Wacky Wednesday :The Circus Is In Town!

Wacky Wednesdays are a little break in the week, geared away from the weekly theme.  It lets the children have a little added fun. Your kids will love it when you say "Hey, guess what tomorrow is?  It's Wacky Wednesday!" Remember to have fun yourself.

Easier - The circus is a traveling show put on by clowns, acrobats, and trained animals. A circus often travels from city to city to perform inside a big tent.



Harder - The word circus comes from a Latin word for circle or oval. Today's circus's are live events held in either tents or an arena. The circus features daring and graceful acts by a cast of acrobats, aerial artists, animal trainers, and other performers. Trained animals are also an important part of most circuses. Clowns in funny makeup and zany outfits provide comedy for the audience. The ringmaster and the circus band add to the overall color and excitement of the circus.
For more great information about the circus log onto this website.

More Great Websites: click here
Books to Print, Activities and Printouts to Color: click here


Supplies Needed For Wacky Wednesday:

• You could make up prize tickets to hand out to the children every time they win, so they can turn them in for prizes later. 
• Prizes (toys, stuffies, crafts, crayons, coloring books, books, play-doh, candy, gummies, etc. Check Dollar Tree for items or Target $1 section.)
• 6 Buckets, Ping Pong Ball
• 6 Empty Pop Cans, Tennis Ball
• Face Paint
• Ducks, Pool Or Tub, Permanent Marker
• Circus Games At Dollar Tree
• Prizes (Small Toys, Stickers, Crayons)
• Tattoos
• Yarn
• Try To Make Balloon Animals( Kit can be found for a couple bucks at stores)(Careful with small ones because of choking hazard)
• Plain Party Hats to decorate for clown hats, Foam Stickers, Glue, Glitter
• Circus Themed Coloring Pages
• Empty TP Roll, Construction Paper, Glue, Markers, Plain Piece of White Paper
• Print out about 10 Fish, Stick(long Dowel), yarn, 10 paper clips, Magnet
• 10 empty pop bottles, 10 pictures of animal faces, Ball, Glue
• Electric Popcorn Popper, unpopped popcorn
• Popped Popcorn, construction paper, glue
• Paper Plate, Felt Pieces or Foam Pieces, Yarn, Glue, Markers or Crayons

Activities:

• Bozo Game:  Set up 6 buckets in a straight line behind each other, leaving about a 2 inch gap in between buckets. Have your child stand in front of the buckets and try dropping a ping pong ball into each bucket.  If they get bucket number 1, have them try for bucket number 2 and so on.
• Knock-Em Down:  Set up 6 can on a table, chair or something at your child's level.  Start taking the cans and build a triangle.  Three on bottom, then two on top of the three and at last one on the very top.  Have your child stand back a ways and try to knock the cans over with a ball.  I recommend not placing the cans by a window or anything else breakable.  They can get points on how many they knock down or just for fun.
• Face Painting:  If you have bought some face paint, paint your little ones face up to be whatever animal they would like or maybe they just want a butterfly on their face.  Make sure to follow the directions on the package before applying.  I always put some kind of lotion on my child's face before I did this, it was easier to come off.  Also, explain to them that this is special paint, so that way they don't just use anything on their face later on.
• Ducks:  You can do this game a couple of different ways.  You can write small, medium, large on the bottom of the ducks, if you bought different size prizes.  You could write numbers on the bottom of the ducks to correspond to a prize.  And you could write an animals name on the bottom of the ducks and they have act out that animals, along with their noises for a prize.  Just place the ducks in a pool or tub and let the children pull out the ducks for their prizes.
• Dollar Tree Games:  These are little games that the dollar tree carries that has things like a fair would have.  You could use these for prizes or games.
• Tightrope Walking:  Place a long piece of yarn on the ground and let your child pretend to be walking across a tightrope.  You could give them some sort of stick to let them pretend to balance too.
• Balloon Animals:  If you bought this kit from a store, make sure you practice a bit the day before.  Remember not to be scared if you pop a balloon because it might scare your child.  Be Careful of choking hazards too.  Make sure not to let them put it in their mouths and throw away any popped balloons.
• Clown Hats:  Take a plain party hat and let your child decorate it.  They can glue a big pom-pom on top of the hat.  Let them decorate the hat with glitter, yarn, buttons, ribbon, stickers, stamps, whatever you might have around the house.
• Printable Circus Coloring Pages
• Cardboard Tube Clown:  Cut a piece of plain white paper to fit around the tube and glue it in place.  Next have your child draw a face for the clown. Paste paper strips of construction paper for the clown's hair. Make a hat out of construction for that hat and glue it or staple it on.  It should be coned shaped.  If your child wants they can glue a little pom pom on top of the hat.  You can also make ruffles for the clown too, it helps the clown so stay standing up.
• Fishing Game:  To make a fishing pole, take a dowel and tie a piece of yarn around it a couple times at the top and glue in place.  If you want to use the dowel again for some other project, just wrap a pipe-cleaner around the dowel a couple times, then place your yarn over the pipe-cleaner and wrap the pipe-cleaner around the yarn until the pipe-cleaner is all gone.  If your pipe-cleaner keeps slipping off, you can wrap a rubber band around it.  Have your yarn about 24 inches long.  At the bottom of the piece of yarn, glue a small magnet onto it.  You should have printed off about 6-8 fish.  You could have your child color these fish ahead of time if you want, unless they are already colored.  On each fish slide a paper clip over it.  Place the fish on the ground or behind something if you don't want the child to see what they are doing.  The children then hold their fishing rod over a fish and they caught it.  If you are doing prizes you could put a number on the back of each fish and they get the prize for that number or they just get a prize for catching so many fish.
• Animal Bowling:  Make sure you have 10 empty pop bottles and 10 animal faces before starting.  Let your child color the animal face if they need too.  Then glue the animal faces onto the empty pop bottles.  Line the bottle up like they do in bowling. 1,2, 3, 4, like a triangle.  Then with their ball they can try to bowl down their animal pins.
• Popcorn Catch:  Take an electric popcorn popper and fill it up with popcorn like your going to pop popcorn.  Make sure not to put the butter lid on it, you want the popcorn to escape.  When your children are ready, turn on the machine and tell the children to try to catch the popcorn as it tries to escape.  Also, tell them not to catch any hot unpopped kernels.  The children can save the popcorn for the next project.
• Popcorn Art:  Give your child construction paper, popped popcorn and glue. Let them know they can make whatever design they wish to make with their popcorn.  You can even give them a bowl to eat while they are be creative.
• Clown Art: You can use a paper plate, felt or foam for this project.  Make a Circle face out of felt or foam if using these.  The paper plate is already for you to use for this.  Then let your child make a clown face.  Their clown could have star eyes, round cheeks, and a big smile all made from foam or felt, if they want. Use yarn for the hair.  Place a triangle on top of their clown's face for a hat and a pom pom or circle for the top of the hat. 
• Guess How Many:  If you want you can place jelly beans or animal crackers in a jar and let your child guess how many their are in the jar.  Make sure to count them before you start this game.
• Ball Toss: If you want you can set up a basket a ways in front of your child and give them 3 balls and see how many they can throw into the basket.
• Basketball Game:  If you have a basketball hoop, draw a line on the ground, tell them they have 3 tries to see how many they can get it for a prize.
• Pretend:  Let your child pretend they are at the circus. They can be a lion tamer or a clown(let them wear big baggy clothes).  If their is more than one child, one could be the lion tamer and the others lions.  The lion tamer can tell them to roll over, stand up, or roar.  They can pretend to be a tightrope walker or a juggler.  Let their imagines run wild.

