Archives|Sparkles and Sprinkles

Snowflake Crayon Resist Watercolor

by sparkle | Feb 13, 2022 | Craft Tutorials

Last week I looked at the weather and saw there was snow in the forecast for the weekend, so I decided to get some non-washable crayons. Why? I was thinking it would be fun to make watercolor resist snow scenes this weekend, and we don’t keep the non-washable crayons needed for this project in our house. Years ago, a very wise friend of ours said that she only allows washable markers and crayons in her house. We thought this was a great idea, and we have done the same… it has probably saved us from a lot of impossible cleaning jobs over the years.

As our 3 year old is a budding mural artist and furniture decorator, I hid the crayons when I got them. When the snow was falling today, I thought it would be a perfect time to do this project… but I had forgotten where I hid the crayons. Fortunately, I eventually found the crayons, and we had a wonderful time drawing snowflakes and painting together.

With art projects, it’s great to have inspiration. Today, we were able to be inspired by looking at the falling snow. Another way we love to find inspiration is through looking at illustrations in children’s picture books.

We’ve been guided in letting books inspire us through Five in a Row (a lovely picture book-based curriculum for preschool and early elementary) and the Read Aloud Revival (they invite wonderful published authors to give really inspiring online classes to kids, and they also have amazing book lists). Whether you are a homeschooling family or not, I highly recommend Read Aloud Revival for their book ideas!

Here are a few of our favorite books with great snow illustrations:

Ella Bella Ballerina and the Nutcracker

Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas

Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day

Books by Lita Judge: Red Sled and Hoot and Peep: a song for snow

We hope during the next snow fall where you live, or the next time you are dreaming of snow, you can have fun making crayon resist watercolor snowflake scenes too! Let’s get started…

Gather your supplies:

Water color paper

Crayons (the non-washable kind)

Watercolors

Paint brushes (wide brushes are probably best for this project)

Cup of water (a cup that is not tippy is best)

Paper towels (to clean up spills and dry the paint brushes if needed)

Let’s create!

Draw snowflakes (and other pictures) with your crayons - be sure to press hard

When you are done with your crayon drawings, brush with watercolors and watch the snowflakes appear.

You can use the snow you see outside or a picture book to inspire your painting.

Sometimes little ones like to create a painting together with an adult or older sibling.

Happy Snow Day!

Note: The book links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Creamy Strawberry Energy Smoothie

by sparkle | Feb 12, 2022 | Breakfast Recipes, Snack and Dessert Recipes

We are writing this in February, when it might be too cold where you live to enjoy a smoothie, but we find we sometimes like to have smoothies even on cold days. They are super fast to make for a healthy breakfast, and they can be a great snack to give you the energy you need to make it through a busy afternoon.

Our cream strawberry energy smoothie is packed with vitamins and protein... and it's pink... so enjoy on Valentine's Day or any day of the year. We give guidelines for measurements in the recipe, but once you have made this a few times, you don't really need to measure, you can just add approximate quantities of ingredients to your liking. We often make our smoothies quite thick (not much almond milk) and eat them like ice cream in a bowl, but you could add more almond milk to be able to drink them from a cup or sip with a straw.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this page for some fun strawberry-themed activities too!

Let's make a smoothie!

Gather your ingredients:

Frozen strawberries
Almond milk
Natural peanut butter
Plain Greek yogurt

Optional:

Chia seeds
Protein powder

Gather your kitchen supplies:

Blender or food processor
1/2 cup measurer
1 Tbsp
Large spoon
Cups or bowls to serve
Spoons or straws

Time to measure and blend!

Step 1

Pour 4 cups of frozen strawberries into the blender.

Step 2

Measure 1/2 cup of peanut butter.

Step 3

Use a spoon to help to pour the peanut butter into the blender.

Step 4

Measure 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt

Step 5

Spoon the Greek yogurt into the blender.

Step 6

Pour in the almond milk. Fill to the 1 cup line for a smoothie you can eat with a spoon, or up to the 1.5 or 2 cup line for a smoothie you can sip with a straw.

Step 7

Put the cover on tightly!

Step 8

Press "pulse" or "blend" on your blender. Turn off the blender when well blended.

Step 9

Pour the smoothie into cups or bowls. This recipe makes about 4 servings.

Optional

Add a Tablespoon or 2 of chia seeds per cup and stir. If everyone likes chia seeds, you could also add them to the smoothie before blending it.

Optional

Add a half a scoop of protein powder per cup and stir. If everyone likes protein powder, you could also add it to the smoothie before blending it.

Step 10

Enjoy!

Click on the image to download our elementary strawberry math fun pages.

Be sure to print it in the "landscape" orientation.

Click on the image to download our homemade strawberry smoothie coloring page.

Our 10 year old loves to make coloring pages for her siblings, and now she makes them to share with you too! Thank you for coming to sparklesandsprinkles.blog today!

Chocolate Pomegranate Hearts

by sparkle | Feb 6, 2022 | Snack and Dessert Recipes

A number of years ago when our second daughter was about 5 years old, she and her best friend would often give each other sweet little gifts, from drawings to hand sewn dolls. One day her friend gave her a beautiful pomegranate. As pomegranates were not something we usually had on hand, we were not sure of the best way to use it. As it was near Valentine’s Day, we eventually came up with the idea of making chocolate hearts and sprinkling them with pomegranate seeds. They were delicious and really fun to make!

POMEGRANATE FUN FACTS

Pomegranates grow on trees that are found in many parts of the world. The word pomegranate comes from medieval Latin pōmum “apple” and grānātum “seeded.” Pomegranates seeds are high in fiber and packed full of vitamins, like vitamin C. You can find out more in this Wikipedia article.

So the big question is, how do you get the seeds out of a pomegranate? This is definitely the part of the recipe that will require the help of an adult. Rather than explain it to our ourselves, we recommend you use this (or another) tutorial on how to open a pomegranate.

Let’s Make Chocolate Pomegranate Hearts!

Gather your ingredients:

Dark chocolate bar*
Pomegranate seeds

*We used 85% here, but if you want to make this refined sugar free, you can start with unsweetened baking chocolate and add a sweetener of your choice.

Gather your kitchen supplies:

a flat tray or baking sheet lined with parchment paper
2 bowls (the one for the chocolate needs to be microwave safe)
2 spoons
Also (not pictured) a knife and a cutting board to cut the pomegranate.

Time to melt and decorate!