Clockwork Marching

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/Y7kASM Teach your child about rhythm and beats with this activity.

50 Activities for Autumn

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Fall = fun activities for families! We live in Texas where the temps are brutal in the summer, not much we want to do outside other than play in the pool – For us, Autumn means a chance to go on fun family dates. Each Saturday morning we do an activity together as a family. Here are just a few of the activities we are looking forward to doing together.

Autumn Activities for Kids

1. Pick a preschool fall craft to do together and have fun being creative together.
2. Decorate the front door – the wackier the better!
3. Pumpkin slime.  Goop is a blast to play with.  This goop is pumpkiny-orange.
4. Pumpkin pie play dough – this stuff smells SO good!
5. For an indoor kids activity, go on a spider hunt and see if you can find any cobwebs hiding in your house.  After you dust them, create your own spider web using popsicle sticks, yarn, egg cartons and pipecleaners.
6. Do your kids collect acorns?  Mine love to squirrel them away.  This is a great kids painting activity using acorns to make art.
7. Make an art masterpiece “tree”  by blowing a drip of paint across a page of paper.  Use a q-tip to “dot” some leaves onto your tree.  Discuss how the leaves are changing colors – it’s fall!!
8. Don’t have trees with colorful leaves?  We don’t so I especially love this activity suggestion, make your own leave with Tie Dyed Coffee filters.
9. Build a catapult, take it outside and put a pebble or two inside.  Watch them fly and measure how far the items went.
10. Create an owl craft with scraps of old magazines – my kids are in a cutting kick and would love this craft.
11. Make a owl from TP tubes using feathers, scraps of fabric and buttons.  This craft for kids is adorable.
12. Create Fall Art.  Adding an outline can really liven up a picture.  Help your youngest tots paint and create wall-worthy art with some black glue.  They paint scribbles and you outline the work into the shape of a leaf.
13. Grow some fall herbs.  We love to start our fall herb windowsill “garden” each September.  This is a fun version, using the [plastic pumpkin heads as planters.
14. Watch your kids pretend and play in a “world” with leaves outdoors for your kids to explore through.  This family created a whole house with different rooms.  Afterwards, rake them up and have fun jumping.
15. Go on a nature walk to a new destination.  Bring a long a nature bag for the kids to help them document what they see.
16. Plant bulbs for the spring.  My kids love to get muddy – gardening with kids is dirty and fun!
17. Donate food items to a food bank in your area – as the holidays approach food banks are often strapped for supplies.
18. Make a pumpkin pie with your kids.  Have extra filling?  Add it to a smoothie with some yogurt.
19. Go bobbing for apples.  Fill a tub with apples and see if you can get one with your teeth.  Afterwards, make candy apples as a treat to enjoy with your kids.
20. Make smores on the patio with your kids – use a solar oven to warm them.  Try experimenting and adding extra ingredients to your smores like berries or bananas.
21. Make your own apple cider by adding cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and honey to juiced apples (if possible, get fresh pressed juice)!
22. Churn your own butter – this is a fun activity for a kiddo who loves to move!
23. Play games during a bike ride.  Use Chalk to create start and end points on a “race” or to make an obstacle course of sorts for your kids to weave through.
24. Make popcorn balls.  Ooey-gooey carmel popcorn balls shout fall is coming to me.  These are one of our kids favorite fall traditions.
25. Go camping in your own backyard with a DIY PVC pipe Tent.
26. Take a collection of leaves and make leaf skeletons – soak the leaves in washing soda until the chloroform disintegrates and you are left with the leaf structure.
27. Go on a hayride – we love to visit the local orchard, pick apples and go on a hayride.
28. Practice fractions as you chop up apples and mix ingredients while baking an Apple Pie with kids.
29. Take crayons and some of your favorite leaves and layer the leaves between pages of paper.  Rub on the pages with a crayon to see the leaf pattern emerge.
30. Set a pumpkin outdoors and journal about the pumpkin’s decomposition as it rots.   Be sure to take pictures of the pumpkin in it’s various stages.
31. After you prune your trees, chop up the logs and the twigs, clean them off and bring them inside to make tree blocks.
32. Bake pumpkin seeds.  I love carving out our pumpkins each year and using the “guts” to create a magnesium-rich snack for the kids and I to enjoy.
33. Make Jack-o-lanterns from items in the recycle bin, orange paint and black foam stickers.
34. Feed the birds with a kid-made birdfeeder craft using toilet paper tubes or pinecones, peanut butter and seed.
35. Make Candy Corn Cookies.  Layer three colors of sugar cookie dough and follow these instructions to make your own wedged treats.
36. Do a Halloween craft with your kids.  Here are a dozen projects you can create with your kids.
37. Create your own costume for Halloween – there is a whole pinterest board filled with simple costumes you can make with your kids.
38. Go trick or treating with your children.  We love saying hi to all our neighbors!
39. For a fun kids activity, have your kids carve your own arrowheads using a bar of soap.
40. Make your own candles by dipping yarn into wax – this is a great stormy afternoon craft activity for the kids.
41. Fun Halloween Kids Activity – Make Eerie sounds – all you need is a plastic cup, a paperclip, string (wool is best) and a piece of papertowel.
42. Spooky and slimy sensory… spaghetti???  Dye some spaghetti bright orange and dark black, add a bit of veggie oil so they are extra slimy and have fun squishing and squeezing:
43. Have fun with food and the kids – Make a Snakey Jello.  This activity uses jello (Jelly for UK folks) and toy snakes for some squishy fun.
44. Bake some Ginger-Dead men together.  The best part of this edible kids activity is that you *have* to eat the cookies as you work!
45. Do some simple Kitchen Science experiments  with the leftover Trick-or-Treating candy.
46. Bake a batch of pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies – this recipe is a loved favorite of more than one quirky family!
47. Spend the afternoon at a bookstore researching a project for the winter months.
48. Afternoon craft activity: Make matching scarves for you and your daughter to enjoy together.  Here is a collection of no-sew scarves you can make in an afternoon.
49. Stuff old clothes to create a scarecrow for your front yard – a children’s thanksgiving craft.
50. Bake apple chips.  Thinly slice apples, spray them with oil and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on them.  Bake them in the oven till they are crispy.
51. This is a great family craft for Thanksgiving, make a thankful tree detailing all the things you are thankful for this past year.