Snacks/Food:

• Popcorn
• Peanuts in the shell
• Hot Dogs
• Onion Rings
• Nachos
• Cotton Candy
• Circus Peanuts or Gummies at Dollar Tree
• Elephant Ears (Take a Flour Shell and fry it in oil. Fry until crispy.  Dry it off. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.
• Sno-Cones
• Pretzels (found in freezer section) (bake them nice and hot, serve with cheese)

Wacky Wednesday :The Circus Is In Town!

Lions, Tigers, Bears and More! Week 3 September 20-26

This Week Will Be About Wild Animals At The Zoo!

 Don't Forget To Go The Zoo!!!

                  
                                    

                      

Crafts:

Bottle cap Scenes:

Supplies Needed: Bottle Caps, Paint, Glue, White Piece of Construction Paper, Marker

1. Have your child glue Bottle caps onto a piece of white paper.  For example for a Bear use :2 Large Ones (milk carton lids) for the body and head, 6 small pop bottle ones for the ears, arms, and feet.
2. When the glues dries, have your child paint their animal(bear).
3. When the paint dries on the bottle caps,draw a face on the animal then, let your child paint a scene for the animal.  Clouds, Grass, Tree, Birds, Sun and so on.

Egg Carton Lion:

Supplies Needed: Egg Carton, Brown Paint, Gogglie Eyes, Dark Brown or Yellow Yarn, Marker, Glue

1. Cut a Peak Divider from an egg carton for the body.
2. Also cut out ears, feet, and nose and glue in place
3. Paint the body tan and the nose brown
4. Glue on Eyes
5. Draw a mouth with a marker
6. Glue a ruff of yellow yarn around the head and face.
7. Add a yarn tail, tied and fringed at the end.

This Craft can be found in the book "127 Anytime Crafts Kids Can Make" by Highlights

Meat Container Caged Animals

Supplies Needed: Meat Container (From Butcher), Picture of an Animal, Yarn, Hole Puncher

1. 
   
   Let the child color the Animal picture.  Make sure animal can fit inside the meat container.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Cut 3 small slits on top of container and 3 on bottom that line up with the top ones.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Punch a hole in the upper left corner on flat part of container.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Next Glue the Animal into center of the meat container.
   
   
   
5. Take a 30 inch piece of yarn and put it into hole.  Tie a knot, make sure its in back. 
6. Starting from the top begin wrapping the yarn through the slits. Top to bottom , around back and top to bottom, tell it looks like bars.  Then take remaining string and tie to top back knot.
7. When wrapping around, remember not to pull to tight because you will rip the container.
8. Their animal is now caged in.

Zoo Animal Houses

Supplies Needed:  Old Cd's, Empty Yogurt Cup, Lid (sour cream or butter container), Beads, Glue, Bottle Caps, Packing Peanuts, Glitter, Anything Else you can find.

1. 
   
   Begin by gluing the empty yogurt cup upside down onto the CD.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Then Glue the Lid onto the the Cup.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   After that let your child decorate away.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Remember to draw a door for their animals to go into.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   You could also glue a small plastic animal to the CD.
   
   
   

Zoo Map

Supplies Needed: Big Poster Board, Big Sponge Animals, Finger Paints, Newspaper.

1. Lay the poster board on the ground on some newspaper.
2. Tell your child you want them to make a zoo map.
3. An example: Have them paint a pond of water with paint brushes or their hands(which is a lot of fun),
4. Then have them put an animal in the water.
5. They could paint a tall tree and place an animal by it. 
6. Make sure to put in a Road, Sky, Grass, Sun, Clouds and Whatever else they wish.  My daughter made hand print grass, sky and sun.
7. Hang it on their bedroom door.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Chain

Supplies Needed:   Construction Paper(Colors from the book: Brown, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Black, Orange), Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book, Glue

1. Read the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear to your child.
2. Next, Cut 1  (8 inch long, 1 inch Thick) piece of each color.
3. Next, Glue the brown strip together, to form a ring.
4. Then, Begin gluing the  colors (in order from the book ),interlocking them together to form a chain.
5. Finally, see if your child can remember the story by the chain of colors.
6. After doing this, if you purchased the Brown Bear, Brown Bear puzzle you can do that at this time.

