Each week I bring you a craft you can create with your child that is both frugal and educational.  This week I want to focus on Mother’s Day crafts.  You may be thinking, “I don’t want to create my own gift!”.  If this is how you feel, pass the directions onto your husband or another adult.  I personally think it makes the gift even more special if you help your child create it because now you not only have a gift, but every time you look at you will remember the experience of helping them make the gift.

There are so many gifts for Mother’s Day on the internet and in books; I have tried to pick a couple of the most frugal ones that allow you to use materials around the house. 

Recipe Card Holder
Materials:
Small envelope box
Wrapping paper, brown paper bag, or construction paper
Markers, crayon, glitter, any other decorative items
Glue or tape
Index cards
Recipes from internet or magazines

Directions:
1.  “Wrap” the empty envelope box with your choice of paper. 
2.  Decorate the outside of the box and labe the top “Mom’s Recipes”.
3.  Cut the recipes out and glue or tape them onto the index cards.
4.  Fill the box with recipes!

Photo or Memory Box
Materials:
Empty shoe box or diaper wipe container
Wrapping Paper of your choice
Tape or glue
Markers, glitter glue, other decorative items

Directions:
1.  Wrap or decorate the outside of your box or container.
2.  Label the box “Mom’s Favorite Photos” or “Mommy/Name of Child” Memories
3.  Fill with loose photos or scraps of paper with favorite mommy/child memories.  You can also present it to Mom for her to fill.  We filled ours with a flower Will made at Easter and a framed photo of the boys.

Each week I bring you crafts to do with your child that are both frugal and educational.  With Earth Day this week, I thought it would be appropriate to have that as a theme. 

Craft #1
Coffee Filter Earth
Materials
-coffee filters
-green and blue markers
-water

Directions:
1.  Have your child color the coffee filter with blue and green markers.
2.  Cut out a circle to represent the Earth.
3.  Spray the coffee filter with water and allow to dry.
4.  The final product is very delicate-use this to discuss with your child how delicate the Earth is and list ways to take care of it ( reduce, reuse, recycle, etc).

Craft #2
Nature Binoculars
Materials
-2 Toilet Paper Rolls
-Square Piece of Cardboard (from cereal or other food box) cut 2X6
-Glue
-Decorative Accents (markers, glitter, sequins, feathers, pebbles, etc)

Directions:
1.  Decorate the toilet paper rolls and square in your own designs.
2. Glue the rolls to the edges of the 2X6 cardboard piece.
3. Explore your back yard with your child and their new binoculars. Discuss all the plants and animals and the things we can do to protect them (i.e. don’t litter, use less water, etc).

Each week I bring you a craft or activity to do with your child that is educational and frugal!  This week’s idea was submitted by Madame Deals do directions will be given for her particular project. 

Materials:
Magazine with pictures of your chosen animal (National Geographic was used for this one)
scissors and glue or tape ($1)
shoe box
2 dolphin (bought at Dollar Store) ($2)
Total Cost of Project:  $3

Directions:
1.  Have your child select the animal they would like to make a “home” or habitat for in the box.
2.  Discuss with your child the types of things found in the habitat (coral, water, other fish for a dolphin).
3.  Have your child search thru the magazine for these types of pictures.  If they are old enough to cut them out allow them to do so, otherwise you will need to do this.
4.  Glue or tape your pictures inside the shoebox to make it look like the habitat.
5.  Tape your animal’s picture inside it’s “habitat”.

Educational Modifications:
1.  Science:  Obviously this activity is geare towards Science and the topic of habitats.  You can discuss other animals and other habitats after creating this one.
2.  Language Arts:  Have your child write the steps to creating the shadowbox.  You can also have them do some computer research about their animal and habitat and write about what they find.  Remember that you can write their thoughts down for them if they are too young to write.  Will LOVES researching things on the computer with me (usually dinosaurs) and we always summarize what we find while searching.

 
Each week I bring you a craft/activity that is both educational and frugal.  Last week’s focus was on making change and I received some requests for more money crafts.  Enjoy!
Materials:
Construction paper
Magazines/Internet
Glue
Scissors
Play Money (can be printed HERE)
Markers

Directions:
1.  Talk with your child about what kind of store they would like to open (Will chose a dinosaur store).  Draw that store on paper.
2.  Browse magazines or the internet for pictures of items that may be in the selected store. Cut out the pictures and glue them in a display on the paper (Obviously we used PBS.org to get our Dinosaur Train pictures).
3.  Label the items in your store with prices. 
4.  Print out the paper money and cut it out or use play money from the Dollar Store. 
5. Shop your store.  Be sure to give your child a set amount of money they can spend so they learn the concept of not spending more than they have.

Language Arts Modifications:
1.  Have your child create a shopping list before they “shop”.  Making a list is one form of pre-writing in the writing process. 
2.  Have your child write about their “shopping trip” afterwards and seqence the items they bought.
3.  Have your child write how they determined what items they could buy and still maintain their budget.

