Make Your Own Toys

Here are some ideas for making your own toys just in time for the holidays! 

Feel and Tell Box
Cut two identical 2” squares of different textured materials such as velvet, corduroy, rug samples, sandpaper.  Glue one square to the top of a shoe box.  Glue the other square to a piece of cardboard and place inside the box.  At the end of the she shoe box, cut a circle large enough for a child’s hand to reach in.  The child then reaches in to feel a square and tries to match it to the lid without looking.  The square can be removed from the box to see if the correct match is made or to make the game easier for small children.

Box Camera
Decorate a small box to look like a camera.  A button can be used for the lens, yarn for the camera strap, and a red circle for the ‘on’ button.  Cut a slit in the top of the box so that your ‘photos’ can be placed inside.  ‘Photos’ can be magazine cut-outs, child’s drawings, or even real photos of your child.  The child then takes the picture, counts to ten, and pulls out the ‘photo’.

Scoop Catch
Wash fabric softener bottle thoroughly and cut off the bottom on an angle.  Decorate the scoop.  Child grasps the scoop using bottle handle and tries to catch a ball.  Younger children can roll the ball back and forth to each other with the scoops.

Hyde Park Santa Parade

As a member of the Hyde Park Lions Club, our Board President Matt Brown is helping organize their first ever Santa Claus Parade along Gainsborough Road on Saturday, November 28 from 11 a.m.  

The parade with begin at Sherwood Forest Mall and travel west on Gainsborough Road.  Hot chocolate and cookies will be available along Gainsborough Road,  so bring a lawn chair, pick out a good location, and enjoy the parade! 

The parade is operated by the Hyde Park Lions Club as a service to the Community.  Any profits will be used for Lions programs and community betterment. 

Plans are underway to have many community groups take part with parade participants collecting non-perishable foods to support the local food banks and the Salvation Army.  Canada Post staff will be collecting those important “Letters to Santa” and much more.  

Here’s the facebook event page .

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Matt. 

Ideas for Fall Outdoor Activities

As the weather changes, outdoor activities change.  The cooler days of fall are ideal for long walks of discovery.  Pack a snack of cut fruit, cheese curds, crackers or finger sandwiches and some water to drink.  Walking in familiar places makes changes more noticeable. 

Watch for:

• Flowers turning brown
• Leaves changing colour and drying
• Birds and animals gathering food
• Pets growing heavier coats

Encourage children to:

• Look, smell, feel and think
• Collect pebbles, twigs, leaves, pine cones, wild flowers
• Hug some trees and decide which is largest, smoothest, friendliest

Use nature collections for crafts and to decorate at home:

• Make a branch mobile with leaves and nuts.
• Dip leaves, feathers, evergreen sprigs, etc. in paint and then press onto paper.
• Adopt an abandoned spider web by sprinkling it gently with talcum powder – lift it by placing a sheet of black construction paper underneath.
• Create a table centrepiece of acorns, pine cones, pebbles in a glass jar, or flowers dried by hanging upside-down.
• Preserve leaves by pressing between wax paper (cereal and cracker boxes have super wax bag liners) or use a placemat-size piece.  Place gathered “treasures” on one piece of wax paper.  You could shave crayon pieces with a grater, cut out magazine letters to create a name or add magazine pictures for added interest.  Place another piece of wax paper on top and iron gently (no steam) to melt together.
• Press leaves between sheets of wax paper placed under a heavy book.  Preserve leaves permanently by covering with clear MacTac.  Cut around leaves leaving 1/16” MacTac around edges.  Hang these in a window to twirl and sparkle in the sunlight.
• Place a leaf or two under paper, rub the top of the paper with a crayon to see the leaves appear magically.
• Create an apple face with miniature marshmallows or raisins.
• Use apple chunks to add to muffins or pancakes.  Share a cooking experience!
• Use apple pieces dipped in paint or pudding to make apple prints.

The colder weather of early winter brings out mittens and scarves.  The changing textures of clothes and dropping temperatures can be discovered.

• The ground is hard.
• We see our breath.
• We hope for snow.
• Watch the grey sky, and move quickly when outdoors to stay warm.  Play FREEZE! – then HOP – FREEZE, JUMP-FREEZE and so on.  Let the children take turns calling freeze.

Wacky Wednesdays

Try making lunch for breakfast, dress in crazy clothes, than go for a Wacky Walk (on tiptoe, skipping, giant steps, etc.).

