California State Symbols Printable Memory Game

Welcome back for Day 3 of California Week! 

Today I'm sharing a printable game, inspired by California's state symbols. As you may know, all 50 states have a state tree, a state bird, and a state flower, as well as a state flag and a state seal. Beyond that, it is up to individual states to declare any other state symbols they wish. (Louisiana has an official state meat pie and Massachussetts has a state muffin.) California has some interesting state symbols of its own. Did you know that we have an official state dance, a folk dance, and a song? Can you name our state fabric? How about the state Gold Rush and Silver Rush Ghost Towns? 

All together, California has 41 state symbols. I used just over half of them to make a printable memory game for you to play with your kids or students. For the easiest version, print two copies of the state symbols below onto heavy cardstock. (If you want the cards to last a long time, laminate the sheets.) Cut the cards apart, shuffle them, then place the 24 cards face down in a grid in front of you. Take turns turning over the cards, trying to make a match. If you make a match, you keep both cards and get another turn. Whoever has the most matches (out of a possible 12) wins.   

You can up the difficulty level of the memory game by doubling the number of cards. Print two copies of this second set of state symbols onto heavy cardstock, cut them apart, and mix them with the previous cards. Follow the same rules as before with 48 cards. 

Both of the memory games above work with non-readers. If you want to increase the difficulty even further, try this version. Print just a single copy of each of the sets above (or remove the duplicate cards if you've already printed them), then print single copies of the category cards below. You'll still have 48 cards to match, but instead of matching two of the same picture, you have to match the category (State Flower) with its specific item (California Poppy). This can get really tricky, considering we have a State Fish and a State Marine Fish, for example. 

You can also use these as flash cards, if for some reason you are trying to memorize all of California's state symbols. I'm not sure why you would, but it's an option. Maybe before trying out to be a Jeopardy! contestant, where you pretty much should try to memorize literally everything. 

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Are you looking for more fun California-themed games? Here are some that you might enjoy. 

        

Presidents Day Craft: Presidential Seal and Oath of Office

For the tenth and final question in my craft series based on crowd-sourced responses, I asked my friends to name an under-rated holiday. To choose what to make, I looked at which of the holidays mentioned is most in need of a classroom craft and I decided on Presidents Day (no apostrophe). Yes, plenty of Presidents Day crafts exist already, but they are overwhelmingly about Washington and Lincoln and almost exclusively target early elementary age. I wanted something for upper elementary that focuses on all presidents, not just the two best-known. I decided to create a coloring page of the Presidential Seal, paired with information about the Seal and the Presidential Oath of Office on the reverse. 

I started with this image from the State Department and made a few digital tweaks (specifically to the shield) to turn it into a coloring page. 

The folks from Ohuhu just sent me their new Kaala series dual-tip alcohol markers to try out, so that's what I used for coloring. I've been wanting to try Ohuhu for a long time because I've heard great things. And now I know that everything I've heard is true! I love these markers. The Kaala series has 150 colors (168 pens) in four different sets (Basic Tones, Illustration Tones, Skin Tones, and Landscape Tones). The color range is beautiful, although I only used 8 for this project. Seven are listed below, plus I used a cool grey to shade the E PLURIBUS UNUM banner. 

The Kaalas feature a fine tip for drawing (perfect for coloring in the letters in the seal and the tiny spaces between the stars) and a slim broad tip for coloring larger spaces and making angled lines. The markers are labeled on both the color-coded top and with a sticker along the side, which I loved. 

After coloring, I created a second printable for the reverse. I added some information about the Presidential Seal, then left space for students to write the Presidential Oath of Office. 

Here's how it looks filled in:

After students have colored the front and written on the back, they can turn them into a mobile. Cut out both parts and sandwich them together with a little bit of glue. Punch a hole and add a piece of yarn to hang the mobile. 

I loved trying out the Kaala markers and can't wait to use all of the colors. And that isn't all that Ohuhu sent me! Expect to see a lot of projects using Ohuhu products in 2023! 

Money Gift Inspired by Guy's Grocery Games

You might remember a post from a few years ago in which our family played a version of Guy's Grocery Games that we called Trevor's Tasty Tournament. In it, we recreated three of the wacky games that the contestants on the show face. It was a really fun challenge and we had a delicious 3-course meal. We did not include the money round at the end, where the winning contestant races around Flavortown Market finding five grocery items based on clues. But that's exactly what I used to give Trevor money for his 16th birthday. 

