To-Go list! Hon, do you like the fun headers before each of the 6 summer day trips?
In one of my classes, we painted the kids’ feet and in the other, their hands. Both were fun! Creating these adorable, DIY Father’s Day cards are an easy way for preschoolers and elementary age children to contribute a keepsake, and the message is evergreen. , “No matter how tall I grow, I will always look up to you.” This is the same Father’s Day card my students made last year, but this time I laminated them. Happy hands!
Supplies:
construction or cardstock paper in white and brown, background paper optional
green paint and paintbrush
magic markers
scissors
glue or double-stick tape
Directions:
Using paintbrush, paint child’s palm green. Make handprints on white paper. (Note-it may take a few tries to get a good print.) Let dry.
Draw a tree trunk and cut out of brown construction paper. Glue under handprints.
Write or print out, “No matter how tall I grow, I will always look up to you.” Add child’s name and year.
Preschool ended last week so the kids in my classes made Father’s Day cards ahead of time. One class made Father’s Day cards with footprints and one with handprints. We are prepared!
Last year’s cards said, “Thanks for making a path for me to follow.” and this year’s says, “I love you Daddy from the top of my head to the tips of my toes!” So sweet. This Easy DIY Kids Craft is a homemade greeting card that’s fun for preschoolers and elementary age children to make. Paint on feet tickles.
Note: Footprints are a challenge! When my students stepped on the paper without assistance, their feet slid. When I held the paper to their feet, the print didn’t get their toes. What worked? Making sure paint was evenly distributed and guiding each child’s foot to step on the paper to make a quick print.
After the paint dried, I outlined each child’s foot with pencil and then went over it with a black marker. I added “Happy Father’s Day,” the child’s name and date and the Father’s Day card was ready to go!
Sweet Feet!
Supplies:
construction or cardstock paper in white and another color
paint and paintbrush
pencil, magic marker
glue or double-stick tape
Directions:
Using paintbrush, paint foot. Make footprint on white paper. Let dry. (Note–it may take several tries to get a full footprint.)
Write or print out, “I love you Daddy from the top of my head to the tips of my toes!”, “Happy Father’s Day!” and child’s name and the year.
Glue white paper with footprint and plaques with messages on background paper.
It’s that time of year again! Call it End-Of-School-Craziness, but this year it meets house training an adorable puppy (pics at a later date) + repairs in an area of the house effected by a leaky roof + two graduations. That doesn’t leave time for much else including blog posts, but then I thought…cookies. Guess what I’m itching to bake? Graduation cookies! So here’s my recipe for basic sugar cookies and royal icing. Have a graduate in your family? Both the sugar cookie and royal icing recipes are easy and they come out looking and tasting so sweet!
Bake the cookies. Paint (yes, I use a paint brush) the main color icing.Add decorative details. Cap and diploma sugar cookies.
These sugar cookies can be baked ahead of time, frozen, then defrosted and decorated or the decorated cookies can be frozen. Tip: Store decorated cookies, with wax paper in between the layers, in a airtight container.
Happy baking, hon!
Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (I used margarine to make recipe non-dairy)
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 egg
2-3 teaspoons flavoring such as vanilla or almond
2 1/2 – 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar.
Crack egg into a separate bowl and add flavoring. Add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until egg is thoroughly incorporated.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, then add the dry mixture, little by little, to the butter/sugar mixture. (Tip-a paddle attachment works well. Dough will by sticky.)
If the dough is too sticky, refrigerate until it stiffens.
Roll out on parchment paper to about 1/4 inch thick, using flour for dusting as necessary. Cut and bake for 7 – 8 minutes.
Yield: 2 – 2 1/2 dozen cookies. The recipe doubled will yield approximately 4 -5 dozen.
Notes: Baking times are approximate so watch the cookies. If they are browning, they’ve been in a little too long.
Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients
3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
3 Tablespoons of meringue or dried egg white powder
6 Tablespoons warm water
Beat about 4 minutes by hand. Thin icing, if needed with extra tablespoons of warm water.
