*To learn more about Johnny Appleseed, visit Answers.com here. That’s where we got our info!*

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day, a day to celebrate Chapman’s growing accomplishments and have some fun with apples! You can make an apple tree, too – and, unlike a real apple tree, you won’t need to wait five years to enjoy it!

Materials:

• Large piece of white paper
• Brown construction paper (or a brown paper bag)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Red and green paint
• Paint palette or paper plate
• Play clothes that you’re willing to get paint on
• Fingers!

Get painting!

1. Cut out a tree trunk shape from the brown construction paper and glue it onto the white paper.
2. Put some green paint on your palette and dip one of your hands in. (This is where those play clothes will come in handy!)
3. Use your hand to stamp handprints at the top of the tree trunk. The green handprints should look like branches.
4. Put some red paint on your palette and dip in a finger or two.
5. Use your finger to stamp fingerprints in the branches of your tree. The fingerprints should look like apples.

There you have it – your very own apple tree, ready to be displayed! Now all that’s left to do is sit down with a Red Delicious or Granny Smith and enjoy your beautiful artwork!

Celebrate with your friends!

Our first leprechaun craft is great for older kids, so they can have their own leprechaun cup to place coins in, as if the leprechaun is protecting his pot of gold!  The second, simple craft places a pot-of-gold at the end of a rainbow as a door handle decoration and is probably best for your younger children, but even older ones might find it fun!

The Crafty Leprechaun

The Crafty Leprechaun

What You’ll Need:

• 12. oz paper cup (like those used for coffee)
• 2 Green and 2 orange pipe cleaners
• Green, peach, yellow, and black construction paper (one small sheet each)
• Green paint
• One pair of googly eyes
• A black pen, black marker, and red marker (or pen)
• Glue

Here’s what do do:

1. Paint the paper cup green and let it dry.
2. Cut out a circle from the peach construction paper. Make sure it’s big enough to hide the cup’s rim when looking at it straight on.
3. Cut out a hat from the green construction paper and make sure the brim is a little bit wider than the peach circle that will create the head.
4. Use a black marker to make a band on the hat, but leave room in the middle for a buckle!
5. Cut out 3 small squares from the yellow construction paper and then cut out their middles for the hat’s and shoes’ buckles!
6. Glue a buckle onto the center of the hat and then glue the hat onto the top third of the peach circle.
7. Glue the googly eyes a little under the brim of the hat.
8. Draw a nose in black pen and a mouth in red marker (or pen) and then set the face aside.
9. Coil an entire orange pipe cleaner around a pencil or pen and slip it off.
10. Glue the ends of the coil onto the peach circle, making a beard.
11. Cut two small, straight pieces from another orange pipe cleaner and glue these above the googly eyes for eyebrows.
12. Glue the head onto the cup to cover near a third of the cup in length.
13. Take one green pipe cleaner and make a small loop at one end (secure it by wrapping a small part around).  Make a loop in the pipe cleaner right next to the one you just made and twist it so it stays in place. It should now resemble a flower stem with leaves. Take the straight edge and make a third loop that meets the other two in the center, making a clover shape!
14. Repeat the previous step again for the other hand.
15. Attach one on each side of the cup using tape or glue.
16. Cut out two small shoe-shaped pieces from the black paper and glue one yellow buckle to each shoe before gluing them to the bottom of the cup.

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

What You’ll Need

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• 1 sheet of yellow and 1 sheet of green construction paper
• Black marker
• Markers for each color of the rainbow
• Gold and green glitter (optional)
• Glue or tape

Here’s what to do

1. Cut a half-circle into the bottom of the plate.
2. Cut out two pie-shaped pieces on the edge of the plate where the half-circle’s corners line up.
3. Have your child color a rainbow that follows the arch of the half-circle
4. Color the rest of the plate with black marker and be sure to color in a pot rim at the corners of the half-circle
5. Take the yellow construction paper and cut out a shape that resembles a pile of coins, making it as long as the diameter of the half-circle.
6. Run a clear glue stick over the “pile of coins” and sprinkle gold glitter over the construction paper to make it look real!
7. Glue or tape this to the back of the paper plate with the glittery side facing frontward
8. Cut out the shape of a shamrock from the green construction paper and glue it to the center of the pot. Optionally glue green glitter to it.
9. Hang it on any door knob in the house!

Have fun making these crafts with your children! They are a pot-of-fun!

Share These Great St. Patrick’s Day Crafts with Friends!

