by Samantha Dunn

Created on: July 22, 2009

First I would like to say I do not have children of my own, but I love kids. The ideas I will explain is something I have done with my friends children or when I was babysitting. That said, let us get started!

The first idea is something I made when I was little. It is a Pine Cone Bird Feeder. the ingredients are simple enough. You will need some yarn, a few pine cones, some peanut butter, a butter knife, a pair of scissors, a flat plastic tray preferably about one inch deep, and your choice of bird seed. I will leave it up to you to decide what part of the activity your children can do, but this is what needs to be done:

First you need to cut the yarn into lengths a few about 5 inches long. Grab one end and tie it to the middle of the yarn making a loop. This is what you will use to hang it later. Tie the loose end of the yarn to the top part of the pine cone.

Then you get out your peanut butter and butter knife. Use the knife to smear a good layer of peanut butter all over the sides of the pine cone, make sure you get it in between the "petals" of the pinecone. This is so that the birdseed will adhere well to the pine cone.

Next get out your flat one inch deep tray and pour a layer of bird seed into it. Hold your yarn hanger and roll the pine cone in the bird seed. If you want sprinkle it on the pine cone, or grab a handful and smush it in, however you like is really up to you as long as your peanut butter is thoroughly coated that is all that matters.

Last choose a place to hang it and watch the birds eat from your feeder!

The next idea is something I did with my friends little girls. They have a big bag of beads, yarn colored construction paper all that happiness in a bag! Anyway this project is Construction Paper Masks. This is fun because you can decorate them with whatever you like. The things I use are only suggestions. Be creative and have fun with it!

What you'll need is a pair of scissors (or more if the children can cut paper), Construction paper (it is more fun to have different colors), Glue bottle , a glue stick or both, Beads, yarn, feathers, an ink pen, a sheet of sticky notebook paper ring supports (you know the little sticky rings you used to get to keep your binder paper from tearing loose), and anything else you may want to use for your mask making.

This is simple enough, cut out a shape of mask. I like to make it look kind of like birds wings, but feel free to mix it up however you like. Cut out your eye holes too. Sometimes

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