Storytelling Dice

I've seen many versions of storytelling games online. We even have a few storytelling card games of our own. Still, I couldn't resist making these dice for the kids.

The wooden blocks (they are 3/4 inch squares) came in a 6 pack at Micheals. I'm not certain on the exact price, but I do know the were under $2. Using a black Sharpie, I drew characters on one die, setting on another, and objects on the third.

I'm not an artist, so I tried to keep the pictures simple. I knew my kids would enjoy these, but I was surprised by how long it held their attention.

Super fun, easy, quick and inexpensive - everything I love in a project!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Superhero Games

This will be my final post about Chaos's "Superhero Playdate." I really had a lot of fun planning everything, but the GAMES were really the best part!


Don't you love that shirt? It's from flyduds on Etsy and is even cuter in person.

The day was set up so that the kids made their superhero capes first (if you haven't seen my tutorial yet you can see it HERE and be sure to check out my Superhero Logo Banner here too).

Once the kids donned their superhero identities it was time to send them on some missions to save the day!

I had the Batcave all set up for the kids and the first thing they noticed was that the heroes AND villains were missing!


That's because they had all been frozen!

I equipped the boys with with squirt guns (filled with warm water to speed up the process) and they had to squirt, break or otherwise melt the ice to rescue everyone. They LOVED this game, and I wish we would have had enough time to refreeze the figures and do it all over again! The idea for this game came from this post at Green Jello.

When their frozen mission was over, it was time to help out Superman. Someone had hidden Kryptonite all over and now he was without powers. It was up to our heroes to find all the Kryptonite that had been hidden.

The Kryptonite were really glowsticks (from the Dollar Store) that had been hidden in Chaos's darkened bedroom (or for our playdate purposes - The Batcave).

The idea for this game came from this post at designergirl007.

The next mission was purely for fun - Silly String- or rather, "Superhero Spray."

This could also be called a Spiderman game with the silly string being used as Spiderman's webs.

The final mission was a pretend photo op for the local paper to feature our heroes.


I had so many other great ideas pinned but didn't want to go overboard since this was SUPPOSED to be a simple, laid back playdate. You can check out some other superhero birthday ideas on my Birthdays Pinterest Board.

My "What We Did This Week" posts will resume next week. The kids and I are enjoying spring break and a visit from Grandma this week.

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Superhero Logo Banner

Another fun touch to Chaos's Superhero Play date was a banner of superhero logos. This was really simple to make (even easier if you cut it on a Cricut, Silhouette or other fancy cutting machine - I did mine the old fashioned way - by hand!).


There are many materials you could use to make this banner. If you want a keepsake, I think felt would be a great way to go. The logos could be sewn together and really stand the test of time. If you want quick, easy and inexpensive - construction paper would definitely work.

I chose something in the middle - craft foam.

This package seemed to be created for superheroes - red, blue, white, green, yellow and black sheets - perfect colors!

The first thing I did after choosing my materials was download Hall of Heroes, a free font from dafont.com. All of my logos came from this font with the exception of The Incredibles (which I found here).

I printed out my logos (I sized most of them at 250). I traced them onto my craft foam and cut them out.


I assembled them using tacky glue and attached them to a ribbon.


The finished banner!

The logos I used (from left to right): Captain America, Robin, The Flash, Superman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, Spiderman, The Green Lantern and The Incredibles.

There's still one more post of superhero fun - be sure to check back!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Decorate Your Own Superhero Cape Tutorial

For Chaos's 4th birthday, instead of a big party, we invited his two closest friends over for a "Superhero Playdate." One of the activities I had planned was to decorate their own superhero capes. These were super easy and inexpensive to make and the boys (and my girls too!) loved them. I thought I would share how I made them.


The first thing I needed was felt. I found that the felt by the yard at both Joanns and Hobby Lobby were too expensive for what I had in mind. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon these prepackaged felt yards at Michaels.

The brand is Creatology and each package contains one 36in x 36in square of felt. They had about a half dozen color options at my local store. The regular price was $3.99, but I went back with my 40% coupon several times during the week to get them for less. I was able to make 2 capes from each package.

The first thing I did was fold the felt in half, then in half again. By doing this, I was able to cut out both capes at once.

I drew a basic half-cape shape freehand. My cape is roughly 32 inches long which was a good size for both the 4 year olds at the playdate and Pinky (who is the tallest of the bunch at 49 inches).

Once you cut out and unfold your capes you will be left with this:


I needed a way to keep the capes attached and really didn't want to sew on velcro. I had some sticky back velcro dots and thought I would give them a try.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they worked! I gave them a few tugs to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and while I don't expect them to last forever, they were perfect for the playdate. If you plan to use the cape for awhile I would definitely suggest adding a few stitches to secure your velcro.


To decorate the capes I cut out shapes from various colors of felt. I loved the adhesive backed felt, but could not find it in all the colors I wanted so I had to use regular felt as well. The craft felt was less expensive at 20 cents a sheet compared to 99 cents for the adhesive backed. However the adhesive felt was easier for the kids to use (we used tacky glue for the shapes cut from regular craft felt).

