Presidential Campaign Slogans

We created Presidential Campaign Slogans and posters to go with them.

Slogans are used to advertise a variety of products and they also work for presidential candidate advertising, or campaigning, as we like to call it. The web site History.com contains a list of ten winning past presidential campaign slogans. PresidentsUSA contains a list of past campaign slogans. Can you guess who was the Not Just Peanuts president? How about Good Money Never Made Times Hard? The best slogans contain literary elements such as rhyme, alliteration and rhythm making them a perfect subject for a writing activity.


Fifteen minutes were spent brainstorming slogans, and then favorites were made into posters. Here are a few slogans we came up with.

You'll Have Lots of Fun When We Go Back to the Constitution
Down With Crazy Laws!
FDR was a Pig, He Made the Government too BIG
I will make thee free you see. Now it's time to elect me.
B your Boss! Choose what U think is good.
I already see you like me.
I'm Independent and I know It
What's your idea?
Think, Think, Think

And here are the posters.

Be sure to check out our Language Arts Page for more writing activity ideas.





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Freeform Canvas Crochet Purses

We crocheted into Rug Canvas to create unique purses.


My favorite aspect of this project is the free form. Without a plan, you crochet through holes in rug canvas to create interesting designs. It's a fun way to use up little bits of left over yarn.

The first step is to crochet around the edges. Since the rug backing can pull out near the edges, it's best to use two strands of worsted weight yarn held together as one strand and crochet into the second hole from the edge. The technique is to do a slip stitch through the hole then a slip stitch outside the edge of the work. Repeat this until the border is complete.

Follow these simple steps to fill in the interior.

With the ball of yarn in the back, form a loop and pull the loop through to the front with the crochet hook.

Insert the hook into an adjacent hole and pull another loop through.

Pull the loop on the front of the hook through the other loop and remove it from the hook.

Continue in this fashion until changing colors.

Cut the yarn and pull to the front. Using a needle with a large eye, weave all ends through yarn in the back of the work.

Once the interior is filled sew a fabric liner over the back. Fold in half, sew up the edges, add a handle and the purse is complete.

This completed purse in neutral shades contains crocheted flowers which were attached after the background was complete.




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Cuisenaire Rod Patterns

We created and calculated, calculated and played.

At first glance this looks nothing like math, but upon further examination it's evident that this is math at it's best.

The goal was only to make interesting designs and patterns using cuisenaire rods. The kids were free to experiment.

Cuisenaire rods are measured in 1 cm lengths.
white - 1 cm
red - 2 cm
green - 3 cm
purple - 4 cm
yellow - 5 cm
blue-green - 6 cm
black - 7 cm
brown - 8 cm
blue - 9 cm
orange - 10 cm

Math from the above photo: symmetry, 1+9=10, 10-1-1-1-1=6, 1+5=6, 2x4=8, 2x3=6
There's actually lots more and many of the above calculations were done mentally while the figure was being created. The same is true of the following figures.

This one clearly shows that 6-4=2, 2+4=6.

Lots of counting by threes is visible in this design.

Creating patterns frequently with cuisenaire rods is an excellent activity for building number sense and mental math skills.



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Coconut Tree Update

Growing a coconut palm tree from a seed doesn't take a lot of work, but it does take a lot of time and patience. My son researched techniques for growing coconuts and discovered that by placing a coconut in a large plastic bag with a bit of water it would sprout. He tried it and it worked. That was just over one year ago.

Here are previous blog posts from when he was just beginning to sprout the coconut.

Coconut - Eating Seeds
Coconut - Activities with Plants

It's now been twelve months. The coconut still rests inside the plastic bag on our kitchen window sill and the coconut palm is about 1 foot tall. This has been one of his most satisfying plant experiments and I recommend it for any young children interested in plants and science.




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D-Day Airplane - C-47

We toured the Wiskey-7 C-47 airplane.

During World War II, C-47 airplanes were first deployed to Northern Africa where they brought supplies in and carried out the wounded. Several hundred were manufactured in California during 1943. When crossing the Atlantic, they commonly followed a northern route which included refueling stops in Maine, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.

During D-Day operations around 250 C-47's were used to drop paratroopers in France. The side doors of the aircraft were removed, the paratroopers jumped from low altitudes, and their shoots were opened automatically upon aircraft exit by attaching a rip cord cable to a metal wire running down the middle of the top of the aircraft. The metal wire is visible in the photo below, left.

The kids didn't think it looked like a comfortable vehicle for travel,

but were very impressed with all the buttons and gadgets in the cockpit. They decided flying a plane must be difficult.

The home for this particular aircraft is an airplane museum in Geneseo, NY. For a few days just before the 75th D-Day anniversary in 2014, it was on display at the Ramstein AFB in Germany and then it was flown in reenactment missions for the anniversary celebration.





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Slogan Writing Activity for Kids - Apples

We wrote slogans for apples.

Creating slogans is one technique companies use to sell their products and there are many memorable slogans such as "Milk, it does a body good!" My children don't watch very much television, in fact our television hasn't worked for over two years and we don't miss it. So their knowledge of slogans was a bit limited. Before writing our slogans we watched a few videos and they gained a better understanding.

I laughed heartily while viewing Top 10 Food Catchphrases as it brought back many childhood memories. My favorite was the Wendy's Where's the Beef? clip. Although this type of advertising would probably not go over well today due to its lack of political correctness, it sure was funny.

 Top 10 Food Catchphrases

Even funnier was the short video containing made-up slogans that truly represented products.

If Company Slogans Were Honest

Although my kids didn't understand all of the humor, the videos did serve to explain what a slogan is. After watching, I gave each of the kids an apple and had them write slogans for apples.

Here's what we came up with:

7 Year Old Daughter
Apples crunch in the mouth.

11 Year Old Son
Fast, Easy, Healthy, Good!
Red Sugar
Our Tree, Your Money

14 Year Old Daughter
Yum! Yum! Yummy!
Don't Be Grumpy, Be Happy with Apples
Got Any Apples Bro?

My Slogans
Eat It Before the Worm
Twist the Stem
How Will You Get Yours Down?



And here's a final thought - An Apple A Day Keeps the Doctor Away




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Bottle Cap Necklaces

The kids made bottle cap necklaces.

Creating collections is something many kids do naturally around the ages of 10-13. Stamps and coins are common, but my son chose bottle caps. At first I wasn't thrilled with his new hobby, but I didn't say much, and now I'm actually encouraging it.

The above photo shows his collection as a sort of visual graph. He, along with his siblings, sorted both by color and category the entire large bag I brought home from the Belgium Bistro (a local restaurant with over 100 Belgium beers for sale). After sorting and arranging, he separated his collection into keepers and crafters/traders.

Over the summer, a friend's daughter who also collects bottle caps, came home from college. She makes her bottle caps into necklaces. After trading caps with my son she eagerly taught all the kids how to make necklaces using Sculpey III Polymer Clay Color Sampler, Multicolor and paper clips.

The paper clips were cut using wire cutters to form hooks for the necklaces. Then the caps were filled with clay while the hook ends were placed inside. Next, cute designs were placed on top of the cap filler clay. Finally, they were baked in the over for 15-20 minutes at 135 degrees C (295 degrees F).

For more crafty kids fun ideas, please visit my Arts and Crafts Page.




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