Walking Paper

Festival of Sleep Day

2009-01-03T13:27:00.002+08:00

No, you are not dreaming. But, perhaps you should be. Festival of Sleep Day is today (Jan 3rd). It is an opportunity to sleep in, snooze, doze, nap, and catch 40 winks.

We feel this is the perfect date for Festival of Sleep Day. The holidays are over...Wow, weren't they exhausting! It's cold and snowy.... time to hibernate. And, why not re-charge the batteries as a new year of school and work begins?

Festival of Sleep Day is a favorite holiday to catch up on a little sleep. Whether its all day, a full 8 hours, or just a power nap, enjoy the day sleeping. Cozy up in bed on the couch, or any other comfortable place. Oh.... don't forget your favorite stuffed animal.

The drinking pipe

2009-01-03T13:25:00.000+08:00

On January 3, 1888, Marvin C. Stone patented the drinking straw.

National Blood Donor Month

2009-01-01T13:19:00.000+08:00

Blood is traditionally in short supply during the winter months due to holidays, travel schedules, inclement weather and illness. January in particular is a difficult month for blood centers to collect blood donations.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon designated the month of January as National Blood Donor Month. In his proclamation he called upon the media, the blood-banking and medical health facilities, and the public at large to pay special tribute and honor to the voluntary blood donor during the month. He also encouraged, by all appropriate means, to increase the number of voluntary blood donors.

Hunt for Happiness Week

2009-01-01T01:00:00.002+08:00

The week to get happy is finaly here. During Hunt for Happiness Week, a holiday in the third week of January sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People, everyone is encouraged to actively seek happiness. This holiday has a special emphasis on activities for kids.

The best way to celebrate this holiday is to think back of the things that made you most happy in the past or try doing new things that are likely to make you happy. Think back on what used to make you happy when you were a child and do it. Was it running throu the park? Was it using crayons to draw in your colouring book?

Surround yourself with things that make you happy. If thinking of friends and family makes you happy!

Kwanzaa

2008-12-26T01:14:00.001+08:00

Kwanzaa is the newest holiday celebrated during the winter holiday season.

The holiday was created by Ron Karenga in 1966 as a way to celebrate African American heritage. This holiday takes a pan-African approach, honoring all the African cultures that have become a part of America today.

Millions of people in the United States celebrate this holiday, recognizing the history of African Americans. Kwanzaa lasts seven days, each day having a principle behind it that reflects the contributions of African Americans. Among them are unity (umoja), responsibility (ujima), and creativity (kuumba). During Kwanzaa, black, red, and green candles are lit to celebrate the seven principles.

Chanukah

2008-12-22T01:13:00.000+08:00

Chanukah is the eight day Jewish holiday recognized during the end-of-year holiday season.

Known as the Festival of Lights, Chanukah is celebrated with the kindling of the lights on the Menorah. Each night of the holiday, one candle is lit and one gift is exchanged between you and your loved ones.

This is one of the most important holidays of the year for the religion as it celebrates the successful rebellion of the Maccabees and the triumph of the Jewish spiritual powers over evil.

Las Posadas

2008-12-16T13:10:00.002+08:00

Today marks the beginning of Las Posadas ("The Inns"), a Christmas tradition in Latin America, are nine days during which families in neighborhoods come together to re-enact the hurdles that Joseph and Mary faced in finding a place to give birth to the baby Jesus.

Hence the Nativity amongst the farm animals.

Families role-play by going from house to house in their neighborhoods, processing with candles in hand and asking for shelter as Joseph and Mary would have done. No holiday would be complete without a holiday feast, so every night, one family hosts an elaborate dinner to appreciate the trials and tribulations of Joseph and Mary.

Human Rights Week

2008-12-09T01:00:00.002+08:00

December 9th to 15th is Human Rights Week , a holiday which celebrates the founding ideals of nations and emphasizes the importance of protecting human liberty throughout the world.

During this observance, all nations are encouraged to continue working towards freedom, peace, and security through the respect for human rights.

Safe Toys and Gifts Month

2008-12-03T13:04:00.002+08:00

December is the month of safe toys and gifts!

Toys are a mainstay of childhood, so it is important that we educate our communities about how to make sure toys are safe for children.

With many toy-related emergency room visits a year, it is important that those who give gifts to children know what toys are safe and age appropriate!

Dear God Letter

2008-12-02T17:32:00.002+08:00

Business Ideas for the Holidays

2008-12-02T13:54:00.002+08:00

Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit?

Are you a teen looking for ideas to make money?

Do you already have a business idea and want to get started on your way to success?

Well, this would be the ideal time to work on it, given the long period of break your having!

Dog Walking Service
Are you a family that likes animals? Dog walking may be the perfect business for you- the young entrepreneur. The benefits include plenty of fresh, clean air, exercise with man's best friend, and cash to boot!

Start a Blog!
A good way to monetize this blog would be to include affiliate links to horsing supply stores. Just about every large store has an affiliate program, you sign up for a related program, place a link on your blog and every time someone purchases something through your affiliate link you will earn a commission.

Make money selling your own crafts!
This is one of the best ways to combine something you love doing and would do anyway with a way to make a profit. There are so many people out there who love to buy things handmade.
Well, this can be almost anything you're crafty at!

Soaps
Candles
Dolls and doll clothing
Decorations
Holiday items
Knitted or crocheted items
Wedding or party favors
Cards
Journals or scrapbooks

Any other ideas you'd like to add in? We'd love to hear more!

Great Astronomy Sites for Kids

2008-10-21T19:47:00.000+08:00

Absolute Astronomy is an apt name for a site that is amazingly fact-crammed and yet well organized and easy for all to use. There's enough data here to satisfy any student not majoring in astronomy, yet simple enough for elementary kids to use.

Ask an Astronomer From CalTech's Cool Cosmos site. Windows Media or QuickTime videos answering common kid questions.

Astro for Kids from Astronomy.com. Facts on the Solar System, navigating by the stars, and more. For upper elementary and above. Cool photos, too.

Astronomy for Kids Easy to use, straightforward site with simple astronomy facts for kids.

Astronomy Picture of the Day APOD. Every day a new astronomy photo or painting, with a narrative under it. The photos are absolutely astounding, breathtaking, stunning, magnificent. ! The site also has a Glossary, Educational links/resources, more. Cruise the Archives for many more pix! From NASA.

Atlas of the Universe This site rocks! "This web page is designed to give everyone an idea of what our universe actually looks like. There are nine main maps on this web page, each one approximately ten times the scale of the previous one. The first map shows the nearest stars and then the other maps slowly expand out until we have reached the scale of the entire visible universe." The site does a very good job of it, too.

Catching the Light Astrophotography by Jerry Lodriguss. AWESOME photos will make you remember the wonder that first drew you to astronomy.

Celestia Motherlode is where you can download extensions, add-ons, etc for Celestia. If it's even possible to improve upon Celestia, this is where to do it. There are some really great things here! Watch the file size, some of these are fairly big for some school computers.

Cosmos4Kids! offers a lot of good basic information about astronomy in a highly organized site.

Exploring Planets in the Classroom hands-on science activities This Hawaiian site has hands-on activities.

Hakan's Space Balls is an arty site, all on one page; that compares the sizes of Earth, Venus, and the other planets; then compares them all to the sun; then compares the sun's size to other, larger and larger stars. Really explains the comparative sizes of heavenly bodies without using words.

Kids Astronomy section of KidsKnowIt. Good information, well organized if busy site.

Mars for Kids has games and activities (online and printouts) for kids. The games are fun and educational. Note: Your Weight on Mars doesn't work (but that's OK, we already link to Your Weight On Other Worlds anyway) and "A Little ROCK on Mars" has a broken link.

NASA Images This is the new NASA image archive site, which catalogues 100,000 stunning images! All the space photos NASA has posted are here. We looked at at a few hundred and were amazed. A fantastic reference source, or just look at the thousands of photos!

NASA Mars Rover Missions This is the main site for Opportunity and Spirit. You can get to all the Mars Rover photos from here. Also has links Mars for Kids and Mars for Educators.

NASA Space Place "Welcome to the Space Place! Come on in and check out our games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology."

Phoenix Mars Mission Wow! We have a new lander on the North Pole of Mars! This is the education section of the official site. There's Mars 101, five sections of info about Mars. Just for Kids has the fun stuff and activities (and Steve the Cat.) Phoenix Classroom has lesson plans, activities, and resources. The Web Exhibit is woth watching, although the Flash video was rather small and hard to read. Pictures from Mars are accessible from the Phoenix home page.

Sky This is the "sky" portion of Sea and Sky's site. A very good resource, the site has good information on the Messier Catalog, constellations, photo galleries, tours of the solar system, an illustrated glossary, and games. We can't recommend the "Sky News" section for kids' viewing, but the rest of the site is excellent. Someone did a lot of work to gather and organize all this information

Space Science from Extreme Science. The space section of the larger site.

StarChild Nice site for beginning astronomers from NASA. Good information and cute, too.

StarDate Yep, it's the same people who have the show on National Public Radio! Stargazing, Resources, Teachers, more. Link opens into the Resources section, with links and a big glossary!

Stellar Evolution is a fine repeating Flash video of the life and death of a star. Good for about 8th grade and up. Discusses stellar decay, elements. From Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA.

The Nine Planets A good informational site that kids have used for years. Scroll down to Contents to see what they have.

UDF SkyWalker - the Hubble telescope Deep Field interactive site! Use the small field at the top left to scroll around in the larger field. Cool!

The Universe within 1 billion Light Years - The Neighbouring Superclusters. "Galaxies and clusters of galaxies are not uniformly distributed in the Universe, instead they collect into vast clusters and sheets and walls of galaxies interspersed with large voids in which very few galaxies seem to exist. The map above shows many of these superclusters including the Virgo supercluster - the minor supercluster of which our galaxy is just a minor member. The entire map is approximately 7 percent of the diameter of the entire visible Universe." There are also maps of other superclusters.

Visible Earth NASA has listed their favorite photos of earth from space. Many cool photos, worth checking them out.

Welcome to the Planets This NASA site has plenty of photos and facts about the planets. Colorful and nicely laid out.

Your Age on Other Worlds Your age in years is different on different planets!

Your Weight On Other Worlds Kids are amazed at what they would weigh (or not weigh) on different planets!

Zoom Astronomy "is a comprehensive on-line site about space and astronomy. It is designed for people of all ages and levels of comprehension. It has an easy-to-use structure that allows readers to start at a basic level on each topic and then to progress to much more advanced information as desired, simply by clicking on links." Extremely good site, typical of Zoom.

Great Art Sites for Kids

2008-10-21T19:46:00.000+08:00

Kea Coloring Book "All the fun. None of the mess!" This free program lets kids color, save and print. It's like a coloring book on your computer. At least 250 more pictures can be downloaded from the site and added to the coloring books. You can download the program at various download sites (the Kea site links to C/NET's Download, which works fine). We used Educational Freeware as a personal preference.

Kid Cartoonists This site (blog?) lets kids post their art for all to see. Even has a manga section. Also has various puzzles for kids. "Under each drawing I post encouraging comments. The response from kids, parents and teachers has been terrific."

