Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

Free Travel Games, Arts, & Crafts!

July 16th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Saturday, July 16, 2011 and time for Electives at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Artists Helping Children: Travel Games & Activities

ClickScholar Chris in Virginia shared this website where you’ll find an assortment of free travel games and much more!

When you get to the site, scroll down the page to find suggestions for fun ways to spend time while traveling on long car rides or trips on a bus, train, or plane including:

  • Name That Song
  • Animal Counting Game
  • I’m Going On A Trip And I’m Bringing…
  • Funny Story Telling Game
  • Funny Poem Game
  • Spelling Bee Contest
  • Guess The Number
  • Alliteration Words Game
  • Colors Matching Game
  • Car Color Game
  • 20 Questions
  • Rock, Paper, Scissors

Then, explore the rest of the site where you’ll find free arts and crafts indexed by theme, holiday, or alphabetically and other activities and resources such as paper folding, drawing lessons, and coloring pages.

By the way, if you enjoy fun educational travel games, you’ll love my book, Carschooling: Over 350 Entertaining Games & Activities To Turn Travel Time Into Learning Time!

Fun Cinco De Mayo History, Lessons, & Activities!

May 5th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Thursday, May 5, 2011 and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Websites:
See Below

Age Range: All (varies depending on site; with parental guidance)

It’s Cinco de Mayo! The fifth of May marks the Mexican army victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, and represents Mexican independence from foreign intervention. I thought it would be fun to provide you with a fiesta of websites across the curriculum that celebrate Cinco De Mayo including the history of the festival, arts and crafts, Spanish lessons, math activities, mariachi music, recipes, and more.

*Mexico For Kids

This is an incredible website designed by a teacher, providing history of Mexico, stories in Spanish, how to count to 10 in Spanish, word searches and puzzles in Spanish, suggested reading about Mexico, a map of Mexico and much more.

*History of Cinco de Mayo

Review or print out a very brief history of the festival.

*Cinco de Mayo: History Channel Video Presentation

The History Channel website offers videos about the Aztecs, Montezuma, Cortez, Mesoamerican pyramids, the Cinco de Mayo festival, and an archive of articles about every aspect of Mexican history and culture.

*Cinco de Mayo Paper Dolls

Print and cut out Paper Dolls in costumes worn by Cinco de Mayo revelers.

*Cinco de Mayo Mariachi Music

Get into the spirit of celebration by listening to authentic mariachi music.

*Cinco de Mayo Recipes

Learn to make Menudo, sopes, and more!

*Cinco de Mayo Piñata

Learn the history of the Piñata get instructions on how to make a piñata.

*Cinco de Mayo Math

This website offers a thematic math lesson based on Cinco de Mayo designed for classroom use that can be “tweaked” for homeschools.

*Free Spanish Lessons

Cinco de Mayo is a great time to start Spanish lessons and at this website you can take free Spanish tutorials!

 

Science with Goos, Doughs, Clays, & Compounds!

April 19th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Tuesday, April 19, 2011 and time for Science at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
100+ Goo Recipes

Age Range:  All (with parental supervision)

One of the greatest ways to introduce kids to science is through experiments that involve mixing things together to create something new, interesting, odd, strange, weird and fun!

There are no bells and whistles at this website, just a simple archive of over 100 recipes for concoctions like slime, play dough, silly putty, and more. (Sometimes, simplicity is so refreshing, isn’t it?)

When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of recipes divided into categories that include:

*Dough’s – Get recipes for play doughs made from flour, coffee, cornmeal, oatmeal, peanut butter, and more!

*Clay, Goo & other Compounds – Make chocolate clay, clean mud, and the popular non-Newtonian solid using cornstarch and water. Make clay from dryer lint and Kool-Aid, make GAK (using borax and Elmer’s glue), get recipes for sand clay, silly putty, and slime!

*Papier-mâché – Use dryer lint, strips of paper, and pastes of all textures to create imaginative designs.
 
*Paints, Dyes and Crayons – Learn to make your own chalk, bubble solution, make-up, clown paint, bath paint, finger paint, egg yolk paint, puffy paint, salt paint, and pudding paint. You’ll even find instructions for coloring rice and pasta.
 
*Bubbles, Chalk , Stamps, Make-up – Get recipes for all kinds of bubble solutions, make sidewalk chalk, and create your own fruit-flavored stamps.

*Art, Activities, Gifts – Try your hand at candle-making, make salt sculptures, preserve flowers, make ornaments and bath salts.

