Showing posts with label puzzles and games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puzzles and games. Show all posts

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Backward Kiddy Kar Race

        This race is much funnier if there are only a few contestants. There should be only two teams, with two on a team, the first one on each team being provided with a kiddy kar. These first two riders are asked to turn their cars around so that they are facing away from the goal, and then sit on their cars with their backs to the goal. When the starting signal is given, they start racing to the goal, backwards. When they reach this goal they are to return to the starting point, going backwards of course, and give up their kiddy kars to the second members of their teams. These second victims run the race in the same inverted order.

Hobby Horse Race

        There are seldom more than two players on a team, that being sufficient ! The first one of each team is supplied with a hobby-horse. When the signal is given, these riders start riding their horses to the goal. If they ever reach it, they are to return and give their horses to the other member of their team. Experience proves that most second riders never get a chance to ride, for too many first riders fall by the wayside!


Hobby Horse Cup 

Nose Push Race

        If contestants in this race are expected to look respectable for the rest of the party, a sheet should be provided for the race-course. There are not more than three contestants, each one of them being provided with a peanut, and, we hope, a long and practical nose. Contestants are asked to kneel at one end of the sheet, put their peanuts on the sheet before them, and when the signal is given, to push the peanuts to the other end of the sheet and back, using their noses as the pushers, their hands being clasped behind them.
       The winner is not the only one who deserves a prize in this contest!

The Pea Pushing Race - A big nose helps!

Siamese Twins Race

        Children are paired off into couples, the two members of a team having their backs to each other, with their hands joined at the side. One of them is facing the goal. At the signal, all teams start racing to the goal and return, their method of locomotion being anything they choose. Usually they try to run, but they soon get over that foolishness, and finally discover that the best and safest means of getting there is to hop, both members of a team hopping at the same time. The relay plan may be used.
       There is no prize good enough for the winners of this race!

Relay Races

        In several cases a suggestion is made to the effect that the relay plan may be used. When this is used, all the children are divided into groups of equal size, members of a group standing in lines or columns or couples, as the case demands. When either the first runner or the first couple has run the course, the second contestants are touched off, and then the third and fourth, and so on until all members of a team have run the race. The team whose last runner or couple first finishes the required stunt, gets the prize as the winning team.
       Relay races are particularly good for large groups, for a great many children can take part in a race which requires comparatively little space.

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Find the fox puzzle...

Find the fox before he eats the gingerbread boy.

The Gingerbread Boy
Puzzle-Find The Fox
by Helen Hudson


The little old woman, and little old man
Follow Gingerbread Boy as fast as they can,
But he quickly eludes them as onward he hurries;
And cat, dog and pig and a hen hen then worries.

But alas, for our boastful and bold little friend!
With wiley old fox he soon meets his end!
If with your sharp eyes you search over this sheet
Old Reynard himself you will very soon meet.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

Heidi's Puzzle

Find the Goat Peter hidden in the mountain pasture.
 

Find the Goat Peter Puzzle
by Helen Hudson

Happy little Heidi
With her flowers fair
Revels in her freedom
And sweet mountain air.

Faithful goat-heard Peter
Now is watching near;
If you search this picture
You will see him - here.

More About Heidi:

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Find The Fish Puzzle

Puzzle - Find The Fish

Find The Fish
by Helen Hudson


A Joyful day it is for us,
Tommy and Richard and me,
For our friend Bill Jones is taking us
Where the biggest fish may be.

If it should be our luck to catch
The fish Bill tells about,
I really do not see quite how
We'd ever haul him out!

Find Columbia Puzzle

Puzzle - Find Columbia

Columbia
by Helen Hudson


We're very patriotic
As you can plainly see.
This birthday of our country
We celebrate with glee.

Columbia guides our footsteps
And, where her path may go,
We'll march along right valiantly
Though mighty be the foe!

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Thirty Feet! How Many Do You Know?


       Just as a good shoemaker makes shoes to fit the feet, nature make feet to fit the needs of each individual animal. How many of these feet could you name? They are, from left to right, top to bottom: Horse, Elephant, Eagle, Ostrich, Camel; second row - Chimpanzee, Tiger, Duck, Water Shrew, Lizard, Tiger, Beetle; third row - Sloth, Bear, Locust, Flamingo, Duck-billed Platypus, Crab: fourth row- Peccary, Garden Spider, Giraffe, Frog, Armadillo, Ox; and fifth row- Kangaroo, Box Turtle, Squirrel, Iguana, Harvest Mouse, and Gecko.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Whose Eyes Are These?