Paper Plate Animals

Supplies Needed: Paper Plates, Paint, Yarn, Hole Puncher

1. Put the paper plate in front of your child and tell them their going to make a Lion. 
2. Let them paint a face on the lion and a hair.
3. Next, when the paint is all dried, punch holes in the top of plate so they can tie yarn to make the mane of the lion.
4. You could make this into a mask, just cut out eyes and punch a hole on each side of plate, tie a yarn in each hole and tie it around your child's head in a bow.

Mobile

Supplies Needed:  Paper Plate, Yarn, 6 Picture of Animals, Tape, Hole Puncher, Paint

1. Let your child Paint their paper plate. Let dry.
2. Next, is too have them color the Animals. Punch a hole in the top of each animal
3. When the paint is dry, punch 6 holes around the paper plate about the same distance apart.
4. Cut 6 pieces of yarn about 8 inches long or any length you wish, each one could be a different length.
5. Next tie each string in a hole.
6. Then tie the other end of each string to an animal.
7. In the center of the plate cut 2 slits.
8. Loop a piece of yarn, your desired length, through the slits and tie in a knot.
9. Finally, hang from ceiling

Mosaic Animal Art

Supplies Needed:   Foam or felt pieces, Picture of an Animal, Glue, Safety Scissors

1. Give your child a picture of an animal.
2. Next, give your child a safety and let them cut up pieces of foam or felt to glue on the animal picture.
3. Let them glue the pieces onto the picture. You can let them use a glue stick for less of a mess.

Pom Pom Animals

Supplies Needed:  Animal Print or Regular Pom Poms(different sizes), Glue, Gogglie Eyes, Pipe Cleaner

1. Lay out an assortment of pom pom in front of your child.
2. How to Make a Bear:
3. For the Body they need a Big Pom Pom, and for the head a Medium Sized Pom Pom.  Glue these together well.
4. Next, glue on smaller pom pom arms, legs and ears.
5. Then glue on the little bitty pom pom nose
6. Next, glue on the eyes
7. Cut a little piece of pipe cleaner for the mouth and bend it to a happy face and glue it on.

Felt Purse

Supplies Needed:  6 pieces of Animal Print Felt, Yarn, Scissors, Hole Puncher

1. Cut pieces, punch holes and cut yarn ahead of time.
2. (Center)Cut 2  8x 6 inch pieces of felt(could be 2 kinds of prints)
3. Punch 8 holes down each side of the pieces and 10 holes across the bottom only of each piece. Try to keep them about the same distance apart. 
4. (Sides)Cut 2  2x 6 inch pieces of felt
5. Punch 8 holes down each side of the pieces trying to line them up with the other holes from the big pieces.  Punch 2 holes on top for handle.
6. (Handle)Cut 4  2 1/2 x 6 inch pieces of felt
7. Punch  2 holes on each end to connect for handle of purse.
8. (Purse)Cut 52  4 inch pieces of yarn
9. (Handle)Cut 8  8 inch pieces of yarn
10. Begin by taking a piece of yarn and tying the sides to the 2 center pieces. Make sure to line up holes.
11. Next, tie pieces of yarn through the holes in the bottom of the purse and knotting the yarn.
12. You should now have a fringe like purse with no handle.
13. Next take 2 long pieces of yarn through the top of the holes on one side of the purse.  Loop the yarn through the holes of one of the handle pieces of yarn and make a knot.
14. Keep this up for the next 3 pieces and on your final piece, tie them together with the other side of the purse on top. 

Animal Sun Catchers

Supplies Needed:  Animal Sun catchers, Sun catcher Paint and Paint Brushes, Suction Cups

1. Have your child paint their sun catchers whatever color they wish.
2. Hang them up proudly in your window.
3. Great gift ideas.

Ceramic Animals

Supplies Needed:  Ceramic Animals (find at Walmart, Craft Stores), Paint, Brushes

1. Have your child paint their animals
2. Display them on a shelf
3. Great gift ideas.

Animal Necklaces

Supplies Needed:  Round plastic lid from container (sour cream or butter) , animal picture, glue, yarn, scissors, markers, colored paper scraps, hole puncher.

1. Punch a hole in top at the top of the lid or on the rim.
2. Decorate the front of the rim with permanent markers.
3. Cut a piece of colored paper to fit the center of the lid. Glue the paper on the lid. let dry.
4. Cut the picture smaller than the colored paper.  Glue the picture on the colored paper. Make sure the hole in the lid is at the top of the picture.
5. Cut a piece of yarn about 26 inches long to fit over your child's head when it is tied. Put one end through the hole in the lid.  Then tie the ends together.

Foam Picture Frame

Supplies Needed:  Foam Picture Frame, Recent Zoo Picture or Picture of your Child, Foam Zoo Animals, stickers or stamps, glue, magnets.

1. Let your child decorate a foam picture frame however they want.
2. Insert recent picture of your child in picture
3. Could put magnets on the back of the frame to hang it on the fridge or file cabinet at work or anywhere a magnet can stick.

Foam Sun Visor

Supplies Needed:  Foam Sun Visor, Foam Animals, Glitter, Glue, Jewels, Pom Poms, Ribbon, Stamps

1. Give your child a the sun visor and tell them to decorate it anyway they want.
2. Let your child wear it to the zoo if you go.
3. I would recommend not putting your child's name on the hat for safety reasons.

Zoo Keeper, Zoo Keeper What Do You See?

