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Code Activity for Kids- Gruffalo Coding Sheet

February 23, 2017 By Deirdre

A great way to work on story retelling and building an algorithm is to select a story that your children love already. The Gruffalo is one on my son’s favorite books. I bet your kids love it too. This code activity for kids asks children to connect the events in the story from its beginning to end.

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If your children haven’t read The Gruffalo, you will want to read it to them before starting this code activity.

Code Activity for Kids

The first thing you will need to do is to printout The Gruffalo Code Activity for Kids. While the graphic are color, it will be fine to print them out in black and white.

Your children will start this activity by finding the mouse standing by himself in the bottom left had corner of the The Gruffalo Code Activity for Kids sheet. That is where they will start retelling the story and creating their algorithm.

As you read or walk your children through the story, they will need to draw an arrow in each box connecting the events. Some events will be connected by arrows pointing up or down. Some events will be connected by arrows pointing to the right or left. There will be others that are connected by an arrow pointing up in one box and one pointing left or right in the next.

In many cases there are several different ways to connect the events. You can encourage your children to connect the events with the fewest number of steps.

If you like this code for kids activity, her are some more coding activities you children will enjoy.

Coding for Kids- The Day It Rained Hearts

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Coding Printable

Plant Growth Algorithm Coding Printable

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Coding Activity

If your children really love The Gruffalo, here are some more wonderful Gruffalo themed activities.

No Bake Gruffalo Cookies

Fine Motor Pre- Writing Activity with a Gruffalo Tool

Gruffalo Wooden Spoon Puppets.

No Bake Cookies – Gruffalo Paws

February 22, 2017 By Deirdre

Kids love to bake! There are times when that baking urge hits them and there isn’t a lot of time to put together the recipe and then wait for something to bake. These no bake cookies take no time at all to bake. Kids will love that they are based on the Gruffalo!

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If your children haven’t had the book The Gruffalo read to them, they so need to hear it. My almost nine-year-old son read it over again when I had it sitting out on the kitchen table. He commented that he still loves how sneaky and creative the mouse in the book is. After he finished read it, we made these delicious
After he finished read it, we made these delicious no bake cookies. We made a version of the cookies that does not have peanut butter in it. JDaniel doesn’t like peanut butter. He will occasionally eat peanuts although he really prefers cashews. We happened to have peanuts on hand at home so, that is the nut we used to make the Gruffalo claws on the no bake cookies. You will find a list of claw alternatives in the recipe below. Several of them are not nuts.

Recipe for No Bake Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1 cup of butter

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons of cocoa

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 cups of quick oats

3/4 cups of chocolate chips

Peanuts

Claw Alternatives: cashews, white jelly beans, white raisins or dried pineapple pieces

Directions

Place the sugar, butter, milk, and cocoa in a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Cook for 1 extra minute.
Add the vanilla, oats and chocolate chips to the mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Scoop up spoonfuls and drop it onto wax or parchment paper.
Add claw to the top of the cookies before they cool.

Kindness Activity-The Ripple Effect Experiment

January 16, 2017 By Deirdre

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Kids often think that they can’t do things to help others. They may think that they aren’t old enough or big enough to do something. This kindness activity looks at how big actions and small actions have a ripple effect. I bet the lion in the book The Lion &the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney didn’t think when he was able to spare the life of the mouse that it was a big thing. He probably was glad the mouse didn’t think about it that way. His small act of kindness had a big effect on the life of the mouse. That act inspired the mouse to help him in a time of need.

Kindness Activity

This wonderful kindness activity uses an experiment to illustrate that the simple act of dropping an object causes a ripple effect. The ripple may be small or large depending on the object. Just as our acts of kindness can be large or small. They too will have an effect or a ripple in the life of another person. The impact of that act of kindness can make someone’s day better or change how they treat others.

Experiment

When you gather items for this experiment, you will want to select some things that have the following attributes.

Small
Large
Light
Heavy

Then will need to fill a container with water. We used a cake pan for our experiment. If you have a pie plate, bowl, or saucepan you would like to use that would be fine.

Observing the Impact

Each of the objects will cause a ripple in the water when it is dropped. Some will cause a big splash when the are dropped into the water. All of them will cause the water to move as it is displaced by the object.

What you will want your children to notice is that they all cause a ripple effect! Something happens to the water when the object is placed in it.

Discussion

Once your children have seen the ripple effect, take some time to talk about the effects of kind acts on others. Simple things we all can do like saying thank you or holding a door open for someone can have a ripple effect.

