I love making these cute little hanging decorations with the kids. They ooze personality and are just adorable little keepsakes.
First of all cut a circle about the size of a side plate out of some brown card.
Fold in half and cut along the fold. One half will be used to make the cone for the body and the other to make the reindeer head.
Take a piece of wool or twine roughly about 6 times the length of the card and fold it in half. Make sure the loop at the top is long enough to hang onto a tree or door handle (take in to consideration that a head needs to be stuck onto the top also) and the two ends need to be longer than the curved edge in order to stick feet onto the ends. Place a knot just below the straight edge as shown in the picture above.
Roll the card into a cone and glue the edges together to make the body. (making sure the knot is secure under the point so it can't pop back through)
Draw a head on the remaining semi circle, glue to the top of the cone and add accessories. We used a bit of lighter coloured card for the tummy and some red card for a nose. We also attached googly eyes and tied some extra thread onto the bottom of the hoop to attach some bells.
We also made one out of felt :) Below are a few we made last year. These were more basic but still looked fab!
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. This is known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day because the destruction of the war disturbed the lands and transformed bare land into fields of red poppies that grew around the fallen soilders. Poppies are now used to show our respect to all the soldiers that died for peace and freedom.
We made a paper poppy garland to teach my children and show our respect to this special day.
. Here is a fun way to make sure you and your family stay safe on Bonfire Night. Watch Fireman Sams top ten tips and download their children's activity booklet
Once upon a time in the Celtic lands the nights became longer, colder and the leaves began to fall. The harvest season was ending and the winter was creeping in. The beginning of the dark season meant the door to the Otherworld would be open allowing fairies and the souls of the dead and other spooky beings to pass into our world.
The people lit huge bonfires and celebrated the dead with a huge festival called Samhain. They had huge feasts and beckoned the souls of their dead relatives to celebrate with them.
Today we celebrate this time of year with Halloween but all the things we like to do on Halloween today all evolved from the Samhain festival that happened lots and lots of years ago.
Carving Jack O Lanterns
During Samhain the people were frightened of the nasty evil spirits and fairies that passed through the door from the otherside. They did lots of things to protect themselves.
They made lanterns and carved scary faces into turnips and placed them in their windows to protect their homes.
Years later some of the people traveled by boat to North America (which was far far away) and passed the tradition of carving lanterns to the Americans. Turnips were really hard to find in the new lands so Pumpkins were used instead. They found that pumpkins were a lot easier to carve and made better lanterns.
We had a go at carving a turnip. It was really tricky.
Trick or treating
During Samhain the people left food and drink out as a peace offering to the spirits, fairies, and creatures from the otherside to try stop them from becoming angry. Over the centuries people started getting dressed up like the dreadful creatures and performing in exchange for food and drink. People started making Soul cakes which were used as a offering for the dead and were given to children and poor people who went door to door singing songs and saying a prayer for the dead. When a soul cake was eaten it represented a soul of the dead being freed.
We had a go at making our own soul cakes and sang a song that was traditionally sang in exchange for them.
Encourage healthier eating in a fun way. Use the healthy food cards to create nutritious meals and post the junk food into the gorilla's mouth to make him burp, but don;t forget to say "Excuse me!"
Greedy Gorilla is a lotto game based around healthy eating. Each player starts with a menu board showing pictures and the word for six ingredients they need to find to make their nutritious meal. The use of pictures and words is great for language development and spelling. The pictures are also great for younger players. Drew is 30 months old and gets really excited when he can match a tile to his menu board.
There are 24 healthy food tiles and 8 Junk food tiles.
The cards are jumbled up and placed faced down on the table. Each player takes in turns to pick up a tile and try match it to their board. The first player to fill their board is the winner.
If a player picks up a junk food tile they have to feed it to the greedy gorilla to make him burp. This is a big hit with the kids they get really excited and squeal with delight when they get to feed the gorilla. When the greedy gorilla burps the children have to shout excuse me.
Orchard Toys recommends this game for 4 - 8 year old which is about the right age to be able to play without any help. My boy has been playing this since he was 2 and he loves it. He needs a little help but it does not disrupt the game. He understands he needs to wait his turn and he can match the tiles to the images on his board but sometimes needs prompting. Sometimes he will go on greedy gorilla duty. He will turn the cards looking for the junk food to feed to the gorilla. Other time we use the tiles as flashcards and we will say what item of food is on the tile and then feed it to the gorilla. This not only expands his vocabulary but helps him easily distinguish tiles when playing the full game.
My daughter is 4 and she also adores this game. She can play with no help at all and has a good understanding of healthy and junk food. She sometimes relates her own food to the game. If she has a ice cream she says I cant have too many mammy because I will be a greedy gorilla.