Supplies Needed: 16 Different Pictures of Different Animals for your child to color , Big Foam Piece, Yarn, 10 pieces of Card Stock, Markers, Foam Letters, Glitter, Crayons(Need 16 Different Colors), Glue, picture of your child.

We are going to be making a book just like brown bear brown bear what do you see.

1. Make sure pictures are small enough to fit in their book you are going to make them.  Leave room for writing your book too.
2. Let your child color the pictures.  Each animal must only be one color. While your child is coloring you could make their book or you could have it done ahead of time.
3. If you don't have any pictures, have your child draw their own animals, again they must be only one color.
4. First take your foam piece and cut it in half.
5. Fold your card stock pieces in half.
6. Place your foam piece on top and bottom of card stock. Punch 3 holes done the folded side
7. Tie the book together with yarn.
8. When your child is done coloring. Glue the pictures into the book. No animal picture on first page. First page is for the picture of your child. No pictures on last two pages or back page either, explain at end. Trim the pictures down if you need too.  Glue one picture on each opening. So when you turn the page there is only one animal.
9. When your pictures are done. You can write your book.
10. Title on Front with foam letters is " Zoo Keeper, Zoo Keeper".
11. Front page(First page), should be the start of book.  Your child's picture should be glued here.  Write Zoo Keeper, Zoo Keeper   What do you see? I see a Red Lion looking at me.
12. On next page, should be a picture of one animal.  If its a Red Lion,  Then write :  Red Lion Red Lion what do you see.  I see a Gray Elephant looking at me.This all goes on the same page.
13. Next Page should be a picture of animal single animal with a different color.  If its a Gray Elephant you would write:  Gray Elephant, Gray Elephant what do you see?  I see a Purple monkey looking at me.
14. And the next pages would go on like this until the last 2 pages.  On next to the last open page, you can put your child into the book. Glue a Picture of your child here. Then write for instances,  Little Belle, Little Belle, what do you see?  I see....
15. Then on last opening put  all your animals in your book a red lion, gray elephant, purple monkey, etc.  you can have smaller pictures of the ones they colored on this page or have them draw them in.  This will make it their own, if you let them do this.  Just make sure you allow enough room for all their animals and make sure to write the animal under each picture but no colors just the animal.  Then write a remark after all the animals like: All the animals wanting to be set free! or wishing they were as free as me! Or wanting to Roam like me! 
16. On back page you could write made by (your child's name)

Binoculars

Supplies Needed: Paint, Brushes, Glue, 3 empty TP rolls

1. Cut one of the TP rolls in half.
2. Let your child paint all 3 rolls. Let dry
3. Next, glue the 2 larger rolls together and then glue the smaller on top in the middle. Let Dry
4. Can decorate if they want.

Safari Hat

Supplies Needed:  Paper or Plastic Plate, Paper or Plastic Bowl (big enough to somewhat or fit on your child's head), Scissors, Yarn, Glue, Paint, Decorations, Hole Puncher

1. First place a plate upside down and place a bowl upright on plate. Trace around the bowl.  The plate should now have a circle on it.  Cut the circle out the the plate.
2. Next, glue the bowl upside on the upside plate. Let dry.
3. Then, let your child paint the hat. Let paint dry and then let then decorate it.
4. Then punch a hole on each side of the hat for the yarn to go through to help hold the hat on.

Animal Pictures:

Supplies Needed:  Pictures of Different Zoo Animals, Index cards, Glue, Marker

1. Print off pictures of different animals, or pictures of your own from a zoo trip.
2. Glue pictures to index cards.
3. On the back side of pictures, write the animals names
4. Quiz your child on the animals

Activities:

Plan A Trip To The Zoo!!!!

Safari Hunt:

• Gather your Binoculars, Safari Hat and animal pictures you made and/or stuffies.
• Place them around the house in different areas
• Let your child put on the hat and search throughout the house, with their binoculars, for hidden animals. 

Grow Capsules in Cages:

• 
  
  These can be found at the Dollar Tree. 
  
  
  
• 
  
  You just a water to the inside of the cage and in a couple days their animals will have grown to the size of the cages.
  
  
  

Elefun Game:

• 
  
  These can be purchased at most stores.
  
  
  
• 
  
  You place all the butterflies in the machine and give each child a net
  
  
  
• 
  
  Then you turn the machine on and each child tries to catch the butterflies in their net, when the elephant blows them out his truck.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Don't forget the batteries, if you buy this game.
  
  
  

Guess What Animal I Am!

• Have a child act out an animal ,with noises and gestures and let the other children or yourself guess what animal they are.

Zoo Keeper Says:

• Its just like Simon says except they are a zoo keeper
• Zoo Keeper says "Act Like a Monkey!"
• Its a lot of fun and plenty of exercise.

Alligator Egg Hunt

• 
  
  Hide plastic Easter eggs, with baby alligator or animals in them, around the house or yard.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Then tell your child that a mommy alligator has lost her eggs and wants them to help find them for her.
  
  
  
• 
  
  They can put on their safari hat and bring their binoculars with to find the eggs.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Once they find all the eggs, tell them the eggs are ready to hatch and let them see what is inside.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Make sure to explain if you put any other animals in there that they are not born from eggs.
  
  
  

Find The Animal!

• 
  
  Take your picture cards and hide them around the house.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Next, tell each child that they must find a certain animal.  If they see another animal they must leave it and only find the animal they were told to find.
  
  
  

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

• Whoever goes first, everyone must follow exactly what the leader is doing, no matter how silly it must seem.

Try to be an Elephant!

• Each child is given a straw(trunk) and a pom pom (not to small, do not want a real small one to suck up straw and choke)
• They must then try to suck the pom pom to the straw and see how far they can go, before it drops.
• You could also have a contest to see how far you can blow the pom pom, after sucking it up with the straw.
• Another game is to take the straws and blow the pom pom across the room and the first one over the finish line wins!

