Fun Cave Activities and Crafts for Kids

My theme for last week's MOMS Camp was all about CAVES! My kids are way into caves recently so I decided to make a whole week of activities based around them.  At first I felt kind of limited, but then I was surprised at how much I came up with and what a successful week it was!

Here is a list of fun activities and crafts we made during our cave week: 

- Naturally we made a giant cave in the living room out of blankets. We used an old baby gate (the kind that stands on it's own and makes a giant hexagon when linked together) to really add some space. It stayed up for a whole day and we had a blast laying in it to watch a movie; read books; and pretend to be bats, dinosaurs, bears, and even monsters. 

- Here is a fun and quick CRAFT we made that I found on Pinterest. You can make a mini cave out of a paper lunch sack. We used ours as a home for Molly's mini plastic dinosaurs, and later a tiny plush bear.

- We took TWO awesome trips this week!! First we went to the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska with my mom. We had visited before and knew all about their "Kingdom of the Night" exhibit, featuring bats and other cave-dwellers, as well as just nocturnal animals. That and a couple other exhibits featured areas that looked just like caves and the animals that lived in them! Seeing the bats - especially the Giant African Fruit Bat - was so amazing!

 

- Our second trip was to Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, MO.  It is the only ride-through cave in the U.S. so it was perfect for little feet that tire easily... and a little boy who is obsessed with trailers! Our tour guide was spectacular and the kids really loved being in a real cave. It was really neat to point out the different parts of the cave and formations that we had learned about from our books all week. My favorite part was when they turned of the lights and we got to be in absolute darkness: you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. According to our tour guide, if you stayed in absolute darkness for 30 days, you would go completely and permanently blind!! Luckily they turned the lights back on and our tour only lasted for about 50 minutes.

- We also acted out "We're Going On A Bear Hunt" which was really fun. I was happily surprised at how much my three year old really got into it! Here's what you do: sit on your knees and slap your legs gently with alternating hands to simulate walking as you chant/sing "We're going on a bear hunt/ We're gonna catch a big one/ We're not scared/ What a beautiful day!" Then you act like you come across something in your path: ie "Uh Oh! A river!" Then it's always the same: "We can't go over it. We can't go around it. Oh no! We'll have to go through it!" So then you pretend to swim and say something like "splashity splash! splashity splash! splashity splash!" .... so on and so on.. until you reach a cave and find a bear. He chases you and you have to QUICKLY go back through everything you passed again, doing the motions and sounds. Then you get home, slam the door, run upstairs, and hide under the covers. All while pretending and sitting on your knees. I remember playing this in preschool when I was little and was THRILLED to find a BOOK of it which we have read since Molly (age 6) was a baby. 

Strawberry Craft - Great For Fine Motor Skills!

We had a blast picking strawberries yesterday... and will be eating strawberries for days to come, I'm sure! If you've never gone to pick strawberries before, I highly recommend it! Since they're ready in late May, the weather is beautiful and it's not too buggy out! This was a fun activity for my kids, ages 3 and 6, myself, and my mom so all ages can do it! The place we went to was so clean and nice - I loved it! Check out Gieringers Orchard in Edgerton, KS. I can't wait to go back in July for blackberries, blueberries, and peaches too!

Later that afternoon, I came up with a fun craft for my kids to do - Giant Strawberries!  I did some prep work while my kids were playing: I cut out a giant strawberry shape and leaf shape from red and green card stock for my son (age 3), and drew out a pattern of those shapes on red and green card stock for my daughter (age 6) to cut out on her own. Then I gave them each strips of black construction paper to work with.

My daughter first cut out her giant strawberry shape and they both glued the leaves to the top.  Making the strawberry seeds was the fun part - and great practice for fine motor skills! Encourage your child to tear their strips of black construction paper into tiny seeds.  My son also practiced cutting with scissors (a great first cutting project!) to create his seeds.

Use regular glue to attach your seeds. This is a good time to practice using only small dots of glue on your strawberry instead of the typical huge globs that kids tend to make!

Right now these giant strawberries decorate my refrigerator, but you can also laminate them to use as fun summer place mats! (The strawberries were cut from sheets of 12x12 card stock.)

KC Outings for a Farm Theme

One theme we did for my MOMS Camp this summer was all about Farms! Now that it's past, I won't go into crazy detail about everything we did, but here is a list of things we did around town to give you some ideas!

Anyone in Johnson County will tell you to go to Deanna Rose Childrens Farmstead and I won't tell you any different! What a fun outing for many ages - we go several times each year when they're open from April 1st through October 31st. It is free on Monday - Thursday and then just $2 per person over 2 from Friday till Sunday. Deanna Rose has goats, sheep, chickens, ponies, ground hogs, a bison, a bald eagle, pigs, cows and more. They feature a twice daily milking demonstration, mining, pony rides, and fishing. My kids have always loved going and I highly recommend it!

We also visited the Overland Park Farmers Market which is surprisingly a favorite hot spot for my five year old! She loves to see all the fruits and vegetables that were grown on a real farm and of course she loves the fresh peaches. It's fun to let your kids choose a new vegetable, or an old favorite, that you can cook for them and they'll eat it because they picked it out! We planned to go on a day when they had a free kids' concert by Funky Mama. There's a small fountain you can play in, too so come prepared with towels and a change of clothes if you come when it's hot out!

