Cupcake Liner Sun Craft

Preschoolers will love this easy sun craft. It is perfect for spring days! All you need is a few supplies and a little imagination.

Harp is my crafty girl.She loves to make makeup, is a renowned perfume mixer, and is always drawing something! We had made these lovely perfumes to share that smelled like spring days so we thought we needed to make a few pictures to go with them. 

Samples were provided for inclusion in this post.

The perfume kit, you will want to check out independently! This is aimed at older kids, but with close supervision and assistance it was something Harper was well suited for. We got the STMT DIY Signature Scent Kit from the Horizon Group and LOVED it!

I gathered some easy supplies that you will probably already have at home.

Supplies

Yellow cupcake liners

White cupcake liners

Markers

Glue

Blue Construction Paper

Directions

Glue one yellow cupcake liner on a sheet of blue paper.

Using an orange marker give the yellow cupcake liner rays like the sun.

Using a white cupcake liner, cut out several puffy cloud shapes.

Have your preschooler do all of these steps independently. The cutting is good practice!

 Finally give the sun a happy face to welcome spring!

You can find all of our spring crafts here.
3D Paper TulipsBird Activities

Letter C Preschool Worksheets

Letter Recognition worksheets are a great way for preschoolers to practice their abc. 

As my youngest is eager to learn and excited for kindergarten in the fall I started making her these letter worksheets. I wanted to share them all with you as a free resource. Print as many as you like;  you can use them in a classroom setting, share with a friend, or just print one to use with your little one at home.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will earn a small advertising fee at no extra cost to you.

You can have your little learner circle with a crayon or marker, or use a bingo marker for a little extra fun.  

Keep checking back as I have so many of these fun alphabet worksheets to share with you. Below you can find more resources for preschoolers.

Print the Letter C Worksheet

Find more preschool resources here

Letter A Coloring Page

Letter A Recognition Worksheet

Apple Dot a Dot Printable

Letter B Coloring Page

Letter B  Recognition Worksheet

Letter C Coloring Page

Letter B Worksheet for Preschoolers

Print this free letter B worksheet for preschoolers or pin it or later.

My daughter is starting kindergarten this fall, so we are working hard on our letters and numbers!

I have been making letter recognition worksheets for Harper to practice her letter finding skills.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will earn a small advertising fee at no additional expense to you.

You can have your child circle the letters with a crayon or marker, or if you have a bingo marker, that is fun too! You can print as many of these as you need. Share them with a friend, or keep a few on hand for future reference.

Below you will find more preschool resources. Keep checking back as I will be sharing worksheets for the entire alphabet over the coming weeks.

Print the Letter B Worksheet

Find more preschool resources here

Letter A Coloring Page

Letter A Recognition Worksheet

Apple Dot a Dot Printable

Letter B Coloring Page

15 Spring Books for Preschoolers

Spring is near and we are letting it inspire our reading list! Harper and I have selected 15 books that we know you are going to want to check out too! These are great for a rainy spring day, a bedtime story, or anytime!

This post contains affiliate links; should you make a purchase I will earn an advertising fee at no extra cost to you.


Let It Rain
In Like a Lion Out Like a Lamb
Time for Spring
What Can You See In Spring?
It's Spring!
Animals in Spring
Olaf's Wait for Spring
I Can Grow a Flower
The Little Gardener
The Thing About Spring
Springtime Babies
Spring is Here: A Story About Seeds
Clifford's Spring Clean Up
The Tiny Seed
It's Spring: A National Geographic Book

We have already read Animals in Spring and Time for Spring, both were really cute. Harp loved all of the animals! We are anxious to start working in our flower beds and see if the tulips we planted last year come to bloom.


If you have a suggestion for preschool spring books I want to hear about it!

We have a few fun crafts that are perfect for spring.

Easy Raindrop Crafts

Apple Dot a Dot Printable

I have been busy making so many fun things to keep Harper busy with her letters and hopefully avoid the dreaded summer slump. To go with our letter recognition sheet and coloring page for the letter A, I made a super simple and cute dot a dot.

This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase I will earn a commission.

These are perfect for little hands! You will need bingo markers for this easy activity. If this is your first time with do a dot worksheets, the idea is simple. Have your child place a "dot" with the bingo marker in the circles.  Allow to dry, and display!

