http://www.groupon.com/r/uu799340

Groupon has great daily deals!

• Play BINGO! Find a blank BINGO template on the web and fill the spaces with pictures of each of the children that will be participating, instead of numbers.  If you run out of pictures of students, add teachers and also objects that are important to your program or classroom- like your mascot.

• Make a “Wall of Wisdom.”  I found this idea on another site but adapted it to fit my needs.  Have each child write down one of the rules of your room on a red rectangular piece of paper.  Tape the rectangles to the wall like bricks.  Now at the beginning of the next school year, you will have the rules posted for all to see.  My kids came up with some touching rules as well as some funny ones- like “Try your best” and “Don’t ever kiss someone on the lips.”

• Play pin the mustache on the teacher!  I loved this idea as soon as I saw it.  Enlarge a photo of one of the teachers.  Cut out enough  paper mustaches to have one for each child.  Blindfold the child, spin them around and have them try to pin their mustache on the enlarged photo of the teacher.

• Put together a slideshow of all the great pictures that you have taken of the children throughout the year.

Check out the newest addition to the Noah’s Ark family of animals- Happy the Hippo!

Summer is a great time to book  Stuff-n-Fluff workshops for camps, child cares, birthday parties, assisted living facilities and more!  Contact me for info on how to conduct your own workshop and receive a 10% product credit and goodie bags for all participants.

Think Dog Bones and Paw Prints

• Make dog bone shaped invitations out of brown card stock or paw print invites.  You can use thumb prints to make the “toe” prints of the dog.  Draw an oval for the pad print.  Use clever wording like “Join us for a Paw-ty” or “Make no bones about it- we’d love to have you at the party!” or “Join us for a doggone good time” or “You’d be barking mad, not to come”
• Make Paw Print decorations.  Stamp paw prints on the table cloths and draw paw prints on the balloons.
• Make dog bone shaped cookies! Here’s a dog bone cookie cutter http://www.surlatable.com/product/id/129499.do
• Eat hot dogs and “dog food” (any mixture of cereal and other goodies resembling kibble, like coco puffs and peanut butter chips)
• Play games like “Pin the Bone in the Dog’s Dish”  or “Pin the Bone in the Dog’s Mouth”  or “Pin the Dog in the Doghouse”
• Have a treasure hunt to the goodie bags.  Write the clues for each location on bone shaped paper and mark each spot with a paw print so the guests know when they’ve reached the right place.
• If you’re not opposed to a little mess or are having an outside party- fill shallow bowls with water or another beverage (or purchase dog bowls at the dollar store). Without using their hands have the kids lap up the water from the bowls, like a pet.  The first to drink all the liquid wins!
• If you chose to purchase dog bowls for each child, serve their food in the bowls.
• Stuff Noah’s Ark dogs:  Ella the Black Lab, Coco Lab, Buddy Puppy, Candy Poodle and Scruffles Dalmatian.  (sorry, shameless plug)
• Make dog collars (beaded necklaces)
• Paint the children’s faces with dalmatian spots, whiskers and black noses.

Here are a few tips to keep you within your party budget!

1.  Schedule your party for a time that doesn’t require you to serve a meal.  Stay away from time slots that stretch over lunch or dinner.  Usually parties in the 1:00- 4:00 range work best.

2. Bake your own cake.  If you’re not a talented cake decorator then opt for cupcakes that the party guests can decorate.  You can make them from scratch or stock up on cake mixes when your local grocery store is having a big sale!  Buy seasonal sprinkles during the after the holiday clearance sales to save some money.

3. Get creative with your decorations!  Balloons and streamers are relatively inexpensive and can be used to creative a festive atmosphere.

• Having a jungle themed party?  Turn your balloons into animals.   Tape balloons together to form bodies and heads and use marker to draw faces.  Have balloon monkeys hanging from green streamers (vines).
• Circus themed party?  Drape streamers from the center of the ceiling out to the the edge of the ceiling and then down the walls to create a streamer “tent”.
• Have your children help you create great decorations.  Paint water on a long sheet of (butcher) paper for an Ocean or Pirate theme party.  Then add construction paper accessories like fish, pirate ships, etc.  Hang the sheet of paper on an empty wall.

4. Save money on the invitations.  Don’t spend money buying fancy invites. Search for printable invites online.   If you’re looking for something creative trying making invitations instead.  Pirate invites can be made on crumbled up, tea stained “treasure map” paper.  Dinosaur invites might be found inside a dinosaur egg (large plastic Easter egg).

Look for more tips coming soon!

Wind Crafts

Last week, we made hot air balloons that are now hanging from our classroom ceiling.  They turned out much better than I could have imagined.

