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New Year's Eve
31 December

 

I've just come across a lovely idea for frazzled parents on New Year's Eve, it's a Pyjama Party and sleepover which instantly solves the problem of guests not being able to drink and drive.  The details are to be found at: http://home.ivillage.com/holiday/0,,8jmf72x5-2,00.html
The author of this article is not really thinking of including kids, but if you got together with just a few families you get on well with and adapted it a bit, it could be great fun!

An interesting activity for kids would be to give each of them a smallish candle and ask them to push a pin through it.  Apparently the phrase "you could hear a pin drop" comes from the tradition of pushing a pin through a candle, which when burned down, dropped out at midnight.  See whose pin drops out closest to the time (and see if you can hear it) - this might be one way of getting a quiet moment! 

There were some great ideas in an American magazine called "Family Fun".  These included getting the kids to make big cardboard placards with each of the numbers 1-10 on them to hold up one after the other at the countdown until midnight.  Just before the countdown, play Hunt the Clock  (if the clock has a nice loud tick it adds a whole new dimension to the game).  You can make your own New Year's Balloons by filling balloons with homemade confetti (colored paper cut out with a hole punch) before blowing them up and tying them.  These can then be burst at midnight for a colourful explosion of confetti.  The last idea was a very clever one.  Encourage the kids to write a New Year's resolution on a piece of paper, then put each of these into the appropriate Christmas stocking before storing them.  This way they will not be seen again until almost 12 months have gone by, plus they will be something else to enjoy in the run up to Christmas.

Play End of the Year Charades by compiling a list of important events, songs, movies or books from 2008 and getting your guests to act them out.  Most of the newspapers have already started printing such lists, so you shouldn't be short of ideas.

When the time comes to all link hands and sing "Auld Lang Syne" be prepared by printing off the lyrics from this website:  http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_syne.htm
There is even an MP3 version of the song sung by Kenneth McKellar - now there's a blast from the past!

After all the midnight celebrations, make sure you have someone tall, dark and handsome to "First Foot" your house (by going out and coming in again!)  According to Scottish Hogmanay tradition, your first visitor of the year will determine how lucky you will be.  The most luck is brought by a tall, dark handsome man bringing a gift of either a loaf of bread or a lump of coal.  (That way you can be sure of being warm and well fed throughout the New Year).  

Christmas
25 December 

   
Places to play
Visit Santa's Secret Village where you can write to Santa, listen to stories read by an elf - then print out and colour them in, join in with the karaoke, visit Mrs Claus' kitchen and look in her Christmas recipe book, visit the elves' toy store and the reindeer barn or even create a personalised story.  
A truly magical website.  http://www.northpole.com/



Watch a penguin write your name or message in the snow - it's great fun!
http://www.star28.net/snow.html

Visit the Santa Tracker website for a Countdown to Christmas and to track Santa's progress on Christmas Eve:
http://www.northpole.com/NoradSanta.asp
To make the most of this, print off the Good Deeds Calendar, so that your children can show Santa how well-behaved they've been this month!
http://www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds/December.pdf

Take a digital photo of your child's face and this site will turn it into an animated elf.  
Alternatively you can select a random face instead.  
You can then send it  to a friend, for whom the elf will do a little dance!
http://www.elfyourself.com/ 

Things to do
For small children who would like to learn the Nativity story, you'll find a simple version with illustrations at:  http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/nativity/index.htm

I've found three lovely games for family get-togethers over Christmas and everything you need can be found on this site:
http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/great-family-games.html

You can get about 100 Christmas song lyrics at Kididdles.com:
www.kididdles.com/lyrics/christmas.html

Christmas crafts and printables
The NatureDetectives website has a host of wonderful things including free printable templates for snowflakes and for snowmen chains:
http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/seasons/winter

CBeebies have some easy Christmas decorations to cut out and colour:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/make/christmasdecorations.shtml

CBeebies also have a whole page of Balamory Christmas decorations here:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/balamory/make/activities/xmas_makes.shtml

There is some good quality free Christmas clipart for cards, decorations or tags, available at:
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/index.htm

           

On the same site there is a printable Christmas angel border (either horizontal or vertical) which could be printed onto all sorts of decorations, stationery or even home-made Christmas wrapping paper.
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/pages/angels-border.htm

  

Create a banner of gingerbread men:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/gingerbreadstring/

  

There is a cute Santas banner to print out at Canon printers Creative Park:
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/3159/03505/index.html

There are lots of different printable snowmen to cut out and colour at Makingfriends.com.  
The parts are interchangeable, so the possibilities are endless!
www.makingfriends.com/winter/printable_snowman_craft.htm

There are some lovely Christmas car signs to colour in and cut out at:
http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/Signs/BabyAboarduc.shtml
and:
http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/Signs/snowmanuc.shtml

There is a lovely simple snowflake template on this printable page:
http://www.kaboose.com/parties/pdf/xmas_snowflake1.pdf 

Make a cheery reindeer out of your own hand and footprints:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/handfoot/

There are 24 free printable Christmas gift tags at allthingschristmas.com:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags01.html
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags02.html

Plus 15 free printable Christmas colouring pages which would make lovely decorations once they're colored in:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/color/coloring.html

Don't forget you could also print out more of the cute gift tags we mentioned below in the 
Advent Calendar section.  (Details and link below.)

