With half term approaching, parents’ minds turn to what they can do with the kids to keep them occupied. Especially when half term is in autumn or winter and there’s no guarantee the weather will play nice! We previously talked about four ideas to help keep the kids crafty and occupied and here are some more ideas to add to your list.
Cork tree painting
If you have a wine cork or two around the house (and there’s a good excuse to buy a bottle or two if you don’t) then using them to create paintings is a fun activity for the kids. All you will need is some sheets of paper, wine corks, paints and a dish. You also want to have some brown paper and scissors.
Cut the tree trunk from the brown paper and glue it to the paper. Then set up the first paint in the dish. The kids can then dip the cork into the paint and start to print circles around the tree trunk for the leaves. Use different ends of the corks for different colours and you can have an autumn masterpiece without a single paintbrush in sight!
Pipe cleaner stick people
Pipe cleaners are endlessly useful when it comes to craft activities but this is a very simple project that is ideal for younger kids. All you need are some pipe cleaners, some googly eyes and something to make hair – leaves from outside, bits of string or wool will all work.
Make the pipe cleaners into a person shape with arms and legs. Stick the googly eyes in place and then stick the hair on. You can also make a bigger version with a stick from outside, use the pipe cleaners to make arms and legs and decorate from there.
Pinecone Christmas decorations
You can either collect pine cones for this or grab some from the shop – the store-bought ones are less likely to come with free insects! Then all you need is either glue and glitter or even glitter glue if you have older kids and they can manage it better.
If you are using glue and glitter, get the kids to dip the pine cone into the glue so it coats most of the outside. Then gently roll it in a bowl of glitter so it gains a sparkly coating. If you are using glitter glue, you can simply let them go wild on decorating it. Tie a bit of string to the top or bottom and you can hang it from the tree at Christmas.
Homemade bird feeder
This one is ideal for the autumn and winter half term because the garden birds can always use a little extra help with food levels as they manage the colder months. All you need is some lard and birdseed, an orange and some string.
Cut the orange in half then get the kids to mix the lard and birdseed together. Smear it on each half of the orange then thread a string through it and hang it up somewhere in the garden. Make sure it is out of the reach of the cats so the birds will be tempted to come to it!
For further ideas to keep your kids occupied this half term, check out the art supplies in our online shop. Happy crafting!