KinderArt "is the largest collection of free art lessons on the Internet. What began in 1997 as a few helpful ideas for teachers and parents, has since grown into an enormous collection of resources featuring thousands of free lesson plans, ideas and resources.” Good help for busy art teachers.

Living Colour from The Australian Museum Online. This is a good explanation of colors and how we see them, with interactive activities online for kids.

PBS Kids Art The art section of the huge PBS Kids site. Mainly lets kids color characters from PBS Kids TV shows.

Virtual Lite Brite is one name for this animated site. Fun and artistic.

Drawing for Children is a great, very cool, free download (Windows only) from the Netherlands. It says "drawing" but it has been used in computer labs for language arts, too! You can enter text and load .bmp files from Windows Paint. "Drawing for Children is a free drawing program for children with many nice options. The best way to learn to use it is simply to use it. There is though a document describing the use of the program. For more information, see the readme file."

Free Coloring Many more coloring pages to print out; dental, flowers, etc.

Ivy's Coloring Pages features pages to print and color, online coloring, links to other sites.

Coloring for kids Free, printable coloring book pages ! You can choose from 1000's of printable coloring pages. Coloring pages for children of all ages with drawings to print and color. A large selection of colorings so your children can find their favorite cartoons . More than 10,000 printable coloring sheets.

Coloringcastle is an awesome, awesome page. It has coloring sheets for every holiday, alphabet, numbers, military, space, animals, food guide pyramid etc...etc... Needless to say there are many good coloring sheets for you all so please check this site out and enjoy! This site uses PDF files so be prepared for that.

Crayola Yes! The crayon people! The site has "Coloring and Crafts" with printable coloring projects, "Games and Fun" with some good color-related online games, "For Educators" with lesson plans and more, and "For Parents" with various activities. A well-made site.

DLTK Kids Coloring Dozens of coloring pages to print out. You may also make calendars from here.

Design Your Own Bill from US Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Lets kids design and color their own paper currency, with funny faces, etc. Computer kids had fun doing this.

Activity TV This truly excellent site has at least a couple of hundred good instructional videos on subjects like paper airplanes, science projects, magic, making jewelry, crafts, origami, juggling, cheerleading, cooking (!), and more! It also has Legos action videos and several good games! The videos are really world-class, with adult instruction and printable parts lists. Projects on the videos can be accessed by skill levels, categories, most viewed, etc. You need to look at Activity TV!

Activity Village Here's a site from the UK that will help out parents and teachers. "Welcome to Activity Village, where you will find coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids crafts, puzzles, printables, Sudoku for kids and much, much more ... Click on the menu bars above to explore over 3000 pages of activities to help you keep your kids busy!" Tons of coloring pages! The site has a popup to start, x it out or just subscribe.

Art Just For Kids Humongous portal to dozens of other sites. Has to be seen to be believed. Go there and check it out!

Art Zone Interactive art that you can make online. From the National Gallery of Art. There are 18 interactive projects. You will need Shockwave to make these work.

Great Animal Sites for Kids

2008-10-21T19:43:00.002+08:00

AKC list of recognized breeds has much information about different dog breeds, would be useful for reports.

AmericaZoo is a well organized kid site. Their Animal Research Desk has alphabetical lists of animals in an interesting looking page of A-Z books, and a Zoological Dictionary. We suggest you avoid the Webshots in the Photo Safari, as many school districts regard them as spyware bait. Webshots can also be memory hogs. The 425+ Mammals section is an alphabetical list of all the mammals on the site. The America Zoo Map section is a world map of animals by continent, for the little ones. The Animal Sounds on the same page are .wav files, so you can play them with QuickTime or Windows Media.

Animal Kingdom from Extreme Science. The animal section of the larger site. The most extreme animals.

Animal Kingdom from KidPort. Good, basic elementary level information about the members of the animal kingdom, with basic taxonomy (no big words).

Animals from National Geographic. This is Nat Geo's animal site map page, with photos and facts about animals from aardvark to zebra. There are a lot of photos here.

Animals section of KidsKnowIt. Big list of animals and facts.

Animals/Farming/Zoos (big list of ZOO links!) from Kids' World.

Aquatic Snakes of Southeast Asia from the Field Museum in Chicago. This is a good introduction to the subject of the cobra-related venomous snakes that live and hunt in swamps and oceans.

Archosaurs is about dinosaurs, crocodiles, birds, and all their diapsid relatives, both living and extinct. Part of UC Berkeley's gigantic tree of life web site complex (more on that below.)

Arthropod Story "This interactive investigation delves into the amazing world of the arthropods..." Simple language and lots of pictures. From UC Berkeley.

Wolf Quest from the Minnesota Zoo and EduWeb comes this excellent download wolf simulation game. Players become a wolf and explore Yellowstone Park! Kids from elementary to high school love to play this game, it's hard to get them to stop! We printed out the pdf instructions for players to use. Needs a newer computer with good graphics.

Wonders of the Sea This site is devoted to sea animals. There are sections on sponges, cnidarians (see above), mollusks, arthropods (crustaceans, etc.), echinoderms (starfish and relatives), sharks, sperm whales, and Chessie, the Long-Distance Swimming Manatee! Good and concise on what it covers.

Zoo Cams! This German site has a big list of Zoo Cams around the world. All kinds of animals, live on camera. Includes several Panda Cams and the Giraffe Cam at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Zoo List Kids World's big list of zoo sites is on this page. More Kids World sites are in our General Interest section.

Wolf Sanctuary is located in Colorado. They rescue abused or neglected captive wolves and wolf-dog hybrids, nurse them back to health, and give them large wooded areas in which they roam freely. If you're looking for an wild animal charity that could use your help, look no further. Isabeau is the "Poster Child" of Wolf Sanctuary. This girl is worth reading about all by herself! More photos here. Note: this is not a tourist attraction, nor are they normally set up to receive visitors. Please, always contact the Sanctuary FIRST if planning a visit.

Canine Corner from the San Diego Natural History Museum. Woof! "Discover domestic dogs and their wild cousins. Bite-sized facts about dogs and wild dogs!" Also has a glossary and links.

Carolina Wild Dogs are North America's original native dogs! Closely related to Australian Dingoes, these tough, shy survivors can still be found in wild places in the southeast US. There are other primitive "yellow dogs"and "pariah dogs" still holding out in obscure places worldwide. They may well be the wild ancestors of most of our modern dog breeds.

Cat Breed Profiles from CatChannel. Information on many breeds of house cats, including photos and what makes each breed special.

Cat Species Photos and information about 36 wild cat species (around 50 or so exist). Everything from lions and tigers to Borneo Bay Cats and Kodkods. Also has links to sites that work to save endangered wild cats. From CatChannel.

Cats: Wild to Mild Use the menu frame on the left side of the screen to navigate. Covers all living cats, most extinct cats, cat evolution, the sabretooths, anything you want to know about the cats is here.

Cicada molting video actually a short animated gif of a cicada climbing out of its shell and sprouting wings. Neat.

Cnidarians: Simple Animals with a Sting! Good, easy to read information about jellyfish, coral, sea anemones, and hydroids. Now part of a larger site, Wonders of the Sea.

Cnidarians from UMich's Animal Diversity Web. Higher-level information on the two types of cnidarians. (pronounced "nai-dare-ee-yans", the "c" is silent)

Critter Cam from National Geographic. Video cameras attached to sea animals (and a lion). Short clips posted online.

Dragonflies! Incredible dragonfly photos! Fantastic close ups of these colorful prehistoric survivors.

Eco-Focus from Ecology Asia. This fine Singapore site has photos and data for 300 different animals from Singapore and New Guinea. Perfect for those school animal reports.

eNature Field Guides "Search more than 5,500 species faster than she can run." (huh?) Guides for animals and plants, too. Good information. This site is rich in ads as well as in information, so don't let kids be too "quick to click."

Endangered Species - World Wildlife Fund Part of larger site. Links to endangered animals on the left side of the page.

Endangered species Excellent endangered species site with a lot of information. Links to similar sites and a map to click on to see endangered species in your (US) state.

Exmoor Pony Learn about this Ice Age survivor, the oldest breed of horse in the UK, which lived wild for 60,000 years.

exZOOberance - Celebrating the Animal Kingdom! A good site for learning about plants and animals, with backyard tours.

Hall of Mammals One of the many, many entrances into UC Berkeley's truly immense web site about living things from the beginning of life on earth until now. This one starts off by explaining about the different types of mammals and their close (long extinct) relatives; who together make up the synapsids.

Hummingbird Pictures Guide Scroll down to see photos and information on 38 species of hummingbirds.

Insect Image Gallery from Iowa State University's Dept. of Entomology has photos of most kinds of insects, with information on them.

International Wolf Center The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wild lands and the human role in their future. The Learn page has areas for children (activities and reading), educators, and wolf facts. Ambassador Wolves has bios of the wolves, updated regularly. Each update includes a short video. Click "Video Link" under each entry to watch the videos. You can also watch three webcams of the wolf preserve.

Kid Activities from the Ettamogah Wildlife Sanctuary in NSW, Australia. Naturally they feature Australian animals! Coloring, printouts, info, a letters page for kids to send in their artwork.

KidWings "This site was designed to teach young and old about the wonders of birds. The most exciting part of the site is the Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection. Many interactive activities await you." Also features section on bird skulls, nests, feathers, beaks, feet, and "topography" for birders. Fun!

Monterey Bay Aquarium Webcams Six great webcams of sea creatures! We like them all, but the Outer Bay cam is simply astounding.

Moth Life Cycle AMAZING photo series of the life cycle of the giant cecropia moth from eggs to adults. It includes wonderful closeups of caterpillar stages, including photos of the moth developing inside the cocoon! Definitely educational!

Mountain Lion Facts Safety tips for what to do to discourage attacks by mountain lions. Sound advice from the Mountain Lion Foundation.

National Geographic Kids "Features different people, animals, and places each month with facts, games, activities, and related links." Well, hey, it's National Geographic. Very educational, and the games are fun, too.

Netfrog The original frog dissection online site from U of Virginia. Now with the old-time (1994) version AND a newer more multimedia version. It's like two for one good sites! Also see the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Virtual Frog Dissection Kit "This award-winning interactive program is part of the 'Whole Frog' project. You can interactively dissect a (digitized) frog named Fluffy, and play the Virtual Frog Builder Game." Your choice as to which site is better for your kids.

Ocean Collection for Kids This is a group of ocean sites for kids put together by faculty from Cal state LA. They cover ocean habitats, ocean mammals, and ocean fish. This is for elementary kids and has good simple explanations.

Owl Pellet Dissection from KidWings features virtual own pellet dissection with Flash, also addition diisection activities with eight owls and thre other birds.

Panda Videos from the Atlanta Zoo. These are archival videos and plenty of them, featuring cute pandas. Further down, there are more videos of other zoo animals. We have been running these in QuickTime. Parents and teachers: Remember to have the kids close each window as they finish watching that video. Otherwise you will have 10 or 20 videos still running in background, and a very slow computer.

