Fun kid stuff
to do and makeFun kid stuff
to do and make|
Cornstarch Goop
Mix cornstarch with water until it feels right. Go easy on the water and mix well before adding more water. Like, maybe 1 cup of cornstarch to 2 T water? I don't remember, it's been a while since I made it. You can experiment and always add more cornstarch if it doens't work out. Phaedra Hise We tried Phaedra's suggestion of "Goop" -- cornstarch and water. It was A LOT of fun!!! I got video of Samantha pouring the goop from the bowl onto her highchair tray and just giggling like crazy. Thanks, Phaedra, for that great idea!!! And when we were done playing I got enough back in a little container that we can play with it some other day. Kathy Gomez Edible play doh 1 cup powdered milk
Mix milk and peanut butter.
Just got this from a woman at work. I haven't tried it yet but thought others might enjoy it. Lynn Castrianno Kool-Aid Playdough I 3 Cups flour
Mix dry ingredients together. Add boiling water. Knead on floured board (kids love this part). You may need to add a little more flour to obtain the correct consistency. This playdough lasts for months and months and the recipe makes a lot. Hope someone out there finds this fun and useful. Kool-Aid Playdough II 1/2 Cup salt
Boil salt in water until salt is dissolved. Add Kool-Aid for color. Add salad oil, flour and alum. Knead or process until smooth. Keeps for two months or longer. >< The Kool-Aid packages they are calling for are the small packages (the ones you add the sugar to when you make it). Use any color/flavour you wish. I have made and used this playdough (although I don't think it was either of these recipes). The kids loved it. Beautiful color and wonderful smell. Denise Villard Grated-chalk painting. You will need a small cheese grater, chalk, eye dropper bottle of water, a (depending on how many colors of chalk you use), small shallow dish (a floor protector that you slide under furniture legs will work), paintbrush and paper. The children grate the chalk in a bowl, dump the powder into the small shallow dish and add a couple drops of water. Mix the powder and water until it makes a "chalk" paint and then paint! I am using the large sidewalk chalk for this activity. It is large enough for the children to grate without scraping their fingers and lasts a lot longer then standard sized chalk. Got this from a Montessori newsletter... Adam loves this... Zane too! :) Note it can get quite messy--we were able to do it while the weather was nice here outside on the picnic table in the backyard! Dawn Doleh In the summer my kids do something similar: they chalk really thick on the sidewalk and then wet it. Then they walk in it and put their hands in it and make hands and feet on the sidewalk. Forever fascinating :)! Petra Engle Shaving cream "paint." Today I took Lauren and Megan to school, and Lauren's class was playing with shaving cream. It was so cute. The kids were smearing all over the table and writing their names in it, and were also putting it on their faces and then with a popsicle stick, pretending they were shaving. I will have to do that sometime at home. The kids were having a ball. Jennifer Eckert String painting Take several strings of different widths dip in paint and drag across a large piece of paper. Veggie printing
Rubber stamping
Sidewalk chalk Dawn Doleh Paper fan. Glue sticks on a paper plate for a paper fan (use popsicle sticks); decorate fan with whatever you want Picture frame ...made of cardboard (glue different types of pasta in it); paint with metallic paint (or spray paint) Bead jewelry. String beads for necklace, bracelets, etc. Masks ...made of paper plates, feathers, etc. Glenda Boja Ramil
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Cotton ball lamb. Draw a sheep/lamb
on white paper (you can cut it out and put it on colored paper etc.) get
some cotton balls and glue--make a fuzzy lamb! (Elmer's or other white
glue can be placed on a paper plate for "dipping")
Nature collections. Collect leaves, pine cones, dried plants/flowers etc. on walks (take a big bag) collecting is half the fun! Make an arrangement on paper; decorate a pine cone with leaves/etc. to make a bird/animal; put in a big glass bowl for display arrangement (if you have a goldfish bowl, can do this, then take lace/fabric etc. and tie/glue around the top with ribbon accent) this makes a nice gift too; use a wreath form (even the green "styrofoam") and make a wreath for the door; glue onto a straw broom and add ribbon etc. for accent...; etc... Collage of little things. Make a "collage" of items (small pretty rocks, buttons, pasta, feathers, fabric scraps, ribbon, string) Hand/foot print animals