Kids Games that get You Moving: How to Play Disc Golf

Disc Golf is a Game that gets Kids Moving

Frisbee Golf or Flying Disc Golf isn't very complicated, but the professionals take it very seriously. Since we blog about kids' activities, we've adapted this fun, family game into an easy to play (and explain) game to get children moving. If you're lucky, you have a disc golf course at your local park, but you probably don't even realize it. Enjoy!

This post contains  Amazon and other affiliate links for your convenience.

My Trip to the Manatee Viewing Center in Florida

Sea Cows: My Trip to the Manatee Preserve in Florida

Looking for FREE things to do with the kids during a Florida vacation? Mayhem is guest posting. In this article written for homeschool language arts, she tells about our visit to the Florida Manatee Preserve in Apollo Beach, Florida. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Elementary Homeschooling Science and Health Resources Online: From Netflix to Khan Academy

Online Elementary Science and Health Resources for Homeschoolers

I scour the Netflix episodes to find a title that coordinates with our daily Science or Health lesson. Below, I've highlighted some Health Resources for Homeschoolers with episodes we used to study the Human Body and Human Growth and Development which can be a touchy teaching subject. Enjoy!

Online Science and Health Resources for Homeschoolers.

Those old Saturday edutainment programs are an excellent resource for companion videos. Reward children who don't like to read with a video upon completion of their reading assignment. The video will reinforce what they've read. 

Don't do the video first, or they will say things like, "I know this already."  "I don't need to read it; I just watched it!"  "This is boring me!" The video can help them remember key points of information. They may even have to refer back to what they've read to make sure the two media forms agree. My kids are always looking for mistakes in school books!

Beakman's World 

Beakman touches on many things to do with the body like flatulence (super fun for kids), lungs, allergies, the skeletal system, and much more. When studying about health, especially for fourth-grade, with those all important hygiene lessons (remember those cheesy movies about getting your period and raging hormones?) and the birds and the bees, Beakman's world is a good place to start.

We signed up for Time4Learning and love it!

Previously, I had searched for a companion video to teach about the senses. There were plenty of videos out there, but all of them targeted preschoolers. Beakman's World had many great videos on Science and Health. (We started with Season 4 to learn about Human Growth).

The Magic School Bus

Is an awesome resource that public school teachers often use as their go to video to fill in some curriculum time. In the past, it was available only on DVD through Netflix, but now it comes in the streaming version too.  Inside Ralphie and Goes Cellular are two episodes that focus on the body. We paired Flexes its Muscles (Season 2 Episode 2) with Beakman's World on Human Growth.

Khan Academy is an online school of sorts. It is every bit as good as some of the popular academies for online learning (We previously attended Connections Academy), but it isn't an official school.  Kids can learn at their own pace. It is TOTALLY FREE! Lessons are set up for grade levels. Children can watch videos, do practice problems, and take quizzes until they've mastered the subject.

Exploring, can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is an AMAZING educational resource. Kids earn badges in each subject matter. Lessons are targeted on core learning principles. Some of the video are a snore, but they are consistently getting better. They even offer an online scratch pad, hints, and more to insure your child doesn't get frustrated by taking the tests. A lot of it is for older children, but they have been adding new material for early elementary age students. Our favorite lessons are Computer Coding, but there are some videos on health and the senses too.

Speaking of Coding, you might also enjoy Minecraft Summer School Camps. These is an online learning experience, you  won't learn about the human body, but you will learn about Wonder of the Natural World!

Recommended Reading:

Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)*

Homeschool Art: Crafting with Minecraft

Homeschooling Lesson on Geography: Country Study of China

The Everything KIDS' Human Body Book: All You Need to Know About Your Body Systems - From Head to Toe! (The Everything® Kids Series)*

ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Country Study Lesson for Homeschool or Teacher Curriculm: China

Teach about the Country of China in Non-Traditional Ways with your Homeschool Lessons

The world is always changing, but history is always history. For a recent history lesson or social studies or geography or art (we're homeschool, so we can call it all 4) we designed this lesson plan to teach about the country of China. We are very random in our curriculum planning and school in a fun, relaxed Montessori-style. Enjoy!

Culture: First, we ate a local Chinese restaurant where we saw some very inspiring pieces of wall art including these pandas and a Chinese Dragon.

We had to make one! There's your Art Lesson. Email lora@theplayconnection.com for free printable panda templates.

Chinese Wall Art with Pandas.

