Supplies: black paper bag, orange, black, and white paper,  Penguin puppet template

Step 1: Print Penguin puppet template and trace the pieces onto coloured papers.  Use Black for the wings and inner eyes, white for the belly and eyes, and orange for the beak and feet  

Step 2: Glue penguin belly to bag on the side where the flap opens.  Glue white eyes to flap.  Glue black eyeballs onto eyes.  Glue wings to either side of belly and glue feet.

Step 4: Make penguin beak:  Lift flap of bag and add glue to the underside of flap, on top and bottom.  Push folded end of penguin beak into glued area of flap and squeeze flap together so mouth is firmly pressed onto puppet.  Let your craft dry. 

1. Cotton Balls

The classic craft supplies for winter themed crafts.  Cotton balls already look like a snowball, so all the kids need is a little glue and a piece of paper so that they can create snowmen, snow forts, and other snowy day pictures.  Ripping the cotton balls up into smaller pieces is a fun tactile activity that creates whisps of snow or snowbanks.

2. Paper Doilies

different sizes can be used for small, medium, and large 'snowballs' on a snowman picture, or sponge on some glue and sprinkle glitter to make a sparkly snowflake

3. Shredded Paper or paper confetti

Put your paper recycling to work by running old bills and statements through the shredder to create long strings of snow.  Tear, rip or crumple paper shred into snowy scenes or 3-D forts.  Use a sprinkling of white paper confetti to make a blizzard.  A blizzard looks especially intriguing if it's created on black paper with white pencil crayon or crayon drawings, and lots of paper confetti.

4. White Yarn or String

Use white string or yarn in any number of ways: glue it on to paper to make a pretty design, press it onto a glued pattern on waxed paper, leaving it to dry into a peel-off snowflake, pull it through white paint to create an abstract snowy painting, or integrate science by making a borax icicle

5. Shaving Cream

Play in the snow indoors!  Spray a small quantity of shaving cream onto a washable placemat or table surface.  Kids can use their index fingers to practice tracing oversized numbers or letters in their 'snow'.  Gently wipe the letter away and start all over again

6. Food Items from your Kitchen

The kitchen is overflowing with various items that can be used to create a lovely snowy scene.  Use flour or icing sugar for a dusting of snow, sugar cubes to create 3-dimensional snow projects such as igloos or snow forts, shredded coconut for larger snowflakes, and whipped cream for a big dump of snow!  Most of these ingredients could be integrated into a baking project too - make Gingerbread with a dusting of icing sugar, and serve with whipped cream and a sprinkling of coconut.  Wouldn't that be great after a big play outside in the snow?

Yogurt Gingerbread

Grease a 9x9 square baking dish, and preheat oven to 350

Separate 2 eggs

In a large bowl, combine:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp each baking soda, ginger, cinnamon
1/2 tsp each ground cloves, ground nutmeg

In another bowl, mix together:

1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 egg yolks

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix.
Beat 2 egg whites until stiff, and fold into mixture.
Pour into pan and bake for 35 - 40 minutes. 

Let cake cool.  Decorate cake by sprinkling with icing sugar.  We placed a snowman cut-out in the centre of our cake, and sprinkled around to suit the day's 'snow' theme.  Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.  Yum!!

Supplies:  Red mask form from cardstock or other sturdy paper Mask strap, chenille stem, or string to tie mask Red, yellow, white, orange, and black paper Red and yellow tissue shred pencil, scissors, glue black string (optional) for long moustache

Step 1: Trace little hands, cut them out, and glue them to the top of your mask

Step 2: Cut red oval shapes and large arching eyebrows from black paper.  Glue to mask

Step 3: Cut triangles from length of white paper to make white teeth.  Glue to mask below nose.  You could also glue a black yarn moustache to your dragon mask.  Glue tissue shred to sides of mask

Step 4: Secure mask with mask strap, chenille stems, or string.  Wear your mask for the Dragon Dance!

