Kids Summer Paper Crafts

When I lived in the UK I was a member of Girlguiding (or Girl Scouts in the US), and often helped plan meetings and activities, especially the craft ones. So I am digging out some of my past projects to share with you to keep the kids busy this summer.

So some summer paper Crafts

Paper Ice Lollies

Print off the pdf design (2 lollies a sheet) and let the kids colour them in. Then cut out the shapes, fold in half and stick together with a popsicle stick in the middle.
Download pdf file

Flip-Flop Matching Game

Print off the pdf file and cut out the squares. For younger children they can just match the colours, for older children they have to match colour, and left and right foot.
Download pdf file

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Salt Paintings

By: Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Winter hasn’t snowed us in yet in Maryland (we’re still waiting!), but we have had several windy, chilly days that have kept my son and I inside and looking for things to do. A couple of days ago, I found directions for salt painting in a science activity book I bought my son (he’s 4) for Christmas.

Man, did they come out cool!

Here’s what you need:

Paint (I used poster paint)
Brushes
Heavy paper (I used cardstock)
Large-grain salt (I used Kosher salt)

First, pick a couple of paint colors. We used purple, yellow, green, and glittery red, but I’d recommend darker colors so the effect of the salt shows up well. (It got lost a little on the yellow.) Then, water down the paint so it’s fairly thin.

The instructions I had showed dragons, so my son decided he wanted to make dinosaurs. We drew our dinosaurs in pencil on the cardstock and painted over them. We didn’t worry about staying inside the lines; I cut them out after they were dry. Put a lot of paint on your drawing. You want lots of liquid for the salt to soak up.

While the paint is still wet, sprinkle lots of salt all over your artwork. Set aside to dry.

When the paint is dry, brush off the salt grains, and you’ll see that wherever there was a salt grain, you’ll see a darker patch of paint. If you’d like, add detail to your drawing with a marker. We cut our drawings out and mounted them on black construction paper.

Here’s the science bit: The salt crystals absorb the water from the paint around it, leaving dark spots where the crystals were because there was more paint there and elsewhere on the paper. Try larger-grain salt for bigger dark spots!

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