Children’s crafts

February 19 – Bird Feeding Day

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National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America picture book review

About the Holiday

Today we take time to remember our feathered friends who may have a difficult time finding food during the winter months. Hanging a bird feeder in your yard can bring many hours of entertainment and enjoyment as you get to know the birds in your area and see many of the same birds come back again and again—often with their little ones during the spring!

National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America

By Jonathan Alderfer

 

If you’re looking for a book to learn about the birds in your own backyard or across the country, it’s hard to beat the National Geographic Kids Bird Guide! The prominent birds from 10 habitats in North America are discussed in detail, with amazing close-up action photographs from some of the top nature photographers in the country. Major profiles of the most common birds in a region include information on basic facts, a map and the environment in which they’re found, the sounds they make, food they eat, body parts and what they are used for, nesting behavior, and fun trivia. Mini profiles highlight other birds seen in each area.

The Guide also includes instructions on many how-tos, such as making a bird feeder, making a bird bath, bird watching, building a nest, drawing birds, protecting birds and their environment, and more. There is also a glossary and a list of print and website resources for budding birders.

Ages 7 – 10

National Geographic Kids Books, 2013 | ISBN 978-1426310942

Bird Feeding Day Activity

CPB - Bird Feeder I (2)

Pinecone Birdfeeder

 

Making a pinecone bird feeder is a quick, fun way to nourish your backyard friends! Here are some simple directions for making your own!

Supplies

  • Large pinecone
  • Vegetable shortening
  • Birdseed
  • String
  • Knife or popsicle stick
  • Spoon
  • 2 Bowls

Directions

  1. Tie a length of string around one of the top layers of pinecone leaves and knot it to make a loop for hanging.
  2. Spoon about 1/3 cup of vegetable shorting into a bowl
  3. With the knife spread the shortening over the leaves of the pinecone, covering it completely.
  4. Pour birdseed into a bowl
  5. Roll the pinecone in the bowl of birdseed, patting seed into the crevices and around the sides.
  6. Hang your pinecone birdfeeder on a branch or pole and watch the birds enjoy it!

February 13 – World Radio Day

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CPB - Radio Man

About the Holiday

The radio has provided entertainment, news, comfort, and information and has united people both near and far ever since Guglielmo Marconi invented  it in 1895. Today, radio continues to be an important part of people’s lives around the world. February 13 was established as World Radio Day “to celebrate radio as a medium, improve international cooperation among broadcasters, and to encourage both major networks and community radio to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality across the airwaves.” This year’s UNESCO theme is “Radio in times of emergency and disaster” and highlights the crucial role of radio and its journalists in times of crisis.

Radio Man

By Arthur Dorros | Translated by Sandra Marulanda Dorros

 

“Radio man” is Diego, a boy in a family of migrant workers who pick fruit and vegetables from the Southwest to as far north as Washington state. Although his family moves frequently, Diego has close relationships with his parents, sister, grandparents, cousins, and especially a friend named David.

Throughout the story, as his family moves from town to town searching for work, Diego listens to the radio. Stations broadcasting in both English and Spanish keep the family company, and Diego measures the distance of upcoming towns along their route by the clarity of the DJs’ voices. The radio also provides entertainment for end-of-picking season parties among the workers and serves as a catalyst for the grandfather’s stories of growing up in Mexico.

While Diego’s family is close-knit, their nomadic lifestyle separates Diego from his best friend, David, who is also the son of migrant workers. As the story begins Diego and David are leaving Texas and know they won’t see each other for a while. As Diego travels to different towns, going to school during the day and picking crops in the afternoon, he meets up with his cousins and other friends, but he never finds David. Finally, in Sunnyside, Washington Station KMPO allows people to send messages to others. Diego calls in and sends a message: “Hello, David! This is Diego. Are you here?”

And David, listening to his own radio, is there! Seeing David’s smile, children will identify with the pleasure that communicating with friends brings.

Each page of Radio Man is presented in English and Spanish, translated by Sandra Marulanda Dorros. The landscape and farms of the American southwest, the festive celebrations, the reality of driving from town to town, and the tight relationships among family members are all vividly illustrated by Arthur Dorros, giving children a glimpse into the life of migrant workers as well as the heart of friendship.

Ages 4 – 8

Trophy Picture Books, 1997 | ISBN 978-0064434829

World Radio Day Activity

CPB - Radio Man box radios from side

Box Radio Desk Organizer

With a recycled box and the provided printable templates  you can make a desk organizer that looks like a radio with this fun craft!

Supplies

  • Cardboard box – Use an empty cube-shaped tissue box, pasta box, or any small box
  • Wooden chopstick
  • Printable Radio Face Template
  • Aluminum foil
  • Glue – a hot-glue gun works well on the cardboard; regular glue for the buttons and tape for the station tuner window
  • Paint – any color you like
  • Paint brush
  • Scissors

Directions

1. Prepare the box:

  • Choose a box to be your radio. In the pictures I used a cube-shaped tissue box and a penne pasta box with a cellophane window in it.
  • If you are using a box without an opening in the top, cut the top or bottom flaps off of one end of the box, depending on where you want the station tuner window to go.

2. Paint the box:

  • You can paint the printed front, back and sides of the box.
  • OR if you want a plain box to use “as-is” or to paint: take the recycled box apart at the seams and turn it “inside out.”
  • If you are using a pasta box with a window in it, tape the stations tuner template to the cellophane window before gluing the seams
  • Glue the original seam and flaps (a hot-glue gun works well). Let the glue dry. Then paint.

