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Ahoy, matey! Getting into the pirate spirit and building up your loot of buried treasure can be easier (and cheaper) than it seems! Create a stash of golden coins following these simple steps, but don't tell anyone this secret or you'll have to walk to plank... shh! 

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Cut your cardstock into circles. We had our circles cut 1.5" (3.8 cm)&nbsp;and 2.25" (5.7 cm)&nbsp;in diameter. 

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Use markers to draw designs on your circles. If you were a pirate, what kinds of coins would you have? 

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Use glue to trace over the designs. If you're using basic school glue, let the glue dry until the designs have hardened. For faster results, have an adult help trace the designs with a hot glue gun.

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Cut out a sheet of aluminum foil big enough to wrap the front and back of your coin. Place the foil over the coin and use a cotton swab to rub the foil to allow the traced glue to show through.

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When you can see your design emerge on the foil, fold the excess of the foil to the back of the coin.

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Now it's time to paint your coins! We used gold as our pirate color, but add more colors as you wish! 

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Let your coins fully dry. Ours took about 15 minutes. You may have to wait longer depending how much paint you used.  Once your stash of golden coins is ready, find a safe place to bury your treasure!

cardstock

Markers

hot glue gun

aluminum foil

cotton swabs

gold and black paint 

paint palette

paintbrush

Embossed Metal Coins

pretend play

math

math games

learning activity

learning game

KiwiCo crate box

This cardboard cash register is a fun addition to pretend market play! "Ring up" sells by pushing buttons and exchanging <a href="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/images.kiwicrate.com/printables/KiwiMoney.pdf">pretend money</a>!

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Get together your supplies, including your <a href="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/images.kiwicrate.com/printables/Market_Register_Printable.pdf">cash register printable</a>.

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Tape down the top flaps of your empty box...

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...then tape the top lid to the bottom base. (You want to create a slanted surface, so don't push the top lid all the way down.)

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Fold the printable along the dotted lines, and tape the printable to the crate.Now your register's ready to go! 

cash register printable

cardboard (like an empty Kiwi Crate)

crayons

Tape

Pretend Cash Register

at-home learning

alphabet

sensory activity

printable

easy craft

household craft

food play

Get to know your ABCs and 123s! Fill Ziploc® brand sandwich bags with rice, letters, and numbers to create a game of Find and Seek. Reinforce early literacy and math skills to help kids learn and recognize both letters and numbers in a fun and playful way. Encourage kids to find and sort through letters and numbers with the help of our visual alphabet and numbers printable chart. This is also a great way to encourage sensory play and fine motor skills practice.

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Gather your materials. (If you don’t have plastic letters, you can cut out paper letters from the provided <a href="http://icdn.kiwicrate.com/printables/2019_Ziploc_Seek_And_Find_ABCs_123s_Printable.pdf">printable</a>.)

Place the letters in a Ziploc® brand sandwich bag. If your letters are too big to fit (i.e. large refrigerator magnets), split the alphabet up into multiple bags.

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Fill the bag with a cup of rice. As you seal the bag, push out as much air as you can.

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There are lots of different ways to encourage play and learning. Try laying the bag flat and identifying all the letters you see. Or point to a letter on the alphabet printable and try to find it in the bag. Squish the rice around until you find the letter you’re looking for. Create another bag with numbers to practice early math skills.

If your child finds certain letters challenging, create a special bag with those particular letters. Ask questions like: What letters do you see? How many words can you think of that start with that letter? Can you find the first letter of your name? Do this with numbers to reinforce early math skills and number recognition too! Can you put the numbers in order? Can you find your age? For an extra challenge, teach your child how to add numbers. Point to two numbers in the chart and ask them to add them together. Can you find the answer in the bag?

ziploc brand sandwich bags

plastic letters or numbers

rice (1 cup)

alphabet and numbers printable

Find and Seek ABCs and 123s

rain

Stuck inside on a rainy day? Practice counting with this rain themed activity. 

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First, draw an umbrella on 10 pieces of paper and number them from 1 to 10. I used index cards because that is what I had on hand. Let the kids decorate the umbrellas with markers. Next, find something to count with. We used blue garden stones (rain drops) and cotton balls (clouds).  

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Put the cards in order from 1-10 (1-5 for younger children.). Count the raindrops and put the corresponding number under each umbrella. When the umbrellas are full, you win! 

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A fun twist to this activity is to put umbrellas 1-6 in order. Roll a die and put raindrops under the umbrella with the number you rolled. When all of the umbrellas are full, you win! 

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It is also fun to pretend that cotton balls are the clouds. Count and put the clouds under (or on top of) each umbrella. Mix it up by using cards 1-6 with the cotton balls already on them. Roll the die and take the clouds off of that number umbrella. When the clouds are gone, you win (and hopefully it is done raining outside too)!  

Paper

objects to count (garden stones, cotton balls, cheerios, etc.)

Rainy Day Counting

Teaching kids can be challenging, especially finding a way to keep it interesting for the little ones. My kids love anything they can do that is hands on, so I made a game for each using just some paper plates and a brad. The same idea can be used to make any type of fun educational game. 

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To make the game, you can have kids help out in the process, or you can do what I did and make it yourself and just let your kids play with it when you are done. You will need 3 plates for each game that you make. Leave one full size, trim the rim off another and cut a little chunk out of the side, and then cut the third plate smaller than the second.

