Archive for May 2011
This activity is messy, but not at all difficult and can easily be adapted for different ages. If your child has sensory issues, it can also be an opportunity to work on breaking down some of those barriers as well.
For this project you will need the following:
1. A piece of stiff cardboard, foam, or poster board
2. Salt ( 3/4 a cup)
3. Flour (1/4 cup)
4. Water
5. 1 tsp. cream of tartar (optional)
6. Print out of the Earth
7. Food coloring (optional)
First, glue your print out of the earth onto your piece of poster board. I ran out of poster board, so I used the top of a gift box, which worked great. My print out is a little sad, but Charlie’s not picky, so we jut went with it. 
The next step is to make your map paste. Combine the salt and flour and cream of tartar in a bowl and then slowly add water until you have a paste-like substance. The cream of tartar is supposed to help with the consistency, but if you don’t have any, you’ll just have a chunkier paste. Add drops of food coloring if you’d like your map to have a color other than white–we used green. 
Take your paste and then spread it over the land areas of your map. You can be as precise as you like depending on the age of your child. Charlie was about three when we did this, so we were just glopping the paste onto the land parts of our map. As I’ve mentioned in the past, he also has some sensory issues (which are improving!), so he wasn’t thrilled about touching the paste. I ended up being the paster for the most part. If your child doesn’t mind, encourage them to create mountains, valleys, and maybe a river channel. For older children, you can find a topographic map and encourage them to match it as much as possible.
Allow the paste to air dry and you’ll have a three-dimensional map. After it was dry, Charlie loved his map and spent a lot of time checking it out (some with his mouth I will confess). Might not have been exactly what I envisioned, but if he enjoys it, then who am I to judge?
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Katy is a mom of one ( with two on the way) who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
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Blast those darn piggies with water balloon Angry Birds! Inspired by the mega popular video game Angry Birds this takes the game outside into the sun for fun all summer long.
Earlier this year we featured a post by contributing writer Kim about playing real life Angry Birds. Well because of that post I finally downloaded the game and have been not so shamefully in love with the game ever since. When the sun finally came out I knew we needed to adapt Kim’s post into something for outside in the sun. So of course we needed to include water balloons and a little art too! To say we had fun would be the understatement of the century- this was incredibly awesome.
- Gather your materials. You will need some water balloons, a permanent marker ( optional) and some washable sidewalk chalk . The washable chalk obviously comes off when hit with a few balloons so it’s great for this activity. You may also want a bag or bowl to rest your balloons in so that they aren’t on the pavement where they may pop.
- Start by filling your balloons.
- Carefully add angry faces with the permanent marker.
- Draw your pigs ( if you aren’t familiar with the game these piggies are your targets). I did the green, he did (some) blue!
- Get ready to smash those pigs! This can also be a lesson in sizes .
- Aim!
- Get those bad pigs!
- Keep blasting .
Between balloons I would pretend to tweet a whistle and announce ” Clean Up Crew – Time Out!” then quickly retrieve all the pieces of each water balloon. Please be sure to dispose of them carefully, and keep them out of your children’s reach as deflated balloons are unsafe for kids. We used neon balloons so the bright colors would be easy to spot. - We kept going back to make more “birds”.
- At the end of the game I had my son be the final cleaning crew looking for balloon pieces.
I hope you have fun things planned for the summer but don’t worry if you don’t just check out some of the other links below! This link and learn is my go to place for inspiration! Although I admit to falling way behind on reading. Hopefully while we are on vacation I can hide under the covers and catch up while other family members wrangle the little people. Have a wonderful week.
After reading Speakaboo’s Sleeping Beauty on our iPod with the MeMeTales Mobile Reader App I was inspired to make a fairy wand to go along with the fairies in the story. I wanted to show parents how easy a fun and very sparkly wand can be to make . I asked my son if he wanted to be a part of this craft and I got a resounding ” No.” Even after I suggested making it a Bat-wand he wasn’t convinced. So I made it myself and even though I have no need for a fairy wand i have to say I have been casting some awesome spells with it.
- Gather your materials. You will need some sticky back foam if it’s sparkly even better! You will also need a drinking straw ( milkshake ones work great), a pen or marker, scissors and curling ribbon.
- Start by drawing a butterfly ( or shape of your choice) on the backing of your foam.
- Cut out and use as a stencil for the other side. We used two different colors of foam but using the same is a great choice as well.
- Peel the back off the foam, press the straw into it.
- Sandwich the straw in between the foam.
- Add the ribbon.
- Curl the ribbon on the edge of the scissors blade ( adults only please).
- Now cast some stupendous spells!
Book
As mentioned above the inspiration for this craft came from Sleeping Beauty by Speakaboos , which we actually listened to using our MeMeTales App instead of reading our selves which was a fun change of pace. Books are so versatile and reading, listening or playing with them are all ways to immerse your kids into a life long love of stories and the written word.
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Do you have a fairytale inspired craft? Add it here :
We live outside Seattle and even for us this spring has been rainy. This activity is a perfect example of simple being wonderful. As soon as I told my son about my idea he was eager to start, so this wasn’t our most polished project, but trust me we had a ball. I don’t know about the kids in your house but in ours we need to work up a sweat inside or out to ensure a smooth bedtime and great sleep. So rain or shine we need to move our bodies!
- Gather your materials – all you need are some card stock ( index cards would be awesome) , a marker, and scissors if you need to cut the card stock.
- Write out different actions, exercises, and physical feats twice.
- Cut and make two piles.
- To play you need two players ( I played as well- trust me you don’t need to see me do karate kicks in my Pjs…not a pretty sight). Each player gets a pile. The premise is simple both players put their pile of cards face down, count out loud to 3 and flip .
- Then do the action on the card.
- Keep flipping and moving!
- Exercise will make you strong!
Book
Like all the books this week this one Strong Stickfiggy is one of the ebooks available on the free MeMeTales’ Mobile Reader App . We read it on my iPod , under the covers pretending it was the Batcave ( do not tell me that shocks you…). You don’t have to read it in a Batcave or even at home , you can read it anywhere which is my favorite part of this app.
Add Your Activity
Do you have a game, sport or dancing activity that gets your kids moving? Add your link here :
