hands-on activities

Kids Art History Board Game Ideas

December 3, 2022 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you’re looking for fun kids art history board game ideas. you’ll love Professor Noggins. Also, look at the other History Games on my page.

Too, sometimes instead of an art history board game, you can substitute a card game and that is what we did.

I love the Professor Noggin games because they contain a wealth of information in an easy to play format and cover a huge variety of topics.

In addition, the games cover nature, science, animals, birds, reptiles, history, and geography.

Today we are going to look closer at Professor Noggin’s History of Art.

Games teach children, critical thinking, curiosity, accepting failure, creativity, innovation, and more.

9 Things to Love About Art History

However, look at these nine things I love about Professor Noggin’s History of Art.

Teach on a specific subject in a fun way.
Are easy to learn and play.
Build observation and memory skills.
Have a quick play time.
Are portable for road trips and waiting at doctors offices/restaurants.
Have a great price point- around $10- $15
Cover an excellent variety of topics- currently 39 titles on their website.
Have two levels of play for players of different skill levels.
Games have a variety of trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions.

The only drawback is that they are small games with limited questions.

I like to get as much value out of things as I can so I started thinking of other ways we could use the games beyond their intended use.

First, look at some of these other fun history games.

Fun History Games Resources

Look at them below.

Moreover, Professor Noggin’s History of Art is an easy way to introduce artists and their masterpieces to kids of any age and ability.

Even if you do not know a lot about art, you can learn art history through a game.

Too, when you use this game, you teach so much more than just a particular artist or style of art.

Through art history you learn geography, get a better understanding of various time periods throughout history, improve reading and research skills, and more.

About Professor Noggin’s History of Art Game

However, look first at a few facts about how the game is intended to be played.

Professor Noggin History of Art comes with 30 cards.

The cards contain a famous artwork on one side and 6 questions on the other.

In addition, there are three questions for the younger or newer student and three for older children or more knowledgeable players.

Also, it’s recommended for ages 8 and up.

From this game you will learn about.

Famous artists
Major art periods
Works of Art
Art techniques
World architecture

Next, look at these there creative and fun ways you can use the game to turn into a learning day.

8 Ways to Use a Art History Game

I have come up with 8 fun and educational additional activities to do with this art history game to extend the basic game,

1. Get Artsy Fartsy

If you are not using a formal art curriculum, games like this are a great choice.

First, you can choose cards and have your child attempt to recreate the art piece including using the same medium.

These little tubes of acrylic paints really help you feel like an artist.

Next, do an artist study.

However, I also want you to know about this wonderful Art History for Kids curriculum.

2. Do an Artist Study

Randomly choose a card and study that artist for the week.

Focus on their art, techniques, life story, what period or style they were.

Add in this fun book The Story of Paintings.

3. Focus on Art Period Definitions

Additionally, there are plenty of great vocabulary and spelling words to choose from in this game.

Flip through cards to list all the great art periods and list them. Have your child define each one.

4. Guess the Story

Further, have your child write a poem or a story about an art piece before they learn anything about it.

Then check out the real story or at least the name behind it and see how close they were.

5. Reverse Pictionary

Another one is to pull a random card or one of your choosing and describe the photo for your child and have them draw it from your description.

This can end up being funny and entertaining.

6. Teach Geography or World Culture

Also, pull a random card and locate the country on the map where the artist is from as well as the museum where their artwork is displayed.

This scrunch map gets a lot of use as a favorite resource for just about any theme we choose.

7. Place the Cards in Timeline Order

Give your child a stack of 5 random cards and have them lay them out in timeline order.

They either from memory if they can or allow them to research the time periods in a book or online.

8. Host a Fun Share and Tell

Finally, host a share and tell.

Go through the stack of cards with your child.

Each of you choose your favorite artwork, share it and tell why. And you can include extended family members.

Encourage your child to use descriptive words to help strengthen their vocabulary.

What do you think? Ready to turn a game into a fun and full day of learning?

Free Awesome Ancient Greece Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Activities

December 1, 2022 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You’ll love my first free Ancient Greece Lapbook. I have many more on my Homeschool Lapbooks page.