images. Use paint to make hand/foot print animal images on paper or fabric (depends on the paint you choose) two hands next to each other (thumbs touching) makes a bird; footprint with hand print on each side of the toes makes a deer/reindeer; one handprint, fingers/thumb not spread out, but touching each other, makes a turtle--use buttons, fake eyes, etc. to to finish it... Plant flowers. Spend the afternoon planting bright flowers in a smiley face... Cardboard box house. Use a cardboard box to make a "small" house or castle that you can decorate and then the toys can play inside... Pudding paint. Paint with pudding in the tub... (fun and tasty, though not lasting!) Anne Kruppa How about stringing macaroni... use shoe lace type things... and Adam especially loves alphabet-shaped noodles. He'll color them with markers and then string them and do this forever... over and over. For Easter we're making cotton ball bunnies... gluing cotton balls to construction paper. You can do this with balloons covered with paper mache, then pop the balloon after the stuff hardens. Make ears from construction paper... Dawn Doleh Coffee-filter butterfly. Take small bowls with water and color with food coloring (however many different you want). We did blue, red, lavender, orange. Give kids each a coffee filter and a medicine dropper and let them drop drops of colored water on the coffee filter to make a design. When the coffee filter is dry, gather in the middle and wrapp a pipe cleaner around it a couple of times and have the ends stick up as antenna to make a butterfly. For older kids, you can attach beads to the end of the pipe cleaner antennae. We used the smaller coffee filters (for 2 - 4 cup pots), but the bigger ones would work just as well. Then you can attach adhesive magnet to the body for fridge magnet, or put it on a suction cup and hang in the window. I think they would make good gift decorations too! I thought it was a great 'think spring' activity. Start seeds. We started some sunflower seeds in little medicine cups (poked holes in bottom and set on a butter bowl lid for drainage). We will plant them outside in the spring. Beckie Cale Cardboard-tube napkin rings. I got out two cardboard toilet paper tubes that I had saved. Cut a sponge into 4 1-inch strips. I poured some crayola washable paint in a bowl, and had Samantha dip one of the the sponge pieces in the paint and paint her tube - I showed her how to do it - painting my own tube. We let those dry and picked out stickers we'd use to decorate the colored tubes. When the tubes were dry, I cut them each into 3 sort of equal rings and we stuck stickers on to decorate. I then took the two remaining sponges and poured some decopauge(I had leftover from something I made several years ago) in a bowl, and we sponged that over the stickers and paint. I then re-applied the decopauge several more times to create a nice shiny coating. Now we have a set of 6 colorful napkin rings!!!!! Samantha wants to send two to her Grammie and Grampi and a some to her Great Gramma. I guess we should keep a set for home too!!! She was sooooo proud of her "Kah-raft". Colored rice pictures. I got out some old yucky brown rice that's been in the cupboard about a year (don't ask why it was still there!!! :) ) . I got some tiny little rubbermaid containers, put about 1 inch of rice in, several drops of food coloring, and then several drops of water. I put on the lid and let Samantha shake it all up. We then poured it out on some paper to dry. We made 4 different colors of rice. Samantha colored a large paper with markers, I then poured some Elmer's glue (making lots of swirls and zigzags) on the paper, and let Samantha sprinkle the colored rice onto the paper. It turned out really great!!! Kathy Gomez Hawaiian-style lei Prepare ahead of time: Cut out several simple flower shapes from construction paper -- make them around 2 - 3 inches in diameter. Cut up straws into 1 - 2 inch pieces; coloured ones look the best but aren't necessary. Make with child: Cut a necklace or bracelet length of fairly thick string, or that thin plastic string (called gimp, I think) works the best. Put a knot in one end. Thread a piece of straw on the string, then punch a hole in the middle of a flower with a pencil and thread it on the string -- continue, alternating straw and flower, until you have made a Hawaiian-type lei. You can also use other shapes for different occasions -- like hearts for Valentine's day, shamrocks for St. Patrick's day, or whatever you want. Melinda Soares
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This page created 4 April 1998
Last updated 9 July 2000
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