Here are some other kindness activity ideas that you can do with our children:

If you like the book The Lion and the Mouse, here are some more kindness themed books:

A Sick Day for Amos McGee
Frog and Toad: A Complete Reading Collection
Please Don’t Tease Tootsie
I See Kindness Everywhere
Horton Hears a Who
The Kindness Quilt
Kindness Is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler
Because Amelia Smiled
Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids

Grinch Craft -How to Make His Heart Grow

December 9, 2016 By Deirdre

In the book the How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the Grinch has a heart that is two sizes too small. Your children will have fun making this Grinch craft. When they open the Grinch craft, his heart will grow.

Last week I shared with you a Christmas decorated tree snack that was made with cheese wedges. The wedges can in a cool round box. I knew we could make something with it so I didn’t throw it away.

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Over the weekend I was reading that it was the 50th anniversary of the Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas television show. I decide it would be fun to make a Grinch craft with the box. It would be fun to make after reading the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! or watching the show.

How to Make the Grinch Craft

Supplies

Round box from cheese wedges
Green, black, red, and yellow construction paper
Scissors
Glue stick

Directions for Making the Grinch Craft

Getting the Construction Paper Ready

You will need to cut out a large number of green squares out of construction paper.

Then you will need to cut the two eye sections out of black and yellow construction. If you think the black arches would be hard to cut out, circular pupils would be fine.

Next you will cut out his sly smile. You could wait and draw on a smile later if you like.

Finally you will work cut out the heart section. You will need to cut out a large heart and two strips of red paper.

Constructing the Grinch Craft

Creating the Face

You will start by covering the lid of the box with green squares. There isn’t a wrong way to put them on.

Then you will need to glue on the mouth and eyes. We found it is easier to glue the eye arches to the yellow eyes before gluing it to the box top.

Creating the Heart

You will need to glue the two ends of the strips together. Then fold one strip over the other over and over again. This will create the heart spring. When you each the end of the strips, glue those ends together.

Then glue the heart unto one end of the spring. The end of the spring without the heart is then glued onto the inside of the box.

Gingerbread Man Story – Printable Finger Puppets

December 5, 2016 By Deirdre

The story of the Gingerbread Man has been retold in a number of books. The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Alyesworth is new to me. After seeing it on the Virtual Book Club list, I went to the library to check it out. What fun this version is! I love the storyline and the illustrations. I thought it would be fun to create finger puppets that could be used to retell or walk through the story.

Gingerbread Man Story Puppets that I made include the Gingerbread Man, the old women, the old man, and the fox. They appear is many of the other version that I have read. This set also includes the cow, the pig, and butcher mentioned in Jim Alyesworth’s version of the book. If you are exploring a different version of the story you can still use the first three or four puppets.

How You Can Use the Gingerbread Man Story Puppets

Before Reading the Gingerbread Man Story

You may want to share the puppets with your children before reading the book. Your children can share what they know about each of the characters. You can also have them predict what they will do in the story. It allows your kids to build a foundation for the story and share what they anticipate is going to happen.

During the Reading of the Gingerbread Man Story

You can pass out each of the puppets and have your children hold up their puppet when it appears in the book. If you’re reading the book to at a table, you can use the puppet speaking as pointed in the book.

After Reading the Gingerbread Man Story

You can have your children take turns use one of the puppets to retell the story. It might be fun to have your children retell the story based from the perspective of the puppet they have selected or have been given.

Here are several more Gingerbread Man activities:

More Wonderful Gingerbread Man-Themed Books

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Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs Printable Play Dough Mats

November 14, 2016 By Deirdre

We love dinosaurs at my house. It is not just JDaniel that loves them. My very first classroom was decorated with a dinosaur theme. I was thrilled when I saw that Goldilocks And the Three Dinosaurs was going to be the Virtual Book Club book this week. I had the best time listening to JDaniel read his dad and and I the book after dinner last week. Then JDaniel and I both created dinosaurs based on the book on printable playdough mat.

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I thought you might want to have your kids make dinosaurs on the play dough mats. They will have a great time creating dinosaurs based on the ones in the book! They also have had a great time coming up with their own dinosaurs.

The play dough mats display just the basic large dinosaur pickle shaped head and a set of eyes. The rest of the mat was intentionally open-ended. I wanted to leave the door open for your children and my son to let their creative juices flow. Your children might want to create a dinosaur from the book. Then they might want to create one of their own.

Play Dough Mats and Play Dough Creations

Papa Dinosaur was made using play dough and a plastic fork.

We didn’t have the exact colors that were used for the dinosaur’s hair, teeth and nostrils. We had to decide on colors that were similar or choose brand new colors for them.

