Kid's Frugal Crafts: Piggy Bank

Each week Mom on Dealz brings you a kid friendly craft that is fun, educational, and frugal! Yesterday, June 1st is a little known holiday-"Flip Coin Day". There are so many activities that can be done with coins but I have picked my favorites and listed them below.

Piggy Bank
Materials:Oatmeal container, coffee container, pringles can, etc
sturdy cardboard
Knife (for adult use)
1 penny, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 quarter
pencil
white paper
crayons
Directions:
1. Cut a sheet of paper to wrap around your "bank". Have your child decorate it.
2. Glue or tape the paper to the container.
3. Have your child "rub" an impression of each coin by placing paper over them and coloring over them. Glue the pictures to the lid of the container.

4. Cut holes next to each picture for coins to be inserted.
5. Cut 2 pieces of cardboard to fit standing in the containter. Arrange them so that there are 4 divided areas in the container.
6. Place the lid on top of the container so that each hole is over one of the divided areas inside.
7. Start saving!
Educational applications: 1. Have a discussion with your child about each coin, their worth, design, size, etc. 2. Talk with your child about what saving means. If they are old enough, you can talk about an item they may want to purchase and how they can use the bank to save for it. Money Mobile

Materials:
Coin printouts-you can print some HERE
String
Hanger
Crayons

Directions:
1. You can either print out the coins or have your child color some of their own.
2. Examine each coin and discuss the size, color, worth, inscriptions,etc.
3. Punch holes in each coin and tie string thru them.
4. Attach each coin's strings to the hanger.

Educational application: Use the mobile to help your child ID coins.
"Flip For Probability"-game

Teaching probability to children is a difficult skill. A game my students used to love to play was Flip for Probability. All you need is a piece of paper and a coin.
1. Show your child a coin and examine them sides. Discuss that one side is known as heads and the other side is known as tails.
2. Tell them you will be flipping a coin 20 times today. Have them predict what side will land the most during the game-heads or tails? Why do they think this? Discuss that since there are only 2 sides, the probability is that the coin will land on each side pretty equally.
3. Flip the coin 20 times and record each time what side the coin lands on-heads or tails.
4. Discuss the results.

Educational application: This game helps your child understand probability (the likelihood of something happening), making predictions, and recording results on paper.

Kids Frugal Craft: Bird Feeder

Thanks to Momondealz for bringing this post to us!
Each week I bring you a fun, educational, and frugal craft that you can complete with your child. Since warmer weather is finally here and bird families are everywhere, I thought this would perfect. Will loves seeing birds at our hummingbird feeder and now hopefully we can attract more varities!

Materials:
Large piece of Cardboard
Peanut Butter
Bird Seed or Sunflower Seeds
String
Scissors

Directions:
1. Have your child decide on a shape for their bird feeder. Cut the piece of cardboard into that shape. Will decided he would like a truck shaped feeder!

2. Attach string to the cardboard shape.
3. Smear peanut butter on both sides of shape.

4. Sprinkle bird seed over peanut butter.
5. Pick a spot in your yard to hang your new feeder!

Educational Modifications:
Language Arts: 1. Start a bird watching journal and record the types of birds that visit the feeder, how many come, what kind of weather there is when you see the most visit. 2. Have your child record the steps while making the project. 3. Locate a book with a bird as a main character or a nonfiction book about birds and help your child make connections between the book and your project.
Science: Discuss the characteristics of birds while making the project such as habitat, diet, physical traits, etc). Have your child brainstorm the different ways and places a bird may find food besides your feeder.
Math: You can have your child graph how many birds visit a day and/or the different types of birds you observe.
Don't have cardboard? Try creating a feeder with these other materials:
-Toilet paper rolls-Roll it in peanut butter and then seeds.
-Lace Cheerios on string and hang up outside.
-Cut holes in the side of a soda bottle or milk jug and fill with seed.
-Hang a large pretzel covered in peanut butter.

Kids Frugal Fun: Rainbow Rice!

This is a guest post from This Mama Loves Her Bargains! "Colored Rice"


Are you looking for a super fun, quick and easy craft to do with your kids this summer? I ran across this idea on Homemade Serenity. Since the weather is getting nice and we are able to move our craft projects outdoors, I thought I would get brave and try out something with liquid watercolors. This rice coloring activity was right up my alley. Not only is it quick enough to keep the attention of my 2 year and 5 year old, but they will be able to play with it later in a sand table or large tupperware container.
I have heard that you can also color rice using food coloring and alcohol, but that requires drying time and the food coloring is not washable. So, I will be describing how we colored rice using Colorations Liquid Watercolors from Discount School Supply. The supplies were surprisingly inexpensive ($2.99 for each 8 oz bottle) and can be used for tons of other crafts. After making bags and bags of this rice, I still have 80% of my watercolors left in the bottle. The rainbow rice required very little (2-3T) to produce nice vivid colors.
Here's how we did it:
1. Get some nice sturdy, freezer bags, quart size. Regular plastic storage bags don't work nearly as well when the little ones are squeezing and pummeling that rice. You want to make sure all that rice and watercolor stays INSIDE the bag. We even doubled up our bags just to be sure.
2. Have the kids measure 1 1/2 cups of rice (regular rice, not instant) into the bag. I just used a 1/4 cup measuring cup and had each child count out 6 scoops of rice.

