Fun Space Crafts and Activities for Kids

My 4-year old son really got into our Blast Off! Week of MOMS Camp this summer. We did a few small projects I found at the Dollar Tree, such as a space sticker scene and some foam rockets that were fun. We also made a few crafts that we all loved!

One of my favorite things we made this week was Night Sky Play Doh! My kids really love play doh - especially my son. I found this awesome recipe on Pinterest that was perfect for this week and we had a blast. Here is the original Link  for the recipe I followed.  The only thing was, I didn't have any black food coloring.... or any black liquid water color! So I came up with a fabulous idea to turn the play doh any color I wanted!! Dissolve dried watercolor paints into 1 cup of water and mix into your play doh as it's cooking! Just pop out a little oval of watercolor paint from the pallet and stir it into a cup of water. For this night sky color I used one oval of black and one oval of purple paint.  When the play doh was cooling, I added TONS of glitter in all different sizes and shapes.

 

We used plastic gems and glow in the dark stars to make night scenes in the play doh which was a super fun way to play with it before we really started molding and squishing the play doh like normal.  Then we used those giant glow in the dark stars to decorate my son's ceiling! They cleaned up great after being in the play doh so it wasn't a problem.

I have been dying to paint with shaving cream for some time and was excited to come up with a craft project using it for Space Week.  We made Shaving Cream Painted Planets!! Start with a rectangle cooking tray covered in foil and fill it with shaving cream.

Then squirt several lines of acrylic paint on top.  Use something pointy to swirl it around - but not too much! We used plastic chop sticks but you could just use the tip of your paint brush.... or your fingers if you're not afraid of a little mess! 

Cut out circles of construction paper and press one down onto the shaving cream mixture.  Hold it there for about 10 seconds, making sure it touches everywhere.  Then gently pull it off and set it aside to dry. 

 After about five minute, use a squeegee to carefully scrape off the access shaving cream and you're left with an awesome swirly planet!

This was such a cool technique to create what looks exactly like a gaseous planet - I loved it! Not to mention my kids loved playing in the shaving cream afterwards and mixing it up even more.

Finally, we made some Paper Straw Rockets that I found on Pinterest. They were so fun and simple - we used crayons to decorate several small squares of paper. They were each about 4.5" by 4.5". Then wrap the paper around a pencil to help it hold a cylindrical shape.

Glue it down one side to create a tube. 

Once that's dry, fold over one end and secure with tape.

Stick it over the end of a straw and blow (just like you do with a new straw wrapper at a restaurant!) to launch your rocket! We used big plastic straws for ours but regular straws are fine too. This was a fun project to make and THEN play with! Here is the original blog where I found this!

Fun Weather Crafts for Kids

During our Weather Week of MOMS Camp we made several fun crafts!


Part of our week was all about clouds - learning the different types and reading books about them. My personal favorite is Little Cloud by Eric Carle, in which a single cloud changes into several different shapes, like a rabbit, a shark, and a clown! After reading this book we used white paint and cotton balls to paint our own cloud shapes. Naturally my daughter made hers into a lamb! We also added lots of white paint to the middle of a sheet of construction paper, then folded it in half to make a new blob shape for a cloud.  We used my favorite paint, Crayola Washable Kids Paint.

My daughter loved painting with cotton balls so much, she came up with her own project! It started when she wanted to use her favorite color (brown) to paint with... and it turned into a tornado! Later, when the paint was dry, she added lots of stickers to portray animals and bugs that might be swept up in the tornado! This project was so much fun to do!

 

 Another fun project was finger painting with sun block! I squirted a little bit of sun block onto a plastic lid and we used our fingers to paint with it on black construction paper. You can use any dark color of paper. Be sure the sun block is kind of thick as you're painting. Then you leave it out in the sun for a couple hours and watch how the sun fades the paper's color all around your design! The sun block will evaporate and your design will be left on the paper in the original dark color! This is a fun way to teach your kids how sun block really does protect your skin!

