This is a great little activity to fill 10-20 minutes and only requires a pencil, some paper and a bit of baking parchment!
What to do: 1. Find a picture from a children's colouring book as a base picture (or you can draw your own /print one out if you'd like) 2. Cut up a piece of baking parchment to the right size and place over the picture 3. Hold the parchment still as you trace over the picture with a pencil (make sure the point isn't too sharp as the lines won't transfer as well) 4. Flip the parchment over onto a plain piece of paper 5. Draw generously over the lines of the picture (kids will enjoy having a good scribble!) 6. Once the picture lines are completely covered, lift off the parchment and see your traced picture below 7. Grab some colouring pens/pencils and colour in! My eldest found it absolute magic when he saw the lines appearing on the plain paper (I kept giving sneak peeks as we scribbled over the back!) and enjoyed that it was a drawing task we could do together - I found holding the pencil at the same time as him for the initial tracing was helpful as following the lines was a little too tricky. Top tip: If you want your picture to end up the same way as the original just trace the other side of the baking parchment before placing on the plain paper to transfer
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Since having children Salt Dough has become one of my favourite activities to do! It's super quick to make, dries hard and then can be decorated afterwards. It makes great keepsakes for memory boxes (Baby hand/footprints) or can be used to make figures to play with or even decorations for the Christmas Tree when the seasons right.
There's a great recipe to make Salt Dough here: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-salt-dough-recipe We've often made the dough using cups as it's a little easier for my small children to do, even if you don't have proper measuring cups just make sure the ratios are correct and you won't go far wrong. When adding water make sure to just add a little at a time till you get the right consistency dough (if you accidentally add a little too much, just add in some flour to firm the dough up). For decoration, best thing we've found is acrylic paint. Now, this isn't really the best paint for little ones as if it gets onto clothes then it's difficult to wash out, so if using acrylics, make sure they're wearing a good apron or some play wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. Another thing I've found which I thought might be worth mentioning is how much the dough will dry your hands out. Sounds silly to say but I suffer with very dry hands in the colder weather and, especially with the extra hand washing at the moment, I found when last making salt dough that my hands cracked and were very sore due to the salt drying them even more. So I recommend if you're the same, keep a bottle of hand moisturiser handy when you make this! The only things you need for this are Paper, Scissors and some colouring pencils/pens! However feel free, if you have the resources to hand, to add googly eyes, feathers, glitter or to even have a go at decoupage! What to do: 1. Take a sheet of A4 paper and fold it first one way about a 1/4 of the way, then turn over and fold another 1/4 on top of the first (concertina style). Fold once more so all the paper is folded together. 2. Draw a figure on top of one side, make sure that your figure has good points to attach to the next figure (hands are the classic way but some templates also connect the feet). If you're not confident at drawing your own, there are many printable templates online. 3. Cut carefully around the figure, holding all of the folds of paper firm so they don't slip as you cut. 4. Unfold the paper and (hopefully) you'll have a chain of people! 5. Get out all the decorating gear and get stuck in! This craft is a great 'half and half' activity where you can do the making of the chain together but if you'd like the children to have a bit of time to do something on their own then you can leave them to the decorating on their own (just make sure the scissors are away and you still keep an eye on them especially if there's glue or small pieces about). Once you've had a go at doing some people, how about trying to making a different chain: - Aliens - Fairies - Sweets - Trees - Flowers Image and idea kindly suggested by Michelle Another clear memory from childhood was being given a paintbrush and a bucket of water and going into the garden to begin the great art of wall painting.
It’s a super simple activity but can provide hours of fun. They can paint over the lines between the bricks (these change colour particularly well) or ‘colour in’ the bricks individually, as the sun shines it’ll dry up and they can paint something new! Obviously the water painting doesn’t have to be limited to the wall, if you have any concrete in a yard for instance it’s a brilliant large canvas for bigger drawings I realise that painting is such a classic activity and maybe everyone would think of it anyway but it didn’t feel right to talk about doing craft with children without mentioning it!
Children often love painting, the bright colours and especially the way they can run their hands through it (or rub it all over their faces!). As the way of using paints can vary massively I thought it would be helpful to give a few ideas of activities to do: On a sheet of paper/cardboard box/etc:
Other Painting:
Whatever you do, don’t be held back by thoughts of it being ‘too messy’ or ‘I’m no good at it’, if your children see you getting stuck in they’ll want to as well. One thing I have invested in the past is super washable paint, however if you don’t have any I recommend you make sure the kids are wearing aprons (any paint on clothes make sure to rinse as soon as possible in cold water to reduce staining). Non-Messy Painting It's worth mentioning that there's another way of playing with paint...without the mess! Pop it into zip-lock bags! They can run their toys over it (little bike and car figures work well for this) or 'draw' with their finger (either just squiggles or pictures, or maybe try letters or numbers) If you’d like to try making your own paint, here’s some recipes I found: https://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/craft/non-toxic-diy-paint-recipe-for-kids/ https://extremecouponingmom.ca/homemade-toddler-finger-paint/ Playdough is a fantastic activity to do with your children and super easy and quick to make too! Making it can be half the fun (especially if you make several batches in different colours or shades) and it can be great for very young children who maybe can’t make anything out of it but will love feeling it squish in their fingers (just watch out for the ones who want to eat it too!). Here’s some ideas of things to make to get you started:
Playdough recipe can be found here: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/playdough-recipe |
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