Raptor Adaptations from the Delaware Valley Raptor Center. How do hawks, eagles, and their kin do the things they do so well? Information on raptor feet, beaks, eyes, and wings. (Scroll down a little past the poem)

Red List of Threatened Species "Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year." Search the Red List for animals, birds, and plants here.

San Diego Zoo Animal Bytes has animal facts, sounds, photos, videos, ecosystems, and habitats! Videos need Real Player.

San Diego Zoo Kids Territory has online games, crafts, Meet the Critters, and more!

Santa Cruz Island Fox A study of the Santa Cruz Island Fox, this shows how the delicate web of ecology can be shredded, and how it can sometimes be repaired again. From the Nature Conservancy, which deserves your support.

Sci4Kids: stories about bugs. "Stories! Stories! Stories!" Tons of fun facts about "bugs!"

Scorpions and their relatives. Photos sent in from all over the world. Each "bug" is identified and discussed. Part of a larger site.

Shamu Cam Watch Shamu the Orca live.

Shark Attack - How to Avoid being attacked. Practical advice for all ages.

Zoom Sharks! Maybe the very best shark place for kids! But then, all the Zoom sites and activities are wonderful.

Shark Classification from The Dedicated Shark Site. Good information and plenty of it, with pictures of plenty of sharks, anatomy lesson, and a list of more sharks than you ever dreamed existed. Good job!

Shark School from the San Diego Natural History Museum. "Swim among some local sharks! Angle your way through fish and games. Explore ten shark species found in the waters off of southern California and northern Baja California." Shark FAQ's, anatomy, links, more.

Shark - Who's Who of Sharks Find out all about your favorite shark! Shark species arranged by their eight orders, or check the Species List, or try the Shark-a-Matic. From PBS Nova.

Shark Word Search from Florida Museum of Natural History. Easy to use. Needs javascript to run.

Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Lesson Plans, Interactives, and the Explorer's Guide! Interactives are the online learning games, indexed by grade level. We tried Build a Fish and it was fun!

Snail biology Everything you ever wanted to know about snails. Written at a secondary school level.

Spiders! This is a nice spider unit for lower elementary kids, with lesson plans ready to go.

Splash Zone! is another part of Monterey Bay Aquarium. Scroll down to play Crunch Nibble Gulp Bite or Make a Tide Pool Come to Life. Also check out the links to more wonderful places, on the left side of the page.

University of Arizona Outreach: Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life. This site has 20 very complete lesson plans for grades K-3. Themes relate to real life, for example, safety. We found this site to be well thought out, and we used to teach "Bugology."

Water Bears Also known as Tardigrades, these microscopic creatures are the toughest multicelled animals ever, able to withstand outer space, boiling, freezing, and radiation! They are also kind of cute. This site tells about them in easy to understand language.

Wolf Haven International is a wolf sanctuary in Washington State. Their Basic Wolf Info section has a ton of information about wolves, perfect for elementary or middle school research! They also discuss wolf-dog hybrids. They also have a good small section on the prairie plants and animals around them, as well as a bio section with information on their wolves.

Wolf Pup Cam The International Wolf Center has two new puppies on their 2008 Pup-Cam! Awwwww. We have the IWC listed on our Animals page but this is new and they won't stay little for long.

Australian Animals Nice, easy to use site with lots of photos, and descriptions of how the animals interact with humans. Many links to related animal sites.

Australian Animals from the Ettamogah Sanctuary in NSW. Click on the animals on map of the Sanctuary and find out more about them.

Australian Animals - Our Animals For younger students. Has lots of photos and information at a lower reading level (still good, though.) From the ABC, Australia's answer to the BBC.

Australian Fauna "No rubbish, just fair dinkum Aussie animal info. " "A magnificent site loaded with free information, a true asset to the Internet in Australia, and researchers Worldwide." This really is a good site for research, as it has a lot of information. Easy to use, animals in alphabetical order, too.

Bagheera Named after Mowgli's panther friend. One of the oldest endangered species sites, still a very good resource.

Bats of Jewel Cave Very good information on bats!

Big Cats Online Medium and small wild cats, too. Get the facts on all of them here.

Zoom Birds Like the rest of Enchanted Learning, this is a fine kid learning site, with a lot of good information about birds. If you find yourself using Enchanted Learning sites a lot, please subscribe.

Bird Adaptations from the Norman Bird Sanctuary. This site describes different types of bird beaks and bird feet, and what they are used for. Create-a-Bird lets you design your own bird and post it on the site! Link goes to Beak Adaptations, the link to Feet Adaptations is near the top left of the page.

Birds in the Classroom from the Fernbank Ornithology Center in Atlanta. The frame on the left side of the page (pull it down to see it all) has links to pages on bird adaptations, anatomy and physiology, and bird behavior. Excellent site.

Blue Planet Games from BBC Blue Planet web site. Learn about the oceans and have fun doing it! If you haven't seen the Blue Planet DVD series, it's worth watching.

Blue-Ringed Octopus This tiny, very deadly octopus doesn't show its famed blue rings until it's attacking! Then it's too late. This is part of a larger Australian site called Cephalopod Research that covers octopi, squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus.

Breeds of Livestock: Horses This site will tell you everything you want to know about breeds of livestock, from cattle to pigs, from camels to yaks! Has links to poultry, too. Our link goes to horses because girls like them best.

Butser Ancient Farm Iron Age farm animals. Lots of photos and info about ancient farm animals from all over Europe that are kept at Butser. Many are endangered. These are the same breeds that ancient farmers kept thousands of years ago. To see the animals, go to the left side of the page, go down to the button that says Animals, and click it.

Butterfly Guide Captain's European Butterfly Guide " A Photographic Guide to Europe's Butterflies" has photos and info on butterflies of the UK, rest of Europe, and North Africa. Great resource, many photos.

Butterfly Utopia is a commercial site offering mounted butterflies. Obviously not in their natural state, but the photos are beautiful! Twelve pages with 21 different butterflies per page. Has some info about each. Excellent source for photos and species names.

Butterfly Website has photos of butterflies and caterpillars worldwide, arranged by families. Also has links to other butterfly sites.

Monarch Butterfly photos from fohn.net. Good natural photos of monarch butterflies with more info on each page.

Zoom Butterflies is all about butterflies and moths, species, pictures, a dictionary, lots of printables and activities for kids.

California Condor from the Audubon Society About the endangered California Condor.

Camel Spiders are not true spiders. Related to spiders and scorpions, 900 known species of wind scorpions, sun spiders and camel spiders live in deserts worldwide. Site also has some really hairy scary photos of camel spiders in places from Arizona to Iraq.

How about something back for your community?

2008-10-21T14:06:00.000+08:00

ACRES
Animal Concerns Resarch & Education Society - As animals cannot speak up for themselves, it is up to humans to give them a voice, speak up their behalf and end their abuse.
Autism Resource Centre
ARC(S) is a non-profit organisation started by volunteers, dedicated to serve children and adults with ASD to help them lead meaningful lives in society. ARC(S) offers a range of services, Assessment and Diagnosis, Information, Direct Therapy and Education Support, and Training of Professionals and Caregivers. It started the first autism school, Pathlight School, which offers not just life skills but also mainstream academics for pupils who can make it. Its training arm, WeCAN, is also the biggest autism training provider in Singapore and Asia.
Caring for Cambodia
Caring for Cambodia is an accredited, non-governmental charitible organziation. Our mission is to secure a better, brighter future fo the children of Cambodia by providing them with educational opportunities. Through the schools we have established and our various programs and inititives , we now support over 3,000 Cambodian children.
Children's Cancer Foundation
To improve the quality of life of children with cancer and their families through enhancing their emotional, social and medical well-being. This is achieved by providing counselling, employing therapeutic play, conducting support groups, organising children and family outings, offering financial assistance, educating the families, supporting training and research, and promoting public awareness.
Children's Society
Singapore Children's Society is dedicated toward helping children, youth and families in need.
Family & Community Developement
Provides a short-list of various opportunities to voluteer through.
Help Family Service Centre
HELP Family Service Centre is a voluntary welfare organization, set up to help single-parent families. We are an affiliated member of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), and we are supported by the Community Chest of Singapore.
The Hunger Site
The more people who visit The Hunger Site each day, the more food that is given to the hungry, provided by the sponsors of the site.
Kids For Life
Raising money and awareness for the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF) in Singapore.
Light a Milion Candles
The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves. But you can. With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade. We do not need your money. We need you to light a candle of support.
National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre
Bringing out the volunteer in you in Singapore. NVPC's mission is to promote and develop volunteerism and philanthropy across all sectors and at all levels of society, furthering the Singapore 21 vision of an active citizenry. We promote giving across different sectors including arts, community, education, health, social service, sports and youth.
Singapore General Hospital
The objective of the Friends of SGH Hospital's volunteer programme is to provide a channel for the community to contribute and bring a personal touch and compassion to our patients. In doing so, we hope that our volunteers will find personal enrichment in learning and making new friends, while contributing your skills and time in helping patients on their road to recovery.
SPCA
One of the animals in the adoption shelter could be your best friend. Each of them is looking for a home. You can help. When you decide to bring a pet into your life, give an SPCA animal a home. Don't go to a pet store. Don't go to a breeder. Choose to save a life. Take home a friend who will love you for life!
World Vision
The problems children face in the developing world differ, but the cause is always the same - poverty. It's easy to feel hopeless, but through child sponsorship, you truly can do something about it, something extraordinary.

Activities online, for young children

2008-10-21T14:02:00.001+08:00

About: Children's Books
A complete and comprehensive guide to children's books
Abracadabra!
With this magic word you can amaze all your friends! You can find a whole bunch of magic tricks!
Artists Helping Children
Take advantage of the huge childrens' arts resources pages of kids' coloring pages and coloring printouts, childrens' free arts and crafts projects & ideas, paper folding projects & origami project ideas, kids' drawing lessons, articles for parents to involve their children in the arts, articles on how art heals & how to get children involved in community service, how to design and decorate your children's rooms, and much more.
Building Blocks Publishing
Building Blocks Publishing offers short, practical ideas for adults to use with young children... filled with exciting, playful games and activities.
Children's Party Games
Over 400 party games: children's party games, adult party games. For children's birthday party, adult birthday party, family party, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine's Day, wedding, etc.
Crayola Creativity Central
Crayola Creativity Central offers kids arts and crafts ideas for rainy day fun. We also have coloring books and pages, art and craft projects, games, school supplies, art education and lesson plans for use in both school and home activities.
DLTK's Printable Crafts for Kids
DLTK's Crafts for Kids features a variety of fun, printable children's crafts, coloring pages and more including projects for holidays, educational themes and some of our children's favorite cartoon characters.
Family Crafts
Don't miss all the fun that this Web site has to offer you.... from book reviews, colouring pages, photos... and so much more.
Happy Feet Dance & Tanglin Arts Dance Studio
Dance and exercise classes for adults and children including ballet, jazz, tap, yoga, pilates and bellydancing.
Idea Box - Early Childhood Education and Activity Resources
Chock full of ideas, crafts & message boards for your little ones.
The Perpetual Preschool
A very large list of art & song themes, learning center ideas... and well, just a ton of info to be found.
Playtime for Toddlers
Creative, thrifty and resourceful activities for parents of toddlers. Recipes for bubbles, paper mache, paints, play dough, and cooking. Coloring, craft and indoor gardening projects.
Postman Pat
Check out Postman Pat and his friends in Greendale. Sounds, free email, virtual cards, desktop themes, poll, and much more.
Preschool Coloring Book
Let's get ready to color! Preschool Coloring book is dedicated to helping parents, teachers, and educator help preschoolers explore the creative world of drawing and coloring. We supply line and no line coloring pages that can easily be printed, as well as journaling ideas for your preschooler.
Sesame Street
Click here for fun, games, friends... and resources for parents too.
Thomas the Tank Engine
Have a grand ol' time with Thomas & Friends!
UpToTen.com
With over A THOUSAND educational games and activities for children aged up to ten years old! UpToTen is a safe place to play and learn where your child will feel right at home, right away. - UpToTen Kids - the fun place to learn on-line
Very Best Kids
Creative ideas and fun activities for you and your kids.

