D-I-Y Stay at Home Fun
For more info and other kid friendly ideas go to www.celebrateeveryday.tv
As featured on GOOD DAY NY Monday, February 14th around 9:40 AM EST
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/fun-kid-crafts-100215
Activities
AGES:
3-5
Indoor Picnic Puppet Theatre
Items needed for picnic:
Picnic blanket, old sheet or large towel
Snack items: Popcorn, Annie’s bunnies, carrot sticks and veggie dip, homemade cookies and Zen Soy pudding www.zensoy.com
Recycled utensils/plates/cups
Puppet Show Items:
Socks
Paper bags
Construction paper
Yarn
Self-adhesive Googley eyes
Glue
Scissors
Inspiration:
You will need a few books. Use a book about Presidents or story from one of your favorite bedtime books. Since it is President’s Day we decided to take a trip thru history and make Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln puppets.
Make the puppets together with the stories in mind. Create characters that your kids really enjoy reading about. Have the puppets act out a story line in the book.
Serve snacks at this festive, indoor picnic show hosted in your own living room!
6-8
Hands on activities
Make your own hot chocolate stand-indoors
Using boxes or pre-made stand from cardboard design www.cardboarddesign.com you can create your very own hot chocolate stand.
Items needed:
Stickers
(We used dot stickers from www.giggle.com)
Acrylic Paint
Brushes
Cardboard boxes or design from Cardboard design
Hot chocolate
Cups/mugs
Fake money and a shoebox cash register
How to Make A Recycled Shoe Box Cash Register
Paint the shoebox desired color, and let dry or cover with a large sheet of construction paper found at www.Michaels.com
If covering with construction paper, use a ruler and pencil, measure and trace a gray piece of paper to fit the sides, top and bottom of the box. Use a piece of card stock and create a triangle to fit on top of the shoe box. Attach with double stick tape. Cut out the cash register numbers by tracing a circle. (Use the bottom of a small glass to trace perfect circles). Write in your numbers 0-9 and glue onto the box.
Cut letters to spell cash register from magazines and glue to these letters next to the opening of the shoebox
Use crayons to draw dollar signs on the top center of the shoebox.
For this activity kids can learn about the exchange of goods and services and denominations of money.
Activities 9-12
Science experiment--LED Flowers
Compliments of Sony Wonder Lab
http://wondertechlab.sony.com/
Items needed (found at hardware store)
High intensity LEDs (one per project)
6-8 fiber plastic cable (mimcs fiber optics) shrink tubed to each LED
Colored cellophane sheets
Scotch tape
3V battery holder and connector
Wire strippers and wire cutters
Pipe cleaners (preferably green)
Scissors
Plastic cups with precut hole in center of bottom base
Electrical tape
Begin project by having kids choose which color flowers they’d like to make. Cut 8x 10 sheet in half-length wise into 4x5 sheets. Fold 4x5 sheets in 4 and snip the corner edge to reveal a hole in the center when the cellophane is unfolded. Children may also opt to add leave on the base using the same process with green cellophane.
Explain the structure of the LED/ fiber optic assembly. LEDs are an energy efficient and “green” light source lasting infinitely longer than incandescent light and requiring far less energy to power. Electricity in an LED flows from the anode (positive end) to the cathode (negative end)- the longer leg of the LED is usually the anode making the shorter leg the cathode. You can use this configuration to connect the power source accurately. Red wire is anode while black is cathode.
Have kids carefully slip LEDs into the hole at the base of the cup. LED leads should be positioned straight down neatly so as to slide easily into the hole. Put the cup aside.
Have kids take a wire stripper to strip the battery connector wires and wind them around the appropriate legs of the LED. Before wrapping ensure the LED leads are spread far apart from each other and that the battery wires are not touching- or the circuit may short and burn out the LED. Make sure kids work neatly and carefully here as the LED leads can snap off easily if they are bent back and forth too frequently.
Give each kid 2 AA batteries and have them insert them into the battery holder. Be sure they follow the indications for positive and negative terminal placement.
Connect the battery holder to the LED to see if it works and the light turns on. If there are issues- check to make sure the connection is correct and that the wires are making good contact with the LED leads. Sometimes the wires are marked incorrectly on the battery connectors so try switching the connections. Other issues may be that the batteries are dead or improperly placed in holder. Also damage may have occurred to the LED leads or the LED itself may have shorted or malfunctioned.
Once the LED is connected and lit properly- tape the battery holder with the connector side facing down to the inside of the cup using electrical tape. Cover the base of the cup with a piece of cardboard or poster board cut in a circle and tape to the sides of the cup.
After the base is properly positioned you may want to wind a piece of pipe cleaner around the base to keep the fiber optics from falling over. Tape can also be used in place of pipe cleaners. If leaves are desired thread them through the top of the fiber optic cables to the base and then wind pipe cleaners around to hold them in place.
Now to make the flowers- choose two fiber optic threads and slip the cellophane pieces over to the desired spot. Have some scotch tape strips ready and tape the base of the cellophane to the fiber optics. Cellophane can be folded any way desired. Repeat for all fiber optic cables using 2 per flower.
The final step is to clip the ends of the fiber optics per flower. One suggestion is to make them varying lengths. Kids can also take their scissors and gently press the cables in varying spots (without fully cutting them) to allow light to pass. In essence this is “damaging” the cable allowing light to escape before it reaches the tip. TIP: When cutting tips of cable- try to create a clean flat cut (no angles) so light passes through easily.