2017 New Year's Eve Balloon Countdown for Kids

It is almost time for our 5th Annual Balloon Countdown! (This link will take you to our past countdowns: https://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-new-years-eve-balloon-countdown.html)

Here is our lineup of activities: 

Make noisemakers-1:10

Make toilet paper confetti poppers-1:45

Spa party time--paint nails, do the foot bath, facial masks, etc-2:05

Make a wishing wall-2:45

Hot chocolate bar-3:17

Make homemade soft pretzels-4:15

Make a snowstorm in a jar-5:05

Make paper fortunes for each other-5:45

Make 2018 cheese bread-6:00

Make a Foosball game out of a shoe box-6:22

Make fire ice cream-7:15

Make a positive comment jar-7:25

Pain your "one word" on canvas-7:35

Complete the traditional New Year's questions-8:02

Photo booth time--dress up and pose-8:15

Visit the concession stand-8:45

Do milk firework experiment-9:05

STEM challenge--make something New Year's related (noise maker, disco ball, crown, sign, clock)-9:20

Pick a resolution game-10:00

Make play dough fireworks-10:20

Scavenger hunt-10:40

Glow in the dark game-11:00

Minute to win it games: Cotton ball game, marshmallow toss, ping pong peanut butter, and that's a wrap-11:10

Get out the "Good luck food"--grapes, noodles, pomegranate-11:45

Get ready for the toast and the balloon drop-11:55

For the past couple of days, we have been making things out of cardboard boxes. These games will be filler for any down time we have.

Here we have skee-ball and a marble run (you place a marble in any of the top slots. The marble will go to one of the cups below. There are points written on the cups. This reminds me of The Wall game show.)

This is our prize box board. Behind each piece of tissue paper is a small prize each kid will receive. There are 12 boxes per child. 

This is our cardboard box claw machine. Using one of the claw picker upper tools, the kids stand behind it (they can't see what they are reaching for) and try to grab a toy and get it in the drop down chute. I used tablecloth to cover this. 

The concession stand is also made from a cardboard box. The kids will visit this later in the night. 

Winter STEM Family Night

It was too cold to go anywhere today, so we came up with some fun activities to do together at home. We decided to make our theme "Winter STEM". I wrote up 8 challenge cards and we took turns picking a number to find out which challenge we would do next. We broke up in boys vs. girls teams to do each challenge.
(We have a makerspace area in our home, so we used a lot of the supplies I have in there: https://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/search?q=makerspace)

Challenge #1: Draw a maze that will get the snowball to the snowman. I hot glued a magnet to a little Styrofoam ball and hot glued another magnet to a large Popsicle stick. We each drew a maze on a piece of paper and tried each other's mazes out.

Challenge #2: Build a sled and a ramp using any materials in the makerspace. We came up with very different designs for this!

Challenge #3: Build an igloo using any materials in the makerspace. 

Challenge #4: Make a geoboard snowflake

Challenge #5: Make a snowman using toothpicks and marshmallows. 

Challenge #6: Guess how much water is actually in snow. (We filled this bottle with snow and drew our guesses on the bottle. We let it melt while we did some of the other challenges.) 

Challenge #7: Make an exploding snowman (Draw a snowman on a ziplock baggie that has baking soda inside. Add vinegar and seal immediately. The bag will fill with pressure and pop.) 

Challenge #8: Design a snowflake--we had hole punches, paper, and scissors to create our best snowflake design. 

Weighted Blanket

I have been wanting to make a weighted blanket for a while. Here is what I came up with...

I bought some Poly Pellets from Walmart.com. I found the 10 pound box to be the cheapest. I also got some stuffing from Walmart. The only other thing you need is the fabric you want to make the blanket out of. I bought a yard of fabric for the top and a yard for the bottom. The amount of fabric just depends on how big you want to make your blanket. For a 4-5 pound blanket, the yard of fabric was more than enough.

For the width of the 4 pound blanket, I just cut the fabric in half. The length was about 48 inches. You can really make it as wide or long as you want. The next ones I do, I will make a little wider. 

Start by putting the top and bottom pieces of fabric together. You want to pin them together so they are inside out. You will flip it right side out later. (At this point, the bright sides of the fabric should not be visible on the outside.) 

Sew both sides together. The top and bottom of the blanket should be left open. 

Now, flip the fabric right side out. The colors and prints are now visible, the sides are sewn shut and the top and bottom should remain open.

Sew a horizontal line across the middle of the blanket. If you look at the picture above, you can see where I pinned the middle line. I used a pencil and a ruler to make sure my line was straight.

Next, decide how many columns you want for your blanket. For this size blanket, I divided it into four columns. Pin and sew three vertical lines down the entire blanket. (If you are making a larger blanket, you will want more columns.) 

The next step is to mark out the rest of the horizontal rows. I decided to do 4 rows on each half. I used a pencil and a ruler to mark out each row. Each square measured 5x6 inches. 

Each square has about 1/2 cup of poly pellets and a handful of the stuffing. I didn't measure out the stuffing; I just tried to grab about the same amount each time. 

I added the pellets and the stuffing in each column. Use your hand to evenly place the stuffing. Then I pined the fabric at the line I had already drawn. I sewed the row to create four squares. 

You repeat that process until the rows on that half of the blanket are finished. (It is important to sew a line down the middle so you can reach your hand in the column to smooth out the stuffing in each square.) 

Flip the blanket around and repeat the process for the second half of the blanket. 

This is what the finished product looks like. The hardest part is sewing the ends together. Make sure you pin it before you sew it. I did a double stitch at the top and bottom of the blanket. 

Here is another one I made where the squares were a little bit bigger. (5 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches).