Age Group: K-3rd grade
Total time: 20 minutes
Computer Paper | 1 piece/Turkey
Washable Markers | 1 pack
Googly Eyes (Optional) | 2/Turkey
Feathers (Optional) | 8-10/Turkey
Take a marker and trace your hand on the paper.
Color in each finger.
Draw on eyes and a beak.
(Optional) Add colored feathers and googly eyes, instead of drawing them on.
Image source GoodHousekeeping.com
Age Group: toddlers
Total time: 10 minutes
Paper plate | 1
Tissue paper | 10 pieces of various colors
Glue | 1 stick
Brown construction paper | 1 sheet
Artificial leaves or flowers | 3
Scissors | 1
Cut out a circle in the middle of the paper plate.
Have the child tear the brown construction paper into strips-- these are the branches/ twigs.
Have the child crumple up the tissue paper and glue both the strips and the tissue paper to the plate.
Glue on artificial flowers/ leaves.
Image source HappyHooligans.ca
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 30 minutes
Paper plates | however many dinosaurs you want to make
Paint
Clothes pins | 2 per dinosaur
Colored cardstock paper | 1 sheet per dinosaur
Googly eyes | 1 per dinosaur
Black pen | 1
Glue stick | 1
Cut paper plate in half.
Paint the half paper plate your desired color.
Paint two clothespins the same color as the half plate.
One the plate is dry, use it as a template to draw dinosaur spikes, a head, and a tail.
Cut out the spikes, head, and tail and glue onto the back of the plate.
Add a smile to the dinosaur’s face and glue on the google eye.
Attach the 2 clothespins to the straight bottom of the plate where legs would go.
Image source MadeToBeAMomma.com
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 10 minutes
Paper | how many snowflakes you want to make
Scissors | 1
Fold the paper diagonally
Fold the triangle in half
Fold the left and right part towards the back
Start cutting out sections of the snowflake
Unfold the snowflake
Image source Pillsbury.com
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 30 minutes
Old keys | 5
Driftwood or stick | 1
String or Fishing line | 1
Paint | 1
Paint the keys anyway you want
Tie a piece of string to either end of the stick so that you have a way to hang it.
Tie a piece of string to each key.
Tie the keys to the stick making sure that they are close enough to each other that they will chime when the wind blows them.
Image source InnerChildFun.com
Age Group: K-2nd grade
Total time: 1 hour
Old Crayons
Muffin Tin
Oven
Collect all your old, broken crayons and take the paper wrapping off of them. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Grab a muffin tin and separate the chunks into the individual sections. Try to fill each section to at least half full- either with all the same color family or you can create your own design (like tie dye!)
Once you’ve used all your pieces and the oven is preheated, put the muffin tin in for 15-20 minutes or until the crayons are fully melted.
Take the tin out and allow the wax to cool. Once fully cooled, flip the tin upside down and hit the bottom of each section to get your new crayon out (if they don't want to come out try putting the tin in the freezer for 5-10 mins first!)
Grab some paper and test out your creations!
Image source ThePrettyBee.com
Age Group: K-2nd grade
Total time: 30 minutes
Pinecones | one per participant
Bowl | 2
Peanut Butter
Birdseed
Spoon
Ribbon or Twine
Find a pinecone that’s big enough to be a good source of food for the birds! Take the pinecone inside and gather peanut butter, a knife, and some birdseed.
Take the peanut butter and some birdseed and scoop them into their own bowls.
Use the spoon to spread the peanut butter all over the pinecone! Make sure to leave some of the top clean so you have a good spot to tie your ribbon/twine on.
Once the pinecone is covered in peanut butter, roll it in the birdseed.
Take your ribbon/twine and knot it around the top- if you’re struggling to get it to stay try putting it underneath the top couple layers of seeds. Once it is securely on the pinecone, use the ribbon/twine to create a loop to hang it with!
Once the pinecone is well covered in peanut butter/birdseed and has a nice loop at the top, take it back outside and hang it on a deck or off a tree for the birds to enjoy!
Image source OneLittleProject.com
Age Group: K-5th grade
Total time: 30 minutes
Mixing Bowl
Baking Soda | 1 lb
Shaving Cream | 10 oz
Glitter (Optional)
Pour the baking soda into the mixing bowl.
Add the shaving cream to the mixing bowl. The amount you should add depends on how you want the consistency of the snow to turn out. You can add a little first and always add more later!
Mix everything in the bowl with your hands. If you want sparkly snow, add some glitter and mix!
Play with your fake snow! Make mini snow angels, snowmen, or snow forts! Make sure to NOT eat the fake snow and AVOID eye contact.
Image source TheSpruceCrafts.com
Age Group: K-2nd grade
Total time: 15-30 minutes
Corks | 3 per boat
Rubber bands | 2 per boat
Toothpick | 1 per boat
Small Piece of Paper/Foam | 1 per boat
Arrange the 3 corks next to one another and use the 2 rubber bands to keep them in place. This will form the base/deck of the boat.
Use the paper or foam to make the sail for your boat. You can cut it so it is triangular or rectangular or make it any shape you want! Add some designs to make it your own!
The toothpick will attack the sail to the boat. Poke the toothpick through the top of the sail you just made and poke it through again at the bottom of the sail. Finally, poke it into the cork deck to attach it to the boat.
Image source RedTedArt.com
Age Group: 2nd-5th grade
Total time: 30-45 minutes
Paper rolls
White craft paint
Black and white craft paper
Black marker
Glue
Pencil
Scissors
Paint brush
Round cup or plastic container
Start by painting the paper roll white. Set it aside to dry completely.