On the show, players compete for up to $20,000 in cash by shopping Flavortown Market. Obviously, we weren't giving Trevor that much money and we don't have access to the market. Instead, Trevor unwrapped this: 

I explained that there were 5 clues on the dining room table, each worth 4000 cents (aka, $40). His job was to read a clue out loud, then race into the kitchen and bring back the correct item. 

Here is each card, in case you'd like to test yourself before I give the answers away. 

      

Trevor read the first clue and was back with the Cheerios within seconds. He read the next and returned quickly with the mustard. 

It took him a bit longer to find the cinnamon and he struggled trying to figure out the baking soda. He didn't know the answer to the Mac n Cheese, so he just brought back every blue box he could find. In the end, he earned his 20,000 cents. 

This was so much more fun than just handing him money would have been, and it only took me about 20 minutes of work to design the the clue on PicMonkey and print them out. It was well worth it. It was a lot of fun watching him race around the kitchen in a panic, playing a game he'd watched so many times on TV. 

If you're looking for more creative ways to give cash, check out my Money Gifts page. You'll find over 30 fun ideas. 

Printable Thanksgiving Place Cards for Coloring

We spent Thanksgiving 2020 at home with just the three of us; this year, there will be 12 at our house. I'm thankful for vaccines and for the food we'll share, but mostly I'm thankful for family. 

We don't really need place cards, but I'll take any excuse to pull out my colored pencils. I started by designing the printable using PicMonkey. There are four place cards on an 8.5" x 11" sheet. You can download the printable (for free) here. I recommend printing on cardstock rather than printer paper. I used Neenah Vellum Bristol (affiliate link here and throughout the post). 

Once they're printed, cut out the place cards. I recommend using a paper trimmer. Don't cut the backs of the place cards from the fronts; you'll be folding them in order to make them stand up. 

Color in the place cards however you'd like, using whatever art materials you'd like. I used my Prismacolors and did the words first because I'm left-handed and didn't want to smear the finished leaves. I made a different gradient on each card by angling a piece of scrap paper and coloring each section of the sentiment at a time. By overlapping the colors slightly, I got great blending. 

Here are the first three place cards. Which gradient do you like best? My favorite is the bottom right...

... which is why I used it for the hero shot at the top of the post. I wrote the names with a gold Sharpie. 

Do you do place cards for Thanksgiving? How many people will be around your Thanksgiving table? 

Printable Halloween Tags to Color

I've worked my way through almost all of Sarah's coloring videos and have learned so much! I mentioned awhile back that I'd found her video about the best paper for printing coloring pages to be extremely helpful. Based on her recommendation, I ordered a pack of Neenah Bristol Vellum (affiliate link here and below), waited impatiently for it to arrive, and crossed my fingers that it would work with our printer. I'm happy to report that it does! 

My first project was making Halloween tags. 

I started by designing the printable using PicMonkey. I printed the text at 100% but faded the borders and the graphics to 60%. (You can download it (for free) here.)

I used my Prismacolor Premiers to color the images and was delighted with the way the colors laid down on the bristol vellum. I was particularly pleased with the shadows on the candy corn and the hat, as well as the shading on the 'white' ghosts. My plan was to add a watercolor background to the tags... 

... which ended up being a not-good idea. When I tried to go any sort of blending, the paper pilled. And my subtle grey shadows ended up looking weirdly white. 

But no matter. I learned a lot. And by matting the tags with black cardstock and adding coordinating ribbon, the tags don't look half bad. 

I'm going to have to do some experimenting with watercolors over colored pencil using a more appropriate paper for wet media. I also want to try using the colored pencils over watercolor to see the difference.

State Foods Bucket List

The first foreign country I visited as a child was Canada. Canadian food is not that different from American food and most of what my family and I ate there was at least similar to what we ate at home. But I distinctly remember trying a new-to-me beverage during that visit to Canada. If Canada Dry was available in California in the 1970s, I'd never seen it or even heard of it. When I first tried that deliciously crisp and refreshing ginger ale way back when, I fell in love.

