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Happy Talk Springtime Pack (4 - 8 years).pdf

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It's game time! Use these free, printable game boards to make a game out of ANY subject!

Find more of our learning games HERE!

Printable Game Boards - for ANY Subject!

Whether it's summer break, Christmas break, or you're stuck at home because of a contagious virus that's taken the world by storm, you're sure to find a game or two you can play with these free, printable game boards. {Recommended for 2-4 players.}
You may need:
1. A stack of sight word flashcards, math flashcards, a list of states & capitals, or something from your own subject of choice.

2. One die {for shorter boards} or two dice {for longer boards}.

3. A small marker or manipulative for each player.
There are MANY ways you can play.
One idea is to use a stack of flashcards. For example, if you're playing with sight word flashcards, Player 1 picks up the top card and reads it out loud. If he/she is successful, Player 1 rolls the die and moves that many spaces on the game board. Player 2 does the same thing.

If you have players of multiple ages and skill levels, let each player have their own stack of cards. When it's their turn, they pull a card from their own stack instead of sharing a single stack of cards.

Or you can ditch the flashcards and dice to do your own thing! You could even write your own problems in the blanks on the game board of your choice. That's the beauty of these printable game boards.

The player who gets to "End" first is the winner. Note that on each game board, there are some special spaces that either allow players to go again, move forward, or move back a space.
The game boards come in TWO Levels!
1. FIVE shorter game boards, with 13-20 spaces. This is good for younger kids who may not have a long attention span. I recommend only using one die with these games.

2. FIVE longer game boards, with 30+ spaces. These may work better for older kids. If you choose to use dice, go with two {or even three}!

3. Psst! They also come in blackline so save on ink.
Grab the FREE Printable Game Boards below & ENJOY! Check out our at-home learning serie s:
Enjoy playing & learning together!
~Becky

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Printable Game Boards for ANY Subject - This Reading Mama

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It's game time! Use these free, printable game boards to make a game out of ANY subject! Find more of our learning games HERE! Whether it's summer break, Christmas break, or you're stuck at home because of a contagious virus that's taken the world by storm, you're sure to find a game or two you can play with these free, printable game boards.

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Hi Twitter.  Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’  View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda

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Hi Twitter.  Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’  View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda https://t.co/qCngKPAVhb

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Hi Twitter. Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’ View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda pic.twitter.com/qCngKPAVhb
— Darrell Wakelam (@DarrellWakelam) April 20, 2020

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Hi Twitter.  Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’  View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda https://t.co/qCngKPAVhb

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Hi Twitter.  Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’  View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda https://t.co/qCngKPAVhb

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Hi Twitter.  Number 25 of my free #Lockdown art ideas is ‘Paper Plate Baby Shark!’  View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart. Please RT those you like, then more children will get to enjoy them too. #Homeschooling @SWprimaryHT @ffarry1 @AinedeFaoite @aini_butt @ChrisRhoda

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Virtual Visitors! This is so much fun. Lots of animals to visit your home.

1. Google an animal

2. Press view in 3D

3. Allow google to access

4. Experiment.

Tip make sure you have sound on for extra fun!!

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GAA JERSEY DESIGN CHALLENGE

Download a free GAA Jersey template and create your very own personalised kit for either your local club or country team.

And while you're at it why don't you have a go a designing your own version of your club or county crest.

This is one for any age, young and old.

*Yes that is David Clifford. Put the man himself in your local teams kit.

Click the download link below and print it off at home.

Check out some of the brilliant pieces of GAA Art created by kids and adults around Ireland.

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Jersey Design Challenge | damienquinndraws

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GAA JERSEY DESIGN CHALLENGE Download a free GAA Jersey template and create your very own personalised kit for either your local club or country team. And while you're at it why don't you have a go a designing your own version of your club or county crest.

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If you're on the lookout for a simple, fun kids' science activity, you're in the right spot! This water cycle in a bag is a quick prep activity with a BIG payoff - my boys watched the water do its thing for days.

Follow the simple step-by-step below and then grab 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat (plus a no prep science journal to keep track of their results!) in our shop!

Getting Ready

I grabbed a Ziploc sandwich bag from our pantry and used a black Sharpie to draw a sun, cloud and water.

Then, I filled a small measuring cup with 1/4 cup of water and pulled out our blue food coloring.

Water Cycle in a Bag

Big Brother carefully unscrewed the lid to the food coloring and squeezed four big drops into the water.

Then, Middle Brother slowly poured the now blue water into the Ziploc while Big Brother held it open for him.

Big Brother ran his fingers along the seal several times to make sure it was closed tight and then passed the bag over to me so that I could give it a double check.

When I was certain that it wouldn't leak, we used tape to hang the bag on the window and then sat back and watched it work.

The Science Behind It

Since the Earth has a limited amount of water, it has to change around and around in something called the water cycle.

Over the next few days, the boys saw the water warm in the sunlight and evaporate into vapor.

As that vapor cooled, it began changing back into liquid ( condensed) just like a cloud.

And when enough water condensed, the air couldn't hold it anymore and the water fell down in the form of precipitation.

In the real water cycle, rain, sleet or snow might land in a body of water like a river or ocean. But it also might fall on dirt where it soaks into the soil and either becomes ground water that animals and plants drink or it runs over the soil and falls into rivers, oceans or lakes {aka collection}.

More Simple Science Kids Will Love

Inspire kids to LOVE science with 30 more jaw dropping experiments (plus a no prep science journal to keep track of their results!) !

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If you're on the lookout for a simple, fun kids' science activity, you're in the right spot! This water cycle in a bag is a quick prep activity with a BIG payoff - my boys watched the water do its thing for days.

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We love working with papier mache and upcycled newspapers. Paper Clay though technically a papier mache is a different Paper Mache Technique and super fun to work with.

Homemade Paper Clay uses the same ingredients as a papier mache paste recipe, but you will need a blender as well! For a "whiter" clay finish, you can also use toilet paper and glue. But I prefer the shredded paper version as it is more eco friendly.

Did you know that shredded paper can NOT be recycled? Most paper recycling plants can't "handle" shredded paper as it is too small or clogs up the machines. So these shredded paper uses are great for eco friendly person!

DIY Paper Clay video

You can either watch out paper clay video tutorial or follow the step by step photo directions!

Step by Step Photo Directions

Step 1 DIY Paper Clay - Gather your suppliers

shredded paper or newspaper cut into pieces

large bowl

hot water

flour - 1 part flour to 4 parts pulp

salt

a hand blender or mixer

Step 2 Make Shredded Paper or cut up newspapers

Begin by shredding all your paper. Using stredded paper is a wonderful upcycling technique. Did you know that many recycling plant can NOT process shredded paper? It falls through the machinery gaps and clogs it up. So if you have paper to shredd.. this is a great way to use it up. We have more great shredded paper uses for you to explore as well!

Step 3 Fill a Bowl with Paper & Hot Water

Mix the water and shredded paper up throughly and make sure it is fully covered and able to saturate the shredded paper.

Step 4 Leave overnight (or for a few hours)

Your mixture won't look much different the next day.. but the paper should now be softer and ready for hand blending!

Step 5 Blend with a hand blender or similar

A hand blender is great or you can use an electrix mixer as well. Please ask for permission first and also make sure it doesn't overheat! Pulp up the paper with the blender until it is broken down completely.

Step 6 Squeeze out excess water

Step 7 Add some flour and salt

Step 8 Store in an air tight container

This will store in an air tight container in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
NOTE: because we use flour and not glue, their is a unique smell to this DIY paper clay. But it is an organic, natural smell.. once you have painted your work and once it is fully dry it will pass. You CAN use glue as mentioned... however, the natural aspect is SO much better!
DIY Paper Clay Video Tutorial

Watch our simple and oh so easy to follow How to make Paper Clay video tutorial. As mentioned previosuly we prefer our method of using shredded paper and flour (vs toilet paper and glue) as it is true upcycling and eco friendly (flour is better than glue for the environment!).

We have used this paper clay to make:

Fruity Summer Bowls - great for young kids as they only need to mould the pulp into a bowl!

Fun Paper Clay Pencil Toppers.

We have so many more fabulous Papier Mache Techniques for you to explore and be inspired by!

More ideas for Shredded Paper:

You can also watch our Paper Clay video tutorial on YouTube

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We love working with papier mache and upcycled newspapers. Paper Clay though technically a papier mache is a different Paper Mache Technique and super fun to work with. Homemade Paper Clay uses the same ingredients as a papier mache paste recipe, but you will need a blender as well!

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Here's a collection of 15 fun games to play with a deck of cards! These are card games that kids can learn and families can play together.
One thing to keep in mind about card games is that many games are called by several different names. So you may get partway through the rules on any of these and realize that you know that game by another name. It's just kind of how it goes with card games!

How to Play California Speed from It's Always Autumn. This is a two player game.

Here's how to play Kings in the Corner - looks like an interesting game!

How to Play Spoons from Coffee Cups and Crayons. You have to try this one!

Go Fish is another great classic game for kids. There are lots of Go Fish card sets, but here's How to Play Go Fish with a deck of cards.

And another classic - how to play War!

How to Play Hearts - this is a good game to start with amongst the trick-taking games.

Spades is another classic trick-taking game.

How to Play Three Thirteen - this game has several rounds, and the wild card changes every time so you have to pay attention! Fun for a wide range of ages.

How to Play Golf - I had not heard of this one, but it looks good!

