Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network

Valentine’s Day Bingo Cards

Wendy Piersall — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:15:14 +0000

No Valentine’s Day party is complete without some fun and free Valentine games. Here’s the latest addition to our ever growing collection of printable bingo games. These games take quite a few hours to make, but they are so darn popular that I can’t help but put them together for you!

Related Pages: Valentine’s Day Mazes, Valentine’s Day Kids Poems, Valentine’s Day Templates

Check out all of our Valentine’s Day kids activities while you are here!

Love Coloring Pages

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:42:05 +0000

Since June is the month for weddings, we figured we should add a collection of love coloring pages! But these would be great Valentine coloring pages, too.

Love Coloring Page	Cartoon Hearts Coloring Page	Hearts in Love Coloring Page
Love Birds Coloring Page	Broken Cartoon Heart Coloring Page	L-O-V-E Coloring Page
Love Shout Out Coloring Page	Cartoon Heart Coloring Page	Heart Stamp Coloring Page
Cherub Heart Coloring Page	Puppy Love Coloring Page	Hugs and Kisses Coloring Page

Check out all of our Valentine’s Day activities and printables on the Woo! Jr. Network.

Valentine Mad Libs

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:39:55 +0000

Since our printable mad libs have always been so popular in the past, I’ve been determined to put up a set for each of the major-ish holidays. Here’s the latest group of Valentine mad libs for kids – though you could probably even put a few of these into the hands of much older mad libs lovers!

For more Valentine’s Day activities, check out these Valentine mailbox crafts, printable Valentine mazes, and these Valentine math worksheets!

Valentines Mad Lib - Cupid's Delivery

Valentines Mad Lib - Puppy Love

Valentines Mad Lib - Be Mine

Be sure to check out all of the Valentines activities for kids on our dedicated Valentine’s Day page!

Healthy Kid Snack: Fruit and Cheese Kebabs

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:14:24 +0000

We’ve been going through a bit of a shift when it comes to kids’ snacks at our house. We usually have a lot of cookies, cupcakes, and other sweets around; and the biggest reason is because I like making them with my little ones. Really, though, there is absolutely no reason we should be eating that much sugar! So, in the last week or two, I’ve been switching us over to healthier kids snacks. So far, it’s going really well, too!

Today we experimented with the idea of fruit and cheese kebabs (which I really, really want to spell as “kabob,” despite Spell Check’s insistence that I shouldn’t). We made a trip to the produce section of the grocery store and walked out with strawberries, grapes, and apples. Then to the dairy case for a couple of kinds of cheese. We went with cheddar and mozzarella because I have some other recipes in mind that use those two types.

What you need to make fruit and cheese kebabs:

One or two cheeses
Different types of fruit
Skewers
Small cookie cutters

A little fruit, a little cheese, and a couple of skewers!

We used small cookie cutters to make our cheese and apples into fun star shapes.

Cut your fruit and cheese into bite-sized pieces that kids can help put on the kebabs.

Alternate fruit and cheese on your skewer for healthy fruit kebabs that kids love to eat.

What I Learned the Hard Way: Your kid may be way more interested in just eating the fruit and cheese as you’re busy trying to make it look pretty. This is a good thing, though. It means she was actually enjoying a healthy snack!

Kids Winter Crafts

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:59 +0000

Winter is the most difficult time of year to live in Chicago. It seems to stretch on for an eternity – we’ve even gotten snow in May! So for days with a house full of kids with cabin fever, I need to be especially creative to keep them busy (and not hitting each other with remote controls). I’ve been enamored lately with my son’s Tony Hawk skateboard video game as a great way to keep them active while indoors. But my girls are more into crafts, so here is a great group of them for kids of all ages.

Preschool Winter Crafts


Preschool Penguin Craft	Rainbow Ice Winter Craft	Preschool Ice Skate Craft	Pinecone Birdfeeder Craft

Winter Crafts for Kids


Sock Puppet	Winter Igloo Craft	Glove Puppets	Lacy Ice Craft

Winter Crafts for Teens & Tweens


Make Fizzie Bath Balls	Felted Sweater Mittens	Easy Felted Slippers	No Sew Slipper Socks

Be sure to check out our awesome Valentine crafts, too!