You can also print out and colour in these pictures: 
http://www.kaboose.com/parties/pdf/xmas_xmastree.pdf  http://www.kaboose.com/parties/pdf/xmas_santaclause.pdf  http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/color/carol9.gif   

First Sunday of Advent
Sunday 30 November

 

Advent is the period between 30 November and Christmas Eve.  
This is when families prepare for Christmas Day, when they can celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.  
Now is the time to start writing Christmas cards, decorating the house, singing carols, buying and wrapping presents.

A wreath is the traditional symbol for Advent.  
The circular shape represents God who has no beginning or end.
A wreath is green, which symbolises the new life that we are looking forward to in the Springtime.  Not many plants are green in the Winter, so the green wreath makes a house look cheerful.
Some people hang their wreath on the front door to welcome their guests.  
Others lay the wreath flat and place four candles around it.  
Christians light the candles one at a time on each of the four Sundays before Christmas.  
The first candle is for Hope, the second for Peace, the third for Love and the fourth for Joy.  
These are all things we like to think about at Christmas time.  
On Christmas Day a final special candle can be lit and placed in the centre of the wreath to celebrate Jesus' birthday and that he is the light of the world.

If you don't have a real holly or fir wreath, you can make your own wreath out of handprints.
Simply take a paper plate and draw around a saucer placed in the middle.  
Cut out the circle and you'll have a wreath shape.  
Then find some green paper and draw around your hand as many times as you can.  
Cut out all the little hand shapes and glue them all around the paper plate ring (arrange them at different angles so that they stick out nicely just like a real wreath.) 
You can then decorate your wreath in any way you like.  You could cut out little circles of coloured paper to stick onto it, or add bits of tinsel or glitter.
Last of all you can add a lovely red ribbon tied in a bow, so that it looks something like this: 

  

If mum looks after your wreath, and brings it out every year, one day you'll be surprised by how tiny your hands were when you made it!

Make your own Advent Calendar

There is a very simple Advent Calendar to print out and make at thetoymaker.com.
Just print off these two pages:
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent1.pdf
http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent2.pdf

Then all you need to do is cut out the three sides of each door and glue the two pieces of paper together around the outside only.  (So that when you open the doors the little pictures will be visible.) 

ActivityVillage.co.uk have cute little Christmas Gift Tags to print out.  

   
As there are 24 in a similar style, you could use these for a homemade advent calendar.   
Start by printing off the pages of pictures here:

www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_3.pdf
www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_2.pdf

Now cut out each of the circles and keep them in a box.  Then get a big piece of green card (or coloured-in white card) and draw the basic outline of a Christmas tree onto it.  
Something like this:  

Cut out your tree and pin it to the wall.  Then every morning the children can attach one of the circles to the tree as if it were a bauble.  It should look very festive.  If you like, you could also cut and colour a big star shape that could be stuck at the top of the tree on Christmas Day.

If you're feeling very ambitious and have a day free, you can build your own Advent village from the instructions and printables at: www.santaspostbag.co.uk/advent-town-advent-calendar

 

Copyright www.santaspostbag.co.uk

It's quite straightforward because all the templates can be printed from the website straight onto card for cutting and glueing.  There is a house for each day of Advent up to the 24th, which is the village church.  Once you have made all the buildings, a little treat can be hidden inside, to be found on the appropriate day.  It could be a nice project for the whole of December, as you could build up the village as the month progresses - you would only need to be a few houses ahead at a time.

There is also a truly inspired Advent Reward Chart at www.activityvillage.co.uk

 

Children can write down the good deeds they do each day and will have proof of their goodness to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve.  You never know, the habit of trying to do something good each day may even last into the New Year!

There is an alternative chart, for those who need prompting about what to do, here:
www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds


Stir Up Sunday
23 November

This is the day when families traditionally gather together to prepare their Christmas pudding, with each member of the family taking a turn with the stirring.  (Christmas puddings were probably introduced to Britain from Germany by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert.)  The pudding is made a long way in advance because it takes a few weeks for all the dried fruit to become nice and moist inside and for all the flavours to mingle.

On their way home from church, children used to chant :

Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot,
And when we get home,
We'll eat the lot!

There are lots of rituals to be observed when making a Christmas pudding: 
 
The pudding should have 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and each of his disciples.  

Everyone in the family should stir the pudding and make a wish while they stir.

You should always stir from East to West, which was the direction the Three Kings took on their journey to bring gifts to baby Jesus.

A (very clean) lucky coin can be mixed into the pudding.  Whoever finds it on Christmas Day will have a  wealthy and happy future.  In the past, people used to use a sixpence but a 10p piece will do - as long as all your guests are warned to look out for it!

You can also add a ring, whose finder will be getting married soon, and a thimble which is meant to predict a lucky life for those who find it.  

(To avoid anyone choking on these, they can be wrapped in greaseproof paper before being added.  Children should have their slice of pudding cut up small for them before they eat it, so that any trinkets can be found.)

Some recipes tell you to soak the dried fruit overnight, so be prepared to start on Saturday.
According to Delia Smith, it's not wise to cook or store Christmas puddings in tin foil, as it makes them taste funny.  So wrap them in greaseproof paper instead.

There is a straightforward Katie Stewart recipe at Easy Living's site:
www.easylivingmagazine.com/Food/Recipes/KatieStewartChristmasPudding/

Delia's recipe can be found at:
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/traditional-christmas-pudding

The BBC has three different recipes at:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/news_and_events

Thanksgiving
27 November

     
 
"Thanksgiving"

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest is all gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.

Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain.
So open wide the doorway-
Thanksgiving comes again!

What is Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is an American national holiday when families get together to share a big meal and celebrate all the good things in their lives.  It is a time when all the fruits and vegetables that grew over the summer have been safely gathered in.  Everyone is pleased that they will have plenty to eat over the long, cold winter months.  

In America, it is traditional to eat a meal of roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie for pudding.  This is because these were the foods that the first British settlers in America would have eaten.  People like to remember this because when the settlers came to America they had to start with very little and so found it really hard to keep themselves safe and fed.  One autumn, when the settlers had hardly anything to eat, the local native American Indians brought them lots of their own food and shared it with them.  This was such a kind thing to do, people celebrate it every year. 

The First Thanksgiving

Hold your own Thanksgiving Dinner

Why not have a Thanksgiving Dinner of your own?  It doesn't need to be on the Thursday, you could have it three days later instead of your usual Sunday lunch.  All the recipes you will need can be found at the links given below.  Don't forget to prepare lots of decorations in advance, with pictures you've coloured in and place cards for the table.  Most importantly, you need to think about what you are most thankful for this year.  To help with this, print off these Thankful Cards from FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season
and place one on the table for each of your guests.  Ask everyone to fill it in and, at the end of the meal, read them out  to each other.  You're bound to feel very happy when you realise just how lucky you are!

Mum can find a recipe for Classic Roast Turkey from BBC Good Food here:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/
(and get some practise in for Christmas!)

Activity TV has two recipes that are so easy you could help mum make them.  
The printable recipe sheets are here for:

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Topping (yum!)
www.activitytv.com/printables/

and Easy Pumpkin Pie
http://www.activitytv.com/printables

You can even watch videos of how to make these recipes here:
http://www.activitytv.com/search.aspx?term=thanksgiving

Help to decorate your Thanksgiving table with place cards for all your guests.

You can find a free printable for pumpkin place cards at Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season

and the people who make lovely ice cream at Ben & Jerry's also have a fun cartoon Thanksgiving turkey place card for you to cut out and colour in:
www.benjerry.com/assets/images/fun_stuff

Thanksgiving printables and activities. 

Find out how to make a turkey out of your own handprints and footprints at Kaboose:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/hands-and-feet-turkey.html

There is a really cool Thanksgiving Activity Page at FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season/printable/thanksgiving

There's also a lovely cartoony Thanksgiving picture to colour in, again at Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/coloring-pages/

There are more cartoon colouring pages on a Thanksgiving theme at Lil Fingers:
www.lil-fingers.com/games/coloring/thankgiving

www.Childfun.com has a fun song to sing to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus".  You can sing the song and make up actions to go with the words:  

Thanksgiving song - Turkey on the Farm

The turkey on the farm says, "Gobble, gobble, gobble.
Gobble, gobble, gobble. Gobble, gobble, gobble."
The turkey on the farm says, "Gobble, gobble, gobble."
Thanksgiving Day is near.

The farmer on the farm goes chop, chop, chop.
Chop, chop, chop. Chop, chop, chop.
The farmer on the farm goes chop, chop, chop.
Thanksgiving Day is here.

The turkey on the farm says, "Please help me!
Please help me! Please help me!"
The turkey on the farm says, "Please help me!"
Thanksgiving Day is here.

The children on the farm say, "Come and hide.
Come and hide. Come and hide."
The children on the farm say, "Come and hide."
Thanksgiving Day is here.

The wife on the farm looks all around.
Looks all around. Looks all around.
The wife on the farm looks all around.
Thanksgiving Day is here.

The people on the farm eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Kentucky Fried Chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The people on the farm eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Thanksgiving Day is here.

The turkey on the farm says, "Gobble, gobble, gobble.
Gobble, gobble, gobble. Gobble, gobble, gobble."
The turkey on the farm says, "Gobble, gobble, gobble."
Thanksgiving Day has passed.

There are lots more games, songs and activities under Holidays / Thanksgiving at www.childfun.com

When you are all finally relaxing after your big dinner, you can have fun making up Native American Indian names for all the members of your family.  They should be names relating to nature that suggest something about how the person looks or what they are like.  
Some ideas are: Star Dancer, Pale Horse, Sitting Bull, Running Deer.  Or, it you want to be silly, how about Running Nose or Big Chief Sleepy Bear?