The pandas were a big hit! We bought all of our supplies at Dollar Tree. A beige placemat makes two backdrops when cut in half lengthwise. Just add felt and a twig to complete the look. See our template to trace and copy your panda and leaf shapes. I love how awesome our panda wall hanging turned out; it is giftable :)

You might also like: What Year is it for Chinese New Year?

You can also purchase our Panda Wall Art Kit for $2.50 plus postage and handling. The kit comes with felt, placemat, cardboard, and traceable templates. Want one? Drop a note to lora@theplayconnection.com we bill through Paypal only.

Then, we researched the Chinese flag and made our own out of construction paper. What does the Chinese flag look like? The Chinese flag is red with 5 yellow stars. Red is for the Communist Revolution and the yellow stars represent the unity of the Chinese people as a communist nation.

Chinese flag: The People's Republic of China.

Mayhem's interpretation of the Chinese flag with construction paper.

We searched Netflix to find some videos to use for our homeschool lesson. We found documentaries, but there are some cartoons for younger kids too.

Netflix Companion Movies

Feeding Time This Animal Planet video is for everyone. Cute animals eating their favorite foods in zoos. The Panda is adorable.

China's Terracotta Warriors This Secret's of the Dead episode focuses on Chinese history. We liked it because you can visit the Indianapolis Children's Museum (field trip) and see warrior statues exactly like these.

These Terracotta guys are coming to the Indianapolis Children's Museum in 2014. It is the only U.S. appearance, so plan your trip starting May 10.

Also find Wild China on Netflix. It is educational and beautiful, but it did not keep my kids' attention.

An Idiot Abroad Okay, this one isn't for everyone, it is rated TV 14, but we got a kick out of the visit to China, and it was actually educational. We learned a lot about Chinese culture. Definitely not for the classroom, I guess. Idiot isn't very politically correct, but the one episode I watched was just silly.

At the end of the day, my kids like to write a report. Yes, I'm for real... almost. They don't like to WRITE it, but they love to type it in a Google Doc and share it with me to show me what they learned or tell me about their favorite daily activity with an oral report. They are very competitive and rush to be the first to Google a fact about the topic. Then, they add images they find online as well. So, they aren't just getting a history, social studies, geography, and art lesson, they also practice language art skills, typing, and educational technology.

We also like to add a word of the day for each country we study. Learn the proper pronunciation, write it out, and share the meaning.

Recommended Reading:

Country Study Homeschool Lesson on Afghanistan

Grandma Panda's China Storybook: Legends, Traditions and Fun

Children Around the World

Flags of the World

Back to School Life Lessons from a Dyslexic's Mommy

Life Lessons for Homeschooling

Back to homeschooling dealing with brain drain. By now, most kids are back in school full-time.  As homeschoolers, we officially started August 12 with Connections Academy, since there were no scheduled live lessons we eased back into it.  Life lessons for homeschooling quickly ensued. Enjoy!

Brick and mortar schools have late start Monday, so why can’t we?  We started late (10:00) did a lesson, took a break, did another lesson, ate lunch, did another lesson, went swimming (hey, it counts as P.E), and then called it a day.  Although, it sounds easy- it wasn’t!  I’m great at giving advice, remember this post on summer brain drain?  Well, turns out, I didn’t follow my own advice.  How much brain power can one lose in a few weeks, right?  

W-R-O-N-G!

School is back in session.

Jake is doing great, on task, a little hurried so he can get back to his video games, but overall excellent.  He had a perfect spelling test, near perfect Math homework, and he was all smiles and ready to roll.  He hates school, but it comes easy.

Mayhem.  Mayhem.  Mayhem.  That’s not her given name, but that’s what we call her, Mandy Mayhem.  We woke up, brushed our teeth, freed the chickens, collected eggs and tomatoes, took a walk to the pond, and then made scrambled eggs and toast.  Everything was fine. She was excited to start school- and then we started school.  GRR.  “I can’t make this work- the page disappeared- do I have to read this?”  AND  “I can’t find my Notebook- where is a pencil? –You wrote in my sketchbook!”  On a positive note, reading her assigned story, Iris and Walter went well.  It seemed she’d retained more than I thought.

