Printable Game: Match and Spell

This is a Spiff-Approved game I came up. It's kind of like Memory meets Polar Bear ABC (by the Cranium folk- if you don't have it, it's a good spelling game for the little ones!) and it's good for the age range that plays those. Just print up the printables on card stock and cut on the dotted lines.

To Play: Have your kid pick out a word card, then you pick out one that doesn't have any letters repeating from his. Lay the letter cards face-down on the table in a 4x4 grid. Then take turns picking up letters. If your letter is in your word, keep it, and go again. If it's not, put it back and the next player goes. First to spell their word, wins.

You can also use the word cards as flash cards.

I realize there's an E and no words with E in them. That's because I'm working on another set of words to go with these. :-)


The Letter Cards:


The Words:

Printable: Theatre Tickets

Enjoy the Show!

Collapsible Theatre or Diorama Playboard

Dinosaur Diorama Playboard:

A while back, in the midst of our winter doldrums, we built a collapsible diorama of sorts to pretend play with our plethora of toy dinosaurs. Along the same idea, we soon built a theatre/tv . It's the same design except there's a hole in the middle and you turn it around to use and decorate the outside. When you use it for a dinosaur playboard, you don't cut out a hole and you decorate the inside with colorful Jurassic scenery.

Puppet Theatre:

Each were different dimensions suited to the cardboard I happened to find in my basement. The printable here is a plan with the dimensions we used for the theatre. You can really take a lot of liberties with the dimensions, based on what supply you have, but this is a good place to start. I thought given the cruddiness of this week, it was a good time to finally post the plan for some indoor fun. So here it is.


What You Need:

Big Honking Piece of Cardboard 30" x 28" ( but it can vary a lot based on what you've got.)
Yard Stick
Craft Knife
Markers, Paints, what-have-you
Fabric if you feel like putting up a curtain in your theatre. We were in a rush, we didn't.
Tape



What You Do:

Print up the printable and then draw out the design on your cardboard. With the knife (and no children near-by) cut out the solid lines (the tabs, the wings, the big honking hole if you're making a theatre, don't cut it if you're not.). Recycle the bits, you don't need them anymore. With the craft knife, score the dotted lines without going through the cardboard and the bend the pieces in (if you're doing the theatre do the scoring on the right side of your theatre to make mountain folds, with the diorama the wrong side to make valley folds.). Now you have two sides, a back and a bottom. Slip the tabs on the bottom of the wings into the slits on the bottom and now you have a standing theatre. While you use it you might want to tape the tabs on the bottom so they don't slip it out, untape it and take out the tabs to fold it up and store. (Ours in conveniently stored where the couch arm meets our living room wall and forms a nook. ) Now decorate it and hang a curtain if you like using glue along the top inside of the window. Make some paper bag puppets and I'll make some tickets and then on with the show!


The Printable:

Printable: Egg Hunt

Cut-and-Color Printable: Mr's Bunny's Basket

The Easter Bunny is on his way soon so here's a cut and paste printable to celebrate. Just color it in, decorate your eggs, cut them out or on the dotted lines, and slip them in Mr. Bunny's Basket.

the Printable:

Food: Frozen Chocolate Bananas

Frozen Chocolate Bananas were a treat we made when I was little. It was one of my favorites, fun and easy to do and yummy. I thought today as I was slicing up some banana for Squidgee that that would be a fun treat to make (without Squidgee because I can just picture THAT disaster. We waited for nap.). Then Griffin and I went to work.


What You Need:

3 firm, ripe bananas, cut into halves (OK, we only had 5 halves because I'd already given Squidgee half of one before I remembered to be brilliant.)
1 cup milk chocolate chips (we used Nestle.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts or sprinkles on a plate
1 tbs olive oil

6 Popsicle sticks (we wash and save ours from when we eat Popsicles)
a wax paper-lined baking sheet or tray
Pyrex measuring cup
a microwave
a freezer


What You Do:

Impale your bananas on their sticks. Lay them on the tray and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes of so, until their nice and hard and cold.

Mix your chocolate chips and oil in the measuring cup and pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, stir it, pop it back in for another 15 seconds or so. Keep adding on 10 seconds until it's all melted and smooth.

Dip your bananas one at a time into the chocolate, tilting the measuring cup and turning the bananas until their coated, use a spoon if you have to. Let the excess chocolate drip off. Then roll them in your nuts or sprinkles.

Put the bananas back onto the tray and pop back into the freezer for at least another half an hour. The eat up! Or don't, you can store them in the freezer for a while.


A Bonus Treat:

If you have leftover melted chocolate and nuts, just drop it onto the wax paper in spoonfuls and sprinkle some nuts on top. Then cool them in the fridge and you have some yummy candies to eat. Wasting chocolate just about kills me.

Mud Art

Mud makes good pies. It is also fun to bake into "bricks" by leaving it in the sun. You can also make a sort of drawing canvas, which is what we did yesterday.

What You Need:

a bucket
a shovel
dirt
water


What You Do:

Mix the dirt and water, way more dirt than water. I'm not sure of the measurements because we always sort of add a little dirt, add a little water, but I'd guess 4 or 5 parts dirt to 1 part water, add more water if necessary. It should be sort of like ice cream with a sheen. Shape it onto your driveway or sidewalk into a patty, it will pat smooth nicely and be very easily mold-able, the water will shine on the surface. Then you can draw on the surface with a stick. And the really cool part is that when you are done, you just pat the surface with the back of your shovel- pat, pat, pat- and then it's blank and smooth again.

The Right Consistency, or in Spiff's words "Gucky."

Spiff's art:

Spiff's art erased:

And art again:

Then when you're done you can let it dry and shovel the whole patty into a bucket and start allover again adding water. Or you can play bakery and pretend to eat while your Octopus serves you. It will be delicious.