The Bicycle Cards website has instructions for how to play rummy.

When I was growing up, we used to play Push Rummy, which is a fun variation on the basic rummy game.

Nerts is another fun and fast-paced card game! I love this one because there is no waiting for turns. Everyone plays all the time! In my opinion, the game works best with two teams of two (four players). Each team needs their own deck of cards.

How to Play James Bond - I'm really curious to try this one! Looks fun, and there is a video explanation which is helpful.

My husband grew up playing lots of Canasta and loved it. Here's how to play Canasta from the Bicycle cards website.

Fit in a little math learning by playing a few rounds of Make Ten.

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15 Card Games that are Perfect for Your Next Family Game Night - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a collection of 15 fun games to play with a deck of cards! These are card games that kids can learn and families can play together. One thing to keep in mind about card games is that many games are called by several different names.

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What can teachers and parents do when there's no school? Online learning from home offers children opportunities to develop and learn new skills at the touch of a button. There are heaps of awesome online learning platforms that can be accessed at home, including Pobble 365.

However, screen time for the entire length of the school day can have a negative effect on children's wellbeing. Our first 25 simple and fun non-screen activities that children can do at home was so popular, we've created 25 MORE activities for you!

Download your copy below.

1. Get doodling! Grab some paper and pens and doodle anything you like! Animals, aliens or something else.

2. Create your own animal. Could you combine two of your favourites? What will you call it?

3. Design and draw a new musical instrument. How would you play it and what will it sound like?

4. Make up your own 5 minute exercise routine. What will you include

5. Can you make up your own jokes? Tell them to someone to make them laugh!

6. Make some jewellery. Use anything you can find around the house. Strips of wrapping paper or rolled up magazines make great beads!

7. Paper aeroplane challenge! Make a paper aeroplane and see how far you can fly it! Can you make a target and try to aim for it?

8. Fingerprint art! Use only your fingertips and paint to create a picture.

9. Make a bookmark to use when you're reading.

10. Make some wild art using sticks, leaves, flowers and anything else you can find outdoors.

11. Quick draw! Set a 1 minute timer, draw a quick doodle and see if the other person can guess what it is before the time is up.

12. Write a silly sentence that includes all of these words... BANANA, CURTAIN, DOLPHIN, SNOW and BALLOON. Now think of your own words and write some more!

13. How many different words can you make from the letters in this sentence?... Keeping my brain busy is fun

14. Ping pong story telling! Write the opening sentence to a story, then someone else writes the next line. Then it's your turn again! Keep alternating until you have a full story.

15. Guess the character! Think of a character from a book, write it down so no-one can see. Have others ask you questions to try and guess which character you chose.

16. Make a finger puppet! Use a paper cone to make a body, then attach a paper head.

17. Describe the most disgusting meal EVER! What is in it? Spaghetti worms, toenails on toast or something else?

18. Create a comic strip about an animal who turns into a superhero. Which animal will you choose?

19. Create a family kindness jar. Every time someone does something kind, write it down and put it in the jar. When the jar is full you all deserve a special treat!

20. Find a fun place to sit and read a book. Under the bed? Up a tree? Where will you go?

21. How many words can you think of that rhyme with WRITE?

22. Write a recipe for 'Springtime'. What will you include? Flowers? Sunshine? What else?

23. Use you body to make the shape of a letter. How many more can you make? Can you make every letter in the alphabet?

24. Play alphabet bingo! Can you spot an item in your home or garden that starts with the letter a,b,c and so on?

25. Start a diary. Write a short entry every day about what you do and how you feel. It will be good to look back on when you're older.

Download and print your copy here.

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25 MORE simple and fun non-screen activities that children can do at home

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What can teachers and parents do when there's no school? Online learning from home offers children opportunities to develop and learn new skills at the touch of a button. There are heaps of awesome online learning platforms that can be accessed at home, including Pobble 365.

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The Great Isolation Activity Book SEND.pdf

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This Bobble Butterfly craft is so adorable and easy to make with the kids! With the added bounce from the bobble, the butterflies will flutter above the gorgeous spring flowers.

This step-by-step tutorial will demonstrate two versions of our Bobble Butterfly Craft; a simplified version for preschoolers and young children and another for older children to create 3D Spring flowers.

How to Make a Bobble Butterfly Craft

Use our Bobble Butterfly Template to recreate this craft with your preschooler(s) or/and children within kindergarten, early years and beyond. This is a great craft to try at home or within the classroom that encourages children to practice their cutting skills.

What you Need:

Blue, White and Yellow Cardstock
Scrap Green Paper
Coloring Pens, Crayons or Watercolor Paint
Glue Stick
Scissors

Extra Materials for 3D Paper Flowers

Colored Construction Paper
Buttons

Downloading the Bobble Butterfly Template:

The Bobble Butterfly template is available to members of the Arty Crafty Kids club. The template can be accessed via the link below: https://www.artycraftykids.com/product/bobble-butterfly-craft/

Not A Member?

Watch the Video Tutorial:

Let's Make a Butterfly!

Color in the Template

Step 1: Using your child's favourite medium, color in the butterflies and flowers.

Create Flower Stems

Step 2: Create 3 strips (or less/more) of green paper and secure with glue to the bottom of a sheet of blue card stock.

Add Spring Flowers

Step 3: Glue the colored flowers to the top of the green 'flower stems'.

The Accordion Fold: The Bobble Spring

Step 4: Using scissors or a paper cutter, cut out two even strips of coloured paper (or card for a better bounce, however it's trickier for kids to fold) - ideally, the strips will be fairly wide and for length, I recommend cutting the paper from the shortest side of an A4 piece of paper or longest side of a piece of card.

Take the two strips and position them in a 90° angle as shown above. Glue the connecting papers together.

Fold the bottom strip over the top and crease the fold along the edge. This will make the accordion fold tight!

Continue this process until all the is paper has been folded.

Step 5: Seal the ends with glue.

Step 6: Repeat the process to create one more bobble!

Position the Bobbles

Step 7: Glue one end of each bobble to somewhere within the empty blue space above the flowers.

Complete the Bobble Butterfly Craft

Step 8: Finish off by gluing the butterflies to the top of each bobble.

The Butterflies will now bounce and wobble as if they're fluttering above the flowers.

How to Make 3D Spring Flowers

Start with a Strip of Paper

Step 1: Use a paper cutter or scissors to create multiple strips of paper - the strips should be shorter than the strips, but can vary in size depending on the size of flower your Arty Crafty Kids would like to make.

Fold the Strip and Secure

Step 2: Create a loop by folding the strip over.

Step 3: Join the ends and secure with glue.

Make a Few More Loops

Step 4: Repeat the above process 4 or 5 times more.

Join the Flat Ends of the Loops to
Create a Flower

Step 5: Layer the paper joins on top of each other, working round in a circular formation to create the appearance of a flower.

Complete the Bobble Butterfly with
3D Spring Flowers!

Step 6: Add buttons or a paper circle to the centre of the flowers.

Step 7: Create extra flowers and add bobble butterflies.

More Spring Crafts for Kids:

For more easy and fun crafts to try with your children, take a look at these popular Spring Crafts for kids:

Bobble Bee Craft

Kickstart the Spring term with this adorable Bobble Bee Paper Craft. With the added bouncy movement, bees literally pop from the page as if they're buzzing around a beehive; making this a super fun and engaging Spring craft for kids to enjoy.
https://www.artycraftykids.com/craft/bobble-bee-paper-craft/

Woven Butterfly Craft

Our beautiful Woven Paper Butterfly Craft is perfect for children who are developing and improving their fine motor skills. With a focus on painting, cutting and weaving, this craft offers a complete fine motor workout!
https://www.artycraftykids.com/craft/woven-paper-butterfly-craft/

Collage Butterfly Craft

Collage art is a wonderful medium for kids to explore. The process of breaking one object (in this instance paper) to create a new whole naturally lends itself to encouraging creative thinking and developing problem-solving skills. With the aide of our butterfly template or hand-drawn shape, children will be measuring and calculating how each individual piece with fit into the available space, and of course, with creating a butterfly, there's the additional challenge of symmetry. No matter how big or small your Arty Crafty Kids are, this project is adaptable and perfect for all! And they will be guaranteed to have the best time creating their Paper Butterfly Collage.
https://www.artycraftykids.com/art/paper-butterfly-collage/

Happy Crafting!

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This Bobble Butterfly craft is so adorable and easy to make with the kids! With the added bounce from the bobble, the butterflies will flutter above the gorgeous spring flowers. This step-by-step tutorial will demonstrate two versions of our Bobble Butterfly Craft; a simplified version for preschoolers and young children and another for older children to create 3D Spring flowers.

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Do you remember playing with magnetic or wooden shapes when you were little?
I had a set of wooden shapes in different sizes and colours which could be used to make all sorts of pictures and patterns.
This is my DIY version, which I made for my class recently as we've been learning about shapes.

I started with seven or eight sheets of colourful paper and being very lazy, I cut the shapes out mainly freehand and holding the whole bundle together at the same time!
The only shape I didn't cut freehand was the circle as I find I can never get a perfect circle, they just get smaller and smaller as I keep cutting, trying to make them perfect.
This pack of paper was from Lidl for £2. What a bargain!

After cutting the shapes I laminated them. I have a little laminator at home for doing school bit and pieces (supermarkets sell them for around £10).

