Sunshine, playing in the sand, bugs, juicy watermelon – these are symbols of summer for many kids. Why not help them make a craft to remember this fun-filled season?
Whether it is for a rainy day activity or a summer theme, these crafts are easy to make with a group and are also portable enough to do at the cottage.
Hand Print Sun
Paint a circle about four inches in diameter in the middle of a piece of finger painting paper using yellow paint. Paint one of the child’s hands yellow and make a print on the outside of the circle with the heel of the hand touching the circle and the fingers pointing out to make the sun’s rays. Paint the hand again and make prints in the same manner as the first one all the way around the circle. This also makes a great craft for a solar system theme.
Sand Art
Place a small amount of beach sand or store-bought play sand into margarine containers. Let the kids sprinkle glitter and sequins into the containers of sand and mix with their hands. Give the kids pieces of Bristol board or heavy construction paper and let them “draw” a picture on the paper with white glue. Sprinkle the various sand mixtures over the glue and shake off the excess sand (best done outside). Let the sand pictures dry before hanging up inside.
Egg Carton Ladybug
Cut one egg cup section out of an egg carton for each child and have them paint the outside of it red. Once the paint is dry, let the kids make dots on the ladybug’s body using their finger tip dipped in black paint. Using hot glue, attach a black pom-pom for a head onto the side of the egg cup. On the head, attach two black pipe cleaners about two inches long for antennae and also two googly eyes. This craft can also be easily adapted to make other summer bugs:
- spiders - make eight legs using pipe cleaners attached to the egg cup
- caterpillars - paint four or five egg cups and glue them together to make a long body
- flies - use two upside down egg carton cups as eyes on a round body made of balled up newspaper
Paper Plate Watermelon
Cut a large paper plate in half and give one half to each child. With the half plate facing up, have the kids paint the middle pink or red and the outside edge green. Let the kids glue washed and dried watermelon seeds onto the pink part of the watermelon. If watermelon seeds are not available, cut small tear shaped seeds out of black construction paper instead.
With a little paper, paint and imagination, kids can create all kinds of summer crafts with materials around the house. For other seasonal craft ideas, check out Spring-Themed Crafts for Kids.
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