Taking Time To Create: Activities

Showing posts with label Activities. Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2013

Dr. Seuss Activities|Dr. Seuss-A-Thon Continues{Oh, The Thinks You Can Think and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?}

Oh boy! If there were a character limit for post titles, I certainly would have reached it with that one. These are some long titled books! Oh The Thinks You Can Think! and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? were last week's Dr. Seuss books for the Dr. Seuss-A-Thon.

My copies are what you might call "well loved" as you can see above. They're actually my mom's and I'm pretty sure she bought them from the library in one of those sales with the books that are just too worn for them to keep. But, hey, they're still all there and still readable, so I say we keep using them!

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! Activities

Recreate the front cover: scan the people, print them out, and cut them out (maybe even do this on magnetic paper or attach them to magnets. Print or draw different shapes and have the people walk around and/or in them. You can talk about the directions they're going: up, down, left, right.
Create a "think story": the book is all about the things you can think up or imagine. Let your kid's draw their own think story or create one by putting together pictures from magazines. You could even scan pictures from books and print them out.

Did I Ever tell You How Lucky You Are? Activities

Color and/or draw some cactus. Discuss how it would feel to really sit on one...probably not the best idea!

Some of the "unlucky" characters on pages 6-7 are trying to build a bridge.

Try building a bridge of your own with things around your house. Legos are an obvious choice, but try other things too; books might be a fun option.

This poor little guy on pages 20-21 has his tail all in knots!

Practice making your own knots with yarn or rope. If it's something you don't want to stay knotted up, rope might be the better option. If you're using rope, you could also untie the knots (this would be fairly difficult with yard though).

This fellow on pages 24-25 has endless rows of i's to dot and t's to cross.

Try dotting some i's and cross and crossing some t's of your own.

What a job this guy from pages 26-27 has! All he does is watch bees all day!

Do some bee watching of your own. From a safe distance, watch for bees in your yard or in a local park or garden. One of our local parks has a nice flower garden, so we're going to take a picnic there one day when the flowers starting blooming and keep an eye out for bees. You could do the same with birds. Just be sure that your kids understand how to act around bees, so they don't get stung.

One of these guys from pages 34-35 is missing his shadow!

Check out some shadows of your own.

Go outside and take a look at how different objects make different shadows.
See how shadows change with the sun's movement. Mark or outline a shadow in the morning and then go back later in the day to see where the shadow has moved.

There's so much potential for activities with any Dr. Seuss book. The key is to use your imagination!

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This Week's Book

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories
(we're just going to do the one book since there are several stories in it)

Learn more about the Dr. Seuss-A-Thon here.

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This is where I party:

Wednesdays: Super Link Party | Show & Share | {Wow Me} Wednesday | From Dream To Reality | Create & Share | What I Whipped Up Wednesday | What We Wore & Made Wednesday | The Creative Spark Wednesdays | Milk & Cuddles | Made By Me Wednesdays | Adorned From Above | Creative Muster

Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday | It's Overflowing Sunday Party | Cooking & Crafts Party

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Dr. Seuss-A-Thon {On Beyond Zebra! Activities}

This week's Dr. Seuss book was On Beyond Zebra! I'm not sure how popular this book is (I didn't find much on Pinterest for it), but it's one of my favorites! It's classic silly Dr. Seuss with a bunch of letters that aren't in the regular alphabet. You'll find them if you keep going past the end of the regular alphabet...they're on beyond 'Z is for Zebra'. There are new letters and new creatures to discover "On Beyond Zebra"!

Since there weren't many activities to be found on Pinterest, we thought up our own: "On Beyond Zebra Hopscotch". It's like regular hopscotch, but instead of numbers in each square, we drew the letters and some of the creatures from the book.

A chalk artist I am not, but it sure was fun to try to recreate the letters and creatures!

Once we finished with the drawings and squares, we played!

While we drew, we also talked about what kinds of animals some of the creatures in the book looked like...

The Wumbus, of course, reminds us of a whale (and is actually called a whale in the book).

The Zatz-it reminded us of a giraffe.

Other Ideas:

Take the book to the zoo and try to find similar animals to those in the book. Zoo not your thing? Try searching online or maybe get a book or two with lots of animals from the library (this option is FREE!).

Try drawing the creatures and letters on paper instead of in hopscotch squares.

