GAMES FROM HOLIDAY THROW-AWAYS

 

CARD PUZZLES Cut the backs off old holiday cards and turn them into puzzles. Cut each card front into 3-6 pieces and store in a small zippered plastic bag. Let your child choose a bag, lay out the pieces, then put the puzzle together.

CARD PICTURE MATCH Cut the backs off twenty or more holiday cards. Throw away the back pieces. Set out the card pictures and have your child search through the cards looking for two cards that have similar objects in them.  Example, the child finds two cards, each with a tree in the picture. How many pairs of cards can your child find?

  

RIBBON MEASURING
	Using left-over pieces of ribbon, cut 4-5 different lengths of ribbon.  Example, one eight inches long, one ten inches long, one five inches long, etc.
	Give the ribbons to your child and have her lay then on a table or floor next to each other in order.  Have them start with the longest ribbon and next to that place the next longest ribbon, etc.

 

SHAPE PICTURES
	This game is made from left-over plastic ribbon. (The wide kind you use for outdoor bows)
	Take any left-over ribbon and cut the ribbon into simple geometric shapes, such as; circles, squares, triangles and rectangles.
	Now, show your child how these shapes will stick onto a mirror or a window.
	Let your child make shape pictures using the ribbon shapes.

 

BOW TOSS
	Set out a left-over gift box and a pile of left over gift bows.
	Let your child practice tossing the bows into the box.  How many can she get in the box?
VARIATION:  If you have more than one child, see which child can get the most bows into the box.

 

NESTING BOXES
	Look for 4-5 small boxes that can fit inside each other.
	Give the boxes to your child and have her look for the largest box, then the next largest box.  Have her place the second box into the first box.
	Continue until all the boxes are nesting inside one another.
	If one box does not fit, have her start over and maybe line up the boxes according to size before she begins.

 

SHAPE PICTURES You will need a left-over dress box for this activity.
	Using the cardboard from the dress box, cut out lots of shapes.  Example, large and small circles, large and small triangles, large and small squares, large and small rectangles.
	Set the shapes out on a table and let your child use the shapes to make shape pictures.
Variation:  You could also set out the shapes and have your child sort the shapes by large and small.  Placing the large shapes in one pile and the small shapes in another pile.

 

WRAPPING PAPER MATCH-UPS
	If you have left-over wrapping paper with repeated pictures on it, cut out pairs of matching pictures and glue them onto small index cards.
	Look for four to five different sets of pictures.
	Set out the pictures and mix them up.
	Have your child search for the matching pictures.