Seasonal Kids Activities

Printable Paper Dolls

Shannon Hutton — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:25:35 +0000

My daughters have been given various paper dolls books over the years, but after playing with the paper dolls several times they either get torn, folded or lost. So instead of buying books of paper dolls, I found free printable paper dolls! Now we can just print new paper dolls when they get worn out.

Printable Paper Dolls

Grace Kelly Paper Doll (as shown above)

Florence Nightengale Paper Doll

Vintage Paper Dolls

Six Different Female Dolls with Their Own Wardrobes

Fairy Paper Dolls

Berenstain Bears Paper Dolls

If your kids are really into dolls, check out how to make your own wooden spoon doll!

For more fun free activities, check out these printable coloring pages, printable word puzzles and printable mazes!

Kids Crafts: Make Your Own Doll Out of a Wooden Spoon

Shannon Hutton — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:15:17 +0000

My two older daughters went to a girl scout function last weekend and couldn’t wait to show me the craft they made out of things found in a kitchen.

Close your eyes Mom!

Okay.

Guess what we made out of things found in a kitchen?

Hmmm. Paper bag puppet?

No! A wooden spoon doll!

Huh?

Sure enough they made cute little dolls out of wooden spoons and dish towels. Who knew those kitchen items could be used to make such a cute doll!

What You Need to Make Your Own Wooden Spoon Doll:

Wooden spoon
Small dish towel
Yarn
Scissors
Glue
Fabric flowers
Markers

How to Make Your Own Wooden Spoon Doll:

1. Use markers to draw eyes, nose and a mouth on the rounded side of the wooden spoon.

2. Cut two pieces of yarn the length you want for the doll’s hair.

3. Glue the two pieces of cut yarn to the top edge of the wooden spoon.

4. Twist the small dish towel around the handle of the wooden spoon and secure it by tying another piece of yarn at the top of the dish towel.

5. Insert a small bunch of fabric flowers into the yarn securing the dish towel for the doll’s bouquet.

This wooden spoon doll is simple to make and therefore great to do with a large group of kids. For more simple craft ideas, check out these kids crafts!

Start Christmas Traditions: Make Your Own Advent Calendar

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:05:52 +0000

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is counting the days until Christmas with our advent calendars every year. We hang our felt Santa Claus one on the pantry door, put our wooden box one on the desk in the kitchen and put the Christmas tree one on the piano in the playroom. With three kids, it helps to have three advent calendars! But now that I have a fourth child on the way, I’m on the lookout for another advent calendar. So I looked around and found some clever ways to make your own.

Make Your Own Advent Calendars:

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar

Button Advent Calendar

Felt Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

String of Stockings Advent Calendar

Once you’ve made your advent calendar, you get to find little surprises to put in it! I usually put in candy, quarters, stickers, lip balm, and hair accessories, but then again I have three girls!

If you like the idea having an advent calendar, but aren’t crazy about the idea of making your own, check out these ten great advent calendars for kids.

For more fun Christmas ideas, check out these Christmas crafts!

Thanksgiving Crafts: Paper Bag Turkey

Shannon Hutton — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:31:17 +0000

It’s no secret that I love crafts that can be made from items I have around the house already, like these coffee filter snowflakes and sock puppets. Maybe it’s because I’m lazy, cheap, interested in keeping things simple. Yeah, that’s it! Anyway, here’s a Thanksgiving craft you can make with items you likely have around the house already . . . the paper bag turkey.

What You Need to Make Paper Bag Turkeys:

Small paper bag
Orange, red, yellow and brown construction paper
Scissors
Glue or stapler
Black marker or crayon

How to Make Paper Bag Turkeys:

1. Have your child trace their handprint onto red, orange and yellow construction paper.

2. Cut out the handprints.

3. Cut out the turkey’s head from brown construction paper (see above).

4. Cut out the turkey’s beak from yellow construction paper.

5. Cut out the turkey’s wattle from red construction paper.

6. Glue or staple the turkey’s beak and wattle to the turkey’s head.

7. Use black marker or crayon to add on the turkey’s eyes.

8. Roll down the paper bag half way (see above).

9. Glue or staple the turkey’s head to the front of the paper bag.

10. Glue or staple the handprints to the back of the paper bag to create the turkey’s feathers.

For more fun paper bag crafts, try this turkey hat and owl puppet.