Apple Tree

2008-10-19T09:16:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Brown and green markers

Popsicle sticks, 4

Tacky glue

Cereal-box cardboard

Magnetic tape, 5 strips

Child safety scissors

Small red pom-poms

What You Do:

Colour the Popsicle sticks brown. Glue one Popsicle stick onto the cardboard to make a tree trunk. Glue the remaining Popsicle sticks above the trunk to make branches. Draw leaves next to the branches.
Glue a strip of magnetic tape to each Popsicle stick branch.
Cut the remaining strip of magnetic tape into small pieces. Glue a piece of magnetic tape onto each pom pom to make apples. Place to apples on the Popsicle stick branches.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

The Carrot Patch

2008-10-19T09:11:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Green construction paper

Child safety scissors

Popsicle sticks, 4

Orange, black, and brown markers

White craft glue

Cotton ball

What You Do:

Fold the green construction paper in half; cut it into two pieces. Cut carrot tops from one half of the construction paper.
Colour the Popsicle sticks orange. Glue the carrot tops onto the sticks.
With grown up help, cut small slits in the other half of the construction paper. Insert the carrots into the slits. Draw a rabbit with black or brown markers. Glue a cotton ball to the paper for the rabbit's tail.

Visit us at http://little-red-bus.com

Flying Paper Bird

2008-10-17T10:27:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

White paper plate, small

Yarn

Tape

Scrap brown paper

Markers

What You Do:

Fold the paper plate in half; then, open it flat. Make wings by cutting along the inside circle on both sides of the plate, stopping before the fold line as shown.
Ask a grown up to poke a small hole in the centre of the fold Tie a knot in the bottom of the yarn; then thread the yarn up through the hole.
Fold the plate in half; tape it to hold. Cut a triangle beak from the scrap paper. Tape it in place.
Bend the wings outward. Colour the bird with markers; then hang it up to fly!

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Funny Flower

2008-10-17T10:22:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Construction paper, assorted colours

White craft glue

Plastic bottle cap

Pom-pom

Popsicle stick

Green marker

What You Do:

Cut out petal shapes from the construction paper.
Spread the glue over the top of the bottle cap. Glue the petals around the cap. Allow to dry.
Colour the posicle stick green. Glue the popsicle stick stem onto the back of the bottle-cap flower.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Lovely Ladybugs

2008-10-17T10:18:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Paper muffin cups

Glue sticks

Light coloured construction paper

Green and black markers

Red tempera paint

Plastic bottle cap

What You Do:

To make the flowers, glue the muffin cups onto the construction paper. Use a green marker to draw on leaves and stems.
To make the ladybugs, dip he bottle cap into the paint. Then, press the cap onto the paper and muffin cup flowers. Let dry.
Use a black marker to draw the ladybugs' wings, antennae, legs, and spots.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Ziggity Zoom

2008-10-17T09:29:00.002+08:00

Ziggity Zoom is a website for preschool aged children. Designed with a preschooler in mind, it's navigate around. Which is ideal, so you kids would not need your parent or teacher to provide much assistance.

You can play games, color pictures, read and listen to stories about many different characters, watch mini-videos or explore Play Worlds and other activities. This site is designed for kids and their parents to encourage creativity, reading and to really let your imagination soar.any printables. There are activities to keep your kiddos busy for days!

Thanks to Sharon McCullough for sending us this link!

10 great kids / earlychildhood sites - Part 3

2008-10-16T14:26:00.002+08:00

Preschool Curriculum for childen ages 2-5.

~Clicking on the Link will vote for Childcare Topsites!~
As teachers we are each others greatest resource. Top of the Class was created for teachers to share their ideas and talents with each other via their classroom websites.

This site has free printables for the classroom and child care.

Huge collection of preschool resources including tons of theme ideas, printables, graphic adoptions, kids games and more!

Funny poems for kids & funny videos. New - David Cook Fan Page free lyrics and mp3 downloads, kids activities arts and crafts, free coloring pages for children, funny animal poems, school poems, birthday poems, free newsletter, surftips for children!

An online teaching resource that offers hands-on, child centered thematic units, word walls, file folder games, the Preschool Playground Newsletter plus loads more! Planning has never been so easy!

Bookvaria.com offers new and unique interactive online children education opportunities. Bookvaria is a virtual country and a healthy place for children to start their education.

Topsite List - websites with products or information for your home or family.

Seattle PreschoolRock.com is the largest parenting network on the Internet dedicated to providing an insider's scoop on local preschooler-friendly events and activities in the Seattle, Wa. area.

Crafts for kids preschool to preteen activities and crafts. Make wonderful, simple crafts projects with your children. Monthly craft projects delivered by Mail to your child. A great reward for great

10 great kids / earlychildhood sites - Part 2

2008-10-16T14:20:00.002+08:00

Free printable cards, birthday cards, greeting cards, invitations, matching envelopes. Print blank cards or use the card-makers to personalize your cards!

Crafts, activities, parenting tools, and more with clear photos, printable content, and discussion boards.

Kid's resources for kindergarten and pre-school teachers and parents. Over 1,200 flashcards, hundreds of clip art images, 400+ printable worksheets, paper crafts, classroom activities and much more!

1000s of FREE printable STICKERS and STICKER CHARTS. Add them to your lesson plans and encourage better class participation, homework success, test performance, classroom chores or anything else

Educatall.com offers early childhood resources for daycare workers, teachers, and parents. It includes: activities for children of all ages, educational games, crafts, coloring pages, printable mater

Education activities for preschoolers that you can make yourself. Based on stories and rhymes these early childhood teaching resources will save you time and children love them!

FREE downloadable audio and free printable listening tests with images! Download MP3 audio with matching worksheets, make your own custom listening resources or print out free ready made materials.

Printable scrapbook pages for classbooks, calendars with seasonal songs, cubby tags, bookmarks,center signs, borders, awards and more. ALL FREE!

- Aimee Asher Elite makes it fun and simple to create. Sample our freebies, fall in love with our art, cards, activities, printables, digital and hybrid scrapbooking. We have something for everyone.

All Free Printable Activities For Pre-K and Kindergarten. Free Learning Sheets and Flash Learning Pages. All Original Hand Drawn Images.

10 great kids / earlychildhood sites

2008-10-16T14:12:00.003+08:00

Welcome to Making Learning Fun: A website designed to do just that! Whether you are a parent, teacher, or daycare provider, you'll love our site filled with educational printables and activities.

Kinder Printables offers free learning materials for ages pre-k thru 1st grade. Original, hand drawn artwork. New materials daily! *New Kinder Curriculum too!*

Site with online stories, printable alphabet, printable coloring pages, rhymes about animals, jokes and riddles, puzzles.

This Site Contains Both Free and Membership Printables For Early Childhood Education.

The site contains activity ideas, free printables, affordable website & banner design, childcare locator, curriculum, links, and more!

Hands on Learning Keeps Kids Motivated! We have nearly 200 File Folder Games for Preschool through 4th Grade! Math, Reading & Science! Download Instantly!

FREE, 100% customizable worksheets with images; bingo, dominoes, tracing worksheets, game board makers, word searches, multiple choice worksheet generators, spelling test wizard, certificates, awards, crosswords, and math worksheets.

Early Childhood Hands-On Learning Activities As Well As Daily Art Projects and Learning Sheets For Children Ages 2-Kindergarten. A Great Resource For Teachers ... Child Care Providers and Parents!!

Free and low-cost preschool activities, curriculum and printables for teachers, daycares, and parents. HUNDREDS of FREE activity pages and FREE quality clipart.

Lesson plan themes, monthly calendars, and educational activities appropriate for use with young learners.

Colour Spin Game

2008-10-15T10:34:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Pencil

Lid for tracing

Large white paper plate

Markers (4 colours)

Clothespin (2)

Child safety scissors

Black construction paper scrap

Paper fastener (adult supervision here!)

What You Do:

Trace the lid to make a circle in the centre of the paper plate. Draw two lines, dividing the circle in four pieces like a pie. Colour each section a different colour.
Draw a ring around the rim of the plate. Divide the ring into 1" squares- about the size of half of your pointer finger. Colour the squares the four different colours.
Write the words Start and Finish on two side-by-side squares. Write the players' names on the clothespins.
Cut an arrow shape from the black construction paper. Ask a grown up to attach the arrow with the fastener, to the centre of the plate.
To play, take turns spinning the arrow. Clip the clothespin to the colour square the arrow points to that's closest to the Start. Continue moving around the plate until one player reaches the Finish.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Pinwheel Colour Spin

2008-10-15T10:28:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

White construction paper

Red and blue markers

Plastic drinking straw

Hole punch

Paper fastener (adult supervision here)

What You Do:

Cut out a circle from white construction paper. Divide the circle into 12 wedges, like a pie. Colour one wedge blue, the next red, the next one blue, and so on (alternating the two colours).
Ask a grown up to poke a hole in the centre of the circle. Pinch the top of the straw flat. Punch a hole through the centre of the flattened part of the straw.
Ask a grown up to attach the coloured circle loosely to the straw with a paper fastener. Spin the circle. What new colours do you see?

