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Today it is raining. At some point, you may need to beat some boredom. Here are a few ideas to keep your children busy and happy.
- Let children go through their toys and decide what they have outgrown or don’t use; then help them set up a yard sale and sell lemonade too (on a sunny day). On the next rainy day, plan a shopping day to spend the money they earned.
- Play music and dance!
- Visit an appliance store for very large boxes, and build a castle or a rocket ship.
- Visit or volunteer at a local seniors residence or nursing home.
- Visit the library and stock up on reading and viewing material.
- Break out the cards, and play crazy eights or go fish or make up a game.
- Get out old magazines and flyers. Cut them up and glue to create a collage.
- Plan a tea party with old tea cups and saucers. Eat tiny sandwiches and cookies.
- Armed with a list of things from around the house, make a scavenger hunt.
There are various ways to make play dough with your children based on the age level and possible allergies of your child. Here are some fun recipes to try at home with your children. Some are tried and true while others are rather unique. Remember to have fun; and for the child it is the process more than the finished product. Feel free to drop us a line and let us know which recipes you would recommend!
Childreach Favourite: Kool-Aid Play Dough
½ cup salt
2 ½ cups flour
2 packages kool-aid
3 tablespoons oil
2 cups boiling water
Directions: Mix dry ingredients. Add oil to water. Add liquid to dry ingredients. Stir and let cool then knead. Store in plastic bags in the refrigerator to keep fresh longer.
Hint: if the playdough is too sticky, add a little flour; if the playdough is dry add a little oil in your hands and knead.
Home Made Playdough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 cups of water
1 tablespoons mineral oil
food coloring
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring until stiff.
Allow to cool, and then knead.
Peanut Butter Playdough
3 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar
4 cups powdered milk
3 1/2 cups corn syrup
Mix ingredients by hand.
Can decorate with sprinkles, M&Ms etc.
It is edible.
Salt Playdough
1 cup water
1 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
Food coloring
Mix ingredients in pan.
Add food coloring. Stir on low heat.
When it thickens remove from heat.
Put some on waxed paper or floured surface and roll out.
Cut out objects.
Air dry objects few days.
Store un-used portion in air-tight container.
It is non-edible.
Oatmeal Playdough
2 cups smooth peanut butter
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups powdered milk
2/3 cups honey
Optional -Rice Krispies, Coconut Sprinkles, chocolate chips, Red Hots, etc.
Mix ingredients until combined.
Wash hands.
Lay down wax paper.
Store in air-tight container.
Numnum Playdough
2 cups of honey
3 cups of peanut butter
3 packets powdered milk
Stir all ingredients together until smooth.
Add more powdered milk if desired.
Is sticky and edible.
Cloud Playdough
1 cup water,
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil,
6 cup flour
Add a few drops of food coloring to water.
Combine water, oil and flour in a large bowl. Knead well.
Add more water if necessary in small amounts until the dough is soft and stretchy.
Cloud playdough should be used on a washable surface as it is very greasy.
Coffee Playdough
4 cups unsifted all purpose flour,
1 cup salt,
1/4 cup instant coffee
1 1/2 c warm water
Dissolve the coffee in the warm water.
In another bowl, mix the flour and the salt.
Make a well and add 1 cup of the coffee water into it.
Mix with a fork or with your hands until smoother.
Add more coffee water as needed: dough should be smooth not sticky or crumbling.
Store in air tight container.
When you’re done making figures, bake in oven for 1 hour at 300 degrees or until hard.
A coat or two of shellac keeps it well preserved for longer lasting gifts.
Fruit Playdough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 tablespoons cream of tarter
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
3 oz package sugar-free fruit flavored gelatin
Mix dry ingredients in pan.
Add the water and oil.
Stir over medium heat until mixture forms a ball.
Pour onto a sheet of wax paper
Koolaid Playdough
2 cups rice flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 cup salt
3 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 packages unsweetened Koolaid (pick the color you like)
2 cups boiling water
Mix all together. Once cool take out of pan and knead well. Then place in Ziploc bag in the refrigerator.
Cornmeal Playdough – Gluten Free
1 ½ cups corn flour
1 cup corn meal
1 cup salt
½ cup corn starch
1 cup hot water plus 2 Tablespoons
1 tablespoon oil
Mix all ingredients until smooth. Add water as necessary to make more soft and smooth. Store in Ziploc bag for up to a month. This is textured dough and will be yellow.
Written by Dawn Baetens, Early Years Program Leader
You will need:
- white paper
- cotton swabs
- baking soda
- water
- purple grape juice
Here’s what you’re going to do:
- Have your child combine one tablespoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of water in a cup.
- Let your child dip cotton swabs into the mixture and make designs on sheets of white paper.
- Let their designs dry completely so that their papers look blank.
- Have them paint over their designs with purple grape juice.
- Watch what happens!
For more fun-tastic fall crafts, recipes, stories, activity ideas, and poems, download and print our Fall Funtastic Book!
