This giant list of preschool homeschool ideas is the perfect go to on days when you’re feeling stuck. Get some fresh inspiration to tackle boredom, liven up your preschool curriculum, and set up your perfect homeschool classroom.

 

preschool homeschool curriculum crafts and ideas

 

Young learners are all about experiencing the world around them and learn in so many different ways. I’ve compiled this list of 100 different ideas for crafts and classroom from my experience teaching my little learners. I hope you enjoy browsing through this list and get some of your own ideas for schooling your preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade kids.

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100 Easy Crafts And Classroom Ideas For Your Preschool Homeschool


Rainy Day Crafts

 

1.  Make Funny Masks. Use egg crates, pipe cleaners, construction paper and – of course – googly eyes!

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2. Make Animal Puppets. Paper lunch sack, googly eyes, and whatever craft materials you have on hand make for an instant and fun craft.

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3. Zebra Art. Perfect for little ones, make a cutout of a zebra and place over strips of black paper.

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4. Turn Cardboard Boxes Into Cars. Oh the amazing cardboard box – it can become so many different things!

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5. Paint with water on a chalkboard. For a low mess alternative to painting, try using water on a chalkboard to practice letters or just have fun.

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6. Coffee Filter Art. Mix water and food coloring then use a dropper to make designs onto coffee filters.

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7. Color A Giant Mural. Create or print a giant mural, then color a little bit each day.

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8. Crayon Shaving Art. Place crayon shavings between layers of wax paper and melt with an iron.

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9. Printable masks. There are so many printable masks you can use for an instant craft. Add a popsicle stick and you’re all set!

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10. Glue & Glitter Art. Because who doesn’t love glitter all over the house? Let loose and have some fun!

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11. Dot To Dots. Use Google Images to search for dot to dots and you’ll find a landmine of printable pages with varying difficulties. A great activity all the kids can do together regardless of their ages. There are even extreme dot to dots for mom!

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12. Make Cereal Necklaces. A craft you can wear and eat! A yummy way to work on fine motor skills and patience.

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13. Printable Elephant Masks. These are just funny. Cut a circle out and kids will giggle at making the trunks with their fingers.

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14. Playdough Kits. Whether you make your own or stock up at the dollar store, having a playdough kit on hand and ready to pull out at the first sight of rain is a lifesaver.

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15. Make Cards For Others. Help them think about others by encouraging kids to make cards for relatives and friends.

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16. Dollar Store Craft Kits. At a buck a piece, it’s easy to get a box going of dollar store craft kits to take out in a pinch.

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17. Mixed Media Mosaics. Raid the pantry for grains, legumes – well anything you can find to make mixed media art and mosaics.

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18. Egg Crate Caterpillars. A classic kids go back to over and over, get some googly eyes to make theirs extra silly!

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19.  Leaf Rubbings. Peel off a crayon’s paper and grab some leaves for this fun craft. Practice cutting skills by cutting around the leaf rubbing.

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20. Owl Puppets. Whoooooo wants to try these crazy cute puppets! Use leaves for the wings for some extra Fall fun!

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21. Make leaf stamps. Collect some leaves in the yard or on a walk. Swirl some paint in a container and use the leaves to make prints on paper. You can get a roll of packing paper at the dollar store for a giant canvas for bigger fun.

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22. Use finger paint and washable stamp pads for littlest artists. Your tiny tots may not be ready for paints, but finger paints and washable ink stamp pads are perfect for your budding artist.

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Summer Fun


 

23. Paint rocks outside on a sunny day. Set out some paint and brushed and let your littles hunt for rocks and then turn them into creatures with their paints.

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24. Sidewalk chalk paint. I discovered this method after picking up a bunch of chalk that had been left out in the rain. Place wet chalk in a food processor and blend it together. Then give your kids cups with the chalk paint and large paintbrushes to paint on the side walk. This is really fun because kids can watch their drawings turn into chalk lines as they dry.

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25. Make your own T-Ball stand or other sports games. What games can your kids make out of household materials? Wrapping paper rolls, coffee cans, string – give them the idea and see where they go with it! They’ll be busy making the game, then playing it.

