Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Card Making Basket

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I recently set out a little basket of card-making supplies for the girls to make Halloween cards.I kept it simple with pre-folded card stock and a variety of stickers.

Sticking stickers is always a popular activity with my girls, so I knew they would be excited to see the basket.

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The girls had a great time and made quite a few adorable cards, which will soon be in the mail to surprise a few folks.They enjoyed this activity quite a bit and I plan on doing this for many more holidays in the future.

The card-making basket could be quite adaptable for any age of child or any occasion. Here are some other ideas for items that could be included.

Card Basket Supplies:
markers
crayons
scissors
glue
glitter glue
paper punches
construction paper, scrapbooking paper, etc.
ribbon
buttons

Have fun with the supplies and let your kids be creative. You never know what wonderful ideas they may come up with. Plus, think of all the people that would be thrilled to open up their mailbox and find a homemade card. I know I would be!

Painting on Wet Paper

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I was recently inspired to pick up a copy of the book Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (Bright Ideas for Learning) by MaryAnn Kohl at the library. It was a well-used copy and it’s no wonder. The book is full of fun, interesting and creative activities designed to combine science concepts with art. There are projects for all ages of kids. In fact, I don’t think you could be too old to have fun with this book.

The project we decided to tackle first was painting on wet paper, which was designed to demonstrate the concept of diffusion.I waited until AJ was napping before starting the project. On hindsight, even at 2, she could have had fun with this project.

The first step was wetting your paper.I had watercolor paper on hand, so that’s what we used. The book suggested construction paper, but almost any paper would work as long as it wasn’t too thin (you don’t want it to disintegrate when wet).

We then placed the paper on a tray and got to work. You’ll want your paper on something that will not soak up the water (cookie sheet, tray, etc.).Lizzie picked out a couple of colors of tempura paint and I thinned them out quite a bit with water. I wanted it to be thin enough that she could easily drip it onto her paper.

She dripped and smeared the paint while we talked a bit about diffusion. I loved having the example of the spreading drops of paint.It was quite fascinating to see the paint spread out so quickly. Lizzie had a lot of fun exploring her wet paper.

In the end, we had a really cool piece of art. We’ve also got several more projects marked in the book to try. Do the ideas of baked drawings, invisible designs, floating sculptures and shake pictures tempt you to pick up a copy of Science Arts? I hope so!

Feeding the Birds…

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We had a beautiful autumn day yesterday and we decided it was the perfect day to tackle #19 on our Fall Bucket List, feed the birds.

Set up was easy. I put together a bowl of cereal and a couple of lengths of string.I then tied one Cheerio to the end of each string so when the girls started stringing the cereal it wouldn’t fall off the other end.

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We settled in and started stringing.It’s an easy task once you get started, so I took the opportunity to read a few of the Halloween books we found at the library while the girls were stringing.

Do you notice the dog paws? Charlie, the dog, decided to join us for this project. Not because he thought it looked fun, mind you, but because he loves Cheerios. LOVES Cheerios.

Don’t despair, we did give him all the broken Cheerios… he was too cute not to!

When we were done, we took them outside and hung them on the branches of one of our little trees. I hope the birds love them!

Fun With a Circle…

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We went outside with the intention of creating another driveway obstacle course. But, this time, we only got as far as the circle… the one large circle. The girls started running and giggling and decided all they needed was a circle to have fun.

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They ran the circle by themselves.They chased each other around the circle.

They giggled.

They stopped to catch their breath and sometimes their balance.

They laughed and ran and laughed some more.

They even tried crawling the circle and jumping in and out of the circle. It was amazing how much fun they had with a simple chalk circle.

Other ways to use the circle:

Skip, tiptoe, march, etc. around the circle.
Work on directional words (on top, below, beside, etc.)
Work on counting (run around the circle 2 times, etc.)
Play Follow the Leader… in a circle
Drive toy cars around the circle

What are some other ways you can use this simple chalk circle?

Five Little Pumpkins…

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Can you believe we’ve never read the Five Little Pumpkins before?I decided not to let another year pass without reading this book and added it to our story time this week.

Of course, we needed to have a little bit of fun with it. So, I made jack-o-lantern finger puppets.

I simply drew five pumpkins on card stock and cut them out.The circles on the bottom are finger holes.

If you don’t want to draw your own, there are plenty of clipart pumpkins you can enlarge, print and cut out.

Meet four of the five little pumpkins.

They’re a wee bit silly and tend to giggle a lot.

These two are good friends who like to hide and scare each other.

Catch me if you can!

If you haven’t picked up the Five Little Pumpkins, you should. It’s perfect for even the smallest child and it’s even more fun when you have your own little pumpkins to play with.

If you want more ideas for activities to do with this book, Toddler Approved has a great post about it here.