1.I started out by tracing the outline of the balloon on two sheets of thick paper.   Try to make the balloon as symmetrical as possible because you will eventually be gluing the two balloons together and you want them to line up nicely.

2. Cut strips, squares and even circles from tissue paper.

3.  Water down white glue and mix with a paint brush.

4. Use the paint brush to spread the water/glue mixture on the balloon shape.

5. Place the tissue paper on the glue, overlapping and adding more glue as you go. It is okay if pieces of the tissue paper go over the outline of the balloon.

6. Allow the glue to dry and cut the balloon shape out of the paper, cutting through any tissue paper that may extend over the line.

7. Punch two holes in a small plastic bowl or cup.

8. Cut two piece of yarn or string and glue them in between the two sides of the balloon as you glue the two sides together.

9.  Thread the dangling ends of the string through the holes in the plastic cup.  Tie knots to secure the “basket” to the hot air balloon.

PinWheel

I used these directions for our pinwheel craft.  We only used one sheet of construction paper though and instead of a thumbtack we used a brass fastener.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/summer/mpinwheel.htm

Saint Patrick’s Day

Check out this super cute leprechaun craft!

http://crafts.kaboose.com/leprechaun-wall-hanging.html

and more to come . . .

• Receive a FREE “Kisses” sound chip with every animal that you purchase through the site from now until March 30th!

• Contact me to receive a $5 off coupon code- good for $5 off the purchase of any animal!

Or book a Party in a Box and receive FREE sound chips for all of your guests!! So, for example,  if you would buy 15 animals- you would receive $45 in free sound chips, plus a 10% product credit (if you spend $150 or more- please email me to receive this deal)!  The last person to place a Party in a Box order through my site spent about $200 and received over $60 in FREE products!  A Party in a Box makes a great activity for a Birthday Party, Scout Troop meeting, Child Care, Assisted Living Facility, etc.

What a great time to order animals for your Easter baskets! Our brand new Bunny Bears, Lil Lamb or Lil Chick would make great Easter gifts at only $13 each!

Please contact me with any questions!

If you’re stuck coming up with some ideas for a great Winter party, take a look at some the ideas below.  And feel free to offer some of you own suggestions!

The Cozy Party

Winter is the perfect time to have a Pajama Party.  Have a mid-day sleepover.  Invite the children to come dressed in their pajamas with their pillows in tow.  Dim the lights and watch a movie that was just released on DVD or an old Winter or Holiday favorite like the Grinch or Frosty the Snowman, eat popcorn, drink hot chocolate (with mini marshmallows of course) and talk.

The Winter Themed Party

It’s Winter so you might as well go with the season as the theme.  Create invitations on foam or paper snowflakes using glitter glue and markers.  We found a pack of snowflakes at AC Moore this season that we used to make beautiful invitations. Or if that seems like too much work- let the kids decorate snowflakes when they arrive.  Just be careful when using the glitter glue as it make not dry by the time the child leaves the party.

Play Pin the Nose on the Snowman.  You can make a great snowman out of white poster board with some construction paper accents (hat, scarf, etc).  Or purchase a snowman decoration at any place selling Christmas decorations and simply cut some orange carrot noses out of paper.  Put some tape or sticky tack on the back of the noses.  Use a scarf for a blindfold (preferably not a scratchy wool one).

If you have some open space in the house, let the kids have a snowball fight.  Use crumpled up white scrap paper or soft white balls for snowballs.  The kids can play a dodgeball- esque game using the “snowballs” or have them try to the balls into tubs or bins.  Each bin can be worth a different point value.  If this is party for girls, have each girl secretly choose another girl at the party.  (You can do this my drawing names from a hat.) Ask each girl to write down a compliment about the girl that they have chosen. Crumple the compliment up into a snowball and toss the snowball at the person that it is for.

Have the party guests bring their mittens or gloves to the party and as they arrive collect them in a basket.   Once the party is underway, ask the birthday child to match the gloves to the guest that brought them.

The Wishing It Were Summer Themed Party

Have a Summer Luau in the middle of winter.  Invite the guests to wear summer clothes to the party, like Hawaiian shirts and shorts.  Give the out leis as the guests enter the door.  Girls might enjoy learning to hula.  You can pick up an instructional DVD or book at the local bookstore or just improvise.

You could play a game of musical beach towels.  Fold the towels up into a nice seat size and play the game just like you would play musical chairs.  Play a mixed CD of summery songs or Island music to stick with the theme.

Serve up some french fries (just use frozen) in Dixie cups to give them the Summer carnival or boardwalk feel.

Look for some more ideas to be added as I have some more ideas!  And please feel free to leave comments with your own great ideas!