Let’s Make a Crazy Hair Octopus!

Welcome to another week of fun with The Kids Niche! Today we’re making a crazy hair octopus! Won’t you join us? 🙂

Just some simple supplies are needed for this project…an empty toilet paper roll, 2 wiggly eyes, some markers or crayons, some yarn, glue, a pencil, a ruler and a pair of scissors.

Let’s start by working on the octopus body. Measure up about 2″ and make a pencil mark all around the toilet paper roll.

Next, make a small mark on one end of the roll and a second mark that is about half way around the roll on the other side. Can you see the 2 little marks?

Using your scissors, cut on one of the little marks straight up until you reach the 2 inch line.

Turn the roll around and make another cut the same way on the second small mark. Next cut the two pieces in half so you have 4 sections on that end of the toilet paper roll.

Cut each of the 4 sections in half so that you end up with 8 sections.

What part of an octopus has 8 pieces? It’s legs, right? The 8 sections will become the 8 legs on your octopus. 🙂

Let’s switch to working on the crazy hair part now. We will be making a pom-pom for the crazy hair. Cut a piece of yarn around 6-7 inches long and lay it out on a flat surface like a table or countertop.

Now take the end of yarn that is still attached to the skein/ball of yarn you are using and place it across your hand like in this picture:

You will now be wrapping the yarn around your hand approximately 50 times. You can use 3 fingers for an adult or wrap around a child’s whole hand.

After you’ve wrapped the yarn 50 times, cut the end of the yarn you were wrapping with. Carefully slide the wrapped yarn off the fingers, keeping it together in a bunch and lay it on top of the first piece of yarn you cut. The wrapped bundle should be placed on the piece of yarn so its approximately in the center of the wrapped bundle.

Using your first piece of yarn, tie it in a knot around the wrapped bundle. You will have loops on both sides of the knot.

Use your scissors to cut through the loops on both ends.

Using your fingers, fluff the pom-pom until it resembles a ball shape.

Trim any pieces of yarn that are extra long and sticking out.

Let’s go back to the octopus body now. Using your markers or crayons, color the entire outside area of the toilet paper roll.

Using your pencil, carefully roll each of the 8 leg sections (one at a time) up around your pencil.

Slide the pencil out and unroll the leg as much as you like.

After rolling each of the eight legs, your octopus might look something like this:

Glue on the 2 wiggly eyes.

Your octopus is taking shape! 🙂

Put a line of glue all around the top edge of your octopus.

Place the crazy hair in place and hold for a little bit while the glue starts to set up.

Give your octopus a smile with a marker!

And your crazy hair octopus is finished! 🙂 Great job! Find a nice place to put him/her so everyone can enjoy seeing him/her! I hope you had fun making your crazy hair octopus!

Making Your Own Game

Does your family like to play games together? I’m thinking board games, like Chutes and Ladders, or card games, like Uno. We have played a lot of games in our family over the years and we always have a great time. 🙂 Here’s an activity that your kids might enjoy, especially if they like playing games. And that activity is making your own game! Grab a couple sheets of construction paper (or whatever kind of paper you have handy), some markers and some tape. You’ll need some game markers of some kind and 1 dice when it’s time to play the game you make. Let’s do this!

You can use one or more sheets of paper, depending on the size the paper is and on what size you want your game board to be. I taped 2 pieces of construction paper together to make my board a little larger.

Turn your paper over so you don’t see the tape and let’s begin drawing! Pick where you want the “Start” to be.

Draw a path with 2 lines on your paper from Start to Finish.

Now divide your path into sections.

Add some fun (and not so fun) things along your path that each player must do when/if they land on that particular space.

Here are a few examples that I used for my game.

Yikes! Go to Jail??!

I hope I get to climb the ladder!

Ooo, a shortcut!

Coming down the home stretch! Don’t go to Jail now!

You can use whatever you have handy around the house for your markers for the game. You could use a penny and a dime for 2 players, for example. I found some Lego figures that will work great for playing this game. All you need is 1 dice and you’re ready to play!

The rules for my game would be: Each player rolls the dice and the player that gets the highest number, goes first. Play will continue clockwise. When it is your turn, roll the dice one time and move your marker forward on the path that number of spaces. Do whatever the space says to do. If the space doesn’t have any instructions, your turn is finished. Continue playing in this manner with each player rolling the dice once, moving their marker ahead that number of spaces and doing what the space says to do. The first player to reach or go beyond the Finish space is the winner!

Let the kids make up the rules and the things to write in the spaces. Your game may get a little crazy and you may spend the entire game in Jail, but it’s fun to let the kids have the freedom to control the game. It’s also great to make a game yourself that has a set of rules to follow to help kids learn about following directions. But sometimes, crazy fun is the best fun! 😉 And the things kids can dream up that you have to do can be pretty hilarious!

I hope you will give this a try and you’ll have a ton of fun! Now I need to go find someone to play my new game with me! Maybe I can draft my husband… 😉 LOL

Dollar Tree Finds

The Dollar Tree store near us always seems to have something fun in the way of toys and crafts. I love going there are finding neat things for only $1.00 each! I was happy with some things I found the other day and wanted to share them with you.

