homemade magic kit

Posted on May 12, 2013 by happyhooligans

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!

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:

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.
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.
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.

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.

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:

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!

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

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.

You can follow me on Pinteres t too! I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.

See you there!

flat people

Posted on April 21, 2013 by happyhooligans

Flat people: make a family of paper dolls with a piece of cardboard and a few toilet roll tubes.

Remember the simple joy of playing with paper dolls when you were a child? Well, you can provide your hooligans with a set of their own, by making a set of flat people with a few simple household items.

Round up your supplies:

Thin cardboard or sturdy card stock
a couple of toilet paper or paper towel tubes
fine point marker
scissors

I used a light weight cardboard box for my flat people, and one paper towel roll was enough for me to make the bases for all of the dolls that I made on this day.

Cut a hmmmm….what shape is that? I’m not sure, but see the shape in the next photo? Cut out one of first out of a scrap piece of cardboard or paper, to serve as a template for your people.

Now cut out as many pieces as you will need for your family of flat people. I cut some of my pieces shorter than the others. Those will become the baby and the pets.

Now draw your family members on those pieces. They don’t have to be fancy. Simple is best in my books. Add in a few small animals for fun.

To make the base for each flat person, slice a piece off your cardboard tube, and make two cuts opposite each other on the top side of the base.

Now, slip your paper doll into those cuts.

Awwww. How cute are then? And how easy was that?

You can leave your flat people as is, or have your child paint or colour them.

Here’s a set that we coloured a few years ago.

So far I’ve left this year’s set as is, but on a rainy day, when we’re looking for something to do, I’ll have the hooligans jazz ‘em up.

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.

You can follow me on Pinteres t too! I have over 90 boards dedicated to all kinds of kids’ crafts and activities, as well as some personal interest boards too.

See you there!

Building block challenge

Posted on March 28, 2013 by happyhooligans

Fit the blocks in the box: a building block challenge.

The other day, I piled a bunch of wooden blocks into a small thrift-shop tray to take them upstairs for the baby to play with, and as I wiggled the blocks around to get them to all fit, the idea for this building block challenge came to me.

Provide your child with a tray, box or box lid, and a generous pile of blocks, and challenge them to completely fill the tray with the blocks, until there is no empty space left in the tray. It sounds easy, but it’s actually trickier than you think.

For a young child, you can provide them with much smaller box or container and just a few blocks.

If you don’t have a box or tray to make this work, try making a floor puzzle like the one over at Hands On: As We Grow.

I tried it myself, filling the tray to the max before giving it to the hooligans , and I totally loved it. It was fun – kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Almost therapeutic. And it really was a challenge. It probably took me about 20 minutes to get the perfect configuration of blocks.

When I presented it to the hooligans, I took several blocks out, and asked them if they could make them fit back into the tray. I think they were a little too young to really grasp the concept, but they had fun re-arranging the blocks..

And even more fun taking the blocks all OUT of the tray to make a city on the car-mat with them.

Even though my hooligans were a bit young for it, I wanted to pass the idea along to you because I really think it would be a great challenge for older kids!

For your convenience, I’ve included Amazon Affiliate links in this post.

As always, all photos for this post were shot with my Canon Rebel XS.

DIY matching game

Posted on June 1, 2012 by happyhooligans

A DIY matching game doesn’t get much easier than this!

I don’t remember how I came up with this, but I made our first diy matching game a couple of years ago. I have as much fun making these as the Hooligans have playing with them.

Just gather up some random items from whatever room you’re in and trace them onto a piece of paper. Voila – instant homemade matching game. Hand it all over to the kiddos and let them do their thing. They’ll love it.

Your little one will find this activity similar to doing a puzzle. It’s great for cognitive skills and shape recognition.

What I like best about this is that you can make one of these just about anywhere: at home, at a restaurant, at Grandma’s, and you can make them as simple or as complex as you like.