       Teachers or parents may print out the animal eye chart to quiz their kids about whose eyes are these. Here are the answers:
  1. Eye of Solitary Frog
  2. "stalk eye" of Crab
  3. Eye of the Toad
  4. Whirligig Beetle Eyes
  5. The Chameleon's Eye
  6. Eyes of the Snail on Stalks
  7. Cat's Eye
  8. Moth's Eye
  9. Eye of A Dog
  10. Spider Eyes
  11. Eagle's Eye
  12. Grasshopper's Eye
  13. Sheep's Eye
  14. Eye of the Fly
  15. The Cow's Eye
Numbers 4, 8, 12, and 14 are all compound eyes!

Take the Nature Check Animal Eye Quiz!
and visit them to play more animal games.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Working With Pattern Blocks

Above are traditional wooden versions of Pattern Blocks. There are educational, toy companies that now manufacture
Pattern Blocks in plastic. If you can not afford either of these, you may cut out your own templates from paper.
        Pattern Blocks are one of the mathematical manipulatives developed in the 1960s by an Education Development Center as part of their Elementary Science Study project. They allow children to see how shapes can be decomposed into other shapes, and introduce children to ideas of tilings.

The Pattern Blocks includes multiple copies of six shapes in the following colors:
  • Equilateral triangles are green. In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides are equal. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, equilateral triangles are also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each other and are each 60°. They are regular polygons, and can therefore also be referred to as regular triangles.
  • Rhombus tiles that can be matched with two of the green triangles are blue. In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus(◊) (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards which resembles the projection of an octahedral diamond, or a lozenge, though the former sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 60° angle (see Polyiamond), and the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle. Every rhombus is a parallelogram and a kite. A rhombus with right angles is a square.
  • Trapezoid that can be matched with three of the green triangles are red. In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid (/ˈtræpəzɔɪd/) in American and Canadian English but as a trapezium (/trəˈpziəm/) in English outside North America. The parallel sides are called the bases of the trapezoid and the other two sides are called the legs or the lateral sides (if they are not parallel; otherwise there are two pairs of bases).
  • Hexagon that can be matched with six of the green triangles are yellow. In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek ἕξ hex, "six" and γωνία, gonía, "corner, angle") is a six sided polygon or 6-gon. The total of the internal angles of any hexagon is 720°
  • Squares with the same side-length as the green triangle are orange. In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, or (100-gradian angles or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle in which two adjacent sides have equal length.
  • Narrow rhombus with a 30° angle and the same side-length as the green triangle are white or beige.
       My patterns come with both questions and activities so that classroom teachers or homeschooling parents may use either a lap top or a desk-top computer center for creating interactive learning experiences for students reading this blog in specific:
  1. Set up a learning center using a computer, laptop or tablet with access to https://thriftyscissors.blogspot.com pages only. The content must not be transferred to an alternative web location.
  2. Provide a couple of sets of Pattern Blocks for each work space and paper with writing tools as well. 
  3. Pick and choose the questions or actions that you want your students to answer or manipulate according to their age/abilities.
  4. To enlarge the images, simple click on the image and you will be able to see a larger version on a dark background.
       If your students can not yet read, simply have them configure the same design in front of themselves with Pattern Blocks on a table or desk. Students can do this activity by themselves or in a group at a large table. This activity helps develop Pre-Math Skills: problem solving, patterning, estimation, sense of space, representation (symbolism) and number sense.
Manipulate More Shapes Using Pattern Block Games:
    Repeat Patterns Using Pattern Blocks:
    Try My Figurative Designs For Pattern Blocks: Plus questions and activities...
    1. two kissing fish
    2. flower garden
    3. a super hero shield
    4. a scarecrow
    5. the court jester 
    6. a simple Christmas tree
    7. a Christmas tree with a star
    8. a red bird pull toy
    9. hot air balloon
    10. a red stocking with a green patch
    11. a Christmas wreath
    12. St. Nickolas
    13. baby Jesus in a manger
    14. poinsettia in a planter
    15. a praying angel
    16. a soccer ball
    17. a cluster of grapes
    18. a water lily

           The photographs located here are the copyrighted property of kathy grimm. Do not upload them onto your personal blogs or webpages for this reason. Give a link to the collection only, if you are referencing the collection.
           Also, do not alter the photographs in any way. Altering photos from this web journal will get you into a heap of trouble with the law. These photos are not included here for the purpose of creating a new collection or a duplicate one on an alternative web site. Copyrighted works must be altered in such a way as to render them "unrecognizable content" in order for the material to be reproduced without censure. In other words, you must make your own unique content from the very beginning, in order to keep copyright law.
           Educators, parents, and social workers from any country may use the photographs for hard copy within the context of a classroom environment only. The photographs should never be reproduced for sale. I have not authorized any person to charge money for profits from these photographs. They are intended for children to learn from freely but not for republishing on third party websites or printing out to sell for monetary gain!
     