At the beginning of the week, we made a homemade rain gauge! This was in idea from Pinterest. You'll need an empty plastic bottle, all washed out with the label taken off.  Cut off the top part and turn it upside down, then place it inside to keep water from evaporating out later.  I used an old steak knife to cut our bottle, and covered the rough edges with duct tape. Use a ruler to mark your measurements on one side, then you can decorate your bottle with permanent markers! We left our rain gauge outside all week, with a chance of rain every day... but it barely rained at all! My daughter (age 7) still had fun going out to check it each day though. Here's a picture of the one we saw online:

Here's ours as we made it:

Windsock Craft for Kids

Our last craft we made during our Weather Week of MOMS Camp was a wind sock - and it was definitely the most popular craft of the week! We each decorated an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of card stock for it. My daughter and I chose to paint ours, but my son (age 4) isn't always willing to sit for such long crafts so he drew on his with marker and added stickers. 

When the paint was dry, we turned them over and taped strips of crepe paper to the bottom edge. Each strip was about 18 inches. This was great cutting practice for my preschooler! Then we rolled up the card stock and stapled it together to make a cylinder. 

I used a hole puncher to add two holes across from each other at the top. Before punching the holes, I reinforced the card stock with pieces of tape on each side where the holes would go. Finally, I tied a piece of yarn through both holes (again, about 18 inches in length). 

Now we can hang them for decoration and my kids LOVED running around with their wind sock flying out behind them!

Hand Print Snowflake Project

I love making little projects with my kids' hand prints. It is such a fun way to remember how small their sweet hands are at this age! We got pretty crafty during a recent snow day home from school so I took the opportunity to make a project with some hand print snowflakes!

As always, I used Kids Washable Crayola Paint. I painted a mix of light and dark blue on one of their hands and made the prints on white construction paper. To make the snowflake, you'll need to do multiple prints, each a little off center from the one before. We did 6-8 prints for each snowflake. Reapply the paint after every two hand prints so it doesn't get too used up.

Before the paint was dry, I had my kids sprinkle glitter (yay!) on their snowflake. This kind of paint dries very quickly so you need to move fast. We used white glitter.

 Meanwhile, I created a sign for our snowflakes on a sheet of 6x12 bright blue card stock. I used a silver metallic permanent marker to write "Our Little Snowflakes" and then added the year.

Once the snowflakes were dry, I cut them out and used a hold punch to add a hole at the top of each, as well as a hole for each on my sign. I used varying lengths of white yarn to attach my snowflakes to the sign. Here's how I made it look nice without any knots:

I threaded the yarn through as a loop into the snowflake hole.

Then I passed the two open ends of yarn through that loop and pulled tight. If your hole breaks, just reinforce it with clear tape and punch another hole through that.

Next I threaded both loose ends of my yarn UP through the hole in my sign. Wrap your two loose ends around the yarn connecting to the snowflake and tie a knot behind that.

Use tape to secure the knot to the back of your sign and pull tight.

This is such a cute decorate to have in my kitchen now - and it is one to save and pull out again each winter! I made one with my friend's children as a fun gift for her and we used blue paper as a background for our white and light blue painted hand prints.

Paper Ghost Crafts, Great for Cutting Practice!

My daughter, Molly (5), is in kindergarten and cutting with scissors is important to practice, so I came up with several fun Halloween crafts for her to make! Now we have new ghost decorations for our house and Molly got to practice cutting without realizing it was like homework!

The easiest ghosts she made each started with a single sheet of white construction paper.  I drew a simple ghost on it, going all the way down to the bottom edge of the paper and added in several lines for her to cut.  One ghost had zig-zag lines and the other had curvy lines.  Molly had to cut out each ghost and cut on the different lines as her practice. Then she got to decorate her ghosts with  markers to make the faces. I loved her creepy grin with all the teeth!!

Another simple ghost project I had her make used strips of white construction paper and - my favorite - a paper plate! First I drew several lines along a sheet of white construction paper for Molly to cut out.  Then I had her decorate the paper plate with a ghostly face.  Finally we taped the strips to the back of the paper plate to complete her ghost!

For both ghost crafts in this blog post, use a single hole punch to create a hole at the top of each ghost's head.  Thread some yarn or ribbon through and use that to hang up your newest Halloween decoration!

Paper Bat Craft and Decoration

This year my daughter, Molly (5) is all about bats for Halloween! As part of our traditional Halloween Countdown Calendar, we made a special bat project one day! We cut out several paper bats and used them a few different ways.