Tip: don't want to make your own mask form?  Use our Superhero Mask Kit to get started!

1. Paper Bag Dragon Puppet Craft

Supplies: red paper bag, red, orange, black, and white paper, orange tissue.  Dragon puppet template

Step 1: Make your paper bag look 'dragony' by cutting the bottom edge into a jagged zig zag. 

Step 2: Cut dragon pieces using dragon template.  Use red for the dragon mouth and largest circles, orange for ears and medium circles, black for small circles, eyebrows, and nostrils.  Cut zig zag strips of white teeth

Step 3: Glue dragon eyes to front of bag flap.  Glue ears to the back side of the puppet.

Step 4: Make dragon mouth.  Glue nostrils to the ends of mouth shape.  Open mouth and glue strips of teeth to top and bottom.  Crumple a piece of tissue and glue it to the centre of mouth, to make a fire breathing dragon

Step 5: Lift flap of bag and add glue to the underside of flap, on top and bottom.  Push folded end of dragon mouth into glued area of flap and then squeeze the flap together so mouth is firmly pressed onto puppet .  Let your craft dry.

2. Dragon Craft with Basic Shapes

This is a good one if you want to practice cutting and basic shape identification.  Use small, medium, and large circles for eyes.  Use Large triangles for dragon mouth.  Use medium triangles for spikes on the back of your dragon's head.  Use small triangles for sharp teeth.  Rectangles are used for eyebrows.  Can you use other shapes to make your dragon even more unique?

3. Toilet Roll Dragon Stick Puppet Craft

Supplies: Red poster paper (we used dark pink  11x14 paper) Toilet paper rolls 2 large craft sticks Tissue squares and other decorating pieces Markers, crayons or pencil crayons Scissors

Step 1: cut long edges of poster paper into scalloped edge, and decorate entire paper with tissue squares and other decorating pieces

Step 2: make a slit in the ends of 2 toilet rolls so the craft sticks can slide in.  Secure them with tape

Step 3: Glue the toilet rolls to the underside of decorated poster paper.  Leave some space between rolls so your dragon will be able to move.  We used 3 toilet rolls in total, but it probably would work even better to cut the rolls in half and use 3 halves instead.  This will create more space between each roll so your dragon can twist and turn more easily

Step 4: Cut a dragon head from poster paper.  Decorate the head in the same way you decorated the body.  Flip your dragon body right-side up and glue head to body.  Now you can make your dragon dance by moving the craft sticks back and forth!

1. Whipped Shortbread

This is my moms recipe, and I haven't found a shortbread cookie that I like better!  The dough is easy to make and it can be pressed (as I have done), or rolled into a log and then sliced.  The kids can help by adding sprinkles, coloured sugar, or other toppings before baking.

3 c all purpose flour 1/2 c cornstarch 1 c icing sugar 1 lb butter or part margarine

Cream butter and add sugar, mixing until creamy.  Add flour and cornstarch and whip together until fluffy.  Drop from a spoon, roll, or use a cookie press.  Bake at 325 for about 8 minutes.  Tip: this recipe make ALOT of cookies if you're using a press!  You can half the recipe and still have lots of cookies to take to special events. 

2. Gingersnaps

This is another holiday favourite, and I decided to give a new recipe a try this year.  These ones are good, but I will follow up with my mom's recipe, as I've decided that hers can't be beat.  We had a small taste off between these and some my sister made, and I gave these ones the nod.  My mom's recipe for the *best* ones will have to wait, as she's visiting us for the holidays while her recipe remains at her home.  The kids can help by rolling the dough into balls, and then pressing the cookies down with a fork to bake.

2 c flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp each cinnamon & ginger 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp salt 1 egg 3/4 c vegetable oil 1/4 c molasses 1 c packed brown sugar granulated sugar

Mix dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk egg.  Beat in oil and molasses.  Beat in brown sugar.  Gradually stir flour mixture into wet ingredients.  Roll dough into balls.  Dip top of each ball into granulated sugar and place on greased baking tray.  Press down with a fork.  Bake at 350 for approximately 8 minutes.

