String Telephone

My kids loved making their own toys, and creating something out of nothing. We were reminded of this simple DIY string telephone from a thrift store experiment book. I remember making one of these when I was a little girl. Take a step back in time an make a fun string telephone with your kids and learn how sound travels!

To make your own String Telephone, you will need:

2 plastic or paper cups – a tin can works great too
String (you can experiment with different lengths)
A friend to old the other end of the string telephone:)

Simply make a small hole in the bottom of both cups. Thread your string through the cup and tie a knot to keep the string from pulling back through. That’s it! You are all ready to start playing.

You take one cup and your friend takes the other. Walk far enough apart to make the string tight. Depending on how long you cut your string will depend on how far you need to stand apart. Also, make sure that the string is not touching anything else.

One friend holds the cup to their mouth and talks, while the other friend holds it to their ear and listens. The girls were amazed at how clear each other sounded.

Why your simple string telephone works:

When you speak into the cup, it creates sound waves which vibrate the bottom of the cup. The vibrations move along the tight string into the bottom of your friends cup. When they reach the 2nd cup the vibrations are turned back into sound waves. This is how your friend is able to hear what you are saying.

Also try these fun variations:

What is the longest string that can make the string and still hear your friend?
Does it make a difference to use a tin can, paper cup or a plastic cup? What if you change the size of the cup?
Can you use two different size cups, one on each end?
Use fishing line instead of string, what happens?

Here is a link to a fun list of great experiments that my kids love.

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Recycle Bin Activities – Weekly Kids Co-op #3

We love creating from our recycle bin. Here is a fun round-up of creative ideas straight from the recycle bin.

Check out these fun Recycle Bin Activities from last week’s Kids Co-op

How cute are these little Glass Jar Lanterns from Buggy and Buddy. The beaded handles are so cute!
My kids would love to make these cute Homemade Christmas Rhythm Instruments from the Home Learning Journey. Make enough for your entire family and have a backyard parade.
Don’t throw your tinfoil away after supper. Instead give it a wash and try this fun Pin Poking on Foil activity from Learners in Bloom.
Make your own Recycled Paint Palette from My Little Bookcase. We love using egg cartons for paint trays at our house.
My kids have been asking for a while to try Writing with Feather Quills. Check out this simple tutorial from Simple and Joyful.
Head on over to Blog Me Mom to find out what crafting supply makes these Glitter Paper Tubes so simple to make.
Do you have a set of foam blocks lurking in the back of your toy bin? Why not try this fun Shape Stamping Activity from Mommy Musings and Mayhem!
I love these simple Button Stamps from Keeping My Toddler Entertained. How cute would your wrapping paper look covered in sweet button prints!

If you were featured this week, I would love for you to grab a Housing A Forest button. Come back every Thursday to see if your creative idea were featured and link up any new ideas! (I will be using one image and a link to your blog.)

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Google + and Twitter.

Thanks for sharing your creativity with us. I look forward to snuggling in with a cup of coffee and browsing through all your inspiring ideas! Now on to the kids co-op party!

Thanksgiving Round-Up

Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

I put together a quick Thanksgiving Round-Up of our favorite fall activities. It is hard to believe that fall is coming to a close and winter is quickly approaching. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Click on the picture or the link to take to to the specific post.

These little Shape Turkeys are so cute. What a fun way to work on shape recognition with you toddler. These would be a cute activity to have set out at the kids table.

I love how these little Book Page Turkeys turned out! I think they might be my new favorite fall decoration. I love that they are made using a discarded book. Fun for kids and adults to make!

These adorable Candy Wrapper Turkeys are so cute and easy to make. At the bottom of the post there is a link to over 35 experiments and activities to do with candy.

Fall Marble painting is a simple painting activity that your kids will love. This version is low mess since the paint is contained in lidded container.

I love this little Candy Corn Scarecrow. This simple scarecrow would make a great teacher gift.

These little Autumn tree is super easy to make, and perfect for creating after a nature walk. Your kids will enjoy creating art from their special leaves.

Kool-aid pumpkins are fun to create, and they smell great!

Carrot Cake Pancakes are my kids favorite fall breakfast recipe. If you like carrot cake, then you will love this recipe. The perfect pancake recipe to make for Thanksgiving morning.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I would love to hear some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

Candy Wrapper Turkeys

Candy Wrapper Turkey ~ Simple Thanksgiving craft

Wondering what to do with all that left over candy from Halloween? Make Candy Wrapper Turkeys of course! The kids candy buckets are still over flowing with Halloween candy. We don’t eat much candy in our house, so we need to find creative ways to use it. Candy wrappers are designed to be appealing with their bright colorful logos, which make them a fun material to create with.

Candy Wrapper Turkey:

A pile of candy wrappers. We sorted ours by color.
A cereal box – It was the base for our turkeys. We simply flipped it over to the neutral brown side.
White Glue
Scissors
Googly eyes

Start by cutting apart your candy wrappers. Once you get a large pile of colorful wrappers cut up, begin creating your turkey.

I love that this silly turkey has one big eye and one little eye.

They each had their own way to create a turkey. This candy wrapper turkey was made by using lots of smaller pieces of wrappers. More like a mosaic.

The girls traced a template to make the body of their turkeys. I love the feathers.

These little turkeys just go to show that you don’t need to send lots of money on crafts. These little turkeys were built completely out of things that we normally would throw out! I love cute free crafts!

Eating all the candy to make these turkeys might make you sick. So, why not try one of these fun candy experiments from Mon to 2 Posh Lil Divas. She compiled an amazing list over over 35 ways to play with your candy. Her list includes experiments, learning activities, crafts and recipes!

For more easy Turkey crafts, check out our:

Twig Turkey

Paper Strip Turkey Craft

Book Page Turkey

Shape Turkey

Paper Plate Turkey

Recycled Paper Christmas Tree

I love this easy recycled paper Christmas tree. Use this simple Christmas tree craft as a fun way to help your toddler work on their scissor and sorting skills. I also love that we were able to reuse a few pieces of junk mail.

Materials to make your own Recycled Paper Christmas Tree:

Junk mail – we used the ads for Christmas trees.
Blue construction paper
Scissors
White paint
Q-tip
Glue

Set out a small tray of white paint, blue paper and a Q-tip. Have your child dot the white paint onto the paper to mimic snow. Kids love new painting techniques, and Q-tip painting is always a hit at our house!

While the snow is drying, have your child cut long strips from the junk mail. These strips will serve as the branches of your recycled paper Christmas tree.

Help your child sort their branches from longest to shortest. Once all the strips are arranged, glue them onto your snowy background. We added a star and a few ornaments to our tree as well. They were also cut from the junk mail flyers.

I love how easy these trees were to make. It always makes me happy when we can turn something that was destined for our recycle bin and turn it into art.

Here is a fun list of our favorite Winter crafts and activities.

We love creating from our recycle bin. If you also have a passion for recycled crafts, then look no further.