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!
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.
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! :)
Disney Phineas and Ferb Activities and Pumpkin Carving for Kids
Phineas and Ferb! We've got 3 cool Pumpkin Carving Template Patterns from Disney! You'll have a blast carving a Perry the Platypus pumpkin with this traceable pattern from Disney. Click the link below for a free Phineas and Ferb activity and coloring book. Enjoy!
Click to highlight the images below to find and print Disney Phineas, Ferb, and Perry the Platypus Pumpkin Carving Stencil Template Patterns! These are the perfect patterns for little Disney fans to use for a DIY Disney Pumpkin or print and use as a coloring sheet!
Call of Duty Black Ops and Ghosts are so popular with teens and their gaming Dads too. We've been posting a ton of Call of Duty birthday party activitythemes or after-school boredom busters. Enjoy!
I know, how can you get bored when you have your video games to play?
Well, sometimes you mess up and lose your tech time. Grounded. Don't leave your soldiers all alone. Remember when you used to get dressed up and play make believe? Yep. Now they call it role-playing, and it is cool to be a nerd.
We made our look-alike (shh, I know it's a stretch, don't hurt my feelings!) medal with recycled cardboard from a cereal box, blue felt, aluminum foil, some Sharpies, and Tacky Glue.
Official Call of Duty Black Ops Prestige Medal.
How to Make a Call of Duty Medal
We took the image above, printed it out in black and white and then traced it to make a template. It's not an exact match, but it makes a fun Call of Duty activity for kids.
After, we cut out our images, we traced them onto the cardboard. There are 5 separate cardboard pieces making up the medal.
Next, we covered each piece with foil by wrapping the cardboard cut out and rubbing over it with fingers to reveal where to make the cuts. No need to glue the foil down, just wrap the edges so they fold over the back.
Then, we stacked each piece as pictured and glued them down with tacky glue.
Take a break, let it dry. Later, we took the Sharpie and colored the bottom layer. We used brown, but gold looks best. Then, we drew the features of the skull.
Finally, we cut the felt in an odd bow tie, folded it in half, glued it at the top, and then to the wings at the top of our cardboard medal.
If you make a Call of Duty template pattern stencil (see what I did there? That's weird, right?), and cut the pieces out prior to the party, it makes a quick, fun activity for a boys' birthday party.
Need a stencil pattern template - whatever you want to call it, you can find it here as a FREE PRINTABLE CALL OF DUTYpdf on our Mediafire page. If the link isn't clickable, I haven't scanned it in yet. Hold on. I'm getting to it.
Get crafty for Valentine's Day using Cupid's arrows and Conversation Hearts in a Sight Wordgame for kids. This simple activity is perfect for early childhood literacy. Store the arrows and hearts in the monkey pocket, and then mix and match to form sentences. Scroll below for printable pattern and how to play the game. Enjoy!
Make Conversation Hearts into a Sight Word Literacy Game for Kids.
Template pattern for Monkey Valentine game.
You will need: Construction paper, markers, scissors, glue, and scrap gift bags. How to make the game: Cut out pieces per pattern above. Glue monkey's face together. When gluing monkey face to paper; glue only the outermost edge. Important: do not glue the top of the paper down (between his ears). Now you have a pocket to store your game pieces. Cut out game pieces and write simple sight words on the arrows and hearts. Make sure to use lots of action words, pronouns, nouns, and verbs.
Ideas for heart words might include feeling words like happy, sad, mad, funny.
Arrow words should include words like the, boy, girl, I, a, dog, cat, was, is, could, ran, likes. Cut more than 10 arrows to make the sentences more interesting. How to play the game: (two players) You will need 2 dice. Place hearts upside down on table. Each player takes turn drawing for a total of 5 hearts. Hold in hands like cards or place face down on table. Each player takes a die. Youngest player rolls first. Player must roll a 3 or 6. When a 3 is rolled player draws an arrow from the pocket. When a 6 is drawn player draws 2 arrows. With each turn, the player tries to form a simple sentence. Player must pass if they cannot make a sentence. Players can work together to make sentences too. The first player to use all of their conversation hearts wins!
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! :)
Stingy Leprechaun the Perfect Saint Patrick's Day Math Game.