While this is such a simple activity, kids LOVE it. When I help at preschool and we work on a do a dots, all of the kids are totally enthralled the entire time.

More Preschool Resources for the Letter A

Letter A Coloring Page

Letter A Recognition Worksheet

Letter A Preschool Worksheet

Print this easy letter A worksheet for your preschooler. It is simple, free and a good resource to add to your printable files.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I will earn a small commission.

There are so many ways to work on letter recognition with your preschooler. From easy worksheets like these ones, to handing over an old word search or newspaper and asking your preschooler to find certain letters.Harper also love to practice tracing the letters with a highlighter. 

This worksheet is so easy! We prefer to use bingo markers on these, but if you don't have one, circling with crayons is fine too!

Print the Letter A Worksheet

More Letter A Resources for Preschoolers

Letter A Coloring Page

Apple Do a Dot Worksheet

Print as many of these as you need for your classroom, or add them to your homeschool files. I would LOVE it if you pin this worksheet to your preschool board or share it with a friend.

Itsy Bitsy Spider Craft

If you spend a lot of time listening to preschool music like I do, you are going to LOVE this easy Itsy Bitsy Spider craft that I made with my kids. This was so easy to assemble and so much fun to make. This is suitable for preschoolers and my 8 year old enjoyed it too... even though that is a baby song.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider House

You will need one full sheet of colored paper 
one 4x6 inch square of paper in another color
one triangle in another color (to make a roof)
2 2x2 inch squares of paper that are the same color.
One 2x2 inch square of paper in another color
One 1x3 inch strip of black paper
One Straw
One spider ring
2 strips of tape
Glue Stick

First Glue your 4x6 inch square of paper onto the full sheet.

Then glue on the triangle for the roof, and the 2 squares of paper that are the same color for windows.

Next add your door and your chimney.

Tape your straw to the side of the house on the bottom.
Slide the spider ring onto the straw from the untaped top.
Tape the top of the straw.

You can sing the itsy bitsy spider song with your kids, and have them move the spider up the spout! How cute right?

We had a lot of fun with this super easy Itsy Bitsy Spider Craft. I love that with such simple supplies we were able to create something so entertaining. 

This is not the only craft we have that  makes use of straws . You can give used straws a hot water soak and reuse them too to help reduce waste!

You might also like

Straw Necklaces; bling made for kids, by kids.

Straw Flutes; hey, why not?

Print the I is for Igloo Coloring Page

School is out but we are still working on our letters! When the temps reached 92 last week, all Harper and Rolf could think of was popsicles, ice cream and playing with the hose. It seemed fitting to make an igloo for the letter I!

This printable combines handwriting practice and coloring for the win.

This post contains affiliate or compensated links.

To keep the fun of igloos going, we got some fun Toob toys from Safari LTD. We went with the Arctic Toob series because it had so many fun options including a seal, a fox, a whale, an igloo and more! Harper loved adding these fun toys to a bin of ice for a fun sensory experience.

We followed it up with a great book, Curious George Builds an Igloo. An afternoon playing in ice, learning about the letter Ii, and reading a great story in the cool comforts of our house made for an experience that even Rolfie, who is too cool on his own, couldn't resist getting involved in!

Print the I is for Igloo Coloring Page

Pin this page for later, or share it with a preschool parent!

You can find more FREE preschool printables here

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

Kindness Rocks

Hot Kindness Rocks are a fun way to decorate rocks to hide to share with others!

Harper and I found a kindness rock in the woods one day and we were inspired to make some of our own! This was a fun multi part project for us. As we had to find rocks, decorate them and then hide them!

We found a super special rock that had a chip in it. The chip was in the shape of a heart. We knew this special love rock needed to be placed someplace special. We knew just the place! Preschool! We headed there to hide it in a special spot!

These rocks were fun to make, but truly not kid friendly. 

To begin I heated rocks in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour.

When they were hot I melted crayons on them.

After they cooled for several hours we were ready to share them!

J is for Jam Coloring Page

Harper is almost finished with her first year of preschool, so we are working harder than ever on writing our abc's. It is so cute to see her early stages of penmanship! There is something about a backwards letter that tugs right on my heartstrings!

I made this fun coloring page for her. It combines coloring and a chance to practice the letter Jj. We found this printable to be perfect around lunch time. Naturally it inspired us to add a little jam to our day.

J is for Jam Coloring Page Printable


You can print as many of these as you want or maybe pin it for later to share with a friend.

