kids activities

Have an Awesome Birthday Party For Your Kids

August 9, 2018 4 Comments

Having a tough time coming up with something new for your child’s birthday party? Princesses and pirates are only two of many great themes around which to build a kids party. The possibilities are endless! So, let’s get busy here and throw a great birthday party for your child.

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First, select a theme. Start by asking the birthday boy or girl what he or she likes. Bugs, dinosaurs, trucks, teddy bears? Of course, princesses and pirates are an obvious choice. Sometimes you just can’t avoid it! LOL Point it, your child’s interests are the perfect place to start when picking a theme.

✔️Kids Party Theme Ideas

“It Is Alive” Parties: Bugs, dinosaurs, jungle animals, pet parade, and zoo animals all make great party “living things” party themes. Parties centered on insects or animals can have names and faces for each game or activity. How about “Duck Egg Ball Pit” “Puppy Face Painting” or #Rhino Ring Toss?” You can even name the food! For example, Green Slime Frog Punch, Dinosaur Donuts, Paw Patrol and Little Kitty Kat Birthday Cake.

“Cat in the Hat”: Everything at this party will be based on Dr. Seuss and his marvelous books. Get the birthday boy or girl a Dr. Seuss hat to wear!

Chef Themed Party: Chef hats and aprons for everyone! Bake and eat the product – like homemade PIZZA – right at the party. Try making a Minions Pizza for some real fun!

Color Party: Everyone dresses in your child’s favorite color. The food, decorations, balloons and all party décor will include that color.

Construction Party: Bob the Builder is a great construction character to build your party on. Your little birthday boy (or girl) who loves building just may get the building toys of their dreams for gifts, too.

“Happily Ever After” Party:

Little girls love pretty and sparkly. Fantasy characters from movies and books make great party themes.
Try “Moana” “Frozen” “Cinderella,” “Peter Pan” or “Beauty and the Beast.”

Unicorns are very popular with little ones and there are plenty of party supplies to help you. You know which one is right for your little princess.

Outer Space Birthday Party: Rocket ships, planets, even space creatures can make an entertaining theme for a party.

Little Boys’ Birthday Party Themes

Sports Enthusiasts: Mix ’em up or pick the one sport that is your child’s favorite. Don’t forget about the possibility of an Olympics party, especially if the Olympics are right around the corner!

Have a Superheroes Party! Superman? Batman? Spiderman? Iron Man? Include them all or celebrate with that one special character your child likes most.

✔️Avengers Kids Birthday Party Theme

As soon as you settle on a theme, jot down some ideas, weaving that theme through everything you do. That will include the invitations, paper goods, decorations and banners, goodie bags, games and food.

It can be great fun to have the party-goers dress in kind, as well. Ask them to come dressed in costume or offer a prop when they arrive at the door.

For instance, if your little one is enamored with Dr. Seuss’s “Cat in the Hat” and you opt for a “Cat in the Hat” party, make red and white striped Dr. Seuss hats just like the one in the storyfor everyone to wear. If you go for a construction party, get plastic hard hats from the local party store for your child and his friends. Is Tinkerbell the centerpiece? How about a fairy wand for everyone!

✔️Princess Birthday Party Theme for Little Girls

Speaking of hats, hats are fun to decorate. Buy some cheap party hats and make it a craft project as part of the party activities. Kids can decorate their hats and take them home when they leave.

Now that you have the theme set, time to plan games and activities: Kids Party Activities

Host an adorable theme party for #kids - many fun ideas! https://wp.me/p97qqh-2pf #birthday #familyfun via @SineaPies Click To Tweet

Enjoy!

9 Fun Shaving Cream Activities That Preschoolers Love

January 15, 2018 Leave a Comment

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Last week my preschool class had loads of fun free-playing with shaving cream! I wanted each one of them to have their own pile of fluff to play in so I bought lightweight 12″ round plastic serving trays, one for each of them.

