Depending on what you have in your cupboards, there’s always something you can do to get your kids creative!
Painting an eggshell
What you need:
An egg
A toothpick or cocktail stick
A safety pin or nail
A jug
A straw (optional)
Use the pin to prick a hole in the top of the egg and stick the cocktail stick or toothpick through the hole and wiggle it around to break up the yolk.
Prick the base of the egg - try to make this hole a little bigger by making more pricks. Break up the yolk at this end too.
Hold the egg over the jug with the bigger hole facing downwards and blow through the top hole with the straw to push the raw egg out of the bottom – this can take a minute to start coming out. You know when it is all out when you are just blowing air bubbles and the eggshell is light.
Clean the egg and it is now ready to be decorated! I always did a face – but it could be anything!
Fairy Garden
There is not one particular way of doing this one, perhaps you make it in a plant pot, or on a log stump, or under a bush... Collect things and make bits and bobs to create a little home for the fairies of your garden. Perhaps leaves would make a good carpet and the top of an acorn would make a good teacup? Perhaps an old pair of socks cut up could make the perfect bed?
Nature paintings
What you need:
Paper
Glue
I used to find going on a walk really boring as a kid, so my parents used to set me things to find whilst we walked. They would write up an eye spy list and I would tick things off when I found them. So why not take this a step further and create a picture when you get home, with things the kids have found on the walk? A fallen leaf, a feather on the ground, a stick...
Newspaper collages
What you need:
A newspaper or magazine you have finished reading
Glue
A piece of paper
Scissors
See what pictures can be made from cutting pictures out of the newspaper or magazine. Or see what stories can be made from cutting individual words out of the paper or magazine and reordering them!
Rock painting
What you need:
A rock from your garden
Paint (you could use felt-tips but these fade quickly)
Paintbrush
Rocks are an easy canvas to paint a face or an animal or a pretty picture on. Perhaps they can be used to play a game with or placed outside your door for people to spot whilst getting their daily exercise.
Salt dough decorations
What you need:
Plain flour
Salt
Water
Oven
Paint
Mix equal parts salt and water into their equal sum of plain flour. Mix until it comes together in a ball, roll out and make shapes! Bake in the oven on baking parchment on the lowest heat setting for 3 hours. When they are cooled, they can be decorated with paint, glitter...anything!
Toilet roll tube people
What you need:
The middle of a toilet roll
Pens/paint
Extra paper (optional)
Glue (if you use extra paper)
Take the middle of the toilet roll tube and turn it into a solider, a knight, a fairy, a princess, an animal – anything! Use the extra paper to add accessories, wings, arms etc.
Flip book
What you need:
Paper
Stapler or string
Pens
Scissors
Cut up lots of small pieces of paper all the same size. Draw a simple drawing which can be repeated on each piece with a slight change to it each time – such as a stick man in a park. When put all together and flipped through, it will look like the man is running through the park. The pieces of paper can be stapled together or bound with string through holes in the paper.
Foam paint
What you need:
Shaving cream
Glue
Food colouring
In a sealable sandwich bag, place equal parts of shaving cream and glue and add food colouring. Mix the ingredients together in the bag and then cut a corner of the bag off to make it a piping bag. Then create your picture!
Bubble painting
What you need:
A straw
A cup
Paint
Washing up liquid
Water
Paper
Mix equal parts of water and washing up liquid in a cup and add some paint. Blow through the straw (don’t breathe in!) until the bubbles come up above the rim of the cup a little way. Then lay the paper over the cup to make a print! Repeat with different colours to make a pretty pattern.
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