3. Let the box dry

4. Cut out the radio dials, speaker, and stations tuner window

5. Glue the parts of the radio to the box 

6. To make the antenna, wrap the wooden chopstick in a strip of aluminum foil: lay the stick on the foil and fold a foil flap (about 1 inch long) over each end of the stick. Roll the foil around the stick and press gently to close seam.

7. Attach the antenna to your box:

  • For pasta boxes tape the antenna to the inside corner of the box
  • For cube tissue boxes, make a hole in the right hand corner and push antenna in

8. Use your Radio Desk Organizer to hold pencils, rulers, bookmarks, anything!

February 12 – Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday

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CPB - I am Abraham Lincoln

About the Holiday

Today we celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday! Abe Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky and later worked as a riverboat worker, a shopkeeper, and a postmaster in Illinois before becoming the 16th President of the United States. With compassion, bravery, and strength, Lincoln shepherded the country through the Civil War and signed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery in the United States. Lincoln’s birthday is commemorated with wreath-laying ceremonies at his birthplace and at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

I am Abraham Lincoln

Written by Brad Meltzer / Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

 

In his I am… series of biographies, Brad Meltzer writes about famous people as they grow from childhood into the influential adults they became. In I am Abraham Lincoln, Meltzer illuminates various experiences of Lincoln’s life that formed his beliefs of equality and inclusiveness. At a time when most children liked to hunt, fish, and tend the farm, young Abe spent his time reading, and he was one of the few people in town who could write. Even at the age of 10, his compassion showed when he stopped a group of his peers from treating a turtle roughly. Later, as a young man and newcomer to Illinois, he faced a group of bullies and dispersed them without throwing a punch.

It was when he witnessed the indignities of a slave boat, however, that his most deeply held beliefs took hold. As President, Lincoln acted on those beliefs, helping the country through the Civil War, gave speeches, and signing laws that ensured all people would be treated equally.

By relating stories from Abraham Lincoln’s childhood, Meltzer not only teaches children about his life, but demonstrates that his young readers can also make a difference by speaking up and helping others whenever they see injustice.

Christopher Eliopoulos’s cartoon-like illustrations are particularly effective in showing the earnestness of Abraham Lincoln’s personality from early childhood on. Speech bubbles display dialogue, modeling the simple words that can so often create great change. Part of the book’s charm is that even as a child Lincoln sports his iconic beard and top hat, making him instantly recognizable as the hero children are familiar with and emphasizing the “man in the child” theme.

Ages 4 – 8

Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin Group, New York, 2014 | ISBN 978-0803740839

Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday Activities

CPB - Abe Lincoln's Top Hat chalkboard (2)

Abe Lincoln’s Top Hat Chalkboard

Abraham Lincoln was known for the black top hat he wore – and for his inspiring words In this activity you can learn how to make a top hat chalkboard to use for your own drawings or inspiring words!

Supplies

  • Cereal Box (I used a large sized cereal box), cardboard or poster board
  • Chalkboard Paint (black)
  • Paint brush
  • Hot Glue Gun or extra-strength glue
  • Removable mounting squares
  • Chalk

Directions

  1. If you are using cardboard or poster board: cut a rectangle at least 8 inches wide by 12 inches long for the hat and 12 inches long by 2 inches wide for the brim (but your top hat can be any size you’d like!)
  2. If you are using a Cereal Box: open the seams of the Cereal Box
  3. Cut the panels of the cereal box apart
  4. Take one face panel and one side panel
  5. With the chalkboard paint, paint both panels
  6. Let the panels dry
  7. Attach the side panel to the bottom of the face panel to create the shape of Lincoln’s top hat
  8. Hang Abe Lincoln’s Top Hat Chalkboard 

Donate to a Food Bank

Today can be a day to remember the hardships that many people still endure. Many still live with hunger every day. Today, gather a bag of non-perishable foods and donate them to your local food bank. This activity can also be done by a group—a classroom, scout troop, youth group, or group of friends. Even a little bit helps a lot!

 

February 10 – Library Lovers Day

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CPB - Jumping Off Library Shelves

About the Holiday

Today I’ve chosen to celebrate a month-long holiday. February is Library Lovers Month! Chances are if you’re reading this, you also love libraries! For readers there’s no better place than standing in the stacks, surrounded on all sides by shelves and shelves of books. In those pages you meet new friends, defeat the bad guys, discover poetry, laugh, sometimes cry, see astonishing art, find new hobbies, and learn fascinating facts about…wow! Anything and everything!

What’s your favorite library or thing about libraries? Mine is the East Lyme Public Library in Connecticut, where they have a fantastic selection of books and awesome librarians who feel like family! Tell me about your special library in the Comments section below.

Jumping Off Library Shelves: A Book of Poems

Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins | Illustrated by Jane Manning

 

From morning, which “pours spoons of sun through tall windows” of a library in Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s poem “Breakfast between the Shelves,” to night, when shadowed mice huddle to read a mystery in Dotlich’s closing poem “Midnight in a Library,” kids can enjoy a full day of poems in this delightful collection. Many of today’s best-loved poets for children are represented here, celebrating the power of a library card, the kindness of librarians, and the enchantment of reading.

Jane Manning’s soft, dreamy illustrations swirl with imagination, shimmer with the warm glow of a reading nook, and enchant with the smiles of children thrilled with the pleasures of reading.

Library Lovers Day Activity

CPB - Bookworm Book (2)

 

Bookworm Bookmark

For all you bookworms out there who love to read, here’s your very own Bookworm Bookmark to color and put between the pages of your favorite story!

Supplies

Directions

  1. Print out the Bookworm Bookmark template
  2. Color the bookworm
  3. Cut out the Bookworm
  4. Cut the Bookworm’s mouth at the dotted line. The top part of the bookworm’s mouth hangs over the page and marks your place!