AND THEN…It was time for written work.  “Number your page for a spelling test”, Mommy politely said.  “Are you ready? This is just a pre-test”, Mommy smiled ignoring the tantrum.  “Don’t worry, it is only practice.”  There was much complaining, whining, and pencil pounding. “I’m sure those letters are backwards!”  “I can’t remember how to spell that word!”  “Which letter comes first?”  And so, it resumed.  All the work, we’d done last year, on the “it’s probably not dyslexia just age appropriate transposition of letters and numbers” was lost.

The paper wasn’t numbered from 1-15.  There were big words and small words scribbled all about, there were capital A’s and small a’s intermixed in the same word.  There were words, that had just been practiced in a worksheet, spelled on tiles, and read in the story.  Not one word was written correctly.  Although, if  you paid close attention and understood the common transpositions, backward or upside down letters, you could decode the correct spelling word.

DeKs, backward J-oB, sAD, LTis, S A backward C- K, DutS, and pockt.

I think its interesting, that the only misspelled word is the only one written in appropriate all lowercase letters.  Did you need a translator?  Desk, job, sad, list, sack, dust, and pocket.  A teacher would have taken one look at the sloppy mess and given up.  Mommy took the time to decode it.  Then, I wrote lines in pink highlighter, filled in the word 'desk' written correctly, and asked her to recopy her words with proper capitalization.  

Dust, chop, Desk, Durm, backward j-ob, t- backward a and g, letts, snack, rook, Rib, engine, mess, and list.

 She did a great job on chop, engine, mess, and list, but snack and rook aren’t on the list.  I will have to decode those later. The good news is the words are written within the lines with appropriate letter size, and numbered from 1-15.  We’ll focus on that for now-  2^nd grade.

Teacher asked if I wanted to pass her last year.  “What kind of question is that?”  She had straight A+’s in first grade.  She hated it.  It was “boring” and too easy.  Except, if the teacher and I hadn’t taken the time to decode the hand-written work…  Did you see that?  Handwritten work?  That’s right, she doesn’t transpose when typing!  Unfortunately, in second grade, she is required to turn in handwritten papers in preparation for academic testing. Bummer, next year I won’t waste those summer months.

In the meantime, she’s going to relax with some art and sensory play with her favorite medium, clay.  This is a great fun dough product perfect for sensory play for children with autism or other processing disorders.Crazy Aaron's Putty World Super Scarab Putty  is unique.  It has thermodynamic and phosphorescent properties perfect for science exploration. Thermodynamics explores the relationship between heat and other forms of energy. The putty changes colors when touched.

Thermodynamic putty.

Recommended:


Homeschool Projects for Elementary

The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain*

Homeschooling: What to do When Summer Break Drains the Brain? Sneak in Fun Learning Opportunities

Does Summer Break Drain the Brain? Try Sneaking in Educational Experiences Kids Enjoy

School is coming to a close, but learning shouldn't come to an end. We are just finishing up our first year of homeschooling.  After all the hard work, I'd hate to see it slip away this summer.  We've got plans to supplement with summer learning field trips, outdoor nature journaling, riding and music lessons, and 4H club. I'll also offer Friday day camps for friends of The Play Connection, Inc.

Outdoor Games for Summer Camp

The beginning of every school year is filled with review from the previous year.  Summer heat shouldn't melt our kids brains.  Summer Camp programs are great for socialization, pe activities, and becoming one with nature.  Opportunities to improve reading are everywhere. Playing the Alphabet Game on a long trip encourages billboard and street sign reading. Library trips offer a sneaky way to cool off, relax, and enjoy a new book. Do you read bedtime stories? Here's a fun summer reading list. 

Busy summers lend themselves to lazy days near the poolside or under a favorite tree curled up with a good book. Funny, kids never seem to curl up with a good math problem.  

Don't forget to practice math this summer.  
Leap ahead of the pack with daily lessons.

Do you practice math in the summer?  Keeping track of allowances, shopping for items at the Dollar Tree, or having your child watch the clock for break time, chore time, and lunchtime are easy ways to implement mathematics into your lazy summer days.  If you are worried about summer brain drain and the summer learning slide, you might like a more structured math program. 

Summer Brain Drain? Try this.

LeapAhead! is an easy, affordable, and flexible summer online math program. Keep your child engaged with math worksheets aligned with the common core standards. The program offers a fun math worksheet creator for members. I love the Challenge Math for gifted and talented students. The online summer math program is great for kids who need a little extra help too. This program works for both homeschoolers and brick and mortar students. 

PE GAMES

Let your computer act as a summer tutor while you enhance the online learning with fun math games and activities. You can make math a fun, summer activity too!