Start with sheets of black construction paper and fold them in half; either direction is fine. Outline half a bat, including a little ear, pointy wing, and a foot.  I used a purple crayon so the lines wouldn't show up so much on the final project, and I made several per sheet.  Later, Molly told me they were all too skinny to we fattened them up a bit by cutting outside the lines!

Cut out the bats one at a time. This was great practice with the scissors for Molly because a bat shape has a good amount of straight edges and curves without being too difficult to cut out.  She loved unfolding each one to see how it turned out.

The ones that turned out the best became our little "kites." Decorate yours with little faces, fur, and lines on the wings using crayons that will show up easily on the black paper. Silver was our favorite!

When that's done, stick a piece of scotch tape on both sides of it's belly, fold the bat in half, and hole punch it so you end up with two holes side by side. The tape just makes it stronger. You could also use card stock for stronger bats! String some yarn through the two holes and tie a knot.  Be sure there's a pretty good length of yarn attached, maybe about three feet so you can run with your bat "flying" behind you! When Ben (2) woke up from his nap, he was excited to join in the chasing of the bats!

The rest of our bats became wall decorations like some I saw on Pinterest recently! Fold each wing down so it looks like your bat is flapping its wings. Use a piece of rolled up scotch tape to attach it to your wall.  When you put several bats together on your wall, it looks like they're flying around the room! I filled my stairwell with them and I love it!!  This is the first year I've done this but I wouldn't be surprised if the bats come out every year now!

Paper Bag Village

Last week for MOMS Camp we studied all about Neighborhoods and Communities! This meant a week of police cars, firetrucks, roads, houses and neighbors. This was such a fun week for both my kids! I am so excited for Ben (2) to be able to really participate in our weekly activities now that he's a year older this summer!

One activity we made was a paper bag village! We used a little kit to make one from an old High Five magazine which I had been saving for nearly a year! The kit included miniature doors, windows, signs, and decorative plants to cut out. You can of course make your own building accessories out of construction paper and either keep them plain or color them. Glue your doors and windows, etc onto paper lunch bags which become your buildings! Use paper grocery bags for a larger scale village. Well, maybe that would be more like a city... heh.

When they are dry, fill each bag with something like wadded up paper or packing peanuts or air bags (which is what we used) to help them stand up. Fold over the top and staple shut. Our little village included a bank, library, preschool, grocery store, and pharmacy but you can include any other community buildings you want! Houses and a post office would make good additions.

We placed our paper bag village along the streets on a rug we have so all our cars could drive around town! I admit that Ben later used our village buildings as soccer balls, but the good news is that it's just paper bags so they're still in one piece!

Decoupage Stepping Stool

If you know me, you know I love garage sales! I'm always looking for something... and finding plenty of items I didn't know I was looking for in the first place!! Once such find a couple weeks ago was a great stepping stool for my son, Ben (2)! It's got two steps on it so it's higher than the one we already have in our bathroom AND it has a drawer for storage!! I checked it for sturdiness and luckily it passed the test! Unluckily, it wasn't in the prettiest of shape: splattered pink spots and some old stickers!

Right away I knew I wanted to redecorate it so it would look nicer and be more appropriate for my little boy. It took me a few days to decide how exactly I wanted to do it though! Stencils? Paint? Tape? The answer I decided on was decoupage!! After spending some time cutting out pictures of things Ben likes from magazines, I decided that was too much work... that, and I didn't have enough magazines!! So I settled on using scrapbook paper instead!

First I collected 10 sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper. You can often have good luck finding great deals on scrapbook paper at the Target dollar section! I used colors that were boy-appropriate and also matched my kitchen and/or bathroom decor. Basically that means for me it has to have green and gold in it because that's my color scheme throughout the whole house, aside from the kids' rooms!

Rip all of your paper into manageable sizes, with rough edges all around.  Molly (5) helped me with this part! We made our pieces an average of 3"x3".  Use decoupage glue to adhere them to your project.  First, paint on a layer of glue, then place on the paper. Cover it with another layer of the decoupage glue.  I worked in small sections so my glue wouldn't dry, and placed paper from all sides so it would overlap in different directions. The decoupage glue will create a water-barrier on top of the paper so when it's dry, your new step stool is ready to use! Ben has actually played in the sink every day since I finished his new stool - he loves it!!