For more handprint crafts, check out handprint turkeys, handprint turkey plates, handprint spiders, and handprint reindeer.

For more Thanksgiving ideas, check out these Thanksgiving crafts and Thanksgiving recipes!

Puppets Out of Paper Bags: Owl

Shannon Hutton — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:01:24 +0000

Each week I take my youngest daughter to story time at the library. The librarian reads stories to the preschoolers, leads a sing along and then demonstrates a simple craft. It’s very well done and my daughter thoroughly enjoys it. So I highly recommend that you take advantage of all the free services your local library has to offer!

This week we made puppets out of paper bags. Since the books were all about owls, we made owl puppets.

What You Need to Make Owl Puppets Out of Paper Bags:

Small paper bag
Yellow, orange and brown construction paper
Glue
Scissors
Black marker or crayon

How to Make Owl Puppets Out of Paper Bags:

1. Cut out two circles from the yellow construction paper for the owl’s eyes.

2. Cut out a small triangle from the orange construction paper for the owl’s beak.

3. Cut a medium sized triangle from the brown construction paper for the owl’s tuft of feathers on top.

4. Glue the eyes, beak and tuft of feathers to the paper bag (as shown above).

5. Use black marker or crayon to add to the owl’s eyes.

For more fun paper bag crafts, try this turkey hat and paper bag turkey. For more ideas for little ones, try these other preschool crafts.

Thanksgiving Crafts: Turkey Hat

Shannon Hutton — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:47:39 +0000

My youngest daughter is obsessed with hats. She wears a different one around the house each day. Some days it’s her winter hat, some days it’s her baseball hat and on some days it’s even her bike helmet! Since she loves wearing things on her head so much, I decided to make a turkey hat for her today.

Here’s What You Need to Make a Turkey Hat:

Brown paper bag
Red, yellow and orange construction paper
Scissors
Glue stick
Black marker

Here’s How to Make a Turkey Hat:

1. Cut a four inch strip from the brown paper bag long enough to fit around your child’s head.

2. Glue the strip of paper bag together to form a headband.

3. Cut a three inch circle from the paper bag for the turkey’s head.

4. Cut a small triangle from the orange construction paper for the turkey’s beak.

5. Cut a small piece from the red construction paper for the turkey’s wattle.

6. Glue the beak and wattle onto the circle to create the turkey’s face.

7. Draw eyes on the turkey’s face with a black marker.

8. Cut a strip from red construction paper that is one inch wide and two inches long and fold it in half.

9. Glue the strip of red construction paper to the back of the turkey’s head to create the turkey’s neck.

10. Glue the other end of the red strip to the front of the headband, thus attaching the turkey’s head.

11. Cut feathers from the red, yellow and orange construction paper.

12. Glue the feathers to the back of headband.

For more paper bag crafts, try this paper bag turkey and owl puppet.

For more Thanksgiving ideas, check out these Thanksgiving crafts and Thanksgiving recipes!

Printable Mad Libs

Shannon Hutton — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:34:52 +0000

I still remember doing Mad Libs as a kid. That’s why I get such a kick out of the fact that my girls love doing them as much as I did! I’m also pleased that with all the high-tech toys for kids these days, and yes my kids have some too, that my girls still find joy in simple paper and pencil activities. So I’ve invested in my share of Mad Libs books for them. But they go through these Mad Libs books so quickly! That’s why I was psyched to find printable Mad Libs. They’re free and just as fun!