I have similar food memories from childhood travels within the United States. I have clear memories of fresh huckleberry pie in Oregon and trying Tim's Cascade Chips for the first time at my cousins' house in Washington. I distinctly remember reindeer sausage on my first trip to Alaska and deep-dish pizza the first time I went to Chicago. To me, vacation has always been a time to try new foods and drinks. 

Times have changed, in that you don't necessarily have to travel to try foods from faraway places. I am fairly sure I could get Canada Dry, huckleberry pie, Tim's Cascade Chips, reindeer sausage, and deep-dish pizza either at my local store or delivered directly to my house within 24 hours of an Internet order. But that's not nearly as fun as eating something new where it originated or is most beloved.  

With that in mind, I put together a bucket list of each state's official foods.

The goal is to eat those foods in their particular state. So while I've obviously eaten peaches many times, I've never eaten one in Georgia and thus will not mark it off until I do. Here is my progress so far, as best I can remember. As you can see, I have a lot of traveling and eating to do!

  

Here's a clean copy you can print.

   

Note that these are only the officially-designated state foods. I'm still going to seek out all the local favorites I can. Some of my best travel memories are from trying foods that aren't on this list, like Runzas in Nebraska, burgoo in Kentucky, and a Gerber sandwich, Ted Drewes, and Gooey Butter Cake in Missouri. 

Capitol Bingo

Our family is on a quest to visit each of the 50 states before Trevor is 18. Whenever possible, we include a visit to the state's capital city and the Capitol building in that city. When I posted 13 Helpful Tips for Visiting a State Capitol with Kids, our family had been to 20 of the 50 Capitol buildings. If all went as planned, we visited our 21st earlier this week!

Some of the Capitols have word searches, crossword puzzles, and other kid-friendly activities for families to print and bring with them when they visit the Capitol, but many do not. I challenged myself to create a printable that would work regardless of which state capital you visit. It was tough, but I came up with this bingo card. Of course, it could be done competitively, but I envision using it cooperatively as a family, with a prize (something small from the gift shop?) for the kids getting either bingo or blackout. 

Next week I'll be sharing all about our recent travels to the capital of the Lone Star State, including how we did completing this bingo card in Austin!

Library Tic-Tac-Toe

We're a library family. We visit the library several times a month to check out books, for Trevor's book club, for special events, to borrow movies or audiobooks, for Library Roulette... and the list goes on and on. If you were to visit our house, you'd find a pile of library books waiting to be read and a pile ready to go back. We love everything about the library. Now I've come up with a new way to enjoy the library. I'm calling it Library Tic-Tac-Toe. 

To play Library Tic-Tac-Toe, find a partner and head to the picture books. While this is technically the children's area, I have long felt that picture books are for everyone. I mean, who wouldn't want to read When Cows Come Home (affiliate link)? It has a clever rhyming plot and hilarious illustrations.  

When I was getting my teaching credential, our literature instructor emphasized that no matter what grade level we ended up teaching, we should incorporate picture books into our curriculum. I wholeheartedly agree and regularly used them in my 5th grade classroom. Even though the reading level was too low for most of my students, picture books have so much more to offer: rhyme, rhythm, meter, plot, and pacing, for example. The illustrations are a great jumping-off point for student artwork or to teach art concepts. Reading picture books aloud is a great way for kids to become more fluid in their oral reading. They're great for English Language Learners. Long story short, I'm a fan of picture books, no matter what your age. 

How you play Library Tic-Tac-Toe depends a lot on the age of the child. With a very young child, have the child name the pictures on the paper (vocabulary development) and then work together to find the pictures in books (reading conventions - left to right, prediction based on the cover, turning pages gently to 'be nice to the book', etc.). Introduce the concept of getting three in a row. When you've found three, sit down together and read the books. Repeat as desired!

With grade school children, you can play cooperatively (like above) or competitively. To play competitively, agree ahead of time who is X and who is O. Each person searches through books to find an illustration matching the picture on the tic-tac-toe board. When you find one, mark your space with an X or an O. Three in a row wins. Then sit down and enjoy the books you found. Here, O has found a pictures of bees and will circle the bee on the card.

I made the cards using PicMonkey. It was so easy - I just created a grid and dropped their adorable overlays into the spaces. It only took a few minutes per card. Feel free to print my cards and try them out! Or, head over to PicMonkey and make your own.