Sparkly Pinecones

The curriculum for our  family classes for ages 2 and 3 being seasonal. I love coming up with ways for these little ones to create objects to bring cheer to the winter. I also use a lot of natural materials as art materials. That way kids find a connection between the world around them and creativity.  So this is what I came up with, hanging sparkly pinecones.

You'll need 

pine cones, which you can collect on walks.

paint of your choice

beads

colored wire ( I use twisteez)

glitter lots of glitter.

After twisting the colored wire around the first few seeds of the cone so that it will hang you can set the pine cone on a plastic plate ( I use these ones from Ikea for all kinds of projects). Give them paint of color of choice and let them go to town. It's a different type of exploration for kids to paint an object rather than on paper. 

After paint comes the glitter which I put in small cups for them to sprinkle and then it doesn't get too out of control. 

I then give them each a cup of beads so that they can bead onto the wire. It's much easier for this age to bead onto wire rather than string. It's great for eye-hand coordination as well as fine motor skills. They love talking about the different colors of beads as they choose them.

The result are these little sparkly tokens of winter to hang in windows or on the door to greet guests.

Happy Holidays!!