Sock Bowling

What you’ll need:

• One pair of rolled up socks
• 10 empty plastic bottles (any size will do)

Directions:

1. Place the 10 empty bottles in a pyramid shape, just like bowling pins, at the end of a hallway.
2. Stand at the opposite end of the hallway and toss the rolled up socks at the bottles to see how many you can knock down.
3. Too easy?  Try different techniques to throw the socks:  Spin around 10 times before bowling at the pins.  Turn backwards and throw the socks between your legs.  Try bowling with two pairs of rolled up socks at one time.  See who can make up the most creative way to bowl.

Balloon Tennis

What you’ll need:

• Two wire coat hangers
• One pair of old nylons (cut in half so that the legs are separate)
• Masking tape or tin foil
• One balloon or ping pong ball
• Scissors

Before you can play, you’ll need to create nylon rackets!

1. Start with one wire hanger.  Pull on the hook and the opposite side simultaneously in opposite directions, to create a diamond shape.
2. Take one leg of the nylons and pull it all the way down to cover the diamond shaped hanger.  You may need to squish the diamond a little bit to make it easier to pull the nylon over the hanger.
3. Tie a knot in the nylon right at the coil of the hanger so the nylon is snug and tight over the diamond.  Cut off any excess nylon.
4. Have an adult pinch the hook toward the rest of the hanger.  Tape the end to create a safe handle.  If you do not have tape, tin foil works just as well to wrap around the handle.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 to create a second racket.

Once you and your child have crafted two rackets, all you need is a ballon or ping pong ball and you are ready to play. Passing the balloon back and forth or counting the number of consecutive hits are great ways to stay entertained.

Share These Indoor Sport Ideas with your Friends!

A Simple and Thoughtful Craft

What you’ll need:

• Red and Pink construction paper
• Long piece of white yarn
• Your child’s photo or picture to be cut
• Markers
• Glue / Tape
• Scissors
• Optional: Hole Puncher

Directions:

1. Cut out a large heart from the red construction paper
   

   Base layer red heart

2. On the back of this heart, draw a pair of dots a centimeter apart. After you draw them, measure an inch away following the border of the heart and draw another pair.
   

   Centimeter separations between sister holes, inch separations between pairs.

3. Poke these dots with your scissors or use a hole puncher to make small holes
4. Beginning by going through the back of the heart, first, weave the yarn in and out of the holes you poked out! Make sure to secure the yarn with a piece of tape on the back. (If you are having trouble getting the yarn through the holes, tightly circle the tip of the yarn with a piece of tape, like the end of a shoelace.)
   

   Finish the lace effect.

5. Cut out a smaller heart from the pink construction paper and glue it in the center of the red heart
6. Cut your picture so it fits into the pink heart. (We used some pets from JumpStart!) You can also cut this into a shape of a heart.
7. Decorate the heart with more hearts, flowers, or whatever you want!
8. Write your Valentine’s Day message.

Have a super-special, fun-filled, absolutely amazing Valentine’s Day!

Share this Valentine’s Day Idea with Your Friends

A great Valentine's Day-themed activity!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Paper bag or gift bag (Try to use a color appropriate for your child’s animal choice)
• One pair of googley eyes
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• Decorative materials (markers, crayons, paint)

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Have your child choose any animal he or she wants to make. (If you are using a colored gift bag, skip to step 3.)
2. If you are using a brown paper bag, you’ll want to cut a piece of construction paper to cover the side that the bottom flap doesn’t fold toward. If the construction paper is shorter than the bag, this is fine, but be sure to cover the entire lower portion of the bag’s side. The remaining space at the top will be covered by the animal’s head.
   

   The entire bag face should become the animal's color.

3. Using the right-colored construction paper, cut out a circle for the head. Make sure it is larger in diameter than the bag.
4. Draw a good-sized half-circle on the head (this is for the mouth that valentines will be placed through) and cut this out as well.
   

   Size the mouth to be card-friendly!

5. On the bag, place the head where you plan for it to be. Trace an outline of the mouth. Cut out this traced outline.
6. Take the animal’s face and glue on the googley eyes wherever they need to go. For instance, this octopus’ eyes are further apart than the polar bears’.
7. Continue to decorate the face until you get the desired animal. For example, we had to cut out these heart shapes for our polar bear’s ears!
   

   We set this octopus’ eyes further apart than the polar bears’. To decorate, we cut out these heart shapes for our polar bear’s ears!

8. Now we need to make the legs! Although the number of legs will differ from animal to animal, the technique is the same. We used construction paper to cut long, rectangular strips and then folded these strips in an accordion-like manner.
   