In case you missed the other letter printable coloring pages you can get them here:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

H is for Hot Air Balloon

This free printable is perfect for your letter of the week studies! It incorporates tracing, coloring and letter recognition, and best of all, it is FREE to print!

Harper and I have been working on one letter each week to help her build on what she is learning at preschool. I am a firm believer that education continues at home, and I LOVE to tackle fun projects with my mini. We make coloring time at least 3 times a week, so I knew that creating letter themed coloring pages would be a lot of fun for the two of us!

H is naturally her favorite letter. It is H like for Harper! I have a love of hot air balloons so I added that in, in hopes that she will find them interesting too. I want to do a hot air balloon ride with the kids when she gets a little older.

I would love it if you pin this coloring page for later, share it with a friend or print as many as you could need! If you work on these printable pages with your early learners I would love it if you share a pic on my facebook page.

Print the H is for Hot Air Balloon Coloring Page

You can find our other letter printables here:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

C is for Cat Coloring Page

This week Harper and I are studying the letter C. Harper attends preschool, but I am a firm believer that education continues when you get home, and any extra help she can get will benefit her as she enters the fast paced world of kindergarten.

I have been designing a coloring page, creating a craft and selecting a fun book to focus on each week. I hope you will pin these totally free coloring page printables so you can use them and share them with other little learners in your life.

This post contains affiliate links.

Harp loves this simple design, it gives her a chance to trace her letter of the week. She can color a picture associated with the letter and of course, the story to wrap it all up is always a hit. This week we are recommending Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is one of Harps all time favorites!

C is for Cat Coloring Page Printable

We are revisiting a favorite  craft this week too! Both of my kids have loved making paper cookies for years now. Harp knew we were going to make them as soon as she saw me add sprinkles to the shopping cart this week!

You can check out our easy paper cookie craft here.

Who will you print this coloring page for?

A is for Alligator Coloring Page

I shared an easy and cute letter a craft for preschoolers with you a few days ago and wanted to continue our letter a adventure with a fun coloring page you can print for your little ones.

In case you missed our craft you can click through to check it out. Letter A; A is for Alligator Preschool Craft.

This free printable gives kids a chance to practice writing their a's while coloring a fun companion to the craft, which was so much fun and so simple! I will go through the entire alphabet with Harp, so keep checking back for the rest of the letters of the alphabet!

This post includes affiliate links.

You can also grab a really cute book for under $1 on amazon to add to your letter A lessons. Harper and Irecommend A is for Alligator naturally!

                                                        Print the A is for alligator coloring page here

If you have a fun idea for the letter A please leave a comment to inspire Harper and I!

A is for Alligator Craft

Now that Harper is in preschool, our projects have become intentional. I want to make sure she is getting the support she needs to put all that she is learning to good use! We have been taking our time exploring the alphabet and having a lot of fun doing it too!

Today, I want to share a fun letter A craft with you that comes together in a matter of moments and takes a bite out of craft time and makes letter recognition a lot of fun for preschoolers!

This post includes partner links.

To make the A is for Alligator Craft you will need:

2 x 4" strips of green paper
1 x 2" strip of green paper
2 x 2" strips of white paper
1 googly eye
glue stick
scissors

Directions:

1. With the 2x 4" strips  and 1 x 2" strip of green paper form your letter A and glue it in place.
2. Cut teeth shapes in the 2 x 2" strips of white paper. 
3. Glue the teeth on the legs of the A.
4. Glue the googly eye on to the top of the letter A.

If you have a fun craft idea for the letter A I would love to hear about it in a comment!

6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids

We didn't get enough snow to make snowmen last year. We waited with crossed fingers until April rolled around, then we gave up, defeated and longing for a day spent rolling big balls of snow around.

This year, if we don't have ample snow in our own backyard for winter fun, we are at least prepared to craft up some snowman fun! I found 6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids to keep in my reserve of winter fun and I think you are going to like these ideas too!

Handprint Snowman Preschool Craft
Bubble Wrap Snowman Painting
Snowman Winter Art Project
Snowman Sensory Art with Puffy Paint
Footprint Snowman Craft
Easy Puffy Paint Snowman Project

These ideas are simple enough for small children and creative enough to offer your older kids a chance to create and explore new materials.  Which is a win/win! My favorite art supply to introduce to children is Kwik Stix, tempura paint sticks. You can get these through my affiliate link.

