Tag Archives: Activity Ideas

Fun Kids Activity: Christmas Bingo

Posted on by Mika
1

Christmas Bingo is a simple game that can be pulled together relatively easily and cheaply. The great thing about bingo is that it is a game that can be enjoyed by little children, as well as big adults!

Our family was assigned to run a game at our friend’s Family Home Evening that we were invited to. After surfing the internet, I came across crayola’s site with this great bingo game!

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/search.cfm?txt_search=christmas

If you want to be tricky and make a larger bingo playing card, follow these steps:

1. I printed all the 5 playing cards onto white paper.

2. Then I cut out the bingo portion of the page.

3. I worked out the right percentage to enlarge the bingo game to the width of the paper. (If you have a copy function on your multifunction printer, click on 100%, then I clicked on Zoom, then I increased the percentage to around 122% – I have a preview function on my Canon MP520, which was helpful to see how big the enlargement was going to be.)

4. Then I copied the enlarged version onto red and green cardboard paper. (Obviously you can use any coloured card. I copied each playing card more than once, as we had over 10 people playing the game.)

5. I also copied one more enlarged version of the bingo game onto some white card and cut it out to make the “calling cards”.

If you want to use this game again, I would recommend laminating it. For counters you can use cut up bits of cardboard. In our family we use a variety of “gems” as counters that we have collected over the years.

The winner received a mini candy cane :)

You just had to be there…

Posted on by Mika
Reply

For family home evening last week my hubby came up with an idea that had me crying because I was laughing so much.

He laid a kid down, covered their nose, eyes and neck lightly with a scarf/piece of material. Then stuck a couple of metal washers with blu tak on their chin……

to make….

a chin face! (I didn’t take the photo below. Ours was a really simple bald chin person.)

I took some video on my cellphone, and we asked the “chin faces” questions and then fed them chocolate cookies! We all had a go, it was such a laugh!

16th Annual Wattie’s Cans Film Festival (NZ)

Posted on by Mika
Reply

Cans 

On Wednesday 28 October participating cinemas around New Zealand are allowing family and friends to attend selected movies for FREE in exchange for a can of food. (I got told that they accept cans from any brand, but they won’t accept rusted, dented or unlabeled cans)

Wattie’s are collecting for The Salvation Army Christmas Foodbank appeal. For every can the public donates Wattie’s matches can for can.

Simply swap a can of food for a movie ticket at participating cinemas from Monday 19th October – be in quick to secure your seat!

We’re going to the Night at the Museum 2 at Porirua, so we might see you there! For those who live in Wellington, here are movie and session times for the Cans Film Festival:

Skycity Cinemas Queensgate, Lower Hutt

Movie Info Line: (04) 586 8750
Level 2,
Westfield Queensgate,
45 Knights Rd,
Lower Hutt
Fax: (04) 586 8758
Email:  queensgate@skycitycinemas.co.nz

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Shorts
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Ice Age 3
Night At The Museum 2
Last Chance Harvey
Paul Blart: Mall Cop		 6pm
6.30pm
5.45pm
6.15pm
5.30pm
5.15pm
6.45pm

Reading Cinemas, Porirua

Movie Info Line: (04) 237 1070
North City Mall,
Porirua
Fax : (04) 237 1079

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Ice Age 3
Night At The Museum 2
Paul Blart: Mall Cop		 5.30pm
6.15pm
6.00pm
5.45pm
6.30pm

The Embassy, Wellington

Movie Info Line: (04) 384 7657
10 Kent Terrace,
Wellington
Fax: (04) 385 9037
Email:  embassy@skycitycinemas.co.nz

Band SlamNOTE: this is shown on Saturday, 1 November 10am

Not in Wellington?

Please go to: http://www.watties.co.nz/pdf/Watties_Cans_Film_Schedule_%202009.pdf to see the list of participating cinemas and the films on offer.

In the kitchen: Traffic light jelly

Posted on by Mika
1

001 004 005 012 045 050

Traffic Light Jelly is a pretty simple treat that looks really cool!

Although this can be done in a bowl, I think putting them in individual glasses has much more of a “wow factor”.

The cups you use don’t have to be stemmed, as long as they are see-through.

The kids all choose a colour that they were going to be “in charge of”.

DD8 was first. She mixed the green jelly and poured it into the cups using a ladle.

TIP: It helps if you do the first one, and then the child uses it as a guide to fill the other cups to the same height. Also it makes the jelly set quicker if half the amount of water is boiling hot. Stir and dissolve. Then put the second half of the water in, but this time put in cold water. This way the water ends up being luke warm, so it cools down and hardens quicker. When you put the cups in the fridge to set, put them on a tray to make transporting them in and out of the fridge easier.

Once the jelly was semi set (you put your finger in and it is solid), DD6 came along to add her yellow jelly. (you can use orange)

DS4 added the final colour, red!

DD2 made a bowl of traffic light jelly with the left over jelly that didn’t make it into the cups. (This was an easier job for her, rather than spooning set amounts into individual cups)

We started making this late morning, and it was all done by after dinner for dessert! YUM!

Fave five: Fun and easy games

Posted on by Mika
1

These are my favourite games to play with the kids. They are so simple and fun and all the children enjoy them (even the adults!)