Coloring Pages

• 
  
  Print out pictures of zoo animals and let your child color them. Check supply list for great websites.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Menards has great learning coloring books with all sorts of animals, tattoos, and stickers in them for a $1. If you buy so many you get them all free with mail in rebate.  Just remember the rebate can only be used at Menards.
  
  
  

Barrel Of Monkey Game

• 
  
  Can be purchased at most stores.
  
  
  

Animal Puzzles:

• 
  
  Can be purchased at most stores.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Brown Bear, Brown Bear ones can be found at Kohls and Wal-mart
  
  
  
• 
  
  Can make your own.  Check past lessons to see how.
  
  
  

Make Up Your Own Animal!

• 
  
  Have your child and yourself make up an animal.  For instance: Kangaroo and Rooster = Kangarooster or Elephant and Alligator = Elegator.
  
  
  
• 
  
  After making up your new animals, have your child draw what they might look like on a piece of paper. Remember to write what they are under each picture.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Have fun thinking up new animals.
  
  
  

Playdoh Animals

• Let your child make little animals out of playdoh to have their own zoo.
• Check last weeks Bake, Cook, Make Day Saturday for a homemade recipe.  If you let the dough harden you can paint them and have them for awhile.

We're Going On A Bear Hunt!

• After reading the book, go back and read it again.  This time do the motions!
• Motions!
• When it says what do you see, put your hand on your forehead like your looking far ahead.
• The Tall Tree part look up like your looking at a tall tree.
• The Wide River, make your arms as wide as they can go
• When it says bear hunt you can act like a bear, look back and forth
• When it gets to the bear pretend to touch something, feel the hair and touch the teeth
• Kids love this book and I hope yours does too.

Animal Memory Card Game

• Need 2 copies of the same animal picture. Glue these pictures on cardboard squares, which should be 2x2 inches.  Repeat again with about 10 more animal pictures. Its up to you. Let dry.
• Turn over the cardboard pieces so the pictures are face down.
• Take turns in trying to find the matches of each animal. If you find a match, you go again.  If you don't find a match, turn your cards over and the next person goes.
  

Lions, Tigers, Bears and More! Week 3 September 20-26

Dinosaurs!!! Week Two September 13-19

Right now Target has a lot of Dinosaur Items in their dollar section. These maybe on clearance now or soon well be.


Crafts:

Dinosaur Mosaic: 

Supplies Needed: Dinosaur Picture (coloring book or printout), Regular or Sticky Back Foam Pieces, and Cardboard.

1.   Glue the picture to a cardboard piece. 
2.  Cut little squares from different color foam. 
3.  Have child glue or stick the foam onto the picture. 
4.  Use can also buy already to use kits from places that sell crafts. 

Dinosaur Feet: 

Supplies Needed:  2 pieces of cardboard, ribbon,paint, markers or crayons.

1.  Draw 2 Big Dinosaur Feet onto pieces of cardboard. 
2.  Cut out the feet and cut 2 slits in the middle off to the sides, on each feet for the ribbon to go through. 
3.  Let the child decorate the feet. 
4. After it dries, Loop a ribbon through the feet area long enough for the kids to fit their feet and tie off.
5.  Now they can slip their feet through the ribbon and stomp around the house.

Paper Plate Dinosaur: 

Supplies Needed:   2 Paper plates, paint, glue, gogglie eye. 

1.  Take a paper plate and cut out a stegasaurus. When cutting out the stegasaurus, you will not have enough plate for the tail. 
2.  Cut the tail for another paper plate and glue it onto the other plate. 
3.  Let the child decorate his own stegasaurus. 
4.  A gogglie eye can be used for his eye.

Make your own Dinosaur Puzzles:

Supplies Needed:  Dinosaur picture, cardboard, glue, paint, marker or crayons. 

1.  Print off or Tear out picture from coloring book and glue it onto a  piece of cardboard.
2.   Have a child color the picture and laminate the picture.  Can paint glue over the top of the paper to do this. 
3.  Then when the glue dries cut the cardboard up into pieces like squares for the child to put back together.

Paper Mache Dinosaur Egg.

 Supplies Needed: Balloon, growing dinosaur, newspaper, flour paste, paint.

Flour Paste Recipe: 1/2 cup white flour and 2/3 cup of water. Mix well.

1. First we put the dinosaur the grows in water into the balloon. 
2. We then filled the balloon with water. 
3. Next cut newspaper into 8 inch strips about an inch wide. 
4.  Dip the newspaper into the flour paste and apply to balloon. 
5. When the balloon is completely covered, let it completely dry. 
6.  When the egg is dry, the child can begin decorating it. 
7. We waited til the end of the week to pop the balloon. 
8.  When we popped the balloon a huge dinosaur was waiting for us. 
9. This project can get very messy I suggest doing it outside or on tile.

Coloring :

      www.coloring.ws/dinosaur.htm ,     www.coloringbookfun.com/dino
      http://familycrafts.about.com/od/dinosaurcoloring/Dinosaur_Coloring_Pages.htmsaur,

       http://www.ivyjoy.com/coloring/dinosaur.shtml  This website also has great links for learning  about          dinosaurs too.

Other Crafts:  Pictures Shown Below:

Pasta Art:

Supplies Needed: Different sizes and shapes of pasta, paints/markers construction paper and glue.

• Place different pasta in bowls or on paper plates.
• You may have your child paint or marker the pastas. Let them dry on wax paper.
• Have your child glue the pasta on the construction. Tell them they can make whatever they want like faces, houses,cars, etc.

Imagination Art:

Supplies Needed:  Construction paper, glue and whatever you have around the house.  Suggestions included: Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, paints/markers/crayons, buttons, string or yarn, cereal, pom poms, gogglie eyes, cut out of your children's hands and feet out of construction paper, paper clips, stickers, stamps, feathers, rubber bands and bottle caps.