"Walk tall like the trees, live your life as strong as the mountains, be as soft as the spring breezes, keep the warmth of the sun in your heart and the Great Spirit will always be with you."
(Wisdom of the Navajo)

 

Bonfire Night
5 November

  

Guy Fawkes

Tinies are a bit small to learn about Guy Fawkes, but they may enjoy learning the famous rhyme:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Games and printables

You can enjoy a lovely colourful animated rhyme on the CBeebies site:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/razzledazzle

There are free printable pages of Bonfire Night pictures to colour here:
www.activityvillage.co.uk

and more Bonfire Night colouring pages here:
www.underfives.co.uk1
www.underfives.co.uk2

You can find some lovely colourful interactive games including Virtual Sparkler, an Interactive Poster and a Pets Game, plus the Fireworks Safety Code at the DTI site:
www.dti.gov.uk/fireworks/games.htm

You can make easy Chocolate Sparklers by dipping chocolate finger biscuits into warm water for a second and then into a dish of and hundreds and thousands.  Anyone could make them!

You can build your own very colourful Crayola Fireworks Spectacular at:
www.crayola.com/kids/games/

You can even create your own musical fireworks display at:
www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/fireworks.html

You can print off and talk about this lovely "Bonfire Night" poem by Irene Yates.  Perhaps your child would like to draw pictures of the images the poet describes?  www.fireworksafety.co.uk

Just to be on the safe side, you may wish to download a copy of the Fireworks Safety Code:
www.berr.gov.uk/fireworks

*Halloween*
31 October

Halloween cards and party invitations.

I've put together some images for these which you can use by clicking below.  
It's always difficult to print straight onto card, so I suggest you print off the page you want, cut out the relevant picture and glue it to an A5 card folded in half.  You can then write your own message inside.

Halloween page 1
Halloween page 2
Halloween page 3
Halloween page 4

Halloween Decorations

Print off the pages from this Familyfun website for pictures of cats, pumpkins, ghosts and spiders to stick on walls or windows for Halloween night.

Familyfun also has colourful cartoon type banner to print off and cut out.

Pumpkin Carving

There is a very good tutorial to be found at Halloween Pumpkins
They have also generously included a number of free templates like the one below.

Copyright www.halloweenpumpkins.be

Halloween Recipes
As usual the BBC has come up with the best recipes, this time from their Good Food magazine website.  You'll find spooky spider cakes and that essential pumpkin pie recipe:  www.bbcgoodfood.com

There are also some good recipes, including a very simple Gingerbread Skeletons & Ghosts one at the baking goods company Supercook's website: www.supercook.co.uk/find-recipe-ideas/

The Pond Water Jelly recipe on the same site is so impressive it's almost too good for kids!
www.supercook.co.uk/find-recipe-ideas/pond-water-jelly-recipe

Wanda's Halloween Cookbook doesn't take itself too seriously and it has some really lovely recipes for 
Pumpkin Pie and easy Marshmallow Ghosts

Copyright Halloweenkitchen.com

Halloween Party Games / Activities 

There are lots of lovely party game ideas at partygameideas.com

I've put a couple of our favourite party games on the Tikes and Mums Celebrate pages.  
I'm not sure if they are suitable for under 5s, so you can decide for yourself!

The American chocolate company Hersheys has instructions and printables for games such as Pin the Wart on the Witch and an easy Ghost Pinata to make.


Copyright www.hersheys.com

Visit the all new Winnie the Witch website for all sorts of witch related activities. 

There is a free printable Winnie the Witch colouring in sheet at: www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk

and a free dot-to-dot printable of Winnie's cat Wilbur at: www2.scholastic.co.uk

and a whole page of Winnie the Witch jokes at:  www.oup.com/uk/minisites/

You can also find a lovely witch and cat poem with a picture to colour in at:  
www.scholastic.co.uk

There are instructions for an easy- to- make egg carton spider at http://crafts.kaboose.com

Halloween Fancy Dress Ideas

Again the best site seems to be Familyfun, with more Halloween Fancy Dress ideas than you could ever imagine.  Some are complicated and require a bit of time, but some are very straightforward.  

Kids Craft Weekly
has lovely instructions for how to make a pirate hat, parrot and a treasure chest.  So if your kids are pirate mad after watching Johnny Depp strut his stuff, this should keep them entertained. 

How could you get through Halloween without a sneaky peek at the Harry Potter official website?:
http://www.jkrowling.com/
 

Diwali  - Festival of Lights. 
28 October

Diwali celebrates the Hindu New Year.  In preparation for this, people spring clean their homes and open windows to let in Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.  To light the goddess' way, little lamps are lit all over the house.  This is a real family party time, as delicious food is prepared and fireworks are set off to ward off evil spirits - a bit like our Halloween.  On the last day of Diwali, sisters cook for their brothers, who give them presents in return.

It is also traditional to make beautiful Rangoli patterns on the ground using coloured powders.  You can see some images of these hereIf you'd like to make some yourself dltk-kids.com has easy printable templates for Rangoli patterns.  

There are instructions for making an Indian elephant, a decorated slipper and a Diwali lamp pot at Big Eyed Owl

There is a nice printable picture of the goddess Lakshmi for the kids to colour here:
http://www.balagokulam.org/images/la-lakshmi.jpg

There is a really yummy Diwali pudding recipe at this BBC webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/bananaandsemolinashe_73018.shtml

National Children's Book Week
From 6 October

Kids' under 4 and their parents can go along to their local library and sign up for
the Bookstart Book Crawl.  You can download your collector's card and recommended 
babies books list hereThen, just join the local library and children will receive stickers for 
every visit.  Once you have 4 stickers these can be exchanged for a lovely colourful book 
crawl certificate.

