Family Activities Archives - Page 2 of 3

Almost Wordless- Easter Eggs and Books

March 31, 2010 By Deirdre

Today I am going to share with your an Easter egg dyeing experience JDaniel has with his friend Morgyn. At the end of the post, you will find some of my favorite Easter egg themed books. You may want to read with your children before they dye eggs.

JDaniel and his friend Morgyn had a great time dying eggs.

JDaniel and I read these books about Easter eggs before Morgyn came over.

These are the finished eggs.

These Easter egg hunt books would be fun to share.
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Signs of Spring Fingerplays

March 23, 2010 By Deirdre

See, See, See

See, see, see (shade eyes with hands)

Three birds are in a tree (hold up three fingers)

One can chirp (point to thumb)

And one can sing (point to index finger)

One is just a tiny thing. (point to middle finger, then rockbaby bird in arms)
See, See, See Three birds are in a tree (hold up three fingers)

Look, look, look (shade eyes)

Three ducks are in a brook (hold up three fingers)

One is white, and one is brown. One is swimming upside down (point to a finger each time)

Look, look, look Three ducks are in a brook. (hold up three fingers)

Taken from Spring Time Theme

Bunny in the Ground

Here is a bunny with ears so funny (make bunny ears)

And here is his hole in the ground (make a circle with fingers)

When a noise he hears (put hand to ear)

He pricks up his ears, (hold bunny ears up straight)

And he jumps in his hole in the ground! (make hole with one hand and stick finger in it)

Spring Training- Getting Ready For Egg Hunts

March 23, 2010 By Deirdre

We started spring training for egg hunts last week by searching for some of JDaniel’s plastic balls around the second floor of the house. I gave him a plastic basket to collect them in and carefully explained what he needed to do. He had trouble at first finding them even if they were in plain sight. He needed guidance to know what part of the room to look in and once he was there what furniture it was on. After two days of playing find the ball inside, we moved outdoors. He really seemed to be able to find the balls quickly and loved placing them in the basket. When I tried to play find the ball with him over the weekend he was not interested. Yesterday he started playing the game by himself. JDaniel hides the eggs and then finds them. I guess he understood and enjoyed it more than I thought.

Seeing Green at the Grocery Store- St. Patrick’s Day Activity

March 17, 2010 By Deirdre

I picked up these paint chips at my local Lowe’s store. I love that they have a window you can use to see an object behind the paint chip and see if it matches. The little window made it a great tool to take to the grocery store and look for green foods. JDaniel loves to have something to do while sitting in the cart. This activity was a lot of fun.

St. Patrick's Day Grocery Store Color Hunt - Acorn Squash

Sometimes I would hand JDaniel the item to test.

St. Patrick's Day Grocery Store Color Hunt - Broccoli Sometimes I would hold the card up to the food and have him tell me if it matched.

We looked like we were having so much fun another mother of a two-year-old mentioned she would like to try this activity with her child.

A Wee Little Man Came Visiting

March 16, 2010 By Deirdre

A little man came to visit my house weeks ago and has been waiting for JDaniel and me to show him the town. Flat Stanley came with the snow in the middle of February and due to a lot of things happening in my family he sat quietly and waited for us to work on his project.

On Friday JDaniel and I took him to down to Greenville to see the Liberty Bridge and Falls Park. We all stayed dry and really enjoyed checking out the bridge and the falls.

Can you tell I let JDaniel do most of the coloring?

We still have something things to do for him before he heads home to New Hampshire, but at least he got to see some of our town.

St. Patrick’s Day Finger Plays

March 15, 2010 By Deirdre

Leprechaun Fingerplay

Leprechaun, leprechaun,
Hiding in the hay. (Hide pointer finger under opposite hand.)
Leprechaun, leprechaun,
Don’t you run away. (Hop pointer finger around.)
Leprechaun, leprechaun,
Let’s go out and play. (Hop both pointer fingers together.)
Leprechaun, leprechaun,
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! (Dance pointer fingers up and down.)