More Winter Activities

 

Here are some more favourite outdoor winter fun activities:

• Build and decorate a snowman – radish eyes, carrot nose, scarf, hat, and buttons.  Be sure to include the children’s ideas.
• Let the children throw snowballs at a target set up outside.
• To test the children’s balance, make tracks in the snow such as a straight line, a zig-zag line, a circle, square, etc.
• Using old spray bottles filled with coloured water, let the children make pictures in the snow.
• Examine snowflakes with a magnifying glass.
• Cover a piece of cardboard with felt, and place the cardboard in the freezer.  Go outside, and let the snowflakes land on the board (they will last longer for examination).
• On a winter walk, have the children watch and listen for the sights and sounds of winter.  For example, the trees are bare, people wear warm clothes, the days are shorter, boots crunching in the snow, listen to the wind howling.

Ice/Snow Castles

 

·           Pour water into different size plastic containers (e.g. cottage cheese, small yogurt, large ice cream buckets.)

·           Add food colouring to water using different colours in each container.

·           Freeze in freezer.

·           On a nice sunny (not ‘biting’ cold) winter’s day, bring containers out of freezer and sit containers in water long enough to loosen ‘coloured ice’.

·           Let children take containers of coloured ice outside to make snow castles or other creations. This will keep the children fascinated with the coloured ice and white snow!

·           Children can also play indoors with this activity.  Put snow in a square plastic tub with the coloured ice.

Toy Report – SNOW

 

Snow is an almost magical substance for a child.  Like sand, it can be moved around, formed into shapes or decorated.  Borrow the gardening tools from the toy lending library – the rake and hoe can make interesting patterns in the snow, and the shovel is great for moving snow form one place to another.  Buckets or old ice-cream containers are handy to help make snow forts or designs.  Decorate with leaves, twigs or chunks of snow.  Playing outside in the snow gives a child fresh air and exercise plus lots of fun!

Winter Indoor Activities

 

For those days that the weather makes it impossible to play outdoors:

 

·        Use white chalk and dark construction paper to make snow drawings.

·        Cut sponges into various winter shapes – mittens, snowmen, snowflakes, fir trees.  The children can use the sponges as a tool to print on construction paper.

·        Cut winter pictures from magazines.  Attach the pictures with string or yarn to a branch or paper plate to make a winter mobile.

·        Older children may wish to make a book about winter.  They may find pictures in magazines or use their own creations.  The pages may be in the shape of a snowman or evergreen tree to add interest and creativity.  Some suggested titles might be:

®       What I wear in winter

®       What I like to do outside

®       What I like to do inside

®       My favourite foods in winter

®       My favourite thing about winter

Winter Fun

 

Snow Painting

Using spray bottles filled with water, add a few drops of food colouring or washable tempera powder paint.  To prevent wet mittens, cover your child’s mitts with rubber dishwashing gloves; then let him/her loose on the white and frosty “canvas”.

 

Outside Obstacle Course

To burn off the energy accumulated through confinement inside, create an outside obstacle course by setting out hula-hoops, boxes, toboggans and snow walls to climb over, through and around.  Make a snow slide by piling up a large hill of snow, packing it well, and creating a groove to slide down.  Steps can be added for little ones to climb up the opposite side.  Add more slides to other sides of the hill.

 

Ice Sun Catcher

Make an ice sun catcher by filling a pie plate with water and adding some birdseed, leaves, twigs, nuts, berries and other natural items.  Let freeze outside or in the freezer until solid.  Take the ice disk out of the pan, hang it in a tree and watch it sparkle and dance in the wind.

 

Ice Bubbles

Did you know that playing with bubble solution outside during frigid weather can be incredible fun?  Blow a bubble, catch it on your wand, and watch as it turns into a crystal ball which will then shatter like glass – but without any danger to children mind you.  Try placing blown bubbles on top of a snow sculpture to decorate.

 

Snow Castle

Whenever you get a dumping of snow which packs well, make sure that you create a snow castle by rolling snow balls and stacking them on top of one another to create walls, chairs, tables, and doorways.  Children can create shelves and cubby holes or windows by scraping away snow from the walls.  To complete the picture, don’t forget a snow carriage drawn by horses to ride.  WARNING: Danger.  Do not let children make snow tunnels.  They may collapse and suffocate children.

 

Snow Lantern

Make a snow lantern to light up the front walk.  Fill a large coffee or juice can one quarter full with water and set out to freeze.  Once that is done, place a smaller can in the middle of the large can and weight it down with stones or coins to keep it in position.  Add more water to the large can until in almost reaches the top of the smaller one.  Freeze solid, then remove the weights, and put warm water to loosen and remove it.  Briefly place the larger can in warm water to remove it.  Put a votive candle inside the ice lantern to add sparkle to your entry.