3. Mini Butter Tarts

This recipe has been modified from the regular butter tart to become mini tarts - use a mini muffin tin to make these.  Kids can help by cutting out the dough with the rim of a cup or circle cookie cutter.  We used a 1/3 c measuring cup as our cutter.  Once the circles are pressed into the tin, the kids can help again by placing the raisins or pecans into each tin

Pastry: 1 1/2 c all purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 c butter, cubed 1 egg yolk 1 tsp vinegar water Filling: 1/2 c packed brown sugar 1/2 c corn syrup 1 egg 2 tbsp softened butter 1 tsp each vanilla & vinegar pinch salt pecans (or raisins or other)

For pastry: combine flour and salt, and cut butter into mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs.  In liquid measure, whisk egg yolk with vinegar and add enough water to make 1/3 cup.  Slowly pour egg mixture on top of flour mixture and stir with fork to combine.  Press into disk, wrap, and refrigerate for an hour.  To make tart shells: roll dough out to 1/8" and cut circles to press gently into mini muffin tin.  Reroll scraps and continue making shells.  For each shell, break up a pecan with your fingers and place it in the shell.  For filling: whisk all ingredients together.  Spoon over pecans so tarts are 3/4 full.  Bake at 450 for about 8 minutes or until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden.  Remove from oven and remove tarts from pan.  Cool on rack.  Makes approx 30 mini tarts. 

I thought I'd go down to her house to learn how to make bread one day when she happened to be making it.  She makes six loaves every week to give to her kids and grandkids.  But instead, she marched up to our house with a few ingredients in hand and "we" got to work.  I put the "we" in quotes because she did all the work and I happily helped by holding the bowl.....I also poured water now and then, but really, my contribution was limited.  I felt like the child who's helping mom, dad, or a grandparent - so eager to contribute that even the simple task of holding the bowl made me feel important :)

So here's what we did to make bread:

The Ingredients:

Some Yeast
Some Bran
Some Salt
Lots of Flour
Water

She brought the yeast and the bran, and my kitchen supplied the rest. There are no measurements for these ingredients, because we didn't measure anything.  My neighbour has clearly become an expert at bread baking over the years, so her keen eye could estimate all of the measurements.  My not so keen eyes would rewrite the ingredients to look like this:

About 2 tablespoons of yeast....we used the kind that comes as a cake or block, crumbled up into warm water
Probably 2 to 3 cups of bran
1/4 cup of salt (she poured the salt into her hand but thankfully put it in a small cup so I could see approximately how much I would need next time!)
Around 20 cups of flour - I'm guessing this amount by measuring my flour container and converting from cubic inches to cups.  The entire contents of the flour container was used, plus a few more cups (or so)
About 2 litres of warm water (8 cups)

Once we got going with the dough, it quickly became clear to me that this would be a great tactile activity to do with the kids.  It's messy, it's gooey, it's warm.....what's not to like?  There is the inevitable clean-up to deal with, but you'll have plenty of time for that while the bread is rising!  Here's what we did to make five yes FIVE loaves of bread:

Five bread pans ready and waiting.  Grease with canola oil or other oil.

Dump the flour into a large mixing bowl, then add bran and salt.  Use your hands to gently mix the dry ingredients.  Make a well in the middle and start slowly adding warm water, mixing with your hands as you add.  Continue mixing/kneading and adding water around the edges, incorporating more of the dry ingredients as you add water.  Add the diluted yeast as well.  The dough will be VERY sticky and will cling to your hands as you work.  The whole process of slowly adding water and kneading took about 15 minutes.  The dough will be quite sticky but not wet.  When all of the dry ingredients have thoroughly been incoroporated, finish kneading, sprinkle with flour, and cover. 