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Coloured Puzzle Shapes

2008-10-15T10:25:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Red, blue, and yellow construction paper

Pencil

Cereal box cardboard

Tape

What You Do:

Cut a red square, a blue circle, and a yellow triangle from construction paper. Trace the shapes onto the cardboard.
Ask a grown up to help cut out the shapes without cutting through the edges of the cardboard.
Turn the cardboard over the tape red construction paper to cover the square, blue paper to cover the circle, and yellow paper to cover the triangle.
Match the cutout shapes and colours to the shapes and colours on the cardboard.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Rainbow Mobile

2008-10-15T10:18:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Large paper plate

Watercolour paints

Paintbrush & water containers

Hole punch

Plastic drinking straw

Thin yarn, 2 strands

White craft glue

Cotton balls

What You Do:

Cut away the rim of the paper plate. Cut the centre of the plate in half.
Use watercolours to paint a rainbow on both sides of one half. Punch a hole in the top of the rainbow.
Cut the straw in half. Thread the yarn through the hole in the rainbow, and tie it to the centre of the straw.
Cut out two clouds from the other half of the paper plate. Punch a hole in the top of each cloud. Glue cotton balls onto both sides of each cloud.
Thread the other piece of yarn through the straw with grown-up help, so that the ends hang down. Tie a cloud to each yarn end. Tie yarn around the middle of the straw to hang the mobile.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Colour Sort

2008-10-15T10:12:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White business-sized envelopes (2)

Child safety scissors

Construction paper

Glue stick

Markers (4 assorted colours)

Old magazines and catalogues

What You Do:

Seal the envelopes. Cut each one in half across the short side. Glue each half with its open end up onto construction paper to make a pocket.
Colour the front of each envelope a different colour.
Cut out pictures from old magazines and catalogues. Match the colour of the pictures to the colour on the pocket, and slip the pictures inside.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Popsicle Stick Match

2008-10-15T10:08:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White paper

Popsicle sticks, 10

Pencil

Red, yellow, blue, and green markers

What You Do:

Starting at one end of the paper, trace one Popsicle stick. Leave a space. Now trace two Popsicle sticks next to each other. Next, trace three sticks and then four next to each other.
Colour the real Popsicle sticks: one yellow, two red, three green, and four blue.
Colour in the Popsicle stick tracings: one yellow, two red, three green, and four blue.
Match up the stics to the colour strips.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Colourful Circles

2008-10-15T10:02:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White tempera paint

Styrofoam tray

Round objects (paper cup, tube, bottle cap spool, button, etc)

Construction paper (of various colours)

Child safety scissors

Glue stick

What You Do:

Pour a thin later of paint into the tray. Dip a round object into the paint; press onto the construction paper.
Choose another colour of construction paper and another object, and make more prints. Continue, choosing new paper colours and different objects, until you've made prints of all the objects. Let dry.
Cut shapes out of the printed papers. Glue the shapes onto a background sheet of construction paper.
Print some small painted circles on the background if you like.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Ten Commandments for Parents

2008-10-14T20:52:00.000+08:00

I read this wonderful article from http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net

1. My hands are small; please don’t expect perfection whenever I make my bed, draw a picture or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so that I can keep up with you.

Remember, it’s our parental responsibility to teach and train our children how to do even the basics of life such as, how to make a bed, how to brush their teeth properly, how to prepare simple meals, how to dust and vacuum, but not expecting perfection in each task. As children learn each new life skill, give them opportunities to practice these in your own home, so young children and teenagers can feel good about themselves and build confidence in their own abilities.

2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; please let me explore safely; don’t restrict me unnecessarily.

It should go without saying but, this advice does not include allowing our children such a wide berth of “freedom to explore” their surroundings in such a way that might put children at risk of being harmed or abused in some way.

3. Housework will always be there. I’m only little for such a short time-please take the time to explain things to me about this wonderful world and do so willingly.

4. My feelings are tender; please be sensitive to my needs; don’t nag me all day long. (You wouldn’t want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness). Treat me as you would like to be treated.

No matter how busy we are as parents, taking care of the home, jobs and other duties, make sure you are taking/making the time to really listen to your children. Physically stop whatever you’re doing when your child wants or needs to talk to you, rather than thoughtlessly telling children you are “too busy right now”, making sure you are giving your child undivided attention and looking directly into their eyes when they are speaking.

5. I am a special gift; please treasure me as my Creator intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6. I need your encouragement, not just your praise to grow. Please go easy on the criticism; you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail, so that I can learn from my own mistakes. Then someday I will be prepared to make the kind of decisions life will require of me.

8. Please don’t do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn’t quite measure to your expectations. I know it’s hard, but please don’t try to compare me to my brother or sister.

If you have the tendency to give your child a chore to do, but continuously follow closely behind to re-do the chore “your way”, you might need to consider if you are really helping or enabling your child’s efforts to grow and fully develop.

9. Please don’t be afraid to leave for a weekend together. Kids need a vacation from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides it’s a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.

Taking and making time to be alone with your spouse, over a weekend trip or during “Date Night” away from the kids, is beneficial for children as well as for married couples. It’s so easy to get bogged down with various aspects of daily living that we may find the fire and romance in marriage once enjoyed, before the kids came along, begins to slip away from us.

10. Please set a good example for me to follow in all the ways of life. I enjoy watching the things you do and want to do them just like you do.

The old saying, “Children learn what they live” couldn’t be more true, so make sure as parents that the attitude and behaviors children learn are the ones you really want your children to exhibit in their lives.

Choo-choo Train

2008-10-14T10:30:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Index cards (4" by 6")

Transparent tape

Hole punch

Child safety scissors

Paper fasteners (adult supervision here!)

Cardboard egg carton

Markers

What You Do:

Firstly, to make the cars....
- Hold two index cards the long way; fold each one into thirds.
- Place one card upside down inside the second card; tape to hold together.
- Make more train cars by folding and taping additional index cards. Punch a hole in the ends of each car.
Next, to make the couplings
- Cut out 1" by 3" rectangles from another index card.
- Punch a hole in the ends of each strip.
- Attach couplings between the train cars with paper fasteners.
Lastly, to make the engine.
- Cut out one section of the egg carton. Holding the index card vertically, tent it over the egg section; tape to hold.
- Tape the engine car to the first train car.
Use markers to decorate the train and draw on wheels.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Circus Train

2008-10-14T10:27:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Cardboard milk carton

Masking tape

Pencil

Construction paper, assorted colours

Child safety scissors

White craft glue

Animal pictures/stickers

Toothpicks

Markers

What You Do:

Flatten the spout end of the carton. Tape to hold.
Trace the side of the carton four times onto construction paper. Cut out and glue to the carton.
Glue or stick animals pictures onto the covered carton. Glue toothpicks over the pictures to make cage bars. Let dry.
Decorate the circus car with markers.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Racing Cars

2008-10-14T10:23:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Styrofoam egg carton

Permanent black marker

Small stickers/coloured tape

White paper plates (1 large, and 1 small)

Black tempera paint

Paintbrush

Toothpicks

Tape

Paper fasteners (Adult supervision here!)

What You Do:

To make race cars, cut out six sections from the egg carton, trimming each around the sides. Draw on windows and doors. Put a different sticker, strip of tape, or number on top of each car.
Cut away the rim from the small paper plate. Paint the top of the plate black, leaving the outer edge white. Turn the large paper plate upside down and paint the bottom black, leaving an edge of the rim white. Let it dry.
Poke a toothpick through the sides of each car. Tape the other end of the toothpick under a small plate.
Ask a grown-up to poke a hole in the centre of both plates. Attach the plates with a paper fastener. Turn the top plate to start the race.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Red light, Green light, Yellow light too!

2008-10-14T10:19:00.003+08:00

What You Need:

Pencil

Lids from deli containers (3 of it)

Red, yellow, green, and black construction paper

Child safety scissors

Tacky glue

Paper-towel tube

What You Do:

Trace a deli lid onto the green, yellow, and red construction paper. Trace the lid twice on the black paper.
Cut out the paper circles so they fit snugly inside the lids.
Glue the lids onto the cardboard tube: the red lid on top, the yellow lid in the middle, and the green lid on the bottom. To make each colour turn "on", place black circles onto the other two colours, so only one colour shows.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

In the Car

2008-10-14T10:12:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Large white paper plates (2 of them)

Child safety scissors

Markers

Scenic road pictures from old magazines (2 of them again)

Tape

Paper fasteners (adult supervision here!)

What You Do:

Lay the plates inside each other. Ask a grown up to poke a hole through the centre of both plates.
Cut out a windshield from inside one of the paper plates. Draw a steering sheel below the windshield.
Turn the other plate upside down. Tape a scenic picture on the top half. Then turn the plate around, and tape a second picture on the bottom.
Attach the plates back to back with a paper fastener. Turn the top plate to see different scenes through the windshield.

We're found at http://little-red-bus.com

Bus Ride

2008-10-14T10:08:00.003+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Egg carton

Wooden ice-cream spoons (8 of)

Markers

Yellow construction paper

Paper clips

What You Do:

Cut away four sections from one end of the egg carton, so you have 8 sections left. Turn the carton upside down. Poke a slit in each section.
To make passengers, draw faces on the wooden spoons. Place each passenger, with face outward into a slit.
Fold the yellow paper in half. Draw windows on both halves and cut them out. Draw wheels underneath the windows.
"Tent" the yellow paper over the egg carton. Attach the paper to the carton with paper clips. (Have an adult supervising you here!)

Back-seat Drivers

2008-10-14T10:03:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Markers

White business-sized envelope

Child safety scissors

Glue stick

Black construction paper scrap

Old magazines/photos

Cereal-box cardboard

What You Do:

Draw a large car, with front and rear windows, onto a white envelope. Cut out the car's rear window (but don't cut out the back of the envelope). Glue th envelope shut.
Cut out two tires from the black paper. Glue onto the bottom of the envelope.
Cut out faces from magazines or old photos. Glue a face in the car's front window.
Cut out a 2" by 12" strip from the cardboard. Then, glue some faces onto the cardboard strip, starting 1" in from one end and spacing faces about 1" apart.
Cut a slit in both ends of the envelope wide enough for the cardboard strip. Now, pull those back-seat drivers through!

When Mum & Dad can't find their keys...

2008-10-14T09:30:00.002+08:00

Give them this ring, it's sure to please!

What You Need:

Pencil

Keys

Construction Paper, assorted colours

Child safety scissors

Hole Punch

Markers

Pipe cleaner

What You Do:

Trace keys onto the construction paper, and cut them out. Punch a hole in the top of each key. Use markers to draw on details.
Cut the pipe cleaner in half; string through the holes in the keys. Twise the ends together for a key ring.

Perky Hat

2008-10-12T12:01:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Masking tape

Fuzzy towel

Large white paper plate

Crayons (of several colours please!)

Child safety scissors

Stapler

Ribbon

What You Do:

Press strips of tape onto a fuzzy towel; then, lift them off. (This makes the tape less sticky)
Lay the tape in a pattern- or at random- around the paper plate. Colour over the entire plate with crayons.
Lift up the strips of tape to reveal the "uncoloured" pattern.
Make a cut from the outside edge of the paper plate into the centre. Overlap the edges, forming a peak, and staple the slit ends together. Staple a ribbon or ties to the sides of the hat.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Sunshine Wand

2008-10-12T11:58:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Red, orange, and yellow construction paper

Paper-towel tube

Tape

Small paper plate

White craft glue

What You Do:

Wrap a sheet of construction paper around the paper tube. Tape to hold.
Tear construction paper into long, thin strips. Glue the strips onto the paper plate, so that the "rays" hang off the side.
Tape the plate onto the tube.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Sandy Island

2008-10-12T11:56:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White paper plate

Green and blue markers

Child safety scissors

Sandpaper

White craft glue

Old magazines/stickers

What You Do:

Turn the paper plate upside down. Colour the rim blue, and green for ocean waves.
Cut the sandpaper to fit inside the rim of the plate, and glue on for a sandy beach.
Cut out pictures of sea life from magazines or use stickers. Glue on the island or in the ater, as appropriate.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Tissue-Paper Sun Catchers

2008-10-12T11:53:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White craft glue

Styrofoam tray

Paintbrush

Tissue paper (of several colours)

Child safety scissors

Hole punch

Ribbon

What You Do:

Mis the glue with a few drops of water in the bottom of the tray. Spread out the glue mixture with the paintbrush.
Tear off pieces of tissue paper and press into the glue. Continue layering the tissue in the glue until the bottom of the tray is covered and each piece of the tissue is moist with the glue mixture. Allow to dry overnight. (bummer, I know)
Peel the sheet of tissue off the tray. Use scissors to cut out tissue-paper shapes you like. Punch a hole in the top of each shape and thread with ribbon. Hand the sun-catchers in a window.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Goofy Glasses

2008-10-12T11:50:00.003+08:00

What You Need:

Clear plastic yogurt-sized lids (2!)

