Tic-Tac Snow and Beetle painting

From the Disney Family Fun site...


Here's a quick two-person game that's easy enough for little tic tac snow kids yet offers enough strategy to be played over and over.

Draw the board shown on a piece of paper, marking a dot at each intersection (eight around the edges and one in the middle). Give each player three matching game pieces(we used cotton balls glued to pennies and marked with dabs of paint). As in tic-tac-toe, the object is to get three pieces in a row. To begin, Player 1 places a piece on any dot, then Player 2 goes and they continue alternating until all the pieces are down. If no one lands three pieces in a row, on the next turn a player may slide his or her piece to the next dot, trying to make a row of three. Play continues until one person makes tic-tac-snow.

My kids go buggy over this open-ended project: decorating a beetles colony of brightly colored beetles. We usually spread out our bug-making over two afternoons--one to mold the beetles and one to paint them.

To start, mix a cup of plaster of Paris according to the directions on the box. Pour the mix bit by bit into disposable plastic spoons and let them dry overnight (we usually make 20 to 40 at a time and save some for later). The next day, pop the bugs out of the pop the bugs out of the spoons spoons and have your kids paint them with acrylic or tempera paints. An insect guide can offer some fun inspiration for colors and designs. Painting the bugs can take up the better part of a rainy afternoon, but you can also extend this project in other ways. For example, make your beetles more functional by gluing them onto magnets. Or challenge everyone to create an interesting beetle cage from any supplies around your house (toothpicks are a good jumping-off point).