Add color in small amounts. (Tip–it’s easier to darken a color than lighten it.)
Dip textured rollers in paint and roll them onto a cloth napkin to create a Matzah Cover.
Passover 2023 starts at sundown on April 5, 2023 and ends at sundown on April 13, 2023. In preparation for Passover, we were busy at preschool discussing the Jewish holiday, singing songs, learning with hand-on activities, making matzah, creating Passover counting books, and partaking in a school-wide (chocolate–yum!) seder.
Two stand-out activities were making “matzah prints” and baking matzah.
Great for younger children–Dip Legos in white paint and press onto paper. Kids can work individually using their own pieces of paper or work together as a group making prints on paper covering a large surface.
Great for preschool and elementary ages–Make homemade matzah with only two ingredients: flour and water. If you’re removing bread from the house, this is something to do before Passover. (recipe below) The recipe was doubled so that there would be enough for the whole class to roll out. Little hands couldn’t press hard to flatten the dough (LOL!) so our matzah was a little thick and took longer to bake. It ended up being about the thickness of pita, but was tastier than expected, especially with cream cheese spread on top!
Ever wonder why the date of Passover changes every year? It’s because the date is set not by the Gregorian calendar, but by the lunar-based Hebrew calendar. It always occurs during the Hebrew month of Nisan.” (History.com) Want to know more about Passover? Check outHistory.com.
Homemade Matzah Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup water
Directions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Pour flour into mixing bowl and press down in the middle.
Slowly pour water into depression.
Split dough into balls and roll flat.
Poke holes in dough with fork.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet (Tip: line w/foil or parchment paper) for 3-4 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges.
The program was created by the National Education Association (NEA) in 1997 and is designed to encourage children of all ages to read, and to promote the love of reading among children. The program is celebrated in schools, libraries, and communities across the United States, and is often marked by special events and activities that center around reading and literature. The goal of Read Across America is to promote literacy and a love of reading among children and to encourage them to explore the world of books and reading.
You know what kids like? Giant boxes! For my pre-school class’s hibernation theme, a washing machine box transformed into a bear cave where the kids could hang out and, when the lights were turned out, make their own shadows. Fun! Shout out to Ilene, my college friend and also a preschool teacher, who shared the Easy DIY Kids Craft for Popsicle Stick Hibernating Bear she found on Glued To My Crafts. An added bonus? Shape recognition. The kids held up our triangle instruments to the triangle dens and realized they lined up.
Our new bulletin board “Hot Chocolate Weather” inspired fingerpainted mittens (younger class) and painted and glued hot cocoa mugs (slightly older class). Flames and logs–ummm-light up the fireplace. Now all we need is some real snow.
Easy DIY Kids Craft, Hibernating Bear
Supplies:
construction paper
craft sticks
cotton balls
felt, sticker or cut-out leaves
marker
scissors
white glue (optional–hot glue gun and glue)
Directions:
Draw sleeping bears. Cut out.
Create a triangle out of craft sticks and glue to construction paper.
Glue bear in middle of the den.
Add cotton ball “snow” and leaves.
Optional–for extra adhesion, secure cotton balls to paper with hot glue.
Preschool Winter bulletin board with fingerpainted mittens and painted hot cocoa’s w/cotton ball marshmallows.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our theme was Kindness. Our project? Tzedakah boxes! Prevalent in Jewish homes, Tzedakah boxes collect extra coins to be donated to those in need. What an important lesson, in addition to a hands-on, tactile activity, for preschoolers.
The children painted glue on containers, chose colors of tissue paper, and stuck the tissue paper to the gluey containers. They practiced dropping coins in the coin slots, listened it jingle, and discussed the kind acts that they–even as young as they are–can do.
Tzedakah is the Hebrew word for philanthropy and charity. It is a form of social justice in which donors benefit from giving as much or more than the recipients. So much more than a financial transaction, tzedakah builds trusting relationships and includes contributions of time, effort, and insight.
