Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network

Birthday Card Coloring Pages

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:13:51 +0000

Here is another set of new birthday printables – birthday cards to color and print! They are made with the same art from our free printable birthday bingo game, in case you are looking for coordinated stuff. These are made in two versions – one to simply fold in half to add your own message inside. The other is in a quad fold so that there is a printed message inside the card, with a space to add your own greeting as well.

Related Pages: Printable Birthday Bingo Cards, Birthday Coloring Pages, Printable Scavenger Hunt Lists

Printable Coloring Birthday Cards - Cute Zebra	Monster Birthday Card Coloring Page	Happy Bee-Day Birthday Card Coloring Page
Printable Kids Birthday Cards (Quad Fold) - Elephant	Printable Kids Birthday Cards (Quad Fold) - Bear	Printable Kids Birthday Cards (Quad Fold) - Tiger

Be sure to check out all of our birthday kids activities from the whole Woo! Jr. Network!

Printable Animal Mazes

Wendy Piersall — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:57:00 +0000

Today I discovered that drawing out mazes by hand is a real pain in the neck! But I’ve wanted a set of really cool animal maze printables for this site for a really long time… so I bit the bullet today and spent a few hours drawing up these. Fair warning, I think that these mazes are on the challenging side for kids – especially the grid mazes (that I got lost in while making them!). Check these out instead if you want easier mazes for kids.

More Animal Printables: Jungle Animal Bingo, Printable Animal Masks, Paper Dragon Craft

Giraffe Animal Maze	Elephant Animal Maze	Butterfly Animal Maze
Penguin Animal Maze	Alligator Animal Maze	Bunny Animal Maze

Check out all of our animal printables and animal coloring pages while you are here!

Fall Kids Poems to Print

Wendy Piersall — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:11:30 +0000

My pumpkin patch is overtaking my yard, the nights are getting cooler, and I am so ready for fall! It’s been a while since I’ve added new printable kids poems, so I’m happy to post these two new fall poems to print. Our kids poetry is written just for us, you won’t find these anywhere else!

Related Pages: Fall Mad Libs, Fall Leaf Crafts, Printable Dominoes for Fall

Fall Kids Poems - What Can You Do in the Fall?

Fall Kids Poems - Autumn Car Trip

Check out all of our fall kids activities from the Woo! Jr. Network!

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue Printables

Wendy Piersall — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:05:52 +0000

Last week Disney flew me out to their studios in California for a sneak peek at the brand new Tinker Bell movie – Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. I was with a tiny group of only 15 other moms, and the trip was truly unforgettable! Not only did we get a private screening of the movie, but we also got to meet the director, producer, art director and character animator. I even got to go onto their computer and animate Tinker Bell myself! I swear that ranks up there with being on the Today Show last year!

I have some more cool Tink content I’m going to post soon, but I found these printables on the Tinker Bell Facebook fan page, and wanted to share them with our Cartoon Jr. readers.

Related Pages: Tinker Bell Party Ideas, Evolution of Tinker Bell Pictures, Great Fairy Rescue Preview


Tinker Bell Bird Feeder Craft	Tinker Bell Printable Bookmarks	Tinker Bell Paper Flowers Craft	Tinker Bell Pinwheels Craft

You can pre-order the Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue DVD on Amazon – we did!

Watermelon Fruit Salsa Recipe

Wendy Piersall — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:34:07 +0000

Since our garden is overflowing with tomatoes right now, I wanted to come up with a recipe that would entice my kids to help me eat them. Normally they aren’t too into tomatoes, but they are huge fans of Mexican food. My husband and I came up with an amazing taco recipe, which I adapted into a nachos platter for dinner last night. Served up with this sweet watermelon salsa, my kids gobbled this meal up!

Related Pages: Healthy Pasta Recipe for Kids, Applesauce Recipes, more Summer Watermelon Recipes

Chips and Watermelon Salsa

Watermelon Salsa Ingredients

This is a mild and sweet salsa with a really fresh taste. I used onion and garlic powder to add flavor that wasn’t too overpowering for the kids. If I were to make it for adults, I would substitute fresh minced onion and garlic instead. If you have really juicy tomatoes, this salsa can get pretty watery because of the watermelon. So you may want to strain it just a bit when it’s completed. Putting watermelon in the recipe is a great ‘selling point’ – my youngest very picky eater was so curious that even she was willing to try it (to my absolute amazement!).

6-7 Medium tomatoes, diced (Preferably fresh from the garden!)

1/2 Banana pepper, finely diced (about 1 tbsp)

1 cup Watermelon, diced (Don’t squish it! Keep it a little chunky.)