Then I made up some ideas cards by creating pictures with the shapes and taking photographs of them.

When the children at school make their own pictures and designs, I'll take photographs of them too and increase the box of ideas cards.

Shapes are great for all sorts of learning including....
Colour and shape recognition
Sorting for size, colour, shape

Making repeating patterns

Creating pictures and art

You can also discuss properties of shapes such as whether they have curved or straight lines, number of sides, corners etc...
Here are some of the other picture card ideas I made.

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Do you remember playing with magnetic or wooden shapes when you were little? I had a set of wooden shapes in different sizes and colours which could be used to make all sorts of pictures and patterns. This is my DIY version, which I made for my class recently as we've been learning about shapes.

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This is such a fun, up-cycled craft project and all you need is egg cartons, scissors and a bit of glue. I find myself hunting in the shops for egg cartons with interesting shapes just to make these, all egg cartons are not made the same!

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Preschoolers will love making this silly, adorable monster mobile for Halloween! It's a great Halloween craft for daycare or home, and a fun way to use up your stash of cardboard rolls.
Of all the Halloween crafts we've made here over the years, this monster mobile is one of my favourites!

Sure, some monsters are scary, but these toilet roll monsters are fun, friendly, and kinda goofy! The hooligans had a great time painting and decorating them, using basic craft materials that we had around the house.

Great Craft for Preschool Boys

Bonus: This monster craft really appealed to the boys who generally don't *love* crafting. They sometimes skip craft-time because they'd prefer to keep playing whatever it is they're playing. Not today though! At the mention of a monster craft, those boys were at the table quicker than you could bat an eye.

Supplies needed for our toilet roll monster mobile:

Cardboard tubes

pipe cleaners

googly eyes

craft foam

paint (purple, black, green and orange are perfect for Halloween)

yarn

scissors

glue

An alternative to toilet paper rolls:

Some schools and preschools aren't permitted to use toilet rolls for crafting. Great substitutes are paper towel rolls, wrapping paper rolls, aluminum foil/plastic wrap rolls, and poster tubes.

Making your monster mobile:

Have your kids begin by painting the toilet roll tubes.

Show them how to hold the tube by inserting a few fingers into it. That makes it easy for them to paint the whole tube without getting too much paint on their hands.

When the paint is dry, poke a hole in either side of the cardboard roll (use a pen or a skewer), and poke the pipe cleaner right the way through to create a pair of bendy arms.

Have your child glue on a bunch of googly eyes. The more eyes, the sillier the monster.

While your child is gluing eyes onto his or her monster, you can cut out the craft foam mouths. A jagged set of teeth are easy to cut but feel free to get as creative as you like with your monster mouths.

When the glue has dried, your hooligans can play with their monsters as they are, or you can do what we did, and string them into a mobile.

To make our monster mobile, I looped a length of yarn under each pipe cleaner where it ran through the inside of the toilet roll, and knotted it there.

When I had yarn attached to several monsters, I gathered them together, and arranged them into a mobile by staggering the monsters so they'd hang at different lengths.

More Monster Crafts and Activities:

25+preschool activities by 25 bloggers, 10 printables, 50 links to activities not featured in the book all for $8.99!

Follow the Hooligans on Facebook
Get the 3-5 Playful Preschool e-Book! Download your copy today:

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Monster Mobile Toilet Roll Craft - Happy Hooligans

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Last updated on Preschoolers will love making this silly, adorable monster mobile for Halloween! It's a great Halloween craft for daycare or home, and a fun way to use up your stash of cardboard rolls. Of all the Halloween crafts we've made here over the years, this monster mobile is one of my favourites!

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All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

You can craft at a snail's pace to make this scrap paper plate snail. Grab all those extra scraps of paper and make small squares to use in this simple snail craft. Making a snail's head has never been easier - and with our new book you can grab the template to make it too!

RELATED: Craft Ideas for Kids

Paper Plate Snail Craft

Our book - Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials is bursting with scrap paper crafts like this one. We have a whole section of newspaper and scrap paper crafts. But not only that, there are other recycled crafts for kids too - paper rolls, egg cartons, cardboard, popsicle sticks, jars and more!

Watch the full tutorial video here!
Supplies to Make a Paper Plate Snail Craft

- Scrap paper in different colors

- Scissors

- Small paper plate

- Glue

- Pencil

- Cardstock or construction paper

- Googly eyes

- Black marker

Snail Template - available in our book. Order the book HERE.

Steps to Make These Scrap Paper Plate Snails

1. Gather your scrap paper colors you want to use for the snail. I like to keep scrap paper organized by color. That way you can easily find the color you need and re-use leftover paper from previous projects.

2. Cut the scrap paper into small, square pieces. You could also have kids tear the paper into small pieces.

3. Glue the square pieces to the paper plate starting at the edge and work your way around in a spiral pattern. Leave a space at the beginning for where the snail's head will go. You can make a pattern with your colors or mix them up! You can even make a rainbow pattern or do all one color.

4. To make the snail's head, trace the template from our book on yellow cardstock and cut it out.

Note: To get the snail template, this template is available in our book. Order the book HERE.

5. Glue 2 googly eyes to the tentacles of the snail. Draw a smiley face with the black marker.

6. Glue the snail's head to the back of the paper plate.

We love how easy these snails are to make! Can you make other recycled snails? Try other materials for the shell, like some rolled-up newspaper!
And don't forget to see our NEW book which features this fun paper plate snail!
More Recycled Crafts for Kids

See these other fun recycled crafts in our book too - like this toilet paper roll butterfly.

Or see this fun diorama project - a Cereal Box Aquarium.

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All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. You can craft at a snail's pace to make this scrap paper plate snail. Grab all those extra scraps of paper and make small squares to use in this simple snail craft.

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Agri Aware Incredible Edibles Family Challenge

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Agri Aware Incredible Edibles Family Challenge

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​There are five tasks involved: "5 weeks, 5 tasks".

Task 1: Food Origin

Task 2: Identifying Irish Food

Task 3: Planting/Growing

Task 4: Preparing/Cooking

Task 5: Healthy Eating Week

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​Incredible Edibles is a healthy eating project normally availed by primary school teachers. However, in light of the current global pandemic, with schools closed and most of the Irish public in...

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Issue 1 and 2
#GAASolo

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We know that there's nothing like kicking a ball around at your Club, but for now we all must stay safe in our own homes. That doesn't mean you have to be bored! On this page we will be adding lots of fun activities for you to do until it is okay for us all to go back playing GAA games with our friends and team mates!
Kids Activity Pack
Get creative with our Activity Pack! There's load to colour in, loads of blanks to fill...

Don't worry if you complete it too quickly either, because we will be adding new things to it every week!

Download the packs below and get started! If you don't have a printer, don't worry! You can also screen shot the images and colour them in on a computer, phone or tablet.
Issue 11 - Time Capsule Special Primary Schools Portal
We've been busy developing lots of learning activities and skills challenges for Primary School children to do at home. We are adding new skills and activities daily, so keep an eye out for what's new for you to try out!
Take a look at what's available! #GAASolo
The #GAASolo Challenge is designed to promote positivity, physical activity and well-being among young people, while encouraging them to stay at home and follow HSE guidelines at the same time. Brought to you by the GAA Future Leaders' Programme, #GAASolo is a second level student and teacher challenge which will run for a number of weeks. To get involved, students and teachers record videos of themselves doing the various challenges and upload them to Twitter or Instagram.

Find out more at https://learning.gaa.ie/gaasolo
Organising Online Exercise and Coaching Sessions
The temporary postponement of our games and training sessions has undoubtedly impacted on many of us including our underage teams and the children and young people in our clubs, i.e. those under 18 yrs. of age and their families.

It is however always gratifying to hear of coaches and clubs who have recently contacted us seeking permission during these restricted times to deliver live online exercise and coaching sessions for our underage teams. With the correct safety guidance and good practices in place, we wish to support such initiatives.

In the downloads section of this page you will find protocols around organising these sessions, outlining the safeguards that must be adhered to when staging this type of activity and a guide to using 'Microsoft Teams', an online collaboration tool which is available to holders of official GAA email addresses and can be used to organise club activities with members.

For the safety of all of our members, please ensure you do not organise or participate in sessions that do not follow the GAA's guidance on this area.

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We know that there's nothing like kicking a ball around at your Club, but for now we all must stay safe in our own homes. That doesn't mean you have to be bored! On this page we will be adding lots of fun activities for you to do until it

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I was inspired last week by the Handprint Lady Bug Planters I shared, so I decided to do a cute little twist and make some Handprint Bumble Bee's to go with them. These make the sweetest gift for Mother's Day or just a fun summer craft project just because. Recycle some tin cans and follow the directions below!
Here's how to make your own Handprint Bumble Bee Planter.
Handprint Bumble Bee Planter Craft
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy. Materials Needed: Directions:
1.You'll want to start by prepping your tin can for painting. Take a hammer and nails and make some holes on the bottom of your can, then if the edges are sharp you can take some sand paper to smooth it out.

2. After you've finished with your holes you can start painting your bumble bee using yellow and black acrylic paint. I used a few layers on mine.

3. While your paint is drying go ahead and trace your child's hand on some white card stock. You'll want four handprints cut out to use for the wings. If you'd like something sturdier than cardstock you could also use cardboard and paint it white.

4. After your paint is dried you can hot glue everything on. Glue on two google eyes and your handprints for wings on the back of the can. Then using some black paint add on a mouth.