Hopefully, we will get the best of both worlds this winter; a chance to whoop it up in the snow and make a ton of snowmen, then come in and warm up with a painting project or two!

If you have a favorite snowman painting project for kids, please leave a comment to share it with us!

You might also like this Paper Cookie Preschool Craft.

Top Gifts for Girls

This year there are so many awesome gift options that the hardest part of making Christmas wishes come true is deciding on what to buy! I have been busy as one of Santa's elves testing out some of the hottest toys and I have found some super fun ones! I am so excited to present these fun toys to you in my top picks for girls gift guide!

This post contains partner and affiliate links. Products and or payment was received for promotional considerations.

1) LeapFrog Epic Academy Edition Kids Tablet
This was my top pick for Harper this year because she really wants to use my ipad all of the time, but I worry about some of the things she wants to watch and play. The ads that pop up on so many of the games. This tablet is completely perfect for her, right out of the box. It has 20 learning games installed for family friendly entertainment, it also has a free trial of Leapfrog academy included. This offers kids a great chance to learn a variety of subjects anywhere they may go. The search feature is super safe, which I love. I no longer have to worry about my 4 year old landing on inappropriate youtube videos!

Retailing for under $120, this is a tablet that will grow with Harper. Ideal for ages 3 to 9, this is a colorful and durable tablet for kids that helps them learn and play all in one. A great feature is that as your child is ready to explore new android apps, you can add them to this tablet. That was a deciding factor for me as it will allow her to use the tablet with some of the other toys she will receive on Christmas morning!

2) Dance Code Belle
This is such a fun way to introduce your daughters to coding! They can create dances for Belle, and she will show them her moves! Control her from the app, press her necklace, or hold her hand for different ways to play with Dance Code Belle.

Coding seems like it would be hard, but girls as young as 5 can get in on the action by drawing the steps out, or a simple dot to dot style of coding. This is a great way to introduce a concept that may play a big role in her later life through an irresistible option!

Retailing for under $100 you can find this gorgeous Belle doll exclusively on Amazon this holiday season.

3) Baby Alive Sweet Tears Baby Doll
If your little girl loves babies this is the ultimate doll for her! Not only is it really adorable, but it also gives kids hands on tasks to make baby happy and smiling again! Your little one can play caregiver to a very interactive doll that smiles, giggles and even cries real tears!

The Sweet Tears Baby Alive comes with so much more than just a doll! She comes with everything you need to nurse her back to health when she is ill, feed her a snack, or brush her hair. One of my favorite features is that this doll isn't just for little girls. With a simple flip of a switch you can take your interactive doll from mommy to daddy mode for fun for little boys. Sweet Tears Baby Alive can make 35 phrases and sounds as an added bonus!

Retailing for under $50 this is a super fun gift option for little ones that love dolls!

4)  Play Doh Letters and Language Set
This is such a fun way to combine play and learning! The set has 26 letter stamps, 6 cans of play doh, a stylus, a roller, a mat  and a guide book for a complete letter learning experience.

One of the reasons we love play doh is it is such a wonderful tool for fine motor skill development. Harp has been playing with the classic dough since she was about a year old, and has developed so many crucial skills for life with the squishy dough in her hands, including using scissors. As we are learning all about the alphabet and making a lot effort on letter recognition in her preschool years this is a set that will bring her so much more than fun on Christmas day. It will help her build on a solid foundation of early learning with a favorite play time staple.

Retailing for under $20 this is a gift I recommend to anyone shopping for an early learner!

5) Go Go Smart Friends Shimmering Seashell Castle
This fun playset is perfect for little ones that like mermaids! The sandcastle features 3 points that when Pearl the mermaid is placed will produce fun sounds and phrases. The set includes friends for Pearl the mermaid to make playtime an epic underwater adventure.

Retailing at under $40 this is a great V tech toy for dramatic play and discovery. I love dramatic play tools for Harp so this was a natural choice. She will play with this in so many ways and I know she will introduce Pearl and the underwater friends to a lot of other toys.

This set features so much more than just a cute house. There is a vanity, a slide, a carrousel and so many more fun features to make this an exciting choice for little ones!

6) Hape Toys City Cafe Play Kitchen
This is a seriously adorable little kitchen. I love that it is wooden, because it looks so much more realistic than the heavy plastic varieties. It is compact enough for small space play, but in that tiny space it packs a lot of fun!