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Why I Choose to Homeschool: Homeschooling with Online Classes through Connections Academy (INCA)

Why Homeschool? Should You Homeschool? 

Have you been considering homeschooling? Should you homeschool? Is homeschooling bad or good? Why homeschool? Have you considered free online public school? It's completely free and totally easy! We struggled with the decision whether or not to homeschool. Then, I saw a commercial on television for Connections Academy, so we did that for awhile and then we used what we learned to do homeschool on our own. Enjoy!

With Online Homeschool, there is plenty of time for field trips and extracurricular learning.
We visited an orchard and picked beautiful blue plums off the tree.

Why did I choose to homeschool?  

Why homeschool? There are so many things about public brick and mortar school I detest and dread. I hated the mean-spirited shaming I witnessed from one avid church-goer when my son mentioned he didn't really go/like to go church. It's true, he went sometimes, but I left him home with Daddy a lot (Daddy retired from church). This strikes me as ironic, because stereotypically many people believe "church people" or "religious extremists" homeschool. 

I go to church when the whim strikes me. I'm a bleeding heart, stuck somewhere between hippies and devout Christians. I guess, the remark hurt my feelings too.

I hated the complaints from my daughter of how much she hated recess. "There is nothing to do, no one to play with, and the teachers won't let me sit on the blacktop" Ah... memories. In early elementary, I walked around the edge of the blacktop waiting for the teacher to blow the whistle.

I hated picking my son up nearly every other day after lunch, because he had something with milk or dairy in it. I even had a note from the doctor, apparently, state law requires milk must be placed on EVERY child's tray! I sent in alternative beverages, but "Mommy, I just took a little sip of chocolate milk!" 

He'd have an asthmatic reaction, go to the nurse for his inhaler, and then... And then... poor nurse. Let's just say, it came out both ends.

Number one, the school bus! I hated leaving the safety of my kids to another person- someone I didn't know, no seatbelts on the bus, bullies on the bus, other dangerous drivers, etc. Just pulling into our neighborhood was a deathtrap. Waiting for the bus with the middle schoolers outside was too traumatic for Mommy. Well, it didn't seem right to me; my kids were just newly 5 when they started school.

They begged to ride the bus. I let my son ride a few times. The neighbor child had some problems. He was sort of a bully, but he was also bullied by the older kids. The nice, old man bus driver had him sit up front with my little one. My son came home with lots of amazing new life lessons. 

Then, the kid started causing trouble. The bus driver would pull over and wait it out. So, the bus was often late. No, thank you, we started driving the kids to school permanently once my daughter hit all-day kindergarten. She's a handful. I can't imagine she'd stay in her seat without a seatbelt. I didn't think the sweet, old man needed the added stress. 

I'd pick the kids up from school, have an after-school snack, try to squeeze in a little outdoor playtime, then it was time to make supper, get baths, do homework, and go to bed. 

Impossible.

I hated the homework! We'd be up late finishing projects for first and second grade! 

My son is gifted. We looked forward to a special program at the school, but it didn't start until third grade. In the meantime, he was placed in a class with high ability learners. Even so, the teacher felt there were problems. He understood concepts in ways other second graders couldn't- which led to arguments and frustrations. Since, we were planning to move, the teacher wondered if online school might work for him. This way, he could work at his own pace. I wasn't sold on the idea until...

The second lockdown at school. That's right, second. I shrugged off the first one. The second one was for the same reason, a bank robber near the school grounds and shots fired. I tried to get in the car line to pick up the kids, but the road was blocked by police cars. I called  a friend, Angie, she arrived a few minutes prior to me. She was told to get out of her car and head to them gym for safety. 

Yep, I was a mess.  

BUT... I can't homeschool. I don't have the patience. I'm not disciplined enough. My kids need socialization. I don't want other people to think we're freaks. 

WHATEVER.

It's just not like that anymore. I CAN (of course I can). We actually had LESS busy bookwork than regular school. The kids had online live lessons with their teachers and classmates. The teachers checked in regularly with emails and phone calls. As a learning coach, I was a big part of my kids academic experience, but not the teacher. So, I didn't have to worry about making major mistakes.

Indiana Connections Academy, Free School Online!

We homeschooled through INCA or Indiana Connections Academy. The supplies are completely free! This includes all textbooks, science supplies, art supplies, and companion DVD's and CDRom's for the online classes.

