Graham Cracker Houses

Instead of baking gingerbread, buy a box of graham crackers and just do the fun part - decorating!

The basics: You will need a box of graham crackers, a container of icing, and an assortment of candies for decorating. Also, a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar mixed in a cup of icing will help the icing dry hard enough to hold your cracker house together.

For a base used cardboard covered in aluminum foil. To pipe your icing onto your house, cut the corner off a plastic bag. Once you have your walls assembled you have two options.
1. You can cover the house with icing and stick the candies on, or
2. use your icing like glue and stick individual candies on the house.
If you go for option one, be sure to only ice one cracker at a time or the icing may get too hard for the candy to stick to it before you get all your decorating done.

Teddy Bear Races

Get a couple of empty plastic clothes baskets and put a teddy bear in each. Have your kids race each other or you race your kid. Set a course for the race then push your teddy bears across the floor and see who gets to the end first. Try not to dump your teddy bear along the way! (don't have plastic baskets? find something else that will work in their place - even a couple small empty boxes will do) If you have really young ones, you may want to have the goal be finishing, rather than racing.

Choo-Choo Train

Have your kids form a train by standing behind each other and holding onto the waist of the kid in front of them. You be the engine in the front. Reach your hands back for your kid to hold onto if it isn't easy for them to hold onto your waist. Now chuga-chuga-choo-choo all around the yard. If they want, let them take a turn being the engine.

Rain Dance

Go outside and teach your kids how to do a rain dance. If it's winter, do a snow dance. Pattern it after native american dancing and have fun.

If you have a playgroup this is a fun indoor activity. Create a rainstorm inside. Have all the kids sit in a circle on the floor. One parent starts the rain storm and whatever they do, have the kids do. To really make is sound authentic, go around the circle one by one adding to the rainstorm. They should keep doing their the current motion until it is their turn again. Say, "Here comes the wind." Make circular motions on the floor with your hands. Have the kids do the same motions, going around the circle clockwise. When everyone is making the wind noise, the parent says, "Here comes the rain," and starts tapping the floor with their fingertips. Each child in turn taps the floor. Then the parent says, "it's getting harder," and taps the floor with their whole fingers. Go around the circle, changing from fingertips to fingers. Then the parents says, "it's getting harder," and pounds the floor with their palms, and each child in turn changes from fingers to palms. Do the reverse for the storm passing.

Indoor Sledding

Take turns giving your kids "sled" rides. Get a blanket out and lay it on the floor. Have your kid sit down on it, pull the sides in towards them for them to hold onto. Now you take the end and pull them around the house. This works best on non-carpeted floors, but can be done even on carpet. note: this is in place of going to the gym for you!

Puzzles

Bring out your puzzles and spend some time putting them together with your kids. Try to use the time for teaching your kids too. You can teach them about the shapes, colors, or objects in the puzzles.

Puff the Magic Dragon

This is one that shouldn't be forgotten. Teach your kids the song Puff the Magic Dragon. You can get all the lyrics and music here. And contrary to rumor, there is nothing untoward intended in the lyrics. See snopes.com for the lowdown on the lyrics.

Snowman door wreath

Pick up 3 wreaths from your local dollar store or craft store. Tie them together to form your snowman and add a hat, scarf and mittens. The totally homemade version goes like this: Get an old cardboard box. Cut one big circle out of cardboard. Draw 3 circles inside each other on your cardboard circle, so that it looks like a dartboard. Then cut along each line. This leaves you with 3 circles to make your wreaths for the snowman. Punch holes in the circles and tie them together to make your snowman. Let your kids glue cotton balls onto the snowman, then dress him in your scarf set and hang on the wall or your front door. If you make a smaller one, then your kids can use construction paper to make the accessories for the snowman and glue them on. See a picture here.

Puppet Show

Put on a puppet show. If you have puppets, you can use them. Otherwise, make puppets as a craft time activity. You can get elaborate and make a 'stage' from an old box or just sit the kids down at the dining room table. You get on the other side and sit on the floor. Then just have the puppets perform at the table height.

Animal Fun

Have your kids pretend to be different animals. Have them walk, crawl, or jump like the animals and imitate their noises. Have them try to be like a variety of different animals. You can do farm animals, zoo animals, or pets. Teach them about the different animals while they are playing. Tell them about the animals habits, what they like to eat, etc.

