There is a billboard in front of the movie theatre on Main and one in front of the Hall of Fame! Have your child take a photo of anything they find interesting and put it on the billboard for them to see whenever they enter JumpStart!

Movie Theater and Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame Billboard

Drag pictures on the left to place them on the billboard!

Storyland

A lot of the various lands within JumpStart also have billboards that you can personalize! Storyland has the most with a few in each of the subsections. In Storyland, children have the option to color a picture or use one from their camera for decorating their billboard! There are a bunch of different tools in the art studio for coloring a picture from adding texture or adding text. Anything your child does will make his or her billboard fantastic! Check this one out!

Choose from a bunch of different pictures to color!

Color a picture and beautify your billboard!

Adventureland and Marineland

Adventureland and Marineland both have billboards as well! You can even take a photo, and decorate a frame for it and then display its beauty on the billboard. Check out the picture we took of Frankie in Adventureland!

Frankie is a star!

We bet your children might find it cool to take some underwater pictures in Marineland too, so head on to Merllywood to place them on the billboard-walk of fame! Have fun finding and decorating all the billboards to really personalize your world!

Tell your friends about decorating their JumpStart world!

What a pretty shirt!

If figure skating is your sport of choice, try this stylish top on for size. The bear on the front is wearing an awfully cute tutu! This isn’t your only option, though…

I hope his “bear” feet aren’t cold on the slopes!

Just in case snow sports are more your thing, you can also show off this trendy shirt to all your buddies. But wait! There’s more…

Wow! He won gold!

If you can’t wait to celebrate your favorite country’s successes at the Games, then this shirt is the one for you. Our Winter competition bear tops the medals podium on this chic top. Check out the Threadz store for more of these contest-inspired offerings.

If you’d like to add some of your own creativity to the mix, try different combinations of clothes to make your own championship outfits. For example, you can be a figure skater…

Nice outfit!

Or you can dress up to emulate your favorite hockey player!

He looks ready for action!

Whichever option you choose, your Jumpee is sure to look fantastic! What’s your favorite Winter Sport or outfit?

Share These Winter Games Fashions with your Friends

Our first featured slide is in StoryLand. This one’s easy to find – just enter StoryLand and click on the gate with the picture of the slide on top.

Just click on the gate to get sliding!

Check out the cute animals on your way by.

Our next featured slide is actually a pair of slides! You’ve probably noticed the blue and orange slides in JumpStart’s DownTown. To get up to the top, just step on the jump pad by the brick wall near the Petz shop.

This Jumpee is psyched to step on that jump pad and get to the slides!

The blue slide provides a great view of DownTown…

The orange slide will take you through the hills and to the shore!

Our final featured slide is special – it’s a water slide! You’ll find it in the Caverns in MarineLand.

No need to worry about that Punk Punk – he’s made of stone!

Water sliding is so much fun!

Trying out the slides is a great way to find little pieces of JumpStart you’ve never discovered before. What’s your favorite slide on JumpStart.com?

Tell Your Friends About the Slides at JumpStart

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!

How will a Jumpee throw a party?

To get the festivities started, a Jumpee first will need to purchase party time. Just like a real life party, it will cost some moola to be a party host. But at 30 JumpStart coins for a 30 minute party, Jumpeez are sure to get a lot of bang for their coin. To purchase, enter the stores menu (by clicking the shopping bag in the top, right-hand corner of the display, next to the JS coin counter) and select the Neighborhood Party Store (on the second page with the balloons, confetti, and streamers). After selecting the party time and hitting “buy”, the party will be immediately set up in the Jumpee’s neighborhood and advertised on the Neighborhood Party billboard. No party planner necessary!

Party's all set up. Cool.

How will a Jumpee find a party?

To join in on someone else’s celebration, a Jumpee can simply click on one of the Neighborhood Party billboards located throughout the world, near the neighborhood entrances. These billboards will show all of the current parties, display their hosts, and let Jumpeez hop into the fun! After selecting a party and clicking the “Visit the Neighborhood” icon at the bottom right, the Jumpee will be transported to the partying neighborhood to offer his or her best wishes!

The Party Finder System

What will the parties be like?

No shortage of color or fun at a Neighborhood Party!

Once at a party, a Jumpee will be to be drenched in colorful confetti, balloons will be floating from the lampposts, and multicolored flag banners will encircle the neighborhood’s street!  These parties are the perfect opportunity for Jumpeez to get a bunch of friends together and have a lot of fun in the JumpStart universe!

Spread the Word About These Neighborhood Parties!

Poor Frosty…this jolly soul, made out of snow, laughs and plays with the children, until he melts away and has to say goodbye. So sad! Well, this snowman craft will make your children smile and laugh, and we can guarantee that this Frosty won’t melt away once winter is over!

Perma-Frosty

Flower Pot Snowman

You will need:

• Medium-sized flower pot
• Medium-sized wooden or styrofoam ball
• Small piece of ribbon
• Green and red colored felt
• Old mittens or old socks that you can cut up (preferably fun-colored ones)
• 2 buttons
• Black, orange, and pink markers
• White paint
• Googley eyes
• Glue

Directions:

1. Paint the outside of the flower pot and the Styrofoam or wooden ball white. You may need 2 or 3 layers, so allow the first layer to dry, then paint the next layer after.


Layer the paint as needed.

2. Once dry, flip the pot over and glue the ball onto the bottom of the pot.
3. Take the felt scraps and cut a piece about 4 inches in length and 3 inches in height. Glue the felt around the top of the ball to give the snowman a little hat. Gather the felt at the top and tie with the ribbon.


