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Metallic Paint Poured Pumpkins: Simple, DIY Fall Decor

Metallic Paint Poured Pumpkins: Simple, DIY Fall Decor

October 2, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone 3 Comments

This is the perfect fall project to do with kids, that you can actually keep as decor for your house. Paint pouring is a really fun art project to do with kids, because what little one doesn’t love to squeeze the paint bottle?! It can’t just be my kids. I’m constantly

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Fall, Halloween, Holidays, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Thanksgiving, Toddler Arts & Crafts Tagged With: arts & crafts, diy, fall, kid made, metallic, paint, pumpkins

Frankenstein Door Wreath: DIY Halloween Decor

Frankenstein Door Wreath: DIY Halloween Decor

September 27, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

This Frankenstein Halloween wreath is so simple to make, and just funny enough not to be spooky! Inspired by this spider door wreath, these large googly eyes are too fun.  With only a few materials and about 10 minutes of work, we had a super simple, homemade, Frankenstein-ish door decoration. To ensure

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Halloween, Holidays, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Uncategorized Tagged With: arts & crafts, diy, frankenstein, Halloween, Homemade, monster

Painting with Hexbugs: Combining STEM with Art

July 27, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: For this post, I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned.  If a post is written based on compensation, it will include a disclaimer stating so as required by law.    

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Elementary, Learn Through Play, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Sponsored Work, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddler Science, Toddlers, Uncategorized Tagged With: Arts and Crafts, STEM

Indoor Highways: Chalk and Construction Paper

July 23, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

This is a SUPER simple process with TONS of learning potential…and pretty mess free! WHAT YOU NEED: -construction paper -chalk -toy car -Legos, toy buildings, people, etc (optional) 1. We used 5×7 sized construction paper and drew both straight and curved roads on a number of pieces. Fun drawing practice.

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Elementary, Learn Through Play, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschoolers, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool, STEM

Marbled Milk Prints: Art+Science

June 27, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

  We have done the magic milk experiment a number of times and it never gets old! Watch the video below to see how we turned our experiment into art! To see the full tutorial on how to do the experiment, click here.   We chose to color on our

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschool Science, science, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddler Science, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Frozen Paint Pops: Summer Art for Kids

Frozen Paint Pops: Summer Art for Kids

June 11, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

This summer we are doing themed weeks similar to a summer camp at home. This week is color week! My 2 year old still doesn’t know her colors despite my best efforts..so we are spending the whole week focusing on them! To keep my 4 year old engaged we are

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Elementary, Learn Through Play, Outdoors, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschoolers, Summer, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Butterfly Life Cycle Craft with Pasta

Butterfly Life Cycle Craft with Pasta

June 5, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

We love talking about the life cycle of a butterfly, even though my 4 year old knows the process well by now it still completely fascinates him! We also happen to love colored pasta for sensory play which is what we used to complete this activity.  To see how we

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Learn Through Play, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Spring, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Watercolor Printing with Strawberries

June 3, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Follow my blog with Bloglovin My kids love to pick fresh fruits and vegetables from our local orchards. It’s one of our favorite summertime activities and always serves as a nice platform for our ‘projects’ (as the kids like to call them). Whenever the kids are getting themselves into trouble

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Babies, Learn Through Play, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschoolers, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Erupting Sidewalk Paint

May 26, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone 1 Comment

Follow my blog with Bloglovin We celebrated Memorial Day with our erupting sidewalk paint! We chose to use red and blue to be patriotic and pretended that the ‘explosions’ were our fireworks! I love anything do to with sidewalk paint so when I came across Growing a Jeweled Rose’s post on Exploding

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Learn Through Play, Outdoors, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Spring, Summer, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddler Science, Toddlers

Painting Outdoors with Water Guns

May 24, 2015 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Follow my blog with Bloglovin It’s finally starting to feel like spring in our neck of the woods! Which means it’s time to keep the kids occupied OUTSIDE! This stay at home mom spends much of the day chasing the 2 and 4 year old tornadoes that rip through my

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Elementary, Learn Through Play, Outdoors, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschoolers, Spring, Summer, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

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Welcome to Views From a Step Stool!

Welcome to Views From a Step Stool!

I am a mom to three little ones and love to create and explore every day with them! We have open minds and messy hands, come join in our adventures!

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What’s New

  • 12 Snowman Crafts for Kids
  • 10 Elf on the Shelf Printables to Download
  • 12 Elf on the Shelf Ideas
  • Candy Corn Sensory Bin
  • Emotions Sensory Bag
  • 10 Thanksgiving Handprint Crafts

What’s New:

  • 12 Snowman Crafts for Kids
  • 10 Elf on the Shelf Printables to Download
  • 12 Elf on the Shelf Ideas
  • Candy Corn Sensory Bin
  • Emotions Sensory Bag
  • 10 Thanksgiving Handprint Crafts
  • Build a Jack-o-Lantern Sensory Craft
  • Breakfast Smoothies for Kids with BlendJet Portable Blender
  • 12 Outdoor Painting Ideas for Kids
  • Educational Sensory Bin Ideas
  • 12 Animal Sensory Bin Ideas for Kids
  • 10 Insect Themed Sensory Bins
  • 12 Bee Crafts for Kids
  • 15 Easter Chick Crafts for Kids
  • 15+ Earth Day Crafts for Kids
  • St. Patrick’s Day Emotion Cut and Paste Printable Activity
  • Valentine’s Day Charades Words
  • Printable Color by Number Valentine’s Day Cards for Kids
  • Valentine’s Day Kindness Countdown Calendar: Free Printable
  • Valentine’s Day Pixel Art Color by Number: Free Printables

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