5. If you'd like to insure that this tin can planter lasts a long time, give the entire can and wings a coat of mod podge or spray sealer.

6.Fill the can with soil and then add your plant.

Your tin can planter is finished!
And don't forget to follow I Heart Arts n Crafts on Facebook and Pinterest! And if you decide to make any of my crafts, please share them on my Facebook page or use #iheartartsncrafts on Instagram for me to see! Pin it to save for later:

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Handprint Bumble Bee Planter Craft For Kids - I Heart Arts n Crafts

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I was inspired last week by the Handprint Lady Bug Planters I shared, so I decided to do a cute little twist and make some Handprint Bumble Bee's to go with them. These make the sweetest gift for Mother's Day or just a fun summer craft project just because.

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Spring Art :Tulip Painting - Page 2 - Fun Littles

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My toddler on the other hand is not very focused on the design or the pattern element of the spring art activity. Well yeah she is 2. For her the fun was to simply print using different colors. As you can see only the prongs got the paint and hence the prints.

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What's better than a tidy desk either at home or at work? With this craft, you will be able to create a very nice decorative accessory for your desk and also is quite handy for storing pens, brushes, rulers and other school or office supplies.

The City - Office organizer is a great way to start the school year or keep you working efficiently at the office throughout the year! The City organizer is easily assebled by cardboard to create office and school supply holders which represent miniature city buildings.

Materials Needed:

Empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls

Stapler

Scotch Tape

Tubes of paint in different colors

Paint Brushes

Scissors

Foam cut in a rectangle (green, gray or brown)

Poster board or Card stock

Directions for making - The City:

1. Start by painting the cardboard rolls. Each roll will represent a building. So, you can paint the buidings gray for a realistic city or any bright color for a fun city. Here, we chose to make a colorful city, using a different color for each building.

2. Once all the paper rolls completely dry, you can begin to assemble The City. For the paper rolls that touch the ground, staple them together from the inside. For those paper rolls that represent skyscrapers uses tape. you can put an extra layer of paint over the tape if you desire. Put your foam square or rectangle piece on a flat surface depicting the ground.

3. Proceed making your city in this manner for all the painted paper rolls you have and the layout of the city you want to create.

4. With the posterboard or card stock paper, cut long strips about 12 inches long and 1 inch wide, and accordion fold the strip. Then glue them on the side of some of your city buildings to form stairs.

5. You will now draw windows on your buildings. To do this, paint with a fine small light blue rectangles on each brush roll. To give your windows a realistic look, you can outline two sides with a black marker, it will give an impression of thickness.

6. Do the same for the doors using gray paint and locate them in consistent locations (ground floor and doors up the stairs). You will now fill in the building windows using small light blue rectangles on each paper roll.

7. On the foam paper, paint the paths that connect the various building doors to one another. You can also add colored dots to represent flowers in the grass.

8. All you have to do now is put all your pens and other supplies inside the paper roll buildings and you have created a magnificent structure for your desk at home or in the office!

You can of course add as much detail as you want, such as cracks in buildings, pedestrian crossings on the floor, curtains on the windows, etc. By cutting out the locations of doors, you can even open them for even more tangibility.

The City craft project is a fun idea for back to school or a perfect Father's Day gift! Discover for Fun kids crafts on Hellokids.com.

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How to craft the city - desk utensil holders - Hellokids.com

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What's better than a tidy desk either at home or at work? With this craft, you will be able to create a very nice decorative accessory for your desk and also is quite handy for storing pens, brushes, rulers and other school or office supplies.

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Inside: Add some extra fine motor fun with this toddler butterfly art. Download the free printable, paint with Q-Tips, and attach to a clothespin for a fun spring decoration!
As we enter our 7th month with our 2 year olds, they are much more engaged in any activity that we provide.

Especially when it comes to painting.

They love to paint and often want to create several pieces!

I kept that in mind when I came up with this toddler butterfly art activity.

I wanted butterflies that we could attach to our classroom tree, so I created a butterfly printable that can easily be attached to a clothespin and then clipped to the tree.

But even if you don't have a classroom tree, these butterflies could clip on other things in your classroom or home.

Oh, and there's also some good fine motor going on, as we used Q-Tips instead of paint brushes.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable
Watch the video here: What we used:
Before starting this activity, I read the book Butterfly, Butterfly: A Book of Colors. As Lucy is searching for a butterfly, she comes across many other creatures in her garden. Our children loved telling me what each creature was before we turned the pages. When Lucy finally sees the butterfly, we come to a page that shows a big, beautiful butterfly.

I read this book before we settled down at the art table to make our butterflies, so it was more meaningful to the children.

I provided each child with a small container of assorted paint, a Q-Tip, and a butterfly printable.

The children then painted their butterflies using the Q-Tip.

Once they were finished painting, I showed them how to fold their butterfly and press down on the paper, and then open it again.

We compared our butterflies to Lucy's big colorful butterfly!

I cut pipe cleaners in half, one for each child.

I folded that pipe cleaner and twisted the ends.

The children selected what color pipe cleaner (antennae) they wanted.

We glued the butterfly printable and the antennae on the butterfly and they were finished!

Come see how our toddler and preschool classroom is set up for the butterfly theme!

Planning your bugs and butterfly theme? We've done the work for you!

I am so excited to be a co-author of these bugs & butterflies theme lesson plans.

24 preschool learning activities for your bugs & butterflies theme, including literacy, math, science, art, fine motor, and more! A great resource for teachers and homeschoolers.

24 preschool learning activities that cover:

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Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

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Inside: Add some extra fine motor fun with this toddler butterfly art. Download the free printable, paint with Q-Tips, and attach to a clothespin for a fun spring decoration! As we enter our 7th month with our 2 year olds, they are much more engaged in any activity that we provide.

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So historic times & time capsules go hand in hand however, not everyone might have access to a garden or an attic to hide their capsule! Sending an email to their future selves or to family members who'll receive them on a future date could be a good option instead 🤗

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Make your very own magic pictures using materials that you already have at home!

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We've come up with a Spring-Themed Nature Hunt to help you and your kids to engage with the outdoors. There is no need for you to go anywhere crowded for this, as you should be able to find most of these things in your own garden or local green space.

Download and print the Activity Sheet (pdf file) and tick them off.
Happy Hunting!

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Spring Nature Hunt: Activity Sheet for Kids

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We've come up with a Spring-Themed Nature Hunt to help you and your kids to engage with the outdoors. There is no need for you to go anywhere crowded for this, as you should be able to find most of these things in your own garden or local green space.

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Home / Special Education / Keep Fit at Home Visuals

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A bright and colourful visual resource for keeping fit at home for young children

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Keep Fit at Home Visuals - Múinteoir Valerie

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Home / Special Education / Keep Fit at Home Visuals €0.00 A bright and colourful visual resource for keeping fit at home for young children Related products Join My Newsletter Follow Me By visiting our site, you agree to our privacy policy regarding cookies, tracking statistics, etc.

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This summer we spent a full week at the cottage and when it's raining and the water is cold you have to get a little creative with making fun activities for the kids! That's when we started to think, what kind of games can we do with what we have? We have sidewalk chalk on hand and really, the sky is the limit with sidewalk chalk. You can make up any game - educational or not with just a few pieces of chalk. So we thought we would find 10 of the best sidewalk chalk ideas to share with you. Now the next time the kids say they are bored, grab this list and head outside with some sidewalk chalk!

10 Sidewalk Chalk Ideas
Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game
This is such a simple activity to set up. All you need is sidewalk chalk and some dice and you have a fun 20 minute game with the added bonus of learning math!

Grab some sidewalk chalk and learn about shapes with this simple activity! Do it again and again with different shapes until your kids have mastered the maze each time!
Driveway Shape Game
This game works best with two kids. Learn to tell time with the hour and minute hand by making this large outdoor clock!

Learn the alphabet with this simple sidewalk chalk activity. So many different ways to play with this game board once you have it set up!
ABC Sidewalk Chalk Game
Sight words need a lot of practice. This game will surely get the kids learning a word or two and it's fun!

This is a great idea! Set up a series of activities for the kids to go through and see who can complete the course the fastest.
Learn Sight Words Game Sidewalk Chalk Obstacle Course
These simple and fun letter activities will keep kids moving by doing actions to each letter that they find.

This is a great one if your child loves to play hide and seek! Hide different animals around your yard and match them to the letter.
4 Letter Activities
Includes trace your child, fun with the alphabet and bubble hop scotch. We love the trace your child idea. What child doesn't love getting their body traced!
Hide and Seek Letter Animal Game
This will be a hit with the car lover in your family! Make a map of your city or neighborhood and you can use it to teach them about your neighbors too.

Which of these sidewalk chalk ideas are your favorite? If you still haven't found one you like, try one of these other sidewalk chalk games. Let us know if you have any other ideas or games we've missed!

Other Sidewalk Chalk Games
3 Sidewalk Chalk Activities

Classic Hopscotch

Pictionary with chalk!

Can you draw? Prompt to draw different animals, shapes, letters

Build a Maze - build your own maze using chalk and have the kids complete the maze or build their own!

Life size Checkers Board, Tic Tac Toe or other game board

Trace your shadow! Instead of tracing your body, stand and trace someone's shadow! You can do this with shapes of toys too like dinosaurs and animal figures!

Chalk Art - draw balloons and take a picture of them holding them. There are lots of different chalk art ideas you can make. We like some of the ideas here.

Build a Map of Your City or Neighborhood
Looking for more fun kids activities? Try this play mud. You can do this in an outdoor sensory table and make a large mud pit for dinosaurs or other animals!

This bug sensory bin is a great way to introduce kids to different bugs! Then take them outside and see which ones you can find in your own backyard! Bring the magnifying glass along with you too!
Here are a few other sidewalk chalk games to play with the kids! Share this post on Facebook with your friends!

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10 of the Best Sidewalk Chalk Ideas - The Best Ideas for Kids

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This summer we spent a full week at the cottage and when it's raining and the water is cold you have to get a little creative with making fun activities for the kids! That's when we started to think, what kind of games can we do with what we have?

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Maths, Science, Vocabulary and Geography quizzes.

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Math test activities for students and teachers of all grade levels

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Maths and Logic Puzzles on Mr Barton Maths

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Watch a TEDEd talk on an interesting topic or why not research, write and present your own!

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Sign in to Take and Create a Lesson or to save Lessons to Collections

Log In to participate

Please Log In or Register to Apply

Please Log in to Access Leader Resources

Click Register if you need to create a free TED-Ed account. If you have already signed into ted.com click Sign In to verify your authentication.

Register Sign In

Only students who are 13 years of age or older can create a TED-Ed account.

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TED-Ed lessons on all subjects. TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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This video explains how to measure the height of a building using 2 A4 pages (1 must be folded into the shape of an isosceles triangle). This video measures The Spire on O'Connell Street in Dublin.

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Daily Buzzword and Word Games - Online Dictionary

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Daily Buzzword and Word Games - Online Dictionary

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Levels 1 & 2 | Level 3, 4, 5 & 6
Activities for ESL Students has over 1,000 activities to help you study English as a Second Language.
This project of The Internet TESL Journal has contributions by many teachers.

Level 3: Easy to Medium

Level 4: Medium

Level 5: Medium to Difficult

Level 6: Difficult

Levels 1 & 2 | Level 3, 4, 5 & 6
Thanks to Martin Holmes who allowed us to adapt his JavaScript/HTML template for this project.

For more quizzes, visit Activities for ESL Students. Copyright (C) 1995-2008 by The Internet TESL Journal ( Contact)

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Crossword Puzzles for ESL Students - Not So Easy

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Free English exercises. Study English with Crossword Puzzles and other activities for students of English as a second language.

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Fun way to learn the times tables with games and grids to download.

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Virtual Visitors! This is so much fun. Lots of animals to visit your home.

1. Google an animal

2. Press view in 3D

3. Allow google to access

4. Experiment.

Tip make sure you have sound on for extra fun!!

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5 Engineering Challenges with Clothespins, Binder Clips, and Craft Sticks - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks! It’s a simple STEM activity that kids of all ages will love. Move over, expensive building sets! These simple materials were a huge hit with my boys. The first time we got them out, Owen (almost 7) spent…

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Baking with Kids Baking Recipes | Odlums

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Impress friends and family with your brilliant baking, in just a few easy-to-follow steps! Odlums - Bake with the Best.

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GAA JERSEY DESIGN CHALLENGE

Download a free GAA Jersey template and create your very own personalised kit for either your local club or country team.

And while you're at it why don't you have a go a designing your own version of your club or county crest.

This is one for any age, young and old.

*Yes that is David Clifford. Put the man himself in your local teams kit.

Click the download link below and print it off at home.

Check out some of the brilliant pieces of GAA Art created by kids and adults around Ireland.

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Jersey Design Challenge | damienquinndraws

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GAA JERSEY DESIGN CHALLENGE Download a free GAA Jersey template and create your very own personalised kit for either your local club or country team. And while you're at it why don't you have a go a designing your own version of your club or county crest.

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Flower Tessellation Activity for Kids (with a Printable Template) - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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This flower tessellation activity for kids combines art and math! Print the flower template, color the flowers, cut them out, and assemble the tessellation.

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Here's a collection of 15 fun games to play with a deck of cards! These are card games that kids can learn and families can play together.
One thing to keep in mind about card games is that many games are called by several different names. So you may get partway through the rules on any of these and realize that you know that game by another name. It's just kind of how it goes with card games!

How to Play California Speed from It's Always Autumn. This is a two player game.

Here's how to play Kings in the Corner - looks like an interesting game!

How to Play Spoons from Coffee Cups and Crayons. You have to try this one!

Go Fish is another great classic game for kids. There are lots of Go Fish card sets, but here's How to Play Go Fish with a deck of cards.

And another classic - how to play War!

How to Play Hearts - this is a good game to start with amongst the trick-taking games.

Spades is another classic trick-taking game.

How to Play Three Thirteen - this game has several rounds, and the wild card changes every time so you have to pay attention! Fun for a wide range of ages.

How to Play Golf - I had not heard of this one, but it looks good!

The Bicycle Cards website has instructions for how to play rummy.

When I was growing up, we used to play Push Rummy, which is a fun variation on the basic rummy game.

Nerts is another fun and fast-paced card game! I love this one because there is no waiting for turns. Everyone plays all the time! In my opinion, the game works best with two teams of two (four players). Each team needs their own deck of cards.

How to Play James Bond - I'm really curious to try this one! Looks fun, and there is a video explanation which is helpful.

My husband grew up playing lots of Canasta and loved it. Here's how to play Canasta from the Bicycle cards website.

Fit in a little math learning by playing a few rounds of Make Ten.

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15 Card Games that are Perfect for Your Next Family Game Night - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a collection of 15 fun games to play with a deck of cards! These are card games that kids can learn and families can play together. One thing to keep in mind about card games is that many games are called by several different names.

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That's why we have brought back some of our favourite retro games for you to play at home with your family. While we're all waiting patiently for new adventures, these classics will entertain both adults and kids alike. So, take some time away from your phone, tablet or laptop screens and enjoy some retro fun!

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We had so much fun making these Fruit & Vegetable Bug Snacks using Envirokidz cereal! Aren't they cute!? Our first attempts looked so silly, we'd start laughing every time we made "eye contact" with them 😛

Making Googly Eyes

If you don't have piping bags, sandwich bags with the tip of the corner cut off will work well for piping eyes.

Vegetable bugs:

Use a straw to cut out black olive pupils. Pipe small dots of cream cheese onto a plate. Top with black olive pupils. Freeze the dots of cream cheese for easier assembly.

Fruit bugs:

Version 1 - Pipe small dots of cream cheese onto a plate. Top with mini dairy-free chocolate chips. Freeze to chill.

Version 2 - Stick mini dairy-free chocolate chips onto Envirokidz cereal using a dot of peanut butter or cream cheese. Freeze to chill.

Snails, Caterpillars, & Butterflies, Oh my!

Unleash your kids' imagination! Create your very own bugs or use our reference photos to make snails, caterpillars, dragonflies, and butterflies.

Snails

Start with a fruit or vegetable round for the shell.

Stick chilled googly eyes onto cherry tomato heads, cashew heads, or grapes. Insert chives or thin-sliced apples (with skins) into the cherry tomato heads for antennae.

Caterpillars

Stick chilled googly eyes onto cherry tomato or grape heads. Add chive or apple antennae. Make the body with a line of cherry tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, or cereal.

Dragonflies and butterflies

Stick chilled googly eyes onto grape or cherry tomato heads (for fruit bugs using cereal you can put the eyes directly onto the celery filled with peanut butter.)

Add chive or apple antennae. Use sliced strawberries or halved cucumber slices for wings. Use cereal, blueberries, grapes, or cherry tomatoes for the body.

Print

Fruit and Vegetable Bug Snacks

Author: Brittany Mueller

Prep Time: 45

Chill Time: 15

Total Time: 60

Yield: 20 bugs 1x

Category: Kids

Diet: Vegan

Description

Bring out your child's inner artist with healthy fruit and vegetable bug snacks! These cute little bugs are a fun and easy recipe for kids. This recipe is gluten free, vegan and low-sodium.

Vegetable Bugs

2-3 Celery stalks, cut into various lengths for different bugs

1-2 mini cucumbers, halved lengthwise with seeds scooped out, cut into various lengths

½ cup Vegan cream cheese

10 cucumber slices

1 cup cherry and/or grape tomatoes (various colours)

1 bunch chives, cut into 1" lengths

10 whole cashews

Fruit Bugs

2-3 celery stalks, cut into various lengths for different bugs

½ cup peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter for peanut allergies)

1 cup red and/or green grapes

3-4 strawberries, sliced

½ cup blueberries

1 apple, sliced

¼ cups mini dairy-free chocolate chips

½ cup ball-shaped cereal (We used Envirokidz cereals: Leapin' Lemurs, Gorilla Munch, Panda Puffs, or Jungle Munch)

Other supplies

Piping bags

Large piping tips (optional - for cream cheese/peanut butter filling)

Small piping tips (optional - for piping cream cheese googly eyes)

Vegetable Bugs

1. Prepare the googly eyes: Use a straw to cut out black olive pupils. Pipe small dots of cream cheese onto a plate. Top with black olive pupils. Freeze the dots of cream cheese for easier assembly.

2. Prepare fruit and vegetables, refer to preparation photos for a visual guide of the many ways you can prepare the ingredients.

3. Scoop seeds from mini cucumbers. Cut a flat edge on the bottoms of celery sticks and mini cucumbers to help them stand up once they've been decorated as bugs.

