Wednesday, April 28, 2010

DIY Projector Screen - tutorial

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, and I apologize because I am crazy busy with work, college, and soccer practice/games. I recently decided I wanted to add a projector screen to the daycare but didn't want to spend a fortune so here is what I came up with. I spent $22 for the fabric, ribbon, and dowel rod, and I didn't get anything on sale, so this really could be a lot chaper. I bought one yard of white fabric (I don't even know what it was now, but I made sure it was thick enough), and one yard of a cute black, pink, and white rick rack fabric. I bought two rolls of black with white dot ribbon (because my fabric store never has any grosgrain prints by the yard!!!). If you were to buy by the yard, I would suggest about 7-8 yards, but you will have to measure your own. I doubled the size of the screen (so it goes down the front and back) and added 24 inches to that amount.

You can use any rolling shade pattern, but it's simple. You basically cut your fabric to the size needed. Sew right sides together around 3 sides leaving the top open. Turn. Sew about an inch or a little more on the bottom to form a casing (and you can leave that open or stitch closed once the dowel rod is inserted). I used a 1 inch dowel for weight. to attach it to the wall, hubby used a 1x2 and just stapled the fabric to the back, lifted it up to screw it into the wall and let it fall over the top of the wood. Make sure you place your ribbon before you do that, but it's very simple. Looks cute rolled up because the fabric shows!!! (I didn't have much room, so I put mine over my bulletin board). The kids are absolutely loving this!!! We have been using a circle time powerpoint presentation with all of our songs (good morning, weather, days of the week, months, etc.) and I try to create one or two extra for our theme each week. We are talking about picnics this week, so this is our watermelon seed counting presentation. Hope this inspires you to do something new :)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Easter Craft Ideas - Knuffle Bunny craft

Just a few craft ideas from this week. The first one is a fingerpainted chick. Just have the kids fingerpaint a circle/oval shape on the paper, draw on some legs and a beak with an orange marker, add a yellow feather and a googly eye . . . so much for that, huh? I had my kids do their painting on a piece of white cardstock, and we glued that to a piece of orange construction paper (for a fun little border).
I love the way they all look different! I forgot to tell you that we added these little party hats. I had one who insisted on drawing a beak on the top of the chick's head, and then she changed her mind so we fixed it with a hat . . . then most of them wanted one. LOL. We work on ways to fix our mistakes without starting over or getting frustrated.
And next we have KNUFFLE BUNNY!!! This book was a hit, of course, because I have lots of kiddos with blankies and pacifiers! They could definitely relate to losing their security object.

Knuffle Bunny is a great story! Our craft is a dryer with Knuffle Bunny in it. To make it, cut the center out of a paper plate and paint that gray. Set aside to dry. Take a piece of wax paper and trace a paper plate on it. Cut just inside the line. I don't have the Knuffle Bunny template that I used, but you can free hand it. Make your bunny from construction paper and add the features. Glue the bunny to the wax paper and then staple on the back of the plate. Glue a black square on for the door. As much as I prefer cute little crafts, my kids LOVED this one because it gave them something to tell their parents. Many insisted on carrying them around all day - lol.