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For my math-obsessed five-year-old, I made the math game. To do that,  I wrote "problems" on the smallest center piece. Then I wrote all the answers on the larger plate. I mixed up the order to make it a little more challenging. 

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Then you will stack the plate pieces from the smallest to the largest. Poke a hole in the center and put a brad to secure the plates together. Then spin the top plate to the problem you want to solve and spin the middle plate to find the answer. 

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Since math is a bit advanced for my three-year-old, I made her an alphabet game for her to match lowercase and uppercase letters. I wrote the lowercase letters on the smaller piece in the right order then for the uppercase I mixed up the order to make it more challenging. 

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Now it's time to have fun! My five-year-old, especially, loved his game. As you can see, he used every tool available to him to solve the problems... 

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Then spun the plate quickly to find the answer. He loved it!

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My three-year-old loved matching up the letters in the alphabet. She would cheer every time she matched them right. Both kids loved playing and learning at the same time. 

paper plate (the bigger the better)

brad

Scissors

Paper Plate Math & Alphabet Game

game

recycled

Foam pool noodles aren't just for summer! There are so many ways you can use a pool noodle to make learning fun. Here are 10 ideas to get you started. 

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For all of these activities, I cut the pool noodles into pieces with a knife (just like slicing bread). There are different colors, sizes, and shapes of pool noodles that can add a twist to any of these activities.

Use the pieces for a giant lacing activity. We laced ours onto a piece of rope. Tie one noodle piece onto the end so the rest do not fall off.

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Make a tall tower and knock it down. How tall of a tower can you make?

For younger children, match the color or shape of different noodles.

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Write the letters of your child's name on the noodles to put in order. My three-year-old had so much fun with this activity. We did it over and over again.

Write numbers on the noodles and count as you put them in order.&nbsp;

Write letters and put them in alphabetical order as you sing the ABC song.

Use the noodle rings to spell words. Lace three pieces onto a rope and tie it between two chairs. Spin the pieces to spell words. On the first noodle piece I wrote the letters d, m, b, l, p , s. On the second noodle I wrote the vowels a, e, i, o, u. On the third noodle I wrote p, g, d, t, m. We turned each piece to spell words we knew and silly words too.

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Pretend play! The kids used these noodles on their hands and feet to pretend they were different animals. They pretended it was food in their play kitchen, and they made tunnels for their cars. The possibilities are endless!

pool noodle

knife (for grownup use)

permanent markers (e.g. sharpies)

string

10 Pool Noodle Games

bugs

Practice counting while you make these fun pom pom caterpillars. 

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To prepare for this craft I punched out circles and wrote the numbers 1-10 on them. I glued those circles onto construction paper so they could be the caterpillars' heads. 

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Glue pom poms next to each circle to make caterpillars. The amount of pom poms should equal the number on the circle. 

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Not only was this a fun way to practice counting (anything is fun when you include glue), but it was also the perfect time to talk about colors as she chose pom poms to add to the caterpillars. 

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Cut the caterpillars out (optional). Which caterpillars are longer? Which are shorter? You can also change this activity to practice sorting colors. Make a red caterpillar with red pom poms or an orange caterpillar with orange pom poms. Adjust it for older children to practice adding by writing the addition equation on the head and letting your child use the pom poms to solve it. 

Construction Paper

Glue

pom-poms

Counting Caterpillars

indoor project

In Nursery school, my daughter is all about counting! So, I decided to have her make her own counting board for a fun visual!

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I started off by giving my daughter a sticky foam sheet. If you don't have one of those you can use a piece of construction paper and tape. I also pre-cut 5 pipe cleaners in half. 

Now, it was time to string and count! My daughter delighted in stringing on pony beads, starting with one, and sticking the pipe cleaner down on the board. I wrote the first two numbers then she wanted to record!

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She kept stringing and counting along. I would ask her questions like, "What comes after 3?" Or "How many more is 4 than 2?" Match your questions to your child's age or level!

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When she counted and strung all the way to 10, my daughter went back and re-counted all the beads... just to be sure. :)

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Have fun making your counting board! Take it to the grocery store next time you go and help add up some totals!

pony beads

sticky foam sheet

pipe cleaners

Pony Bead Counting Board

frog

animals

Feed the Frog is a fun way to practice counting, sorting, and fine motor skills with pretend play! My little girl had a blast pretending she was in a pond, giving treats to her amiable amphibian friend. 

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To create the frog, tape two construction paper eyes to the top of a tissue box. Cut out the plastic for the mouth opening.  We used plastic spider rings with the ring part cut off and tongs. You can find tongs or tweezers at a dollar store. 

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To feed the frog, put the spiders in a pile or in a small bowl. Use the tongs or tweezers to transfer a spider to the frog's mouth. This takes a lot of concentration and is a fun way to strengthen those fine motor skills. 

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Other ways to play:*Roll the dice and count how many spiders to feed the frog. *Only feed the frog a certain color spider.  *Feed the frog a pattern of spiders - orange, black, orange, black. 

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Natalie thought feeding the frog was so fun! She got tired of using the tongs so she just fed the frog with her hand and pretended he was SO hungry. Then we hunted around the playroom for other items she could feed the frog: blocks, buttons, pom-poms, etc. 

18 easy numbers projects for kids

Screen-free fun!