children’s activities « Skip To My Lou

Archive for the ‘children's activities’ Category

How to make Shrinky Dinks with recycled #6 plastic

posted by cindylouh on January 7th, 2009 | children's activities, valentines |

First of all I have to say——save your #6 plastic containers (like the clear containers from the salad bar). Save the whole container, even the textured sides and bottoms. It all works and flattens out nicely. The ridges on the sides give a nice space to color! Yes, I know it now throws a kink in your organizational advice to cut off all the sides of the plastic containers so the plastic could be stored flat. We burned up most of the afternoon making DIY shrink plastic and used every bit of my large stash of #6 containers and were left wanting more!

How to make homemade shrinky dinks (shrink plastic)

It is really an easy activity. All you need is:

permanent markers
regular hole punch
#6 plastic
oven
cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil or parchment paper
scissors to cut the plastic

Cut a shape out of the plastic (plastic shrinks about 1/3 of the original size). Our 2″ circle became about 3/4″ when shrunk.

Color one side of the shape with permanent marker. The color becomes more intense once shrunk. If you are wanting to attach your shape to something don’t forget to punch a hole before placing in the oven.

Place the plastic on a thin cookie sheet (not the insulated type) covered with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Bake plastic at 350 degrees for 2- 3 minutes. Each oven is different so watch closely. You will see the plastic curl up and then it will flatten back out. It does give off some fumes so we left a window open for ventilation!

We added a jump ring to some of our shapes and strung on cording along with beads to make necklaces.

Some of the small shapes we placed on id wire rings along with some beads to make beverage markers.

Ball started as a 2″ circle, finished size was about 3/4″
Tag started 3″ long by 1 3/4″ wide, finished size was about 1 1/4″ long by just under 3/4″ wide

On a larger shaped tag (starting size 4″ long by 2 3/4″ wide) we placed a clip so it could be a zipper pull. Punch two holes side by side to make the finished hole big enough for the clip. I think these zipper pulls would make the cutest Valentine’s -attach a note that says “You pull at my heart!”

Then we really got rolling and made rings. They are just too cool. For directions on how to make professional looking rings visit Planet June. She has a wonderful tutorial. (The links for the tutorial are currently unavailable I will keep checking) Ours are a bit sloppy but we are still wearing them. It took some trial and error to find the right size. For my size I started with a strip 5″ long by about 1″ to 1 1/2″ wide. Pull it immediately from the oven and quickly while it is still very hot wrap it around a Chap-stick tube. My son needed to make his 5 1/2 inches long and I (an adult must do this part–it is hot and you must work fast!) wrapped it around a child’s chunky marker. If you make a mistake and get a miss-shaped ring or it is too long just send it back into the oven. Once it is warm it can be trimmed with scissors, it will also flatten back out and you can give it another go.

After we had used every piece of plastic my son said ———bracelets! We could make bracelets. So we are now saving more plastic!

Notes:

I was able to use a regular ink pad and stamp designs on the plain plastic with great results!

Look for the #6 stamp on the bottom of the clear containers

#6 - PS: polystyrene is used in takeout food containers. It has been found to leach styrene–a neurotoxin and possible human carcinogen–and has been banned in cities like Portland, Ore. and San Francisco. Okay so there is a downside to the craft!

I remember my grandmother melting white Styrofoam cups in the oven enough to make them look like hats. I think she did something for Mother’s Day with them!

I did think the melting plastic left a lingering odor in my oven. Before using my oven for food I turned it on to 400 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes to get rid of the smell.

61 Comments

Homemade Playdough

posted by cindylouh on August 26th, 2008 | children's activities, crafts, recipes |

We love playdough!

Burning up daylight around here with pink play-dough. This activity kept these two, two year olds busy for much longer than two minutes. Actually they enjoyed themselves for a very long time.

Homemade Play-dough

Mix together in bowl:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon alum (found in the spice section)
In a saucepan on the stove stir the following ingredients together. Bring to a boil.
2 cups water
1/2 cup salt
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
food coloring (if making the whole batch the same color, otherwise knead individual colors in at the end)
(you can also use unsweetened kool-aid type drink mix packets to color and scent the dough, add in with the water)

Once mixture is boiling, add

2 -1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoons alum

Cook over low to medium heat stirring constantly until dough comes away from the edges of the pan and it becomes very hard to stir. Remove from heat and let cool slightly(until you are able to knead the dough).

Knead until smooth and elastic. Store in an airtight container.This recipe is for a smooth dough similar to the consistency of Play-doh.

Never underestimate the lure of play-dough

It also kept these three “big” boys just in from golf very busy (and it was even pink)!

9 Comments

Making Doughnuts

posted by cindylouh on June 5th, 2008 | children's activities, crafts, kids crafts |

Today we were busy baking and making. With Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller as our inspiration we filled our tummies with yummy doughnuts.

We used 101 Cookbook’s recipe for baked doughnuts. They were (yes we ate the whole 1 1/2 dozen YIKES) delicious. I would like to believe they were healthy since they were baked—but they were dipped in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. We were able to make the entire recipe in the food processor. This makes quick time of the kneading (we counted to 45 slowly and it was done).

And so you don’t think we are only about weapons around here, we made felt doughnuts too. My eleven year old was amazing with his needle and his sister was thrilled to have some new play food.

