Felt Activities

   One thing my kids love to play with is felt boards. A couple of years ago, we were going to go on a 10 hour drive to my aunts house for vacation. Having three small boys, we needed ideas of how to keep them occupied so we would all survive the long drive. I started looking up ideas, and found someone that had done felt boards for their kids. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so I made some. They were a huge hit and the boys still play with them to this day. They are great for those days when you just need a little bit of quiet time.

   To begin, I searched online for a template of what I wanted to make. This time, I wanted to make a gumball machine to help my three year old count.

   You can either cut out the pieces of the template to trace, free hand it, or do what I do and tape the paper to a window so you can see through the felt and trace it that way.

   Once you have it all traced out, cut out the pieces. If you want to sew or glue them together, make sure you leave extra around your cut outs. For example, the white piece can be a complete circle and then sew or glue the red pieces onto it. I decided making the machine could be part of the fun.

   You now have a gumball machine.

   To make the gumballs, pick out the colors you'd like to use. I wanted to make twenty gumballs so I grabbed five colors. Scraps of felt are perfect for this part.

   Decide how big you want the gumballs. I used a soda lid to trace the circles.

   Cut out all of your gumballs

   Next, I printed off the numbers on a piece of card stock. This will help the numbers be a little more sturdy.

   Cut out out all of your numbers. If you have a straight edge cutter, it makes this job a lot easier.

   To get the numbers to stick, hot glue the numbers onto another piece of felt. The color doesn't really matter since you won't see it anyway. Be careful when doing this, hot glue on fingers is rather painful! Once they are all glued on, cut around the edges of the card stock.

   You now have a felt gumball machine to help with counting!

   Some other ideas you can do are:

   You can make a little city or even just a road with some cars. Cut out strips of black, add some yellow lines (I glued mine on for ease of play) and cut out however many different cars and trucks you'd like.

   My kids used to be really into potato heads. Cut out some brown potato shapes and then use your imagination.

   I don't know about your kids, but my oldest LOVES anything space right now. That includes Star Trek. So this summer, on a day when there was "nothing to do", I decided I would make him some new felt cutouts. He was beside himself with excitement. These didn't take too long to do and you can make them as detailed as you'd like. I cut him out a yellow circle he could use as either the sun or a planet and a couple of red circles. I added a little touch to the red circles so they would look a little more planet like.

   And lastly, don't forget about games. Tic Tac Toe is a great game for kids. It's easy to learn and not hard to make. Just cut out four strips and a few squares in two different colors. Now you have a game for on the go.

   Felt activities are a lot of fun and you can take them anywhere! They are pretty easy to make depending on how detailed you want to get. The boards we made for in the car was just a piece of felt taped to some cardboard. You can get as fancy as you want with making a board. Sometimes my kids just play with them on the table without any felt under it at all. Use your imagination and most importantly, have fun with it!

Melted Crayon Art

   A week or so ago, I decided I wanted to try out some melted crayon art. I don't own a hair dryer to do the one that drips down so I was trying to find a different way. I found a post on Pinterest about shredding a crayon and using an iron to melt it. I didn't really like the way it turned out. I looked into it more and found out they were ironing it like you would clothes, but if you held the iron still, it wouldn't make it a big mess of mixed crayon. I decided to give it a try. I had read that they used a cheese grater to shred the crayon. All I accomplished by trying it that way was coloring on my cheese grater. I grabbed a sharp knife and carefully got to work.

This is about two crayons each. You may need a couple boxes depending on what you are making.

   I grabbed a piece of card stock, hoping it would hold up better than regular paper.

   I decided I wanted to try out a Batman logo. I printed one off of the internet and carefully cut it out.

   I figured it would be easiest to start on the inside and work your way out. I placed the cut out logo on the paper.

   Carefully fill it in. One nice thing about doing it this way is you can gently push the crayon that landed on the template into the middle to help keep it nice and clean.

   Carefully lift the paper and touch up the outline.

   Next, I used the piece I had cut out to cover the black crayon to help keep the yellow from mixing in. I just shaped this on my own. It wasn't too hard since it's an oval.

   I thought it might look cool to add the mixture of the two colors around the outside.

   Very carefully remove the paper from the logo. I did end up getting a couple bits of yellow mixed in with my black. I used a toothpick to very carefully pick out the yellow.

   Tape down some wax paper over the top of your art work. Put your iron on the lowest setting and very carefully melt the crayon.