1 Lime

1/2 tsp Onion salt

1/4 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tbsp Garlic powder

Dash of chili powder

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Red wine vinegar

Chopped parsley or cilantro to taste

Combine tomatoes, banana pepper, and watermelon in a medium mixing bowl. Microwave your lime – whole – for 30 seconds. This releases the juices amazingly well. Squeeze the lime juice into the bowl and try to get as much pulp into the mix as you can. I cut the pulp off with a knife. Add the parsley or cilantro and mix well with a spoon.

Sprinkle the rest of the dry seasoning ingredients and vinegar on top and again mix well. There’s no need to puree or mush the ingredients together – the watery tomatoes and watermelon take care of themselves. Like I said earlier, you may even need to strain it a bit.

While you can serve this immediately, it tastes even better if it can sit overnight in your fridge!

Check out all of our easy and kid-friendly recipes while you are here!

Hello Kitty Pumpkin Stencils

Wendy Piersall — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:41:59 +0000

I’m so excited for the Halloween season this year!! Last year, our server crashed thanks to our pumpkin stencils – this year I’ve upgraded the site and I’m adding more pumpkin patterns all the time! I saw a lot of people searching for Hello Kitty pumpkins last year, so this was the very first set I wanted to make for 2010.

A note about our cartoon pumpkin stencils: I draw them all myself, and they are – and always will be – free. If you see them anywhere else, please don’t pay for them! (Yes, it has happened in the past!).

Related Pages: Disney Pumpkins, Ni Hao Kai Lan Pumpkins, Hello Kitty Coloring Pages

Hello Kitty Pumpkin

Hello Kitty Round Pumpkin Stencil

Hello Kitty Halloween Pumpkin

Make your pumpkin carvings last longer by using our carving artificial pumpkins tutorial!

Owl Coloring Pages

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:10:36 +0000

I’m starting to get really excited about fall – this week I’ve been working on new fall content and it’s been so much fun to switch gears from summer stuff! Owls are definitely my favorite bird, and one of my favorite animals, too. These owl coloring pages for kids are great for both fall and Halloween coloring activities.

Related Pages: Owl Crafts, Halloween Coloring Pages, Fall Coloring Pages

Owl Coloring Pages	Hunting Owl Coloring Page	Night Owl Coloring Page
Owl Art Coloring Page	Realistic Owl and Baby Coloring Page	Wise Owl Coloring Page
Barn Owl Coloring Page	Flying Owl Coloring Page	Perched Owl Coloring Page

You might also want to check out our free Owl Pumpkin Stencil, too!

Easy Fall Paper Flowers Wreath Craft

Wendy Piersall — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:52:33 +0000

I keep saying that I can never seem to reconcile my sadness that summer is ending soon with my happiness that fall is starting soon. This fall wreath is the perfect in-between decoration for when you’re done with summer, but it’s too early to break out the Halloween stuff. Plus, this wreath craft is massively easy and fast. You can literally whip this thing up in less than an hour with the simplest of materials – tissue paper, ribbon, and a ready-made grapevine wreath form.

Related Pages: Fall Paper Crafts, Tissue Paper Flower Topiary, Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

Fall Wreath Craft

Fall Wreath Materials List

Black, green, yellow, orange and brown tissue paper

Wide ribbon (I used a green organza I got on Christmas clearance last year)

Floral or beading wire

Glue

8 inch grapevine wreath

Optional: Feather butterfly decoration (I got mine at the dollar store!).

Fall Wreath Craft Materials

How to Make this Fall Wreath Craft

You’re going to start by making 1 tissue paper tiger lily and 3 tissue paper black-eyed susan flowers.

Tissue Paper Tiger Lily Flower

Paper Tiger Lily Flower Parts

For the tiger lily, cut out two five-petal pieces of orange tissue paper, a 1.25 inch piece of brown tissue paper (or a brown paper bag works), a 1 inch piece of black tissue paper, and a 12 inch strip of green tissue paper.

Crumple and then uncrumple (a few times) the two small circles so that they look more natural.

Twist the strip of green tissue paper into a string-like appearance as shown. Break it into two pieces, they don’t need to be exactly the same length, but close.

Curl the petals of the orange flower very lightly as you would curling ribbon with scissors. Do this to both pieces, though only one is shown that way (so you can see the shape).

Now, score each orange petal with a fingernail or bone folder as shown – this gives it a remarkably tricky realistic appearance!

Making Paper Tiger Lily Petals

Layer the pieces as shown below, poking holes with your floral wire. You will need about 8-9 inches per flower.

Assembling the Tissue Paper Tiger Lily

Twist the wire like a twist tie on the back and this one is done!

Tissue Paper Black-Eyed Susan Flowers

Paper Black Eyed Susan Flower Parts

I know there isn’t any green stuff in the middle of a black-eyed susan. I just though it looked more polished this way!

For this tissue paper flower, cut three yellow circles about 2.5 inches in diameter, and tear off a 3 inch or so square of green and black tissue paper. Crumple up the black one tightly and the green one very loosely.