4. Fill celery stalks and/or mini cucumbers with cream cheese, using a piping bag or spoon.

5. Unleash your kids' imagination! Create your very own bugs or use our reference photos to make snails, caterpillars, dragonflies, and butterflies.
Snails: Start with a fruit or vegetable round for the shell. Stick chilled googly eyes onto cherry tomato heads, cashew heads, or grapes. Insert chives or thin-sliced apples (with skins) into the cherry tomato heads for antennae.

Fruit Bugs

1. Prepare the googly eyes:
Version 1 - Pipe small dots of cream cheese onto a plate. Top with mini dairy-free chocolate chips. Freeze to chill.
Version 2 - Stick mini dairy-free chocolate chips onto cereal using a dot of peanut butter or cream cheese. Freeze to chill.

2. Prepare fruit and vegetables, refer to preparation photos for a visual guide of the many ways you can prepare the ingredients.

3. Fill celery stalks with peanut butter, using a piping bag or spoon. These will be the base to all of the fruit and vegetable bugs you make.

4. Create your very own bugs or use our reference photos to make snails, caterpillars, dragonflies, and butterflies.
Caterpillars: Stick chilled googly eyes onto cherry tomato or grape heads. Add chive or apple antennae. Make the body with a line of cherry tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, or cereal.
Dragonflies and butterflies: Stick chilled googly eyes onto grape or cherry tomato heads (for fruit bugs using cereal you can put the eyes directly onto the celery filled with peanut butter.) Add chive or apple antennae. Use sliced strawberries or halved cucumber slices for wings. Use cereal, blueberries, grapes, or cherry tomatoes for the body.

Notes

TIP: If you don't have piping bags, sandwich bags with the tip of the corner cut off will work well for piping eyes.
Keywords: fruit and vegetable bugs, kids, snacks for kids

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Fruit & Vegetable Bug Snacks for Envirokidz

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These adorable fruit & vegetable bug snacks are so much fun to make! Get the recipe to make your own from Nature's Path Organic.

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Educational and craft activities for kids and parents

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What can teachers and parents do when there's no school? Online learning from home offers children opportunities to develop and learn new skills at the touch of a button. There are heaps of awesome online learning platforms that can be accessed at home, including Pobble 365.

However, screen time for the entire length of the school day can have a negative effect on children's wellbeing. Our first 25 simple and fun non-screen activities that children can do at home was so popular, we've created 25 MORE activities for you!

Download your copy below.

1. Get doodling! Grab some paper and pens and doodle anything you like! Animals, aliens or something else.

2. Create your own animal. Could you combine two of your favourites? What will you call it?

3. Design and draw a new musical instrument. How would you play it and what will it sound like?

4. Make up your own 5 minute exercise routine. What will you include

5. Can you make up your own jokes? Tell them to someone to make them laugh!

6. Make some jewellery. Use anything you can find around the house. Strips of wrapping paper or rolled up magazines make great beads!

7. Paper aeroplane challenge! Make a paper aeroplane and see how far you can fly it! Can you make a target and try to aim for it?

8. Fingerprint art! Use only your fingertips and paint to create a picture.

9. Make a bookmark to use when you're reading.

10. Make some wild art using sticks, leaves, flowers and anything else you can find outdoors.

11. Quick draw! Set a 1 minute timer, draw a quick doodle and see if the other person can guess what it is before the time is up.

12. Write a silly sentence that includes all of these words... BANANA, CURTAIN, DOLPHIN, SNOW and BALLOON. Now think of your own words and write some more!

13. How many different words can you make from the letters in this sentence?... Keeping my brain busy is fun

14. Ping pong story telling! Write the opening sentence to a story, then someone else writes the next line. Then it's your turn again! Keep alternating until you have a full story.

15. Guess the character! Think of a character from a book, write it down so no-one can see. Have others ask you questions to try and guess which character you chose.

16. Make a finger puppet! Use a paper cone to make a body, then attach a paper head.

17. Describe the most disgusting meal EVER! What is in it? Spaghetti worms, toenails on toast or something else?

18. Create a comic strip about an animal who turns into a superhero. Which animal will you choose?

19. Create a family kindness jar. Every time someone does something kind, write it down and put it in the jar. When the jar is full you all deserve a special treat!

20. Find a fun place to sit and read a book. Under the bed? Up a tree? Where will you go?

21. How many words can you think of that rhyme with WRITE?

22. Write a recipe for 'Springtime'. What will you include? Flowers? Sunshine? What else?

23. Use you body to make the shape of a letter. How many more can you make? Can you make every letter in the alphabet?

24. Play alphabet bingo! Can you spot an item in your home or garden that starts with the letter a,b,c and so on?

25. Start a diary. Write a short entry every day about what you do and how you feel. It will be good to look back on when you're older.

Download and print your copy here.

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25 MORE simple and fun non-screen activities that children can do at home

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What can teachers and parents do when there's no school? Online learning from home offers children opportunities to develop and learn new skills at the touch of a button. There are heaps of awesome online learning platforms that can be accessed at home, including Pobble 365.

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The Great Isolation Activity Book SEND.pdf

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Everyone loves a good comic, whether you're a comic book geek or just the casual reader of a comic in your local newspaper - Comic Strips are great! While some comic strips just take a few minutes or less to read, don't underestimate the difficulty of creating one! And because May 5 th is comic book day, we decided to give you some step-by-step instructions for creating your first ever comic strip. Follow these instructions and you'll be creating awesome comic strips in no time! Here is how to create a comic strip in 6 simple steps.
Table of Contents:
What is a comic strip?

A comic strip is a sequence of images with a small amount of text in each box. This text is normally inside balloons or written as captions. Comic strips (or comic books) are a form of story-telling, which uses drawings or cartoon characters to tell a story. Most comic strips are created for humour, while some can be serious.

Comic strips are most likely to be seen in newspapers or magazines. While entire comic books or graphic novels can be found at your local library or bookstore. Superman is one of the best-selling comic books of all time. You might know of other examples of comic strips or books that you've seen or read.

In the professional world, comic strips or comic books are created by cartoonists or professional graphic artists. But today we'll show you how to create your own comic strip at home with no experience needed!

How to create a comic strip

As this is your first-ever comic strip we will focus on creating a three-frame comic. But when you become a master at creating short comic strips, you can make yours much longer and filled with way more characters.

Step 1: Write your ideas for your comic

A comic strip is no different from writing a short story. It still needs a beginning, middle and ending. Because this is a three-frame comic strip, break your story down into 3 parts. Write down your ideas for the characters, settings, expressions and even speech. Make sure each part has some action and that your ending is powerful with an awesome punchline.

Step 2: Draw the three-frames

On a new piece of plain paper, draw your three frames using a pencil and a ruler. Make sure each frame is equal size. You can even put small light marks on the paper to mark out where the speech bubbles will go. As a bonus tip, you might want to make your frames twice as big as you want them to be, so you don't run out of space.

Step 3: Use basic shapes to draw

One of the hardest parts of creating a comic strip is drawing out your characters. We recommend you use basic shapes to draw out your characters. As this is your first comic strip you might even want to use stick figures to keeps things easy. Also, sketch in the speech bubbles and any starbursts for sound effects. Oh and don't forget, please use a pencil at this stage, so you can erase any mistakes.

Step 4: Add in the speech and lettering

Now add in the lettering for your speech into your speech bubbles and don't forget to double-check your spelling. Remember the size of your lettering could show whether a character is shouting or whispering. For example, lettering in full capitals shows that your character is shouting.

Step 5: Add detail to your cartoon

Now go back to your characters and add any extra details, such as facial expression, movement lines, shadowing on the floor. And also draw in the background for each frame.

Step 6: Go over your comic in pen

Now, you can finally use a felt-tip pen to go over your pencil drawings and rub out any pencil lines. Your first-ever comic strip is now complete - well done! You can leave it as it is or even add some colour.

How to make a comic book

A comic book is like a super long comic strip that requires more than one page. The process of creating a comic book is almost similar to creating a comic strip. However, there are a couple of extra steps you need to take to make a comic book.

Here is a super quick step-by-step tutorial on how to make a comic book out of paper:

Pile together at least 3 A4 pages. This will give you 12 pages for your comic book. Then fold all of them in half:

Staple the folded papers together. This should give an A5 sized booklet. Then fold the area with staples in slightly like in the image below:

Fold another A4 paper in half. This paper will be for your comic's cover. We used an A4 piece of card to give our comic book a sturdy cover:

Then apply glue on the tiny folded over part of your booklet - On the side where you can see the staples. Next, stick the cover and booklet together to form your comic book.

Sketch out your cover using a pencil. And now the fun part: Outline your pencil drawing with a pen and then colour it in like a colouring book:

Plan on your comic on a separate paper. You should ideally plan out each frame. Think about what the characters will say, what the scene might look like and any other small details. For inspiration, take a look at this post on how to come up with good ideas.

Once the planning is done, sketch out your frames and cover over them in black pen.

Draw in your frames using a pencil. Remember to include speech bubbles, special effects and facial expressions on your characters. Once happy outline the drawing with a black pen and colour it in using your favourite colours:

Carry on doing the same with the other pages in your comic book until complete.

Hooray! Your comic book is now complete. Now that you have done your first comic - Don't stop now! Create your own comic book collection and amaze your friends with your bedazzling story-telling skills! You could even be the next Stan Lee!