They took required state standardized tests in an university classroom. There are school sponsored field trips and local group gatherings. We met up with a local group of homeschoolers outside of INCA for recreation or SOCIALIZATION.

Yep, next to giving birth... homeschooling is the best idea I've ever had. I have more time to spend with my kids, hone my novel writing skills, and work as a freelancer.  

In case you're wondering, my kids were offered the opportunity to attend regular school year. They both declined with a resounding, "No way!"

Now, that we are experienced homeschoolers, we go it alone! I create online lessons and share them here on the blog. The kids do math with Kahn Academy, and we supplement with Brainpop. We love homeschooling. 

We get up when we want, go to bed when we want, study what we want, and have the freedom to supplement with field trips whenever we want. We are members of several clubs for homeschoolers and meet up with our friends at least once per week.


Recommended Reading:


Homeschooling 101: A Guide to Getting Started.*

The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas*

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ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Homeschool Science Project: Bread Making Investigation - How Does Matter Change?

Science Curriculum Ideas for Elementary Homeschooling: Investigate the MATTER of bread? 

In this homeschool science project you are required to experiment with bread making ingredients to study how matter can change. Enjoy!

After the experiment, make a loaf of bread and watch how yeast makes chemical changes. Find an Easy Artisan Bread Recipe on the internet like the one in this linky. We've included a link to our free printable worksheet: investigating the matter of bread. Instructions for the project are included in the worksheet.

This post contains affiliate links.

Kid Science Lesson on Matter Bread Making Investigation.

Homeschool experiment with bread ingredients. 

Print out worksheets from the link below.

Homeschool Science Worksheet: 

Investigating the Matter of Bread

Free Bread Clip Art

What happens when you experiment with bread ingredients? 

Get your safety glasses ready and find out. See the Dew? 

Don't do the Dew! Kid never drank it, just the Mommy. 

She quit, lost weight, and has never felt better! 

Recommended Reading:

For Kids Big Book of Science Experiments

Electric Bread for Kids : A Bread Machine Activity Book

3 Easter theme Physical Education Activities for Elementary Kids using Eggs

Want to add an Easter theme to homeschool physical education activities for elementary school age kids? 

Use plastic eggs and egg cartons in the games. To make a fun preschool activity or silly Easter party game add some bunny ears. These 3 games work for a kid's birthday party  and are fun to play in Sunday School at church. We also have a fun pe game for Easter. Enjoy!

More PE Games

Plastic Easter Egg Games and Activities for PE/Gym.

Easter Egg Pockets Game                                                   
You need:  egg carton, markers, plastic Easter eggs, and 1 or more players.

How to play game: Any size egg carton will do, but cardboard egg cartons are easier to color with markers than styrofoam ones.

Cut lid off carton. Color each pocket a different color. Write a point value in each pocket. The points should be in increments of 10. So, if you want to use an egg carton with 8 pockets, the point values would be 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80. The larger point values should be in the pockets around the outside edges, since these are harder to get the ping pong ball into.

Place the your egg carton on the floor. Stand about four feet back from the carton. To make it harder you can stand even further back.

Now, try to toss a plastic Easter egg into one of the pockets. Where the egg lands is the number of points you get. Then, the next player takes a turn. The first one to reach a score of 100 is the winner!

How to decorate Easter eggs and make homemade dye

Easter Egg Pass Game
You need: Plastic Eggs, Large Spoons, and an Easter Basket.

How to play game: Each player needs a large ladle or spoon. Each group of two players needs a plastic Easter egg. Player one starts with the egg balanced on his spoon. He tosses it to the other player, who in turn catches the egg in his spoon. The object of this game is to pass the ball back and forth without dropping it off the spoons. 

With a larger group of children, at a kid's birthday party, you can play a variation of this game by dividing in half and lining everyone up into a single file line and asking them to pass the egg down. 

When a whistle blows or you say, "On your mark, get set, go" the race begins and the egg is passed from spoon to spoon until it gets to the person at the end of the line. If the egg is dropped the team must start over. 

The last person drops the egg into an Easter basket at the end of the line to win. Or, try this variation: The fastest team wins or give each team an equal number of eggs and a time limit. When you blow the whistle, everyone must freeze. The team with the most eggs in their Easter basket wins.

In My Easter Bonnet Game
You need: Plastic Eggs, Easter Basket, 1 Easter Bonnet (Make one here) and enough bunny ears for all players.