But why study Ancient Greece?

Greece has often been called the birthplace of Western civilization.

Many of their thoughts about science, man, and politics are studied today and respected.

Free Awesome Ancient Greece Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Activities

About 2,400 years ago ancient buildings in Greece were shining marble temples dedicated to the gods of Mount Olympus.

And myths were part of the every day of Greeks.

We know about these stories because they have been passed down to us.

Objectives for Ancient Greece Unit Study

Look at some of these ideas for objectives if you’re preparing a unit study.

Compare and contrast features of the Greek city states.
Analyze the Spartan way of life.
Summarize how democracy worked in ancient Athens.
Evaluate cultural ties the Greek people had with one another.

The highest point of this civilization was during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.E.

It was during this time that the Greeks really flourished.

And they had many great ideas which make it easy to see why they are so important to history.

Many words in the English language today come from the Greeks.

Besides language, many other discoveries and ideas came from the Greeks including: democracy,
earth science, music, math, sports, and poetry.

More Hands-on History Lapbooks

Also, you’ll love these other history homeschool lapbooks.

And you can your next history homeschool lapbook with my free ones.

Finally, look below at the minibooks included in the 46 page download.

More Hands-on Greece Activities for Kids

How to Make a Trojan Horse Craft | Fascinating Trojan Horse History

Ancient Greece Unit Study Play Stomachion Like Archimedes {Explore Geometry}

Ancient Greece Lapbook Minibooks

Also, look at these minibooks and notebooking pages which come in the free download.

Severn Wonder of the Ancient World 2 notebooking pages
Minibook for Seven Wonders of the World
Three beautiful Ancient Greece covers for the outside of your file folder
Two Ancient Greece Notebooking Pages
Daily Life minibook
Geography of Greece
Thinkers
Vocabulary words
Latitude and Longitude
Parthenon
Tortoise and Hare Notebooking Page
Vase Painting
20 page PreK Unit Study about Greece to keep your littles ones learning alongside your big kids.

How to Get the Free Lapbook 46 page download

Finally, how to grab the free page lapbook and notebooking pages. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) Sign up on my list.
2) Grab the freebie now.
3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Geronimo Stilton The Race Against Time Build a Fun Greek Water Clock

November 30, 2022 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We are time traveling to Ancient Greece in Geronimo Stilton The Race Against Time The Third Journey Through Time. And we’re building a fun Greek water clock. Be sure to grab more Geronimo Stilton Books ideas and crafts on my page.

Our favorite adventuring mouse gets to wander through Athens in 434 BCE. He meets Xanthippe, the wife of famous philosopher Socrates, and Socrates too.

After exploring the Greek alphabet, he visits The Symposium.

Geronimo Stilton The Race Against Time Build a Fun Greek Water Clock

He is really living his best life, isn’t he?

These books give amazing vocabular and detailed descriptions of clothing for the period.

Geronimo Stilton The Race Against Time The Third Journey Through Time

In addition, they show architecture and important people of the time to give the young reader a fun glimpse into whatever historical era he ends up in.

Before we make the water clock, look at some of these resources.

I have many resources to make this wonderful book a full literature unit study.

Ancient Greece Resources

Add these resources to your day to make learning come alive or do a full unit study.

Fun Ancient Greece Homeschool Unit Study and Lapbook
Play Ancient Greece Go Fish
Add a reference book like Tools of the Ancient Greeks. This is another fun book to compliment Geronimo for a deeper dive into Ancient Greece.

Make this Ancient Greek Chariot for your own chariot races.
Enjoy a little taste of a favorite of Greeks of long ago and Make Baklava.
Create this Ancient Greece Pottery Activity.
Kids DIY Knucklebones
Great Big List of Ancient Greece Freebies
Ancient Greek Theatre Mask
9 EASY and Fun Hands-on Ancient Greece Kids Activities

In addition, I have many crafts to go with some of the books in the Geronimo Stilton series.

Other Geronimo Stilton Chapter Book Activities

Next, look at these other crafts to go with the books.