First we cut out our felt circles. You may use our template if you like.

doughnut-template

Sew the frosting to one of the doughnut pieces.

My son then sewed “sprinkles” all over the “frosting” with embroidery thread.

With right sides together sew doughnut pieces together, leaving an opening for turning

Turn doughnut right side out.

Stitch completely around the center of the doughnut. We found this easiest to do on the sewing machine. Stay as close to the edge as possible, catching the top and bottom layers.

Stuff doughnut and slip stitch dounut closed!

Ta Da!

We hope you will consider reading along with us to Reed to Feed! This funny and superfluous story gave me pause. As we are reading and eating I am reminded of how lucky we are to have an abundance of food. We can “play” with our food. This it not the case for so many. As a world population over 800 million people will go hungry today.

36 Comments

Let’s Read to Feed!

posted by cindylouh on May 30th, 2008 | children's activities, kids |

Let’s go for it, let’s think big! This summer let’s empower our children and help them discover that they have the power to change the world.

While we are encouraging our children to read this summer we can be helping poor families all over the world! Read to Feed is a reading motivation/service learning program from Heifer International. Children are inspired to read more books for pleasure, while raising money, through sponsored reading, to help end world hunger and improve the environment.

I first became aware of this program when we lived near the Heifer Ranch in Arkansas. Our family read the book “Faith the Cow.” By the end of the book our eyes were filled with tears but our hearts were full of hope! Heifer International is truly a wonderful organization.

What is Heifer International?

“Heifer International works to end world hunger and save the earth. For close to 60 years, Heifer has helped more than four million impoverished families in 128 countries lift themselves out of poverty and achieve self-reliance.

The idea is simple and it works. Instead of providing hungry families with a non-renewable source of food, Heifer International provides a “living loan” of an animal. The family’s health and standard of living is greatly improved by what that animal can provide. This might be milk from a cow or goat, eggs from poultry, meat from rabbits, draft power from water buffalo or wool from llamas.

Key to success of the program is that Heifer provides extensive training in animal care, ecologically sound agriculture practices and community development. The result is to transform not just families, but the environment and community.

Another key cornerstone of Heifer International is “passing on the gift.” Families who receive an animal repay the loan by passing on one or more of the animals’ offspring to other needy families. That family passes on their gift to another family and so on. So one gift multiplies through the community.

Heifer International currently provides more than 27 types of animals that provide food and/or income to struggling families in 48 countries (including the U. S.)”

So what do you think? I think that if we all work together we can purchase an Ark of animals.

I know this is a lofty goal but lets think big! We would have to tell everyone we know. We would have to ask every child we know to start reading and to ask for sponsors. Once children receive money for reading their books they can go here and make their donation. You may click on this page at any time to see a running total of how much we have collected. The site accepts credit cards. I am sorry but the minumum donation is $10.00. If you were wanting to make a smaller donation, maybe you and a friend could make a donation together. Join as a team member and you will have the ability to e-mail friends, solicit donations and make your donations in your name.

The Read to Feed website is full of fantastic learning materials, fun and games! I will try to highlight some of the materials here in the coming weeks. I will also try to post a little review about some of our favorite books and a craft each week.

reading-log1
Informational sheet and sponsor pledge form
A free book, “Beatrice’s Goat” for the first 50 donations received at team Skip to my lou (please join team Skip to my Lou to make your donation and then e-mail me at cindyhopperATgmailDOTcom if you are one of the first 50 donations THANKS)

I hope you will join us on this little reading adventure this summer! Together we can make a difference!

Copy the code below if you would like a button for your sidebar:

24 Comments

How to make a duct tape bullwhip

posted by cindylouh on May 29th, 2008 | children's activities, kids |

If you have come looking to make TRULY dangerous toys for boys you are at the right spot! Or maybe you have finally succumbed to the constant whining about “needing” a bullwhip since the release of the new Indiana Jones movie.

Thank you to Wesley Scoggins Indy Mogul for the clever idea to use duct tape!

You will need:

Brown “duck” tape (we found this at Wal-Mart) cut into 3- 12 foot lengths
10″ piece of 3/8″ wooden dowel rod
a foot or so of twine for the “popper” if desired

Begin by placing two chairs 12 feet apart. Place three strips of tape between the chairs.

Fold each of the pieces of tape in half length ways-leave attached to chair

Leave tape hooked on one of the chairs and begin braiding. Braiding 12 feet of duct tape isn’t really pleasant but is certainly less painful than paying $50.00 plus for a bullwhip! We tried several methods: hanging it up high, laying it on the ground. We found it easiest to leave it attached to the chair and have another person help untangle the strips of duck tape as you braid. My eleven year old was able to do most of the braiding.

Once you have reached the end take another piece of tape and wrap around the braid to fasten off.

Remove the other end from the chair and attach these ends of tape to the wooden dowel.

Begin wrapping the dowel with tape until you have completely covered the handle. When finished we took a small piece of tape and covered each end and then wrapped a small piece once again around the dowel to make it secure.

If you want to make the popper you tie it on like this

Finished! How does it work?—–probably not well enough to kill someone or allow you to hang from a tree (we’re trying though) but well enough to cause some damage to your house and possibly harm to a friend, so please be careful!

77 Comments

Skip to my Shoppe