How to play game: Before the game begins mark one of the plastic eggs with a tiny bunny face. For a preschool or Sunday school class let the kids make their own ears and bonnets beforehand.

Everyone sits in a circle like Duck, Duck, Goose only everyone is wearing bunny ears (Don't worry it is fun for older kids too). Place the basket of eggs with the bonnet in the center of the circle. One player is chosen to hop around the circle like a bunny. He chooses another player by tapping him on the shoulder. The second player, places his hands on the firsts shoulder (like a train) and they continue to hop around the circle adding to their bunny hop. The last player sitting grabs the basket and the bonnet. 

The bunny train circles him and then sits down. The player with the basket passes 1 egg to each of the other players. The player with the bunny egg must trade his ears for the bonnet. 

Now, the eggs are placed back into the basket, and everyone wearing bunny ears forms a new circle around the basket of eggs. The player in the Easter bonnet is now "it". This player must twirl around the circle and tap another player on the shoulder to twirl with him until all but one player remains again.

Play continues as before, and the person who gets the bunny eggs must trade his ears for the bonnet. Play continues until everyone has a chance to be "it".

If you can find the music for the Bunny Hop and Easter Bonnet songs, play them during the game to make it more festive :)


Recommended Reading:

Holiday Recipes and Games for Kids*

Egg Hunt Game for Physical Education

The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book: Fun and Easy-To-Use Games and Activities To Help You Teach Your Children Fitness, Movement and Sport Skills*


Sign up for our free newsletter!













ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Leprechaun or Santa Placemat Papercraft Tangram Game

Tangram Template Pattern for Santa's Hat Game

This holiday homeschool math lesson for first grade, is a fun learning game for tangrams. What's in Santa's hat? Tangrams! And, yes... I realize tangram is misspelled on some of the images and printables. Who knew? Everyone here says, "TanAgrams". So, if you do too, now you know the correct spelling is T-A-N-G-R-A-M. Enjoy!

What's in Santa's Hat? Tangram game for elementary!

Shh, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. In March, Santa is a leprechaun. That's right, he just changes his clothes to green and dyes his hair and beard red. You can do it too! 

When you make our placemat papercraft free printable template, just cut green and orange to make Lucky the Leprechaun for this tangram placemat papercraft game for kids. 

It makes the perfect classroom activity for sitting quietly at your desk, or use it at the dinner table to keep the kids busy while you finish preparing dinner. 

Click on the images below for printable templates or right click and save to computer to print. The latter way might not come out the right size- it is best to click to our MediaFire storage. 

Then, trace and cut out all shapes. When sewing or gluing, leave the top of the hat band open to insert the hat/napkin. I also used the face (just glued the sides) to make the storage space larger.

Santa printable traceable pattern .

Click the image for Santa Template to download.

So, oops I misspelled tangram on my printables. Don't make the same mistake!

Tangram Pattern, that's right tangram. Watch your spelling.

Santa Math Game for First Graders.

Tip: If you are really crafty, use felt or laminate the paper to make it last longer!

Tangram Shapes 
Printable Hat 
Template Santa's Face Template


Recommended Reading:


Homeschool Lessons by Grade

Santa's Hat Companion Book Idea Ad*









ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

First Grade Math Activity Games using Tens and Ones

First grade game for math activity center involving tens and ones counting

You can make this game activity at home, and print a free printable tens and ones chart to play it. Playing with dice makes learning tens and ones counting fun for first graders. Enjoy!

Visit the link above to print these charts.

Printable Hundreds Chart.

Help your early elementary or preschooler learn 
about tens and ones with this game.

You will need  12 mini cups, 2 dice, and macaroni. 
We used Phineas and Ferb Macaroni.

Mark six of your cups with the number 10 and six with the number 1.

Take turns rolling the dice and building numbers. Child chooses which number to build. For example, the roll shown above can be played as 46 or 64.

Place the dice in the squares on the free printable playing chart. Use the Hundreds chart to help count to 64. 

Then, build the numbers in the cups. For sixty four, place 10 pieces of macaroni in six cups (60) and one macaroni in four number one cups (4).

Once cups are filled, count to find out how many tens and ones. 64 = 6 Tens, Four ones. Mark this on your playing chart. Under the appropriate heading.

For further understanding, use the free printable hundreds chart to check your work. If macaroni adds up to the number rolled score 5 points. First one to 20 points wins.


Recommended Reading:

Using Ten Frames to Teach Number Sense, Grades K-1*

Online Lessons for Homeschooling











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