Cut several strips of black paper.
Once the paint is dry, glue the black paper strips onto the paper roll.
Use a round cup or plastic container to trace a circle onto white paper. Draw two ears attached to the circles. Cut out the zebra’s head.
Use the same round cup or plastic container to draw another circle onto black paper. Cut out the circle. Draw a curved line at the bottom of the circle to make the snout. Then cut it out.
Glue the snout at the bottom of the head.
Use a black marker to draw the eyes, smile, ear details and stripes.
Glue the head to the top of the paper roll.
Image source NonToyGifts.com
Age Group: K-5th grade
Total time: 30 minutes
Blue construction paper
Twigs of various sizes
White paint
Paintbrush
Glue
Gather all supplies, find twigs in the yard and break them up into various sizes.
Glue twigs into tree shape onto construction paper, add several branches of shorter pieces to make the tree look realistic.
Dip the non-bristle end of the paintbrush into the white paint.
Use the rounded end of the paintbrush with paint on it to dab dots onto the paper in the appearance of snow.
Allow time for everything to dry then you have a beautiful snowy piece of art.
Image source FantasticFunAndLearning.com
Age Group: all grades
Total time: 30 minutes
Shaving cream (must be foam, not gel)
Shallow container (such as a pie pan)
Any kind of paint or Food Coloring
Something to use as a scraper (Ruler, gift card, etc.)
Watercolor paper or cardstock, cut into halves or quarters
Squirt the shaving cream into the shallow container so that it covers the bottom (should cover a portion of the bottom which is the same size as the piece of paper you plan to use.)
Drip your paint or food coloring over the shaving cream.
Use a skewer or toothpick to swirl the color and the shaving cream, creating whatever pattern you want.
Press your piece of paper onto the shaving cream.
Remove your piece of paper and lay it down on a flat surface.
Use your scraper to scrape the excess shaving cream off of the piece of paper.
You're done!
Image source ArtfulParent.com
Age Group: 2nd-6th grade
Total time: 30 minutes
Foam Sheet
Paint | as many colors as you want
Super glue
Long paper sheet | 2 sheets 5 ft. long
Flip flops | 1 pair
Cut out foam fish and other shapes.
Super glue the fish to the bottom of the shoes.
Put shoes on and step into paint.
Walk onto white paper sheet with fish flip flops on.
Image source JDaniel4sMom.com
Age Group: K-5th grade
Total time: 10 minutes
Tin cans | 6
Ball | 1
Spray paint | optional, as many colors as you want
Spray paint the cans colors of your choosing, this step is optional.
Align the tin cans on top of eachother in a pyramid formation with three on the button, two stacked on top, and one at the very top.
Stand 10 feet away from the tin can pyramid and roll the ball towards the cans trying to knock all of them down.
Image source TrishSutton.com
Age Group: 3rd-5th grade
Total time: 40 minutes
9 pieces of paper (either printer or construction paper)
Gather 9 pieces of paper, one for each of the planets and for the sun. They can either be construction paper in the color of each of the planets or printer paper that you can color in yourself!
Cut out circles from the pieces of paper to represent each of the planets. The largest should be the Sun, followed by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and lastly Mercury.
Take these cutouts somewhere outside where you will have lots of space to spread them out.
Put your Sun down at the far left of your open space. For our purposes, one step will represent one astronomical unit.
Put Mercury half a step from the sun and Venus right after it. Earth goes to the right of Venus and should be one full step away from the Sun.
Your Mars will go a step and a half from the Sun while Jupiter will be 5 steps from the Sun.
Place your Saturn 10 steps from your sun and your Uranus 19 steps from your sun.
There’s a big gap between Uranus and Neptune- put your Neptune 30 feet from where your Sun is to finish up your backyard solar system!
Image source TeachBesideMe.com
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 30 minutes - 1 hour
Pen
Paper
Gather a piece of paper and something to write with and get ready to go on a walk!
Walk around your neighborhood or a local park, and take note of all the types of animals you see.
In addition to keeping track of all the different species, keep track of how many times you see each.
Once you have at least 4 types of animals, take 20 minutes and write a short story involving all of them! Make up their names, their backgrounds, etc!
However many times you see a certain type of animal is how many times you should mention them in your tale.
Share your ideas with each other!
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 30 minutes
Paint
Flowers picked from outside
Paper
Put different colors on the flower in the way you would like
Press the flower onto the paper
Let dry for an hour
Laminate the paper if you would like
Image source TheArtKitBlog.com
Age Group: all ages
Total time: 2 weeks
Tall plastic containers | 2
Paper towels
Cotton balls
Glue
Spray bottle
Seeds
Fold a paper towel in half and place dots of glue to place the seeds on
Place the paper towel in the container and mist the seed with the spray bottle
Put cotton balls all around the bottom to keep the paper towel in place
Wait two weeks and you will see the plant grow!
Image source LifeAtTheZoo.com
Age Group:
Total time:
Stick
Rubber bands
Flowers
Wrap the rubber bands around the stick.
Thread the stems of the flowers through the rubber bands so they are secure.
Get creative! It is up to you what powers your wand has.
Image source WhereImaginationGrows.com
Age Group: K-3rd grade
Total time: 45 minutes
Sidewalk Chalk
Create an obstacle course out of chalk! You can draw lines that the player must step on, circles for them to jump to/from or simple instructions like: jump 10 times or spin in a circle.
Once you’ve created your course, test it out! See how fast you can do it.
Image source HandsOnAsWeGrow.com