Lost In Pizzaland: Cowboys and Indians: Crafts, Activities, Games, Food, Books, Songs and Videos

Week One: September 4-12 Cowboys And Indians

Made sure you check out my educational blog that goes with each lesson for toddlers each week!!!!

Supplies for Crafts: Different Size Foam pieces, Western shaped foam pieces, glue, glitter, glitter glue, cowboy hat, hole puncher, beads, yarn, feathers, paper towel tubes, rubber cement, toothpicks, 2 small paper bathroom cups, construction paper, markers, paints, rice, stickers, large round tubed pasta pieces, oatmeal container, wooden dowels, jar candle, leather piece, leather string, paper bag, poster board, rocks, gold paint, crafts sticks, scissors, straws, hot glue gun, glue sticks.

Crafts: Pictures for Crafts Shown at End of Posting.

Horseshoe Game:

Materials Needed: Foam Sheets, Western foam shapes, foam stick, glitter
Instructions:

Make 4 Horseshoe shapes from foam sheets.
Make one star shape from foam sheet.
Cut circle in middle of star shape for the pole to insert into.
Insert foam stick about 8 inches long into middle of star.
Decorate horseshoes and star with cowboy shape foam pieces like horses, stars, badges, cowboy boots and hats.
Can use glitter to really sparkle it up

Cowboy Hat

Materials Needed: Felt or Foam Cowboy hat, western themed foam stickers, gliiter and ribbon.
Instructions: Decorate the hat with foam stickers and glitter. A piece of ribbon can be used to hold the hat on.

Moccassins:

Materials Needed: Felt, yarn and hole puncher
Instructions:

I took the felt and wrapped it around my child's shoe.
I then punched holes in the top piece and bottom piece to tie them together.
After knotting the yarn all the way around, I removed the shoe and had my child try it on.
If its too big, pinch the back together and punch holes through it and tie and bow in the back.

There are several different designs I have found at fabric stores like Hobby Lobby, that are great for this project. Remember to print out a Hobby Lobby coupon for 40% off one item. http://www.hobbylobby.com/, http://www.couponcabin.com

Bead Necklaces:

Materials Needed: Leather string or yarn, and beads.
Instructions:
Let the child build their own necklace by threading beads onto the string.

Feather Hat:

Materials Needed: Foam pieces, yarn, feathers, glue, glitter and beads.
Instructions:

Place a piece of foam around your child's head to get their size.
Cut foam piece about 2 inches wide.
Punch holes in the foam piece where you need to tie it together with yarn. Can punch a couple different sizes if you want it adjustable.
The child can now decorate the feather hat.
You can cut 2 little slits one above the other to insert the feathers into the hat. Glue would be best to keep the feathers in place. You can use glitter or beads on the hat.
At the end of the yarn you used to tie it together they can string beads on it.
Could also make some wrist or ankle bracelets using same idea.

Rain Stick:

Materials Needed: Couple paper towel tubes, paint, toothpicks, rubber cement or glue, two bathroom size paper cups, rice, paints or markers, glitter, stickers and jewels.
Instuctions:

Before the child starts this an adult will need to insert glued toothpicks at different levels and angles into the tube.
Cover the tube with contruction paper, wrapping paper or another tube.
Glue the sides of one bathroom cup and insert it into one of the openings.
Then let the child pour in a bathroom size cup of rice.
Then glue the sides of another cup and insert in the other opening.
Let the child decorate the outside with paints, markers, glitter, stickers, and jewels.

Pasta Necklace:

Materials Needed: Large round tubed pasta, paint, yarn and wax paper.
Instructions:

Let the child paint each pasta piece they want for their necklace.
Place the wet pasta pieces on wax paper to prevent from sticking.
When the pasta is all dry, they can thread yarn through the pasta and have a beautiful necklace.

Drum:

Materials Needed: Oatmeal container or other container, glue, construction paper, leather pieces, beads, markers or paint, glitter, feathers, 2 wooden dowels and beans.
Instructions:

Glue construction paper around the container for decorating it, let dry.
Can decorate it with leather pieces, beads, markers, paint, glitter or feathers.
Wooden dowels can be decorated for the sticks for drumming.
I put beans inside the drum for a little extra noise.

Tom Tom:

Materials Needed: Paper towel tube, feathers, wooden dowel, beads, yarn and paint.
Instructions:

Cut the tube down to about 6 inches long. Use the left over tube for top and bottom of tubes.
Place the tube onto the leftover tube and trace 2 circles to cover the opening. (Make sure not to make them too small).
After cutting out the circles cut a hole in the center of one of them for the dowel to go into. If one wants they can use a thicker cardboard for the circles.
Glue the dowel into the hole and then glue the circle onto the tube.
After it dries, place rice into the tube and glue the top on. Make sure the glue dries before shaking, otherwise the rice will stick to the glue.
After everything is dried, they may now decorate the tube and dowel. They can use paint, beads, feathers, stickers and glitter. We glued a bead on top of the tube and glued feathers into it. Then at the end of the handle we tied and glued some yarn and put beads and feathers in the beads.

