by gabry | May 21, 2012 | Learning Activities
I wanted to create a printable solar system model, something that I could print and put together easily to show my son what planets are in the solar system, which ones are closer or further from the sun and from us and which one is the biggest or the smallest. I chose not to use an actual scale, otherwise it would have been hard to make it printable, but I still tried to give an idea of the different sizes. I also tried to replicate as much as possible the actual colors of the planets as we see them from the earth, to create a realistic effect without using the actual pictures. Here is the result:
Here is how to recreate this simple solar system model:
1) print the free hi-res jpg on cardstock with a color printer (click here for the planets and the arms);
2) cut out the planets and the arms;
3) with a pointy knife or the tip of the scissors make a hole in the center of the sun and on one end of the arms; if you want you can also make a hole on the other hand of the arms and in the center of every single planet, but this is optional;
4) place a metal brad in the middle of the sun and connect all the arms to it before opening it;
5) place the planets at the end of every arm with tape, or with their own brad if you made the holes for it in step 3;
Enjoy!
Gabi
by gabry | May 10, 2012 | Coloring Activities
Since we enjoyed so much making the teabox circus train, I decided to create this simple coloring page for a simpler version of that craft. Just cut the parts and paste them together on a piece of construction paper to create a cute circus train with your child or classroom!
Circus train craft preview
Download the free pdf here, remember, it is for personal use only! Enjoy!
Gabi
by gabry | May 9, 2012 | Building Activities
I got the idea for today’s craft from a beautiful blog called Mer Mag and more specifically from this post, in which she created a train for her kids using tea boxes and colored duct tape. I thought it would be fun to recreate her idea in the spirit of Print-cut-paste-craft.com and create some templates for you to just print, cut and paste on your tea boxes. Here is the result!
Tea Box Circus Train
Tea Box Circus Train 2
For the train in the pictures I have just printed the colored templates ( you can download them for free here), cut them and used colored brads for the wheels. If you want I also uploaded the black and white templates (here) so you can let your little one color his/her own train before cutting and pasting. It is really easy and it is a great way to reuse those tea boxes you might have in your pantry, my son loves filling the boxes up with all his little toys and have them go for a ride, but you can use them also to organize a child’s crayons and other art supplies or as little gift boxes for a themed party. I would love to hear from you how you used them!
Enjoy!
Gabry
by gabry | Apr 27, 2012 | Coloring Activities
My son is obsessed with rockets and space right now, so I decided to create a craft that we could do together.
He has always enjoyed coloring but lately we have started to practice his pasting skills and he just loves playing with stickers and glue. Buying stickers is fun but it can be expensive and it is not as creative as making your own stuff together. The first project we made together I did it on the fly and just used some construction paper we had in the house.
I liked the idea but I wanted more elements and as soon as we had some time I drew all my space scene elements on a paper asking him what he would like to put in his space scene and had my son color them with me.
Then I proceeded to cut them (if your kid is already using scissors you can let him/her do the larger elements in the picture while you do the most detailed ones) and he had fun pasting them wherever he wanted.
Later, I have been sketching on the space “theme” and I came up with some nice rocket coloring page (downloadable here as a pdf, for private use only, not for commercial use.)
