Excited about leading an Arts & Crafts Adventure but need some inspiration? Check out these ideas to help kick start your imagination about what magical experience you can craft with kids.
Create Art With Food
With a handful of inexpensive items you probably already have in the kitchen, you can make three different art projects with kids. Explore print-making with citrus to make one-of-a-kind tea towels. Mix up some salt dough to create colorful, tactile magnets for the fridge. Dye a variety of pasta shapes to design colorful mandalas.
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Why Kids Will Love It
What kid doesn’t love an excuse to play with their food?!
Why Parents Will Love It
Kids will practice fine motor skills and creative expression, using familiar materials in new ways. Bonus: this is great for exposing younger kids to new foods in a playful way.
Make It Extra Special
When art time is over, use the leftover (and clean!) citrus to make lemonade, limeade, and other juices. Taste-test them and pick your fave. Or use the dried tea towels to gift wrap your artwork for a friend.
Painted Story Stones
Create custom-painted story stones with a bag of smooth river rocks from a craft store, paint, and brushes. You may also want some fine-tip markers for adding details, but they’re not necessary. A quick Google search for “painted story stones” will yield lots of inspiration. Choose a theme (ie. science fiction) or just paint whatever inspires you. Make character stones (a robot), stones with settings (the beach), or even add words (scary). When the paint is dry, choose a stone to start your story. Write it down or just tell each other. After a few sentences, choose another rock to determine where the story goes next. When you’re done, shuffle up the stones and start again.
Why Kids Will Love It
Painting rocks gives kids an opportunity to express themselves creatively, and these will do double-duty as they inspire story-telling.
Why Parents Will Love It
Painting the stones is great practice for fine motor skills. Deciding how to incorporate the stone into their story enhances critical thinking skills as the children learn to integrate new characters or plots into their tales.
Make It Extra Special
Paint extra rocks and take a walk around the block, leaving them for neighbors to find. Kids will love the excitement and pride in doing something kind for others. Leaving the stones to be found by others connects the child to their community and instills empathy.
Stained Glass Tissue Paper Mosaics
You’ll need just 4 things to make mosaic-style tissue paper stained glass art: clear contact paper, tissue paper in a variety of colors, scissors, and masking tape. Start by exploring mosaic art with kids. Look at works online or in an art book. Talk about the big concepts and how the artist came up with their ideas. Study works that are detailed images or more abstract shapes. Feel free to draw out ideas on paper before starting. With the blank “canvas” before them, encourage kids to make patterns or designs. Older children may want to make a more detailed image, while small kids may just make a collage of colors. There’s no wrong way to do it! Hang it in the window and marvel at the colors glowing from within.
Why Kids Will Love It
When these one-of-a-kind works of art are hung in a sunny window, they glow through just like real stained glass windows.
Why Parents Will Love It
Cutting and placing the tissue paper squares reinforces fine motor skill development, while the child’s creativity is sparked through design work.
Make It Extra Special
Up your art game by turning your mosaic into a kite or a butterfly by adding in some construction paper and yarn.
Homemade Play-Dough
Once you realize how easy it is to make homemade play-dough, you’ll never worry about your kiddos mashing all the colors into one big brown blob again! The recipe calls for 6 ingredients–and you probably already have 5 at home. (Cream of tartar can be found on the spice aisle of most major grocery stores.) The steps are simple and quick, making it perfect for kids of all ages. Have fun mixing new colors, kneading in glitter for an extra sparkle, or adding spices for an extra-sensory experience. If kept in an air-tight container, the play-dough will last for months or even years.
Why Kids Will Love It
A little bit cooking and a little bit arts and crafts, kids will love learning how to make this iconic plaything at home.
Why Parents Will Love It
Kids will gain practice with fine motor control, following instructions, and patience (waiting for the dough to cool).
Make It Extra Special
Make a double batch and decorate a container of dough to give to a friend.
Make Winter Art With Ice
Whether you live in a winter wonderland or a balmy tropical climate, kids will love exploring new ways of making art with ice. With just some salt, food dye, string, and ice trays, you can easily set up several art projects for kids of all ages. If temperatures are too cold to be safely outside (or if you live in a warm climate), you can utilize your freezer and place creations in a shallow plastic storage bin to contain the mess. Decorate the backyard with colorful garlands or wreaths, paint with ice, play with mini ice sculptures or add salt to create colorful melting works of art. These activities can easily be tailored to suit kids of varying ages.
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Why Kids Will Love It
It’s a new way to have fun with winter weather! Plus they’ll get to try out a new medium for art.
Why Parents Will Love It
Kids are tapping into their inner artist while getting outside in the fresh air.
Make It Extra Special
When kids tire of creating, introduce some arctic animal figurines. Encourage kids to use elements from outside and the leftover snow and ice to create habitats. See what stories unfold.
Looking for more ideas to kickstart your Adventure creativity? Here are some creative ideas for Adventures in each of the available categories. Have fun!