Candle:

Mateials Needed: jar candle, leather material, leather string and beads.
Instructions:

We found a jar candle we liked and took some pieces of leather to fit around the jar.
After cutting the leather piece to fit around the candle, cut little strips to look like fringe.
Glue the fringe around the candle.
Then glue a leather string around the jar long enough to put beads on the end.
Great gift idea!

Gold:

Materials Needed: Rocks, gold paint, sand, strainer.
Instructions:

Find rocks around your house or neighborhood paint them gold.
Place the gold in with some sand and other rocks and let your child use a strainer and pan for gold.

Photo Frame:

Materials Needed: Photo frame with matte in it (can be found a dollar tree)or foam photo frame, glitter or puff paint, jewels, markers or crayons, stickers and stamps, black and white picture, magnet.
Instructions:

Have your child use glitter glue or puff paint and decorate the matte.
Can use a foam picture frame to decorate instead.
You can also make your own by having 2 pieces of foam and cutting out the center of one and glueing it on the other one. After placing the picture in it can be cover by a thin piece of plastic By placing a magnet on the back it can be hung up on the fridge or file cabinet or anything else metal.

Vests:

Materials Needed: Brown paper bag, markers or crayons, glitter or jewels.
Instructions:

Cut the paper bag to make it look like a vest for the child to wear and decorate it.
Could put a star on it to make it look like a sherrifs badge.

Wanted Poster:

Materials Needed: 8 x 10 black and white picture of child , poster board, markers or crayons and glitter.
Instructions:

Print out a 8 x 10 black and white picture of your child and glue it to some poster board and put wanted and whatever you wish for the reward.
You can have your child decorate it.
You could have a little jail you made with a big cardboard box you both decorated. You can get Big cardboard boxes from places like Sears, Lowes, Menards, places that sell big items like stoves and fridges. You can call ahead to these stores and ask for them to save you one.

God's Eye:

Materials Needed: 2 craft sticks, yarn in 2 or 3 colors, glue, feathers and beads.
Instructions:

Glue the two craft sticks to make an X. Let dry.
Tie yarn to the center of the X.
Loop yarn under the first stick, then over and around the next stick, then over and around the next, and so on.
Make sure the rows are not on top of each other.
Change colors when an "eye" has been made in the center.
Tie the two colors of yarn together.
Keep weaving.
Stop when there is about 1/2 inch of the craft sticks showing.
Tie the yarn tightly onto the craft stick.
If you wish, decorate the ends of the craft sticks with yarn, feathers, or beads.
This craft idea was found in the book, "Hispanic-American Crafts Kids Can Do!" by Fay Robinson. This decoration comes from the Hutichol Indians of Mexico.

Mayan Weavings:

Materials Needed: 5 drinking straws, colorful yarn.
Instructions:
To make a loom, thread a piece of yarn through each straw. Leave 2-3 inches of yarn sticking out of each end.

Line up the straws and tie the pieces of yarn together.

Cut another of yarn about 1-2 feet long.

Tie one end to a straw.

Weave over and under each straw until you get to the other side of the loom.

Then weave over and under the other way.

Push the woven yarn together.

Continue weaving until you have about an inch of yarn left.

Choose another color. Tie 1-2 foot piece of yarn to the end of the last piece.

Cut the ends short.

Continue weaving.

If you wish, choose new colors or create a pattern.

When you have reached the end of the straws, tie the yarn around the end of one straw.

Untie the big knot of yarn at one end of the loom.

Carefully pull out each straw.

Then tie the knot again.

This craft idea was also found in the book, "Hispanic-American Crafts Kids Can Do!" by Fay Robinson. This decoration comes from the Mayan Indians of Guatemala.

Can be used as a bookmark if wanted.

Feather Painting:

Materials Needed: Feathers, paint, paper.
Instructions:
Take a feather and dip it into paint and use the feather instead of a paintbrush. The painting comes out with some cool effects.

Mosiac Foam Art:

Materials Needed: Coloring book, different color foam pieces, glue
Instructions:

Find a picture in a coloring book or print one out and instead of using paints and such use foam pieces. Someone could also draw their own picture for this project too.
Cut foam pieces into tiny squares or other shapes and glue them onto the picture. They also sell foam with a sticky back so no glue is needed.
I have found that places that carry crafts also carry mosiac art kits which everything is already done for you. (I know hobby lobby carries them.)

Activities:

Plastic Cowboy and Indian Toys
Use a broom or a long stick (decorated dowel) to pretend to ride a horse (could have horse races)
Find a place near you, that has horseback riding
Play Cowboy and Indians, use facepaint, dress-up with the cowboy hat, red bandana, indian headress and buy or make a bow and arrow, make a tent indoors under the table or a tee-pee, play the the drums and tom-tom just made. Could also have outlaws that rob banks and such too,
Have a bonfire-cook over fire like they did back then.
Camp-Out have lanterns, set under the stars and enjoy nature.
When its dark play flashlight tag
Take black and white pictures just like back then.
Hide and Seek
Tell ghost stories around the campfire.
Pin the badge on the sheriff
Theres a snake in my boots/hat game where they try to throw plastic snakes into a boot/hat to see who gets the most.
Watergun fight, could also put up items on a ledge and try to squirt them down.
Indian tribal dance
Pan for Gold!
Coloring Pages