  1. Tickle Monster – We all gather in a room with a bit of space, and I close my eyes, spin around a few times and start reaching out to find the kids. The kids run around to try and avoid my clutches (usually screaming with delight)! When I find them I tickle them! TIP: I usually shuffle around on my knees, so I don’t walk straight into the wall or something. I also started wearing gloves so I wouldn’t accidently scratch any of the kids while I fling my hands around trying to find them.
  2. Hide and Seek in the Dark - We turn off as many lights as the younger children are comfortable with. Then you play hide and seek like normal, except the person who is “it” has a torch or lantern that they use to find everyone with.
  3. Red Light, Green Light  – Everyone lines up against the wall opposite to the person who is “it”. The person who is “it” faces away from everyone and yells “green light!”. Everyone starts moving towards the person who is “it” until the person who is “it” yells “red light!” and turns around to face everyone. At that moment, everyone has to freeze! Then the person who is “it” says “green light” and turns and faces away from everyone etc etc. Everyone tries to move during the “green light” to get to the person who is “it” first and win the game! If you move during a “red light” you have to return to the start.
  4. What’s the time Mr Wolf? – The person who is “it” is the wolf. They stand at the opposite end of everyone else. Everyone yells “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” The wolf replies with a time eg “1 o’clock” – then everyone steps forward one step. It can be any time up to 12 o’clock eg “4 o’clock” – then everyone steps forward four steps. Once they finish stepping forward, they ask the wolf again “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” and the wolf will continue to say another time “3 o’clock” etc etc whatever he likes. At some point the wolf will say instead of a time, he will yell ”Dinner time!!” which means he starts chasing everyone to pretend to eat them, and everyone starts running away from the wolf. TIP: if your kids get scared at the idea of a wolf eating them, let them know that if they get back to the wall before the wolf gets them, they are safe.
  5. Musical Statues - Pretty easy. Just turn up the music and dance when the music is on, and freeze when the music stops. We sometimes dance different styles of dancing, like ballet, or crazy dances etc.  The kids love being in charge of stopping and playing the music. I think they get a lot of enjoyment out of being in control over whether mummy moves or not.

In the kitchen: Cooked Playdough

Posted on by Mika
2

006

This is the playdough recipe that we use at Playcentre. This recipe is perfect for my 4 kids, so halve it if you have less than 4 kids, and double it if you have more than 4!! Once you start making your own playdough, you won’t need to buy it any more, and as long as you keep the ingredients topped up in your cupboard (especially the salt) you can make it on demand!

002

  • 3 cups Flour
  • 1 1/2 cups Salt
  • 3 tablespoons Cooking Oil
  • 6 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
  • 3 cups Water

Put all the ingredients together in a large pot and stir it constantly over a medium heat.

003

Add some food colouring if you wish, or you can wait until the end and split the dough and add different colours.

004

Once the playdough starts to come away from the bottom and sides of the pot, take the pot off the heat, and plop the playdough on some flour.

005

Kneed until you get a nice texture and it isn’t too sticky.

PLEASE NOTE: When you are finished with the pot, fill it with water immediately to make cleaning a lot easier.

Also this playdough is extremely hot when you start kneeding it so, please take care, and do not give it to the children until it has cooled.

Apparently this playdough will keep indefinitely if stored in a covered container

Paper shapes mosaics

Posted on by Mika
Reply
052

My 6 year old daughter

041

My 2 year old daughter and 4 year old son

My 8 year old daughter

My 8 year old daughter

My 2 year old daughter

My 2 year old daughter

Materials needed:

  • glue stick
  • coloured paper
  • scissors
  • cellotape

As I was finishing my star chart, my DS4 (darling son aged 4) and DD2 (darling daughter aged 2) said they wanted some stars too. So I cut them out some stars and gave them some paper and a glue stick. My DS4 then cut out some strips of paper and stuck it by his stars to make “shooting stars”. He requested some more shapes, so off I went to get some coloured paper and cut out a bunch of shapes in different sizes and colours.

They had a blast! Then DD8 and DD6 came home, and said “what are you guys doing?!?!” and joined in straight away.

So as you can see this activity is suitable for all ages. It is great for fine motor skills as the little hands manage the scissors, glue and cellotape. They are also able to express themselves creatively. There is shape and colour recognition as well. (My 4 year old would go over to the Tupperware Shape-O to get ideas on what other shapes he could add to his picture.) My children also had to practice patience, turn taking and negotiation skills as we had one glue stick, one cellotape dispenser and one pair of scissors. Sure I could have got a few more supplies, but sometimes it is good to provide opportunities where they get to practice those skills.

I took photos of them working on their artwork to put in their journals, and I videotaped them talking about their pictures that we stuck in our kitchen, so we can document this fun memory.

TIP: Have paper and scissors available so that the children can cut out any other shapes that they want for their pictures.

Rain, Rain, Go away

Posted on by Mika
Reply

Today I have learned that 2 couches, some sheets and a little imagination can go a long way on a rainy day.

We have an open plan layout which includes our kitchen, dining room and living room.I made a simple hut using two single seater couches and some sheets, and noticed that after a snack or meal the kids would always go and play in the hut.

I also noticed that the type of play was always different. One time  the hut was used to hide from the dinosuars. Another time they used it to sleep in when they came back from their adventures. On another occassion they tried to climb around the outside of the hut.

It certainly made the day go faster, and it was fun to watch the children use their imagination!