 

Tesco will be distributing free copies of The Rough Guide to Picture Books throughout
October.  This highlights 35 of the very best titles for small children.

To really celebrate the power of picture books you might want to note that the British Library
(St Pancras, Euston Road, London) is hosting The Big Picture Party from 11am - 4.30pm 
on Monday 27 October (during half term).  You're invited to join authors and performers for 
a FREE event including drawing, storytelling and workshops in the Library's courtyard.  Visit
the British Library website for full details.

These books have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, in the age 6 and under
category.  Why not visit your library and try them all?



Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
Elephant Wellyphant by Nick Sharratt
The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers
The Witch's Children Go To School by Ursula Jones
There's An Ouch In My Pouch! by Jeanne Willis
Manfred the Baddie by John Fardell


World Animal Day
Saturday 4 October

Your first port of call needs to be the World Animal Day website
where you can access the Kids Zone for animal jokes and loads of ideas.  You can do
something kind things for your animals, such as making a toy mouse for your cat, decorating 
a new bowl for your dog, make a cake for garden birds or even a toy aquarium for your bedroom.

If you click on this link Who Came To Our Bird Table? you can download a chart for 
recording all the birds who came to your garden in the week.  If you are unable to
identify all the birds, there is a wonderful children's guide to garden birds at the Campaign
for Learning website.  You can just print it off here and keep it by the window for reference.
(After you've coloured in all the lovely pictures).

For an easy fun craft activity, you can visit the BBC's Little Animals Activity Centre
and print off pages to cut out and make tiny finger puppets of a mole, an owl, a hedgehog,
a mouse or a fox.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Friday 19 September.

                     

Just to make sure everyone knows it is a special day, you can download this poster and 
put it up in your front window:  www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit

There is a pirate hat and eye patch to cut out here:
http://www.leehansen.com/printables

and there's a whole page of free pirate clip art to use as you wish, on the same site:
http://www.leehansen.com/clipart/

There are lots of lovely pirate crafts including a spyglass, a parrot and a pirate ship at dltk-kids:
www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates

The Disney website FamilyFun has some great ideas for pirate games or a pirate party:
http://familyfun.go.com/parties

The Family Fun site is especially useful as it has a section on "How to talk like a pirate".

                                                

 

Roald Dahl Day
13 September

To celebrate Roald Dahl Day properly you must first visit the official website: www.roalddahlday.info

Here you'll find an A4 party poster, stickers and bookplates to download.  The poster has lovely
suggestions for how to celebrate e.g. wear something yellow (this was Dahl's favourite colour),
write a revolting rhyme, make up an Oopma Loompa Dance with your friends or give someone
a treat (Dahl loved to give treats).  

You can download party printables from the Treats section of the website.  These include:
birthday bunting, a characters quiz and enormous BFG ears.  Then get recipes for Mrs Twit's
Eyeball Cakes and a Hot Choc Sludge Drink.  If you have any energy left, you can also get printables
for making an enormous concertina crocodile or a roly-poly bird, amongst others.  

What a celebration!

 

The Olympics
From 8 August

Mini Olympic Games 
Here are some printable pages for you to use as resources for your own mini Olympic Games.  

Olympic Torch 

  

Click below for a torch image for you to print and cut out.  
Print the two pages of the image.  In the second the image is reversed (so that you can put the two 
images back-to-back and have it on both sides).  
If you print onto card, you can simply stick the two sides together and it should be strong enough.  
If you print onto paper, you might want to stick the two sides together then slot the torch inside
an empty loo roll or kitchen roll tube. 

Olympic Torch 1

Olympic Torch 2

Now you can put on some rousing music and race around holding your torch aloft, to signal the 
start of your Games!

Flags
To hold a proper Olympic Games, you would need to have lots of different countries involved.
If you print out the following page and cut out all the little flags, you can then either sellotape
them to the ends of pencils or slot them into a specially snipped cut in the top of a drinking straw.
Then you could each choose a country and its flag for the Games.  If you like, you could print
out extra flags for friends, teddies and dolls to hold, so they can wave them when you win.

Flags of the world printable

Olympic Medals
It would be no fun to hold a mini Olympics without any medals.  Just print out the page below, 
cut out each of the medals as neatly as you can, then colour them in.  The gold medal can be 
yellow, the silver can be grey and the bronze can be brown.  Then ask mum if she has any safety
pins you can use to pin them on to the winners' t-shirts.

            

Olympic Medals Printable

Mini Olympics Games events and Score Sheet
Now that you have all the accessories, you will need ideas about events.  It's easy to stage
lots of the events that are in the real Olympics, you just need a tiny bit of preparation 
and lots of imagination!  

You can print off a score sheet for each athlete here:
Olympic Score Sheet


Here are some suggestions for how to stage each of the events:

Long Jump
 - stand on a line or marker and, with both feet together jump as far as you can.  Ask someone 
to measure (with a tape measure or ruler) how far you've jumped.

High Jump
- ask mum and dad or two friends to hold a skipping rope or piece of string off the ground while
you jump over it.  See how high they can lift it before you have to stop.  (If you're having trouble
jumping over it they can always drop it, so you don't get caught in it).