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Do you have a fall bucket list?

Thanks to Tinkerlab for inspiring our post.  Check out the acitivities she hopes to do with her kids fall 2012!  Thanks also to all the people who contributed TERRIFIC ideas last year during our It’s PLaytime Link-up.  You gave us so many activities to look forward to!  Want to be featured on our site (or our pinterest boards??)  Link up every Wednesday afternoon to our weekly round-up, we love to promote from the great posts we find.

The post 50 Activities for Autumn appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

Pizza Bagels for Kids

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Even the kids can get involved when making Pizza Bagels. They are an easy recipe for dinner, or even just for a snack.

My kids love our Friday night pizza nights. While we try and encourage a little creativity with the ingredients, our kids mostly like plain cheese or, on a good day, pepperoni. My daughter, Sienna, helped me make this yummy recipe for kids (and adults).

Pizza Bagels

You really only need a few ingredients for pizza bagels. This is the perfect dish to have fun with and get creative with what you put on top. For this recipe we kept it simple.

Here’s what you need to make Pizza Bagels:

• Bagels
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Pizza sauce
• Pepperoni (or your favorite topping)

Cut your bagel in half. Toast the bagel for 5 minutes in oven or toaster oven at 325 degrees F.

Add sauce evenly around slightly toasted bagel. Add cheese on top of sauce, then add additional toppings, like pepperoni, if you desire.

Put back in oven or toaster oven for an additional 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Pizza bagels are not only delicious but they’re great comfort food. We all love pizza right?

And doesn’t this look yummy?

And for little kids, make eating fun with creative ways to make faces in their pizzas.  There are so many toppings you can choose from:

• Sausage
• Mushrooms
• Peppers
• Ham
• Olives
  …and so much more!

If you are looking for other great recipes or snacks for your kiddos, check out the Kids Activities Blog YouTube channel!

 

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Early Reading Activity

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Consonants and vowels.  Sometimes kids need more practice reviewing phonics when they are starting to read.  Looking for more ideas check out our other phonics activities.

We made reading dice.

We lost our original set of dice, but are now beginning to play with letters with one of our younger kids.  Time for a new set.  Matching the sound with the letter, combining the letters sounds together and creating basic words are just a few of the steps to reading that this activity addresses. This post contains affiliate links. 

Early Reading Activity

We used the small blocks from our Melissa and Doug Block set.

You will need two different color of blocks.   I think it really helps to have one color for the vowels and another two blocks of a different color for the consonants.

As our blocks were dark colored, we used a metallic permanent marker to make the letters.  Have rubbing alcohol nearby while you are writing your letters, just in case.  I made a mistake and if you wipe the surface with rubbing alcohol you can erase it before it sets.

DIY Phonics CVC Blocks

On the vowel block have: a, e, i, o, u, and repeat e again.  E is the most written vowel.

For the consonant vowels we used the 6 most common first letters on one block and the 6 most common endings for a CVC word on the other block.

Beginning Block: d/p, f, h, s, m, j.

