Homemade Playtime
SHAKE-ME SOFT BLOCKS
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Materials
colorful fabric
fiberfill
small plastic container (plastic egg or toy capsule from vending machine)
bells or dried rice or beans
fabric glue and electrical tape
needle and thread
Cut six 51⁄2" squares of fabric for each block that you want to make. Then cut out letter or number shapes (using a stencil if you wish).
Glue or sew the letters and numbers onto a few of the fabric squares. Then place a few beans, bells, or rice grains in the small plastic container and seal it with tape.
Sew together two squares along one side. Continue to make a strip of four squares, connect them to form a tube, and then sew another square on as the bottom to make a box shape with an open top. Flip the box inside out and fill it with fiberfill and the plastic container.
Sew the final square on top.
PULL-ALONG TOY WAGON
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Materials
1 sturdy shirt box
1 sturdy shoe box
colorful paint and buttons
tape and glue
rope, string, or ribbon
2 wooden dowels
4 wooden wheel shapes (available at craft store)
Paint shoe box, shirt box, dowels, and wheels as desired, allow to dry, and decorate with buttons, stickers, etc.
Punch five holes in the shirt box-one in the front and two on each side.
Tie a length of rope, string, or ribbon through the hole in the front with which you can pull the wagon later. Attach the boxes using glue.
Cut the dowels so they are each 5 inches longer than the width of the bottom box. Insert one through each set of holes and glue the wheels on.
Embellish the wheels using buttons or beads as hubcaps.
PUFFY DOMINOES
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Materials
air-dry clay (we used colorful Crayola Model Magic)
ruler
butter knife
scrapbooking brads in assorted colors (available at craft stores)
glue
Roll clay into a snake shape about 12" long. Flatten it with a ruler into a long rectangle about 1⁄2" tall by 3⁄4" wide.
Cut the clay strip with a butter knife into four 3" pieces. Repeat to make a total of 28 pieces.
Make an indent to show the halfway mark in each domino using the butter knife. Then make dots on each domino by inserting the craft brads (dip the end of each in glue first). You can find an image of a complete set of dominoes on Wikipedia.org (search "dominoes") that you can model your dot patterns after.