In this charming picture book for young children, Ann D. Koffsky presents the concept of tzedakah through the characters of a kitten and her mother. With kinetic images and bright colors, children learn that a simple box provides not only an opportunity to climb and play, but is also a means to contribute to charity. The book’s simple text mimics the way a child learns from her parents about an important mitzvah.
For parents and caregivers considering the most effective way to introduce the concept, Tuli the kitten provides one answer: concrete experiences and few abstractions. Tuli is as active as a toddler, and just as focused on exploring her world. Koffsky begins with Tuli becoming interested in a box labeled tzedakah. Neither this nor its slit for depositing a coin means anything to her. Through touching, pushing, and listening, she discovers the box’s physical qualities, while her mother offers more information. The box is not a toy, she comes to find, although the clinking sound of a coin dropping would seem to suggest that it is.
Koffsky combines feline and human characteristics with subtle humor. While the characters look like real cats, their facial expressions of curiosity and affection, coupled with the mother’s purple pocketbook, add a different visual element to the story. Gentle explanations from Tuli’s mother confirm what the kitten has learned, but also extend the possibilities. Tuli is finally ready to hear that the coins are meant to help those in need. As mother and child rest their heads against one another, young readers finish the book with a sense of satisfaction. Tuli’s energetic activity has become a path to empathy, and to the reward of her mother’s pride and love.
Last year, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my preschool class created Cheerios Birdfeeders. The kids enjoyed stringing Cheerios on pipe cleaners, hanging them up outside of our classroom, and watching for birds, but guess what? The birds didn’t eat them! (Maybe we should have used Honeynut Cheerios?–lol)
Instead, this week with Kindness as our theme, we’re going to create a different DIY Kids Activity–Pine Cone Birdfeeders.
Texture, scent, math, and fine motor skills were explored with the pinecones I collected in the Fall. You know what’s fun? Making pinecone prints by covering them in paint and then rolling them on paper. You never know what patterns will emerge.
Steps to Make Pinecone Birdfeeders:
1) Tie yarn or twine around pinecones.
2) Spread Sunbutter over pinecones (no peanut butter allowed in school, although pb, almond butter, or similar will do).
3) Roll sticky pinecones in pumpkin seeds (birdseed, sunflower seeds, etc. can be used).
4) Hang in bushes and trees.
5) Wash hands!
Tips on creating Pinecone Birdfeeders fromThe Spruce:
Work seeds in between the rows of scales.
Hang in cool, shaded area so peanut butter (or whichever butter is used–sun, almond, etc) doesn’t melt.
“If you want to make multiple pine cone bird feeders at once but don’t want to hang them out simultaneously, they can easily be frozen for several weeks. The feeders do not need to be thawed before hanging, and freezing them first can help them stay firm in warmer temperatures.”
Pretty Party Pieces: Your Guide to Fashion for Festive Occasions is the first of two articles I wrote for the December issue of Elegant Lifestyles Magazine. Writing this fashion article put me in the mood for holiday get-togethers and, now that’s it the end of December, I’m happy to say I went to a bunch! The directors of the pre-school hosted a Chanukah dinner, my niece and her husband hosted a family Chanukah brunch, we’ve been out to dinner, the owner of The Red Balloon treated us to a holiday dinner, and we’ve had company here. The best? Visiting our dear friends, their children and extended family on Christmas Eve–think trivia games, Left-Right-Center, and tracking Santa on an app–lol!
Usually, New Year’s Eve is mellow as Hubby and I act as chaperones for our youngest daughter’s annual NYE party. She’s having a party, but this year we’re changing it up. Hubby has planned a “night on the town,” and we’ll be dining and dancing at a restaurant overlooking Times Square! We’re staying in Manhattan overnight, so no need to worry about driving back.
Hon, what should I wear? I better check my article!
Naomi M. Gruer 