Featuring everything your little one needs to cook up a great time, the City Cafe Play Kitchen is one of my favorite gift ideas this year. As I mentioned above, I love to encourage dramatic play in my preschooler. With something as simple as a cute little kitchen, she can learn in so many ways!

This was a great option to pair with our Hape toys play food that we have been collecting over the years. Retailing for under $100, this is a gift that will bring years of learning through play.

7) Hape Toys Mighty Echo Microphone
This was another great choice for dramatic play. My kids have always wanted to get their hands on a microphone and with this choice it is possible without damaging eardrums or sanity levels.

This microphone has amazingly good sound quality for a battery free toy! I think it is a fun way to encourage kids to sing and again, engage in dramatic play. This makes a great gift for kids 12 months and up.

This would make a great stocking stuffer or gift exchange option as well.

8) Voice Activated BB8 
If your little girl looks up to Rey, then the natural choice is the Voice Activated BB8 from Hammacher Schlemmer. This is such a fun toy! Standing at about 19" tall this cute little robot is ready for adventure! The Star Wars character can be controlled using an included 40' range remote or set to an interactive mode that responds to voice commands such as “Come here”, “Where’s Rey?”, and “Stand guard!” Complete with lights and sounds from the BB8 we all know and love, this is a one of a kind toy that will make Christmas dreams come true as she sets out on an adventure with her new interactive friend. Retailing at under $230 this is the perfect gift for Star Wars fan girls of all ages. Not only is the BB8 droid adorable but he is so interactive! his moods are funtastic and the sounds are completely realistic. Also, check out kids advent calendars on Kidsco for more inspiration for various toys.

I would love to hear what your favorite gift options for girls are this year!

School Bus Snack

This easy school bus snack is the perfect way to welcome a new school year!

This post contains affiliate links.

Back to school is an exciting time for both kids and parents! This year my youngest is excited to begin her first year at preschool! My oldest, he says he must be most excited about lunch or the bus, he can't decide. I appreciate his honesty.

To take their excitement to a new level, we made a delicious and easy school bus snack to the delight of the kids!

This is so easy you guys! The kids can build these and they will love munching on them too!

Ingredients:

1 to 2 teaspoons of yellow frosting, any kind will do!

2 Nilla Wafers

1 Graham Cracker

4 Rice Chex pieces

Instructions:

Spread the frosting on the graham cracker

Add the Nilla Wafers as the wheels for the bus

Add the Chex cereal pieces as the windows

Enjoy!

This was a fun way to get the kids involved in making their own snacks and we might have played with our food just a little!

Do you have a fun back to school snack idea to share? I would love to hear about it in a comment!

You might also like this fun handprint fish puppet craft.

Chicken and Mushroom Sandwich

A few weeks ago, I realized that my grocery budget needed a major overhaul. Summer is here and my expenses always double in the summer. From utilities to entertainment; gasoline and groceries. You name it, with my entire family home for 3 months, it is going to cost more!

Thanks to BFree for sending product to use in this recipe! Be Free offers wheat and gluten free options ranging from pita to bagels, breads and rolls.

This year, I want to enjoy having my son and husband home with Harper and I. Sometimes, money stress really hampers our summer fun. So, I began examining our expenses and finding ways to cut them where possible without sacrificing any standard of living... well lets be honest, standard of eating!

I made it my mission to uncover great meals for a family of 2 adults and 2 preschool-ish age kids that would cost us less than $7 total.

$7 seems like a cheap meal right? Originally I thought about doing $5 meals, but I doubted I could produce delicious and nutritious meals on such a tight budget. We are not big beans and rice eaters. The possibilities have been promising so far on this inexpensive gourmet mission. I incorporate sale items into my menu to maximize my savings and to get the best use of fresh ingredients.

Sandwiches are a great option for any meal. They are fun to eat and they tie so many good flavors together! There is no shortage of sandwiches you can make! If you can dream it, make it and eat it! This is another one of those incredibly yummy and easy recipes that you can create for under $7. I loved that it created minimal dirty dishes in the preparation process and that the sandwich was substantial enough to make a meal on its own.

Ingredients

1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast sliced thin or diced into small chunks.

