Mommy, Monet and Me! Letter N

Noodles, Necklaces and Night!

Today in MMM we made sparkly noodles and then made them into necklaces.  We also created beautiful winter night paintings.  

Sparkly Noodles

Materials: Pasta Noodles (any kind with a hole in it), white glue, glitter, plastic spoons, tray or bowl for glitter.

This a fun way to make sparkly beads for a homemade necklace.  Simply take a dry pasta noodle, drop it in some watered down glue, fish it out and let the excess glue drip off and then use a spoon or little fingers to roll it in glitter.  All kids love glitter, but mom's usually don't.  This is a good way to do glitter without making too much of a mess.  You could also put the noodles in a tupperware with a little glitter or a plastic bag, seal it up and let your little ones shake away until the noodles are covered.   Let the sparkly noodles dry before stringing them on a string or pipe cleaners. 

Noodle Necklace

Materials: Sparkly Noodles, Pipe Cleaners, other beads

Making a necklace is a great way for toddlers to work on those fine motor skills.  I have found that it can be really difficult and frustrating for little fingers to work with string or yarn for necklaces, especially when the string is dropped and beads scatter everywhere, so I use pipe cleaners.  Pipe cleaners are great for a few reasons...they come in so many colors, they can be twisted together, they are rigid and easier for little ones to manipulate, and they have enough friction to keep beads... or noodles in place.

Winter Night Painting

Materials: Watercolor paper (or cardstock), Masking Tape, blue or black paint, crayons or oil pastels, salt (optional)

This lesson is adapted from the blog Art Projects for Kids. 

For our night time painting we started with half sheet of watercolor paper and some masking tape.  Tear medium length pieces of tape for your toddler.  I like to tear the tape down the middle to get a wavy edge.  Then use smaller strips of tape to make branches off of the main trunk until you have a beautiful masking tape tree.  Encourage your little one to rub the tape down so the edges are flat. 

Next, use a crayon or oil pastel to make stars or snow in the sky.  They can just tap the crayon randomly all over the paper and it looks great!  You could also draw a moon in the corner. 

Apply the paint.  I use blue tempra paint that is pretty watered down, any watery blue paint would work.  Blue from a watercolor tray would work, but the other colors on the tray often prove too tempting for toddlers.  Paint all over the whole picture, even on top of the masking tape. 

While the paint is still wet sprinkle a little salt over the top of your picture.  The salt soaks up some of the water and leaves a cool winter texture behind.  It kind of makes it look like it is snowing. It's amazing how exciting the prospect of sprinkling salt is to a 3 year old

When your picture is dry, carefully remove the tape and check out the cool trees left behind on your paper.  Remember it is the process not the product that matters.  Every tree is different and your toddlers should not look perfect, let them create freely!