Now, when I say cover I mean really cover the dough and keep it nice and warm.  We used a tea towel, then a clean baby blanket, then another towel, a knitted afghan, and finally a large square of thick clean burlap.  That dough was really nice and cozy.  Let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours - when you gently press it with your finger it should spring back.

Once the dough has rested, unwrap the blankets and divide it into portions.  You can use a knife to cut off a large segment of dough, then knead on a floured surface for a couple minutes.  Press your hands into flour every now and then as you knead, so that the dough won't stick to you.  Shape dough into a log and place in an oiled baking pan.  We used canola oil to grease our pans.  My neighbour kneaded four of the portions into logs for the pans, and I did the last one.  Relatively speaking, I did a terrible job.  Most of the dough I worked with ended up stuck to my counter, or on my hands, and my 'kneads' weren't nearly as effective as hers.  She was extremely patient and very helpful in teaching me to properly use the heel of my hand.  I thought I'd be able to handle the task well enough, but clearly I will need some practice.  I took this as a reminder for when I do new things with my kids - for me, the 'teacher' in most scenarios, it seems easy, but for them, the 'students' it's new and it takes time......and patience on my part!  

When the dough is in the baking pans, cover the pans well (again we used towels, blankets, and burlap) and let rise for 1 hour.  

Uncover, slash tops with a knife, and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Towards the end (about 5 minutes) remove the loaves from pans and let them continue to bake directly on oven racks. 

Remove from oven and let cool.  My neighbour said to put a towel over the bread while it cools, to keep it nice and soft.  You can freeze the loaves you're not going to use right away.  Enjoy!!

Roasting the seeds you collect while carving pumpkins is super-easy and really yummy too!  Our kids look forward to eating the pumpkin seeds almost as much as they look forward to carving the pumpkins themselves!.  Here's what you need to do to roast the pumpkin seeds

• Seperate pumpkin seeds from pumpkin pulp or 'slime' (as the kids would say!)
• Put seeds in a collander and rinse thoroughly
• Spread seeds on baking sheet to dry
• Once dry, put seeds into a bowl and add between 1tsp and 1 tbsp of olive oil, mixing thoroughly
• Spread seeds onto baking sheet and sprinkle lightly with seasoning of choice - could be seasoning salt, cinnamon and sugar, a dusting of pepper, etc
• Bake at 350 for up to 20 minutes, stirring periodically and checking for browning
• Let cool and enjoy!

• white t-shirt or strips of cotton (bedsheet, t-towel, etc)
• Chenille stems or coated wire
• wide craft sticks (optional)
• scissors

We started by cutting an old corporate t-shirt into strips.  Finally, corporate gear put to use after a trade show! :)

As I was cutting the t-shirt into strips, my crafty girl decided to become a mummy herself:

We built our mummy form using craft sticks and chenille stems.  You could probaby do it without the craft sticks, but I wanted something sturdy to wrap around in the middle

Then we started wrapping!  Here's what our mummy looked like after the first layer:

We looped our t-shirt strips into each other so we didn't have to worry about a lot of loose ends:

Finally, our little mummy was complete!  My daughter is taking her to school to decorate their classroom for Halloween. Then she'll sit on our front step to greet trick or treaters on Halloween night.

This was so much fun!  The original idea for this craft can be found at Family Chic

We started by finding some smooth round rocks to turn into lady bugs.  We used red paint for one, and strips of tissue for the other.  This is our painted rock:

Our decoupage rock is below.  To do this, rip tissue into strips.  Mix 2 parts glue with 1 part water and paint the glue onto the rock.  Press tissue onto the glue and then paint over everything with more glue.  Let dry.  TIP:  Let the kids do the tissue ripping!  It's crinkly and loud - they love it!

Use black paint to add ladybug head and spots

Finish your craft by adding eyes.  We used stickers on ours

Why adults love the Kids Craft Club:

Time saver – no more scrambling for craft ideas and supplies; we send them Boredom buster – crafts for a rainy day or quiet time with parent or caregiver Fun learning – hands-on activities to develop creativity, critical thinking, fine motor skills Eco-awareness – craft supplies are recyclable and made with recycled content where possible, and packaging is recyclable and biodegradable Great Gift idea – a unique gift that keeps on giving every month!  Perfect for long distance family and friends.

