More creative ideas for young children


Toilet roll tube art


Decorating plastic pots

What you need

  • Yogurt or cream pots
  • Scourer or something to take the labels off
  • Poster paints
  • Pencil

Uses 

  • Planting small plants, growing seeds
  • Table decoration
  • Storage for pens, pencils, etc

Method

  • Clean the pots and remove the labels or paint
  • With a pencil draw a design on the outside
  • Paint the design using a small and fairly dry brush
  • (You could decorate with felt pens)

Hand or foot prints

What you need for this old classic

  • Washing up bowl or paint tray
  • Poster paints
  • Paper
  • Paper towels or something to wipe your hands or feet

Uses 

  • Unwanted gift for friends or family?
  • Stick up on the wall for decoration

Method

  • Either paint your hands or feet or gently dip them in bowl/tray of paint
  • Carefully press hands or feet against the paper
  • Remove carefully
  • Wash or wipe hands or feet before you get prints on your floor or cupboards

Waxy fingernails

What you need

  • White paper
  • Wax crayons
  • Covering for table
  • Fingernail (or wooden cocktail stick, pencil, fork, etc)

Uses 

  • Fun to do and stick on your fridge
  • Present for Grandparents :-)

Method

  • Cover your table to protect it 
  • Rub your wax crayon over the paper so it is covered in wax
  • Draw a picture with your fingernail (or other tools above)
  • The wax will collect under your fingernail and the white lines will be the picture in the wax on the paper

Old school – parachute person

What you need

  • Handkerchief, napkin or square of light fabric
  • String
  • Plastic or wooden peg or small toy person – light weight

Use

  • Introduction to gravity and air resistance project?
  • Fun

Method

  • Take your handkerchief or equivalent and tie an equal length of string to each corner (approx. 30cm)
  • Knot the string to each corner so that the string is fixed. (Each has an end that hangs down).
  • Decorate your wooden peg to make into a character
  • Tie your peg person or toy character to each end of the 4 strings
  • Roll up the parachute, so the strings don’t tangle, and the man will hang free when loosened
  • Throw the rolled-up parachute into the air and watch the parachute fall to the ground

Wax hand puppets

What you need

  • Your hand
  • Wax crayons or washable pen

Use

  • Simple ventriloquism

Method

  • Take your right hand
  • Put your thumb against your first finger

  • Draw a face better than this one – experiment

  • Move your thumb and fingers to make the mouth talk

Secret writing

What you need

  • Lemon or lime
  • Bowl
  • Sharp knife
  • Pen
  • Paper

Uses 

  • Send secret messages to your friends
  • Use it as a way of telling your kids you love them 
  • Use as a start of a project on spying? 

Method

  • Squeeze the juice out of the fruit into the bowl
  • Use a clean nib (or cocktail stick) 
  • You could make a quill from a feather by cutting it at an angle and putting a cut into it’s tip lengthways along the feather
  • Write on the paper with the ‘ink’
  • Leave the message to dry and the message will disappear
  • To make it appear warm up the paper on a radiator or over a lamp
Remember the recipients need to know how to ‘develop’ the ink to make the message reappear

Flying paper butterflies

What you need

  • Very light paper – such as thin tissue paper – coloured will be nice
  • Brown paper – the stuff Amazon uses should work
  • White postcard or cut up old birthday card
  • Light thread
  • Glue
  • Sellotape 
  • Oven
  • Draw some small butterflies on 

Uses 

  • Shows electrostatic charges – discuss?
  • Just for fun!

Method

  • Draw some small butterflies on your thin paper
  • (colour them in if you like)
  • Stick a piece of cotton about 7-8 cm long onto the butterflies
  • Using the Sellotape stick the other end of the cotton to the card

This bit adults only

  • Heat the sheet of brown paper in the oven for a few minutes
  • Rub the paper quickly with even strokes. Go in the same direction
  • Quickly hold the brown paper over the butterflies and they should fly up.
  • When the paper cools down they will drop but just repeat until you get bored.

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