Next Week's Books

Next week we'll be back to two books:

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

and

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think

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This is where I party:

Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday | It's Overflowing Sunday Party | Cooking & Crafts Party

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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Road Trip Entertainment {For Grown Ups!}

Yesterday I shared some fun ideas to entertain those little ones on a road trip. Grown-ups need a little entertainment too, though, right? Here are a few ideas for ya!

Magnetic Travel Board Games

Thrive has a good post about creating magnetic travel board games. I just did one but the one game looks like a lot of fun!

I found a Monopoly game board to print and gathered up all our cards, dice and instructions.

We’ll use pen and paper to keep track of money, and I placed the “board” in a page protector, so we can use markers to mark when properties have house/hotels on them.

I even made some magnetic game pieces out of colored and patterned duct tape!

It should be lots of fun!

Battleship

Along with the board game theme is this fun Battleship printable from Mom’s Minivan. There are lots of fun games for in the car to be found here.

Instead of printing a bunch of the sheets, I printed 2 and then put them in page protectors to use with dry erase markers. We can use the same sheets over and over again!

Good Old Card Games

Card games are always a fun option. You can use the cookie sheet from the Magnetic Board Game for something to play on.

Books

If all else fails…read a book. If you have something like a Kindle, you can have hours and hours of entertainment that takes up very little space.

I'm linking at these great parties:
Mondays: Sweet Sharing Monday * The Girl Creative * Destination: Cutesy Monday * What's In The Gunny Sack *  Made by you Monday*Make It Yourself Monday*Mop It Up Mondays*Make The Scene Monday*Make It Pretty Monday*
Tuesdays: Riverton Housewives Roundup *  Show Me What You Got * Tuesday Time Out * Tasteful Tuesdays * Too Cute Tuesday*Tuesday's Treasures*Crafty Tuesday* Trendy Tuesday
Wednesdays: Super Link Party * Show & Share * {Wow Me} Wednesday *From Dream To Reality*Create & Share*What I Whipped Up Wednesday*What We Wore & Made Wednesday*The Creative Spark Wednesdays* Milk & Cuddles*Made By Me Wednesdays*Adorned From Above*
Thursday: Pin'Inspirational Thursday * Recipe Roundup *A Crafty Soiriee * Creative Thursday *Taylor House Thursday*Transformation Thursday*Hookin Up With HoH*Creative Juice Thursday*Live Laugh Linky Thursday* Link Party Thursday*Taking A Time Out Thursday*Eat Make Grow*
Fridays: Delicately Constructed Fridays * Flaunt It Friday * Financial Friday Link Up  *Friday Fun Party* Friday Flair*Pity Party*Frugal Friday*Friday Favorites*Weekend Craft Soiree*Weekend Warmth*One Creative Weekend
Saturdays: Strut Your Stuff Saturday * Once Upon A Weekend * Sharing Saturday * Dare To Share Saturday * Craft, Create and Inspire * A Pinteresting Party*Serenity Saturday
Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday * It's Overflowing Sunday Party * Cooking & Crafts Party

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Road Trip Entertainment {For Kids}

Back in July I posted some fun ideas for keeping your kiddos busy on a road trip (here and here ). Well, we’re going on an even longer (like 3 or 4 times longer) road trip, so of course I have some more ideas to share! Let’s get started shall, we?

Behavior Clip/Prizes

I think I mentioned in one of the previous posts that I was planning on wrapping up little “presents” to give my little guy periodically. That was possibly THE BEST idea that we used. He loved getting those little presents.

This time, we’re going to try to pair the presents (or prizes in this case) with what’s called a behavior clip. The idea comes from Random Thoughts of a Super Mom, and the basic idea is that you put up the clip and keep it up as long as the little one behaves. If the clip is still up at the next stop (or appointed time), the kiddo gets a prize.

For the clip: I just cut out a train from some scrapbooking paper I had and then glued it to different colors of paper to get the layers/borders around it. Then, I glued it to a clothespin.

For the prizes: Dollar store, dollar store, dollar store! Books, toy dinosaurs, cars…you get the idea. I also made some crayon rolls (similar to these) that I’ll be sharing with you next week.

Glow Sticks

You can get them at the dollar store (a 15 pack even). Simple entertainment that my little guy loves, so I figured they’d be great if we’re driving in the dark at all.