Kid Of The Day

This past week we started naming a "Kid Of The Day" and it's been a big hit! I came across this idea in the May 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine, in an article by Becky Hayes.  I have tweaked the original idea a bit to better fit my kids' ages and our family's needs.  Here's how it works:

Every other day, one of my kids gets to be the Kid Of The Day! This means they get to pick what we watch on tv; whether we play inside or outside; what we eat for a snack; and other little decisions throughout the day.  They get to be my helper, like getting the mail with me and helping to prepare meals.  It's also a great way to solve simple arguments: like the Kid Of The Day might get the last red popsicle, or they might be the one to sit on my lap when we read books! Most importantly, the Kid Of The Day gets special one-on-one time with me!

To help us remember who is the Kid Of The Day, I made a little sign for our refrigerator.  Molly (5) loves being in charge of switching it each day.  She's really into the whole thing! She even wakes up in the morning and the first thing she talks about is who is the Kid Of The Day!

Anyway... I made the sign out of two mattes from some frames I got. Of course you can just cut your own but I happened to have some so it was easy! I used scrapbook paper and photos to complete each side and taped a loop of ribbon on the back of one for hanging. Finally I glued the two signs together to create a double-sided Kid Of The Day fridge frame!
 

Molly (5) loves being the Kid Of The Day. Her little brother, Ben (2), may not quite understand the concept yet, but he loves the extra attention on his days! I love the fairness of giving each of my kids a special chance to make decisions and have individual time with me and I don't have to keep mental notes of who got what every time because the answer's on the fridge!

May Day Paper Bag Flower Basket

Here's a super simple and fun May Day Flower Basket to make with your kids! I was inspired by Pinterest but took off on my own as we created ours at home.  Here's what you'll need:

brown paper lunch bags
chenille stems
colored cardstock or other paper
floral foam block
scissors, stapler, markers, etc

Keep your brown paper lunch bags folded up and have your child (or you) cut off several inches (about 6ish) from the top.  Have your child decorate the remaining bag any way you want! Glitter glue, stickers, paint... or plain ol' markers like we did. I was so impressed when my daughter, Molly (5), drew beautiful flowers all over hers! We used Crayola washable markers (of course!) so my son, Ben (2), could participate too!

Use the top portion of the paper bag you removed to cut a 1 inch strip to be your handle. Snip it so it's not a full circle and trim it so it's not so long.  In other words, cut a 1"x9" rectangle! Staple this to the sides of the bag to create your handle. Place a floral foam block inside the bag. I found mine at Walmart a while ago and just kept them on hand... you know - in case I wanted to make something like this spur of the moment! I used my trusty old steak knife (that I use to cut cardboard boxes with...) to trim it down to size.

Meanwhile, cut out several 3" flowers from the colored card stock.  I actually have an electric cutter (Cricut) so cutting out flowers was super quick and easy! Ours already had a hole in the middle of each flower, but you can use a hole punch to make yours.  Poke a chenille stem through that hole a couple inches; fold it over; and twist it on itself to create your flower stem! If you have green ones, those would be great... but if you have sparkly, colorful ones on hand like we did, then go with it! Finally, poke your "flowers" into the foam block and display your special May Day Flower Basket!

Egg-Shaped Easter Puzzles

Today we made egg-shaped Easter puzzles! Our project had two parts - first we made them, then we got to play with them!

The other day I was cleaning out our craft drawers and ended up with several pieces of thin cardboard (like what's on the back of a pad of paper!). I decided to hold on to them to reuse them and came up with the idea to make little puzzles!

I flipped through an Easter coloring book and cut out several images in the shape of an Easter egg. I was so happy to even find a picture of an Easter egg to use! Molly (5) used a glue stick to attach the pictures to our cardboard and I cut them out.

She and Ben (2) each got to color a few... and Molly insisted I color the rest (wahoo!).

 

 

When all the eggs were colored, I cut them each into a few pieces with jagged edges to look like cracked egg shells. I made Ben's easy and only did two pieces for him, but Molly's had three or more apiece.  She also cut one of her own!