Easy Monkey Craft

I think the people that made this previously used felt, but construction paper would work :)...we have felt and construction paper in the backroom...so it's your choice!
Markers, scissors, & glue are in the back room also.

Paper Plate Birds in Nest Craft

What you will need: Small lunch-size paper plates, and dinner-size paper plates for the nest, paint, glue gun or stapler, feathers, and eyes.
How to make the bird craft:
1. Fold a small paper plate in half and cut it in half.
2. To make the head roll one half of the plate into a cone shape overlapping the sides about 1/3 of the plate. Glue the cut side closed.
3. To make the body roll the other half of the paper plate into a cone shape overlapping the side only about one inch at the edge. Glue the cone closed on the cut edge. Fold the tip of the cone down about 1/2" and glue the head to the folded tip.
4. Cut wings and feet from another paper plate and glue them to the body as shown in the picture.
5. Paint the paper plate birds and glue on eyes. To finish glue feathers to the top of the heads.
6. To make the nest fold a large paper plate in half and cut it in half. Glue the plates together to form the nest shape. Cut the front part of the nest a little lower than the back, and then paint the nest.

Paper Plate Rainbow Wind Catcher

Picture is pretty self-explanatory...
I don't know if we have streamers availabe or not...if we do not, ribbon or yarn would work :)

Paper Plate Moon Craft

Here's what you need:

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Marker/crayon
• Googly eye (optional)
• Glitter, sequins or other embellishments (optional)

Directions:
Carefully draw a silhouette of a crescent moon's face (see photo) and cut along the line. Have your child glue a googly eye or draw one on. Color in a sleeping cap, or glue on a fabric scrap to create one. Add glittler glue or sequins or anything else your kids can think of! Hang them on the wall for Moon Day on July 20th and have a Moon Pie for snacks! And maybe read Goodnight Moon to your kiddos at bedtime...

St. Patrick's Day Leperchaun Popsicle Stick Puppet

Supplies Needed:

• 2 Popsicle Sticks
• White Glue
• Green, White, Orange, Black and Yellow Construction Paper (or foam paper)
• Crayon
• Scissors
• Newspaper To Keep The Work Area Clean

     Cut out a hat shape from the green construction paper.

Cut a strip from the black construction paper to embellish the hat like a belt.

Cut out a yellow square to be the buckle on the hat.

Cut out an oval from the white construction paper (for the face).

Cut out a beard shape from the orange construction paper. This is basically a U shape for the part that goes onto the face and the bottom and sides are curved to give the appearance of a curly, full beard.

Cut a "hair piece" from the orange paper that will peek out from under the hat.

Glue 2 sticks together. To dry let them sit on a bowl where each end rests on the lip of the bowl.

Use glue to put together the hat (hat, black belt, belt buckle) and the face (face, hair, beard).

Glue Hat to head.

Draw face on the leprechaun using a crayon.

When sticks are dry glue them to the back of your leprechaun.

Let dry completely.

ENJOY! You're done!

Paper Plate Leperchaun

I think the picture is self-explanatory :)

Recycled Gardens

http://laughpaintcreate.blogspot.com/2011/03/recycled-gardens.html

Raining Cloud Craft

What you'll need:

• Tissue paper (various shades of blue)
• Contact paper
• Raindrop template
• Scissors
• Glue
• Cotton balls
• Construction paper
• Thin cardboard (we cut apart a cereal box for ours)
• Googly eyes
• String or yarn
• Tape
• Hole punch

How to make your Water Rainbow:

• Cut a big cloud shape out of thin cardboard.
• Use a hole punch to punch three holes in the bottom of the cloud.
• Cut three pieces of string and tie a piece of string to each hole. The raindrops will hang down from these strings and it's easier to do this step now then when it's covered with cotton balls.
• Cover the cardboard with white glue and stick on the cotton balls until the whole surface is covered.
• Cut a red smile out of construction paper and glue it and two large googly eyes to the cloud. Set it aside to dry.
• Print our raindrop template and cut it out. Discard the center piece.
• Trace the template onto black construction paper. Make three raindrops.
• Cut a piece of contact paper that is bigger than the raindrop. Peel off the back and stick the template to it.
• Cut the tissue paper into small squares (approx. 1"x1").
• Use the tissue paper to fill in the raindrop. It will stick right to the contact paper. Overlap the squares as you go and it's ok if the tissue paper goes outside of the construction paper template line.
• Cut a second piece of contact paper, peel the back off and carefully stick it on top of the first, covering the tissue paper filled raindrop.
• Cut out the raindrop.
• Repeat for all the raindrops.
• Tape the raindrops to the strings hanging off the cloud.
• Hang your finished craft in the window.

Painting in the Rain

What you'll need

• Card stock
• Washable markers

How to make it

1. Draw on card stock with washable markers, then place the papers outdoors in the rain until the colors have run.
2. Bring the paintings back inside and put them on a flat surface to dry.

Rain Stick Crafts

http://crafts4boys.com/2012/08/20/how-to-make-a-rain-stick/

Watercolor Hearts

http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/02/day-it-rained-hearts.html

This is super cute! I know it's too late for Valentines Day, but still...:)

Rainbow Painting with Q-Tips

• Q-tips – one per color
• paint – all the colors of the rainbow
• tape or glue dots
• plate and newspaper
• white cardstock paper

1. Set our your paints and get your Q-tips ready.
2. Cut your cardstock paper in half to make a 4-1/4 x 5-1/4 sized card and fold your paper in half.
3. Now it’s time for the painting. There are a few ways to use your Q-tips when painting these rainbows. We used a few different techniques.
All in a line: Line up 6 Q-tips in a row. Add a piece of tape to the tops of all the Q-tips in a line. I added a second piece of tape to the other end as well, just to keep it secure. Then flip over the taped Q-tips and add 2 more pieces of tape on top of the others to make them really secure, sandwich style.
Dip each Q-tip in a color of paint. You may have to bend/fold each Q-tip toward the color of paint you want so you don’t get a red one in the orange. But if you do, it’s okay. It kind of gives it a fun blurred look.
With your paper ready, start at one side of the paper and press all the tips of the Q-tips on the paper and slide/paint them across. You may have to do it a couple of times for it to show up well on either side.
One at a time: You can simply use one Q-tip per color and add it to your card one at a time. This is the easy way. Not as fancy, but it makes a really clear, deep rainbow color.
4. You can be finished here with your rainbow or you can add a little gold sprinkle paint to the card as well. We decided to put a few gold clouds and a gold filled pot at the end of our rainbows.