This stingy leprechaun wants to keep his money while you learn to count it. This first to third grade St. Patrick's Day math activity is for children of all ages. Learn the basics of counting money. Printable templates included. We played this math game for counting money with our first and third graders and the third grader loved it. Of course, he was in it to win. Enjoy!
Stingy little leprechaun wants to keep his coins.
How to play: Roll the dice and take that number of coins or dollar bills. You want to trade up to a $20 dollar bill to win. To open Stingy's arms and get the money you must roll the magic number a two (2) or four (4). Once you've opened his arms roll again. This number reveals the amount of money you can take from the pot. But wait, there's more! For complete printable instructions click here.
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! :)
Oh, how we love free things to print out. I know you do too. You must meet, Jenny at Free Printable Online. Jenny knows free printables. If you're looking for games and activities for kids, you'll find coloring pages and worksheets perfect for homeschool and preschool lessons. There are coupons and clipart to print out too.
You can customize Christmas and holiday cards and invitations right on the website. In the printable craft category, you can print tons of cute origami activities. There's even a section dedicated to music with sheet music you can print out to play the piano.
Here's a sample preschool worksheet printable.
The site is super easy to navigate. Printable categories are clearly listed in the sidebar including: invitations, cards, worksheets, lessons, calendars, coupons, calendars, music, games, crafts, activities, and quotes and sayings. There's even a category listing the most recent printables added to the site.
We printed templates from Free Printable Online for a paper craft.
The kids and I printed out the printable activity templates and made paper silhouette art with the animal templates. We cut out the animal templates, traced them onto colored construction paper, and pasted them onto our background. Mayhem loved customizing the animal templates, so the mouse was scaled for the cat.
Mayhem made a catosaur and mouseosaurus with the free printable templates.
COLOR THEORY COLOR SCHEME CUT PAPER LETTERS ART PROJECT
If you watch the popular NETFLIX series, Cobra Kai, you've probably noticed the t-shirts worn by the Anthony LaRusso character, played by Griffin Santopietro. In the series, Anthony is the son of Daniel and Amanda LaRusso, and the younger brother of Samantha LaRusso. He often wears cool printed tees, below the word LEGEND is printed in two tone letters across his shirt. The colorful block print letters inspired this letter color scheme art project perfect for a quick lesson on color theory.
This post contains Amazon and other affiliate links for your convenience.
The video below is an awesome companion video to use when teaching the history of graffiti art.
LEGEND Color Theory Letter Project
This letter color scheme project can be be simple or more complicated and adapted for all grade levels. For a simple project for elementary students, simply cut and paste the letters onto a 6" x 12" white, gray, or black poster board using contrasting colors from the basic color wheel. For our homeschool friends that means: Red/Green, Blue/Orange, and Purple/Yellow. Remind your students to eyeball the letters and center the word on the page before the final glue down.
For high school students in a basic art class, remind the students that contrasting colors are simply colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This will give more color options. For more advanced classes, have art students design their letters based on a color scheme: monochromatic, complementary, double complementary, split complementary, triadic, tetradic, analagous, intermediate primary, secondary, or tertiary. We used cut, brightly colored paper in anticipation of a color paper unit on Matisse, but you can also use acrylic paints.
What are the Color Schemes?
Monochromatic - One color. A monochromatic color scheme ranges between lighter (tints) and darker (shades) versions of the base color or hue.
Primary - The basic colors. Red, Yellow, and Blue. With crayons, pencils, and paint, these colors can be combined to create the secondary colors. (Don't let Google and Digital Art confuse you.)
Triadic - Primary and secondary color schemes are also triadic colors schemes. A triadic color scheme is made up of three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. These colors form a triangle across the color wheel.
Tertiary - A primary color + a secondary color. Tertiary colors combine primary and secondary colors to create compound colors: blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, and yellow-green.
Complementary - Two colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel. The basics are Red/Green, Blue/Orange, and Purple/Yellow. However, you can pull-out a color wheel to find more variations such as, Yellow-Orange/Blue Violet.
Double Complementary or Tetradic - Using two sets of Complementary colors together. For example, red/green paired with yellow/purple. A double complementary color scheme forms a rectangle across the color wheel.
