DIY'S FOR THE LITTLE ONES

Liquid Sidewalk Chalk

1 cup water

1 cup cornstarch

food coloring (any colors you desire!!)

Mix the water and cornstarch together until combined. I then separate the mixture into cupcake tins or those smaller plastic cups you find in the paper products aisle of Target or Wal-Mart. Then, get our your food coloring and add a few drops to each tin or cup and mix well. As a side note, for all of you that only have the basic red, yellow, and blue on hand, you can mix 'em up for some more color choices:

yellow + red = orange

red + blue = purple

blue + yellow = green

****and don't forget just the basic white you already made!****

Grab some paint brushes, foam brushes, or even leaves and pine cones and get your little Jackson Pollock outside for some crazy good fun!

The Best Bubbles Ever

6 cups water

2 cups Dawn dishwashing liquid

3/4 cup light corn syrup

Mix all ingredients together in a LARGE container of sorts...an empty water bottle, milk jug, etc. Shake everything up and let sit for a few hours. Pour into empty bubbles containers or dishes and go wild with your bubble wands!!

Yup, seriously...these 3 ingredients make the BEST BUBBLES EVER!!!

Roll A Dice Lorax Game

2 x 3 foot piece of foam board

1 yard of grey felt

2 pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch orange felt

1 piece each of 8.5 x 11 inch green, yellow, white and black felt

Hot glue and gun

Felt glue (optional)

Scissors

Straight pins or disappearing ink pen

Permanent marker

The Lorax Body and Body Pieces templates (see below)

Game template (see below)

One dice

For this project you will need various colors of 8.5 x 11 inch felt pieces you can buy at the craft section of most fabric or hobby stores.  You will also need a larger 1 yard piece of felt that you will need to cut from the bolt.  You can find bolts of felt at JoAnns or similar fabric stores.  

To make the felt board that the game pieces will stick to, you will need a 2 x 3 foot piece of foam board (I bought mine at the dollar store).  Lay the foam board over top of the 1 yard of felt and cut so that you have about 2 inches of felt on all sides of the board.  Cut a square piece of felt 2 x 2 inches from each of the four corners. 

Working with one side of foam board at a time, hot glue the felt to the backside of the board about 1.5 inches from the edge (See above left picture).  When you get to a corner, fold the felt over into a triangular shape, place hot glue near the corner and fold into place. This will give you nice mitered edges (see above right picture).  

Your felt board should look like this from the front!

Next print out the Body Pieces Template by clicking on the image above and printing.

Print out the Body Template by clicking on the image above as well.

Once you have cut out your template pieces, grab the different colors of 8.5 x11 inch felt and either pin or trace the template pieces onto them and cut out with a pair of sharp scissors.  

Here is a list for the corresponding felt color and template pieces:

orange = body, nose, two arms, two legs

yellow = eyebrows, mustache

white = two eyes

green = two eye colors

black = two eye pupils (or can just use a permanent marker!)

You should now have the body and all the body pieces of the Lorax cut out.  For the eye pieces I hot glued the green onto the white and then took a black permanent marker to draw in the pupil.  I used the marker to also make the nostrils of the Lorax's nose!

All the felt pieces should stick nicely to the felt covered foam board. Which works as a wonderful display when playing with multiple children!  When you are done playing the game just place all the pieces and the Game sheet in a ziploc bag for later.  

Click on the image above to print out the Game Template.  

When the Lorax's body is complete it should look like this.  Isn't he cute!

I hope you enjoy making this fun, interactive learning game.  It is great entertainment for small children!

 

Chia Pet
1 knee-high nylon stocking
moistened soil
grass seed

markers, foam pieces, sticky eyeballs, etc.

Take a tablespoon of grass seed and place it in the very bottom of your nylon stocking. Next take a baseball-sized lump of soil and work it down ontop of your grass seed. Twist the nylon so as to keep the ball of soil and grass seed at the bottom. Wrap the twisted nylon around the ball and turn the open end inside out around the ball. Hope this makes sense...if not hopefully you can get the gist of it from the pictures below. Decorate with markers, foam pieces, eyeballs, or whatever your little one's heart desires. Water the top of the head and watch it grow!

Chia Pet
1 knee-high nylon stocking
moistened soil
grass seed

markers, foam pieces, sticky eyeballs, etc.

Take a tablespoon of grass seed and place it in the very bottom of your nylon stocking. Next take a baseball-sized lump of soil and work it down ontop of your grass seed. Twist the nylon so as to keep the ball of soil and grass seed at the bottom. Wrap the twisted nylon around the ball and turn the open end inside out around the ball. Hope this makes sense...if not hopefully you can get the gist of it from the pictures above. Decorate with markers, foam pieces, eyeballs, or whatever your little one's heart desires. Water the top of the head and watch it grow!