Why Kids Love the Kids Craft Club:

Guaranteed craft time –  just open the package and get crafty! Exciting calendar based craft themes – new materials to explore every month New discoveries – develop new skills and learn about each project theme Fun Mail – who can say no to a bright green envelope with your name on it?

See all that seedy fluff waiting to be transformed?  I snapped off a handful of the fluff and set it out to dry (the fall rain has started!!)

To make your birds nest, strip the fluff from the stems by running the stem through your fingers.  Collect the fluff and roll it into a ball:

Then shape the nest by carefully pulling at the edges, and squishing your thumb or fingers in the middle.  Your finished nest will look something like this:

Tip: the smoke bush seeds were fun to shape into a nest, but they didn't stick together as well as the nests that were made from grasses (see video).  To make sure your smoke bush nest sticks together, dilute some glue with water (2:1) and moisten the nest with the glue mixture as you work.  Let your craft dry on a piece of waxed paper so that it doesn't stick to your work surface.

Though the temperatures are falling and the leaves are changing, families do not have to remain confined to the house in perpetual boredom. Budget-friendly activities are abundantly available that will keep kids’ mind and body active, until it is time to retire into deep slumber.

Activity helps kids apply and retain the knowledge learned during the school year. Events may also serve as an incentive to motivate kids to learn. Kids that can apply the knowledge they learn are often more successful in the classroom and in their lives. Use creativity to engage their minds, keep their bodies active and fight boredom.

Here are ten wallet friendly boredom busters that are easy to implement in the fall months:

1. Bike Rides

Bike rides are a relaxing and fun ways to keep the body active and the mind focused. Exercise increases blood flow and energizes the body to help kids focus and study in school. Bike rides may also help kids learn about inclines, resistance, velocity and other scientific concepts that may be difficult to understand in an abstract form. Take your kids on a bike ride and surreptitiously introduce these concepts in a way that they are not even aware they are learning.

2. Raking Leaves

Raking leaves may seem like a chore, but it can be great exercise, educational and incredibly fun. While raking leaves, encourage kids to select a few interesting leaves of various colors that may be later used in an indoor project. While raking leaves, parents may discuss the process of leaf change and why it occurs in nature. The collected leaves may be arranged into an autumn collage, framed and hung on the wall for many months of enjoyment. Parents will complete a household chore while spending time educating their kids.

3. Apple Picking

Apple picking is fun for the entire family. If your home is located near an orchard, simply load the kids into the car and head to the orchard for a couple of hours. Many orchards will also host apple bobbing events, hay rides and offer recipes for apples. Kids may learn about the different apples that are grown on the orchard and the maturation process. Families may also learn historical information about the area where the orchard is located. Apple picking is an affordable outing that also provides the household with a healthy snack.

4. Family Performances:

Create teams and have the kids make up a story to reenact for other family members. The kids may select to be the actor, director or the producer of the show. Costumes may be made from old clothes or use old Halloween costumes to bring their stories to life. Music may be created by using wooden spoons, pots, pans and other empty canisters lying around the house. The performances may be recorded for future enjoyment. This is a great way to make family memories and encourage musical and artistic talents.

5. Scavenger Hunt:

Scavenger hunts can easily be combined with educational concepts to help kids understand science, math or other challenging subjects. Kids may be challenged by the clues that may include riddles to help them understand strategy and English concepts.
The clues may also incorporate simple math by asking kids to walk a number of steps, then subtract a number of steps to reach their destination. The clue may also incorporate geometry by asking kids to follow the path of an isosceles triangle or a rectangle. This helps kids retain the information is a fun and engaging way.