• Let your child's imagination begin. 
• Have your child glue different objects onto construction paper into any design they wish.

Canvas Art:

Supplies Needed:  Canvas, Paints, paintbrushes or let them use sponges, fingers, rubber balls, marbles.

• Let your child paint away on their canvas, just like a true artist would.
  

Activities:

Dinosaur Excavation Kit:

•  These can be purchased at target in dollar section, hobby lobby or dollar tree. 
•  They hide dinosaur bones inside a block of rock like material for the kids to use special tools that it comes with to find all the bones. 
• It gets very messy so I suggest doing it over newspaper and on tile or outside.

Fossil Dig:

1. Print out pictures from this website and cut them up in squares.
2. Make sure to keep each dinosaur bones with each other. 
3. Place one set of bones into a tub of rice. 
4.  Let the child search through the rice for all the bones. 
5.  When they find all the bones the child can then put the bones together to form their dinosaur. 
6.  I suggest printing out 2 copies of each dinosaur, that way when you cut one up the child can still see how to put it together. 

Dinosaur Grow Capsules:

•  These can be found at Target and the Dollar Tree for $1. 
• When the child takes a bath they can watch their dinosaur grow in a container filled with water.  This way they don't get lost in the tub.

Visit a Zoo or Museum: 

• Right now for those who live around Chicagoland, they have life-size dinosaurs that move and make noise. 
•  Some of these dinosaurs the kids can make move and have them make noises.
•  These can be found at Brookfield Zoo.
•  They will be there through October. 
•  http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/.

Cave Painting:

• Take a large cardboard box and cut out a door, let the child draw little cave paintings inside and outside the box. 

Hot Lava Game:

• Place a red blanket inside and over a bucket or trashcan like lava. 
• Have the child try to throw dinosaurs or bean bags into the hot lava.

Dinosaur Egg Hunt:

• Place little dinosaurs in Easter eggs and hide them around the yard. 
•  Let your child go on a dinosaur egg hunt.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dig: 

•  You will need chocolate chip cookies, and skewers for this game. 
• Let your child take the skewers and dig out the chocolate chip out of their cookies.

 

Dinosaur Egg on a Spoon Race:

• Give each child and/ or adult a spoon, plastic egg or hard-boiled egg and have a race.

Hot Dinosaur Egg: 

• This game is just like hot potato. 
• You can use an egg or bean bag.

Dinosaur Egg Stomp:

1. Tie a piece of yarn onto a balloon. 
2. Then tie the other end of the string around a child's ankle. 
3.  Then the kids try to stomp on each other balloons and try to pop them.
4. Make sure the piece of yarn is not to short or long. 

Wooden Dinosaurs: 

• Can be found at dollar trees, walmart and craft stores.
• The child just paints their dinosaurs whatever they wish
• Has a hook on back for hanging.

Snacks/Food

• Dinosaur Eggs:  Boiled Eggs
• Dinosaur Bones: Pretzel Sticks
• Chicken Wings (Meat Eaters), Vegetable Platter(Plant Eaters)
• Brontosaurs Burgers
• Popsicles with gummy dinosaurs (make your own)
• Create a Saur gummies by General Mills
• Dinosaur Cereal
• Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets
• Dinosaur Sandwiches(they have dinosaurs sandwich cutters at Wal-Mart in the bread section)
• Dinosaur Cookies (can make these with cookie cutters)
• Diego Great Dinosaur Rescue Gummies by Kellogg
• Jello Dinosaur Eggs filled with dinosaur gummies (use jello mold for making easter eggs)
• Dinosaur and Shark gummies at Hyvee

Remember to check out my books, videos and TV suggestions on supply list for week two.

Dinosaurs!!! Week Two September 13-19

Entire Supply List For Week 2 : Sept. 13-19

Theme for Week 2 is DINOSAURS!!



For those who live around the Chicagoland Area, Brookfield Zoo has a Dinosaur Exhibit going on through October.  They have Life-Size Dinosaurs, which the children can make them move and make noise with a touch of a button.  Check it out at: http://www.czs.org/czs/Brookfield/Events/Dinosaurs-Alive!.aspx


Also for those who live in bigger cities, check your local museums around your area which should also have Dinosaurs.

Most of the supplies needed for this week can be found at Target, Hobby Lobby (don't forget coupon for % off), Wal-Mart, dollar stores and most craft stores.

 Target is now marking their school supplies down by 30% now, so now is a great time to stock up on things like:

• Markers
• Crayons
• Ruler
• Construction Paper
• Glue
• Paint
• Index Cards
• Tape
• Anything else needed for crafts

Supplies needed for Crafts and Activities:

• index cards (3x5)
• foam book (per child)
• foam letters
• paper plates
• ribbon
• 2 large cardboard pieces (8x10) (need 2 per child)
• balloons
• newspaper
• flour
• rice
• print out 2 of each dinosaur on this website
• dinosaur mosaic art kit (found a hobby lobby or dollar tree)
• excavation kit (Target in $1 section or dollar tree)
• dinosaur coloring pages (print out or buy coloring book)
• paint (we used green and yellow)
• growing dinosaurs (the kind you put in water and they grow bigger)(dollar tree)
• plastic Easter eggs
• small dinosaurs
• chocolate chip cookies
• large poster board
• dinosaur foam stickers
• different color foam with a sticky-back (for mosaic art work)

Supplies Needed for Wacky Wednesday:

• Balloons
• Straws
• Paper Plates
• Feathers
• Paint- Gold
• Cup and Spoon
• Hard- Boiled Eggs or Plastic Eggs
• Yarn
• Cardboard
• Glue
• Print out Dinosaur Award or Certificate or even t-shirt iron-ons

Supplies Needed For Thirsty For Knowledge Thursday:

• Index Cards
• Foam Book (about 4x6 book, can be found at hobby lobby and dollar tree)(per child)
• Foam Numbers
• 5 Sheets of Card Stock(per child)
• Yarn
• Hole Puncher
• Pictures of Things in Sets of One or Two
• 2   8x10cardboard pieces 
• Glue

Supplies Needed For Bake Day Saturday:

• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Oranges
• Skewers
• Pick Your Own Easy Bake Recipe from:  http://www.eborecipes.com/Recipes/R124.htm    You can use these recipes even if you don't have an easy bake oven.  Its fun for the kids to measure, pour and mix things.