Click on any one to get the instructions. Then, your kids can mix potions (just like real chemists!) and make fun substances that they can use for open-ended play or to use in arts and crafts projects. Great fun!

 

Peeps Factory Tour & Peeps Curriculum!

April 15th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Friday, April 15, 2010 and time for a Virtual Field Trip at ClickSchooling!
 
Recommended Website:
Just Born Candy

Age Range:  5-18 (Age range varies depending on the website. Parents should preview the sites and supervise use.)

Marshmallow Peeps are everywhere this time of year.  Ever wonder how they’re made?  At this website you can take a virtual tour through text and photographs of how this traditional Easter-basket candy confection is manufactured. (Not only that, you can also find out how Hot Tamales, Mike & Ike, and Zours are made.) 
 
While the tour is offered by the company that makes Peeps, you’ll find better photos of the Peep manufacturing process by CLICKING HERE.

Now for those of you who wonder how Peeps can be educational, what follows is ClickSchooling’s Original Peeps Curriculum for your enjoyment. These links take you to the original ClickSchooling reviews with links to the “curriculum” content. A couple of the links within the reviews are no longer working. (Bummer!) However, the slight disappointment of clicking on a rotten link, will soon be forgotten when you click on all of the good ones!

ClickSchooling’s Original Peeps Curriculum

Note: Parents, as always, should preview all of the websites to determine suitability of content and supervise use of the Internet.

*Peeps Math – Includes Peeps-themed math lessons for grades K-8 and a recipe for making your own home-made version of Peeps.

*http://clickschooling.com/2006/04/marshmallow-peeps-science/“>Peeps Science – These websites document science experiments conducted on Peeps — some of which may inspire your own Peeps experimentation. The studies focused on basic attributes and reactions of Peeps to simple conditions and stimuli.

*Peeps Language Arts – Watch a creative retelling of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in a photo-illustration using Peeps as the characters.

*Peeps Social Sciences – Enjoy a Peeps travelogue and watch the amazing and funny results when you tell your co-workers that you don’t like Peeps. You can also test your knowledge of the history of Peeps by taking an online quiz.

*Peeps Art – The fist link here on “How to Draw a Marshmallow Peep” is no longer viable – so don’t bother clicking on it. But you can still get instructions for making an incredible, edible Peeps necklace -and you can view a Peeps art gallery!

See?  You can get an education without textbooks!   

St. Patrick’s Day Arts, Crafts, & Activities

March 12th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Saturday, March 12, 2011 and time for Art at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
DLTK: St. Patrick’s Day Activities

Age Range:  All (Something for everyone here, with parental guidance.)

This terrific website offers all kinds of free artistic ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  When you get to the website you’ll see a menu that includes:

  • Coloring Pages
  • Crafts – Themed around leprechauns, rainbows, shamrocks, and more!
  • Poems, Songs, Printables, Recipes, and Worksheets!

And don’t miss DLTK’s…

Ireland Activities

A treasure trove of Ireland-themed arts, crafts, and activities including:

  • Historical and Cultural Information
  • Coloring pages of maps and flags
  • Folklore coloring pages including faeries, banshees, etc.
  • Irish Recipes

Want more?

Valentine Art, Crafts, Recipes, & Games!

February 5th, 2011

Hi! It’s Saturday, February 5, 2011 and time for Art at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
AmazingMoms.com: Valentines

Age Range: All  (There are craft activities for all ages. Parental supervision required.)

Valentine’s Day is February 14th. Celebrate by decorating the house with Valentine-themed arts and crafts or bake a special chocolate treat for your sweetie or semi-sweetie. At this ad-supported website you’ll find instructions and illustrations for making:

*Valentine’s Day Crafts – Make a cute and crafty love bug, a valentine mobile, a valentine sachet, a CD valentine, or a woven paper heart.

*Valentine’s Day Recipes – Make a “Box of Chocolates” cake, a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake, Cherry Mousse, or Message Heart Cupcakes.

*Valentine’s Day Party Guide – Plan a Valentine party with these suggestions for decorations, treats, and fun Valentine’s Day games!

*Quick Tips to a Sweet Valentine’s Day – Don’t have time for crafts and recipes?  Try these simple and inexpensive ideas you can do in a jiffy to make the day more meaningful for your whole family!

Note:  This is an ad-supported website, so parents please preview and supervise use.

Enjoy!

 

Diane Flynn Keith
for ClickSchooling
http://www.ClickSchooling.com