6. Art Treasure Chest:

Nurture the artist in your kids, by encouraging them to create a special Art Treasure Chest especially for them. In the treasure chest, kids will keep their art supplies which may include: glue, child safe scissors, tape, markers, construction paper, paper towel rolls, magazines and aluminum foil. The exterior of the box may be decorated by each child. When kids are ready to create, they may go directly to their own personal treasure chest with their supplies. This avoids arguments over scissors, crayons, markers and other supplies.

7. Backyard Camp Out:

Some parents may not enjoy the great outdoors, but camping out on a freshly cut or perfectly manicured lawn in the backyard may be more appealing to the non-outdoorsy types. Parents may purchase a tent, sleeping bag, flashlights and candles from a discount store to get them through the event.

Plan a meal that may consist of roasting hotdogs or hamburgers on a hibachi grill. Smores are also popular camping food that kids will enjoy. For those that are unfamiliar, smores consist of a roasted marshmallow and a bar of Hershey’s chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers. Kids enjoy the sweet treats. Who knows, they may even learn some basic survival skills.

8. Build a Fort:

Perhaps camping is not necessarily your family’s interest. Try building a fort instead. The forts can be simple made of sheets and chairs or they can be more elaborate construction. The fort style will depend on the skill level of the fort builders and the patience of those involved. Kids may keep focused on this event for hours. From the building stages to the actual occupation, kids will learn mathematical skills.

9. Cookbook Fun:

Math skills can be tested in the kitchen. Have your children select their favorite recipe and participate in the preparation. During the process teach them about tablespoons, teaspoons, cups and fractions. This is a fun way to test math skills while keep the mind fresh and engaged.

10. Scrapbooking:

Memories are an excellent way to build family bonds and help kids remain social. Encourage kids to take pictures and create a scrapbook of their memories. The scrapbook may be made from construction paper bound with yarn or a spiral bound notebook.

While these are some fun and engaging activities, use your imagination and devise your own affordable fun. As long as the activities are challenging without being boring, the kids should remain engaged for hours.

************************************

Emily Patterson (@epatt1062) is communications coordinator for Primrose Schools providing written work to the blogosphere which highlights the importance, and some of the specific aspects, of a quality, early childhood, education.

Kids Nature Crafts with Sticks 1 - Fall Leaves Tree: 

You'll Need - a small dried branch (no leaves), tissue paper or bright coloured paper, scissors, glue

What to do:

Ensure that your branch is clean and dry.  There are two ways to make your branch into a bright tree for display.   

	First Method Cut small rectangles of tissue paper - about 5cm x 3cm per piece.  Your child can take a piece of tissue, scrunch it up, dip one side in glue, and stick it onto the tree.  Alternately, he or she can dab a bit of glue onto the tree branch, and wrap the tissue onto the branch.  See our picture below.Second Method
	Second Method Cut leaf shapes out of coloured or printed paper, leaving a long-ish tab at the end.  Dab a bit of glue onto the branch and stick each leaf by wrapping the tab.  This method was inspired by the 'Fabric Leaf Tree' found at Two Girls Being Crafty, and simplified for kids.

For method number two, we made our tree come to life by adding a little fold into each leaf.  We also made a fold at the end to create a little tab.  We put glue on the backside of the tab, and wrapped it around the branch:

Kids Nature Crafts with Sticks 2 - Twiggy Container:

We liked the look of the pretty votive holders we found at Fossil, and tried our own kid-friendly version.  This can be used to hold pencils, as a small vase, or for small trinkets.

You'll need - a clean dry empty can (choose a size that suits you; we used an old tomato paste can), some wide masking tape, dry, thin sticks and twigs, ribbon

What to do:

Remove the label from your can, and ensure that it is clean and dry.  Prepare the twigs you want to use by snapping them to approximately the same height as the can (tip: for larger thick twigs, an adult can cut to size with pruning sheers).  Wrap collars of masking tape around your can STICKY SIDE OUT. 