A final place to visit for farm week is Wonderscope Children's Museum. This is an old elementary school in Shawnee that has been converted into a fun and educational, hands-on museum for kids. Each room is dedicated to a different theme and one of them has a mini farm and grocery store in it! You can harvest your veggies then sell them in the market. Just a side note here: this museum is pretty pricey and charges admission for adults too! It's pretty run down but my kids still really enjoy it when we go. They've had a Groupon to save on admission a couple times now, though, so be on the lookout to take advantage of that! ;O)

Books and KC Outings for a Neighborhood Theme

We had a whole week about Your Neighborhood for MOMS Camp and it was a blast! I chose that theme to fit a few projects I had in mind, but was so happy to find many fun ideas (besides a walk in our own neighborhood and regular errands like the bank and post office) all week long! As always we began our week with a trip to the library to pick up some books and DVDs I'd ordered ahead of time. We really loved the Elmo's World: People in my Neighborhood DVD  because it talked about police officers and firefighters, etc. Even Molly (5) watched it, even though she tried to tell me she was too old for Elmo! Here's a few of our favorite books from this week:

Welcome to My Neighborhood by Judith Casely
This is My Town by Mercer Mayer
On My Street by Eve Merriam

Our favorite outing this week was to the Kidscape exhibit at the Johnson County History Museum! It was free to visit and a great break from being outdoors in the summer heat. The exhibit has several little wooden stores (big enough for adults to walk through), creating a miniature town inside the museum. There's a doctor's office, library, store, theater, pretend fish pond, and my personal favorite room: CARS AND TRAINS! Everything was made so nice and it was kept up so well. My kids were not ready to leave when it was time to leave so I'm sure we'll be going back some day!

(I admit the wooden patient in the doctor's office was a little disturbing... but the kids didn't seem to notice anything accept the fun potential and educational value!)

If you haven't been to Antioch Park you definitely need to take your kids! They have three playground sets, one of which is brand new! They have great walking paths and two ponds... but for this week the important part was their play town! There are several wooden buildings (also large enough for adults to walk through) laid out like an old western town with signs painted on them like "Jail", "Town Hall", and "Hotel". Here's my poor, wrongly-accused children in the jail:

Lenexa Playgrounds!

One thing we've done all summer so far is visit playgrounds! Lenexa Parks and Recreation has created a great map of all their playgrounds you can pick up at the Lenexa Community Center for free. Each playground has a temporary sign with a letter and number on it, corresponding to a word puzzle on the map. If you can visit at least 24 playgrounds and complete the puzzle by September 28th you get a small prize and are entered to win a larger prize. Reading at writing these letters has been great practice for Molly (5) and it's excited to find the "secret code" wherever we go!

So far we've visited 14 different playgrounds - many of them ones we've never been to before! Some of them have turned out to be great discoveries that we will definitely go back to! Here are pictures and reviews of a few playgrounds we've been to so far. I have grand plans to review every one of them for you,but I might have to save that project for a rainy day!

 

 

A GREAT new playground but it was hard to find! It's built to look like real wood and trees stumps. Park in the back parking lot of the Flat Rock Creek public pool at 103rd and Noland Rd. There is a HIDDEN bridge behind a shed which takes you across to this shady playground. Not pictured is a bench and swings.Flat Rock Creek Park, located at 103rd street and Hauser.

Here is another shady spot, nestled right in a neighborhood - that is someone's house in the left side of the photo! It's a nice playground though, with a bench, swings, and a nice little sand box. Gillette Park, located at 9010 Gillette.

 This playground is better for younger kids like Ben (2). It would be in the shade each morning or evening but when we went around noon it was too hot to slide. They have a bench and a huge sandbox in good condition. Also a plus for Ben, it had a view of the not-too-close train tracks! Scouting Park, located at 94th and Haskins, behind the Lenexa Community Center parking lot.

 Although I didn't see us returning to this old little playground, Molly (5) has asked to go back to the igloo playground! This picture literally shows the whole thing, sans a bench and a tiny basketball court for big kids. Green Prairie Park located at 92nd Terrace and Cottonwood.

Both of the above playgrounds are part of the newer Buffalo Meadows Park, located at Prairie Star Parkway and Lone Elm Road. It is very sunny and very windy so the best time to visit is early morning or later in the evening. They do have nice restrooms, a walking path, large field, and covered picnic tables, though, so it's a really nice one. I love that they have a big kid playground AND a little kid one... though my kids ages 5 and 2 like to play on both anyway. Also gotta love how close it is to my parents' house!

Jungle Theme Outings around KC

Our second week of MOMS Camp was all about the Jungle! Truthfully, we didn't do very many crafts for that week but mainly because Molly (5) wasn't up for it. Believe me, though, I had plenty planned for us! I guess I'll save them for another day! Instead we did do several activities around town so I'll mention those just in case anyone around the Kansas City Area needs some ideas for outings with the kids!

On the first day, we visited the Matt Ross Community Center and headed to their Explorer Room.  This is an awesome 3-story jungle-themed playground with slides and tunnels... and it's FREE! For anybody. Just walk in. You don't have to be a member and you don't have to be a resident. Go in the doors and turn right. Now play. ;O)

We also spent a morning at the  Lenexa Community Center watching a puppet show called "Jungle Story!" There's another puppet show later in the summer so you haven't missed your only chance to catch one.

Finally, you can obviously you can head to the Kansas City Zoo, though we actually didn't go there this week! We went somewhere totally new (to us) called the Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory & Education Center in Louisburg, KS! This place was so neat! They have several large cats that have been rescued from unfit owners and smaller zoos that have gone out of business. The animals are well-cared for and close enough to really see them! The workers give personalized tours to each group that comes in; and though we discovered it isn't exactly stroller-friendly, there isn't too much walking for the little ones. My favorite cat there: a white tiger!! Molly's favorite? "The one with pointy hair on his ears!"