Kid-Friendly Recipe: Buckeyes (aka Peanut Butter Balls)

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:08:46 +0000

Editor’s Note: If you have a child with a peanut allergy (like my son), you can replace the peanut butter in this recipe with “speculoos spread”, which is very similar in consistency, but made with cookies instead. You can find it under the name “Biscoff Spread” and it should be by the peanut butter section at your regular grocery store. Just note that you will probably have to decrease the amount of sugar you add in this recipe, because speculoos spread is already quite sweet.

I didn’t even know that some people called these candies peanut butter balls until recently. My whole life, I’ve known them as Buckeyes. I guess that’s not too surprising since they were my grandma’s specialty, and she was born in Ohio! Grandma’s Buckeyes were delicious, but they were a little intimidating. For one thing, you actually melted paraffin wax into the chocolate. What? I guess it made them shinier.

Luckily, I came upon this really simple recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They were so easy (and delicious) that my preschooler and I ended up making a couple of batches during the holiday season last year.

Related Pages: No Bake Cookies, Anise Cookie Recipes

What you need to make buckeyes:

1/2 cup peanut butter
3 Tbs. butter (softened)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Buckeyes (peanut butter balls) really only take four ingredients.

Mix the butter and peanut butter, then sift in the powdered sugar while continuing to mix.

Roll the mixture with your hands into 1" balls.

I started letting the peanut butter balls chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge to make the next part easier.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 20-second increments, pulling them out and stirring them before continuing to heat.

We used a whole bag of chocolate chips, and there was so much left over that we made a batch of chocolate spoons as gifts.

Insert a toothpick into each peanut butter ball and swirl it around in the chocolate until all but the center is covered. Gently shake of excess chocolate and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper to dry.

Chinese New Year Printable Craft: Dragon Animal Masks

Wendy Piersall — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:39:06 +0000

This paper dragon mask is one of the most popular posts on Animal Jr. It’s also one of my favorite posts, too! It goes well with these Chinese New Year coloring pages or our Dragon Coloring Pages.

Just click on the images below to bring up the full size printable masks. Use our special “Click to Print” button to block the rest of the page and only send the image to your printer.

Printable Dragon Mask

Printable Dragon Mask Coloring Page

Chinese Dragon Mask

Chinese Dragon Mask Coloring Page

You might also like our brand new printable dragon paper craft on Craft Jr.!

More Animal Masks

More Chinese New Year Activities

More Traditional Chinese Masks

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Wendy Piersall — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:22:08 +0000

Strangely enough, I drew this dragon craft last year, and never got around to putting it up. Since Chinese New Year is right around the corner, I dug it up, polished it off, and happily, here it is!

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

How to Make this Paper Dragon

This craft is so easy that a toddler can do it – they aren’t going to color with fancy-schmancy colored pencils or stay within the lines of course… But they can certainly handle it.

Chinese Dragon Paper Puppet

You will need an additional piece of construction paper to create the accordion dragon body, plus wooden kebab skewers to make it into a ‘puppet’, like this.

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Then simply click the above image to print out the dragon, color, and fold and glue as shown!

More Dragon Coloring Pages

Chinese Dragon Coloring Pages

Cartoon Dragon Coloring Pages

Celtic Dragon Coloring Pages

More Chinese New Year Printables

Printable Dragon Masks

Chinese Zodiac Coloring Pages

Printable Chinese Masks

New Years Coloring Pages: Funny Animals

Wendy Piersall — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:59:33 +0000

Wind down from the holidays with our New Years Coloring pages. These printable animals celebrating the new year are sure to keep your kids entertained and busy over Christmas break.

You may also like our Chinese New Year coloring pages and printables, too!

Rhino New Years Coloring Page

Monkey New Years Coloring Page

Lion New Years Coloring Page

Christmas Printables: Cartoon Reindeer Coloring Pages

Wendy Piersall — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:26:35 +0000

Grab these coloring pages of the perfect Christmas animal: Reindeer! We also have a whole bunch of other Christmas animal coloring pages. Print them out and keep the kids busy this December!

Reindeer Wreath Coloring Page	Beautiful Reindeer Coloring Page	Baby Reindeer Coloring Page
Silly Reindeer Coloring Page	Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Coloring Page	Santa and Rudolph Coloring Page

Plus, check out these personalized Santa letters, or all of the Christmas coloring pages, crafts and activities from Woo! Jr. Network sites!