Color Sticker Matching

I saw this idea here.

The idea is this: you create a grid with a section for each color and label it. The child then puts stickers in the correct section. Learning and fun! Now that’s my kind of activity! Oh, and my little guy loves stickers (what kids doesn’t, right?). Perfect.

The original was simply handwritten, but I created a template to print (you know I couldn’t have crooked/wavy lines). It’s available here to download. Lovely, right?

Magnetic Paper Dolls

Okay, I know many people probably think more about girls for paper dolls than boys, but I thought they’d be fun. I went searching for free “boy” paper dolls and found this post which then led me to this post. There are lots of options (not just for boys either!).

You can print them on magnetic paper sheets or glue them to magnets and then use a small cookie sheet (like the one in the Magnetic Activity Board) to play with them.

Since I’m a hoarder of magnets, I happen to have several that I glued my paper doll’s clothes to (you know the kind you find on phone books). I didn’t make the actual “doll” magnetic but opted to have him in the center of a piece of paper we can fasten to our cookie sheet.

Cute, right? I think I’ll play with him even if my little guy doesn’t.

Pom Pom Activities

Another thing my little guy loves—pom poms. I don’t know why but he’s fascinated with them. This post from Sew Fantastic led me to all kinds of fun printables for pom pom activities.

Glue some magnets on your pom poms to use with your little cookie sheet and you’re set!

Button ~~Snake~~ Errr Ribbon

I’m sure most of you have seen these. You sew a button to the end of a piece of ribbon, cut pieces of felt with slits in them, and your little one “threads” the felt onto the ribbon.

My only problem? My son has this thing about snakes that I may or may not have accidentally passed on to him. I HATE them. That’s right bold, italics, capitals HATE them! They scare me. They give me the creeps. I’m sorry if you like them. Really I am, but I will never, ever, never like or even tolerate them. Yuck. Yeah, so we’ll have to call it something else, so he doesn’t think it’s an actual snake of some sort. I’m sort of sorry about passing on my feelings about them, sort of. I’m sure he’ll grow out of it and scare me with one at some point or another.

Well, now that I have that off my chest...back to that road trip entertainment!

Some more ideas…

New coloring books or coloring pages. I printed lots and lots of coloring pages (mostly Disney/Pixar ones of course). Just do a Google image search or you can find some here and here.
Color Car Bingo I decided my little guy wouldn’t quite get the concept of this one, but it would be fun for kids that are a little older. The concept is just as it sounds. You play Bingo and the “numbers” called out are colors of cars you see driving.
Paper Bag Puppets? I’m hoping this one will work. I cut out all the pieces and am bringing glue to put them together in the car. We’ll see. Even if it doesn’t work out in the car, this website has some really great ideas that you could do at home.
Books are always a good option. If you have a Kindle or something similar, you can even load them on there, so they don’t take up as much room. Check to see if your library loans out e-books and you can even find free kids’ books on Amazon.
Apps. If you’re opposed to too much screen time with your kids them may not be an option, but there are some fun kids’ apps out there that may keep them entertained for a while.
If you absolutely, positively have to…movies. I remember watching movies all the way to Disneyland when I was little and it really passed them time for us kids.

Do you have any fun road trip ideas? Leave me a comment...I’d love to hear them!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Keep 'Em Busy {Cereal Box Marble Track}

What kid doesn't love a good marble track? I know my little guy gets a big kick out of them. This one is really simple; all you need is tape, a cereal box (or two), scissors or a knife, and marbles.

Check out some of the marble track action:

My little guy just LOVES playing with this marble track!

Want to make your own? Head over to Made By Joel for the instructions. It's super easy!