   An accordion fold makes for fun limbs!

9. Glue the face to the bag, being sure to line up the open mouths. Also glue the legs to the bag wherever you think they look best! If you want more detail (like this Polar Bear’s paws) simply cut out what you need from construction paper and glue it on!
10. Decorate the animal with hearts, messages, or anything your child wants!
    

    Valentine-ready!

As this polar bear would say, we hope your Valentine’s Day is beary special!

Excited About this Craft?  Share It!

Our fun trials!

Materials:

• Markers
• Paper
• Rain

Instructions:

1. Draw a scene, a beloved character (in our case, Frankie), or whatever strikes your fancy, using your markers.  Dry-erase board markers work well; permanent markers don’t work.
   

   Round 1: Permanent Marker? Permanently Unphased.

2. When you’re done, bundle up and step outside to submit your picture to the weather for 20 seconds!  Try and keep it flat when it starts to droop with water, so the picture is evenly exposed to the rain.
   

   Round 2: With Dry-Erase Black Marker and Neon Highlighters

3. Let your picture dry thoroughly, inside.

So, what’d you end up with?  We hope you like it.  The unexpected results are half the fun!  Here’s what we got on our final version of Frankie:

Raindrops mean added character!

We love hearing your thoughts, seeing your work!  Feel free to send in some of your neat results to:

Knowledge Adventure
Attn: Frankie Fan Mail
2377 Crenshaw Blvd, Suite 302
Torrance, CA 90501

OR

Frankie@adventure.com

Build this crafty castle!

What You’ll Need:

• A cardboard box (The bigger the box, the bigger the castle)
• Scissors or a craft knife
• String
• Decorative materials (paint, stickers, crayons, etc.)

Directions:

1. Cut a slender, rectangular box out of all sides of the box for towers.


Repeat on the other sides, as well.

2. Cut smaller rectangular boxes on the longer sides for watch posts.
3. Draw a drawbridge on the front and poke two holes (using a pen or the scissor tip) on the door towards the top, for the strings (we will put them in later).  Cut out your drawbridge.


Drawbridge

4. Poke two holes on the wall the door is connected to, near the top of the door frame.
5. Pull some string through the holes you have poked in both the wall and the door and tie a knot at both ends of each string at a length that allows the door to lie flat.


Feed the string through and tie it off.

6. Decorate the castle with whatever your child’s heart desires!


A Royal Creation

While this particular castle is definitely fit for a princess, we know you and your children will enjoy making it match their own tastes.  We’re interested to know what kind of different ideas for decorations they came up with! Comment or send us pictures if you’d like!

Show Your Friends’ Families How to Get Fortified!

One of the most fun concepts to teach young children is that of the stoplight. Red, yellow, and green lights not only drive home basic colors but also the important, associated meanings of stop, caution, and go. What better way to teach children about this traffic safety instrument than through easy, tasty treats? We’re thrilled to introduce the Traffic Stoplight Treat, an easy, little dessert that kids can make themselves!

Traffic Stoplight Treat

What You’ll Need:

• Graham crackers
• Peanut butter (Allergic? Consider using a light layer of regular butter, which goes well with the graham cracker.)
• Butter knife
• M&M’S Chocolate Candies

Instructions:

1. Take a large graham cracker and break it into its perforated quarters.
2. Spread peanut butter on one side of one of the quarters.
3. Place a green, a yellow, and a red M&M down the cracker in a row, spaced like a traffic light.

Taste buds say go.

We suggest using regular M&M’S, but we only had Peanut M&M’S at the office, which are pictured in our example.  We made do all the same.    Enjoy!

Green Light on Sitting Down to Make These with the Kids

The Peacock Hat Craft

Peafowl are awesome birds. The word “peafowl” refers to the birds most commonly represented by peacocks; the word “peafowl” is used when discussing both males and females.  Males are called peacocks, and they are well-known for their brightly-colored feathers and amazing tails they use to impress females, which are called “peahens” and are mostly colored a more somber brown.  These photos were taken by a JumpStart Team member while visiting Arcadia, California, a lovely city in Southern California that features peafowl as its city bird, allowing them to roam freely throughout the city.

A peacock cruising down a residential street.

In our hat craft, we’ll be attempting to create a hat that captures the essence of a peacock for kids to enjoy and run around in, brilliant blue crest and all.  However, if your child has another favorite animal he or she would like to capture, feel free to take it in an entirely different direction after the first instruction.