3. Have an adult add watercolor. This can be messy and you may want to use rubber gloves to keep your hands from getting stained. I just squirted about 3 T of watercolor into each bags, I didn't measure it out.
4. Have the adult seal the bags, while being sure to squeeze out as much air as possible. This is important during the squeezing phase. You don't want those bags to bust!


5. Let those little ones squeeze, toss and manipulate those bags until all of the rice is colored!
6. I let my rice dry in the bags overnight. Honestly, I didn't even leave the bags open to air dry and they were fine to use the next morning.
Done! This is a really fun craft idea that gives great results with minimal effort. I was really surprised at how vibrant the colors turned out. They were really beautiful.
What to do with your rainbow rice? Here are some fun ideas we came up with:
1. Put the rice in a sensory table/sand table along with some scoops and cups. The kids will have a blast!
2. Make a rainbow of colors and give them to your preschool teacher as an end of year gift. Teacher's just love getting gifts that they can use in the classroom.
3. Layer your rice in a vase or bowl for a beautiful presentation. You can even add flowers to make a great bouquet!

The possibilities are endless! Try this craft out today, it really is a fun one.

Kids Frugal Fun!

Each week Mom on Dealz brings you a craft that is fun, frugal, and educational! This week I chose to share one that can help with discipline. As an early childhood educator I believe very strongly in positive reinforcement. Some may feel that this is "bribing" but the reality is that by reinforcing your child's good behavior with a reward system has been proven to be much more effective than other negative programs.

Materials:
Various shades of construction paper
Markers or crayons
Scissors
Tape or glue

Directions:
1. Pick a background color. You can then draw a tree or cut one out and glue it on the background.

2. With your child, decide whether you want the tree to have leaves, fruit, flowers, etc. and decorate the sky as wanted. Will insisted on a cotton ball cloud.
3. Cut out the shapes of your choice. We cut out 8 but you can pick how many times you would like to reward the behavior. Will chose to make a "normal" tree.
4. Brainstorm with your child a list of rewards they would like for good choices/behavior. These do not have to be physical items, think outside the box. Some ideas are an extra story at bedtime, longer play time during bath, 5 more minutes outside, little girls may want their nails painted, etc.

5. Print these ideas on each leaf, fruit, flower, or whatever shape you chose. Put the completed shapes in a ziploc baggie and set it near the tree picture.
6. Choose the behavior you would like for your child to improve. Tell your child that each time they show improvement, they will get to choose a leaf from the bag and will get that reward.
7. Enjoy filling up the tree! When it's full, you can save it and start another one with a diffent theme and desired behavior!

This craft can have several educational benefits:
1. Character development-your child will be given a definite goal and directions for behavior that will enable them to grow into a more responsible individual.
2. Language skills-By discussing the project and allowing them to help choose rewards, you are helping them learn how to express their thoughts orally. Also, when brainstorming rewards you can have them write down the list for you. If they are older, they can be the ones to write the rewards on the leaves.
3. Math skills-When making the leaves, be sure to count them out loud. Each time they earn a leaf, discuss how many leaves are on the tree and how many still remain in the bag.

Guest Post: Paper Lunch Bag Photo Album

This post was written by a fellow blogging friend at This Mama Loves Her Bargains! She shared this awesome post with us: Paper Lunch Bag Photo Album Tutorial.

I love making crafts with and without my kids. Pre-kids, I had so much time to scrapbook and make photo projects, and to be honest, I've missed doing it. Recently a friend of mine, Jen, introduced me to the world of making paper lunch bags into photo albums, and I love them so much I felt like I had to share with you all! You can do these without photos if you want- what a cute idea for kids to make and showcase their own story for mom or grandma, or for a friend, and tuck momentos into the bag openings!
One thing I love about this project is that most of it can be done with things most of us have at home already, and little kids can make one too- we've made several and as long as I can get the holes punched and tie things together, my 3 and 5 year olds can do the rest solo!

Supplies:

• paper lunch bags (I used the larger size in brown but you can use any you want- usually something everyone has at home already!)
• adhesive (we're big on Elmer's for adhesives in this house and used their glue sticks, glue-all and glue dots for this project)
• scissors
• hole punch
• ribbon- curling ribbon, grosgrain, really anything works! twine or raffia can be used as well
• scrapbooking paper (again, you can just use any paper you have, although with photos acid/lignin free is definitely best)

Assembly:
Step 1: Gather your supplies!

Step 2: Stack your bags (3-4 works best, 4 will be a little tougher to get your hole punch through) alternating the stack with open end, closed end

Step 3: Fold stacked bags in half (you want a good crease if possible just so it helps stay in position when punching the holes)

Step 4: Punch holes so you can get your ribbon to tie

Step 5: Tie ribbon through holes

Step 6: Decorate (we used $1 scrapbook packs from Target- 6 pages all coordinating but you can really use just about anything)

Step 7: You can also do some cardstock or double up paper to cut to the size of the bag opening and tuck in for extra photos. We like to put a tab of some sort onto this to make pulling it out easier.

Step 8: Add photos, stickers, writing if you like- or let the kids write a story or poem and illustrate it and mount those onto the pages, and VOILA!

This is SUCH an easy craft and so much fun to do, and a really nice way to make a gift from the heart that will be enjoyed for a long time. You can really dress these up with fancier supplies and tools or keep it fairly simple as we do. There's plenty of time to make one for Mother's Day if you'd like!

(Some samples of product were received, but all opinions expressed within are my own)