The trays so light, though, that they would have moved all around the table and the predictable mess could have become a catastrophe! Can you imagine sliding trays full of foam in motion? There goes the floor!

So, before the children came into the classroom, I took packing tape and made a big loop for each tray. I stuck it to the bottom of each tray and stuck the tray to the top of the table in front of each seat. It was perfect! They played to their hearts’ content and nothing moved. I love it when a plan comes together!

Do your children enjoy playing in shaving cream? There are so many things you can do with it. Here are 9 great ideas they will love:

DIY Puffy Paint For Kids – Artful Parent

DIY Toy Car Wash – Paging Fun Mums

Fake Snow – Playtivities

Free Play with Shaving Cream – Ducks ‘n a Row

Marbled Eggs – Ducks ‘n a Row

Shaving Cream on a Window – Simple Fun For Kids

Shaving Cream Paint – Ducks ‘n a Row

Shaving Cream Rain Clouds – One Little Project

Shaving Cream Wrapping Paper – Mess For Less

What fun activities have your kids done lately with shaving cream?

9 fun activities for #kids using shaving cream! #preschool #tips Click To Tweet

Enjoy!

Simple Bottle Cap Bugs Activity For Preschool Fun

October 19, 2017 Leave a Comment

Bottle cap bugs are just a silly fun way to occupy little ones’ time for a while and spark their imaginations. The bottle caps are kept loose – not fastened to a page – so that they can be manuevered and rearranged at will. This activity is strictly a fun way to experiment with making designs and patterns. Your children can make them look like caterpillars or anything their hearts desire.

I prepared my bottle cap faces ahead of time and we used them as part of our B is for Butterfly day at preschool. The schedule that day had a short unplanned period of time that I wanted to fill up with something new but it wasn’t going to be long enough for an elaborate activity. The kids really had fun with this but it would not have held their attention for more than 10-15 minutes. Lesson plan idea: this activity can also be used for I is for Insect or C is for Caterpillar.

Tip: do not get overly attached to those bug faces, if you are working with children younger than four years old. The 3 year olds in my class couldn’t help themselves. Attennaes got broken off. It was almost like they were calling to my little kiddos “Break me!” LOL My 4 year olds did not do that. Every bug face was safe with them. As I was planning this activity, I determined not to interfere with their fun. I planned on some breakage.

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How To Make A Bottle Cap Bug Face

Supplies

Bottle caps – saved from soda bottles

Glue gun or Tacky Glue

Googly Eyes

Pipe Cleaners

Cardstock

Sharpie (for the smile)

Washable marker or crayons

Directions

Take a colorful soda bottle cap and glue two googly eyes to it.

Cut 1 – 2 inch pieces from pipe cleaners

Glue 2 pipecleaners to the top of the cap, above the eyes.

Add a smile made with a Sharpie permanent marker.

You will need at least one bug face bottle cap and many plain bottle caps per child to play with. I gave each child a piece of cardstock as a base that they were welcome to write or draw on with a washable marker or crayons. The example I made has little black legs for a caterpillar but they will come up with all sorts of ideas that you never thought off! Little imaginations are amazing to behold!

Fun little Bottle Cap Bugs activity for #preschool #kids Click To Tweet

All little children adore imaginative play. My preschool class looks forward to dress up time every time we have it on the schedule.

Now, this is hard to find but teachers and parents absolutely love quality dress up clothes that ..

look great
are simple for the child to get into and out of ON THEIR OWN (right moms and dads?)
are comfortable (no scratchy seams inside) and
are WASHABLE!!!

Thought that wasn’t possible? These little kid costumes do exist! #affiliate Check out the adorable dress ups at Little Adventures. Hint: They make excellent gifts.

Enjoy!

How To Make Homemade Sidewalk Chalk In A Bottle

May 9, 2017 Leave a Comment

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #allessentials #allsulfatefree #CollectiveBias

Summer is almost here – yippee! Aren’t you excited to finally get outside those four walls and, better yet, get your KIDS outside? Fresh air and lots of run-around play is so good for them.

