Happy spring Or So She Says readers! It’s Brooke again and I’m happy to be visiting you today from Blissful Roots. Don’t you love this beautiful, refreshing time of year? It’s one of my favorite seasons. Come to think of it, I say that at the beginning of every season, and then by the end of some seasons I’m complaining a bit. But never with spring! Spring could last forever in my book!
Today I have a fun, easy educational holiday game for you to do- an Easter egg word scramble.
When I taught first grade, we did a lot of great activities for our literacy centers. This was always a hit with my students during the weeks leading up to Easter. When I taught, we didn’t use Easter words, we used our spelling and/or high frequency words, but since Easter is just around the corner I think Easter words are perfect for this activity!
Printable St. Patrick’s Day Tic-Tac-Toe (she: Brooke)
How is it already the middle of March? I love this time of year! But I feel that way about every new season. I love the anticipation of what’s to come. The warmer weather, the spring flowers, the green grass, and blossoms on the trees. Such a beautiful, refreshing time of year! And, of course, I love the holidays associated with each season as well.
Along with leprechaun traps, we always love a good St. Patrick’s Day game. Last year I shared our Roll-A-Leprechaun game (still a family favorite) here at Or So She Says, and this year I have a printable St. Patrick’s Day tic-tac-toe game for you. I have a valentine tic-tac-toe game that we use at our house, and my four-year-old loves it! So, I thought I’d make a St. Paddy’s Day version in honor of this Irish-inspired holiday.
Simple Invitation To Play (she: Amy)
As much as I love hanging out with Elle the 3 footer, sometimes I need a few quiet moments to myself. Whether it’s to make dinner, do laundry, go to the bathroom by myself, upload a picture to Instagram…all these little alone moments keeps me sane.
To get these snippets of alone time, one of the best ways I’ve found is to occupy the kids with something fun.
An invitation to play is simply setting up something really simple for your children to engage with and create something with no boundaries. They are free to do as they wish with the materials given.
In this simple invitation to play, I set out a tray of ‘stuff’ for Elle to put on a stick.
I went through our craft cabinet and pulled out anything I can find with holes in it. I gathered 2 bowls of pastas in different shapes that we dyed recently, some wooden beads, some small plastic beads and some caps from those squeezable baby/kid puree in a bag (is there an actual name for these?).
Valentine Spin Wheel Game (she: Darleen)
Hello, hello! My name is Darleen, and I am one of the new contributors here. I stay busy over at Darling Darleen and with my shop Darleen Meier Jewelry. I’m one of those people who likes to go all out for each holiday and birthday. I tell myself I’m doing it for my children, but I’m realizing it might really be for me! So, I’m excited to share with you a Valentine craft, or more specifically, a Valentine Spin Wheel game that your child can hand out in the classroom or as a favor for a V-day party. It’s an adorable Valentine, and it’s interactive! I’ve been wanting to create a spin wheel game for a while. And Valentine’s Day couldn’t be better for it! It brings back childhood memories from spin wheels I used to cut out off the back of cereal boxes. We tested this game out with a little neighborhood valentine party, and all the kids had a good laugh.
Mr. Freeze ~ Fun Group Game for Parties!
It’s almost New Year’s Eve and if you’re not thinking about hitting the hay, you may be thinking about some possible games to play at your party! I love easy group games that don’t require much prep. This game of Mr. Freeze is so simple and fun to play during dinner, whether with your family or a big group of friends.
Come check it out and stick around OSSS because I’ve got a whole slew of group games for you really soon!
How To Make BINGO Cards With PicMonkey (she: Brooke)
I’ve mentioned before that my twins and three-year-old have birthdays one day apart. And those two days are this week. I’ve been working on getting some things together for our family’s annual three-in-one birthday party. It’s really nice to get all three birthdays done at once, but a bit crazy.
I’ve been working on some games for our party. I love a good game of Bingo. Don’t you? And I love PicMonkey even more than Bingo. Let me tell you, these two were made for each other. PicMonkey has made it so, so easy to make your own Bingo cards. I had so much fun putting the cards together, and it couldn’t have been easier.
So, without further ado, here’s the world’s longest Bingo tutorial post. Long, not in a bad way, but long because I included screen shots of every step so you can do this on your own. Just look for the orange arrows. Not only will you be able to make a Halloween Bingo game, but PicMonkey has been coming out with brand new material for each season lately. You can make Bingo boards for every holiday and occasion possible!
The Name Game ~ A Fun Group Game! (& Our Bear Lake Vacation)
So, we spent this past weekend with Dan’s family in Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho. Have you been there?? It’s soooo beautiful. A huge, amazingly turquoise lake, right in the middle of the desert. Every year, we rent a cabin up there and spend the time boating, swimming, eating raspberry shakes (they’re famous!), wrestling (tons of cousins!), and relaxing. After we got all the kids to bed, the adults stayed up late playing games …AND, I thought I would tell you about it. It’s called The Name Game and so much fun!
But, first …a handful of pictures from our trip…
Egg Timer Seeking Game ~ Simple & Fun for Kids! (she: Caz)
Hi, I’m Caz from A Little Learning For Two and I’d like to share a game idea with you that I hope your kids will enjoy as much as mine do! This egg timer seeking game is simple, fun and all you need to play the game is an egg timer.
The idea of this game is very easy; one player leaves the room while the others set the egg timer for 5 minutes (or less) and then hide it somewhere for them to find. The seeker has to find the egg timer before the time counts down and it rings.
For our youngest daughter (4) we use one timer but for our 6 year old we hide several at once and she loves to race around trying to find them before the time runs out and the bell sounds.
Educational BINGO ~ The Kids BEG to Play!
I know school is almost over for most of you, and although I intended this activity to be for homeschool, I can see us playing it all year long. It’s nothing fancy, just BINGO…awesome BINGO. I’ve always got my eye out for really great educational products for kids, and while browsing the daily Zulily deals, I saw these really neat BINGO sets for half off. They’re from Lucy Hammett Games and each set is based around a certain theme, like: birds, weather, wildflowers, oceans, body, butterfly, art, and soooo many more! You play it like you would any other BINGO game, but the kids are actually learning with these. Yay! Not only can they learn from the pictures alone, but on the back of each card is a little description/facts about what is on front.
The first time we played, we used jelly beans as the markers. Mistake. Nobody could keep them on the board and out of their mouths!
The Popcorn Olympics ~ Fun Activity for Kids! (she: Veronica)
There are many things I love about being a mom. So many, I don’t think I could name them. But, there are many things that are challenging as well. Lately I have been on Pinterest and have started feeling overwhelmed at all the GREAT ideas I’ve seen. There are so many ideas that I would […]
The Telephone Game ~ Fun for the Whole Family (she: Amy)
A fun twist on a classic- the telephone game! Get the rules and how-to on the blog today.
M & M Straw Group Game (she: Michelle)
Hello! My name is Michelle (AKA the Fun On A Dime Lady). I am always on the lookout for fun and affordable activities for my family to do and that is why I started my blog Fun On A Dime. It is my little oasis where I gather all my fun findings/ideas and share them […]