If you’re unfamiliar with Mad Libs, they’re a fictional story with various nouns, verbs and adjectives left out. One person holds the Mad Lib and asks another person to provide what is missing from the story. The key is not to give any clues about what the Mad Lib is about. For example, my 10-year-old daughter says to my eight-year-old daughter, “Give me a noun.” Since my eight-year-old has no idea what the Mad Lib is about, she just provides the first noun she thinks of. This continues until all the blanks in the story are filled in. The fun part comes when the person filling in the blanks reads the Mad Lib back to the person who provided the missing nouns, verbs and adjectives. The resulting story is hilarious!

Printable Mad Libs:

A Day at the Zoo

My Trip to Disney World

The First Day of School

Letter from Camp

The Little Mermaid

Sick Note

For more free and fun paper activities, check out these printable word puzzles, printable mazes and printable coloring pages.

Thanksgiving Crafts: Printable Placecards

Shannon Hutton — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:37:47 +0000

While Thanksgiving is a lot about the food and yummy Thanksgiving recipes, in our home it’s also about setting a festive table for our family and friends. So every year we use our handprint turkey plates and handmade woven placemats. I also like using decorative placecards so there’s no confusion over where everyone sits. Last year we made pilgrim placecards, but they got thrown out by mistake. So this year I decided I’m going to use printable placecards! That way if they get thrown out, I can just print more next year now that I have the new Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer from Epson.

This new Epson printer is definitely going to make my holidays and everydays much easier! For example, to make these colorful and festive placecards, all I did was search for “printable Thanksgiving placecards” and quickly found this great link on About.com. I put cardstock into the paper tray, pressed print and voilà . . . professional looking, full color placecards for my Thanksgiving table! Since my girls love to help prepare for Thanksgiving, I’ll have them write everyone’s names on them. Now if cooking the meal were only this easy!

Since Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, thanks One2One Network for introducing me to this new Epson printer!

For more Thanksgiving ideas, check out these Thanksgiving crafts and Thanksgiving recipes!

Printable Mazes for Kids

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:39:33 +0000

My girls love going through corn mazes and this maze made out of garden hedges at our local park. Since they love outdoor mazes so much, I figured I better find some indoor mazes for them to do now that the weather is getting colder. Since I’m not prepared to turn our home into a maze, I looked around and found these great printable mazes instead!

Printable Mazes:

Help the Airplane Find the Airport

Help the Dog Find his Bone

Help the Pirate Ship Find the Treasure

Help the Princess Find the Castle

Help the Fire Engine Put Out the Fire

For more printable fun, check out these printable word puzzles, printable coloring pages and other printable mazes for kids!

Printable Pumpkin Faces: Pumpkin Coloring Pages

Shannon Hutton — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:39:33 +0000

Halloween is just around the corner and my girls are very excited! Even my youngest daughter who went trick or treating today for the first time at the library is getting into the Halloween spirit. But since she’s only one year old, I wanted to find a Halloween activity she could do. That’s what’s so great about these printable pumpkin coloring pages. She can color them and utter her favorite word at the same time . . . pumpkin! Of course, when she says “pumpkin,” it sounds like “punkem.”

Printable Pumpkin Faces:

Traditional Jack-o-Lantern

Pumpkin Face Smiling at a Mouse

Connect the Dots Pumpkin Face

Scarecrow Pumpkin Face

Smiling Pumpkin Face (that looks like Frosty the Snowman)

Pumpkin Face Scaring Woodstock (from Peanuts gang)

Pumpkin Face with Cat

For more pumpkin ideas, check out these painted pumpkin ideas, scary pumpkin stencils, Disney pumpkin carving patterns, paper bag pumpkins, pumpkin stencils, paper plate pumpkins, pumpkin shaped Rice Krispie Treats, and painting pumpkin faces.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes, Pumpkin stencils and Halloween printables!

Halloween Crafts: Painted Pumpkin Ideas

Shannon Hutton — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:49:20 +0000

My girls and I went to Michael’s arts and crafts store last weekend and had the best time decorating pumpkins! Instead of decorating real pumpkins, we decorated “craft pumpkins.” These pumpkins look real, but won’t rot on the front step!

