Category Archives: activities

trick to remember which months have 31 days

Posted on by

10

Using your knuckles makes it easy to remember which months have 31 days!

I don’t know about you, but as a kid I could never remember that  Days-of-the-Month rhyme: “30 days has September”…  I was good with that part, but I couldn’t remember what came next.  Was it “April, May and November”?  Or maybe “June, July and December”?    The rhyme was a great concept if you could remember which order to say the months in, but I never could. Thankfully, at a young age, a school friend taught me this super-simple trick to remember which months have 31 days.

trick to remembering which months have 31 days

You use your knuckles!

My younger son offered up his hand for these photos because, well, let’s just say there’s nothing quite like a close-up of your 40-something hand to make you realize you’re not quite as young as you feel.  If you don’t believe me try it.  Unless you’re a hand model, or under 30, you may be in for a little surprise.  I was like “WHAT?  That’s not MY hand!  That’s my MOTHER’S hand!”  It wasn’t pretty folks, so thank you, Andrew, for stepping up and filling in!

Ok, you’re going to love this!  Your kids are going to love this!  Your friends are going to love this.  It’s so simple!

Ready?

Make a fist.

You can have your fist facing either toward you or away from you.  For the sake of the photos, we have it facing us, because quite honestly, the photo of Andrew’s fist facing away from the camera made it look like he had a mutant toad hand.

Tap your knuckles:

Now, all you do is tap each of your knuckles and the wells in between while reciting the months of the year.

remember which months have 31 days (jan-jul)

 

When you get to the end of your hand, go back to the first knuckle, and continue reciting.

remember which months have 31 days (Aug-Dec)

Your knuckles (higher up than the wells in between) represent the months with 31 days.  Get it?  Higher up = higher number of days.   The wells in between represent the months with 30 days (lower down = lower number of days).

All you really have to remember is that February only has 28 days ( or 29 in a leap year).

That’s a lot simpler than remember that silly old rhyme, don’t you think? :)

 

If this is your first visit to Happy Hooligans, I’d love for you to pop over and LIKE us on facebook.  I update my page daily with easy and affordable arts, crafts and play ideas.

follow happy hooligans on facebook

You can follow me on Pinterest too!  I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.follow the Hooligans on Pinterest!

See you there!

 

homemade magic kit

Posted on by

10

Make a homemade magic kit for pretend play using a paper bag, a drinking straw and a handful of simple household items:

Remember a few weeks back when I shared the 5 minute magic wand that I made from a drinking straw and some tape?  Remember I told you there would be more “magic” to follow?  Well, this is what I was talking about!   A simple homemade magic kit!homemade magic kit - happy hooligans

This cost me nothing to make, and it was really easy to put together.   It’s great for pretend play, it doubles as a bit of a sensory/sorting activity, and a child can play with the set by themselves, or put on a “magic show” for others.

How to make a homemade magic kit:

To make your Magic Wand:

To get instructions for making our homemade magic wand, click here.

To make your Magician’s Hat:

homemade magician's hat and wand

  1. Paint a paper bag black.  I supported my paper bag by slipping it over an small, over-turned garbage pail.  This made it easy to paint all the way around the bag in one go.
  2. Once dry, roll the edge of the bag outward, and continue to roll until you’re happy with the size of the “brim” you’ve created.  This brim was once the INSIDE of the bag, and will require a quick coat of black paint.
  3. When dry, tie a wide ribbon around the hat.

Magical Accessories:

Now for the fun part!  Get creative here, and search your cupboards, craft supplies and toy room for items you think a Magician would use.

I came up with cups and a pom pom for the infamous “cups and ball” trick.  You could use a bouncy ball, but a pom pom is less likely to roll away on young children.homemade cups and ball game

I added a couple of silk scarves.  These are perfect for stuffing into the hat, and for making objects “disappear”.  You can pull the scarves through a clenched fist, or simply swirl them through the air. accessories for homemade magic kit

Every magician needs a small animal to pull out of his hat!.  We don’t have a rabbit, so our monkey got the job.

Lastly, I added various items of interest that could be both used for performing magic with, or for simply exploring and playing with:accessories for homemade magic kit

  • A couple jars
  • ribbons and laces
  • a few playing cards
  • a handful of craft sticks
  • several sea shells
  • and  a dozen or so plastic gem stones

These items added to the activity as the hooligans sorted them into piles, dropped them into the jars, and poured them from one container to another.

