Blooming paper flowers

Hello everyone! Today's activity is the perfect indoor activity, especially if you are in the UK as the weather is not so nice. These paper flowers that bloom when they touch water are very simple, but your children will think it is magic! If you are homeschooling your children at the moment and want to incorporate this into learning, it makes a great activity to teach about growth and life cycles.

What you will need:

- paper 

- scissors 

- colouring pens/pencils

- bowl/tub of water

1. To start this activity, draw out your shape on a piece of paper. I found flowers work the best, but I also used a butterfly shape. If you don't want to draw your own template, I have included a link to some below.

2. Once you have drawn your shape, colour it in and cut it out.*

3. The last step, before you put your flower into the water, is to fold in the petals as I have shown in image 4. Make sure to not fold them down too tightly as they might not bloom when they are put in the water.

4. Finally, place your folded up shape into the water and watch as it starts to unfold!

Extra Suggestion:

- You could layer two flowers together to watch something bigger unfold. To do this simply cut out two flowers, one bigger than the other. Stick the middle of the smaller flower onto the bigger flower and then place onto the water.

(* = adult help/supervision might be needed for that particular task).

Flower template link

Magazine Faces

Today's activity is a fun and easy game for children to mix and match the different features of faces from magazines to create a funny face! I also like this activity as if you choose not to glue them down then you can use this game again and again.

What you will need:

- an old magazine 

- scissors

- glue stick (optional)

- piece of paper (optional)

1. Firstly, cut out different faces from your magazine. I think it is fun to cut out different sized images so that the faces are even more mixed and matched! Once you have cut out the whole face, cut out the different features like the eyes, nose and mouth.*

2. Separate the different features that you have cut out and create new faces using the different eyes, mouth and nose.

3. You can glue these down once you are happy with how the face is or just place them down so that you can re-use them another time. 

Extra suggestion:

- If you want to re-use this game but want the faces to stick to the page, you could use blue tac to temporarily stick them on. 

- I have just created faces from my magazine, but you could also cut out arms and legs to create a whole person or cut out different outfits to make it a fashion game.

- For older children you can adapt this to make a 'beetle drive' type game. Number each feature from 1-6, take turns to throw the dice to build up your picture.

* = Adult supervision needed for this task

Colour scavenger hunt

Today's activity is fun for all ages, but it is great for younger ones to practise their colours. You can use my template or make your own and if you want a bit of a challenge you could use a variety of colours and shades and try and find objects to match! 

What you will need:
- If you are making your own template, you will need some felt tips or colouring pencils and a piece of paper.

1. First of all, if you are making your own template, colour in squares/patches onto your paper.

2. Find objects to match all of your colours. I chose 6 to colours to match items to and I used items only from the garden, but you could also do this inside if the weather is not so good!

Extra suggestion:

- Similar to what I have done, you could challenge yourself to only find flowers and leaves. 

-Following the theme of rainbows which have been a popular thing to display at the moment, you could create a rainbow out of the items you have found!

- For younger children, you could use an empty cardboard egg box, put the colour where the egg would sit and then collect the item to put in each section of the box.


My template:

Frozen Excavation

This activity is simple, but keeps little ones busy for a good amount of time! As you can see from the first image this activity has been tried and tested many times when I worked for a family in the summer. It was a winner for the younger children and is great for practising fine motor skills and patience as some of the characters are harder to get out than others!

What you will need:
- plastic container filled with water
- toy characters (lego people, dinosaurs, playmobil all work well for this activity - anything that will not rust, or harm being placed in water)
- kitchen utensils - spoons, fork, etc

1. First of all, find some characters that you want to rescue from the ice and place them into a container filled with water.

2. I filled the container about half full so that the characters were not too difficult to get out. Place your lid onto the container and put in the freezer until it has completely frozen. It might be a good idea to prepare this the night before and put the container in the freezer overnight so it is ready for the next day.

3. Once it has completely frozen take the container out of the freezer and remove the ice by flipping it upside down.

4. If it is a nice day, take the ice outside and using the utensils try and rescue the characters. If it is too tricky for younger children, then you can let some of the ice melt first in the sun.

Extra suggestion:

- If you have dinosaurs, you could try and rescue them from a frozen egg. To do this put the dinosaur inside a balloon and fill the balloon with water. Place this in the freezer, remove the balloon and you will have an egg shape!

Tin can wind chime

Today's activity is making this wind chime using old tin cans. You can decorate yours however you like. Make sure to hang them up outside as they make a great noise in the wind!

What you will need:

- 3+ tin cans

- string 

- scissors 

- something to make a hole in the can * (I used a screwdriver)

- paint + paintbrush or marker pens 

1. First of all, find some cans and wash them out.* (Be careful the edges of the cans might be sharp). I would use more than 2 cans if you are able to find them as it makes a better noise. Make sure the lids have been taken off and also the labels.

2. Once you have done that, you will need an adult to help with the next task which is to poke a hole through the bottom of the can.* 

3. Feed some string through the hole and tie a few knots to keep the can in place. Repeat with all of your cans making sure you use the same length of string for each one.

4. Now you can decorate! I have used paint to do some patterns around it, but you could paint the whole can or even use marker pens to decorate.

5. Finally, find somewhere to hang them up outside. I tied mine onto a tree in the garden. 

Extra suggestion:

- To make a louder wind chime you can use other objects to add to your wind chime. Cutlery and plastic bottles might also work well.

* = Adult supervision/help might be needed for this task.

Bubble Snakes

While the weather is still so nice, today's activity is an outdoor one and is really easy to make! This is also made using recycled items so no need to buy anything new.

What you will need: 
- plastic water bottle 
- 1 sock (if you did the sock bunny last week and saved the matching sock, use it for this activity)
- scissors 
- elastic band or hair tie 
- washing up liquid 
- bucket or bowl for water

1.  For the first step, you might need some help from an adult to cut the bottom of the water bottle off.* You can save the bottom part of the bottle to make as a bird feeder or if you haven't yet made the fairy garden from my blog, you could use it to make the pond! 

2.  Place the sock over the bottom half of the bottle, making sure it is pulled over tight. 

3.  To keep the sock from sliding off, use an elastic band or hair tie around the sock to keep it in place. 

4.  Fill up your bowl 3 parts water and 1 part washing up liquid. 

5.  Now to make these amazing bubble snakes, take off the cap at the top of the bottle, dip the bottom half of the bottle into the soapy mixture and then take it out and blow out through the top.

Extra suggestion:

- If you have some food colouring, you can make some rainbow bubble snakes, and even create some art from it! 

To do this, put dabs of food colouring onto the part of the sock that is submerged in the water. Blow the bubble snakes onto some paper and leave it until all of the bubbles have popped. It should leave you with a colourful bubble print pattern.

*  =  Adult supervision or help might be needed for this task!

Fairy Garden

This is another great activity to use what is around you in the garden or to collect things when you next go on a walk. I have put some instructions on how I have created this, but this is especially fun as you can design yours however you like!

What you will need:

- a tray (a plate, plant pot will also work)

- moss/grass/leaves

- stones/pebbles/tree bark

- flowers to decorate

- tin foil

- blue food colouring (optional)

- 2 skewers or sticks 

- string

- scissors

- glue stick

- coloured paper (or plain paper if you want to design your own bunting)

1. Before we can begin making the garden, firstly you will need to collect together the items you are going to put in your tray. Once you have done this, start filling out the base of the tray. I filled half of it with moss, a quarter of it with stones and another quarter with my pond and grass.

2. If you would like to make a pond, leave a space for this in the garden when filling up the base of the tray. To make the pond, I used tin foil and moulded the shape of a pond by wrapping the tin foil around a dish. Make sure to add a few layers of foil so that the water does not leak! 

3. Place your pond in the garden and fill the base of the pond with stones to weigh it down and then some water. I added some food colouring to the water to make it stand out better!

4. Now you can start to add the more decorative details like the path and the bunting. To make the path, I put 4 pieces of bark onto 2 straws to create a bridge. To make a path, pebbles, stones or bark work especially well. 

5. To make the bunting, cut two skewers or sticks the same size.* Now tie string at the top of each end of the skewer/stick. To make the flags, draw triangles back to back on some paper (see image 6). Cut these out,* glue the back and attach to the string by folding each side over the string and sticking together.

6. Finally, place the bunting into your tray and add the final details to your garden. These can be flowers to decorate it with and also some fish for the pond. (Use some more of your coloured card to make the fish).

And there you have it, the perfect garden for the fairies to come and visit and play! 

Extra suggestion:

- If you are feeling even more creative, have a go at making this swing to go in the garden!

- You can make this with a lego tyre, some string, some skewers, or lollipop sticks and some blue tack.

-Create a frame by making two triangles with the skewers, place another skewer across them and blue tack them together. Now tie on the tyre with some string, and there you have it, the perfect fairy swing!

*  =   Parental supervision/help might be needed for this task!