Staying Healthy In The Winter

The long days of winter often keep children indoors, which can lead to hours of inactivity. Furthermore, children are more likely to contract illnesses during the winter months because they are in more confined spaces. To stay healthy during the winter, consider these safety tips:

• Eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes fruits and vegetables.
• Teach children proper hand-washing techniques to kill germs and bacteria or use hand sanitizer if necessary.
• Ask a pediatrician about the necessity for flu vaccines for young children.

Framed Handprint Turkey Craft

This is a great craft to celebrate Fall!

What you'll need:

• 9" paper plate
• Acrylic paint: gold, brown, yellow, orange, green, red, white and black
• Black marker
• Paintbrush
• Felt in fall colors, cut into 1" squares

How to make it:

1. Place paper plate on work surface upside down and write the child's name and the date. Turn the plate right side up. Paint entire plate with gold color and set aside to dry.                                                                                                                                     
2. Meanwhile, cut felt into 1" pieces. Use several fall colors, such as red, brown, orange, tan, gold and cream. 
3. Have all of your paint colors handy and a separate paintbrush for each color. Paint the child's palm and thumb with a generous amount of brown paint. Working quickly so that the paint doesn't have time to dry, paint each of the child's four fingers with red, green, orange and yellow. 
4. Have child gently place their handprint in the center of the paper plate. Gently press down on the child's hand and each individual finger to ensure a good distribution of paint.
5. Have child lift hand directly up into the air so as not to smear any of the colors.
6. Use a paintbrush to add a red gobbler and an orange beak. Let dry. 
7. While the paint is drying you can glue on the pieces for the frame. Pipe glue around the outside edge of the plate and press the felt squares onto the glue, overlapping the outside of the plate. Alternate the colors to create a pattern.
8. Use black marker to draw legs and feet.
9. Use the handle end of a small paintbrush to add a dot for the eye, let dry. Once dry, use a toothpick to dot on the black. 

Tips:

1. You can add a magnet to the back of the plate or use tape and a piece of yarn to create a hanger.
2. Always save scraps of felt and construction paper for projects such as these.
3. Instead of painting on the eye, you can glue on one wiggle eye.

Announcement:

Our Fiddlers Fall Festival was a great success, thanks to everyone that joined us! A special thanks to our sponsors: Gary & Anita Altschuler, Sharon Abramowitz & Greig Arendt, Mike & Jessica Gutter, and Jennifer Sager & Chris Brown! Thanks to Robb Eggelston of Egghead DJ Services, Stacey Steinberg of Photography by Stacey, and the Klezmer Katz Band for volunteering their services and making our event so successful!