I am having WAY too much fun creating and compiling materials for my quiet kits!! My daughter has loved the Animal Kit so much that we have to do some activity from it every day (mostly the flannel board activity– she is getting really good at animal sounds and recognizes all the animals I have made by name!) Another thing I love about the kit is that all the animal materials are organized in one location. It keeps everything neat and tidy- and with the expandable file folders there is always room for more!

The two latest additions:

memory game
Using the same clipart from her flannel board and lacing cards I whipped out some cards (2 of each animal) to play different games. The game we are working on is “Find the Match” where the cards are all face up and you find the two cards that match… easy as that! Eventually we can work up to playing Memory with the cards face down! But for now she loves it! I added a few new animals to this game and she gets a kick out of them- it’s amazing to me how their little minds just soak up learning!

big/small cards
When I mapped out Jackie’s curriculum for the month I knew I wanted to work on Big and Small. I thought a great transitional activity would be to make big and small animal cards… since I had already created animal cards it didn’t take me very long. I have kept this activity very simple- I will show my daughter the 2 dog cards and have her point out the big dog.

I am excited to work on the I Am A Child of God Quiet Kit… I am planning on having it ready as a special Easter gift for my special little girl!

I have been working on our very first quiet kit in hopes that we can actually make it through church tomorrow! My vision with these kits is to not only keep my daughter busy during what can seem like an endless sacrament meeting but to educate her as well. I am planning on making a church themed kit that I hope to use most often at church-but for this first kit it will be All About Animals! I have some old accordion file folders that I used for reading groups that I think will work just perfectly to hold all the materials.

The Basics:
a bag just for Sunday (which I have termed the Jac Pack)
small flannel board
accordion folder to store each of the activities

All About Animals Kit

Animal Coloring Pages/ crayons
I know this is scary for the little ones at church- just be sure to monitor this activity! Coloring is always a great fine motor skill to work on. I printed some pages with some darling DJ Inkers animals and wrote some simple sentences. What can I say- I am a teacher at heart and love to find ways to integrate literacy!

Animal Lacing Cards
I printed my own from DJ Inkers Clipart- but there are some available as downloads here or can be purchased here (Eric Carle) or here. This might be a mommy/daughter activity at first until she grasps the concept of lacing.

Flashcards
You can make your own with clipart or there are some available here.

Books
I made a very simple Old MacDonald Had A Farm book to go with the kit, but there are several excellent books on animals that you could use as well. My recommendation would be to add books from a variety of genres (fiction, non-fiction, fables, etc) and that specifically will interest your child (my daughter loves cats, bears, and monkeys so these would be great books to add to her kit)

Felt Stories
I have gotten great use out of my clipart this week! I created a Mr Brown Can Moo felt activity (it is inspired by the Dr Seuss book) and my little one LOVES it! I am going to throw that story into her kit for church, but there are other stories that are available to download here. You can take any story that your child likes, print clipart that goes along with it, and add felt or sandpaper to the back of the pics. As your children get older they can retell stories using the felt pieces or simply create new ones! I also have a Noah’s Ark kit I found at King’s (thanks Shae for the recommendation) that I might add when she’s a bit older… the pieces are pretty small. Another nice thing about felt is that its QUIET.

Puppets
So puppets might not be the quietest activity for church. Especially if your child is like mine and loves to talk to the puppet! But they can really foster that love for story telling and good literature… so my recommendation, if you choose to use them- is to use the puppets for a purpose! Gather a set of puppets that goes along with a familiar story or make puppets of the family. You could also use the puppets in a Family Night to discuss sitting reverently and how to behave while at church.

I Spy Bottles
Add small plastic animals and rice to a wide mouth bottle and you’re set! For more explicit directions and ideas follow this link.

Tracing Cards
This is a bit advanced for my little sweetie, but eventually this would be a great activity to add to the kit. You can find tracing cards to print and laminate here for prewriters and for those little ones learning to write their letters. You will also need a dry erase marker (this is a parent monitored activity- a little too scary for me at church! but it might work for you!) and a small cloth to erase.

And of course, Treats
Treats can be a lifesaver at times! My vision with this kit was to add animal crackers…. seeing as its almost midnight and there are none to be found at home I will add something more practical, but you could really be creative and healthy with the food you add to your kit! Just be sure to empty out the old (if there’s any) and refill each week!

This is just a list to start with… I would go through it and see what would work for you and sift it to about 5 activities. Keep the end in mind that we want our children to be able to sit through a talk eventually and too much entertaining might delay that behavior. I will post pics after I am finished printing, laminating, and cutting! And if you have any fabulous ideas, let me know and I will post them!
Enjoy!! 🙂