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26. Paint outside on sunny days. Take your painting outside for some fresh air and inspiration. Not only will it provide lots of ideas for subjects, it will keep the mess out of the house.

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27. Colored water bucket and kitchen gadgets. For some reason this keeps my littles occupied for hours during the summer! I just fill a large bucket or tub with water and some food coloring and throw random items from the kitchen in and let them play. We add bubbles sometimes for fun. Try funnels, whisks, turkey basters – you may be surprised by how much fun they have with such a simple activitity!

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28. Paint with water on a hot day. It’s hot outside and the kids want something to do but you don’t have time to throw together an elaborate activity? A cup with water and a paintbrush might just give you 15 minutes of mom time. Kids can paint with water and watch their drawings “magically” disappear.

preschool craft ideas, kindergarten crafts, preschool homeschool, homeschooling kindergarten

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Boredom Busters

29. Basket game. Baskets, balls – instant game! Make up some rules and then let them make up their own game!

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30. Try a learn to draw book. You may think your little one is too young, but give it a try – they may surprise you!

preschool craft ideas, kindergarten crafts, preschool homeschool, homeschooling kindergarten

 

31. Shaving cream on a baking sheet. Lay down a towel and fill a baking/cookie sheet with dollar store shaving cream and let your little one get messy! Add paint brushes to make designs and popsicle sticks to push the shaving off their hands. Add glitter and tiny toys for extra fun.

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32. Finger painting on a large canvas. Give your kiddo extra room to create by using the blank side of leftover or unwanted wrapping paper.

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33. Make a sensory box. Sensory boxes are all over Pinterest, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or an organizing nightmare. Just have a container you can use – anything from a shoebox to a wrapping paper storage bin. Use zip lock bags to make “kits” you can pull out on a busy day. We created one using rice and objects for making a pretend garden. There are so many things you can do with this. Consider collecting unused toys by  category for a sensory bin adventure (ex., toy dinosaurs, cars, small dolls.)

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34. Cardboard bean bag toss games. This is an activity you can make and bring out over and over. Do an art project together one day and make a bean bag game out of an unwanted cardboard box. Have a sewing day and make bean bags. Then have fun playing your bean bag game!

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35. Make a fort. A classic go-to for rainy days or beating boredom, consider using clothespins and string to make fort building quick and easy. Add twinkle lights and have a reading day!

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36. Nature walk painting. Collect items on a nature walk and then see what patterns they make with paint.

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37. Make models of a nursery rhyme. Turn a shoe box into a diorama themed after a nursery rhyme!

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38. Act out a fable or skit. Dress them up as the characters and let them act out a play, fable, or story they make up.

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39. Trace leaves from a nature walk. Use a light tracer or make your own!

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40. Collect bugs or items from nature. Use a dollar store bug kit or recycle a container to see what interesting items or bugs they can find outdoors.

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41. Do a sewing project together. There’s always something that your kiddo can help with. Let them pick the fabric or pattern. Let them watch, hold pins, etc.

kindergarten crafts, homeschooling kindergarten, preschool craft ideas, preschool homeschool

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Hands On Science

42. Sugar cubes & food coloring. Toss some sugar cubes in a bowl and drop some food coloring on top to learn about absorption or just make fun art project.

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43. Collect and identify leaves. Collect a leaf from as many different trees as possible, then try to identify the trees. Hint: it’s easier to identify trees by their fruit (pinecone, etc.) if available.

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44. Try a Magic School Bus science kit. These all in one kits are perfect for beginning scientists and busy moms!

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45. Make rock candy. Suspend a string into sugar water and watch as sugar crystals form on the string over the next few days.

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46. The classic baking soda and vinegar trick. Introduce chemical reactions with baking soda and vinegar. If you don’t have time to make a fun volcano, simply putting the two substances in small cups will get a big “wow!” from your littles.

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47. Trace bodies and label parts of the body. Use dollar store packing paper or the backside of unwanted wrapping paper. Lay it out on the floor and have your PK1 kid lay down on top of it. Trace around their bodies and you’ll have a life size drawing to label simple parts of the body – not to mention a really neat keepsake! Remember when they were that little??