While we were there, we got some great painted pumpkin ideas!

Painted Pumpkin Ideas:

Alien Pumpkin

Piggy Pumpkin

Tinkerbell Pumpkin

Frankenstein Pumpkin

Spider Pumpkin

However, my girls decided to come up with their own ideas on how to paint their pumpkins. I do admire their creativity! My older daughter was inspired by the Wizard of Oz and made this “flying monkey pumpkin.”

While my middle daughter chose to make her pumpkin look like a ghost.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes, Pumpkin stencils and Halloween printables!

Pumpkin Stencils: Scary Pumpkin Stencils

Shannon Hutton — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:00:37 +0000

I have younger children so to date I’ve shared pumpkin stencils that are festive, like these printable Halloween stencils or cute like these Disney pumpkin carving patterns. However, neither of these types of pumpkin stencils are scary. Then it occurred to me that many of you might have kids that like something on the scary side! So I looked around and found these great scary pumpkin stencils.

Scary Pumpkin Stencils:

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes, Pumpkin stencils and Halloween printables!

Halloween Recipes: Broomstick Breadsticks

Shannon Hutton — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:43:02 +0000

My girls love making Halloween recipes like pumpkin shaped Rice Krispie treats, bat cookies, witch hats and caramel apples. And while these Halloween recipes are yummy and great for classroom parties, sometimes I like to make Halloween recipes that don’t involve sugar! That’s why I also like making spider web pizza, hot dog mummies, Ritz cracker spiders, and these witch’s broomstick breadsticks.

Here’s What You Need to Make Broomstick Breadsticks:

8 ounce can of Pillsbury refrigerated garlic breadsticks
1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups marinara sauce

How to Make Broomstick Breadsticks:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.

3. Unroll breadstick dough onto work surface.

4. Cut dough in half crosswise and separate to make 16 strips.

5. Twist dough to resemble a broomstick.

6. Cut two slits in one end of the dough about two inches long and spread this dough apart to make the broom’s bristles.

7. Brush the broomsticks with olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

8. Bake broomsticks 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

9. Serve with warmed marinara sauce.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes and Halloween printables!

Printable Coloring Pages: Fairy Coloring Pages

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:15:54 +0000

My girls believe in fairies! So they love reading about fairies, sprinkling fairy pixie dust around the house, dressing up as fairies and coloring fairies. That’s why I looked around and found these fairy coloring pages. If your kids also like fairies (or you do!) here are some fun fairy coloring pages to decorate.

Fairy Coloring Pages

Dancing Fairy (as shown above)

Fairy Watering Flowers

Fairy Sleeping

Summer Fairy

For more fairy coloring pages, check out these Tinkerbell coloring pages.

For more free things to color, check out these printable coloring pages.

Halloween Printables: More Halloween Printable Coloring Pages

Shannon Hutton — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:58:17 +0000

It’s a cold and rainy afternoon and my kids desperately want to go outside. So I thought I would find some more Halloween coloring pages to keep them busy!

Halloween Printables: Coloring Pages

Ghost Trick or Treating (as seen above)

Halloween Pumpkin Costume (So cute! It reminds me of the pumpkin costume my girls wore.)

For more Halloween printables, check out these Halloween coloring pages and Halloween word searches.

For more printables, check out these other printable coloring pages and printable fill in puzzles.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes and other Halloween printables!

Halloween Recipes: Spider Web Pizza

Shannon Hutton — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:28:34 +0000

We’re definitely in the Halloween spirit around here! Not only is our house decorated with various Halloween crafts like paper bag pumpkins, tissue paper ghosts, paper plate pumpkins, soup can mummies, pipe cleaner spiders, painted pumpkins, and handprint spiders, we’ve been making all sorts of Halloween recipes like hot dog mummies, witch hats made from pie crust and this spider web pizza.

What You Need to Make Spider Web Pizza:

Refrigerated pizza dough
Sliced pepperoni
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can pizza sauce
1/4 cup jarred Alfredo sauce

How to Make Spider Web Pizza:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.

