Sweet Pea is 43 months old.
From: Simple. Messy. Fun!, Sycamore Stirrings and Our Crafts -N- Things all had variations on this activity.
Material:
- Washable markers.
- 5 – 10 coffee filters.
- Spray bottle.
- Jellyroll pan, a plastic tablecloth or some other way to cover the work area.
- Towel.
- Smock or bib (optional).
Procedure:
- Let your tot color on the coffee filters with the markers. Encourage your tot to use more than one color on each filter if possible.
- Place a colored coffee filter in the jellyroll pan.
- Aim at the coffee filter and demonstrate squeezing the spray bottle to create a spray of water.
- Hand the spray bottle to your tot and let her spray it until most of the marker ink has spread across the coffee filter.
- Move the wet coffee filter to a towel and let it dry for several hours.
- Repeat with the remaining coffee filters.
- After the coffee filters have dried, you can get creative and use them to make a variety of different crafts, such as butterflies, leaves or flowers.
To make an easy flower:
- Fold each filter into eighths.
- Twist the bottom of the filter.
- Tape several of the twisted filters together.
- Voila!
Observations: Sweet Pea was crazed about this project and has asked to do it many, many times since I introduced it to her. She loves coloring the coffee filters and will spend a long time making a stack of filters to spray.
Sweet Pea’s favorite part is actually getting to use the spray bottle and watching her marks transform on the coffee filter.
This activity is highly recommended. Using the spray bottle is great fine motor control practice, although a younger tot might have difficulty squeezing the handle.
Notes from the Trenches: Wet marker ink will run everywhere. Obviously this activity is messy.
Make sure you are explicit when explaining where your tot should point the nozzle of the spray bottle.
Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent, Frugal)
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