Feed The Kitty Game

 

I recently purchased some shoes that came in this strange shoebox that opens on the side instead of the top. I started to throw it away. I normally save my shoeboxes for projects. But what on earth could I use this box for? I decided to turn to Pinterest for inspiration.



 

The original idea that I found was a game called "Feed The Penguin" at littlefamilyfun.com.

Dr. X is crazy about cats. So I decided to make a "Feed The Kitty" game. I wanted to make something that Dr. X and Super E could both do. That's a pretty tall order considering one is a preteen and the other is a toddler. But where there's a will, there's a way.

I started by cutting the top off of my box. Then, I wrapped it in orange construction paper.

I drew out my kitty in three different parts: back legs, body and front legs, and head. Click here for back legs template. Click here for body template. Click here for head template.

 

I cut out the different parts. I glued down the back legs first.

 

Next, I glued on the body.

Then, I glued on the head.

Once the glue was dry, I cut out the mouth with an X-acto knife. I cut out two white triangles for teeth and glued them to the inside of the box.

Every kitty needs a tail. I had an extra large pipe cleaner that was black and white. I painted it orange and poked one end through the back of the box.

I wasn't happy with the kitty's eyes. I decided to paint over the black lines. I ended up painting the whole kitty.

I drew up some fish on construction paper and cut them out. I laminated them with contact paper. Then I cut them out again. I have to admit, this was a tedious job. I was trying to save contact paper by cutting them out first and then laminating them. I'm cheap like that. I made four of each color of construction paper. Why four? It's just a nice, even number. I stuck a paper clip on each fish for a mouth. I cut a piece of yarn and glued one end to a wooden dowel and the other to a magnet.

 

Click here for fish template.

 

And just to add a cute touch, I cut out a little worm and glued over the yarn and magnet.

Dr. X uses the coffee table as a boat.

I used wet erase markers (you could also use dry erase markers) to write math facts or vocabulary words on the fish.

 

Sometimes we just fish and call out answers. If correct, the fish can be fed to the kitty. If incorrect, the fish is thrown back.

 

We also play a game of Go Fish "literally". I write a fact on one fish and the answer on another until all of the fish have something on them. Each player gets 5 fish - face down. The remaining fish are placed face down on the floor. Each player checks their fish to see if they have any matches. Player one asks player two for a fish to match one they have in their hand. If player two doesn't have this fish then player one has to fish from the "pond". If they get a match, they get to go again. If not, it's player two's turn. Play continues until someone runs out of fish. This player is the winner.

The fishing game was a little advanced for Super E. But he will catch a few fish with my help. As we take them off of the fishing pole I tell him the color of the fish and let him feed it to the kitty. As he gets older we can do shapes, numbers, and letters.

 

I decided to make Super E some mice to feed the kitty. I used Pom Poms because they come in different colors. I glued on pieces of yarn for tales.

I only had white yarn, so I colored the tails with Sharpies to match the color of the mice. I was planning on using google eyes but didn't have any small enough. I ended up just painting black dots on for the eyes.

 

 

I gave Super E some tongs and showed him how to pick up the mice and feed them to kitty. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of this yet. He can do it with my help but, on his own, he prefers to use his hands. He thought feeding the kitty was so funny! Each time he picked up a new mouse I would tell him the color.



 

I decided to put the mice in a bowl and give Super E a spoon to feed the kitty. He loved this idea! He was much better with the spoon than he was with the tongs.

The game is a huge hit at our house for both young and older! Hope you have as much fun with this as we have!

 

I would love to hear from you and know how yours turns out.

Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.

 





Pit Of Fun

 Okay. So I found a wading pool at Walmart for only $6 and I had this brilliant idea to use it as a ball pit in Super E's room. I bought a bag of 100 balls thinking that should be enough to start out with.

Wow! I seriously underestimated the number of balls that it would take to fill up that pool! At this rate it would cost me a small fortune to fill it.

And Super E was looking at me like, "Okay, what am I supposed to do with this?"

 

Then I found this great idea on... you guessed it... Pinterest:
 

This site has directions for making a pool noodle pit as well as other ideas for pool noodles.
 

I bought 6 pool noodles and cut them up. It worked out great!





