Use Real Buildings as Inspiration in the Block Area

Kids don’t need a lot of direction for what to build in with blocks, but adding pictures of real buildings can make block area a little more interesting because it gives kids a bit of an engineering challenge and allows them to use their creativity to re-create designs.

Fun a Day has a great post all about using real buildings in block area, and she has both a free to subscribers printable and a larger structure book that can be purchased for use in your classroom or at home.

You can also use the ideas in the post as inspiration for making your own building cards that can be used at home or in a classroom setting. Check out the post for all the great ideas and why using building pictures in the block area is a great educational idea.

Have you ever used real buildings in building challenges for kids? I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo: Fun a Day.]

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How to Make an Igloo or Other Snow Structure

There are so many fun things to do with fall leaves, which is a good thing because they are everywhere. We have more than a dozen trees in our yard so I would always try to do some leaf crafts when my daughter was younger. We made rubbings and preserved leaves and did a ton of jumping in leaf piles, but if you’re looking for more activities to do with leaves, read on.

If you have a lot of different kinds of trees in your yard, on the playground or at the park, you can make leaf mandalas like these from Red Ted Art. They’re inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, who makes temporary art with natural materials (learn more about him at the link).

Leaves are art all by themselves, but you can make them an even lovelier display by combining leaves with other natural materials in a collage. Or make a little natural weaving loom like this one from Woodlark to hold a bunch of leaves and other fall pretties in a way that can continuously be changed.

Another way to turn leaves into art is by using markers or pens to trace the veins on a leaf. This idea is from Go Science Kids, and it’s a simple thing that makes really pretty leaves to display while also giving you can chance to talk about why leaves have veins and what is happening when leaves change colors.

Kids Craft Room has a great idea for making leaf luminaries, which would be fun to decorate the table from now through Thanksgiving. The best thing about these is that you don’t have to use any glue, so it’s easy for kids to make (with some supervision since cutting is involved).

This one does use glue, but it’s so cute it’s probably worth the potential mess. Our Kid Things shows you how to make an adorable hedgehog with fall leaves using their printable template and a paper plate.

I also love this fall in a bottle project from The Crazy Outdoor Mama. It’s like a snow globe with leaves and has the added cuteness of a kid’s photo inside. This would be a fun one to make at school to give to parents or grandparents, and it’s so easy and cute!

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