Stick the twigs to the tape, covering and open spaces with small bits of twig or other finds from nature (such as dried grasses, dried leaves, etc).  Tip: an adult can help by holding the can while kids press the sticks on.  Wrap a ribbon around your finished can to secure sticks, and tie a bow to complete.  

Kids Nature Crafts with Sticks 3 - Stick Person Picture:

The stick person is every child's favourite way to draw people, so why not do it with real sticks?  Parents or caregivers can help guide this activity by asking what part of the body they should start with, and "what do we need next?".  An easy way to identify basic body parts as they craft.

You'll need - stiff cardstock or cardboard, construction paper, small sticks, crayons, markers, or pencil crayons, scissors, glue, yarn (optional)

What to do:

Choose some sticks that can be broken easily into smaller pieces for your stick person shapes.  Think about pieces for legs, arms, body, skirts, feet, and heads.  Tip: if your child wants to make perfectly round heads for their characters, have some yarn on hand to replace sticks where necessary.  Start working by laying stick body part out on top of your paper, and then pick up the piece to add a generous amount of glue to the area before putting your stick back in place.  Repeat with the rest of your body parts and let dry.  Colour in a mouth, eyes, and nose. 

Start with a bowl full of fresh tomatoes.  If you don't have fresh ones, use canned whole tomatoes and skip straight to the crushing part!

Remove the skins.  This part should be done by an adult!  To get the skins off, put tomatoes into boiling water for 30 sec - 1 min, and then plunge into cold water. 

Once the tomatoes are cooled, the kids can remove the skins, which will be cracked open and easily peel away.  Teach a composting lesson by adding the skins to your compost!

The skinless tomatoes are ready to be crushed! 

Make sure the kids have clean hands (up to their elbows!) and all jewelery is removed.  Get crushing!  To watch how much fun our kids had doing this, check out our tomato crushing video

Some ways you can integrate this activity into your home, daycare, or preschool activity schedule:

1. Cooking - use the crushed tomatoes as part of a class cooking project (tomato sauce)
2. Gardening - visit a farmers market or local garden to learn about tomatoes and then take some home with you.  Teach about composting as well.
3. Halloween theme - Halloween is fast approaching and we're sure that the sticky, slimy, soggy-ness of this activity would be lots of fun as part of a halloween party!  You could crush some tomatoes in advance, blindfold the kids, and have them stick their hands into the gooey bowl! 

To make home made potato chips we used:

3 yukon gold potatoes (these were from our garden - exciting for me b/c I'm new to growing potatoes.  One of ours was giant, so you could use 4 average sized potatoes.  You could also try russet)

Cooking oil (we used canola oil)

Salt (up to 1/2 tsp, but we just used a shake or two)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.

1. Scrub the potatoes - our crafty kid used a scrubber brush with a handle that was easy for her small hand to hold
2. Thinly slice potatoes into chips.  We used a sharp knife, but a mandolin or food processor would make quick work of this and would ensure evenly sliced chips
   
3. Add 1 tbsp oil to bowl, and toss potatoes.  Kids can use their hands to really make sure everything is mixed well
   
4. Sprinkle chips with salt and toss again
   
5. Spread chips evenly across greased cookie sheets in a single layer.  Avoid overlap so they all crisp up really well!
   
6. Bake potato chips at 400 for 20 minutes or untll crispy.  You'll want to check them every couple of minutes to ensure that they don't overbake
   
7. Put them into a bowl and enjoy!
   

Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!!!  If you try this with your kids, let us know!!

We used this recipe:

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast (1 packet)
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg, beaten
coarse salt

1. Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup warm water and add salt and sugar
2. Blend in the flour
3. Knead dough until smooth
4. Cut dough into small pieces and roll into ropes. Shape into pretzel shapes
5. Place on lighly greased cookie sheets.  Brush with beaten egg.  Sprinkle with coarse salt
6. Bake immediately at 425 for 12 to 15 minutes

Here's our pretzel maker hard at work: 

Note: you don't need to sit like a pretzel to make pretzels, but maybe that's why her pretzels looked so good?!!  You can roll the dough in your hands or on the board, depending on which works better for you. 

