Crafts

Stuck inside on a summer day? Turn rainy day frowns upside down with these super-cool crafts guaranteed to make your kiddos smile!Petal PowerThese precious Popsicle stick creations make an adorable addition to your garden or potted plants!What You’ll Need:

• 10 Craft sticks or Popsicle sticks
• Acrylic paints and brushes
• Craft glue or glue gun (Parents, you’ll need to handle the glue gun, if you use one!)

What to Do:

1. Paint all but two Popsicle sticks any color you’d like – make them all the same color or go for a variety.
2. Paint the remaining two sticks green.
3. Stack your sticks as shown above, gluing each one to the one below.
4. Add a drop of glue to the tips of the green sticks and slide them into the center to create a 3-D floral sculpture!

Rainbow RocksAdd some summer color to your yard with these rockin’ home-made rainbows!What You’ll Need:

• Several small to medium sized rocks in a variety of shapes
• Wax crayons
• Baking sheet
• Tin foil
• Oven (With parental supervision, of course!)

What to Do:

1. Collect your stones, wash them, and dry them.
2. Place the stones on a foiled-covered baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until warm.
3. Remove one or two rocks at a time and place on the table (you might want to put a towel down to protect your table from scratches and heat).
4. Use your crayons to color a rainbow design – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple – or colorful abstract on the rocks. The wax will melt on the rocks and leave a bright, shiny shell on top. NOTE – the rocks will be HOT, so kids shouldn’t touch or hold them. Longer crayons will keep little fingers further from the heat.

Squishy, Squashy Summer FlowersSqueeze in some sculpting fun with Playfoam®!What You’ll Need:

• Several colors of Playfoam®, including green.
• Creativity!

What to Do:

1. Choose your petal color.
2. Squish the Playfoam up until it resembles a petal. Repeat until you have 5 petals.
3. Roll the green Playfoam into a tubular shape.
4. Attach all pieces, pressing down to make them stick.
5. When you’re done, separate the pieces, squish them up, and play all over again – Playfoam never dries out so you can create again and again!

Drip-Drop Painting Pour on the fun with this messy but marvelous painting technique!What You’ll Need:

• Flower pot(s) – Terra Cotta works best, but plastic is fine, too!
• Several colors of acrylic paint in squeezable tubes
• Tape (any kind will do)
• Tarp, sheet, or towel
• And yes, parental supervision!

What to Do:

1. Turn your pot upside down and place it on the protective tarp or sheet. Weather permitting; you may want to do this project outside.
2. Cover the hole in the bottom of the pot with tape.
3. Choose your first color and pour it onto the top of your pot. Be generous.
4. Choose another color and pour that on top of the first one.
5. Continue pouring – the more paint you add, the more it will flow down the sides of the pot. You can be deliberate in your colors and striping or go Jackson Pollack and watch what happens!

Let It Rain!Shake things up with a home-made rain stick!What You’ll Need:

• A sturdy, cardboard tube (the tubes inside your plastic wrap or foil are great)
• Aluminum foil
• Tape
• Glue
• Short nails and/or tacks
• Rice, beans, or buttons – you’ll need lots!
• Parental supervision!

What to Do:

1. Press your nails or tacks into your tube, making sure they don’t poke through the other side (ouch!).
2. Wrap your tube in tin foil, covering one end completely (you may want to tape it).
3. Pour your rice, beans, or buttons in the other end. The more you use, the better the sound.
4. Seal the open end with tin foil and tape.
5. Decorate as you wish – with stickers, decorative tape, tissue paper and glue, paint, feathers, what have you…

 

 Imagination comes naturally to kids and there’s a reason. Child development experts agree that imagination is key in helping kids understand the world around them as well as process things they aren’t able to experience first-hand, like Ancient Egyptian civilization or the eating habits of dinosaurs. Nurturing imagination is developmentally important and crucial for cultivating creative thinking. For some fun – and easy – ways to encourage your child’s imagination on a daily basis, give these tips a try.Talk!

• Tell YOUR story. Share stories from your own childhood, or your parents’ – and be descriptive! You’re passing down family history and wisdom; your child is stretching his or her imagination by picturing you as a child, your childhood home, and the rest of the scene you’re setting.
• Make believe. Choose a person in a store, painting, or magazine ad and ask your child to tell you a story about that person. Where did he come from? What’s his job? Favorite food? Hobby? Pet?
• Pass It On. Start a story, then “pass it on” to your child. Once they’ve added to the story, take it back and add a bit more. Continue until the tale is told!
• Imagine that…Ask your child to imagine unbelievable scenarios and share his/her thoughts. Imagine that you’re the size of an ant. Imagine that you’re the only person on Earth. Imagine that you live underwater.

Create!

• Make a collage. Cut out pictures from magazines or newspaper ads – people, pets, body parts, cars, nature, etc. Give the pile to your child, along with a sheet of paper and a glue stick, and let his or her imagination run wild.
• Build a fairy house. Collect natural items like pine cones, acorns, cotton fluff, and seed pods. Then find a cozy corner of your yard and build a fairy house using your finds as furniture. An acorn cap makes a great bathroom sink!
• Doodle an abstract shape on a sheet of paper and ask your child to turn it into something – and tell you a story about it, of course!
• Get cloudy. Does the shape of a cloud above remind your child of anything? What does it look like? What could it be? What is it turning into as the wind blows?

Play

• Role play is a child’s way of exploring his place in the world. Pretend to be a baker, doctor, business person, or vet. Stuffed animals, dolls, and action figures make great supporting characters.
• Collect an assortment of random household objects like a toilet paper tube, ruler, and empty box and watch your child repurpose them for pretend play. Drive a toy car through the toilet paper tube tunnel and across the ruler bridge, balanced on two piles of books (of course).
• Put on a puppet show! Whether you use a hand puppet, sock puppet, paper bag puppet, or Puppet-on-a-Stick™, puppet shows are a great way to encourage imagination. You might have to direct the script at the start, but you’ll be amazed at where your child takes the plot.
• Take it outside. Head out back and cultivate a pretend garden – plant rocks as seeds and sticks as markers. What will you grow? Who will eat your crops?

Do you need a fun activity over the holiday break for idle kids? Holidays are filled with cookies, wonder, and opportunities for creativity. But go beyond the average looking snow cutout, and try this fun shaped paper snowflake instead. Kids will be delighted when they see how easy and fun it is to create a snowflake in the shape of our favorite Puppet-on-a-Stick characters!Step by step: Download print friendly instructions here. (1) Print out the PDF and cut out the square template. Click here for template. (2) Prefold all of the solid lines (3) Fold the template in half and then fold it in half again. Next, fold along the diagonal edge, making sure to keep the puppet shape exposed…now you’re ready to cut! (4) Cut out the puppet shapes…the grey portion is the part that is discarded.(5) One of the puppets requires a hobby knife to cut out the mouth. If you don’t have one, you can just draw and color in the mouths later. (6) Unfold your creation carefully.(7) Put on the finishing touches by drawing in the eyes of the puppets (and the mouths if you didn’t cut them out in the previous step). You’re done! Tape the snowflake to your window, your notebook, etc. Enjoy!