Pipe cleaners (2 again! plus, a short extra piece)

Coloured plastic wrap

Child safety scissors

What You Do:

Ask a grown up to poke a hole on both sides of each plastic lid. Hole the lids side by side. Twise the short piece of pipe cleaner through the two inner holes for the eyeglass bridge piece.
Twist the two long pie cleaners through each of the two outer holes. Bend the ends of the pipe cleaners to fit around your ears.
Cut plastic wrap to fit inside the lids. Press the wrap in place with your fingers.
Try on your shades!

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Runaway Balloon

2008-10-12T11:46:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Small white paper plates (oh, you'd need 3)

Crayons (of 3 colours again)

Tape

String

Glue stick

Blue construction paper

Cereal box

Self-sticking velcro dots

What You Do:

To make balloons, cut away the rims of the paper plates. Colour each centre adifferent colour. Tape a piece of string to the back of each circle.
Glue the blue construction paper to the cardboard. Attach Velcro dot hooks at the top, middle, and bottom sections of the paper.
Attach a Velcro dot lop to the back of each balloon. Attach the balloons to the Velcro dot hooks.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Super Sailboats

2008-10-12T11:42:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

White craft glue

Styrofoam plate

Paintbrush

Blue tissue paper

Child safety scissors

Egg carton

Construction paper

Toothpicks

What You Do:

Mix a few drops of water into the glue. Turn the plate upside down and brush the glue mixture over the bottom. Press the tissue paper into the glue on the plate. Brush more glue over the paper. Let dry.
To make boats, cut out four sections from the egg carton. To mae sails, cut eight triangles from construction paper (two for each boat). Glue a toothpick mast between every two triangles. Let dry.
Glue the egg carton boats onto the tissue-covered late. Poke the toothpick masts through ach boat and into the plate.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

Salt Clay Mouse

2008-10-11T12:53:00.003+08:00

What You Need:

Salt clay

Old metal tablespoon

Cookie sheet

Black, red, and white tempera paint

Paper plate, for mixing colours

Thin paintbrush

What You Do:

Press a lump of clay into the spoon for a mouse body. Gently pull the clay along the spoon's handle for a tail.
Roll tiny balls of clay for eyes, nose, and ears; press them into the rounded mouse body.
Place the mouse- still in the spoon- on a cookie sheet. Ask a grown up to bake the clay until hardened in oven, or allow to air-dry. Then, carefully slide the clay mouse off the spoon.
Mix some black and white paint to paint the mouse gray; mix red and white paint for a pink nose. Add black details for the eyes and ears.

Brown Bear Puppet

2008-10-11T12:05:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

White paper plates (1 large, 1 small)

Brown crayon

Tape

Brown paper lunch bag

Paper fastener

White craft glue

Wiggly eyes

Brown, black, and red markers

What You Do:

Cut out the bear's nose from the centre of the small paper plate. Cut away the rim from the large paper plate to make the head; cut out paws and ears from the rim. Colour the bear pieces brown.
Put the small circle on top of the large circle. Ask a grown-up to poke a hole through the centers; attach to the flap of the bag with a paper fastener. Tape the bear's paws to the edge of the flap and the ears to the top of the large circle.
Glue on the wiggly eyes. Use the markers to draw the bear's mouth, eyebrows, and bow tie. Put your hand inside the bag to make the bear move.

Easy Elephant

2008-10-11T11:58:00.003+08:00

What You Need:

Child safety scissors

Large white paper plate

Gray crayon

White or gray construction paper (2 sheets alright!)

Tape

What You Do:

Cut the paper plate in half for the elephant's ears. Colour them gray.
Cut a band of construction paper to fit around your head. Fold it over on itself the long way; tape the ends together. Colour with crayon to match the ears.
Cut a slit in one corner of each ear. Slide the ears onto the headband. Tape to hold.
To make the trunk, fold the second sheet of paper the long way, making a tube; colour and tape together. Tape the trunk to the headband.

Visit us: http://little-red-bus.com

School of Fish

2008-10-11T11:54:00.002+08:00

What You Need:

Cardboard tube

Large white paper plate

Black tempura paint

Markers (green, black, and other colours)

Blue crayon

What You Do:

Press the cardboard tube flat, to form an oval shape at the end. Dip the end of the tube in the paint; press onto the plate. Repeat the design to make six fish. Allow to dry.
Use the black marker to draw each fish's tail, eyes, and gills. Use the green marker for seaweed. Colour three fish one colour, and the rest another colour. Lightly rub the blue crayon around the fish for water.

Cuckoo Bird Mask

2008-10-10T18:28:00.002+08:00

What You'd Need:

Child safety scissors

Paper cups, 2

Brown construction paper

Tape

White craft glue

Craft feathers, 2

Markers

Stapler (careful here)

Elastic band

What You Do:

Cut the top off the paper cups, leaving a 1" (2.5 cm) section around the bottom. Cut out a hole in the centre of each cup for the bird's eyes.
Cut a 5 by 5" (12.5 by 12.5cm) construction paper square. Cut a fan shape across one corner of the square; fold into a cone and tape to hold.
Tape the bird's eyes together; tape the cone below the eyes. Glue feathers on top and decorate eyes with markers if desired.
Ask a grown up to staple or tie an elastic to the outside edge of each cup. Adjust so the elastic fits. Now, act like a cuckoo clock!

Bird in a Cage

2008-10-10T18:24:00.002+08:00

What You'd Need:

Child safety scissors

Clear plastic drinking straw

Pipe cleaners (2)

Marker

Yellow construction paper

Tape

Plastic berry baskets (2)

What You Do:

Cut off a third of the straw. To make a perch, pass one pipe cleaner stem through the short straw section. Cut the second pipe cleaner into four 2" (5 cm) pieces.
Draw a bird on the yellow paper. Cut it out and tape it to the perch.
Turn the berry basket upside down. Hang the perch from the centre of the basket. Place the basket with the perch on top of the second basket. Twist pieces of pipe cleaners through to hold the baskets together.

Kitty Cat

2008-10-10T18:17:00.002+08:00

What You'd Need:

Child safety scissors

Small white paper plates (You'd need 2)

Kitchen sponge

Black tempera paint

Black and red marker

Paper fasteners (ensure you're being supervised by an adult!)

White craft glue

Wiggly eyes

What You Do:

Cut off the rim of the first paper plate. From the rim scraps, cut out the cat's ears, paws and tail. Use the centre of the plate for the cat's head.
Dip the sponge into the black paint, and press onto the cat's ears, paws, tail, and head, and the entire second plate. Allow to dry.
Use the black marker to draw the cat's whiskers and claws, and to outline the head, tail, eyes, ears, and body. Use the red marker for the cat's mouth and nose.
Ask a grown-up to poke a hole through the whole paper plate and tail. Attach the tail with a paper fastener. Glue on the cat's face, paws, ears, and wiggly eyes. Now, move the tail back and forth.

Dramatic Play:
Pretend you're a cat. Crouch in the centre of your room and close your eyes. What senses can you use to help you "see"? Describe the smell of things in the room. What can you learn by touching things? Can you carefully find your way around the room, using your outstretching arms and hands?

Terrific Turtles

2008-10-10T17:59:00.004+08:00

What You'd Need:

Child safety scissors

Styrofoam tray (get this from your mom!)

Pencil with dull point

White tempera paint

Green or brown construction paper

Black marker

What You Do:

Cut out a large oval from the center of the tray. Pressing down hard, draw a design into the oval.
Dip the oval design into the paint; press, paint side down, onto the marker. Repeat to make more turtle designs. Allow to dry.
Use the marker to outline each turtle's shell, head, legs, eyes, and tail. Wow! Did you make a pattern of turtles?

With Your Friends:

Have a turtle race!
Drape a pillow across your back, and get on your knees. Line up side-by-side. Then, at the sound of "Go!" begin the race. The first "turtle" to cross the finish line wins!

P.S.: Visit our official site at http://little-red-bus.com

Singapore Children's Favorite Stories

2008-10-09T11:47:00.003+08:00

LK Tay-Auodard's absolutely wonderful illustrations are simply breathtaking, and Di Taylor does an amazing job on the book. Her prose is effortlessly flawless and she draws the reader in to each and everyone of these stories with the skill of a master story teller.

An Absolutely Beautiful Book.. You may view the preview of this book at Google Books here.

Picture Books You'd Love to Read!

2008-10-09T11:01:00.003+08:00

From Publishers Weekly
Lending itself to a sing-along rather than a read-aloud (the text can be sung to the tune of "Skip to My Lou"), the merriment of this mischievous book is contagious. Barnyard animal sounds punctuate Crebbin's (Into the Castle) catchy text: "Ducks in the dishes, quack, quack, quack [repeat twice]/ That's what we do, Tom Farmer!" After seeing the animals wreaking havoc in the house, readers spy the farmer sleeping in the haystack, who chases the animals out and promptly falls asleep in an armchair. Crebbin's clever pacing comes into play as the prankster animals sneak in with a "shhh, shhh, shhh," and pounce on the innocently dozing fellow.

McEwen makes a splash of a debut with her bustling, highly animated, slightly flattened cartoon drawings. High-stepping cows balance bottles on their noses, lick Jell-O and smash dishes; ducks make themselves comfortable in the cupboard, cozying up in a teapot and pilfering sugar cubes; sheep bounce and flop happily on the sofa. The broadly smiling troublemakers are an irresistible crew, ready to ambush unsuspecting readers as well with their rambunctious gaiety.

"One night, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight." So begins this gentle story that shows just how far your imagination can take you. Armed only with an oversized purple crayon, young Harold draws himself a landscape full of beauty and excitement. But this is no hare-brained, impulsive flight of fantasy. Cherubic, round-headed Harold conducts his adventure with the utmost prudence, letting his imagination run free, but keeping his wits about him all the while.

His imagination runs free as he sketches mountains and oceans, boats, and of course a purple pie picnic when he gets hungry. So get your crayons out and join Harold and his purple crayon.

Who would ever suspect that a tiny little mouse could wear out an energetic young boy? Well, if you're going to go around giving an exuberantly bossy rodent a cookie, you'd best be prepared to do one or two more favors for it before your day is through.

For example, he'll certainly need a glass of milk to wash down that cookie, won't he? And you can't expect him to drink the milk without a straw, can you? By the time our hero is finished granting all the mouse's very urgent requests--and cleaning up after him--it's no wonder his head is becoming a bit heavy.