Then, here are a few more facts about The Greeks.

Amazing Ancient Greek Facts

Roughly one third of Ancient Greeks were slaves.
Greeks called themselves Hellenes.
The Ancient Greeks invented the Yo-Yo.
The Greek alphabet came into being around about 1000 BC.
Many Ancient Greeks wore a chito which is a long shirt made from a single large piece of cotton.
The Greeks really loved to learn. They felt that learning was one of the best ways you could spend your time.
The basic crops that were grown in Ancient Greece were wheat, barley, olives, and grapes.
Romans were considered big copycats of the Greeks. They copied a lot of the Greek culture. Everything from their gods, to architecture, language, and even what and how they ate.

Finally, look below at how to make this fun water clock.

We are going to create our own version of a Greek water clock.

A water clock or clepsydra was used in Ancient Greece to measure time by regulating the flow of water.

As water moved from one vessel to another in a certain period, they measured it.

Water would drip through a hole in the bottom of a filled container into the bottom one.

Often, the bottom container was marked with the hours of the day so that they could tell time by how full the vessel became.

Basically it is an hourglass with water instead of sand to simplify it.

It also happens to be one of the oldest ways to tell time from the ancients.

How to Make an Ancient Greek Water Clock

You will need:

Two 16-20 oz. bottles with lids
Water
A sharpie marker
Hot glue or e6000
A timer
Drill/small drill bit.

Pull the label off both bottles and wash the bottles well (especially if they were soda bottles).

Remove the caps and drill a small hotel through both caps, in the center, and line them up as close as you can.

Glue the two caps together, flat top to flat top, take care not to get glue in your holes and plug it up. You can reverse this order if it’s easier to line up the holes after gluing.

Start with 1 cup of water and pour it into one of your bottles, mark the line where the water stops.

You may want to open the bottle backup and add more later if you want the timer to go longer.

Screw the glued tops onto the empty bottle and then flip it and screw it onto the bottle with water.

Get your timer ready, as soon as you flip the bottle and the drops begin to go through, start the timer.

Mark the water line in the bottom bottle at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.

Reverse the bottles and do the same on the other side.

You now have an awesome low tech timer for games, quizzes, or cooking and a little better understanding of how time was kept in Ancient Greece.

What do you think? Ready to make this?

Cute and Simple Snowman Story Stones Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers

November 29, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, you’ll love these cute and simple snowman story stones for winter art activities for preschoolers. Grab my other ideas for a winter unit study.

I am all about learning through play as much as possible, especially when it comes to younger children.

Story stones are fantastic tools that can be used to teach your children so many early literacy skills and more.

Cute and Simple Snowman Story Stones Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers

They are inexpensive, easy to store and easy to use.

Too, they offer an open-ended learning experience that has many benefits for young budding readers.

First, in creating the story stones your child gets a chance to express themselves artistically.

In addition, they can work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.

Benefits of Storytelling Through Hands On

Then, in the storytelling there is so much that the story stones help build and improve.

For example, communication skills, language skills, listening, vocabulary, memorization, recall, imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.

Story stones also help children express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas.

Beautiful and Flexible Early Learner Homeschool Planner
$7.25 Add to cart

These open-ended winter themed story stones are sure to spark some fun and interesting tales that will entertain both you and your little one for hours.

You can use these story stones in so many ways to change up the learning.

14 Ways to Use Your Snowman Story Stones Creatively

Have your child blindly draw 4 or 5 stones from a bag and tell a story using the prompts on the stone.
Ask your child to choose 3 stones for first, next, last and tell you about it.
Use the stones for young children to work on positional words. For example, put the hat ON the snowman and put the snowman NEXT to the tree.
Draw a simple winter scene on a large piece of construction paper and encourage your child to place some stones around the scene and tell you about it.
Place them in their small world or sensory bin play and let creativity take over.

Start a story with “once upon a time”, pull a stone and give a couple sentences, the next player pulls a stone and continues the story, repeat.
Use in co-op in small group settings, take turns telling a piece of a larger story.
Tell a story using the picture prompts, present some sticky situations to your child, like the sun coming out, and ask your child to finish the story with solutions.
Use the stones to sort living and nonliving items.
Show the pictures on your stone and have your child tell you the beginning letter, sound, how many syllables, etc.