Hop, Skip and Jump
- do just what it says!  Hop once, skip once, then jump as far as you can

Shot Put
- hold a bean bag, wet sponge (!), or ball up to the side of your face then throw it as far as you can.
The wet sponge works best because it won't roll away (and it makes a nice splat) but that's best done 
outdoors.

Discus
- ask mum for some paper or plastic plates and spin them as far away as you can.  Measure how 
far they away they land.

Javelin
- roll up some double pages of old newspaper very tightly diagonally and then throw them like spears.
See how far you can make them go.  You might need lots of "javelins" because they only work once
before they get too bent.

Short and Long Running Races
- decide on two distances to run then time yourself and your friends to see who can run the fastest.
If you have smaller brothers and sisters you might like to give them shorter distances to run.

Relay
- this is just a race where teams take it in turns to run a certain distance, one person at a time, and the
team that finishes first wins.  You can run, then "tag" the next person to show it's their turn to run.  If 
you are in the garden, though, it's good fun to run with a bucket of water, which you empty into a bigger
bucket when you get to your destination.  You then bring the bucket back for the next person to do the 
same.  The winning team is the one with the most water in their big bucket at the end of a certain amount
of time.

Rowing
- this is a bit nutty, but it is possible to pull yourself forward with your feet on the ground whilst sitting 
on your bottom and pretending to row.  Don't make the race a very long one though because it's hard work!

Swimming
- this a bit like the rowing but you can cheat by saying you are doing front crawl and crawl as fast as you can
to the winning post.

Basketball
- use a nice bouncy sort of ball and see how many times you can bounce it with the palm of your hand
before it gets away.

Football
- set up a few obstacles, then take it in turns to dribble a ball around them, timing each other to see who
is fastest.

Beatrix Potter's Birthday
28 July

  

Copyright www.hop-skip-jump.com

To celebrate Beatrix Potter's birthday, fans of Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tittlemouse and Jemima 
Puddle-duck should visit the beautifully illustrated http://www.peterrabbit.co.uk/
On the home page, just press "play" to access lots of Peter Rabbit fun and games.
You can meet all your favourite characters and watch video clips from the Peter Rabbit 
and Friends DVD; play three gentle interactive games; then visit the Make and Do 
section for instructions on how to make a pom-pom mouse, edible bonnets and baskets, 
plus character colouring pages and a wordsearch.  There's almost enough to keep Tinies
busy all day.

St Swithin's Day
15 July
People used to say that if it rains on St Swithin's Day it will rain for 40 days  (that's almost
until the end of August).  This legend has lasted for a thousand years, ever since the bones
of St Swithins were moved to Winchester Cathedral in 971.  There was a huge storm then 
and it lasted for 40 days.  Let's hope it's a lovely day!  Just in case, you might want to paint
a smiley sun picture or colour a paper plate yellow and give it a smiley face - to encourage the 
sun to chase away the clouds.

Summer Solstice 
20 June 



The Summer Solstice (20 June) is the day when the sun is at it's highest in the sky and it is
also the longest day of the year.  We have 13 hours and 1 minute of sunlight on this day!
The word "solstice" comes from Latin and means "sun stands still".

Every year, on this day, hundreds of people visit Stonehenge in Wiltshire to see the sunrise
there.  In prehistoric times men built a huge circle of stones through which the sun casts a
mysterious beam.  You can see how this works on this BBC website: 
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire

You can also download lots of archaeology pages to learn from, colour in and play with from 
the people who investigate the stones at Stonehenge:
www.wessexarch.co.uk/learning/resources

Midsummer's Day
24 June

In Britain people have always celebrated the summer sunshine on Midsummer's Day, which
is 24 June.  People would build bonfires and dance in a circle around them, to celebrate
the wonderful light and warmth that the sun brings.  

This was also believed to be a magical time when all the fairies and pixies came out to play.  
Shakespeare wrote a very famous play about this called "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  
CBeebies have a short animated version of the story here:
cbeebies/stories/dream.shtml

Even the early morning dew on Midsummer's Day was believed to be magical.  Young girls 
would wash their faces with it to make themselves beautiful and old people would wash with
it to make themselves look young.

If you would like to celebrate Midsummer, you could have a picnic of traditional summer foods,
such as gooseberry fool, strawberries and raspberries.  You could even bake some little round
biscuits or cakes and decorate them with smiley sun faces.  Then you might like to either dress
up as fairies and pixies or hunt in your garden to see if you can find any hiding there on this 
special day.  In the evening you could have a bonfire to dance around, just like our ancestors did. 

 

Father's Day
15 Jun
e



Here are some fun things to make (or even just print out) to let dad know how much
you love him.  Don't forget to be extra kind and well-behaved on the day!

There's a really special Father's Day card to make on this Canon printers website.  
You simply need to print out all the instructions and components first.

Little girls (and boys!) can print out a Best Dad Certificate from agirlsworld.com

daniellesplace.com and kaboose.com have loads of craft activities and cards to make
for Father's Day.  There is something here for everyone, from really creative cards, to
pebble paperweights, a photo frame and pencil holder.