Have you ever dreamed of being locked in a department store at night? The endearing story of Corduroy paints a picture of the adventures that might unfold (for a teddy bear at least) in such a situation. When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button. It's a brave new world! He accidentally gets on an elevator that he thinks must be a mountain and sees the furniture section that he thinks must be a palace. He tries to pull a button off the mattress, but he ends up falling off the bed and knocking over a lamp. The night watchman hears the crash, finds Corduroy, and puts him back on the shelf downstairs.

The next morning, he finds that it's his lucky day! A little girl buys him with money she saved in her piggy bank and takes him home to her room. Corduroy decides that this must be home and that Lisa must be his friend.

Problems with your intricate details in Papier Mache?

2008-10-08T20:14:00.003+08:00

There are many different recipes available for paper mache paste and pulp. No one recipe is better than another or the 'right' recipe. Here are some of the common methods of 'cooking' up your paste.

Use a simple mixture of flour and water. Mix one part flour with about 2 parts of water until you get a consistancy like thick glue. Add more water or flour as necessary. Mix well to get out all the bumps. Add a few tablespoons of salt to help prevent mold!
Similar to the above recipe - Put 4 cups of water into a large pot. Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, mix together 1 cup of flour with 2 cups of water, stir well to get out as many bumps as possible. Once the water is boiling, carefully add your flour and water mixture. Simmer this mixture for 2-3 minutes, until smooth. Add a few tablespoons of salt to help prevent mold. Allow to cool before you try to use it!
You can use regular glue mixed with a bit of water. Mix using about 1 part water with 2 parts glue.
Use wallpaper paste. Follow the directions from the manufacturer to mix this paste.

However, we often find ourselves stumped when it comes to smaller items, or intricate details on your work of art. Here, you'd find an article, to make a pulp mixture to make fine details on paper mache projects.

Materials Needed:

Newspaper
Water
Salt
Glue

Instructions:
A pulp mixture is great for making smooth, fine details in your paper mache creations, or for creating small objects. It would, however, take a lot of it to complete a larger project.

Tear the newspaper into tiny pieces and put them in a large bowl. Add just enough warm to hot water to completely cover the newspaper. Let soap overnight.

Once your newspaper has soaked for several hours, get your hands into it! Play with it, mix it, and squeeze it through your fingers until it looks like oatmeal! Try to get as many lumps out as possible. If necessary, add a bit more water and let it soak a little more.

Once you have it as smooth as possible, add a few tablespoons of salt to help retard mold. Mix it again with your hands. Once mixed thoroughly, squeeze out any excess water and add a few tablespoons of glue. Now you are ready to use your paper mache pulp!

If you don't want to wait overnight, you can add your newspaper to boiling water and let it boil until the newspaper falls apart. You have to watch this carefully and possibly add extra water if necessary. You can also try letting your newspaper and hot water mixture sit for a few hours and then put it in a blender or food processor. Don't forget to add the glue and salt once your mixture is smooth!

Store your pulp in an air tight baggie or bowl in the refrigerator for a very long time!

Insect Jokes for Kids

2008-10-08T20:13:00.001+08:00

Why did the fly fly?
Because the spider spied her!

Why did the flea fail his exams?
He wasn’t up to scratch!

What do you call a fly with no wings?
A walk!

Why wouldn’t they let the butterfly into the dance?
Because it was a moth ball!

How does a flea get from place to place?
By itch-iking!

What did one flea say to the other flea?
Shall we walk or take the dog?

What’s smaller than an ant’s mouth?
An ant’s dinner!

Where would you put an injured insect?
In an antbulance!

What has four wheels and flies?
A rubbish bin!

How do we know that insects are so clever?
Because they always know when your eating outside!

What do insects learn at school?
Mothmatics!

What's the biggest moth in the world?
A mammoth!

Why is it better to be a grasshopper than a cricket?
Because grasshoppers can play cricket but crickets can't play grasshopper!

What is green and can jump a mile in a minute?
A grasshopper with hiccups!

What did one firefly say to the other?
Got to glow now!

What is the difference between a fly and a bird?
A bird can fly but a fly can't bird!

Stop, think, and laugh. (Or stop, laugh, and think..)

2008-10-08T20:12:00.001+08:00

These jokes (or riddles) make you think a little! We hope you enjoy them!

If the red house was made out of red bricks, and the blue house was made out of blue bricks, what was the green house made out of?
Glass!

What runs but never walks?
Water!

What is white when its dirty and black when its clean?
A blackboard!

What has one eye but cannot see?
A needle!

What kind of coat you can put on which doesn't have buttons, a zipper, or sleeves?
A coat of paint.

What do you throw out when you need it and take in when you don't need it?
An anchor!

What belongs to you, other people use it a lot, but you hardly every use it?
Your name!

Try this: Hold your tongue and say "Bench"

What starts with a T, ends with a T, and is full of T?
A teapot!

What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment but never in two thousand years?
The letter M.

There are many castles in the world, but who is strong enough to move
one?
Any chess player.

When is a door not a door?
When it's ajar.

What's a quick way to double your money?
YOU FOLD IT!

Who sits on babies?
A babysitter.

What is the richest kind of air?
Millionaire.

Why did the man sleep with a ruler?
To see how long he could sleep.

What did one wall say to the other wall?
Meet you at the corner!

Why did the girl throw the clock out the window?
Because she wanted to see time fly!

What gets bigger the more you take away?
A hole!

What can you keep and give away at the same time?
A cold!

Which is the fastest, cold or heat?
Heat, you can catch a cold!

What did one eye say to the other?
Between you and me, something smells!

What has a bottom at its top?
A leg!

Which is the left side of the pudding?
The side that’s not been eaten!

What has one foot and four legs?
A bed.

What did the light say when it was turned off?
I’m delighted!

A man rides into town on Friday, stays three nights and leaves on Saturday morning. How is this possible?
His horse was called Friday!

Which months have 28 days?
All of them!

What did the hat say to the scarf?
You hang on around while I go on ahead!

If you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, what does it become?
Wet!

What can a whole apple do that a half apple can’t?
Look round!

There was a red bungalow. Everything in it was red – the walls, the carpets, the furniture. What colour were the stairs?
There weren’t any stairs. It was a bungalow!

Why is 6 afraid of 7?
Because 7 8 9.

What is the longest word in the English language?
SMILES – because there is a mile between the first and last letters.

What two things can’t you have for dinner?
Lunch and breakfast!

If you drop a white hat into the red sea, what will it become?
Wet!

What house weighs the least?
A lighthouse!

What’s pink with huge teeth, hairy legs and green spots?
I don’t know. Why?
Because one’s just crawled down your Tshirt!

What is Rupert the Bear’s middle name?
The!

What has a head and a tail but no body?
A coin!

Why did the baker stop making doughnuts?
He got fed up with the whole business!

What’s the difference between a wizard and the letters S A M E K?
One makes spells, the other spells makes!

What starts with e, ends with e, but has only one letter?
An envelope!

Why did the boy throw his clock out of the window?
To see time fly!

What has no beginning, no end, and nothing in the middle?
A doughnut!

Why do you always find things in the last place you look?
Because when you have found it you stop looking!

What is full of holes but can still hold water?
A sponge!

What is brown and sticky?
A stick!

What comes once in a year, twice in a week, and never in a day?
The letter E.

What has arms & legs but no head?
A chair!

What am I?
No one wants to have one of these
But when you do have one, no one wants to
lose it!
What am I?
An argument!

Knock Knock Jokes for Kids

2008-10-08T20:10:00.001+08:00

Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Joan.
Joan who?
Joan call us, we’ll call you!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Myth.
Myth who?
Myth you, too!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Dewey.
Dewey who?
Dewey have to go to school today?

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Ken.
Ken who?
Ken you open the door, please?

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Alison.
Alison who?
Alison to my radio in the morning!

Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Kent.
Kent who?
Kent you tell?

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Egbert.
Egbert who?
Egbert no bacon please!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Sabina.
Sabina who?
Sabina long time since I’ve seen you!

Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Ivor.
Ivor who?
Ivor message for you!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Olive.
Olive who?
Olive here, now let me in!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
A titch.
A titch who?
Bless you!

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Tank!
Tank who?
You're welcome!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Witches!
Witches who?
Witches the way to go home?

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Hugo.
Hugo who?
Hugo-ing to let me in, or what?

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Radio.
Radio who?
Radio not here I come.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Justin.
Justin who?
Justin time for dinner!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Wooden Shoe.
Wooden Shoe who?
Wooden Shoe like to hear another joke?

Knock knock
Who's there?
Little old lady
Little old lady who?
I didn't know you could yodel!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Boo
Boo who?
There’s no need to cry, it's only a joke!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Felix
Felix who?
Felix my ice-cream again, I'll bash him!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Isabelle
Isabelle who?
Isabelle necessary on a bike?

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Scot.
Scot who?
Scot nothing to do with you!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Luke.
Luke who?
Luke through the keyhole and you can see!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Snow.
Snow who?
Snow use – I’ve forgotten my name again!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Frank
Frank who?
Frank you for being my friend!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Howard
Howard who?
Howard you like a big kiss!

Knock Knock!
Who’s there
Canoe
Canoe who?
Canoe help me with my homework, Dad, I’m stuck!

School Jokes for Kids

2008-10-08T20:08:00.000+08:00

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Dewey.
Dewey who?
Dewey have to go to school today?

Have you heard about the teacher who was cross-eyed?
She couldn’t control her pupils!

Teacher: Name two days of the week that start with "t".
Pupil: Today and Tomorrow.

What school supply is always tired?
A knapsack!

Teacher: I see you missed the first day of school.
Kid: Yes, but I didn't miss it much.

Teacher: Could you please pay a little attention?
Student: I'm paying as little attention as I can.

Teacher: James, where is your homework?
James: I ate it.
Teacher: Why?
James: You said it was a piece of cake!

Teacher: Why is your homework in your father’s handwriting?
Pupil: I used his pen!

Teacher: You’ve got your shoes on the wrong feet.
Pupil: But these are the only feet I’ve got!

What’s the difference between a teacher and a steam train?
The first goes “Spit out that chewing gum immediately!” and the second goes “chew chew”!

Today my teacher yelled at me for something I didn’t do.
What was that?
My homework!

What is white when its dirty and black when its clean?
A blackboard!

Halloween Jokes for Kids

2008-10-08T20:07:00.000+08:00

What does a hungry ghost want?
Ice scream!

What kind of girl does a mummy take on a date?
Any old girl he can dig up!

What was written on the hypochondriac's tombstone?
"I told you I was ill"!

Why did it take the monster ten months to finish a book?
Because he wasn't very hungry.

What do monsters call human beings?
Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

How do you make a witch itch?
Take away her w!

Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road?
Because he had no guts!

What runs around a cemetery but doesn't move?
A fence!

Why didn’t the skeleton go to the party?
Because he had no body to go with!

What does a witch ask for when she goes to a hotel?
Broom service!

Where do ghosts pick up their mail?
At the ghost office!

What happened when the werewolf swallowed a clock ?
He got ticks !