  

   Here is my finished work. Not bad for a first time, but can still use a little bit of improvement.

   Some tips that might help:

   Make sure your crayon is the same thickness throughout the work. The middle was much thicker than the outside. This made it so it wouldn't melt evenly.

   It doesn't look cool to add a mixture of the two colors around the outside. It would have looked a lot better if that mess around the edge was just yellow. It would actually look pretty cool.

    Hold the iron flat and don't move it around. Don't even put it on the paper. Just hold it above the paper. It gets plenty hot to do it that way.

   When you are letting it cool, place something over it or on the edges of the paper. It will curl and if you try and flatten it back out, the crayon will crack. I had mine curl so I placed it on a cookie sheet out in the sun. It melted back down again pretty quick. This might also be a good way to melt it without an iron. Just make sure you watch it, once it starts melting, it goes fast!

   Other than that, have fun with it! If you are doing it with children, make sure you watch them closely. I recommend not letting them shred the crayon or use the iron unless they are old enough to do it safely. When I was looking at different ways to do this project, I saw one where they let their kids use a pencil sharpener to help get the crayons ready. This might be a good alternative.

   If you give this craft a try, I would love to see what you come up with as well! I'm already trying to decide what I want to do next.

   Happy crafting!

Spot It! is Spot On...

Imagine this--you walk into a room to see a family of all ages staring intently at a table.  It is so quiet you can hear the refrigerator running  or possibly, the sound of heavy concentration.  Beads of sweat drip from your 4 year old's brow as she narrows her eyes in fierce anticipation! ALL the kids are quiet (and NOT because they are in trouble). Then all of a sudden 3 arms fly out and yell out nonsense like "Dinosaur, Cat, Question Mark."  You see a pile of hands gathered in the middle of the table--no one willing to give up their spot. It is like two football teams trying to retrieve the ball after a fumble.  After some tugging and pulling,  you untwist the hands, to find whose is on the bottom.  Everyone smiles and congratulates the winner (for the most part) and gears up for the next round.  That is what a game of Spot It! looks like and everyone in your family will enjoy it.   It says that it is made for Ages 7 and up but my 4 year old had no problem learning to play it . In fact, she can even beat me! My nine year old daughter describes this game as “INTENSE I-spy."  I asked my 7 year old boy if he like this game and he responded, "I don't like it, I LOVE it!"  Also, up to 8 people can play at a time.  So let's teach you how to play it so you can have an evening of intense fun!!!

Spot It! comes in a small circular tin about 3 inches in diameter.  I love this because it means it can be stored easily and taken places (think car trips, waiting rooms, and family vacations). Hooray for any activity that keeps troublemakers, I mean,  impatient hands busy! The tin contains 55 cards and an instruction booklet. 

The goal of this game is to “spot” the matching symbols on two different cards.  Every card has 8 symbols on it.  Each card shares one symbol with one other card.  The matching symbols are the same shape and same color but the size may differ.   On the two cards below, you will find a green question mark.  These cards have a match.  If the cards both had green questions marks but one is large and one is small, they are still considered a match.  That is what makes it tricky to spot a match!

The Spot It! Instruction booklet contains 5 mini-games that you can play.  Try them all and choose what you like.  Our family has even been known to create our own. The best part of each of these games is that they only take 1-2 minutes to play!  This fast paced game keeps everyone’s attention! Today, I will tell you about my family's three favorite mini games and a version we imagined up ourselves. I have set each of these games up to be played for 4 people but remember, up to 8 can play!

Mini game 1: The Tower

Deal one face down card to each player and place the remaining pile of cards on face-up in the the center of the table.  These remaining cards are the draw pile.   

The object of this mini game is to collect the most cards.  Every player should flip their card over at the same time.  We do this by saying, “Ready, Set, FLIP!”  Of course, the kids love to yell this as loud as possible! Once the card is flipped, it becomes the first card in each players personal pile.  Each player tries to find a match between the top card of his or her personal pile and the one in the draw pile. Remember, shape and color will be the same but the size may differ. If a match is found, the player must call out the name of the matched item. 

For example, if the player found an igloo on his/her card AND the card in the center, the player would say “Igloo.”     Here is the close-up so you can see the matching igloos.

The player would then take the top card of the draw pile and add it to his or her personal pile.  The only time a card is removed from the draw pile is when it matches the top card of a personal pile.  When that player takes the card on the draw pile, a new card is revealed. The game continues as each player tries to match the card on the top of his or her personal pile with the one in the draw pile. The person with the most cards wins! 

