Outdoor crafting ideas

Clay prints

All this idea requires is oven-bake crafting clay and some bits of foliage. Start by going out on a walk and collecting a bag of leaves, twigs, feathers – whatever bits and bobs you come across that catch your eye. Then take them home, and form balls of clay and flatten them into smooth tablet shapes. Carefully take a piece of foliage and press it firmly into the clay, smoothing it from edge to edge to make sure the details are captured. Then gently peel it away to reveal the imprint in the clay. Once cooked, have fun making a game out of it and asking children to identify the species of plant or other matter on each tablet. You can also paint/decorate them.

Cyanotype prints

Cyanotype print by Wayne Foskett

This simple and historic method of printing images is a very easy crafting activity and a lot of fun. Go for a walk and collect any interesting things you find; eye-catching shapes are perfectly suited to this kind of art. Place your greenery on top of special cyanotype paper (widely available). If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, you can do a coating of cyanotype chemical mix on normal paper/card instead of using cyanotype paper.

Then place a plate of glass carefully over the top of them – the front of a cheap clip frame will do just fine – and leave them in full sun exposure for around twenty minutes. When you take the leaves away, you will be left with fabulous sun prints. This is a good way of demonstrating the power of light and chemical reactions.

Bird feeder

This idea allows children to develop an interest in the wildlife around them, and observe their behaviour. You can adapt these basic instructions to make more advanced creations.

The easiest method is to take an empty plastic bottle and two wooden spoons; skewer the bottle and then pass the handles of the spoons through one side of the bottle and out the other. The handles provide perches for the birds whilst the bowls of the spoons collect the seeds for them to eat (the holes where the spoons are inserted allow the seeds to spill out). Paint or decorate the holder before filling it with seeds and nuts and hang it in a tree. Get the children to make a note of the different kinds of birds they attract with their feeder.

• Feeding and Spotting Garden Birds with Children

Dream catcher

Fun to make, great for decorating indoors or out, and a good way of honing fine motor skills. Find some slender and flexible sticks and wrap them into a basic circle shape, tying the ends in place. Then weave the thread to make the net formation. There are many tutorials online, but here’s a simple pattern to follow:

Then decorate the finished product with leaves and feathers that you collect outside. Children can then experiment with lots of different colours and designs.

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By Charlotte Baldwin, Operations Manager at IQ Cards:

IQ Cards are a fundraising company that provide schools and establishments with the necessary tools to fundraise via selling high-quality and unique gifts designed by pupils. They are an approved supplier for Parentkind. For more information please visit: http://www.iqcards.co.uk/

More posts on activities:

Summer Activities for the Kids * Rainy Day Activities * Potato Printing with Children * Cheap Ways to Keep Kids Entertained * Marbling 

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Arts and crafts activities

We’ve had an arts and crafts box for ages. It’s invaluable as it alleviates boredom in almost an instant. I clear it out every couple of months; throw out anything tatty and then add a few new bits and bobs such as ribbons, foil, lolly sticks, corks, paper plates and some cheap purpose bought stuff.

I recently discovered that big Sainsbury’s stores stock loads of really affordable arts and crafts items and sets. Stickers, sticky shapes for collages, paintbrushes, foam paint brushes and fancy pipe cleaners are all perfect fodder. You can also pick up a pack of 500 sheets of A4 printer paper for a very modest £2.50.

The girls actually love to just draw, so the cheap paper is great as they’re free to scribble to their hearts’ content. They love sticking too. However, sometimes it’s nice to have a bit more structure and to vary things a bit.

1) Pasta pictures – Great for young toddlers and older children alike. All that’s required is PVA glue, a variety of pasta shapes, paper and imagination. We create landscapes and faces.

2) Foot prints and painting on lining paper/old wrapping paper 

Best reserved for outdoors as it can be rather messy. I rolled out a long piece of wrapping paper (white side up) and then filled several plates with poster paint. They all stood in the paint and made footprint trails all along it as well as doing more conventional painting on it. I think there was something about the scale of it as well as ‘the naughtiness’ of getting paint all over their feet, which made it such fun and so appealing.

3) The cardboard box – it’s not a myth: kids really do love cardboard boxes. They’re great for developing imagination. The twins immediately jumped inside the box that I gave them. One insisted it was a pirate ship, the other that it was a rocket. I attached a paper plate with a paper fastener to make a steering wheel; it then became a car. Not only did they love playing in it, they also spent ages decorating it.

Other indoor activities

4) Tent/den building – very similar to the above in terms of ease, enjoyment and imagination development. Obviously works indoors and outdoors. A few chairs, a large sheet/s and a few clothes pegs to hold in place is all that’s required. Their usual toys and usual meals suddenly became far more exciting when used/eaten within the den.

5)  Baking – we keep it simple with biscuits and fairy cakes. Grandma’s biscuits are the easier ever and consist of juts four ingredients. Biscuit baking is well suited to the younger ones (aged two) as they are able to cream, mix and knead, and can use cookie cutters independently. After they’ve cooled we use squeezy tubes of coloured icing to decorate them. This is easier than creamy icing for cakes as it’s a lot less messy and they have much more control.

I find baking fairy cakes is far better suited to my five-year-old.

Outdoor activities

We go to lots of outdoor venues (weather permitting), but the most cost-effective thing we have done on this front is join the National Trust. With membership, we just jump in the car and go without worrying about admission prices or parking tariffs. There are almost always craft activities to do indoors and there are usually family tours of the houses with dressing up etc, but aside from that it’s all about being outdoors, spotting things, doing nature trails, running, jumping, picnicking… Check out their 50 things to do before you’re 11¾ for more inspiration.

Specifically for the toddlers

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of Sure Start centres. The one we attend has had some inspired sensory activities set up; things I wouldn’t have thought of!

Here are some of our favourites:

1) Cold baked beans in a massive tray – Squelching their fingers in the sticky mess. Toddlers love it and are fascinated by the sensation.

2) Cloud Dough (sometimes called moon dough) – Made of flour and baby oil. Has a great texture, which again the kids absolutely love. Additional bonus being that your hands will be silky smooth.

3) Flat perspex shapes submerged in jelly – very messy, very fun, (who isn’t amused by wobbly jelly?) and can be eaten!

4) Cornflour, water and food colouring – This makes a wonderful gloopy mixture in a tray. It feels like plastic when you run your fingers through it. Some farmyard animals were put inside and a minty flavour was added for extra interest. The girls were a little unsure about the texture to begin with but then loved it and played for ages.

5) Hay bales – Great for imaginative play, but also great for physical play. My girls loved ripping it apart and jumping on it as well as using it creatively with toy animals. The benefits of playing with hay have recently been documented.

6) Food colouring on paper towels – A really simple idea, but literally had them engrossed for a good 45 minutes. The centre had set up a number of beakers filled up with water and different colours of food colouring alongside pipettes. The children simply used the pipettes to suck up some of the coloured liquid and squirt it onto the towel. It blotted and made great patterns. They were fascinated.

What activities would you recommend? I’d love to hear some more suggestions.

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