Place the felt and gather it to create a hat.

4. Glue the two buttons onto the body of the snowman.
5. Cut the old sock or mitten into a mini snowman scarf, or, if you have a few pipe cleaners handy, you can simply twist these to form the scarf, as shown here. It needs to be about 5 inches in length and about an inch in width. Wrap it around the neck of the snowman and securely glue it.


Besides, scarves are en vogue.

6. Once all the glue is dry, stick on the wiggly eyes, make a dotted smile for the mouth, an orange carrot nose, and add some pink circles for the cheeks.

Completed with style.

You’re done! The flower pot snowman will surely conjure up some holiday joy and bring Frosty back to life!

The Flower Pot Snowman draws a respected crowd.

Throw the Flower Pot Snowman your friends’ way!

Eyeball Bounce

You will need:

• 6+ Ping pong balls
• Black, green, blue, brown, and red markers
• 12 disposable cups

The Blue Team is going to be shooting with a piece of art.

Instructions:

1. Before the party begins, make eye balls with colorful irises out of the ping pong balls, one for each participant.
2. Split the kids up into teams of 2 or 3 and give them the same-colored eye, so they know they are on the same team.
3. On a hard surface (preferably a wood floor), line up four cups.
4. On the first cup write 10; write 20 on the second. Write 50 on the third cup and 100 on the one farthest away. Make separate stations for each team.
5. Have the kids and their team line up about 10 feet from the cups.
6. Have them take turns bouncing the eyes, in hopes that it lands in a cup.
7. For every shot made, add the score and determine what eye color is the winner!

Mummy Wrap

You will need:

• 3 rolls of toilet paper per team

Instructions:

1. Have pairs wrap each other in toilet paper until one teammate is covered and both rolls are used up.
2. Race to the finish!
3. OR- To make it more difficult, place the toilet paper far away from the mummy wrappers, now in teams of 3 or 4.
4. When the first mummy is wrapped, have them hop to retrieve the second roll and bring it to the third person, who has to wrap the next person.
5. After he or she is wrapped, they have to hop to retrieve the next roll of toilet paper, trying to not break their own wrapping.

Tell Others about these Neat Party Ideas

Does your little explorer know that there are all sorts of secret portals hidden around JumpStart.com? No? Well, it’s a good thing you stopped by this here blog!

Want to visit the top of the balloon by the moon?

Care to see the view from the tree in the distance?

If your kids can find JumpStart’s secret portals, they’ll be able to visit these sky-high destinations and more!  So here’s the challenge: tell your kids to check around every corner, behind every rock, and on every rooftop and see what JumpStart is hiding. If they happen to spot a swirling black spot in the ground, chances are you’ve got a true explorer on your hands! Good luck!

Tip: Have you stopped by the lighthouse rooftop recently?

To start off it is important to know why pennies get their gloomy color with age. The copper atoms that are found in pennies are attracted to the oxygen atoms that are found in the air we breathe. When these two kinds of atoms combine, they form copper oxide. Pennies look dirty and dark because they are covered with copper oxide. Now that you know this, you can learn how to get rid of that copper oxide and show off your shiny new looking pennies!

What you need:

• 15 to 20 dirty pennies
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Spoon
• A non metal bowl (usually a clear shallow one will work best so you can see the reaction)
• Paper towels

1. First, put the salt and vinegar into the bowl. Stir it with the spoon until all of the salt dissolves.
2. Put all of your pennies in the bowl. Leave them for five minutes. Have your child watch the pennies as they go in and talk about what the reaction looks like.
3. Now take half of your pennies out and place them on a paper towel.
4. With the second half of pennies that are still in the bowl, take them out and rinse them off well in the sink. Then place them on a separate paper towel from your first half of pennies. Make sure to note that these are the rinsed ones!
5. Wait 45 minutes to an hour and check back on the two piles. Have your child describe the differences between the two and try and guess what happened. Have them make their penny cleaning hypothesis!

Why do the piles look different?

You might have noticed that the rinsed pennies are a lot shinier than their non rinsed friends. This is because when the vinegar and salt dissolve the original copper oxide, they make it easier for the copper atoms to once again join with the oxygen in the air and the chlorine found in the salt. The chemical reaction with copper oxide begins to happen once again if the pennies are not rinsed with water. However, when the pennies are rinsed, it prevents this reaction from happening so quickly, leaving you with beautiful copper pennies!

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Fall Wreath

What you will need:

• A few pieces of colored paper (green, yellow, orange, red, brown)
• A black marker
• Scissors
• A paper plate (any size but not too small)
• A glue stick

1. First, cut the center of your paper plate out. Don’t worry no need to be perfect!

 



2. On your colored sheets of paper, draw different shaped leaves. To get an idea of what kinds of leaves to draw, take your child on a nature walk and try to find as many leaves as you can. When you get back, try to recreate the shapes of the leaves on your colored paper.

 

3. Cut the leaves out.

 

4. With your black marker, draw the veins of the leaf on your paper cutouts. Here is what your cutouts should somewhat look like:

 



Feel free to get creative!

 

5. Now that you have your leaf cut outs, use your glue stick to put a little bit of glue on the backs of them, one at a time. Stick each leaf onto the paper plate like below:

 



 

6. Continue sticking the leaves all around the edge of the plate until it is completely covered. You have now made yourself a beautiful fall leaf wreath to hang in your house and enjoy!

We also think it makes a cool goofy hat.....haha

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