Younger children may have trouble calling out a few of the symbols because some are words like ART or STOP. Art is always green so my 4 year old calls it  “the green word” and we accept that.  

Mini Game 2: The Well

This is like the Tower in reverse.  Put one card face-up in the center of the table.  Deal the rest of the cards facing down to the other players. This is each player's personal pile.   Depending on the amount of players, this can result in an uneven amount of cards being dealt to the players.  To make it fair, I just make sure everyone receives the same amount because the object of this game is to get rid of all your cards first. 

We begin the game by shouting, "Ready, Set, Flip" and all players flip their entire personal pile over so all cards are facing up.  The first player to spot the same symbol on the top card of his or her personal pile AND the card in the middle, calls out that symbol's name.  Then the player removes the card from his or her  personal pile and places it in the middle on top of the previous card.  Now all the players try to match the new top card with the one on top of their personal pile.  The first player to use all his or her cards is the winner.  We usually go until only one person has cards left so we can award 2nd or 3rd place as well.  My 4 year old does pretty well at this game but is always beat by her 9 year old sister.  When we play for 2nd or 3rd, the 4 year old loves it  because she gets to be a winner too.  The best part of this mini-game is the smile it puts on my spunky 4 year old's face! 

In this version of Spot It!, you could institute a handicap to level the playing field when you are playing with multiple age groups.  If older children and adults are playing, they could start with more cards than children 5 and under.

Mini Game 3:  Hot Potato

First, deal one face-down card to each player.  Place the remaining cards off to the side for later.  This version is played in rounds.  The object of the game is to have the least amount of cards after all the rounds have been played.  Everybody flips over their one card and holds it face-up in the palm of their hands.  Since I have a 4 year old with little hands, we just set one card in front of each player.

Each player tries to find a match for his card in another player's hand.  If a match is found, the player calls out the match's name and places the card on top of the matching player's card.  For example in game of 4, player 1 finds a matching ladybug in player 3's hand.  He yells, "Ladybug" and places the card on top of player 3.  Player 1 waits for the round to finish.
  

Now let's say player 2 finds a match for his top card in the hand of player 4.   He then places both his cards on top of that match.  Player 4 now has to use whatever card is on top to find a match on the remaining player's card.

This continues until only one person has ALL the cards. The person with all the cards saves them in his personal pile and sets them aside.  Repeat with 5 or more rounds.  Tally up each persons' cards and the person with the least cards in his personal pile wins.  I like this version of the game because it plays to different player's strengths.  My 7 year old is usually the best at this one and he loves the chance to beat his older sister. 

There are two more mini-games included in the instruction booklet.  Try them out and tell me how you like them.  They are tons of fun too. There is one last version I'd like to tell you about.

Smack Down!

One of the best parts of Spot It! is that you can also make up your own games.  You won't find Smack Down!  in the instruction booklet because my family made it up.  It is similar to Slapjack. The oldest person plays the dealer first.  The dealer draws one card and chooses any symbol on that card.  

For this example, let's say he chooses the Dragon.  The dealer will continue to draw cards, placing them on top of the first.  When another players sees a card with the Dragon, he or she smacks it and yells "Dragon Smack Down."  He or she then takes all of the cards and places them in his or her personal pile and is the winner of that round.  This may or may not be accompanied by a victory dance and some gloating.  The winner of each round becomes the dealer;  the dealer does not try to smack the symbol and only deals out the cards.   This continues until all the cards in the draw pile are gone. The person with most cards is the winner.  

If you haven't noticed, I really love this game because it is so full of possibilities.  Here are a few more ideas I have on how to use this versatile game:

• Give a child a card and ask him to write a story and draw a picture using EVERY picture on the card.  (Say hello to creativity and laughter!)
•  Give each child several cards and a piece of graph paper.  Ask them to create a bar graph on the graph paper representing some of the symbols.  
• Have a group of 4 or more sit in a circle.  Draw one card and choose a symbol.  Start a story using that symbol. Pass the card to the next person and he or she must choose a different symbol on the same card and add to the first person's story.  Continue around the circle until everyone has had a turn and ALL the symbols have become part of the story. 

I could go on for hours about all the wonderful possibilities found in a tin of Spot It!  If you like this game, keep in mind there are lots of versions available (Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes, Major League Baseball, Splash).  To find out about these versions, go to Blueorange Games.  Now that I have played the original, I can't wait to try the other versions as well.