In the reverse call out a letter and have your child find a stone that starts with the letter.
Choose one stone and ask your child to describe it.
Practice writing the words for the pictures on the stones on paper, a chalk or led board.
Have your child practice stacking the stones as high as they can to work on fine motor skills and they can tell a story about the objects as they stack as well.

Next, look at some more winter unit study activities.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Look at these other winter unit study resources and more winter art activities for preschoolers.

Too, here are some fun ideas of what to paint on your stones.

Of course the best pictures are ones your little ones love, but here are some ideas too.

Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers Storytelling Stones Ideas

A frozen pond
Snowmen
Hats
Trees
The sun
Spring flowers.
Animals
Childs favorite items like football, doll, bike, etc..
Snowflakes
A road
Letters or numbers
Your child’s name

How to Make Snowman Story Stones

You will need:

Large smooth river rocks. You want them large enough so there is enough surface area for your child to work on them.

I use acrylic paint /paint pens and sometimes both. Acrylic paint is easy to use, durable, and inexpensive. It is a great choice for this project.
Paintbrushes
Any matte clear sealing spray or you can brush on a couple coats of modge podge.

First, wash and dry your stones well to remove dust and dirt.

I got mine at a local landscape company but you can also find them on Amazon or at craft stores if not in your area.

Draw on your designs with a pencil until you are satisfied with them.

Then, use small paint brushes or paint pens to fill in your designs and allow them to dry completely and keep wet q tips on hand to tidy up your lines as needed.

You can also use a paint pen.

Or fabric paint, these have a great small tip for little hands but do come out thick.

Once the designs are dry spray well with a coat or two of clear sealer to preserve them or alternatively you can use paint on modge podge to seal.

Let dry according to directions on the can.

Store the story stones in a pretty basket on a low shelf to invite your curious creative little ones to use them.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten Create A Fun Cradleboard Craft

November 28, 2022 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

For Native American activities for kindergarten, I have a cute cradleboard craft. Grab my other tips, ideas, and crafts for kindergarten on my page Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum.

Also, there are many amazing and beautiful inventions that we still use today that originally came from the Native Americans.

For example, rubber, raised bed gardening, snow goggles, cable suspension bridges, baby bottles, hammocks, and countless medicinal things.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten Create A Fun Cradleboard Craft

But long before Columbus set foot on land, Native Americans made and used cradleboards.

Native Americans would carry babies long and short distances.

And they could also be hung from hooks or a tree to keep babies safe and close while mom worked.

Native American Cradleboard

Cradleboards were made of woven fibers or wood, painted, beaded, and braided

Additionally, Northern Plains, Eastern Woodlands, and Southwestern tribes used them.

Too, cradleboards would be decorated to show their love and happiness for the arrival of a new member of their tribe.

Children would spend from birth to up to 2 years being carried in a cradleboard.

Often, they added things to the cradleboard like with fur to keep babies warm in cold climates.

Fabric was hung from the top to shade the babies.

Additionally, dangling items like bead strings and dream catchers would be added as baby toys to keep them busy.

Native American Hands-on Activities

Also, look at some more Native American hands-on activities.

Native American Crafts for Kindergarten How to Make a Kids Pinch Pot
Create and play this Native American Stick Game.
Build a Wigwam with this How to Make a Wigwam Craft for a Fun Native American Unit Study.
Free Native American Plains Indians Fun Lapbook for Kids (& resources)
Fashion a Popsicle Stick Teepee for a cute and simple art project.
“Grow” your own colorful corn –Geronimo Stilton Field Trip to Niagara Falls Summary And Fun Corn Craft.
100 BEST Hands-on Free Native American Resources

Many of these hands-on ideas can be done with multiple ages.

Too, there are enough ideas here that you can create a fun Native American Unit Study.

More Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Look at these other resources.

However, you’ll want to add some fun books.