This Little Leprechaun

This little leprechaun slid down the rainbow, (Point to thumb.)
This little leprechaun stayed home. (Point to index finger.)
This little leprechaun picked a shamrock, (Point to middle finger.)
This little leprechaun found some gold. (Point to ring finger.)
This little leprechaun cried, “See if you can catch me,” (Point to little finger.)
As he ran home. (Wiggle little finger.)

Taken from http://www.preschooleducation.com/spatrick.shtml

Hands On Thank You Notes

March 11, 2010 By Deirdre

Kids can use a hand print instead of signing their name on their thank you notes.

My sister Michelle used to have her children’s hand traced at the bottom of their thank you notes. It was a great alternative to having them scribble all over the card. Yesterday afternoon I finally sat down to write thank you notes for all of JDaniel’s wonderful birthday gifts. Last night after dinner we sat down to do his hand tracings. He loved that he was getting to leave a handprint on the cards that were going out to thank his friends and family. JDaniel was very patient as I traced his hand over and over again.

Birthday Songs and Fingerplays

March 6, 2010 By Deirdre

The Birthday Song
Oh, do you know the birthday girl (boy) The birthday girl, the birthday girl, Oh, do you know the birthday girl, Her (his) name is __________.
Do you know how old she is How old she is, how old she is? Do you know how old she is She is ___________ years old.

Birthday Doo Dah

Zippity – sung to “Zippity Doo dah”
Zippity dooh dah, zippity ay,my oh my what a wonderful day,plenty of sunshine comin’ your way (you way!)zippity dooh dah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Taken from http://stepbystepcc.com/holidays/birthday.html

Five Candles on the Cake
Five candles on a birthday cake

Five, and not one more.

You may blow one candle out, [make blowing sound and motion]

And that leaves four!

Four candles on a birthday cake

There for all to see.

You may blow one candle out, [make blowing sound and motion]

And that makes three!

Three candles on a birthday cake

Standing straight and true.

You may blow one candle out, [make blowing sound and motion]

And that leaves two!

Two candles on a birthday cake

Helping us have fun.

You may blow one candle out, [make blowing sound and motion]

And that leaves one!

One candle on a birthday cake

We know its task is done.

You may blow this candle out, [make blowing sound and motion]And that leaves none!

Taken from http://earlylit.net/wordpress/category/storytime-component/fingerplays-and-rhymes/

Birthdays
Birthday candles, one-two-three (hold up fingers on the count)
Birthday candles just for me! (point to self)
Last year two, next year four (hold up 2 fingers on left hand and 4 on right)
Birthday candles I want more! (hold up all fingers)

Taken from http://leland22201.tripod.com/id3.html

Seeing Red!

February 16, 2010 By Deirdre

JDaniel has decided that everything is blue or orange. I decided that we would work on exploring the color red this week. We used the great red bag I was sent by Pam from Country Mouse, City Mouse to look for red things around the house. There were a few items that JDaniel selected that weren’t really red, but for the most part he did a great job gathering a collection of red items. Not everything he found fit in the bag.

We will also be looking for red spots I am going to hide around the house, coloring a page of red objects, and looking for pictures of red things in magazines this week.

A Family New Year’s Eve Party

December 29, 2009 By Deirdre

Kate H. is my youngest sister. She is the mother of two, an adjunct college instructor, war veteran, and so much more. She is very creative. I thought you would enjoy hearing about how she celebrates New Year’s Eve with her family and friends.

We invite over 3 families with children around 7pm. They are encouraged to bring an appetizer or dessert to share. We play family games with the kids.

Last year I used a cut-out Snowman from a Holiday card and we played secret snowman where the kids try to secretly attach the snowman (I put strong tape on the back) to someone. If the person notices them they need to try another person. It was great fun. The kids could not keep a straight face, but the adults pretended not to notice when the snowman was stuck to their backs. (This year the kids got Operation, and I Spy board game and Farmyard Uno so we will probably stick with board games.)

As 8 p.m. approached we break out the tacky paper hats and noise makers. I found some plastic champagne glasses at a discount store and we serve sparkling grape juice.

We have a battery operated clock in our kitchen which I take down and reset the time to make 8 pm turn magically into midnight. At midnight we toast each other and shout Happy New Year. This year I think we will make confetti because Charlie’s teacher said he needs to practice cutting.

How do you celebrate with your family?