Now I’ll show you some photos of our resident magician at work!IMG_7437IMG_7453IMG_7450

IMG_7462And when you’re ready to pack it away, everything can be stored in the hat until the next time!IMG_7418

If this is your first visit to Happy Hooligans, I’d love for you to pop over and LIKE us on facebook.  I update my page daily with easy and affordable arts, crafts and play ideas.

follow happy hooligans on facebook

You can follow me on Pinterest too!  I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.follow the Hooligans on Pinterest!

See you there!

 

clothesline activity

Posted on by

1

Fine motor and water play come together in this fun clothesline activity:

Now that we’re enjoying summer-like temps, we’re starting to get back into our favourite fair-weather activities, like this clothesline activity that I set up in the backyard this morning.
 clothesline activity - bowl, pegs and cloths

The hooligans often play with my basket of wooden clothespins.  They’re excellent for developing fine motor skills, hand muscles and co-ordination.  For today’s activity though, I brought out our camping clothespins.  They’re bright and fun and colourful, and they’re slightly easier to squeeze open than the wooden ones.

IMG_7565

What you’ll need for your clothesline activity:

materials needed for clothesline fine motor activity

  • rope
  • clothespins
  • basin of water
  • stack of facecloths

String your rope up between to trees, posts or deck rails, and you’re good to go.

The hooligans had a great time washing their cloths, squeezing the water out and hanging them up to dry. clothesline activity - washing faceclothswringing out faceclothspinning up the facecloths

The baby had fun simply splashing in the water.IMG_7569

And someone even decided to wash her socks!  This makes me think it would be fun to bring the doll’s clothes out, and let the hooligans “launder” those.  Maybe tomorrow. :) IMG_7571

If this is your first visit to Happy Hooligans, I’d love for you to pop over and LIKE us on facebook.  I update my page daily with easy and affordable arts, crafts and play ideas.

follow happy hooligans on facebook

You can follow me on Pinterest too!  I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.follow the Hooligans on Pinterest!

See you there!

 

pretend play with artificial flowers

Posted on by

2

Pretend play with artificial flowers – a fun Spring activity for the backyard:

pretend play with artificial flowers

Recently, the hooligans enjoyed a morning of pretend play with artificial flowers, and the activity was completely child-led. On Friday, the older hooligans ran out into the backyard, while I remained inside getting the little ones organized and ready to go out.

We were just inside the sliding glass doors, and as I was getting splash pants and rubber boots on the littles, I could see that one of the 3′s had a toy watering can, and he was scooping water from our pond, carrying it over to the garden, and pouring it on the tiny green shoots that are starting to peek out of the soil.

When we stepped outside, he ran to the sandbox, and grabbed a bunch of artificial flowers. (Don’t you love where this is going?)

Hang on, I have to tell you about our artificial flowers.

Artificial flowers for play:

.artificial flowers for play

Our artificial flowers are one of the most popular “loose parts” in our play space. I picked up several bunches of them at at a second-hand store a few years ago, and they’re used in some way every day.  From “weddings”, to decorating the playhouse and flower shops in the sandbox, our flowers are spark ideas for imaginative play every day. You couldn’t ask for a less expensive “toy”. Pick some up the next time you’re in a thrift shop or the dollar store and see what your children do with them at your house.

Back to our activity.  My little guy ran back up to the garden with his flowers, and I watched as he bent down, and twisted the bunch of flowers into the earth.  Then he ran back to the pond and resumed his watering duties.   pretend garden play

And that is how our morning activity was born. pretend play with flowers

Because I didn’t want the littles dipping watering cans into the pond (there’s just too much potential there for someone to end up going for a swim) I suggested that we get more of our artificial flowers and move them into some barren flowerpots.  pretend play - watering fake flowers

I filled (and refilled and refilled…) a large bowl and a bucket with water, and the hooligans spent the better part of the morning tending to their flowers.pretend garden play with fake flowers and watering cansIMG_7075

What a great Spring time activity!  Easy, inexpensive and fun!  Just the way we like it!pretend play in the garden - easy bug headbands

If you’re curious about the headgear our little gardener is wearing in the above photo, click here to see how to make our Easy Bug Headbands.

pretend play with artificial flowers - happy hooligans

If this is your first visit to Happy Hooligans, I’d love for you to pop over and LIKE us on facebook.  I update my page daily with easy and affordable arts, crafts and play ideas.

follow happy hooligans on facebook

You can follow me on Pinterest too!  I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.follow the Hooligans on Pinterest!

See you there!