JDaniel decided that one of the dinosaurs that we made needed a tongue with saliva dripping off of it. He pointed out that dinosaurs thinking about chocolate filled girls would be drooling.

If you like this play dough mat activity, here are some more play dough activities you might like:

Chocolate Shadow Play Dough and Groundhog’s Day Activities

Exploring Dr. Seuss Colors and Play Dough

There are so many additional fun DINOSAUR WEEK themed crafts and activities shared by our Dinosaur Week group. Check out the activities below to get you started…

Alphabet Activities

Dino Babies Letter Game – Rainy Day Mum

Number Activities

Dinosaur Number Maze – Inspiration Laboratories

Clothespin Dinosaur Counting Tray

Cooking Activities

How to Make Chocolate Dinosaurs – Mama Smiles

Science Activities

Rocks & Fossils Experiment- Teach Beside Me

Shape Activities

Dinosaur Shape Matching Game – Powerful Mothering

Owl Craft Based on the Book Owl Babies

November 2, 2016 By Deirdre

This week started with my sharing with you an owl eyesight viewer. It could be used to look at the world through the eyes of an owl. Today I want to share an owl craft with you. Both activities could be done after reading the wonderful book Owl Babies.

Creating the Owl Craft

Owl Craft Supplies

brown paper lunch bag
white and black paint
cotton balls
fine grain sandpaper
wiggly eyes
dental floss
scissors
hole punch
pipe cleaner

Putting the Owl Craft Together

Cutting

You will start by cutting out to large ovals out of the brown paper lunch bag.

While you are cutting, you might as well cut a beak and two feet out of the sandpaper.

Painting the Owl Craft

Now you will use cotton balls to paint the front of the two owls. You will probably want to give your children own cotton ball for the white paint and one for the black.

Hole Punching

When the ovals are dry you will stack them on top of each other. Next you will have your children punch a ring of holes on the outside edge of the ovals. Your children will need to place single hole in the top of each of the owls feet.

Creating Facial Features

Then you will glue the wiggly eyes and the beak onto one of the ovals. This will be the front of the owl.

Sewing the Owl Craft

Now it is time for you to sew the top and bottom ovals together. You will need to wrap one end of the dental floss around a pipe cleaner. Your children will you this pipe cleaner needle to sew around edges of the ovals to create a pocket.

When they get to the bottom of the owl, they will line up the hole on each foot between the front and back layers. They will set the feet between the layers. Then the will continue around the oval until they close to where they started.

It is now time to stuff the owl with cotton ball. You may want your children to flatten out the cotton balls.

You will probably need to help your children tie the ends of the floss together in a bow.

If you like this owl craft, here are some more owl activities you will like:

Owl Eyesight STEM Exploration

Fall Owl Crafts

Little Owls Night Craft and Snack

Owl Hand Puppet

STEM Challenge – Spider Web Hanger

October 19, 2016 By Deirdre

During the month of October, I have been sharing a STEM challenge that explores one of the books featured in the Virtual Book Club each week. There was a fixed pulley activity shared during Little Blue Truck week. Before that, there was a STEM challenge that looked at whether pumpkins can float. Today’s STEM challenge explores a theme of The Very Busy Spider and asks children to create a spider web hanger.

Your children will be given four tasks to complete during this STEM challenge. They will create a spider web on a hanger. Then they will create spider themed stones. Next, they will test the strength of their webs. Finally, they will make repairs to their web if parts of it don’t survive the challenge.

Before you start this activity, you may want to read your children a book about spiders! Below you will find several wonderful children’s books about spiders.

Spider Web Hanger STEM Challenge

Below you will find each of the tasks described. I have created of STEM Challenge Spider Web Exploration cards that you can give your children to use as they work through each of the challenges. While each describes each task, they don’t go into a lot of detail. I have purposely left the tasks open-ended.

Creating the Web

You children will need dental floss, a hanger, and a pair of scissors. We used a plastic hanger to create our web. You may want your children to discover whether a wooden, metal or plastic hanger is best for web building.

One end of the floss was tied to the hanger. Then the floss was woven across the hanger. (We made sure we wove the floss over and under other threads of the web.) When we felt the web was finished. We cut the end of the floss from the container and tied it onto the hanger.

Creating Spider Stones

My son collects rocks. We were able to go through his collection of rock to find two rocks that were mostly flat. You will want to have some mostly flat rocks for your children to use for this project.

The only direction I have for making the spiders was to make sure they have a head (cephalothorax), an abdomen, and eight legs. If you would like more details like eyes, spinnerets or fangs, you can share that with our children.