Playmobil individual figures.

Playmobil is a great toy, but they aren’t the cheapest thing around, so I thought it was great to find these surprise packages with a Playmobil figure inside for just $1.00!

They come with some directions but you might have to figure out some of it by looking at the picture on the package. This is the surprise that was in my package. Pretty cool dude!

I also found a chalkboard with an easel back on it ($1) and a pack of 4 chalkboard heart tags ($1). And there were several colors of chalk writer pens ($1 each). I bought purple and white. Next time I’m there, I’m hoping to buy some more colors. 🙂

Just for fun, here’s an idea of what you can do with the chalkboard and chalk writer pens. The pens do write a fairly wide line.

Because it has the easel backing on it, you can stand it up anywhere.

When you’re ready for a new sign, simply wipe the chalkboard clean with a damp paper towel.

Do you like to shop at Dollar Tree? What are some of your favorite finds there? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Clearance Is on Sale!

During a quick stroll through my local Joann Fabric Store on Monday, I discovered some crazy good sale prices! Some of the craft kits for kids (not all of them) were on clearance and then they were 35% more off the clearance price! Whoohoo! I only had time to grab a few of them but I wanted to share them with you.

#1.) Pop! Unicorn Foam and Felt Kit. This is the kit that I showed you in another post but it’s even cheaper this time. Got it for $1.61.

#2.) Makit & Bakit Flip Flops Kit. This one was on sale for $0.96! (We are going to make this one soon so be sure to check back!)

#3.) Little Makers Rub On Art Kit. This kit was on sale for $1.28. There was a similar set with different pictures too.

#4.) Little Makers Foam Mosaic. There was more than one type of this one too. On sale for only $1.61.

There were more kits on sale but I didn’t have much time to be there. And items may vary at each store, of course. I’m not sure how long this sale on a sale is available but you can find some cute craft kits for kids at really great prices! Ruuuuuun to your nearest Joann Fabric Store! 😉

Inexpensive Suncatcher Fun

It’s Monday Funday and I have a nice inexpensive craft to tell you about today. I found a cute unicorn suncatcher at Walmart the other day…only $0.97!! (My guess is that some other craft stores likely have them too.) That is the regular price, not a sale price. 🙂

One thing to note is the picture shows 4 colors on the unicorn while there are actually only 3 paints. But it looks cute anyways, so I didn’t find that to be a problem. I suggest laying out some newspaper or paper towels before letting the kiddos start painting. The paint is fairly thin but I think that is because this is a suncatcher and you want the light to be able to shine through.

There weren’t any instructions but here’s what I did: the suncatcher is smooth on one side and has ridges on the other. I painted on the side with ridges. I stirred each paint with a toothpick when I was ready to use it. I also used the toothpick to paint the really small areas. I started with the blue/teal paint.

You can paint the unicorn any way you like. I’m just showing you how I chose to do it. Next I painted with the purple paint.

And finally I used the pink paint.

Here it is against a better background.

And here it is with the light behind it.

I thought it was a rather fun project for kids for only $0.97! And there was some paint leftover. I’m pretty sure you can also buy the unpainted suncatchers at Walmart (not in a kit). So you might be able to make 2 suncatchers for $0.97! 😉

$1 UniKitty Lego Fun!

Are your kids crazy about Lego? It’s super fun to build and it’s good for eye hand coordination, patience, building skills, organization skills and so much more. It’s a great hobby that kids and adults can enjoy. It’s a great activity for spending quality time together. I found a super deal on UniKitty Lego at our local Barnes & Noble store. Little packaged Lego building sets that make 1 UniKitty normally priced at $3.99 were on sale for $1.00 each! The cashier told me that the prices on these are set by each store so check your local Barnes & Noble to see if they have the UniKitty sets for $1.00. Look for a sticker on the display box that says “Cheap! $1”.

Ok, I have to confess…I am a Lego fan myself. I bought one of these cute UniKitty’s back before Christmas, but last week I ended up buying 5 more. Haha! Cheap entertainment, right? Of course, I could say I bought them for my blog… 😉 Let me show you which ones I ended up with out of 6 packages. First is the one I bought before Christmas.

Here’s what one set looks like right from the bag.

In the process of building…

And finished!

Out of 6 bags, I actually ended up with 3 of this one! Haha! I think I needed someone else to pick the bags for me! 😉

The next one looked like this…

And done!

At first, I thought it was mad but then I noticed the little z’s on each side of its mouth and I think it’s just sleeping. Guess how many of this one I ended up with? Two! (See? I really did need some help picking out the right bags!)

So that was my cheap fun for the day! 6 UniKitty Lego sets…the directions are rather sparse but you can look at the enclosed paper and see how to put them together. So if you are around a Barnes & Noble store and your kids (or you!) like Lego, you might want to pop in and see if they have this great sale too!