    More Pattern Block Templates, Mats, and Designs:
    Research more about the history of Pattern Blocks:
    Where to purchase Pattern Blocks:

    Wednesday, July 26, 2017

    DIY Apple Card Games for Early Learners

    Alphabet Apple Cards made from die cuts.
    The alphabet apple cards, just right, are made from die cut apples and precut alphabet letters.

    Alphabet Apple Card Questions:
    • Spell out simple sight words like: GO, MY, ME, AT, TO, BE, NO, YES
    • Put the alphabet cards in order and recite the letters out loud.
    • Find a specific letter or remove a specific letter.
    • Identify the vowel letters?
    • Which letter is at the beginning of your name?
    • Pick out a letter and make it's sound. 
    • How many letters are in the alphabet? Count them to find out.
    The Seriation Apple Cards: are cut from red construction paper and shaded with crayons or colored pencils. Young students can line these apples up, starting with the smallest apple and ending with the largest, or vice versa. 
    Homemade Seriation Apple Cards.
    The Whole & Half Apple Card Set: For this next apple card set, cut four of each design: four cut apples of yellow, lime green, dark green and bright red and then four uncut apples of yellow, lime green, dark green and bright red. There should be thirty-two cards altogether.

    Questions for this card game:
    • Match the pairs, each pair should share the same color and include one cut half apple and one whole apple
    • Display four apples, three alike and one different. Which apple doesn't belong?
    • Display five or six cards and ask the child to identify specific colors, specific cut halves, or whole apples.
    • Spread out all the cards face up and ask the child to make a book, four matching cards exactly alike.
    • Spread all the cards face down in the pattern of a grid and have the children take turns turning two cards face up. If the two cards each player turns face up match they can take the matching pair and put it into their own personal stack. If the two cards do not match, the player must return them face down to the grid. The player with the most pairs by the end of the game wins. Players must turn cards over until none are left in the grid.
    Pictures of the Whole & Half Apple Card set. Far left, Match the pairs., Next, count the red apples.,
    Center, make a book., Far Right, Which apple doesn't belong.
    More Apple Games: 

    Thursday, July 28, 2016

    Five Dots Drawing Game

          All children who like drawing seem to enjoy this game. Take a piece of paper and make five dots on it, wherever you like--scattered about far apart, close together (but not too close), or even in a straight line. The other player's task is to fit in a drawing of a person with one of these dots at his head, two hat his hands, and two at his feet, as in the examples below.

    Examples of "Five Dots" Drawing Game.

    Sunday, November 17, 2013

    "Cinderella" at Thrifty Scissors

    Visit the Thrifty Scissors Today! Pin this image
    only please.
           Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper, (French: Cendrillon, ou La petite Pantoufle de Verre, Italian: Cenerentola, German: Aschenputtel) is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune. The oldest documented version comes from China, and the oldest European version from Italy. The most popular version was first published by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697, and later by the Brothers Grimm in their folk tale collection Grimms' Fairy Tales.
           Although both the story's title and the character's name change in different languages, in English-language folklore "Cinderella" is the archetypal name. The word "cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. The still-popular story of "Cinderella" continues to influence popular culture internationally, lending plot elements, allusions, and tropes to a wide variety of media. Read more . . .
           The coloring pages below are based upon a very old European fairy tale version of Cinderella called, "The Little Glass Slipper." I have redrawn and resized them for printing and coloring. Teachers and homeschoolers may print unlimited copies of these particular images for their classroom activities.

    In this coloring page Cinderella's step-mother made her do all the hard work
    of the house; scrub the floor, polish the grates, wait at the table,
    and wash up the plates and dishes.
    You can color the picture of the day, Cinderella's two step-sisters received an invitation
     to a ball that was to be given at the palace of the King, in honor of his son
     the Prince, who had just come of age. An invitation to this ball being a great honor,
    the sisters were in high glee, and at once began making ready to appear there in
     grand style.
    This coloring page shows that Cinderella soon dried her tears; and when her godmother said,
    "Fetch me a pumpkin," she ran and got the largest she could find.
    This coloring page shows that there was a great stir at the palace when the splendid carriage
    was driven up, and Cinderella alighted. The Lord High Chamberlain himself escorted
     her to the ball-room, and introduced her to the Prince, who at once
    claimed her hand for the next dance. Cinderella was in a whirl of delight,
    and the hours flew all too fast.
    Color Cinderella as she jumps up from her seat by the side of the Prince, rushes across
    the room, and flies down stairs, at the stroke of midnight.
    In this coloring page, the King's son decides he will marry the lady who is able to wear the glass slipper which was dropped
    at the late ball at the royal palace.
    This coloring page illustrates Cinderella consenting to become the prince's wife. Their wedding soon took place, the festivities attending it being the most splendid that had ever been seen in the kingdom.

