Try It Tuesday: Dot Marker Popsicle Stick Math

This project was fun to do with my son. I took a bunch of large popsicle sticks and numbered them and let him make dots on them. You can fit up to 10 dots on one if you make the dots close together. This exercise was good practice with counting, but then we took it a step further and I made +, - and = signs on some more and we started to practice some math and then he had to look for the corresponding answer to the problem I set up for him. This was a lot of a fun and a different way to do preschool at home.

Be sure to also check out my post called Five Spring Dot Marker Art Projects to get some other ideas!

Try It Tuesday: Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft

The kids and I made these on one of our snow/cold days here in Minnesota.We were getting sick of all the cold and white and just needed some color and something spring like. These are fun and the design combinations are endless.

Supplies Needed per Butterfly

• 2 circle coffee filters
• dot markers (or regular markers)
• 1 pipe cleaner
• spray bottle of water

Directions:

• Flatten coffee filters.
• Using dot markers, fill in at least 50-75 percent of the coffee filters with dots (or draw in with regular markers) - you don't want to fill it all in because you want to allow for it to run so that colors blend.
• Spray with water, saturating the entire coffee filter.
• Allow to dry.
• Take a pipe cleaner and fold it in half. Twist together the bottom inch by the fold. 
• Pinch together each coffee filter from the top to the bottom so that it creates a pair of wings. Do this with both to create 2 pairs of wings. 
• Put the wings between the pipe cleaner and twist in to place. 
• Next turn the pipe cleaners to create antennae.