A New Take of the Easter Egg Hunt -Fun Learning Game for the Kiddos

It is spring break this week in our school district and I wanted to come up with a fun game for the kiddos to play. I wanted a game that incorporated some learning/review from school, but also fun to keep their attention. I had different aged kiddos here so I had to make it "fit" to everyone.

This is what I did:

I took some small pieces of paper and came up with 26 different learning/review questions and/or statements. Here are some of them I used (you could come up with a billion if you had the time):

• name three fruits
• name a jungle animal
• count to 65 by 5's
• name the city you live in
• I drew a picture of a clock and then asked what time it said
• the person who writes books is called a what?
• write your phone number
• what is half of 10?
• what two colors make purple?
• if there are 5 bunnies and they each have three jelly beans, how many jelly beans are there in all?
• how many ways can you spell "to"?
• write three ways to show the number 3
• 7+____ = 12
• write a complete sentence
• what does a sentence start with?
• what is this "?"?
• show the tally marks for the number 12
• write your address

After I wrote each one down, I put it inside a plastic Easter egg. I then took a permanent marker and numbered all the eggs. I split the kids up into teams and gave each team a clip board with a piece of notebook paper numbered 1-26 (the number of eggs I had). I hid the eggs around the house. The difference in this hunt is that you have to go around with your team, find an egg, read the paper inside and write your answer on the corresponding line on the notebook paper and then finally, PUT THE EGG BACK so the other team can get to it. The team that finds all the eggs and answers them wins! At the end of the hunt, I read aloud each question and each team said what they had! This turned out to be a fun game and the kids didn't even know they were working on reading, writing, teamwork, basic skills, listening and so much more!!! You could make this as big or small as you wanted to. You don't even need teams, just do it with a few kids. And, you can adjust it to any level!

This was the pile of eggs at the end of our hunt!

Showing you what I did with clip board and notebook paper for their answers.

All of the kids loved the game!


I would love to hear if you tried this at home and if your kids had fun with it too!

Valentines Craft for the Kiddos

Good ol' fashioned painting with the cookie cutters. This is a simple craft that all kids enjoy! The younger kids love to spread the paint all around the paper and the older kids get more into making pictures and so forth with the cutters. We took out all the Valentine cookie cutters I had and I put some paint on Styrofoam plates and we dipped and painted!

 

They made perfect little Valentine pictures!

Happy Valentine's Crafting!

Practicing Spelling Words is FUN!

I have to give credit to my husband for this one. He was going over our kid's spelling words and my daughter wanted to write with a marker so my husband went in my desk and grabbed a "window" marker. Gabrielle told him that she couldn't use that on paper, so he said, "write your words on the window!" Now, she asks to practice her words all the time! Way to go hubby!!!!

Fun Fruit Snack Idea for Kids

I thought this would be a fun snack for the kids. It is also a great way for them to try a variety of fresh fruit at their own discretion. I cut up different fruits on a cutting board (I had peaches, kiwi, bananas, apples and oranges). I handed each child a skewer. I told them to help themselves and  skewer the fruit they wanted to try. Some kids ate fruit that they didn't think they liked! Gabrielle didn't think she liked kiwi, but she liked it during this snack! Sometimes, I think when kids are able to help themselves and try things at their own will, they are more willing to "accept" it.

Kids Yard Sale - Fun Learning Activity

I thought this would be a great activity that incorporated both a "fun" factor and learning money values and names as well!! I had each child bring three things they would like to sell at our sale (I asked for cheap toys - nothing worth money). I also asked that they bring in a bag with a mixture of different coins. I laid out all of our items and then talked to them about recycling unused toys and making extra money with things we aren't using anymore, etc. To start the sale, I pulled names out of a hat to keep it fair with who went first and last. At their turn, each child picked up the item they wanted. For the younger kids, I would tell them which coins I needed from their pile so they could "buy" it  (I kept track of who sold what and for how much on the side). For example, I would tell them, "I need a dime, nickel and penny for that item" (and they would have to find those coins). For the older kids, I would say, "I need 48 cents for that item", which made them work on their "counting money" skills. We did this for three "rounds" and the kids really enjoyed it. By the end, they were all getting the hang of the coins without any help from me! They each got three new toys to play with and earned some money as well ;0)!!

I was thinking this would be a great activity to do with the entire neighborhood! Get all the kids involved before school starts. Make it a "Back to School Bash" and include school supplies or do a bake sale theme and sell homemade goodies. Make it a crafty theme and only bring things that are handmade. The possibilities are endless!!!! Have fun with this. I would love to hear how your "Yard Sale" turned out!

Loads of Fun - Homemade Pom Pom Shooter

I have seen "marshmallow shooters" or "pom pom shooters" on the Internet. I thought the kids would love this activity so we tried our own version today.

The shooters I have seen call for plastic cups, balloons, scissors, pom poms or marshmallows. I didn't have the plastic cups, but I always have a basket full of toilet paper rolls and paper towels rolls for crafting and creativity. So, I thought I would cut the toilet paper rolls in half (this was our "cup"). Then, I tied the bottom of the balloons and cut about 1/2" off the top of the balloons. I also used a rubber band to help hold the balloon in place on the roll.

