I made this awesome wooden memory game for my daughter in about two hours. You can, too! You'll need thirty 1.5 inch wooden disks or squares and a black non-bleeding pen. I used a Sharpie pen - not a sharpie marker, but the pen in fine point.
It looks like this. You will also need a pencil and a large eraser.
The wooden disks I purchased for a great price from My Heartfelt Designs on Etsy. You can grab 30 of them for $4.45 plus shipping.
First, choose the animal footprints that you would like to use. I used the following: human, bear, opossum, raccoon, cat, dog, deer, elk, pig, porcupine, beaver, bird, duck, rabbit and horse. For younger kids, be sure to avoid footprints that look too much alike or there may be some confusion during the game. I found pictures of most of the animal tracks at
Bear-Tracker.
Carefully draw the outline for each footprint using a pencil. Work lightly or you will have a hard time erasing your mistakes. Place each footprint slightly above center so you will have room to write the name below. Be sure to add the name in pencil as well.
Once you have your matching footprints all drawn, use your pen to carefully trace over the pencil. Once your drawings are completed, carefully erase your pencil lines. Then use your pen to shade in the footprint shapes.
This game is great for kids of all ages. My three year old loves it and learned the names of all of the animal tracks after playing it only twice. It's a bit of work, but it's worth it and you can do it. Have fun!
Last Friday, our homeschool group made these fun homemade marbles using Sculpey clay. You can use Fimo or any other brand, just be sure to use the heavier clay, not the lightweight foam type. The clay is soft enough to be worked by little hands and it takes only a couple of minutes to make each marble. We tried different designs and mixed colors as you can see. Once finished, just smooth them as best you can with your fingers and bake them in the oven for fifteen minutes until hard. Our marbles are a modern version of old Civil War era marbles kids used to make from clay.
In all, it was a really neat experience for the kids, especially seeing the clothing and getting to dress up. For more information about volcanoes and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, visit the USGS website for more. There is also information on current earthquakes caused by the volcanic activity.
Holding a live sea urchin
Handling marine invertebrates
Do yo want to stick something to something else but aren't sure what kind of glue you need? Plug your items into This to That and it will tell you! This is a super easy way to find the right glue for all of your crafts and projects. Today my daughter's metal clip fell off of her felt mushroom hair accessory. Fixed!