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Our little kiddos love to bring their artistic skills outdoors with them. Forget paper and crayons. They really get into using chalk on the driveway. Hopscotch – tic tac toe – drawings everywhere. As a mom and preschool teacher, it makes me feel happy knowing that they are using perfectly safe materials in their artsy play.

This recipe is for homemade sidewalk chalk in a bottle. Yep! Your kids can squirt decorations all over the driveway and it simply washes away in the next rain. Each ingredient is a gentle household item found right in your kitchen cupboard – nothing harsh. And, when it comes to cleanup, you can simply wash their clothes with NEW sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS®. NEW sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS® delivers a powerful clean without harshness.

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Here is how you make …

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk In A Bottle

Supplies

Empty plastic squeeze condiment bottles

Large mixing bowl

Fork / Spoon

NEW sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS® – for clean up

Towels – for clean up

Ingredients

1/3 cup Cornstarch

1/3 cup Baking Soda

1 1/3 cup Water

Food Coloring

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Directions

This recipe is for one squeeze bottle. You will want to repeat it for as many bottles as you use.

Put cornstarch in the mixing bowl.

Add baking soda and stir to mix.

Add water, stirring constantly.

Pour the mixture into a clean squeeze condiment bottle.

Add a few drops of food coloring.

Secure the lid.

Shake till mixed well.

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Tip 1: Sediment from the mixture will settle to the bottom of the bottles. They will need to be reshaken occasionally. The kids will figure that out!

Tip 2: Expect this day of fun to produce a mess. It comes with the territory! I just want you to be prepared for food coloring stains. Have your children wear old clothes and old shoes or flip flops. Have some towels ready for clean up – along with your NEW sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS® waiting in the wings for you to launder them back to cleanness!

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Enjoy some more sidewalk chalk “driveway art” …

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How to make homemade chalk in a bottle!

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Have you ever made sidewalk chalk?

Enjoy!

Shaving Cream Fun for Kids!

May 13, 2016 Leave a Comment

The simplest activities are often the most entertaining in preschool. Free play with shaving cream is one of them. Little children love it 🙂

Shaving Cream Play: All of my kiddos tried it. Most of them loved it. The couple of children who didn’t enjoy it were “so-so” about it – not total rejection. They are my neatniks! This little gal, Miss A, is NOT a neatnik. She dug into the activity with gusto. It was so much fun watching her having fun!

Expect a mess. It’s only natural.

Preschoolers + shaving cream = messy!

Free Play With Shaving Cream

Supplies

Cans of shaving cream (1 per 4-6 children)

Clean baking pans or trays (1 per child)

Bath towels

Paper Towels

Dish pan

Smocks or old t-shirts

Tips from the teacher:

If you are not near a real sink, have a dish pan of warm water ready and lots of dry bath towels to clean up your kids afterward. You will also want paper toweling and baby wipes on hand.
Cover the children with smocks. We used old, adult sized t-shirts.
Bring an empty plastic kitchen bag to put the messy towels and smocks in for transport. You will have laundry to do!
One can of shaving cream for each 4-6 kids is about right.
After covering them with a t-shirt, give each child their own baking pan full of shaving cream and watch them have fun!

Give your kid a pile of shaving cream to play with? Hey – it’s fun!

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Did you know that tinted shaving cream is great to PAINT with? Oh, it is- take a look!

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Preschool Painting – Try It With Shaving Cream!

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Enjoy!