Summer is coming to a close, and the anticipation of back to school is just around the corner. For children and parents, this brings up feelings of both excitement and nervousness. Creating a “Back-to-School Scrapbook” with your child can help both of you deal with these feelings and assist with preparing your child with this new transition. Your scrapbook creation can be made into a summer-long project, with a large portion of it being child-directed. The scrapbook will be a concrete tool that will provide a visual for your child about the upcoming exciting changes that they are about to experience.
Things to Keep in Mind:
- Age of your child
- Interests of your child
- Attention span
Mini Field Trips:
- Go to the dollar store to pick out an album and scrapbooking supplies
- Visit to the school, classroom, and teacher
- Go shopping for a knapsack, snack box, clothes
Pages to Include:
- The school & teacher
- Shopping for supplies
- Wearing the new school attire
- Calendar to mark off the days until the start of school
- Picture schedules of what will happen every morning to get ready to go to school and what the routine will be at school (story, play, snack time etc.)
- Activities that the child may participate in at school
- Art, water & sand play, playdough, music, dramatic play, books, building toys
- Friends that the child imagines they will meet
- What they imagine their first day might be like
- A “Back to School” Yearly Tradition
Materials:
- Photo album, scrapbook
- Variety of scrapbooking papers, stickers, embellishments
- Some type of adhesive (glue, photomounts)
- Pictures – photographs or magazine
Useful Websites:
Common Sense Parenting – http://www.parenting.org
Canadian Parents – http://www.canadianparents.com/grade-schoolers
Scrapbooking Supplies Checklist – http://www.trustyguides.com/scrapbooking.html
The scrapbook that you and your child have created will be an amazing conversation starter during the weeks leading up to your child starting school. Perhaps you and your child can look at it every evening before your child goes to bed, and different school activities can be talked about. Or maybe it can be pulled out when your child voices concerns over certain new activities. Enjoy the quality time spent with your child being creative together and preparing for the next milestone in their life. Perhaps it could turn into a yearly summer project?
Written by Heidi Payne, ECE Resource Centre Librarian
A couple of weeks ago, we posted a series of activity ideas relating to a beach party in preparation of the summer. Today, we have the entire booklet for you to download and print for free.
What are you waiting for? Gather up your children and have fun! :)
Our ECE Resource Centre staff are always pulling together seasonal and themed activity booklets that are full of songs, fingerplays, games, crafts, recipes and activities. We sell these booklets to childcare providers, early years teachers, and parents – anyone who is looking after children. The price of a booklet is super low as we simply need to cover the printing costs. It got me thinking that we could skip the printing and make the file a pdf, and then we could share it with everyone online for free. Free and fun stuff makes me super happy.
So without further ado, I would like to present the first of our free, fun, easy to download activity booklets titled Ice Cream Shoppe! Skip the trip to Dairy Queen, and make your own blizzards while singing ice cream cone songs. :)
Please let us know in the comments if you found this useful! We’d love to hear how you incorporated into your children’s play and learning.
I love arts and crafts. Each day I try to fit in something creative whether it be a little knitting, sewing, quilting, embroidery, painting, drawing, building, making, cutting, or gluing. Creating makes me feel good. It also feels good to share my ‘skills’ and my arts and crafts. I’m also always on the lookout for inspiration.
Here are some cool crafts for kids that I’ve found this week!
- Chalkboards & Outdoor Art Fun over at Angry Chicken
- Craft Camp - 30 days, 30 Bloggers, 30 Crafts at Skip to my Lou
- Make Your Own Modern Dollhouse at Four Bad Apples
- This is awesome – a Tree Activity Book download at Matzo Ball Soup
Where do you find inspiration for your arts and crafts?
Nadine Reeves
Administrative Assistant
Cut circles out of construction paper. Staple or glue them on to popsicle sticks to make a handle. Give them to your children and have them follow the directions in the song below.
Lollipops (to the tune of London Bridge)
If you have a red lollipop,
Red lollipop, red lollipop,
If you have a red lollipop,
Stand right here.
If you have an orange lollipop,
Orange lollipop, orange lollipop,
If you have an orange lollipop,
Jump up and down.
Repeat the song, changing the italicized colour words and directions at the end of each verse. E.g. clap your hands, shake your leg, take a bow, etc.
Materials
1 cup soap flakes
1/4 cup water
bowls
6 shades of food colouring
ice cube tray or styrofoam cups
Directions
1. Measure soap flakes and water into a medium-sized bowl. Divide into six bowls.
2. Add one colour of food colouring to each bowl, and mix well.
3. Press one colour at a time in to an old ice cube tray or into small styrofoam cups to form layers of colour.
4. Allow to set overnight, and release from the tray or cups.
5. Let your children colour with their rainbow-coloured crayons in the tub.
Make sure you wear a little green today!
For some crafty ideas to enjoy with your children, check out the Crafty Crow. We also love this painting activity and snack idea geared for preschoolers.