Why are graveyards so noisy ?
Because of all the coffin !

Why did the witch travel on a broom?
She couldn't afford a Vacuum Cleaner.

Who did Frankenstein take to the prom?
His ghoul friend!

What did the mother ghost say to the baby ghost as they
drove down the street?
Buckle your sheet belt!

Why do you always find ghouls and demons together?
Because demons are a ghoul's best friend!

What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern?
A plumpkin!

What did one vampire say to the other?
Fangs aren’t what they used to be!

What do you call a vampire that’s always feeling peckish?
Snackula!

When do werewolves go trick or treating?
Howl-oween!

What should a short-sighted ghost have?
Spooktacles!

What did one ghost say to the other ghost?
Do you believe in people?

What do you call an angry monster?
Sir!

Why is Dracula so unpopular?
Because he’s a pain in the neck!

Why did the skeleton go the party?
For a rattling good time!

Who has webbed feet and fangs?
Count Quackula!

Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Thumping.
Thumping who?
Thumping green and scary just crawled up your trousers!

Who comes out at night and goes “Munch, munch, ouch!”
A vampire with a rotten tooth!

How do monsters count to 13?
On their fingers!

Online Books for Young Children

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The Wiener Dog Magnet - by Hayes Roberts - Just what is it you can do with a wiener dog magnet? Kiki Marie is about to find out.

The Farm Animals - by Rolando Merino - An illustrated story of animal sounds. This is now a free complete online Click-a-Word Talking eBook!

Pirate's Treasure - by Carol Moore - Illustrated by Aura Moser - A pirate in Jimmy's dream tells him where to find buried treasure.

The Bitaba Bird - by Carol Moore - Illustrated by Michael S. Weber - A blending of imagination with a science lesson.

Wolstencroft The Bear - by Karen Lewis - Illustrated by Michael S. Weber.

Sniffy & Fluffy Have An Adventure - by Aimee Bruneau - Illustrated by Taylour Damion - An illustrated story.

Ollie's Jar - by Carol Moore - An illustrated story with animation.

Round Bird Can't Fly - by Lea McAndrews - An illustrated story.

Kitty Wants a Box - by Carol Moore - A short illustrated story.

Buzzy Bee - by Carol Moore - A short illustrated story.
See Buzzy Bee riddles, maze and coloring book below.

Buzzy Bee and Friends - by Carol Moore - A short illustrated story.
See Buzzy Bee riddles, maze and coloring book below.

Buzzy Bee's Night Out - by Carol Moore - Illustrated by Dan Wetzel - Buzzy Bee ventures into the night in search of tasty flowers.

Buzzy Bee's Picnic - by Carol Moore - Illustrated by Dan Wetzel - Buzzy Bee can't resist the delights of picnic food.

The Counting Story - by Rolando Merino - An illustrated story with animation.

Alphabet - by Rolando Merino - An animated story of the alphabet.

Animals You Can See at the Zoo - by Rolando Merino - An illustrated story of zoo animals with sound and animation.

Great games sites for you!

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1. Nick Jr. Games Online

Click on Nick Jr. Playtime to open the games window. All are great games for little ones and your child should have no trouble navigating through them.

2. Build a Neighborhood Online Game

An online build-a-picture game, it’s fun because kids get many choices and the quality of the pictures is very good. Move the pictures around, zoom in and out, well done game from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood at PBS Kids.

3. Sesame Street Games Online

Lots of games so your child shouldn’t get bored. Graphic quality, learning potential, and ease of use make these games winners. Somewhat clunky navigation back to more games and the games are fairly slow loading. Overall, a great destination for online preschool games.

4. Fisher-Price Online Games for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

That’s right, infants. These are really quite cute. The toddler games work for preschoolers too. Nice job at Fisher-Price.com

5. Orisinal Online Games

The prettiest preschool games online are at Orisinal. Choose one of the pretty watercolor pictures for a game that flows at a less than frantic pace.

6. Noggin Games

Fun games with characters your child will recognize, even if you don’t get Noggin. You’d like the Doodle Pad with cute stickers, watercolors, and glitter paint.

7. Poisson Rouge - Online Games for Young Children

No reading required but your child will easily follow the toys and games in the room. You’d especially love the paint box where you can mix colors and wash your brush.

8. Ziggity Zoom

Lots of fun games, online stories, crafts and educational activities.

Yet more great game sites for you!

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1. Nick.com Games Online

With their strong tie-in to the great Nickelodeon programming, your child has probably found these online games already. You must register for a Nickname and password, so read your privacy options before signing up.

2. CBeebies at BBC

Lots of games for little kids from the BBC CBeebies page.

3. Pauly’s Playhouse Online Games

Simple colorful games that are perfect for early elementary kids. The games load fast and Pauly sneaks in a learning game occasionally.

4. Lego Club Games

These are the perfect challenge for young elementary, though parents may need to help them get started by reading instructions.

5. Highlights Kids Hidden Pictures

Kids have played Hidden Pictures in Highlights magazine forever. Now find the online version (or click Hidden Pictures on the menu to get printable versions). Classic fun from Highlights Kids.

6. Barbie.com Games Online

Start at the Games page, but your daughter can surf around the whole site and find interactive games, music, and of course, fashion. Mindless commercial fun, but if you don’t mind that sort of thing, it’s fairly well done for early elementary kids.

7. Yahooligans Games

Great selection of games that are kid appropriate at Yahooligans.

8. Slime Slinger Online Game

Have fun shooting slime at the monsters with one of the best arcade style online games for kids, from Goosebumps at Scholastic.com.

9. Chicken Stacker

Cute, funny, good graphics, a learning component.

Fun Alphabet games for you; online!

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Alphabet Order
From Learning Planet.

ABC Mommy & Me

ABC Writing Slate
This is a fun activity which will also assist in mastering maneuvering the mouse.

Lots more alphabet games for primary level children!

Intro to Phonics

More Phonic games

Recognition Phonics

Alphabet Antics
Practise the letters of the alphabet with this game.

Alphabet Book Games
Organize the out of order books. Click on the books in alphabetical order.

Alphabet Letter Puzzle

Alphabet Online Jigsaw Puzzles

The animals at Alphabet Zoo are all mixed up. Help to sort them by putting the animals in ABC order. This game has 5 questions.

Calendar

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Fun Sites!

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Alfy - Web Portal for Kids: A fun, entertaining and educational free mega site for children worldwide, with lots of interesting activities, games and cool links for kids and teenagers, teachers and educators.

BrainPop: Animated movies, comic strips, activity pages and 24 hour homework assistance via email for Kids.

Chess Kids: This site offers free online chess lessons for kids. You can play against the computer and includes chess resources for teachers and parents.

Crayola: Crayola Creativity Central offers Kids Arts and Crafts Projects and Ideas for Rainy Day Fun.

Fact Monster: Fact Monster is the largest free reference site just for kids! Get homework help and find facts on thousands of subjects, including sports, entertainment, geography, history, biography, education and health.

Family Fun: A comprehensive source for holiday essentials: creative crafts, fun activities, and great recipes, as well as expert tips on parenting, parties, and life with kids!

Fun Brain: FunBrain is the Internet's premier location for interactive, educational games (math, grammar, science) for children and kids of all ages.

Fun School: Fun activities arranged by grade levels from preschool through sixth grade!

Funology: Funology.com is the premiere online destination for kids. They offer tons of fun, creative activities, games, jokes, trivia, and you might even learn something! It's all here and it's all free!

I Know That: This site offers free registration and interactive information that will help strengthen reading, writing, and math skills.

Kid's News Room: This site is loaded with stories, pictures, games, contests and opportunities for learning. Each week, a new issue is added to the site with the latest news in sports, music and entertainment, and more!

Kid's Space: An educational learning site devoted to bringing out the creativity in Kids of all ages around the world. Share your stories, pictures, and musical compositions.

Kids' Space Connection: Kids' Space Connection is an international meeting place for children and schoolteachers. Find pen pals from around the world! Check out interesting projects you can contribute to, and cool clubs you can join.

Lego.com: Come on in and have some lego fun online!

Owl Kids: Created by the people who make OWL, Chickadee, and Chirp Magazines, this site offers three age levels for fun interaction: kids 3-6 years old, 6-9 years old, and 9-13 years old.

Pauly's Playhouse: This site includes interactive games and fun for primary children.

PBS.org: This is the home of your favorite PBS Kids characters with thousands of pages of learning and fun to explore. Play over 100 games, hear your favorite theme songs, read interactive stories, and more.

Books about horses you'd love!

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Featuring the 1938 match race between two legendary thoroughbreds, Seabiscuit and War Admiral, this historically accurate account is suspenseful, as fast-paced as the horses, and packed with race jargon. Children will experience the greatest horse race in history, when Seabiscuit, the underdog, takes on Triple Crown Champion War Admiral in the 1938 Pimlico Special.

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You can count on horse-crazy kids to be doing something horse-related, thinking about something horse-related, or planning something horse-related 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's why Cindy A. Littlefield created the Kids' Book of Horse Games & Puzzles. If yo are going to spend their time horsing around, you might as well jump-start their creativity and boost their problem-solving skills at the same time.

The book is divided into five sections: Word Play, Picture Puzzles, Drawing, Fun and Games, and Brain Teasers. (All the answers are included.)

Take the "Horse and Pony Stall of Fame" challenge by matching up famous equines with their human or television character companions. Snuffle through the "Hungry as a Horse" quiz and see if you can find the names of 14 things horses like to eat hidden in a block of letters. Then break out your best drawing pencils and learn how to draw a horse's portrait in six easy steps.

Fun, horsey cartoons and illustrations adorn every page. And scattered throughout the book are horse riddles, bits of horse trivia, and quotes about horses.

Here, at last, is the perfect book for kids who love puzzles almost as much as they love horses.

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The comprehensive guide helps children and their parents choose the right horse and gives guidelines for safe handling and proper care. Full-color illustrations and photographs appear throughout the book.

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This refreshingly uncluttered book offers a thorough introduction to horsemanship. Richter's enthusiastic tone conveys a love for horses that is nonetheless tempered with strict adherence to and promotion of important safety practices. In five chapters, she covers stable care, equipment, tack, clothing, longeing, lessons, jumping, and showing.

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For kids who have ever wondered if there is a certain color that complements their horse more than another, what last-minute checks they need to do before entering a show ring, how to dress for success, and much more, this handbook is invaluable. Presenting a wealth of information in a well-organized and enthusiastic manner, the author also addresses the more serious issues such as safety and good sportsmanship.

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This book is excellent for children of all ages. It brings to life the excitement of the Kentucky Derby. The book adds fun with it's colorful and imaginative pop-ups and tells the complete story of the race. Includes well researched historical background and photos of past Kentucky Derby's. There is a recording of the call to the post!

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Finally, a craft book with real horse sense! The fifteen fun projects for young horse hobbyists include a sock horse and a bronco bookend. With full-color photos, patterns and simple-to-follow directions, kids will be off to a galloping start. Giddyup!

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In this fun book, you'll find a ton of puzzles, games, and activities that will help you learn all about this fabulous animal, including: History, what makes a horse race, breeds, and famous horses.

Horses

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