Native American Books

5 Native American Books And Fun Figures

Use these books to add reading to a unit study or to enhance your study for the day.

The Rough-Face Girl

From Algonquin Indian folklore comes a powerful, haunting rendition of Cinderella.

Children of the Longhouse

When Ohkwa'ri overhears a group of older boys planning a raid on a neighboring village, he immediately tells his Mohawk elders. He has done the right thing—but he has also made enemies.

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family.

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

In spring, the hills and meadows of Texas and Wyoming are ablaze with the reds, oranges, and yellows of the Indian Paintbrush. How this striking plant received its name is told in an old Indian legend.

Many years ago, when the People traveled the Plains, a young Indian boy had a Dream-Vision in which it was revealed that one day he would create a painting that was as pure as the colors of the evening sky at sunset.

The Earth under Sky Bear's Feet: Native American Poems of the Land

Native American elders will tell you there is as much to see in the night as in the familiar light of day, and here Abenaki storyteller and American Book Award recipient Joseph Bruchac offers twelve unforgettable stories of the living earth seen from the sky.

Safari Ltd Wild West TOOB

Finally, you should add these Safari Toobs to your collection.

Safari Ltd Powhatan Indians

. They are fun to play with but also make the best addition to sensory bins and dioramas.

Finally, look at how to make this adorable cradleboard craft.

How to Make a Native American Cradleboard

First, you can make this cradleboard small enough for a Barbie doll baby or large enough to carry a bigger doll on a child’s back.

I purposefully kept the instructions general so you could customize the craft to fit any size you like.

You will need:

Corrugated cardboard
Brown packing paper
Brown paint
Crayons or markers
Twine
Small beads
The baby of your choice

To start, measure your intended doll.

Again, you want the cardboard to be slightly taller and wider than the baby.

Cut it flat along the bottom and sides and create a curved top.

Next, cut a square of brown packing paper twice the height and width of the cardboard. In fact, this is going to be “hidden” to create the pocket for the baby.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten

Furthermore, encourage your child to ball it up and crinkle it as much as possible to age it. Then, open it and crinkle it again.

To add a bit more distress to it, you can wipe on some watered down brown paint and then wipe the excess off with a paper towel.

Trim your paper so that it looks roughly like this, matching the curve of the top of the cardboard.

Fold up from the bottom and the sides inward to make it the same size as the cardboard base.

Now it’s time to let your child decorate the hide with crayons or markers with symbols.

The Native Americans often told stories with their artwork. Glue paper to cardboard.

Fold up the bottom and sides and glue them all into place. Let your child do it on their own or use hot glue so it dries much faster.

Flip over the cradleboard and glue on straps using twine for rope.

Add a few beads to a length of twine for decoration and then glue to the cradleboard.

Here is this one on a doll. It’s a little big but would be perfect for a Barbie sized doll.

hands-on activities

9 Things to Love About Art History

Fun History Games Resources

About Professor Noggin’s History of Art Game

8 Ways to Use a Art History Game

1. Get Artsy Fartsy

2. Do an Artist Study

3. Focus on Art Period Definitions

4. Guess the Story

5. Reverse Pictionary

6. Teach Geography or World Culture

7. Place the Cards in Timeline Order

8. Host a Fun Share and Tell

Objectives for Ancient Greece Unit Study

More Hands-on History Lapbooks

More Hands-on Greece Activities for Kids

Ancient Greece Lapbook Minibooks

How to Get the Free Lapbook 46 page download

Geronimo Stilton The Race Against Time The Third Journey Through Time

Ancient Greece Resources

Other Geronimo Stilton Chapter Book Activities

Amazing Ancient Greek Facts

How to Make an Ancient Greek Water Clock

Benefits of Storytelling Through Hands On

Beautiful and Flexible Early Learner Homeschool Planner

14 Ways to Use Your Snowman Story Stones Creatively

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers Storytelling Stones Ideas

How to Make Snowman Story Stones

Native American Cradleboard

Native American Hands-on Activities

More Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Native American Books

How to Make a Native American Cradleboard

You will need:

Native American Activities For Kindergarten

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