memory noun game

After playing with the noun cards I printed out last week, the kids wanted to sort them again, but as they were sorting them I thought we could instead use them to play a game. I grabbed a couple of the wooden cubes in my craft stash (the same used in color resemblance sorting) and some stickers I had from a yard sale. H and F made their own dice with the stickers, and then I put a different colored sticker on each of the noun categories. We turned all the noun cards face down, and then they took turns rolling their die and turning over two cards at a time trying to match the category. When they found a match, they placed it in their pile. Great for learning about nouns as well as for memory.

Color coded noun categories.

Noun game die.

Game setup.

if you give a mouse a cookie activities

I stumbled across these cute word cards to go with Laura Numeroff's If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (the collection is worth having; it even has an audio cd so you can listen to the stories on the go). There are also some domino cards and other activities listed there, but I thought since all of the words are things commonly found in homes, it would be fun to have a scavenger hunt. Pretending to be the mouse means you won't have to go looking for any mice (unless you're into that, then go for it, but they make me squeal and jump up on chairs). The word cards have both words and pictures so this is great for readers and pre-readers alike. To make it more challenging for your older child, have them try to find the items in alphabetical order!

Other activities to do with this book:

• make some cookies! while they are baking,
• get out some brooms and sweep up, or mop! and then,
• draw a picture of your family and hang it on the refrigerator  

Enjoy! 

We put the word cards in little bag and pulled them out one at a time.

F finds a broom.

 

noun sorting

We have been talking about nouns for a few days and so I searched for some person, place, and thing printables to make a sorting game.

Two sets good for pre-readers are here and here; there are both pictures and words on the cards (I printed 4 sheets per page since there are so many pages).

Montessori for Everyone has a great printable with words only, excellent for those kids that have already started reading. They are also grouped so that the person, place, and thing all relate to each other (astronaut, outer space, space shuttle).

Print these out on card stock and let the sorting begin!

circumference experiment

While watching the kids play with their toy garbage truck, I noticed that the wheels had different diameters, and since the kids love to do experiments, I thought this would be a fun and easy way to explore circumference!

What you need:

• Paper (we tapes a few sheets together so we could make a few marking for each wheel)
• Circles of various sizes (wheels of toy cars, coasters, coins, etc.)
• Crayons/markers/pencils
• Something to mark the wheel at one point along the circumference (we used small stickers)

Line up the marking on the wheel so that it is touching the paper and mark it with a crayon. Drive your car or truck and then mark the same spot every time it hits the bottom. Do this with each wheel and you will measure the circumference.

Marking the wheel rotations.

Closeup view.

After you mark them all, measure between two of the same colored lines.

Ours worked out to 5, 5.5, and 6 inches.

For older kids, you can ask them several follow up questions: How many rotations of one wheel does it take to go a certain distance? How about other wheels? In the real world, which tire would wear out first?

target practice

My kids are playing this as I type. I was planning on taking them out today but we have had too many 4 and 5 am days recently and I just want to stay home!

What you need:

• felt
• velcro strips or stickies
• lightweight balls
• tape or marker to mark off a target area

I just stuck the velcro circles (only rough sides with the loops, not the soft ones) to the lightweight balls, made a target on the felt, clipped it onto a hanging blanket with some binder clips, and gave each kid a ball. This is a two-minute setup if you have all the materials! If you have velcro strips you can hot glue them onto the balls instead. I ended up making a few more felt targets after I took the pictures and clipped them all over the blanket, worth different "points" since they love to keep score. I may just have to make an entire carnival of activities for them to do today!

Materials needed.

Balls with the velcro stuck on.

I made the target with painters tape (it was 1" wide, I cut it to 1/2").

A hit! Retrieving the ball.

Easy DIY Wrapping Paper with Homemade Stamps

Easy DIY Wrapping Paper 

Use that packing paper you have lying around from a move or holiday shipments you've received.

What you need:

• Paper you'd otherwise recycle
• Something to decorate it with! 
• stamps are easy - we made our own seasonal ones for winter solstice
• crayons, paint, pencils, or markers
• glitter
• make it 3D by gluing on random objects you don't need

The stamps we used (also used these on our stamped ornaments!)

Stamped paper. Don't worry about it being wrinkled!

Star paper from the back - we used twine to secure the paper.

Use excess paper to write a name tag, hole punch, and string twine through!

Next year at this time I may order extra play silks and we can try out furoshiki, another beautiful way to wrap gifts!

borax crystal ornaments

This is another craft that isn't my own, but I was so thrilled with the results I had to share. My kids were excited to see the end product but the cons are that a) there is a lot of waiting involved, and b) little ones might not be able to achieve the shape they want. The simple snowflakes were manageable for my 5.5 year old, but the more complex shapes were not. It is also worth noting that the size is limited by the size of your jar, so even if your child does manage to bend the pipe cleaners into the perfect shape, it might not fit in the jar!

What you need:

• wide-mouthed glass jars (I first tried in plastic and the results were poor, though you may have better luck.)
• chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners)
• borax
• wire or ornament hooks
• boiling hot water
• skewers or pencils

There are already some great images and instructions here. I used ornament hooks and just laid a skewer across the top of the jar. I think this is a bit easier than using wire and craft sticks. You can use white chenille stems or choose another color. The color will be muted after the crystals grow, though you can try to enhance it with food dye. You can reuse the solution for a new ornament, though I added a little more borax for each new batch. When you are all done making your ornaments, reheat the water to help remove any excess crystals in the jar.

Tip: If you are doing this with kids, do them before bedtime. When they wake up, the ornaments will be ready! 

Here are some suggestions for shapes (stars and hearts would also be nice!):

Snowman.

Snowflake.

An angel a friend of mine made for her daughter. So cute!

Swirl shape.