Paper Bag Puppets

Make paper bag puppets. You can do this by decorating the bags with construction paper cutouts or get more creative with other art supplies. (ex: buttons, yarn, glitter, etc.) Need more help?

Try making farm animals like a cow, pig, sheep, or chicken.
Make domestic animals like a cat, dog, or bunny.
Make zoo animals like a lion, penguin, or bear.
Make people.

Old MacDonald

Sing Old MacDonald had a Farm with your kids. This is a great interactive song for your little ones to learn the different farm animals and the sounds they make. If you are lucky enough to have animal hand puppets, use them as you sing the song. Don't be afraid to use any animal even if it isn't a traditional farm animal. Your kids will love making all sorts of critter noises with you. :)

Hokey Pokey

Do the Hokey Pokey with your kids today. Need the Lyrics? Don't be afraid to add your own twist to the song and dance like "You put your teddy bear in, you put your teddy bear out..."

Playdough Fun

Using playdough, have your kids make shapes. You can give them direction and make it a teaching opportunity or just let them freestyle. Young kids will enjoy using cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the pressed playdough. You can find playdough cutters at the dollar store, or make some basic shapes out of old cardboard tubes or boxes. You can also work on color recognition with your playdough time.

Ideas for themes:
Learn parts of the body - make all the body parts - feet, legs, body, arms, head - then assemble them.
Learn shapes - make circles, squares, triangles, rectangles
Zoo animals
Pets
Farm animals
Learn sizes - long/short, big/small

Simon Says

Play Simon Says. You as the parent should be Simon. You say "Simon says..." and fill in the blank with an action for the kids to imitate. (touch your nose, stomp your feet, etc.) Keep the actions more simple for the indoors. Do things that will help with them learning to identify arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. If you play outdoors, you can get even more creative since you may have more room to roam. (run in a circle, roll down the hill, etc) Then if you give them an action without saying 'Simon says' that child is out. This is a good game for older kids to help them with their listening skills. For young children, always say 'Simon says.' They enjoy doing whatever silly things you can come up with.

Paper Dolls

For your craft time make paper dolls. You can either design them yourself, or get some help online. (paper doll link) Keep it simple for the younger ones - maybe make a simple bear. You can use colored construction paper for clothes, or plain paper and let your kids color them.

Sponge Painting

Cut shapes out of sponges - circles, squares, triangles. You can use old ones or buy new ones at the dollar store. Wet the shapes but wring out the excess water. Dip the sponge in paint or use a brush to apply the paint. Press the sponge onto canvas or paper.

If You're Happy and You Know It!

Sing the song If You're Happy and You Know It with your kids. Find the music and lyrics here. Have fun with this one by making up your own actions to perform. Let your kids come up with ideas too - they can be quite fun! Examples: If you're happy and you know it...
stick out your tongue
nod your head
flap your arms
yell yahoo!
jump in the air

Pictures from Shapes

Get out construction paper and glue. Cut out a bunch of circles, squares, and triangles from different colored paper. Then let your kids glue the shapes onto a sheet of construction paper. They can either do a collage or use the shapes to create pictures, like a tangram (a tangram uses 7 geometric pieces to create different forms) only with as many shapes and pieces as they want.

Shape Scavenger Hunt

Make a list of the items your kids have to find. The items should be based on shapes such as 4 squares, 2 rectangles, 1 triangle, 3 circles. Give your kids a bag or basket to collect their items. If your kids are older, you might want to increase the difficulty of the scavenger hunt by tagging colors and shapes together - ex: red square, blue circle, etc. Work with your kids to see the shapes in their every day environment.

Hide and Go Seek

An oldie but a goodie. One person is it. They close their eyes and count to ten. While they are counting, the other kids (or parent) hides. Traditionally, after counting to ten say, "Ready or not, here I come!" After finding the hiders, the last person found gets to be it.

I Spy

If you don't know how this game works, one person says "I spy with my little eye something that is...." then you give a description of the object that you have chosen. (ex: green, tall, round) Then the other person looks around and tries guessing what the object is that you have described. Take turns picking the object or let whoever guesses it get the next turn.

Play Pretend

Let your kids decide who they will be and what adventure they will go on. Get into the game with them and ask them questions to prompt their imagination further. Ex: Okay, we are Dora and Diego and we are going to the mountain. How are we getting there? Are we walking, hopping, taking a scooter?