You just put the cut part of the balloon over one end of the roll and then secure it with a rubber band (make sure the tied end of the balloon is coming out at the end). This picture shows what it looks like all put together. Now the fun begins...... put the pom pom or marshmallow inside the roll and then pull back the tied end of the balloon and let go!!!! Sometimes the tied end of the balloon goes inside the roll, but my daughter found out if you just blow inside the roll, it pops right out! What a cheap activity to make and how much fun they had with this! See how fun recycling can be!!!!

 

CUTE - Handmade Flowers for Mothers Day... or Any Day

I found this recipe for "glue" to make yarn flowers. The recipe is 1 cup water to 1/4 cup corn starch. You cook that over medium heat until it is combined and glue like. If it is too think, just add more water. Make sure you keep stirring it while it is cooking. I cooked it for about 8 - 10 minutes. When it is done, put it in a bowl and let cool. Meanwhile, cut yarn in to 12" long pieces. Put cookie cutters (I used heart shapes and flower shapes for ours) on a piece of wax paper. Dip the yarn pieces into the cooled glue and set inside the cookies cutters. Make sure you have an even layer and all corners are covered. Take the cookie cutter off and repeat this process as many times as you have yarn for! You can either let the "flowers" set over night or put them in a warm oven (I just set my oven on the "warm" setting) for 2 hours to dry (put them on a cookie sheet). When they were done, we added wooden skewers for the stem and glued on buttons for the middle of the flowers. I also added felt pieces to the backs of them to make them look more "finished". To make our vases, we wrapped bottles (I used empty beer bottles) with yarn! Cute handmade gift that is easy and fun for the kids to make!

 

Mouth Snack - Fun and Easy!

The kids loved these easy and healthy snacks. They are very easy to make too! Cut up an apple with an apple slicer. Add marshmallows between two slices of apple and then I added a toothpick to keep it together. Great snack for a dentist theme, health theme, teeth theme, etc.

Cute Valentines Gumball Machines and Mailboxes

These little crafts turned out so cute and they were pretty simple to do. To make the first one, I just spray painted clay pots and their bases red. I then turned the pot upside down and glued (with strong glue from the craft section) a glass bowl to it (the bowl is upright on the pot). The base just "rests" on the top of the bowl. You take the base off the top which enables you to get the "goodies" inside. I added some ribbon on the outside. I made these for the teachers this year for Valentine's Day, but you could do this for any holiday. Spray paint them black and use orange ribbon for Halloween or red and green for Christmas. The possibilities are endless! You can make tiny ones for birthday parties and the guests can take them home! How cute!

This is a picture of them all done and put together. Pretty cute!

With this craft, I took the mailboxes they have in the $1 bins at Target and glued them to a candlestick that I spray painted red. I made a pink one for my daughter and a red one for my son. I will fill these mailboxes for them on Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine Crafting!

Family Fall Fun

It is finally fall! My favorite time of year! I love the cool air, the colors, the football games, smores, campfires, hayrack rides, pumpkins.... I love it all! This year, I want the family to really get out and enjoy the season and all its glory! I have thought of some fun and creative ideas that will do just that. This weekend, we are heading out for a scavenger hunt in the park!

This is what I did to plan for the day:

I took white bags with handles and wrote the "scavenger list" on both sides of the bags. I tried to come up with things that we would have to "hunt" for and use our imagination for; things that would take us some time to find and make us see the entire park. Some things that made the list were: triangle shaped rock, spotted leaf, apple colored leaf, 12" stick, acorn, and tracks.

Inside the bags, I put a ruler, magnifying glass, paper, pencil and crayons (for nature rubbings and drawings). When the kids found something on the list, they put it in their bag. If they found something on the list that was too big for the bag, we took a picture of it. We also took pictures of other "cool stuff" we found along the way (the kids found a dead mouse and they thought that was the coolest thing ever......... gross!).

To make this an extra special fall day, I packed a picnic lunch. After our hunt, we ate in the park! This outing was a huge success. My family loved it! We got to enjoy the weather and we found some pretty cool things along the way! My kids can't wait to get the pictures developed and they keep asking me when the next "hunt" is!

......Mission complete!

Halloween Word Find

My son is in first grade and he has been bringing home word finds that he has done and he also has spelling tests every week. When I was asked to come up with some games for his classroom Halloween party, one of them that I thought would be fun, and appropriate, was a "Halloween Word Find". I used my Cricut to cut out the letters to "Happy Halloween". I glued them onto square sheets of paper. I laminated them as well so they would hold up and could be used over and over. When I got to the classroom, I hid these square, letter cards all around the room. The kids had to find all the letters and work together to put the "saying" together. Out of all the games we played, this was the most popular. Kids love to find things and then it was even fun to work as a team to get the words together. They were all sounding out the letters and working together to get the task done. They asked if we could do it again after they finished it. This game could be adapted to any party, any theme, any holiday! Have fun!