Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Silly Races

By

January is usually cold, snowy, and windy for us, so we’re stuck indoors a lot.

But lately, we’ve had beautiful and unseasonably warm weather, which means we’ve been able to play outdoors!

In order to run a bit of energy out of the girls, I thought it would be fun to have them run silly races. Instead of just running, they had to run by doing something silly.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Here are some fun ideas for silly races

Run with your hands on your head

March

Run backwards

Run while holding hands

Run and wave your arms above your head

Hop on one foot

Run like an airplane

Run while singing a song

Hop like a bunny

Run while flapping your arms like a bird

Run with your eyes closed

Run in circles

Run and pat your tummy at the same time

Skip

Run sideways

Run and dance at the same time

Do you have any suggestions for silly races?

Shape Hunt

By

How many circles can you find in your house? Can you find some hidden triangles?

Learning about shapes can be so much fun. It lends itself so well to hands-on activities.

Recently, we went on a shape hunt throughout out house and had an absolute blast hunting for hidden shapes.

This shape activity was easy to set up and it was a great way to sneak a little learning into our fun.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

How to Set-Up:

Before playing, I took four index cards and drew a different shape on each.

You can do as many or as few shapes as you want.

I chose to use four basic shapes: rectangle, square, triangle, and circle.

How to play:

Shuffle the cards and spread them out shape side down.

Have your kids take turns turning over a card.

The first child draws a card and everyone runs off to look for examples of that shape. Once you find something come back to the collection area.

Small items can be brought to the collection area, larger item can just be written down on the card.

See how many examples of each shape your kids can find!

Once you’re finished with one shape, pick another card and get searching again!

Looking for triangles was challenging for us but, we did end up finding quite a few examples.

Some of the triangles the girls found were quite creative, such as our dog’s ears and the tip of a pencil.

Circles were everywhere, even on our own bodies (our heads)!

We found quite a few large examples for rectangle, such as the walls, doors, and the fish tank.

Even though we found a lot of squares, my oldest still wanted to make her own. She took her scissors and cut a piece of paper into a square to add to our pile.

We had a lot of fun with our shape hunt and it was a great way to get moving indoors. I’m sure we’ll be playing this game again and again and again!

Go on a shape hunt around the house. This is such a fun preschool or toddler activity.

Find more shape activities here:

Get Crafty: Shape Collages

Go Outside: Driveway Shape Maze

Sewing Circles: Simple Shapes to Sew

10 Shape Activities for Toddlers at Hands On As We Grow

Hey Diddle Diddle Collage

By

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such spot,
And the dish ran away
with the spoon.

For our final nursery rhyme craft, we did a simple collage based on “Hey Diddle Diddle.”

Lizzie, age 4, was able to work independently on this project while I helped AJ, age 2, with hers.

I presented the girls with pre-cut shapes: a moon, fiddle, cow, dish and spoon.

I also typed up the nursery rhyme, printed it, and cut it out as well.

All the shapes were simple and easy to cut with the exception of the cow. To make cutting the cow easier, I would suggest using clip art or tracing a picture from your favorite nursery rhyme book, then cutting.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

The task was simple. I got out the glue sticks and had the girls glue the pictures down however they wanted.

While working, we recited “Hey Diddle Diddle” over and over and over again!

Lizzie wasn’t satisfied with her collage until she had found some markers and added strings to the fiddle. Because, you can’t play a fiddle without the strings.

AJ thought “Hey Diddle Diddle” would have a much better ending if the fiddle ran away with the spoon!

I hope you enjoyed our nursery rhyme crafts and activities! I really enjoyed working on this theme week and plan on doing more theme weeks in the future. Do you have any themes you want me to tackle?

Get Moving With Nursery Rhymes!

By

Nursery rhymes are not just for crafting, they can get you moving too! We had a lot of fun acting out some of our favorite nursery rhymes.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

We climbed up the stairs just like the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” climbed up the water spout.

We rolled on the floor just like “Jack and Jill” tumbled down that hill.

We looked for our sheep just like “Little Bo Peep.”

We ran away from the spider just like “Little Miss Muffet” did.

We rowed our boats and sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

We pretended to climb a clock just like the mouse in “Hickory, Dickory Dock.”

We walked crooked just like the crooked man in “There Was a Crooked Man.”

And, if you missed it earlier this week, we also jumped over candlesticks just like “Jack Be Nimble.”

The next time your stuck indoors, start acting out your favorite nursery rhymes. Get moving and have fun!

Itsy Bitsy Spiders

By

 The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
Then the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.

We decided to try and make a few spiders of our own today since we love singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” so much.The spiders aren’t pretty, but they’re fun and quite helpful in acting out the story.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed

Old magazines
Yarn (cut in 7-8 foot lengths)

Yep, that’s it. Only two things are needed and one can be found in the recycling bin!

Start by tearing out individual pages from the magazine and rolling them up tightly.

I found it worked best to start at one corner and roll to the other. Once your page is rolled up, twist them up tightly to hold the shape.

You will need four rolls for each spider.

We then crisscrossed the rolls and I tied one end of the yarn around the center. The girls then started rolling all that yarn around the middle of each spider.

Once they were finished wrapping, I tied the yarn up securely so it would not start unwrapping.

I left about 6-7 inches of yarn free at the end for dangling purposes.

So, there you have it. It was quick, it was easy, it was frugal, and not a bit pretty.

But, we have spiders and we have a favorite song. We have all we need.

Do you have a nursery rhyme you’d like us to come up with a craft or activity for? We’re up for the challenge!