I'm linking at these great parties:
Mondays: Sweet Sharing Monday * The Girl Creative * Destination: Cutesy Monday * What's In The Gunny Sack * Etcetorize * Made by you Monday*Make It Yourself Monday*Mop It Up Mondays*Make The Scene Monday*
Tuesdays: Riverton Housewives Roundup * Show Me What You Got * Tuesday Time Out * Tasteful Tuesdays *
Wednesdays: Super Link Party * Show & Share * {Wow Me} Wednesday *From Dream To Reality*Create & Share*What I Whipped Up Wednesday*What We Wore & Made Wednesday*The Creative Spark Wednesdays* Milk & Cuddles*Made By Me Wednesdays*
Thursday: Pin'Inspirational Thursday * Recipe Roundup *A Crafty Soiriee * Creative Thursday *Taylor House Thursday*Transformation Thursday*Hookin Up With HoH*Creative Juice Thursday*Live Laugh Linky Thursday* Link Party Thursday*
Fridays: Delicately Constructed Fridays * Flaunt It Friday * Financial Friday Link Up *Friday Fun Party* Friday Flair*Pity Party*Frugal Friday*Friday Favorites*Weekend Craft Soiree*
Saturdays: Strut Your Stuff Saturday * Once Upon A Weekend * Sharing Saturday * Dare To Share Saturday * Craft, Create and Inspire *
Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday * It's Overflowing Sunday Party * Cooking & Crafts Party

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Keep 'Em Busy: Camping {Magnetic Fishing Game}

27 weeks ago (don't you love how Pinterest keeps track of that?) I pinned this:

Source: cheekymonkeyparty.com via Erin on Pinterest

I've seen it several times again when I've looked through my "Keep 'Em Busy" board, but a)little boy socks aren't nearly as cute as little girl socks for a project like this and b)little boy socks tend to get a lot more worn out than this but I couldn't bring myself to buy new socks (they can be expensive!) just for this project.

Then it hit me! I don't have to use socks. I could use anything really...felt for example. And so our magnetic fishing game started to take form...

This game turned out to be a great distraction for our little guy while camping. Daddy went fishing one day and the little guy wasn't allowed to go along, so I decided we'd do some fishing of our own! I had just finished making the fish, so it was perfect timing.

We used a little toy fishing pole while camping, but you could easily (and we did at home for the picture above) make a fishing pole. You can really see your little one practicing that eye-hand coordination, so there's more benefit than just the fun!

To make your fishing pole:
Supplies:

You'll need a "stick" of some sort. We used a bamboo pole (not sure if it was real) from the dollar store and cut it in half.
Yarn or string ( the yarn may work better with little ones as I think it's harder to get tangled)
Paper clip

Tie the yarn to one end of the stick/pole and then tie the paper clip to the other end. That's it!

To make your magnetic fish:

Supplies

Felt in several colors (I found a nice package at the dollar store)
Tacky glue
Scissors
Magnets (they should be fairly strong ones)
Fish shape (I search Google images for a fish silhouette, picked this one, and then re-sized it to the size I wanted my fish)

Cut two pieces of felt in the same color using the fish shape as a guide/pattern.

Glue the magnet to one of the felt pieces near the mouth/eye area of the fish. Glue the second piece of felt to the first so that the magnet is sandwiched between the two pieces.

Repeat until you've made several fish. Let the fish dry and then you'll be ready.

Good luck fishing!

I'm linking at these great parties:
Mondays: Sweet Sharing Monday * Get Inspired Monday * The Girl Creative * Destination: Cutesy Monday * What's In The Gunny Sack * Etcetorize * Tuesdays: Riverton Housewives Roundup * Ta-Da Tuesday * Tuesdays Cute Crafts & Cute Parties * Show Me What You Got * Tuesday Time Out * Wednesdays: Super Link Party * Show & Share * {Wow Me} Wednesday *From Dream To Reality* Thursday: Pin'Inspirational Thursday * Recipe Roundup *A Crafty Soiriee * Creative Thursday *Taylor House Thursday Fridays: Delicately Constructed Fridays * Flaunt It Friday * Financial Friday Link Up *Friday Fun Party* Saturdays: Strut Your Stuff Saturday * Once Upon A Weekend * Sharing Saturday * Dare To Share Saturday * Craft, Create and Inspire * Sundays: Nifty Thrifty Sunday * It's Overflowing Sunday Party * Cooking & Crafts Party

Pages

Monday, March 25, 2013

Dr. Seuss Activities|Dr. Seuss-A-Thon Continues{Oh, The Thinks You Can Think and Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?}

Friday, March 15, 2013

Dr. Seuss-A-Thon {On Beyond Zebra! Activities}

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Road Trip Entertainment {For Grown Ups!}

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Road Trip Entertainment {For Kids}

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Keep 'Em Busy {Cereal Box Marble Track}

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Keep 'Em Busy: Camping {Magnetic Fishing Game}