Split Complementary - A split complementary scheme uses three colors. Start with one color, find its complement and then use the two colors on either side of it. If you look at the color wheel above, blue, violet (purple,) and yellow-orange form a split complementary triangle. Yellow-Orange/Blue-Violet being the contrasting colors and blue and violet are the splits. If using Blue-Violet, the split complementary colors are Orange and Yellow. Get it? Got it. Good!
Analogous - Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. Only use three to five colors for this color scheme. Analogous schemes can use warm colors, cool colors, or a combination of both depending on where you start. For art that pops stick to three analogous colors.
Intermediate - The tertiary colors are every other color on the color wheel. Tertiary colors combine primary and secondary colors to create compound colors: blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, and yellow-green. This is also known as an intermediate color scheme.
Beginners will want to measure to choose letter size and then eyeball the position on the poster board before gluing it down. Divide 12" by the number of letters you choose to use. The answer will provide enough space for your letter and the space between each letter. For example, 12/6 = 2". Allow 1 1/2" for each letter and use the extra space to form a border and proper letter spacing.
More advanced students should use the ruler to lay out a grid on the poster board. Draw separate grid lines for the block letter, space between the letters, and a border around them. Showing the students how to layout and plan for the block letter spacing will prepare them for future work in sign painting, drafting, technical theatre, and architecture.
Draw a horizon line halfway down the middle of the paper at 3". This line serves as the dividing line for the color of the letters. Each letter will be two colors based on one of the color schemes listed above. for younger students, choose contrasting colors. Measure for at least a 1/4" border from the edges of the paper. The width of letters is determined by the number of letters used as mentioned above. If you cut the letters out from a block of paper, with an Xacto knife, you can use the paper as a template to paint letters for a future project.
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.
The, "I am", series from Penguin Books is a fun way to learn about famous, historical figures. In these Amelia Earhart lesson activities,you'll learn all about the history of the famous pilot. Penguin was kind enough to send us the book for review. Enjoy!
Scroll Down for our Online Lesson Activities and a chance to win.
Amelia Earhart Lesson Activities.
"I am Amelia Earhart", by Brad Meltzer, is told from the point of view of Amelia as a child. The illustrations are fun and lively enough to capture everyone's attention. Read it to younger children, let early readers read it aloud to you, and older children will learn about history with this easy reader.
Dear Teachers and Educators: We searched for the best resources on Amelia Earhart and shared them in this online lesson plan so you don't have to spend valuable time researching for your Amelia Earhart lesson activities.
Students: Follow the links to learn all about Ameila Earhart. When you've completed the lessons, play the games related to flight.
*Language Arts Component: After watching the video and reading the biography of Ameila Earhart, write your own autobiography in a Google Doc or your Language Arts journal.
Play this Forces of Flight Game with your friends, it is sort of like Simon Says. The Pilot calls out the forces of flight, and the other players do the action. For detailed instructions visit Scouter Mom.
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! :)
Mardi Gras is also called Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday: Activities for Kids
In America, New Orleans, Louisiana is known for its Mardi Gras Celebration. It is also known as Fat Tuesday. Grown ups go crazy in the streets dressed in costumes, face paint and beads. Everyone loves a Parade and Baby Jesus gets baked inside a King cake. Why? We found some fun traditions and activities for Mardi Gras. Enjoy!
I asked some fellow bloggers to share their Mardi Gras ideas and was surprised to learn that America's famous Fat Tuesday is also known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day in the U.K.
In Indianapolis, an after-school group holds a parade in the downtown Arts District. The year I participated, my students chose an "Under the Sea" theme.
We made giant fish and seahorse patterns from those huge school scrolls of paper, decorated the sea creatures with glitter, stuffed with newspapers, stapled closed, and added dowels so the kiddos could march with them. One of our parents even rented a walrus costume to join us. I enjoyed everything about this parade except for the cold February in Indiana!
So, after reviewing the posts about this fun February Tuesday, I decided to combine the two ideas. We're making Mardi Gras King Pancakes to celebrate. What's more fun than finding a baby Jesus in your pancake?
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! :)
Here are 9 fun New Year Activities for Kids for a night of family fun and games! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Are you staying home with the kids? Looking for fun games and activities to play on New Year's Eve? Try these 9 ideas to celebrate and have a great party with kids. Enjoy!
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! :)
Cardboard Toilet Tubes turned Holiday Hats How many rolls of toilet paper do you go though each month? We've got to recycle that ca...
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