St George's Day
23 April
We've had Burn's Night and St Patrick's Day, so now it's time to celebrate England!
England's patron saint is St George (he's the knight in shining armour who killed the
wicked dragon).  You can find out everything you need to know about him at the
incredible Woodlands Junior School site.

Although there should be celebrations all around the country on this day, there are 
actually only a few.  One of the very best takes place in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where a
truly massive inflatable dragon is slayed by St George in the city's market square.
(The celebrations this year will be on Sunday 20 April - just in case you are in the 
vicinity!)



Copyright Salisbury District Council

If you don't want to stray too far from home Battle Abbey will be staging a St George's Day 
Children's Challenge
on the weekend 26 & 27 April.  See the diary for full details.

 

Springtime
For those of you who can't wait until the May Bank Holiday Weekend to celebrate the arrival 
of Spring, I've found a whole page of inspirational ideas at
Amazing MomsThe lady who 
wrote the article lives in America, but as she mentions the fact that the snow has just cleared
and the sun is shining - she might as well be talking about Eastbourne!  There are ideas for
a proper Spring Party with friends or just a fun time in the garden with your own kids.

Easter
21-24 March

   


Easter Egg Treasure Hunt Challenge.
  
To give the children a more challenging Easter Egg Hunt this year, I've made up some printable pages
that form the basis of a simple Treasure Hunt.  

The Easter Bunny has set your children a challenge.  They must find all the pieces of a jigsaw that he has
hidden about the house and when they have put them all together you can tell them where the Easter
Bunny's has hidden their eggs.  You will give your children picture clues to help them find the pieces. 

Click the link below for the picture of the Easter Bunny, divided into 9 squares.  
Print out the picture (preferably onto card) and cut it into 9 pieces, to form a simple jigsaw. 
Put this to one side for the moment. 
Bunny Jigsaw 

Now print out these pages of images of household objects.  They are divided into 4 squares each. 
Print out each of these sheets and cut each into 4 pieces.  You now keep these to hand out as clues.
Easter Clues 1
Easter Clues 2
Easter Clues 3

You will only need to hide the pieces of the bunny jigsaw in 9 of the places shown on the Easter Clue 
pictures, so choose the 9 pictures that best suit your home.  You can discard the other 3.

Now hide the jigsaw pieces in the places shown on your chosen clue cards.

Now all you do is give your children the clues one and at time and get them to bring back each of the
jigsaw pieces as they find them.  Once they have all 9 pieces and have put together the jigsaw - 
they have completed the challenge!  You can either tell the children where the eggs or hidden, 
or you could produce a note from the Easter Bunny himself, giving their secret location.


External Easter web links.

My favourite website at the moment is Meddybemps.com and they have lovely colourful games, 
short stories, printable Easter colouring sheets, quizzes and an interactive Easter Egg Hunt.
  There is also
an illustrated short story to read on your computer about Frogwart the naughty witch.
http://www.meddybemps.com/funandgames.html

Sing along to the Easter Egg Hunt song at:
http://genkienglish.net/eastersong.htm
This is really a website designed to teach Japanese children to speak English, but the song and the colourful
pictures that go with it will certainly appeal to english-speaking under 5s!  (You are meant to register and 
pay for the resources that go with this little song, but the song, at least is freely available.) 

There are some wonderful free Easter printables for your kids at the American Family Fun magazine website.  Choose from:

A caterpillar to make with lots of ideas for things to do in the Springtime attached to his body:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Activity_Bughead_Template.pdf

A lovely Easter picture to colour in before hunting for all the hidden eggs:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Egghunt_Template.pdf

A cute Easter basket to make and keep all your tiny chocolate eggs in:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Easter_Basket_Template.pdf

Some Easter themed colour pictures to use when making your own cards or just as decorations:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Spring-stickers.pdf

There is an almost endless supply of Easter crafts, activities, colouring pages and Easter printables to be found here:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/easter/index.html

Tinies can create an Easter card using their own hand prints with instructions from this site:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/easter-chick-card.html

Find lots of creative ways to make Easter Eggs at
http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/eggs


St Patrick's Day
17 March

    

St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and the 17 March is his national day.  St Patrick was captured by pirates when he was a boy and spend six years as a slave before he was able to escape.  He trained as a missionary and went to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity.  Ireland is famous for not having any snakes on the island and the Irish believe that it was St Patrick who drove them all away.

Irish fairy stories are full of leprechauns who are mischievous little green men who make shoes for the fairies, but who also love gold and bury pots of it at the end of rainbows.  You can try to trick a leprechaun into telling you where he has buried his gold.  But if he offers to lead you there, you must never let him out of your sight or he will vanish into thin air!  If you could ever find the end of the right rainbow you could dig a hole there and find a pot of gold - so the story goes.
There are numerous crafts involving rainbows and pots of gold at:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/st_patricks_day_crafts.htm  

You can print out all you need (apart from the inside of a toilet roll) to 
make your own leprechaun
at:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/images/clep.gif

The BBC Northern Ireland has a fun Snake Game that you can play at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/spring/patricks/game.shtml

If you'd like to Grow Your Own Leprechaun or build a leprechaun trap visit:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/leprechauns/

There are lots of different activities: crafts, colouring, games and recipes at the excellent dltk site:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/index.html

This excellent site: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/holidays/stpatricksday.htm
has colouring pages, leprechaun printables and activities for pre-schoolers.  It's fun and educational.