If you’re the parent of a school-aged child, you know that a major skill most children struggle with is learning how to make change.  This is also a challenge for some teachers to teach.  When I was teaching 2nd grade I came up with a game that really helped my children understand a little better.

Children love to engage in dramatic play/games and I tried my hardest to allow them to do this during center time in the classroom.  Games and role playing are huge learning tools!  When I first began teaching I also waited tables at night at our local Applebee’s (further evidence that teachers are not paid enough).  My students were aware of my second job and were always very interested about it.  I thought I would take advantage of this interest and use it to grab their attention, hence my Dining Out game was invented.

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Each week I try to bring you a craft you can do with your kids that is both educational AND frugal.   Bubbles are always a favorite with kids but can get costly if you continually purchase them.  I’ve given you a very frugal recipe for bubbles and some educational applications.  They may seem a little far fetched but teachers are notorious for being able to make anything educational!

Bubble Recipe:
4 cups water
1 cup dishwashing liquid (I used generic and it worked just fine)
1/4 cup corn syrup

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and have some fun!

Educational Applications:
1.  Using pipe cleaners, create various shapes (circles, triangles, etc-we did a heart) to help your child learn or review shapes.  Use the pipe cleaners as bubble wands.
2.  While measuring out the ingredients, discuss measurements and fractions (i.e. 1/4 cup ).
3.  Talk about the steps you completed to make the bubbles and write them down on separate sheets of paper (gather the ingredients, measure each ingredient, combine the ingredients, gather/make bubble wands, play with the bubbles, clean up).  Mix the steps up and have your child sequence them.
4.  Have your child observe the colors in the bubbles and let them draw/color what they observe.
5.  While playing with the bubbles, review beginning sounds with your child (b for bubble, p for pop, etc).

Bubbles can also be used to teach eye contact, turn taking, and a variety of other social and language development skills.

Each week I try to bring you a craft you can do with your kids that is both educational AND frugal.  We’ve been having some table manners issues with Will lately so this week I came up with a craft that is geared towards improving this behavior.  I have included educational modifications at the bottom of the post.

Materials:
1 toilet paper roll
1 paper plate
Various colors of construction paper ( or 1 color based on your preference)
tape or glue

Directions:
1.  Cut the center circle out of a paper plate. Write your topic in the middle.  Ours was “Will’s Meal Time Rules”.
2.   Set the circle on top of the toilet paper roll to mark where you will need to slit the roll to insert the plate.

3.  Trace your child’s hand about 5 times.  You can just trace it once and then cut all the sheets at once, but Will LOVES when we trace his hands.

4.  Write a rule on each “hand”. 
5.  Tape or glue the hands around the plate and you have a “flower” of learning!

Educational Modifications:
Language Arts: 
1.  Write 1 word on the plate and have each hand be a rhyming word.
2.  Write the title of a book on the plate and story elements on each hand (setting, problem, solution, etc).

Math:
1.  Put “I Know My Shapes” on the plate and put different shapes on each hand for your child to identify.
2.  Put “Math Symbols” on the plate and put math symbols on the hands.  Have your child tell you what symbol represents (ie: + means to add).

Science:
1.  Put a habitat on the plate and characteristics or animals that live in that habitat on the hands.

Social Studies/History:
1.  Put “I Am A Good Citizen” on the plate and put citizenship traits on the hands.

Each week I try to bring you a fun and frugal craft that can easily be done at home with your children. St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner so how could I not dedicate this week’s craft to such a  fun holiday?!  If you’ve missed any previous crafts, check out Momondealz’s Kids Frugal Fun page. If you enjoy my crafts, please be sure to !

Pot of Gold Learning

Materials:
empty butter container (or yogurt, sour cream,etc)
yellow construction paper
glitter and glue
black construction paper (or whatever color you would like your pot of gold to be)

Directions:
1.  Use the yellow construction paper to make circles that will be your “gold coins”.  Ensure you make them big enough to write on. 
2.  Label the “coins” with your desired learning topic (there is a list of ideas below). I labeled mine with some of the 100 high frequency words, Will’s name, and sets of shapes.
3.  Cut the black construction paper to fit around the container.  Cover it with glue and sprinkle glitter all over it.  Definitely have your child help with this-they will love it!
4.  Glue the glitter covered paper around the butter container, put your “coins” inside, and you have a pot of gold!  Allow your child to reach in and pull out their golden nuggets of learning! 

Educational Ideas for your “coins”
-Word names for numbers (one, two, three, etc).  Have your child identify them.
-Math symbols ($,+,-, etc).  Have your child tell you what function they perform (add, subtract,etc).
-Pictures of objects found in the past and present times.  Have your child tell you when they are from.
-Shapes and have your child identify them.
-Upper and lowecase alphabet letters.
-Rhyming words and have your child match them.
-Pictures of solids, liquids, and gases and have your child ID them.
-Pictures of coins or bills and have your child ID them.