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48. Make green goo. Pull out your glue and borax and make this fun recipe for slimy gooey science fun!
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49. Make scientist lab coats from men’s thrift store shirts. I’m not the best at sewing, but this project was fairly simple to do and the results were just stinkin’ adorable!
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50. Teach nutrition by filling an appetizer tray with colorful healthy snacks. Let your kids experience a variety of healthy foods and colors. We often do this for lunch instead of a traditional sandwich.

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Math Fun

51. Marshmallows & toothpicks to make geometric shapes. An activity that’s fun and tastes yummy! Make cubes, diamonds, houses, etc.

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52. Introduce using a calculate with a dice game. Roll dice and add the numbers together using a calculator for an easy addition lesson. Use this printable for the game!

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53. Make manipulative stations. Set up about 4 stations of manipulatives and games and have your kids rotate every 8 minutes or so.

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54. Learn tally marks with beans. Teach your kids how to use tally marks by giving them a container of beans and having them count them out and mark tallies as they count. This also builds recognition and familiarity of larger numbers.
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55. Glue beans in groups of 2, 3, 4, or 5 to learn skip counting.

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56. Make straw rockets and practice counting backwards from 10.

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57. Race stuffed animals to practice ordinal numbers. When it’s time to learn 1st, 2nd, 3rd, have a stuffed animal race. See who came in for each place and award them with ribbons or use signs to label their places.

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58. Plinko for charting, statistics, fine motor skills or just plain fun. This idea can be used for so many different things throughout your homeschooling journey!

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Outside Adventures

59. Science museums are for little ones, too! Your young learner may not grasp all the complex concepts at a science museum, but take them anyway and let them explore. They’ll develop a wonderful attitude towards science and explanation and may even be young enough for free admission!

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60. Go for a jog together. Go for a quick stress reliever and family activity with a jog around the block. Even a 5 minute jog can reset your day and their foggy minds.

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61. Visit a fish market or international store. Take a special trip to a store that sells live seafood. You don’t have to explain that the animals will be someone’s dinner if you don’t want to, just enjoy the chance to watch them.

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62. Go fly a kite. Try out some kite flying at a local park. Don’t have a kite? There are many simple kites you can make and go try out together..

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Fun In The Kitchen

63. Make personal pizzas. Talk about nutrition and including vegetables in every meal. Let your little one make their very own pizza – funny faces are a plus!

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64. Let them wash dishes! You may not think of washing dishes as a very educational activity, but helping out at the sink teaches fine motor skills, tactile learning, and being a contributing member of the household.

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65. Let your kids help you bake and cook. While Type A moms might have anxiety over the mess it will make, there’s always something your little one can do in the kitchen to help and the wonder of watching cookies rise in the oven is something young ones get very excited about.

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66. Make a cake together. Small, elaborate, fancy or simple, baking a cake is a great way to teach steps that must be done in order, how to tackle a larger project, and taking pride in our work.

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67. Get silly with healthy foods. Embrace your inner child and give yourself permission to get a little silly with their lunches. Introduce them to all sorts of healthy food and turn it into a funny face every once and awhile!

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68. Shuck nuts! A lost activity with all our conveniences, chances are your little one will surprise you with how much they can do on their own. Teach hard work and the satisfaction that comes from eating the results of our effort.

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PK1 Homeschool Classroom

69. Make an exercise chart. Want to get in more P.E.? Try making a fun exercise chart! Hang on a metal surface and use a magnet to indicate what the exercise of the day is.

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70. Use a dollar store calendar for decorations. For a buck you can get 12 matching themed photos to decorate your classroom – just tear apart the calendar and staple to the wall.

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71. Make a display for yearly or quarterly goals. At the end of the time period, place a sticker on each goal that’s met. This will keep mom on track too!

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72. Make a day of the week center with dollar store kits. For just a few bucks and some velcro stickers, you can make a reusable day of the week center for circle time.

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73. Personalize desks with names & goals. Make your kiddos feel special with their own name plates and a fun goal chart. Use stickers or stamps to mark completion of each goal (ex.: I can count to 10, I know all my colors, etc.)

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74. Make personalized name tags for your homeschooled students. The first day of school photo of your child makes a great accompaniment to a personalized name tag for the front of their desk.