Clip the petals as shown into the three yellow circles (you can do this on all three at once, just make sure to rotate them when you assemble the flower to give it variation).

Layer the three yellow pieces and green piece together and attach them with another 8-9: piece of wire as you did with the tiger lily.

Assembling the Paper Flowers with Thin Wire

Leave off the black crumpled piece of tissue paper because it would be too hard to get the wire through it. Assemble it all, and then glue the black piece into the center instead.

Tissue Paper Black Eyed Susan Flower

Make two more for three total.

Attach the Tissue Paper Flowers

Attaching the Tissue Paper Flowers to the Wreath

Take the wire on the back of the flowers and attach them to the bottom of the grapevine wreath form. This is just like using a twist-tie (which also means you can reuse these parts in something else if you want to!). Put the tiger lily on one side and the three black-eyed susans next to it, tucking the wire ends into the grapevines so that they don’t poke out and hurt someone.

Fall Flower Wreaths Closeup

Add the Hanging Ribbon

Since my organza ribbon was too sheer to see with one layer, I double wrapped it around the top of the wreath. This was about a 7 or 8 foot length of ribbon.

Fall Wreath Bow Step 1

I then cut another 2.5 foot or so piece of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the top, gathering the ends of the longer piece.

Fall Wreath Bow Step 2

I had a little orange feather butterfly hanging around that seemed like the perfect addition to the top of the bow, so I just hot glued it in place. Plus it works well to cover up any bow-tying imperfections!

Fall Wreath Bow with Feather Butterfly Decoration

All done! Just go hang it somewhere where you can enjoy it!

More Fall Kids Crafts

Indian Corn Craft

Cute Yarn Apples

Splatter Paint Fall Tree

Fall Corn Color by Number

Printable Space Party Decorations

Wendy Piersall — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:53:31 +0000

I’ve always wanted to throw a space party for my son – he’s never been really interested *sniff*. So I’m going to live vicariously through your kids with these space party printable decorations! Though the Happy Birthday banner coordinates with the cupcake wrappers and cupcake toppers, you could really use it for any themed party.

Related Pages: Alien Coloring Pages, Astronaut Coloring Pages, Astronaut Costumes, Kids Space Crafts

Printer Settings Instructions

I suggest printing test pages first – all browsers have different print settings, and you want to make sure the sizes are right before you print 20+ of them. I recommend printing these pages at a true 100% setting, even if the printer driver says part of the image will be off the page. Don’t worry, it’s not the important part! It really doesn’t matter too much for the banner and cupcake toppers, but you do want to make sure your cupcake wrappers fit around your cupcakes!

Space Party Cupcake Toppers		Outer Space Cupcake Wrappers
Boys Happy Birthday Banner - Page 1	Boys Happy Birthday Banner - Page 2	Boys Happy Birthday Banner - Page 3
Boys Happy Birthday Banner - Page 4		Boys Happy Birthday Banner - Page 5

Need more printable birthday party decorations? Check out this animal party set or our pirate party set!

Civil War for Kids

Wendy Piersall — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:30:25 +0000

My dad is a big history buff, and used to love to take us to Civil War battlefields whenever we traveled in the South. Sadly, I think his good intentions were lost on us – but if we went back today, I’d take my own kids to some! As I was putting together a list of the most important people of the Civil War, I learned a few things myself. I didn’t know that the American Red Cross grew out of Clara Barton’s work as a war nurse, nor that Harriet Tubman single-handedly saved so many people in the Underground Railroad.

Related Pages: Black History Kids Poems, Amelia Earhart for Kids, Greek Mythology Worksheets

Learn About Abraham Lincoln

A new website has been created recently that I think is a fantastic learning tool about Abraham Lincoln. It is a database of the daily chronology of his life – on any given day of the year, you can find out what Abe Lincoln was doing between 1809 and1865, aptly named The Lincoln Log. For example, on today’s date – August 23, 1864, it states:

At a cabinet meeting, President Lincoln asks each member to sign “the back of a” memorandum. Lincoln does not reveal the contents of the document, which reads,”This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”

Not only is the information fascinating, but it will give kids a bit of a personal connection to one of our greatest presidents of all time!

Important Civil War People

There are so many (l-o-n-g) lists of famous people from the Civil War – but I wanted to make it a little simpler for kids. So I chose 12 diverse important people to feature on these printable Civil War fact cards.

These same people facts are repeated in the crossword puzzle worksheet below, which will make them good study tools that work together.

Civil War Generals and Presidents

Civil War Important African Americans and Women

Civil War Generals and Criminals

Civil War Worksheets

Here’s a Confederate states word search, major Civil War battles word scramble, and influential Civil War people crossword puzzle.

Civil War Word Search	Civil War Crossword Puzzle	Civil War Battles Worksheet Answer Key
Civil War Word Search Answer Key	Civil War Crossword Puzzle Answer Key	Civil War Battles Worksheet