Supplies Needed For Snacks And Dinners:

• Create-A-Dino Gummies by General Mills (found at grocery stores)
• Dinos and Shark Gummies(found at Hy-Vee)
• Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue Gummies by Kellogg
• Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets(Aldi's, Krogers, Hy-Vee)
• Dinosaur Sandwich Cutter(Walmart in bread section)
• Ice cube tray
• Fruit Juice
• Jello (Easter Egg Molds are great with this one)
• Chicken Wings (Meat Eaters)
• Variety of Vegetables(Plant Eaters)
• Hamburgers (Brontosaurs Burgers)
• Hard-Boiled Eggs

Suggestions Of Books For Story/Learning Time:

• Dinosaur Dinners by D.K. Reader by Lee Davis
• Dinosaur's Day by D.K. Reader by Lee Davis
• Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
• The Usborne Little Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs
• T is for Terrible by Peter McCarty
• Dino Hockey by Lisa Wheeler
• Dancing Dinos go to School by Sally Lucas
• The Day the Dinosaurs died by Charlotte Lewis Brown
• How do Dinosaurs play with their friends by Jane Yolen
• How do Dinosaurs say good night? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
• How do Dinosaurs eat their food? by Jane Yolen
• How do Dinosaurs clean their room? by Jane Yolen
• How to Dinosaurs get well soon? by Jane Yolen
• Digging up Dinosaurs by Aliki
• Dinosaur Eggs by Jennifer Dussling
• Dinosaurs! A spot-the-difference puzzle book by Steve Parker
• What did Dinosaurs eat? by Elizabeth Macleod
• Find out about Dinosaurs by John Cooper
• Fossil DK EyeWitness Books by Dr. Paul D Taylor
• Dinosaurs (My World) by Dr. Alvin Granowsky
• Triceratops by Lara Bergen
• T-Rex by K.S. Rodriguez
• The Magic School Bus in the time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole
• Readers Digest Pathfinders, Dinosaurs, by Paul Willis
• Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Mattew Reinhart (pop-up book)

Suggestions Of Great Videos And TV Shows:

• All Land Before Time Videos
• Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue
• New Show on PBS called Dino Train
• Dinosaur
• Magic Tree House The Busasaurus
• Dinotopia
• Dink, the little dinosaur
• Check your TV guide for all dinosaur shows, they have been having a ton lately.

Entire Supply List For Week 2 : Sept. 13-19

Activities to do with your Toddler/Child

There are a lot of times parents or grandparents ask themselves what can I do with a toddler?

I've asked myself this question lots of times and have compiled a lists of things to do with your toddler.

Toddlers love to be involved with the things your doing. They like to copy and be just like you.

Toddlers can:

Fold and hang up clothes.

Help with cleaning house. They like to dust, sweep, mop, vacuum, clean windows. Just becareful not to give a child Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They give kids rashes, they are very harmful for them. Make sure not to give them any harmful chemicals either. They do make little kids clean-up kits with brooms, mops, vacuums, etc. My daughter has these and they are just the right size for her.

Help wash dishes. Even rinsing the dishes, just becareful and not give them anything glass or sharp. Could even give them a little pan with water.

Clean-up. This works great if you sing a clean-up song with them or make it a game.
Here are some great clean-up songs to sing with your child:

Let's Clean Up To the tune of "Farmer In the Dell"
Let's clean up today Let's clean up today We've had our fun Our day is done. So, let's clean up today.

It's Time To Cleanup (Tune: Frere Jacques)
Are you helping, are you helping Pick up toys, Pick up toys Let us all be helpers, Let us all be helpers. Girls and boys, girls and boys

Clean-up Song Improvise a tune:
Clean-up, clean-up Everybody get some toys. Clean-up, clean-up All the little girls and boys. Clean-up, clean-up Everybody do your share. Clean-up, clean-up Everybody, everywhere.


Help cook or bake things like cookies or cakes. A good time to get cake mixes is after a major holiday like valentines day or Christmas. They discount the cake items and they don't expire for over a year.

I bought my child an easy bake oven and she loves it. You must supervise them at all times. Their little hands could get stuck in the oven because if nobody helps them. It comes with a push device so that their hands won't ever touch it. A good website to go on for recipes to use with the easy bake oven is http://www.eborecipes.com/

Play games like:
Hi-Ho Cherri-o
Go-Fish
Hide and Seek
Monopoly Jr.
Yahtzee Jr.
Memory (They have all sorts of charaters now like Disney, wow wow wubbzy, etc.)
Cooties
Boggle Jr. (Great game for them to learn how to spell)
Dominoes (They have ones for children like Dora)
Operation
Sliders (This is fun for the whole family)

Puzzles are great for toddlers because they teach them problem solving. I wouldn't go no bigger than 25 pieces. Easy to start off with 10 pieces and work your way up. Wooden ones are great for the really young toddlers.

Toddlers love to color or paint.

You can go on several websites. and print out coloring pages. When they have school supply sales in August, I always pick up extra crayons and paints or other items while they are inexpensive and have them throughout the year. When your dealing with younger toddlers the jumbo crayons work best for them because they don't break as easy. And a good thing to get is Washable paints. They sell paint shirts or jackets in the craft section which are a big help. My sister buys canvas pieces for hers to fingerpaint on and then she hands them out as gifts for peoples birthdays or special occasions.

