#271: Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown is a playground game and is played on a teeter totter (if you find one!).


You will need two players. One person sits on their end of the teeter totter and the other person sits on the other end. One player is Charlie Brown and they pick a colour. They keep the other player in the air until they correctly guess the colour.

While in the air, the non-Charlie Brown player says: “Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown, please let me down”.
Charlie Brown replies: “Not until you guess my favorite colour”.

Once the colour has been guessed, Charlie Brown lets the other person down so they can become Charlie Brown.


Make this a family activity: Play with the whole family.

This activity promotes memory skills, balance and colour awareness.

#270: Library

Get out of the house and go to the public library.


Take a look around. Libraries often have events for children that are free or cheap. As well, they have magazines, computers, music, stories on tape, movies, and of course, lots of books! If you can’t find what you want or need ask a librarian to help you out.


Make this a family activity: Take the whole family and have each person sign out a book, read it, and then share what it was about with the rest of the family.

This activity promotes community, sharing, and literary skills.

#269: Play Dress Up

Get out some fun clothes, costumes, or whatever you can find and play dress up.




Make this a family activity: Everyone gets dressed up. Are you all super-heroes? Going to a ball? Ghosts?

This activity promotes free play, creativity, and imagination.

#268: Laugh Until Milk Comes Out Your Nose

Has anyone ever made you laugh while you were drinking milk and the milk came shooting out your nose?



Make this a family activity: Has everyone in you family had milk come out their nose before?

This activity promotes, well, messes and giggles.

#267: Farmer in the Dell

Number of players needed to play Farmer in the Dell: 10 or more.



Players hold hands and dance in circle around one player who is the farmer. As everyone sings the song (below) the farmer picks someone from the circle to be his wife. The wife then picks a child, the child picks a nurse, the nurse picks a dog, the dog picks a cat, the cat picks a mouse, and finally, the mouse picks the cheese. The player who is the cheese becomes the farmer in the next round.

Sing this song as everyone dances:

The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the Derry-O
The farmer in the dell

The farmer takes a wife
The farmer takes a wife
Hi-Ho, the Derry-O
The farmer takes a wife [He/she picks someone from the circle.]

Sing it again, but each time exchange the words ‘farmer’ for ‘wife,’ then ‘wife’ for ‘child’ (The wife takes a child), then ‘nurse,' then ‘dog,’ then ‘cat,’ then ‘mouse,’ and finally ‘cheese’.


Make this a family activity: Mom or Dad starts by being the farmer.

This activity promotes memory skills, and musical skills.

#266: Burp the Alphabet

Always a fun one for boys (and some girls). Can you burp the alphabet? As you burp, try to make your burp sound like a letter of the alphabet. Can you do all 26 letters?

ABCDEF...

Make this a family activity: Who can burp the most letters?

This activity promotes vocal chord range.

#265: Write a Book Review

Do you have a favourite book? Write a review for it. Explain what you liked about it, and what you didn't like about it. How did it make you feel? What did it make you think about when you read it? How about a book that you didn't like? Write a review explaining why you didn't like it.

A book review is meant to be shared with other readers to help them decide whether to read the book or not. (Book reviews don't have to be long.) Do you want to share your book review? There are websites that are always looking for book reviews from readers (have your parent help you). As well, local newspapers, the local library and school newspapers may be interested in reading and sharing your review.




Make this a family activity: Share your review with the family and have family members share their reviews with you.

This project promotes critical thinking skills, reading and writing skills as well as literacy.