If you go into any drug store or dollar store, you are sure to see tons of Easter decor out and about, especially the ever popular plastic Easter eggs!  If you’re like me, you keep them to reuse every year so you probably don’t need to buy more.  I thought it was a good time to give some learning activities you can do with the eggs. The kids I used to teach always loved them!

Language Arts:
1.  Contractions:  Label one half of egg with the contraction (example-I’m) and the other half with the 2 words that make the contraction (example-I am). Have your child match the parts.
2.  Upper and lower case alphabet:  Label one half of the egg with the capital letter and one half with the lower case. Then have your child match them.
3.  Rhyming words:  Label the egg halves with ryhming words.
4.  Label halves of eggs with different vowel sounds (short a, long a, short e, long e, short o, long o, etc).  Label the other halves with words that contain the vowel sounds.  Have your child match the words to the sound.

Math:
1.  Label egg halves with numbers and you can add, subtract, or multiply them.
2. Label one half of egg with math problems and other half with the solution.  Have your child match them.
3.  Label one half of the egg with a number and the other half with the number word (example-one and 1). Have your child match them.

Social Studies:
1.  Label small sheets of paper with famous people’s names and put them inside the eggs.  Have your child open the eggs and tell what the person is famous for (Example-Betsy Ross made our American flag).
2.  Label small sheets of paper with directions (behind, in front, left, right). Have your child open the eggs and tell you an object that is located in that direction.

Science:
1.  Label halves of eggs with our 5 senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell) and the other halves with the body part we use for the sense (eyes, hand, ear, mouth, nose).  Have your child match them. 
2.  Label halves of eggs with habitats (ponds, forests, oceans, etc) and the other halves with animals found in those habitats (frogs, bears, dolphins, etc).  Have your child match the animals to the habitat.

Here is another site I found some great ideas for activities as well:

Teaching Heart Mom

photo credit: amazon

Each week I try to bring an activity to you that is fun yet educational AND that is frugal.  This week I wanted to give you a way to rejuvenate all of those broken crayons you have around the house. 

Materials:
broken crayons
oven
cupcake/muffin pan

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2.  Gather all of the broken crayons you have in the house.
3.  Spray muffin pan with PAM or line them with foil liners. (I used my oldest pan for this in hopes of having an excuse to replace it, but the crayons don’t stick so no such luck for me!)

4. Divide crayon pieces among the spaces in the pan on your preference.  You can put similar colors together, seasonal colors together, primary colors together, etc.
5.  Put pan in the oven. Check every 5 minutes to monitor if they are melting.  Everyone’s oven is different so time will vary. 
6.  When crayon pieces are completely melted, remove from the oven and allow to cool.  If you are in a rush, you can put them in the fridge or freezer.
7.  Pop out of pan and color away with your new crayons!

Educational Usage:
1.  Discuss with your child different states of matter and how the crayons went from a solid, to a liquid, and then to a solid again.
2.  Discuss the blending of the colors and how different colors can combine to make new colors.
3.  Use this activity to help your child review steps in a process.  They can retell you the steps orally, they can draw the steps, or write them down.
4.  Discuss how this activity is an example of recycling.  Talk about other things that can be recycled and the benefits of recycling.  Have your child draw, list, or tell you other ways to help the enviroment.

This is an activity I did during center time in the classroom and the kids LOVED it!  It can be adapted for just about any subject but I am giving directions for early literacy skills. 

Letter/Sound Fishing

Materials:
**fishing set from Dollar Tree
**glue/tape
**10-15 paper clips
**paper/scissors

Directions:
1. Either use the paper to cut out fish shapes or small squares as shown in the picture above. 
2.  Label the shapes with letters, letter sounds, or sight words. If you use the plastic fish, tape the squares onto them.  You can also use permanant marker to write on them but I prefer taping the paper and then I can always remove it later to do a different skill.  If you are using homemade paper fish then clip the paper clips on the fish after you label them.
2.  Have your child “fish” and identify what they have “caught”.  You can have them tell you the letter, the letter sounds, words that begin with that letter, or even have them put the letters in alphabetical order after they have all been caught.

**You could also make your own “fishing pole” by using a popsickle stick, string, and magnet if you want to save any more money!

Modifications:
Language Arts: 
1.  Label the fish with word sounds such as ch, sh, th, st, sk, tr and have your child tell you words that start or end with those sounds. 
2.  Label the fish with story elements (title, characters, setting, etc) and use the fishing game after reading to review the story read.
Math:
1. Label the fish with numbers and add, subtract, or multiple the numbers that you “catch”.
2.  Lable the fish with shapes or colors and have your child identify them when they catch them.
Social Studies:
1.  Label fish with famous people taught in school and when your child “catches” the person have them tell you why they are famous. Example:  George Washington-He was our first president and the “Father of Our Country”.
Science:
1.  Label the fish with the scientific method and when your child catches one step they have tell you what it means. Example:  The Procedure is a step by step explanation of how you conduct your experiement. 
2.  Label the fish with different animals.  When your child catches one they have to tell you what habitat they live in.  Example:  A frog would live in a pond.