My superhero shapes were pretty random - various sizes of circles, stars, lightning bolts, flames and a crown.


On the day of the party I set out the capes, decorations and some tacky glue. The boys had a great time creating their own superhero identities.

While the glue and adhesive felt worked fine for the playdate (and are still holding up almost 2 weeks later) you will definitely want to either sew these on or use an iron on adhesive if you want the cape to last longer.


Once their capes were done these superheroes were ready to save the world!

Be sure to check back next week when I share more details from our Superhero Playdate!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

What We Did This Week

Pinky is 5 years, Chaos is 3 years, Wild One is 17 months, and Sprout is 1 month

We were blessed with beautiful weather this week so we spent a lot of time playing outside (and as I get ready to post this, it's back to rainy, cold weather). I hope you had some time to enjoy playing outdoors!

Geography
This week Pinky learned all about our state in school (in preparation for our state's birthday this past Wednesday). It tied in perfectly to some map activities. First we explored our new Usborne Children's Atlas.

This book is a good intro to maps and different cultures. Both Pinky and Chaos had fun finding the different animals pictured in each country.

For a more in depth map, Daddy printed out a giant map of all the parks in our city. The kids had a lot of fun trying to find our house based on landmarks (the lake, a big park, etc). We plan to use this map to mark all the places we've been on our playground tour.

Math
Pinky tried out a new book/game - Math Gear Addition. It's a neat book that quizzes kids on addition facts up to +12. Each page has a spinner so the child can change to first number that is being added. Once they've tried to find an answer they can lift the flap to see if they are correct.

Pinky LOVED this book. I was amazed by how long she played with it. I think it will be a great book to take on long car trips to keep her busy. There are other versions of Math Gear too, and I may just pick up the subtraction book as well.

Reading

Inspired by this post at Living, Loving and Learning at Home, I decided to make Pinky her own BOB books to illustrate. This activity combined her two favorite things - reading and drawing - so we may be doing more of this!

The books are simple to make with construction paper and plain printer paper (I'm sure you could make them much fancier too). I made two books this week: Pinky and the Cat and Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! The text in each book is simple:

"Pinky had a cat. The cat was sad. Pinky had a hat. The cat saw the hat. The cat had a hat. The cat was glad."

I made the second book to contain all of our names because Pinky loves to be able to spell and write names for the whole family:

"Pinky had a dog. Chaos had a dog. Wild One had a dog. Sprout had a dog. Mom and Dad had a dog. Dogs, dogs, dogs!"

Alphabet
I decided to start the letter of the week with Chaos. What's funny about Chaos is that he can tell you what the letters are for - he'll point to a P and say it's for Pinky, a C for Chaos, etc - but he can't actually name the letters.

We started by reading The Sleepy Little Alphabet. It's a cute book about putting all of the letters to bed at night.


Next, we made an Alligator A (from this post on No Time for Flashcards). We even gave the alligator glittery teeth! I was really happy that Choas made this (and surprised at how good his scissor skills are!) because he is not usually interested in crafts.

He's very excited to make the whole alphabet and hang it up in his room.

I also added some alphabet magnets to the fridge for him to explore. I selected A, B, and C (with lowercase magnets to match) to start with.


Finally, the most favorite activity of the week (for all of us), Alphabet Cookies!! I found this adorable alphabet cookie cutter set at a garage sale and was excited to try it out.

We had so much fun frosting and decorating these (and eating them too of course!).


Shapes and Colors
Chaos tried his hand at sorting shapes and colors this week. I printed these shape mats from Confessions of a Homeschooler and had Chaos sort plastic buttons according to shape.

He did pretty well (I was surprised that he knew the difference between a circle and an oval). The rectangles/squares confused him, but I know he'll get it soon enough. Later we tried sorting by color, but he got frustrated, so we stopped.

We also used our new geoboard for the first time this week. Pinky and Chaos had fun making shapes while I used it show the kids how to make letters. I hope to spend more time playing with this next week.


Fun With the Younger Kids
Wild One spent a lot of time playing with Chaos's Chuck E Cheese tokens. She loved to put them in the jar one by one and then dump them all back out and start over. It's the simple things, right?


As usual, she also spent a lot of time reading. I think she would be happy to read every minute of the day. I'm glad that she occasionally gives me a break and looks at books by herself too!


I introduced PlayDoh to her for the first time this week. She did so well! Much like the coins, she liked to dump it out and put it back in the jar, but she also had fun tearing it into little pieces. I gave her a stamper to try and was surprised that she had enough strength to make the stamp (a fish) show up!


Sprout has been spending a lot of time on her play mat these days so I made her her own felt board to look at (the instructions can be found at this post on Made by Joel) . It was super quick and easy to make and the kids had fun switching out the shapes and colors for her.


What fun activities did you do this week?

Linking up to: