Dec 14, 2008

Oatmeal Craft Ideas

At our coop's holiday party last week we brought the supplies to make Magic Reindeer Food - something we have been doing with KM since she was 2 years old.
If you have never heard of it here is the info for it:

Supplies

  • Raw Oatmeal
  • Glitter (I use a silver or gold base and mix red and green in with it)
  • Plastic lunch baggies
  • Ribbon
  • Paper or cardstock

    How To Make It

    1. Pour about 1/8 cup of oatmeal in baggie. Add some glitter. Close baggie.
    2. Attach with ribbon to the front of the baggie the following message. "On Christmas Eve, sprinkle this wonderful Reindeer Food on your lawn. The shiny glitter will sparkle in the moonlight and the smell of oats will guide Rudolph to your home."

  • After the party we had a lot of Rolled Oats left over that had been pawed over by lots of little ones, so instead of throwing it out we made some oatmeal dough - which is very simply made with 1 part flour, 2 parts oatmeal or rolled oats, and 1 part water. It can be kept in the fridge for up to three days, but after that it generally starts to smell very strongly and will often grow mold.

    KM likes anything goopy, but SC wasn't too sure!

    The coolest thing about this dough is that it dries rock hard over night,
    so we used cookie cutters and sculpted some to make ornaments.

    After the ornaments were set aside to dry overnight, we had a visit from a rather cute reindeer looking for a veggie stick snack!
    KM finished painting some of hers this afternoon and we will string them in the morning to go on her tree!

    If anyone else has any ideas on how to use up some more oats - please let me know. I just can't bring myself to throw it!

    3 comments:

    Unknown said...

    The ornaments are adorable.

    What about oatmeal cookies? http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Desserts/Cookies/Oatmeal-Cookies/Main.aspx
    Oatmeal muffins? http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,174,154183-234201,00.html

    Fairie Mom said...

    the only problem is that the little kids that were making the reindeer food, had their hands all in the bowl of oats - can't cook with it!!!

    Unknown said...

    oooh good point. I didn't think of that. Sorry.

    I found a craft here (it is a PreK craft). It is the 7th one.
    http://www.preschooleducation.com/aocean.shtml