    More Cinderella Coloring Pages:
    More "Cinderella Stories" Online:
    Cinderella in Ads:
    Modern Versions of "Cinderella" movie trailers:
    Cinderella Web Pages:

    Print and cut-out the mystery jigsaw to find out who is pictured.

    Sunday, October 20, 2013

    Feelings Faces Game for Halloween

          My little Jack-O-Lanterns are full of all kinds of emotions! Teachers will need to print two copies each of every sheet attached to the post below in order to play this Halloween matching game with their class.
          For younger students turn the cards face up on a carpet or table so that all of the emotions can be seen. Now ask each player taking a turn to match up one Jack-O-Lantern with it's twin and then talk about "how" the Jack-O-Lanterns are feeling. Ask the student about the incidents that make him or her feel angry, disappointed, frightened, sad, happy, excited or anxious etc...
          If your students are a bit older, in 1rst or 2nd grade, turn the cards face down during the game so that your students must also identify the matching abstract shapes of the pumpkins. 
          Let your students identify the feelings of the pumpkins on their own. Younger children will give general descriptions of their faces, older students may be more specific about the expressions. What is important about the game is that a students is able to actually match the identical facial features and shapes.

    Teach young learners about emotions with these fun little free Jack-O-Lantern faces by Grimm.
    Crying Jack-O-Lanterns shown crying. Print out the patterns twice to make this feelings face game by Kathy Grimm.






          Learn more about how to use facial expressions in order to develop social emotional skills watch the video below by Childswork Childsplay. You can purchase their game, "The Understanding Faces Game," here.

    Monday, September 9, 2013

    Craft an Edible Jack-O-Lantern Bingo Game

          Students or teachers can draw a Jack-o-lantern on the inside of a paper plate with a black marker. Don't forget to give him a large toothy gin and number or letter each tooth as well. Color in the spooky pumpkin with bright orange and green markers. Then use candy corn to mark off the numbers or letters called randomly by the teacher. The first Jack-o-lantern to have his teeth restored is a bingo!

    More Crafty Bingo Cards for Kids:
    Edible and Crafty Tic-Tac-Toe for Kids:

    Saturday, May 11, 2013

    What Are Tangrams?

    The 'Tangram Story'

          The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qī qiǎo bǎn; literally "seven boards of skill") is a dissection puzzle. consistes of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It was originally invented in China at some unknown point in history, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world.
          The tangram had already been around in China for a long time when it was first brought to America by Captain M. Donnaldson, on his ship, Trader, in 1815. When it docked in Canton, the captain was given a pair of Sang-hsia-k'o's Tangram books from 1815.They were then brought with the ship to Philadelphia, where it docked in February 1816. The first Tangram book to be published in America was based on the pair brought by Donnaldson.
          The puzzle was originally popularized by The Eighth Book Of Tan, a fictitious history of Tangram, which claimed that the game was invented 4,000 years prior by a god named Tan. The book included 700 shapes, some of which are impossible to solve.
          The puzzle eventually reached England, where it became very fashionable indeed. The craze quickly spread to other European countries. This was mostly due to a pair of British Tangram books, The Fashionable Chinese Puzzle, and the accompanying solution book, Key.Soon, tangram sets were being exported in great number from China, made of various materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.
          Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram sets made their way to Denmark. Danish interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818, when two books on the puzzle were published, to much enthusiasm. The first of these was Mandarinen (About the Chinese Game). This was written by a student at Copenhagen University, which was a non-fictional work about the history and popularity of tangrams. The second, Det nye chinesiske Gaadespil (The new Chinese Puzzle Game), consisted of 339 puzzles copied from The 8th Book of Tan, as well as one original.
          One contributing factor in the popularity of the game in Europe was that although the Catholic Church forbade many forms of recreation on the sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle games such as the tangram.
          Tangrams were first introduced to the German public by industrialist Friedrich Adolf Richter around 1891. The sets were made out of stone or false earthenware, and marketed under the name "The Anchor Puzzle".
          More internationally, the First World War saw a great resurgence of interest in Tangrams, on the homefront and trenches of both sides. During this time, it occasionally went under the name of "The Sphinx", an alternate title for the "Anchor Puzzle" sets.
          The number is finite, however. Fu Traing Wang and Chuan-Chin Hsiung proved in 1942 that there are only thirteen convex tangram configurations (configurations such that a line segment drawn between any two points on the configuration's edge always pass through the configuration's interior, i.e., configurations with no recesses in the outline).