The pool noodles actually work out better than the balls because they are softer. Those plastic balls are hard! Another plus is that they are less likely to be thrown. Not saying that your child won't throw the noodles all over the room (Super E does) but they are a lot more likely to throw a ball. I mean, let's face it, balls are for throwing. And if they do throw them, at least they're soft.

A word of caution: I wouldn't recommend the noodles if your child tends to bite or chew on things. They could bite a chunk of the foam off.



 

Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.

Playing The Blues

We have been learning the color blue this week. The idea was to expose Super E to as much blue as possible and repeat the word "blue" a million times... Or more. But Super E has had a Super cold and hasn't been feeling all that super. So we didn't get to do everything that I had planned. I will be adding more once he is feeling a little more like his super self.

I gathered up a selection of blue items from around the house. I tried to make sure to only use things that were almost completely blue because I wanted to avoid any confusion with other colors. We played with these items and made sure to say the word "blue" each time Super E picked up a new object to examine.

We made letters out of blue bottle caps.

We made an E for Super E.

We played with blue play dough.

 

We played with blue water beads.

 

For those of you who do not know, water beads are awesome! They are basically wet, squishy, marbles. They start out as these little tiny beads and grow to be about the size of marbles when you put them in water. They are a great sensory material - wet, slimy, slippery, squishy, bouncy, shiny, colorful... you get the idea. The best part is that they are super cheap! You can find them in most dollar stores and they are normally with the plant stuff. Their intended purpose is actually for watering plants but this is way more fun.

 

A word of caution: Super E played with these water beads under CLOSE supervision. You should use caution when deciding if your child should play with water beads. They are a choking hazard.

This stuff is wet! And yes, there are water beads everywhere.

The beads that didn't survive the wrath of Super E.

What should we do with the survivors? We made a blue sensory bottle.

I filled the bottle halfway with the water beads and filled it the rest of the way with water. I hot glued the lid on. Just make sure that the top of the bottle and the inside of the lid are both dry. Work quickly so that the glue is still hot when you screw the lid onto the bottle. The Gatorade bottle that I was using had an orange lid so I painted it blue. I glued on some ribbon and added a little scented glitter glue for an extra sensory touch.

Super E loves it!

We made blue Fruity Fizzy Fluff. Click on this link for more on this fun, fruity, sensory material.

Love this stuff!

For more ideas click here and check out our other color of the week posts.

 

Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.

 









Fruity Fizzy Fluff

This is officially my new favorite sensory material. And discovering it was kind of an accident. My intent was for the boys to play with some baking soda and vinegar - make it bubble. For some added fun I mixed in a packet of Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid.

I made sure the Kool-Aid was mixed in thoroughly with the baking soda because I wanted it to turn blue regardless of where the vinegar was dropped.

I filled an empty vitamin dropper bottle with vinegar.

And let the fun begin!

I should have know that Super E wouldn't be content to just watch the magic happen, but I was a bit concerned about him digging in. It was Kool-Aid after all! And blue, at that! He couldn't resist. He had to see what those blue bubbles felt like.

I just knew he was going to end up looking like Baby Smurf! Amazingly, the Kool-Aid didn't stain his hands at all. It smelled great! You couldn't smell the vinegar but the fruity smell of the Kool-Aid filled the house. The boys had a blast!

And then, right when we thought we were finished, we discovered something even cooler. The blue fluff that remained was moldable! You can shape this stuff.

More vinegar...

Wow! The possibilities! I will be adding more ways to play with this fluff in the days to come.



Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com. 

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.

Puddin' Cup Paint

I wanted to make some paint to do some finger painting with Super E. I've seen several recipes for pudding paint (made with instant pudding and food coloring) on Pinterest. Well, I really didn't feel like mixing up a batch of pudding... I had enough dishes that needed washing already. And I only needed one color - orange. So I looked in my kitchen and found some pudding cups. Why not?

And thus puddin' cup paint was born.

I just took the pudding cup, added my coloring, gave it a little stir...

And viola!

 

Time to turn things over to my testing panel.

And we have a winner!

And it's yummy too!

 

We LOVE this paint! It's so easy to make that it's ridiculous! It dries nicely... You wouldn't think that pudding would, or at least I wouldn't. And, if you prefer, you could always mix up a batch of instant pudding and get the same effect. I just like to cut corners whenever I can.

 

 

Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.