Ending Block: d/p, n, t, w, b, g.

How to teach your kids to read:

Have your child roll the first consonant block.  Sound out that letter with them.  Ex: “h” says “hh-”

Roll the second, vowel block.  Sound out that letter and then sound out that letter combining it with the first block.  Ex:  “a” says “ah-“.  “H”-“a” = “ha-“.

Finally, roll the third consonant block and ask your child to sound out each letter independently and then blend the sounds with the vowel to chunk them together.  Ex:  “”h”, “a”, “t”.  “ha” and “at”.  Altogether, “hat”.

Using this method of sounding out words your kids will learn phonics pretty quickly.

The post Early Reading Activity appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

Pop! Learning with Bubble Wrap

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Bubble wrap has always been a fun material to keep when we get packages! We’ve made bubble wrap runways and roads and even made bubble wrap prints with it.

It wasn’t until recently that we made it a learning tool. And it’s definitely a hit with the kids!

I decided to use the bubble wrap to have a little refresher for school.

For my preschooler, that meant we would review letter and number recognition. I wrote lowercase letters and numbers in each bubble.

I wrote them in this back side of the bubble wrap because I thought it would be easier for me, but this turned out making it harder for the kids to pop.

But I think it made it more fun for them to pop it with their fist!

In order to pop a bubble, he first had to tell me what was on the bubble!

And the goal was to pop them all of course!

I did the same for Henry but with different learning elements, he’s starting second grade.

I wrote both sight words for review and math problems (both addition and subtraction) for Henry.

And Louis it’s learning too! I simplified it for him. He’s just starting to recognize letters a little.

I used the letters in his name over and over again.

I’m sure the learning could go on and on with a simple piece of bubble wrap!

Pop! Learning with Bubble Wrap on handsonaswegrow.com

Pop! Learning with Bubble Wrap

hands on : as we grow http://ift.tt/1MZKU6g

Bubble wrap has always been a fun material to keep when we get packages! We’ve made bubble wrap runways and roads and even made bubble wrap prints with it.

It wasn’t until recently that we made it a learning tool. And it’s definitely a hit with the kids!

I decided to use the bubble wrap to have a little refresher for school.

For my preschooler, that meant we would review letter and number recognition. I wrote lowercase letters and numbers in each bubble.

I wrote them in this back side of the bubble wrap because I thought it would be easier for me, but this turned out making it harder for the kids to pop.

But I think it made it more fun for them to pop it with their fist!

In order to pop a bubble, he first had to tell me what was on the bubble!

And the goal was to pop them all of course!

I did the same for Henry but with different learning elements, he’s starting second grade.

I wrote both sight words for review and math problems (both addition and subtraction) for Henry.

And Louis it’s learning too! I simplified it for him. He’s just starting to recognize letters a little.

I used the letters in his name over and over again.

I’m sure the learning could go on and on with a simple piece of bubble wrap!

Pop! Learning with Bubble Wrap on handsonaswegrow.com

F is for Feather Fish Painting

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F is for Feather Fish Painting is an activity is an activity that was inspired by the story Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins. Children draw their very own fish and paint it with feathers. The pictures in the story provide lots of brightly coloured fish of different shapes and sizes for art inspiration.

 

F is for Feather Fish Painting is also a great opportunity to play and learn about the letter F, identify what the letter F looks like and what sound it makes.

 

What you will need?

You will need feathers, coloured paints, large sheet of paper and a lead pencil.

 

You will also need the story, Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins

Before commencing the painting part of the activity we read the story Hooray for Fish first and then re-read the story again, this time playing ‘spot the letter’ and looking for the letter ‘F’.  There are lots of opportunities to spot the letter F in the story Hooray for Fish!

 

Let’s Play

Some Ideas:

• Read Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins and discuss creating your very own fish and painting it with feathers.
• Re-read the story and play spot the letter F.
• Talk about the different kinds of fish in the story and ask “Which type of fish would you be?”
• Look at the different pictures of the fish and talk about the patterns and colours. Ask your child “what would your fish look like?”
• Make text to text connections, such as talk about other books that are about fish. What are the similarities and differences? The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister would be a great book to discuss text to text connections and similarities.

 

Let’s Learn

Learning Opportunities

• Creativity and imagination
• Letter recognition
• Fine Motor Development
• Hand-Eye Coordination and Control
• Concentration
• Phonemic awareness – hearing and understanding that words are made up of individual sounds and other word patterns.
• Problem Solving
• Sense of pride and achievement.

 

Click here for more BOOK INSPIRED activities & play ideas

Click here for more FISHY ACTIVITIES

 

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Rainbow Duck Quill Feathers 28g

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