Testing Web Strength

We placed our spider stones on various parts of the web to see with they would stay on the web. You can ask your children to find the areas of the web that will hold the stones. You could ask them also find areas that might need to be repaired or strengthened with the stones.

Repairing the Web

If your children find that some areas of the web need to be repaired after the web strength test, you will want them to fix them first. They will also find that there are areas that need to be strengthened with more floss.

Once they have made repairs and feel their web is stronger, they will repeat the web strength test.

If you like this STEM challenge, you will find more on my Early Learning Science board on Pinterest.

Fixed Pulley Helps Truck Out of the Muck

October 12, 2016 By Deirdre

The Virtual Book Club book of the week is Little Blue Truck. My son and I are exploring pulleys as a Scout enrichment project. I decided to combine an event from the book with the creation of a fixed pulley.

Younger children will find the turning of the rolling pin a challenge. They will have to get both of their hands to turn the rolling pin at the same speed to get the truck to rise. Older children will need to work on the correct speed to raise the truck out of the muck facing forwards. If they go too fast, the truck will start spinning. They will then have to slow down to get the truck to face front again.

Once your children have used the simple pulley to lift the truck out of the muck. They can then decide where to lower the truck to return it safety to the ground.

Supplies for Creating the Fixed Pulley

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Below you will find two lists of building supplies. Along with the supplies you may also want to read the book Little Blue Truck to your children.

Supplies for Pulley and Truck

Blue Painter’s Tape
Silver Duct Tape
Black Electrical Tape
Flap from a Cardboard Box
Brown Yarn
Scissors
Rolling Pin
Hole Punch

Supplies for the Muck

Paper Lunch Bags Cut into Strips
Metal Lasagna Tray
Scissors

Creating the Truck for the Fixed Pulley

Start by creating the body of the Little Blue Truck with blue tape. We had blue painter’s tape at our house so that is what I used. You can use any kind of blue trap you like.

Then cut two three inch pieces electrical tape or another type of black tape. You will place them on either side of the bottom of the truck. They will be your wheels.

Next place a narrow strip of the silver duct tape across the bottom of the truck. It will be the truck’s bumper. Then place a rectangular piece of tape above the bumper for the grill. You can add details to the top of the grill and create mirrors using silver tape scraps.

Finally you will place small strips of the black tape on the silver rectangle to complete the grill. We used four strips of black tape on ours.

Creating the Fixed Pulley

Once you have created your truck, you will use a hole punch to create a hole near the top of the cardboard. Then you will tie one end of a length of brown yard to hole in the box. Next you will tie the other end of the yard to the center of a rolling pin.

More Fun Science Experiments

STEM Bridge Building

Do Pumpkins Float? Do Other Fruits and Veggies Float?

How to Make an Ice Cream Scoop Catapult

STEM Activities with #2 Pencils

Fire Truck Craft

October 6, 2013 By Deirdre

One of the fun things I have been doing to help JDaniel’s class this year has been to help with the SEEDS program. It is right up my alley. The program is like Read.Explore.Learn. and you know how much I love to explore books.

I decided to share a fire truck theme book with them called Meeow and the Big Box is about a kitten who uses a big box to create a fire truck for pretend play. We first heard this book shared at a library storytime focused on fire safety. The librarian created a visual using a box that walked us through each of Meeow’s steps. The children just loved this book.

Creating the Fire Truck Craft

I only get about half an hour to read the book and do the craft. To save time I try to have everything cut out and ready to glue down. I even do a trial run on my own or with JDaniel to time it. He loves getting to be a guinea pig for his class.

Here is how the trial for this craft turned out:

First, we put the body of the fire truck on black paper. Then JDaniel added the windows and white bumper area. I think I could have cut a long strip for the bumper. It didn’t stick out very far in the front or back of the fire truck. I may need to make these a little longer for the class.

The windows for the fire truck were moved around a lot. JDaniel had ideas about where they needed to go and not go a couple of times. They really could go anywhere on the front of a fire truck and could be turned vertically or horizontally. I think not having a specific place for the windows gives the children can invite to make their trucks unique.

After working on the windows, JDaniel worked on adding the yellow accessories to the truck. The ladder could have gone anywhere on the truck or even on the roof of the truck. Both of the lights could have gone on the top or on the front. The trial run ended up with one of the top and one on the bottom.

The last thing to go on the fire truck craft was the wheels. I am not sure that fire trucks have brown wheels, but black wheels would have blended into the black background so, I went with brown.

I think it will be fun to do this craft with JDaniel’s class. We had fun working on it together. It would also be great to create with your children during National Fire Safety Month in October. They would probably like to read Meeow and the Big Box and make a fire truck too.