If you'd like to find out how all the colours of the rainbow can be made, take a look at the Colour Wheel at:
http://www.kidzone.ws/science/colorwheel.htm
It explains very simply how colours can all be mixed from the three primary colours.  
You can print out the sheet in colour or black and white - then colour it in yourself!

Those who are truly inspired by all the St Patrick's Day paraphernalia might want to consider throwing
a St Patrick's Day Party (there isn't much else to celebrate in March, to be honest.)  Everything you need
to know to get you started, including invitations, crafts and games, can be found at:
http://party.kaboose.com
You never know, you might have so much fun it becomes an annual tradition.

If you're having a party, a simple activity would be to hide chocolate gold coins around the house 
and let your guests hunt for them.  You could call it a Leprechaun's Treasure Hunt and perhaps
tell a little story about the leprechaun who lost it.

Mother's Day
2 March

2 March.  This is your chance to show your mum how much you appreciate everything she does for you.  You don't need to spend money to get a present for her, you could do something kind for her today, pick her some flowers, or make something special for her to keep.  There are some nice ideas at a website called Kids Domain.  

This link tells you how to make lovely photo frames:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/momphotographs.html

This link has instructions for making Mother's Day Cards with your own fingerprints:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/momcards.html

You can find out how to make Painted Flower Pot gift at:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/thankyougifts/flowerpot/

You can print off some coupons for your mum, with promises that you'll do things for her at:
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/mothers/nmcoupons.htm
Make sure you only give her the ones that you are able and prepared to do!

You may need to ask dad or older brothers or sisters for some help ... and don't forget to clear up all your mess afterwards, to keep mum happy! 

Valentine's Day
14 February

Valentine's day is on February 14.  
People send a card or present to someone they love on this day.  
You must not sign the card, though, it's meant to be a secret!

There are lovely Valentine's cards to print and colour in at:
http://www.crayola.com/cardcreator/index.cfm?action=holidays&id=29
There are more cards to make, recipes and crafts at this Kids Domain page:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/val/
There are even more original ideas for Valentine's Day crafts at:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/crafts-animals.htm

You'll be amazed how many animals you can make with heart shapes at this site with
printable pages:
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/crafts/heart-shape.htm


Chinese New Year
7 February

This is a big celebration in China and this year it falls on 7 February.  
It is a time to get together with your family and wish everyone good luck in the coming months.  
The Chinese calendar is a bit like our zodiac and is made up of a cycle of 12 years.   
Each year is represented by a different animal and (like a horoscope) the Chinese believe that when you are born you will be a bit like the animal of your birth year.  
This year is the Year of the Rat
.  

Chinese customs for New Year include hanging red and gold paper down the doors to keep in good luck.  
New Year's Eve is celebrated with a family feast, after which the family plays cards, with all the lights turned on, until midnight.  At midnight fireworks and crackers are set off to ward off evil spirits.  
On New Year's Day children are given lucky red envelopes containing money or sweets and everyone says "Kung Hei Fat Choy!"

If you'd like to celebrate Chinese New Year, there are lots of links to crafts and activities below:

Make a Chinese dragon out of an egg box from instructions at:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/dragon.html
Find an easy recipe for traditional chinese moon cakes at:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/recipesdb/view.asp?rid=52

You can print out all you need to make a whole chinese zodiac wreath at:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/china/mcalendarwreath.html


Shrove Tuesday
5 February

Shrove Tuesday (5 February) in the Christian calendar is the last day before Lent.  
(Lent is the 40 days before Easter).  As Lent was a time of fasting, Shrove Tuesday became the day when all the fats, cream and sugar needed to be used up.  
(In France and other countries, Shrove Tuesday is called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday).  This is why we traditionally eat pancakes on this day.  
In Scarborough they celebrate Shrove Tuesday by skipping (with skipping ropes) for a mile along the seafront - maybe we should introduce this custom to Eastbourne!
There are all sorts of facts, rhymes and recipes to be found at:
http://homepages.tesco.net/~derek.berger/holidays/pancakeday.html
There is a classic Delia Smith recipe for pancakes at:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/basilpancakswithsuga_66226.shtml
You can make wonderful Mardi Gras masks at:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/mardigras/mmasks.htm




CHILDREN'S PARTIES.

ARTVENTURE ACADEMY - Arty Parties.
Try photography, ceramics, glasswork, sculpture, textiles, painting and drawing, 
with help from experienced artists.
Contact Sarah on 07841 835567 or art-venture@hotmail.co. uk
www.ArtVentureAcademy.co.uk

BLACKBERRY FARM.
A22, Whitesmith, near Lewes.
Working farm with animals to feed and stroke, plus pony, donkey and tractor rides.
(01825) 872912
www.blackberry-farm.co.uk

CINEMA PARTIES
Hailsham Pavilion, George Street, Hailsham.
Parties of 10 or more people can get special rates at the latest film 
(plus a Birthday Announcement before the film).  Or you can hire the entire cinema and 
show your own favourite film!  Cate