Free coloring pages for printing:

http://www.coloringpages.net/
http://www.nickjr.com/ (They have ones for Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, etc.)


Outdoor activities:

Nature Walks. You could point out the things in nature like trees, birds, flowers and ask questions. Like what color, what flower they like, things like that. You can let them take pictures and develop them for a craft for to put in photo album. If you take a bag with you on your walk, your little one can pick up things on the walk, like acrons, leaves, sticks, wild flowers (watch for bees). Then when you get back you can talk about each item and make a craft with it. I took clear shelving paper and made it the size of a placemat, (double it because you have to fold it over), and let them stick their treasures on it. You then fold it over and it becomes sealed to use as a placemat. (You can also use string and such for it too.)

Find a local flower garden to visit

Make a flower or vegetable garden in your backyard for them to help with. Stores carry little kids garden stuff like: Rubber boots, tools, kneeling pads, gloves. They have kids seed starter kits for them to watch their seeds grow before planting them in the ground.

Find a playground in your area or others. One of our local playgrounds has a big private ship for the kids to play on. When we go there we make a day of it. We bring along a picnic lunch and play the day away. Finger foods work great like: Budding meats, cut-up watermelon, grapes, string cheese, bread, gummy snacks, strawberries, carrots, celery sticks cookies(make sure nothing that melts like chocolate), bring juice boxes, wipes. Make sure to bring sunscreen for them.

Check for local soccer groups. Usually the age they take a toddler is 4. This will give them exercise and a chance to play as a group.

Check your local YMCA, colleges or facilities like this for activities they might offer. Ours offers soccer, crafts, movie night, parent time for times when you need a date with your spouse alone, ballerina and karate classes. On Easter or Christmas or other holidays they have fun times like Under Water Easter Egg hunts, Night at the Movies.

They love to play with sidewalk chalk, help clean your car with you, outdoor paint.

In the Car Activities:

Sing Songs. They sell CDs that are just for toddlers. Simple songs that we all know like BINGO, Farmer in the Dell..

Coloring

Portable Game system like V-Smile Pocket. (My daughter has this system and she started playing it when she just turned 3. They are very simple games and a lot of fun. They have 2 kinds out now for them. One is like the DS (touch screen) and the other just buttons. They keep the kids entertained for hours. They also have a new system called the V-Smile Motion, which is like the Wii for Toddlers. They have to move the controller or pretend to jump over logs and such. Cartiages run about $25 for them. The advantages is that you can still use the games that the V-smile pocket has which run about $15 to 20 in the games except they don't motion. Use can use the V-smile motion cartiages in the V-smile pocket too.

I see with my little eye game


Indoor Activities

Set up a Supermarket. JCpenny has a great deal on one right now. Called the Supermarket Deluxe.
http://www3.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID=62371&CatID=64243&GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=15f92ee&attrtype=&attrvalue=&CMID=6237162948&Fltr=&Srt=&QL=F&IND=1&CmCatId=623716294864243

Take a big cardboard box and make a house. If you don't have one call your local stores and they may have one to hang on for you.


They also have cardboard box houses that you can color. These are great for parties with kids too. They get to play in the house and color it at the same time.


Make a puppet theater. You can take 2 tension rods and place a curtain on each one and hang it the curtains on the doorframe. Puppets can be made from socks, or sticks, or 2 pom pom with eyes and attached with pipe cleaners like Oobi.


Buy an indoor tent for kids and have a camp night. You could have sleeping bags, flashlights, make smores in the microwave, watch a movie on a portable DVD player. Or if you don't have the money to buy a tent, then put a sheet over a table and have a tent this way.


Play Dress-Up. I buy costumes after Halloween when they are on clearance or at garage sales or goodwill or Salvation Stores. I hung a Shower Rod up on the wall and hung her costumes up with way. I bought pretend make, necklaces, shoes. We even made our own.


Crafts!! Are a big thing for Toddlers to do. If you get all the stuff ahead a time you won't be stuck trying to figure out what to do on a rainy day. You could set up some shoeboxes with a theme and use this theme all day long. Like animal day, doctor day, teacher day, dinosaur day, winter day themes. I usually get my stuff on discount after holidays.

Need on supply:
Safety scissors
Glue sticks/Glue Glitter/GlitterGlue
Crayons/Paint Beads
Construction Paper Stamps
Foam Items Stickers
Felt Items Lids from milk cartons/pop/water
Google Eyes Paper
Pom Poms
Pasta pieces for necklaces
String/Yarn

Target has a lot of things in there $1 items in the front of the store



Teach the kids how to write their names, alphabet, numbers, tell time


Take a Bath with light up stuff that they use in pools. Shut off all the lights and let them play in the dark with a tub full of bubbles and lights. They also have crayons or paint for use in the tub too. They have instruments to play in tubs too.


Toddlers like fish so a great thing to get is a Beta fish that can live in a bowl of water or in a little kids fish take. They don't need filter water or heat. They do have plants to put in with them that they love to eat and help keep water clean. Another thing to get is a Sea Monkey kit and they can watch them grow from a little egg. Plus they can put them in special watches or necklaces to take with them.

Great movies for toddlers to watch is:

Baby Einstein
they teach everything from music to shapes

WordWorld
all the characters in the movie are spelled out. The dog is a dog spelled out to say dog. Teaches the kids to recognize the words that go with the item.

Max and Ruby

Mickey Mouse ClubHouse

Peep

Curious George

Oswald (my nephew loves this one)

Handy Mandy

Dora/Diego

Blues Clues

Lazy Town (teaches kids to exercise, eat right)

Jack's Big Music Show (there is a lot of singing on here and great singers)

Activities to do with your Toddler/Child