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75. Make a felt board! Make a felt board from white flannel affixed to any surface for an instant felt board.

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76. Get a class pet. Whether it’s a fish, a dog, a lizard or stuffed animal, having a class pet can introduce responsibility, routine and discipline in young ones.

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77. Print and hang chores cards. Put an all done check mark on the back and kids can flip the cards over when their chores are done. Make them easy to start out with so you can build on the learned discipline as they grow older.

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78. Use a dollar store pocket hanger to make a cute school schedule. 
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Homeschooling PK1 Kids

79. Play lots and lots of games. Learning should be fun and so much fun is learning! Don’t underestimate the value of  games when teaching young ones.

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80. Pair learning toys with worksheets. Try to always include multiple media when tackling new subjects. Regardless of the type of learners you have, retention is always increased by using multiple approaches. So dive into your kids’ toys and get creative!

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81. Have a music bucket on hand. Create a bucket of musical toys that you can pull out for music time whenever you want to. PK1’s LOVE music time! Try games like keeping the beat together.

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82. Make games with flash cards. Lots of moms shun flashcards, but they can provide a lot of fun and learning by using them in creative ideas. Try these 12 fun games with flashcards.

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83. Trace with wet noodles.Try some sticky gooey fun by using cooled cooked spaghetti noodles to trace letters, numbers, equations, or just make silly drawings!

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84. Practice fine motor skills by using clothespins to feed “animals.” Use a craft like this clay and eggcrate crab or stuffed animals or toys and have young ones feed them cotton balls or other small objects. Try a racing game to include older kids too.

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85. Host an open house for family members. Display a selection of work from the school year at an end of year open house for family members to see your kids’ work. Your kids will feel proud of the work they accomplished and your family members will see that yes, you do “real” work! 🙂

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86. Practice quiet reading time with personal book baskets. Whether you get fancy book baskets or stock up on simple ones at the dollar store, your kids can play library and fill their baskets with their choices for today’s quiet reading time.

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87. Trace pictures to learn how to draw. Little ones can get easily discouraged trying to draw, but using a lightbox and tracing something they want to draw can build confidence and a love for drawing. When the light turns off they can see the picture they’ve drawn.

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88. Combine different media to make a unit lesson. Any topic at all can become an instant unit lesson by adding basic media. Find a YouTube video, create an art project, request some books from the library, and so on. Get creative!

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89. Learn sign language. With the popularity of baby sign language it’s no surprise that kids can learn sign language well before they can write. Sign language can help with fine motor skills (watch that pinkie!), comprehension of the alphabet (the end of the one-word “LMNOP”), and developing an insight into deaf culture.

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90. Use beading to teach patience. Ah, patience. This is SO hard to teach to little ones! Set aside some one on one time to bead together. You can have focus teaching time to guide your little one through their emotions and reactions to becoming frustrated. As they finish their project they can have the satisfaction of something beautiful as a result of their staying calm and working through their problems.

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Alphabet & Reading

 

91. Upper & lowercase letter matching. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Just make a set of uppercase and lowercase letters and play matching games with them. (think Memory) Practice in small sets of 4 to 6 letters so it’s not too overwhelming.
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92. Make letter kid puppets. Make letter kid puppets on popsicle sticks and name the kids something that starts with their letter.


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93. Make giant dice for learning games. Use a website like this one to make your own printable dice.
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94. Make an alphabet letter chain as you study the letters of the alphabet.


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95. Use Scrabble tiles! Oh the fun you can have with Scrabble tiles! Play letter seek, letter matching, and practice sight words.

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96. Use daubers for letter and sight word recognition. Bingo daubers or do-a-dot markers can be used to make worksheets more fun. Kids can dot the letters or sight words as the find them.

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97. Have new readers read to the baby or younger siblings. 
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Tips & Tricks

98. Use ice cube trays for paints / water & food dye.
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99. Use a cheap shower curtain for projects, backdrops, games or drop cloths.

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100. Use a painter’s canvas for a universal drop cloth for art projects. 

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100 easy craft and classroom ideas for preschool homeschool kindergarten and first grade homeschool


Want more 100’s lists fun? Check out the 100 Things iHN link up from iHomeschool Network!

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