Egg wash and salt sprinkling were fun for her and easy for any age!  You might want to dust some of the salt off after the kids sprinkle, so that they're not over-salted

Our finished product - we needed to test them right out of the oven and they were YUMMY!

1. Go strawberry picking - strawberry season is now, so check out your many local strawberry farms.  The ones in our area provide buckets or allow your own, so let your child grab their favourite bucket, pail or basket before you go.  For older kids, the bucket weighing can be a great math opportunity too - it gets weighed before picking, and after, so kids can figure out how much weight they picked.  Depending on the quantity of strawberries you're aiming for, and you're child's age & interest, this activity can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more.    

2. Mush up some strawberries - put some cleaned, hulled strawberries into the bottom of a pot or deep mixing bowl, and let the kids mush them up with a potato masher.  You might need to help them get started by doing the first couple of mashes, or you can cut the strawberries in half before they get started.  It's also a lot of fun to put the potato masher aside and let the kids at it with their hands.  The gooey mushy feeling of the strawberries is a fun tactile experience for toddlers and preschoolers in particular. Make sure to use clean hands for this project so that the strawberry mush can be used as a topping, turned into jam, or included in a smoothy. 

3. Make strawberry watercolours - cut a couple of berries in half and place into a pot with a cup of water.  Bring the water to a boil, boiling for 1 minute (note: an adult should do this part!).  Let cool.  Remove the berries and use the pink water to make water colour paintings in pink themes.  Think cotton candy, flowers, or sunsets.  You could also use the liquid as a natural dye for playdough, similar to the dying process used in this natural play dough

4. Strawberry stamping - cut some berries in half and use them as stamps on paper or fabric.  This is a good activity to do outside on a sunny day

5. Hulling strawberries - I'll admit that this seems like a mundane task to most adults, but work can be fun, especially for kids, so invite them to help as you hull your berries.  We usually hull them and I slice them into a freezer bag to enjoy throughout the winter

Do you have any strawberry season activity ideas?  Let us know! 

1. Painted Pot with summer greens or herbs - this is one of the simplest and most striking crafts for kids to do.  Paint a terra cotta pot and plant it with summer greens or herb of your choice.  We're thinking mint would be a nice choice of herb, as it can be used for everything from mint tea, to salads, to mojitos! 

2. "Look how much you taught me!" Card - Collect samples of your child's writing or drawing from the beginning of the year, and samples from the end of the year.  Photocopy the samples (or use originals if you're willing to give them up!).  Glue into position on inside of card, with one side titled 'Then' and other side titled 'Now'  The back cover can be reserved for a nice 'Thank You!'

3. Decorated box of cookies or other snack - a simple box can be embellished with anything from ribbons to stickers to drawings.  Line the box with waxed paper and fill with sweet treats for your child's teacher to enjoy 

4. Letter covered pencil jar - clip letters of various fonts from a magazine or newspaper and decoupage onto an old can.  Clean and dry can thoroughly before you begin.  Mix 2 parts glue with one part water.  Using a paint brush, paint a patch of glue onto the can and paste letter.  Cover letter with more paste.  Repeat until entire can is covered with letters.  A teacher can never run out of storage containers and this one will be a great way to start school next year!

5. Re-Usable Shopping Bag - decorate a plain reusable shopping bag with fun embelishments like felt flowers, ribbons, and bows.  Use fabric paints to write something special for your teacher, like '#1 Teacher' or 'Teachers Rule!'......your teacher can use the bag again and again for everything from toting books to carrying groceries.

Your kids can profile their dad the Super Hero with this Fun Father's Day Activity.  Print the SuperDad Activity Sheet and fill it in - draw your dad's face at the top of the SuperHero suit, choose an emblem that represents him, and color his suit in.  Remember to add a picture of yourself to the page, because we all know that kids are truly the source of their parent's strength!