Making a comic book is a great school project which can be applied to any lesson, whether it's art, science or English. Comic books are a great way to encourage creativity in kids and build on their story-telling skills. You can even ask students to create comic books to test their understanding of a complex subject or topic.

How to Draw Comic Strip Characters

One of the hardest parts of creating a comic strip is drawing out the characters. As a beginner to the world of creating comic books, try not to worry too much about your drawing skills. For now, even a simple stick figure will do - In fact, there are many famous comics on the internet drawn entirely using stick figures!

If you want more than just stick figures, you can try out the simple steps below on how to draw your own comic strip characters. For this method, you'll start off using a light pencil to sketch your character and then you'll add in the colour:

1. Start with a simple circle.

2. Draw two circles for the eye and a mouth. And don't forget a tiny curved dot for the nose!

3. Sketch any rough hairstyle. Add in the eyebrows over the hair.

4. Draw triangular-looking rectangle for the body.

5. Roughing sketch in the legs and tiny shoes.

6. Add in your character's arms.

7. Draw in the smaller details. Don't forget to add the tiny hands.

8. Go over your sketch with a black pen.

9. Colour in your character

10. Your comic strip character is complete!

Here is a little cheat sheet of all the steps involved in drawing your own comic strip character:

By following these simple instructions, you'll be drawing cool comic strip characters in no time!

Comic Strip Ideas to Try Out

Now you know how to create your own comic strip the next step is to start creating more! Here are some fun comic strip ideas to try out:

1. School Day: Create a comic about your best/worst day at school.

2. Travel Comic: Create a travel comic about a recent trip or holiday you went on.

3. Friendship: Write a comic about your best friend or a friend and give it to them as a gift.

4. Fairy Tales: Recreate your favourite fairytale as a comic strip

5. Superhero: Design your own superhero and write a comic strip about their adventures

6. Family: Write a comic strip about a family member and give it to them as a present.

7. Music: Write a comic strip based on your favourite song, singer or band.

8. The Future: Create a comic strip based on how you will be like in 10 years time.

9. Anti-bullying: Write a comic about bullying to help anyone who is being bullied.

10. Endangered Species: Raise awareness of an endangered species through creating a comic strip.

These comic strip ideas are great for school and at home. Why not challenge yourself and create a comic strip for all 10 of the comic strip ideas above! For more inspiration take a look at our post on coming up with story ideas.

Comic Strip Examples

We all need a little inspiration now and then. To inspire your comic strip creation, here are some simple and fun comic stripe examples:

Why not continue the comic strips in these examples or create your own using these characters?

Are you ready to create a comic strip?

Creating comic strips is so much fun. And it's easy too! Just make sure to sketch out your ideas before creating your comic strip and make sure you keep your characters simple (as you may have to draw them many times in different positions.) Now sharpen your pencil and get creating!

What do you think of our step-by-step instructions on how to create a comic strip? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. In the meantime, why not take a look at our monster flip book activity or learn how to write your first-ever Haiku?

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How to Create a Comic Strip in 6 Steps (With Examples) | Imagine Forest

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Everyone loves a good comic, whether you're a comic book geek or just the casual reader of a comic in your local newspaper - Comic Strips are great! While some comic strips just take a few minutes or less to read, don't underestimate the difficulty of creating one!

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Agri Aware Incredible Edibles Family Challenge

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Agri Aware Incredible Edibles Family Challenge

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​There are five tasks involved: "5 weeks, 5 tasks".

Task 1: Food Origin

Task 2: Identifying Irish Food

Task 3: Planting/Growing

Task 4: Preparing/Cooking

Task 5: Healthy Eating Week

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​Incredible Edibles is a healthy eating project normally availed by primary school teachers. However, in light of the current global pandemic, with schools closed and most of the Irish public in...

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Online learning | Make a stop motion animation

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Free online animation activity for primary school students.

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After being inspired by a family STEM challenge evening at school, we're a bit obsessed with marble runs! I love that you can make them from recycled materials so there's no cost, they are great to build alone or as part of team and there are almost endless possibilities. We've kept these quite simple, but are working on some more complex versions.

If you like these, you might like our other easy engineering projects too.

What you'll need to build a recycled marble run

Tape - we use masking tape, but anything will work.

Cardboard tubes - kitchen roll, toilet roll etc all work well.

Other bits of recycled packaging - boxes, bottles etc - optional

Egg cartons - optional

Large box or sheet of card to build it against

Marble or table tennis ball

Scissors

Build it!

The best thing about building this STEM Project is that you can be as creative as you like.

If you don't have a big box to build it inside, we've also built them by attaching tubes to a wall, just make sure you ask a parent first and use masking tape so it doesn't rip the paint off!

Space Homemade Marble Run

This one is taken from my book This is Rocket Science and is used to demonstrate gravity!

Reusable Marble Run

I made this one for a school science fair several years ago. The velcro strips mean the pipes and tubes can be moved around.

Homemade Marble Run in a Box

If you have an empty box hanging around our box version was super easy to put together.

You'll notice we added a tube going upwards at the end.

Recycled Marble Run on a Wall

Remember to only build this one if you've asked a parent and are using masking tape!

More Ideas

Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls has an awesome craft stick marble run.

If you'd rather a shop bought marble run, we love our Quadrilla Marble Run.

Top Tips

Cut tubes in half so you have twice as many.

Use yoghurt pots, small boxes or a paper cup to catch the marble in at the end.

Make it a challenge

Can you get the ball to go up instead of down?

Challenge a friend to see who can make the fastest or slowest version.

Slow the marble down by adding some friction, this could be velcro or rough paper attached to the inside of a tube.

Try the marble run challenge on the James Dyson website. There's a fantastic video talking about the engineering behind marble runs to watch too.

Last Updated on February 11, 2022 by Emma Vanstone

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Amazing Homemade Marble Runs - Science Sparks

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Easy homemade marble runs make a fun STEM challenge for kids of all ages. Use recycled materials and challenge a friend to a race.

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My favourite number is 34. I represented it on my poster using hearts, coins, dienes blocks, tally marks and a number sentence. What is your favourite number? Design a poster showing your number as many ways as possible.

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What savings would I make if I bought 2 packets of fruit for €5?
I want to make a big fruit salad and want to have as many different types of fruit as possible. What combinations could I get for €15?
If I bought 2 packets of blueberries and 2 packets of grapes how much would I spend altogether? What change would I get from €5 if I bought a packet of blueberries and a packet of mango?

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So historic times & time capsules go hand in hand however, not everyone might have access to a garden or an attic to hide their capsule! Sending an email to their future selves or to family members who'll receive them on a future date could be a good option instead 🤗

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There are three baskets, a brown one, a red one and a pink one, holding a total of ten eggs.

The Brown basket has one more egg in it than the Red basket.

The Red basket has three fewer eggs than the Pink basket.

How many eggs are in each basket?

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There are three baskets, a brown one, a red one and a pink one, holding a total of ten eggs. The Brown basket has one more egg in it than the Red basket. The Red basket has three fewer eggs than the Pink basket. How many eggs are in each basket?

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We've come up with a Spring-Themed Nature Hunt to help you and your kids to engage with the outdoors. There is no need for you to go anywhere crowded for this, as you should be able to find most of these things in your own garden or local green space.

Download and print the Activity Sheet (pdf file) and tick them off.
Happy Hunting!

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Spring Nature Hunt: Activity Sheet for Kids

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We've come up with a Spring-Themed Nature Hunt to help you and your kids to engage with the outdoors. There is no need for you to go anywhere crowded for this, as you should be able to find most of these things in your own garden or local green space.

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1st = St Catherine's, Dublin. 2nd =St Laurences, Dublin. 3rd = St Maires of the Isle, Cork. 4th = St Anthony's, Cork.

The Shield section was won by GMA Knocknacarra, Galway. With St Felims, Cavan in 2nd place and Limerick ETNS in 3rd place.

Thanks to parents and teachers who supported the event and gave their students a great day of competitive chess. Below is the league table:

Conratulations to everyone who participated, and especially to convincing champions St. Catherine's, Donore Ave. Dublin 4.

St. Catherine's will be the first school name to be ingraved on the beautiful new cup.

This year the entry fees paid by schools covered all the normal costs and allowed us to purchase a new cup for the National champions.

In the background are the very strong St. Anthony's team with their 4th place medals.

We would like to express a big thank you to the West County Hotel, Ennis for looking after us all so well on the day.
Primary Schools All-Ireland Chess Finals 2023

In the West County Hotel, Ennis, Co. Clare.

Wednesday, 7th June 2023 Starts 11.00am to 4.00pm

Entry fee - €10 per player.

There are 2 events, your school can register for one or both events. To register email brendan@chessossity.com
(1) The All-Ireland team Championship:
School teams of 8 players (fee €80 per team). Each team plays 6 games, league format.
(2) Girls team finals:
School teams of 4 players (fee €40 per team). Each team will play 6 games, league format.

There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed teams.

Plus star player prizes for the outstanding students of all the teams that don't make the top three.

Every school leaves the event with a team prize or a star player to celebrate!

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One of my favourite videos!

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A true story about the history of Lego which can be used as a model text for writing chronological reports or biographies.

The narration of the text can be used to show directly what these texts look and sound like. Note the use of rhetorical questions in the opening section.
How paragraphs often begin with connectives, words to show when something happened or to show the passing of time. e.g. Many years ago, one day, suddenly etc.
It can demonstrate the links between paragraphs e.g: "It seemed like nothing could go wrong. But a stormy night in 1942 changed their luck.