Making Dinosaur Eggs for Preschool

October 25, 2015 Leave a Comment

D is for Dinosaur is a fun preschool lesson with so many possibilities. Our favorite classroom activity was to break open “fossilized” dinosaur eggs. You can make your own at home and here’s how:

fossils, dinosaurs, preschool lessons, Letter D

One of our favorite activities on Letter D is for Dinosaur day was to use a hammer to break open a pretend fossilized dinosaur egg. Three and four year olds love the excitement of discovering what will be inside their rock. As they uncover the little plastic dinosaur toy, they are told that they can bring them home to keep. Here is how to make the dinosaur eggs:

How To Make Dinosaur Egg Fossils for Kids

Supplies

4 cups dirt

1 cup sand

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

12-14 little plastic dinosaur toys

Makes 12-14 dinosaur eggs

Directions
If you are using dirt from your garden, sort out roots and other unwanted particles to make it a purer mixture.
Combine dirt, sand, flour and salt in a big mixing bowl.
Add water to the consistency of a stiff, thick dough.
Take a hunk of dirt-dough in your hand, knead it.
Put a depression in the middle.
Insert plastic dinosaur toy.
Press and roll the ball with your hands like a meatball.
Put it on a tray to sit and dry for 3-4 days.

Dinosaur Fossil Lesson

Teach your children about paleontologists and how they dig for dinosaur bones.
Pretend that you have found a fossilized dinosaur egg or a fossilized dinosaur. Help the little ones use a lightweight hammer to gently crack it open and make the discovery!Little #kids love learning about #dinosaurs! Make these fun dinosaur egg fossils and discover what's inside! #preschool Click To Tweet

Special Attraction: we watched the adorable Sesame Street Dinosaur DVD featuring Elmo which teaches it in such a fun way. This video is the perfect companion-piece to this lesson.

Note: this author is an Amazon Affiliate. Anything purchased from Amazon through Ducks ‘n a Row will result in a small commission for me. In advance, “thank you!” Sinea

Preschool Game – Butterfly Picture Hunt

October 4, 2015 Leave a Comment

This game is not just for a butterfly theme. You can use any topic that works for your kids. In fact, I have plans to do it again in a couple of weeks for D is for Dinosaur! What I can tell you is that 3 and 4 year olds love it as much as an Easter Egg Hunt!

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This game was a spur-of-the-moment replacement for our motion time. The weather was rainy so going outdoors was not possible. I wanted to get my kids out of the classroom into a different environment but the gymnasium was occupied, too. So, I used this as an opportunity for a mini-adventure and a way to help them to get to know their classmates a tiny bit better.

First, our preschool theme that day was B is for Butterfly. I had pre-purchased a pack of butterfly pictures from the Dollar Tree, not knowing exactly what I’d do with them but, hey, they were $1! (They also had dinosaurs, so I have a pack stashed away for Letter D week!) There are 36 pictures to a pack and I have 12 students. Perfect. Note: if you cannot locate them, print out butterfly pictures using free clipart online.

butterfly picture hunt game for preschool

How To Play the Butterfly Picture Hunt Game

Supplies

Butterfly Pictures

Small photos of the children, printed on cardstock and cut out.

Small brown paper lunch bags*

*I cut them in half for ease of use

Glue

Directions

Print photos of the students onto cardstock — one of each — and glue them to the back of 12 of the butterflies. The rest remain blank.

Have someone spread the butterflies around a large area. We used the school foyer for our game.

Handing a small brown paper bag to each child, give them the instructions to go find butterflies and put them in their bags. When you get back to the classroom, have them explore whether any have someone’s picture on it. If they do, they should find that person and give it to them. They can bring theirs home.*

I prepared my students that, if a friend couldn’t find any, the good thing to do was to help their friends. No need, though. Everyone found some!

Did you read about the exciting B is for Butterfly day we had? This game was just a small part of a very big day.

B is for Butterfly Preschool Lesson and Craft

Add a little spice to the day for your #preschoolers by making a butterfly treasure hunt game for them! #kids Click To Tweet

Enjoy!

Children love to play dress-up. The best dress-up clothes for imaginative play are top quality, look great, soft to the touch inside and out, easy for a child to put on and take off all by themselves and machine WASHABLE! Thought that wasn’t possible? These little kid costumes do exist! #affiliate Check out the adorable dress ups at Little Adventures. Tip: They make excellent gifts.