3. Spread pizza dough in the shape of a circle on the cookie sheet.

4. Arrange pepperoni on the pizza dough. (Yes, this comes before the sauce!)

5. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the pepperoni.

6. Pour pizza sauce over the cheese and pepperoni and spread evenly.

7. Pour Alfredo sauce into a small resealable sandwich baggie and seal the bag. Then cut one corner of the baggie off.

8. Squeeze the Alfredo sauce onto the red sauce in concentric circles to resemble a spider web.

9. Arrange the black olives to look like spiders on the web.

10. Bake pizza for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes and Halloween printables!

Pumpkin Stencils: Disney Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:32:06 +0000

It’s no secret that my family and I love Disney. That’s why I share Disney coloring pages on this blog and am thrilled to give away Disney movies like these two on Momsational. Although I consider myself a fan of Disney, I have to admit I was surprised when I found out there were Disney pumpkin carving patterns. Who knew! So although I’ve already posted these printable Halloween stencils, I couldn’t resist sharing others ways to carve your Halloween pumpkins this year . . . Disney style!

Disney Pumpkin Carving Patterns

These Disney pumpkin carving patterns are really easy to use. All you have to do is tape them to the face of your pumpkin and carve. The fact that these Disney pumpkin carving patterns are printable makes them even better! You gotta love Disney! If you’re looking for another way to create your jack-o-lantern, try painting your pumpkins!

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes, Pumpkin stencils and Halloween printables!

Halloween Crafts: Paper Bag Pumpkin

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:21:57 +0000

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know I’m partial to easy Halloween crafts you can make with items you likely have around the house already, like this soup can mummy and paper plate pumpkin. If this is your first time here, welcome and make sure to take a look at these Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes, Halloween printables and Halloween activities that I’ve already shared!

Today I’m going to share another easy Halloween craft made from household stuff, the paper bag pumpkin.

What You Need to Make Paper Bag Pumpkins:

Small paper bag
Newspaper
Markers
Glue
Scissors
Construction paper
Ribbon / Yarn

How to Make Paper Bag Pumpkins:

1. Creat a pumpkin face on one side of the paper bag by using markers and/or construction paper to create two eyes, a nose and a mouth.

2. Stuff the paper bag with crumpled newspaper to fill out the bag.

3. Fold the bag over and glue it closed.

4. Use ribbon and/or yarn to decorate the top of the bag so it looks like a pumpkin head.

This simple Halloween craft is great to make with your kids at home or with a classroom of students!

Halloween Crafts: Soup Can Mummy

Shannon Hutton — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:59:30 +0000

I love doing Halloween crafts with my girls. Not only because we get to spend quality time together, but also because I get great Halloween decorations when we’re done. However, I especially like Halloween crafts that are simple and made from items I have around the house already, like these soup can mummies.

What You Need to Make Soup Can Mummies:

Soup can
Scissors
Black construction paper
Glue
Googly eyes
White gauze

How to Make Soup Can Mummies:

1. Cut black construction paper so it covers the outside of the soup can.

2. Glue the black construction paper to the soup can.

3. Glue the googly eyes to the soup can.

4. Glue the white gauze around the soup can to make it look like a mummy.

I told you it was easy!

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes and Halloween printables!

Halloween Printables: Halloween Word Searches

Shannon Hutton — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:12:44 +0000

I love word games and am so thrilled that my girls do too! While we have a basket overflowing with various word search books, I tend not to buy word search books for specific holidays. That’s why I spent some time today finding some Halloween word searches on the internet. You gotta love free word searches!

Halloween Word Searches:

Halloween Trick or Treat Word Search

Haunted Halloween Word Search

Halloween Word Search with Pictures of the Words to be Found

Easy Halloween Word Search

Challenging Halloween Word Search

For other paper activities, check out these Halloween coloring pages and other word search puzzles.

For more Halloween ideas, check out these Halloween activities, Halloween crafts, Halloween recipes and Halloween printables!