Writing Opportunities

-Practice writing rhetorical questions for effect.
​-Children could create lego models and write instructions
-Use model to create biography for a similar figure.
-Create an advert for the early toys
-Create biography for Ole Christiansen.
-Map his mood through the events in the story.
-Compare lego with other toys such as meccano or modern games and argue why Lego is best. Maybe worthwhile comparing with mine craft, listing similarities and differences, which is more engaging? Which is best for money? Etc
-Design own lego land - use Lego to build it. Draw maps, write brochures and visitors guides. ​

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A true story about the history of Lego which can be used as a model text for writing chronological reports or biographies. The narration of the text can be used to show directly what these texts...

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I'm so excited to show you our latest LEGO® building idea! Construct your own air hockey table. Two players can actually play this air hockey game!
We've been putting extra effort into new projects lately with everyone (around the world!) facing extended time at home. I'm excited about this project because kids can make it in the colors they want, with the bricks they have on hand.

Change the scale of the game and make it smaller if you're concerned about running out of bricks. The surface of the air hockey table needs to be built with tiles, but the colors don't have to match! Kids can fill in the space with whatever tiles they have.

The photo below will give you a good feel for the size of our air hockey table. It's small so that we didn't have to use a ton of bricks, but it's also large enough to play with.
Build the Strikers and Puck
We used 4 x 4 round bricks (with a 2 x 2 round brick on top of each one) to make the strikers (also called paddles).

The puck is a 2 x 2 white round plate with a 2 x 2 red round tile on top. It actually works the best if you flip it over and let the TILE be the part that touches the game table.
Scoring
The boys also suggested a fun scoring system! We collected several 1 x 1 white round plates and used them to tally points. Every time you score a point, you add a white stud on your side of the game.

Kids can decide how many points they want to play to.

Building Your Air Hockey Table
The air hockey game is built on two 16 x 16 plates. I connect them by attaching a smaller plate underneath.

We put a blue line across the center of the table. The players should not cross the center line with their striker.

The entire table is covered with tiles, and there is a 1 x 4 opening on each end.

Build some pockets to catch the puck by placing bricks around the edge of a 4 x 6 plate. Attach the plate to the underside of the game table.

Gather the bricks shown for building the scoreboard. We used these plates with fingers, but you can also accomplish the same thing by using plates with a clip and plates with a handle.

Find two hinge bricks. Attach two 1 x 2 plates with two fingers to each one.

Then add two 1 x 2 plates with one finger to each one.

Now I can attach these to a 2 x 14 plate. My 2 x 14 plate has a 2 x 6 plate and a 2 x 4 plate underneath it. The red 2 x 2 plate on the top is just for decoration, and it separates one side of the scoring area from the other.

Use the hinge bricks to attach this assembly to the air hockey table.

This view shows you the underside of our table. You can see that the base is two 16 x 16 plates. I used two 2 x 2 round bricks for each leg. We found 7 light gray ones, but just could NOT find an 8th and had to go with blue! Ha!

And that's all there is to it! If your kids build their own LEGO® air hockey table, I'd love for you to share a picture on our Facebook page!
Want more LEGO® building ideas? We've got TONS!
Here's another great game to build with LEGO® bricks - construct some LEGO® Spinning Nerf Targets!

We also have these fun printable LEGO® Superhero Building Cards.

Build LEGO® Spinning Tops! These work really well and make a great boredom buster.

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Build a LEGO Air Hockey Table - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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I'm so excited to show you our latest LEGO® building idea! Construct your own air hockey table. Two players can actually play this air hockey game! We've been putting extra effort into new projects lately with everyone (around the world!) facing extended time at home.

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Here's a fun STEM building challenge for kids! Set up this bridge building activity and challenge kids to construct a sturdy LEGO® bridge that spans the width of the river. I love activities like this because they are beneficial and engaging for a wide range of ages.

In order to build a bridge, kids need to have a visual goal of the distance their bridge should span. I decided to use poster board as an easy way to create a river. I grabbed two sheets of poster board to use with 4 of my kids. If you're doing this activity with a group, I would suggest one poster board for every 3-4 students. We easily fit all of our bridges onto one river, and the kids still had room to work.

You'll want to have an assortment of bricks for this challenge. It really doesn't matter what exact bricks they are as long as you have a good assortment of bricks and plates (flat bricks).

You may want to draw your river wider (or narrower) based on your kids. I was shooting for this activity to be an appropriate level for Janie (4) and Jonathan (6). For the older kids, I probably would have made the river a little wider to make it more challenging.

There's all kinds of great vocabulary to discuss while building bridges. Kids can learn about the concept of a bridge's span. You can also discuss what it means to reinforce something. The bridge's beam, or the horizontal part of the bridge, needs to be strong and able to hold a lot of weight. Just one layer of LEGO® bricks won't be very strong or hold much weight. If you reinforce your bridge with a layer of overlapping plates, it will be much stronger.

The supports of a bridge that go into the ground are called the piers or piles.

You can take the challenge a step further by testing how much weight the bridges will hold. The bridge on the left held an amazing amount of weight! Janie's bridge (on the right) wouldn't hold much weight, but she didn't want to reinforce it at all so we didn't. LOL. She was having too much fun lining up all her LEGO® girls on the bridge to care about the bridge's functioning! Oh well, she's only 4.

Besides being a fun STEM challenge, our bridges provided all kinds of entertainment!
Have fun building! Need more LEGO® STEM ideas?
Also, I have a LEGO® STEM book on the way! Genius LEGO Inventions with Bricks You Already Have is available for preorder now. Your copy will arrive on the release date - November 13, 2018. This book is packed with cool LEGO® inventions to build! 40 new projects with step-by-step instructions.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO® group of companies which does not endorse, authorize, or support this site.

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Do a LEGO Bridge Building Challenge! - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a fun STEM building challenge for kids! Set up this bridge building activity and challenge kids to construct a sturdy LEGO® bridge that spans the width of the river. I love activities like this because they are beneficial and engaging for a wide range of ages.

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Build some teeny tiny LEGO® projects like tiny vehicles, tiny animals, little bitty robots, and more! Once you get started with these, you'll think of all kinds of ideas! The kids and I really had fun with this one.

If you've followed this site for very long, you may know that we sort our LEGO® bricks by color. Well, recently we've also started a separate small bin for the "tiny" stuff - bricks that are only one stud. It has made it very easy to find the right color and shape of whatever tiny brick we are looking for! We have the eyes sorted separately.

We did not make step-by-step instructions for these because they are so small and simple. You can see almost every piece used. A couple of the projects are easier to build if you have more than one view, so I have extra photos on those.
MINI JEEP
It would be fun to build a whole miniature scene to go with this little jeep!

The piece that we used to hold the tire on the back is somewhat rare - it's a 1 x 2 plate with an axle on it. If you don't have that, a 2 x 2 will work just fine.
TINY ROBOTS
I just love these! It's amazing what you can make with just a few tiny pieces.

This photo shows how the arms and hands are attached to the robot.

Inserting a 1/2 length blue pin into the wider end of the lime green round brick effectively gives it a stud on both ends.
MINI PUPPY
The black nose is attached to a 1 x 2 plate with one stud (jumper plate), which is attached to a 1 x 2 brick with two studs on the side.

We thought cones were cute for legs, but 1 x 1 round bricks are great too!

Use whatever colors you'd like on this project.
TROPICAL BIRD
This one was designed by my 10 year old. He was so excited to show me this, and I love it!

This photo shows how the wings are attached.

Both the gray 1 x 1 brick and the black 1 x 1 brick have studs on two sides. This allows you to attach the eyes and the wings.
BLUE BIRD
This adorable bird was created by our friend Addie. I just love this design!

The wings give it a lot of personality. Use two 2 x 3 slope bricks for the tail.
BALD EAGLE
My 13 year old designed this awesome eagle. It's one of my favorites!
DINOSAUR
Build a long neck dinosaur! Use any color for this - it would also look great in blue or orange.
CAT
This idea came from a friend. Thank you, Scott! Such a cute little cat.

The eyes and nose are attached to a 1 x 2 - 2 x2 bracket. This bracket is inverted, but a regular bracket would work just as well. It would just attach to the top of the head instead of the bottom.

Here's another view of the cat.
MINI AIRPLANE
Build a tiny airplane! My son built this one all in light gray, but I think it would look good with blue wings or maybe red.
HELICOPTER
This is another of my favorites! Designed by my 13 year old son.
TURTLE
Use a 4 x 4 plate as the base for this cute little turtle! Then the head is built on a 2 x 4 green plate.
LITTLE TRACTOR
Such a simple design, but it really looks like a John Deere tractor!
Need more ideas?
We've also got some fun little LEGO ideas in this post: 20 Awesome LEGO Ideas for Beginners.
Have fun building!

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Teeny Tiny Mini LEGO Projects to Build - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Build some teeny tiny LEGO® projects like tiny vehicles, tiny animals, little bitty robots, and more! Once you get started with these, you'll think of all kinds of ideas! The kids and I really had fun with this one. If you've followed this site for very long, you may know that we sort our LEGO® ...

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LEGO Stamping: It’s Art with Bricks! - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Do some LEGO stamping! Use LEGO bricks as stamps with an ink pad for an amazing art activity that kids will love.