The Peacock Hat Craft

What you’ll need:

• A bowl that fits over your child’s head
• 12 pages of newspaper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Tempera paint – blue, green, white, and black especially
• Paintbrush
• Glue stick
• Access to a working sink

Instructions

1. Place the bowl upside down on your workspace. Soak a page of newspaper in the sink and lay it over the bowl making sure the overlapping edges are pressed down flat.  Repeat with nine more sheets, shifting the direction of the page with each placement over the bowl so no gaps are left.
   

   Compress the soaked pages.

   Soak two  more pages and place them directly on top of each other, separate from the bowl pages; these will be used for the tail and crest.  Let them dry overnight. You should be able to remove the newspaper from the bowl the next day and have it retain the shape of the upended bowl.

2. Use scissors to trim the edge of the dried newspaper into triangular points. Don’t trim points into the area you decide to be the front; this part will be folded up to create the beak.
   

   Triangular Support.

3. Fold and the points up into the inside of the hat. To make the beak, cut a rectangle shape out of the newspaper’s overlapping edges that make up the front you decided on.  The rectangle shape should be made by dedicating one of the length-wise sides to remain attached to the main body of the hat, and fold the two opposing edge corners back towards the hat body, creating triangular folds. Tape these triangles together and then to the front of the hat (use double-sided tape or loops of tape preferably to hide the attachment).
   

   Make the triangle folds out of the rectangle's corners and bring them together.

4. Paint the hat like a peacock’s head!  Reference the photo of the peacocks below.
   

   Two peacocks moving through a front yard.

5. Add on some iconic features of the peacock from the two separate pages you molded together.  Use the upper half of the conjoined pages to create the larger, bright green tail.
   

   The extravagant tail.

   Use the lower half to create the crest; after you paint these with embellishment and let it dry, tape them to the body of the hat to complete the look.

   

   Time for some fun!

Enjoy your excellent peacock hat!

Tell Your Friends’ Families to Strut Their Stuff!

Forget what Miss Manners once said and start encouraging your kids to talk while they eat (after they swallow, of course)!  Dinnertime is the perfect time to hear about their day, their opinions, and what’s going on in their little heads.  Get past the one word answers and make your kids give you a mouthful of conversation.  While getting to know your kids on a deeper level, you’ll also be giving them practice at thinking quickly, forming arguments and opinions, and expressing their thoughts.

Simple conversation starters will get the ball rolling and before you know it, your kids will be bringing a lot more to the table than hungry bellies.  Try some of these conversation starters or make up your own:

• What was the __________ (choose one: funniest . . . most surprising . . . most predictable . . . dullest) thing that happened to you today?
• If you were writing a newspaper article about your day, what would be the headline?
• Teach us one thing that you learned today that you think we don’t know yet.
• If you had one hour alone with the President of the U.S., what would you want to discuss or talk about?
• Which cartoon character would you most like to have as a next door neighbor?  Why?
• If you won the lottery (or won $100) what is the first thing you would buy?
• Imagine you had an identical twin; name three things that would be really great about having an identical twin and three things that would be “not so great.”
• Which fairy tale character would you most like to take a vacation with?  Why?
• If you were a plant and could be planted anywhere in the world, what kind of plant would you be?  Where would you like to be planted and grow?
• If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• If the sky suddenly started to rain candy, what candy would you want it to rain?
• If you were to take a time machine 50 years into the future, what do you think life will be like?  What will you do with your free time?  How do you think people will communicate or prepare food?
• What kind of car would you say you are most like?  If you could be any car, which one would you choose?
• If you could invite any famous person to your birthday party, who would it be?  Why?
• If you could create a national chain of restaurants designed for kids, what would you call it?  What kinds of food would you serve?  What would the theme of the restaurant be?
• If you had to choose one modern convenience, appliance, or technology that you just couldn’t live without, what would it be?
• What was the best birthday party you remember having?  Tell what you remember about it.
• Where will you be, and what do you think you will be doing in 10 -15 years?
• If you had a choice, would you rather live in the city or the country?  Why?
• If you could be a TV producer, what would be the name of your new show?  Who would you get to star in it?  What would your show be about?
• In the movie about your life, what actor would play you? Your best friend? Your family members?

Another way to get the table talk going is to play a little game.  President Obama plays a game with his family called “Roses and Thorns.”  Everyone takes a turn describing a good thing that happened that day (rose) and a low moment or tough problem they had to deal with (thorn) during the day.  Whatever the approach, set your dinner table with conversation to strengthen relationships and make memories to last a lifetime.

Tell Your Buddies to Set the Table!