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup of shredded cheese

8 slices of your choice sandwich bread, I used BFree Brown Seeded Sandwich Bread
Spicy Brown Mustard

Directions

 Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a frying pan. Cook thinly sliced chicken breast thoroughly.

As your chicken is browning, saute sliced mushrooms until they are a golden color.

When your chicken is ready add the cheese and allow to melt.

Add spicy brown mustard to the bread. Add cheesy chicken to the bread and top with mushrooms.
Serve while hot.

Do you ever serve hot sandwiches for dinner? What is your favorite kind to prepare?

You might also like my Elvis Sandwich Recipe or My Peanut Butter Chicken recipe. 

Paper Cookies A Preschool Food Craft

My kids are so cute! They always want to help in the kitchen! When I do dishes, my daughter Harper will push a chair into the kitchen and climb up to the sink. She will say "I can do this Mom!" or she will want to help make coffee and push all of the buttons. If there is cooking involved my son dashes in, ready to help! I welcome their company in the kitchen 90% of the time. But, as any mom will tell you, there are times when having small kids in the kitchen is not the best idea.

On those rare times, I feel bad to deny their help, so I came up with a few fun food crafts that the kids can make while I am occupied with a complicated recipe.  The first one we did as you might recall was a pizza craft. The kids had so much fun making pizzas! We have made several of these since the post!

Tonight I was frying chicken, a rare thing that I admit, I am not so great at. I didn't want the kids to get splashed with hot oil so I entertained them with a paper cookie craft. It was a huge hit!

This was incredibly easy for the kids to make, the materials were super simple making preparation a breeze for me, and best of all- this craft does not require anything special. Seriously, you are going to have the supplies in your house!

Materials Needed to Make Paper Cookies

Several Brown Paper Bags or brown or yellow construction paper
Glue
Sprinkles
A Paper Plate

Instructions

To begin, cut circle shapes in the brown bags or construction paper as your cookie base.
{I cut about 30 circles at a time so that we can do this craft multiple times}.


Place as many circle cookie shapes as you like on the paper plate.
Drizzle glue onto the circle 'cookies'
Decorate with sprinkles
Allow to dry.

This was so fun for the kids! We will be making these again soon I am sure! Do you like to do paper crafts with your kids? I would love to hear about your favorites!

Making Traffic Lights Preschool Craft

My son and I have a routine. In the morning he has free time, he can play as he like or watch cartoons. He can color or grab a stack of books to look at. While he has free time I work. At 10 a.m. He gets his notice that we will clean the living room together when am finished cleaning the kitchen. 

Roo takes advantage of that notice and plays as hard as he can while I work in the kitchen. If it appears that he is having a especially good time I might dash in to make beds and start a load of laundry so that he can extend his fun.

When the chores have been taken care of Roo and I pick up all of the evidence of his morning fun. 

When the blankets, pillows, toys and books have been put away and the carpet has been vacuumed it is craft time. Harper likes this part of the morning because it is her chance to get on the floor and roll around.

Each week I have 2 planned crafts and I offer Roo the chance to choose the other 3 activities for the week. Last week he told me he wanted to make a "red light". 

Hmmm. That is easy peasy! Even I can manage this one without incident!

To begin the craft we got out the disposable plates I keep in our craft supplies for projects like this one, and 4 sheets of construction paper in red, yellow, green and black. I grabbed a tube of glue and we sat down to create.

I had Roo help me tear the paper into small pieces. I thought this was a good way to work on fine motor skills and develop his pencil grip.

 

Next I tore the black paper into 2 strips.

I made 3 circles of glue on each paper.

I demonstrated what I wanted Roo to do. Place the little bits of paper onto the glue. At first he wasn't sure why I wanted to keep the colors separate. 

But then he saw what we were doing! How cool! We had 2 "red lights" and he was ready to play. There was no waiting for the glue to dry!

And yes, that is a spider riding a motorcycle on the tracks!

2 "red lights" were not enough. With big blue eyes Roo begged "More Red Lights Please!" So we made another one with bits of paper on one of the plates we had used earlier.

I had a happy little boy who was very interested in daily craft time and who found inspiration in our craft to jump into a serious session of imaginative play. I felt accomplished that we had a smooth craft session, we worked on fine motor skills with a high interest creation. 

I am thinking of a better option for red lights for Roo. Maybe painting them on clothes pins so he could set them up by the train tracks. What do you think? What would you try?