Growing Apple Seeds
Growing little apple trees from seed is great fun. It is a great experience for kids to be able to take a seed from a fruit that they have eaten and watch it grow into a little tree.
Growing Avocado Trees
Watching the stone from an avocado tree grow is fascinating. Following this method, you can watch the growth of the roots and shoots. They grow incredibly fast with nearly daily changes being noticeable.
Color Mixing Ice
The project is a great visual introduction to color mixing – suitable for even younger kids.
GIANT BUBBLES
Who doesn't love bubbles - and giant bubbles are sure to bring smiles to everyone's faces. This makes a fantastic activity for a kids Birthday party.
Paper Mache Dinosaur Egg
Paper Mache Dinosaur Eggs are fun to make and are a great tool for imaginary play for young kids. If you place a plastic dinosaur toy inside, kids can have fun "hatching" the dinosaur: a fun idea for a dinosaur themed party...
Ooze
Is it a liquid, is it a solid, or is it just fun? Ooze will run through your fingers, but if you roll it between your hands it will form a ball. Hours of fun are to be had exploring this slimy concoction.
Big Batch of Silly Putty (or Gak)
Stretch it, bang it, roll it, bounce it - Silly Putty will keep you amused however you play with it. Make your own batch using the recipe given here.
Banana Pops
Coat bananas in chocolate and sprinkles and freeze for a fun summer activity – and treat!
Crystal Flower
Add these crystal flowers to canvas or frame them to create a fabulous gift.
Crystal Snowflake
Grow your own crystal snowflake! These incredible snowflakes can be hung in your window as suncatchers or hung on your Christmas Tree as spectacular ornaments.
Salt Ice Sculptures
These incredible salt-ice sculptures combine science, art and a big dose of fun! Simply take a large block of ice, salt and watered down paint – and combine! The salt and paint make the ice melt with interesting caves and crevasses which act as tunnels and lakes for the paint. The effect is stunning.
Jack o Lantern Bottle
I love these little Jack o Lanterns - easy to make and so cute as decorations for your Halloween table.
Sailing Boat Collage
I created this project as a way to experiment with various paint techniques. I love the way that they turned out! This is not an activity to do in an afternoon - rather one to spread over a week or longer - each of the underlying "paintings" can be created separately in advance.
Chalk Drawings
Drawing with chalk on black construction paper produces wonderfully vibrant pictures. This is a great activity for all ages.
Chocolate Biscuit Cake
Chocolate Biscuit Cake (also known as refrigerator cake) has long been a favorite of children in the United Kingdom. It's place in society was sealed when Prince William requested one as his "groom's cake" at his wedding to Kate Middleton. Simple and super fun to make, with no baking required; even the youngest kids can get involved in helping to create these. And everyone in the family will enjoy helping to eat them!
Chromatography Experiment
Black Ink is just black right? No! And in this experiment you can watch as the ink separates into several colors before your eyes. And not just black ink!
Coffee Filter Art
Take a coffee filter, make dots using washable markers, add water and watch as the ink travels and merges and makes pretty patterns.
Marshmallow Flowers
These Marshmallow Flowers are great as an unusual Valentines, Thank you or Mothers Day gift. Simple to make and delightful to receive
Color Changing Flowers
Watch as flowers change colors before your eyes!! A great science project that gives a really visual demonstration of the way that plants use water.
Exploding Volcano
What could be more exciting than creating and exploding your own volcano? A craft and a science project combined!
Watercolor Resist - Rubber Cement
When painted on watercolor paper, rubber cement will resist watercolor paints - keeping the paper underneath white. Simply rub off the cement when the paint is dry.
Watercolor Resist Christmas Trees
Very simple, very effective - create Christmas tree snow scene pictures by painting rubber cement onto watercolor paper in the shape of a Christmas Tree and painting.
Rubber Cement Valentines
Make these beautiful Valentine cards by painting hearts onto watercolor paper using rubber cement and then painting.
Easter Chicks
These are a variation on the Easter Chicks that are on the activityvillage.co.uk. They used polystyrene eggs - we decided to dye real eggs.
Chocolate Easter Nests
These chocolate nests are a breeze to make, are super cute and very yummy. The instructions will make one nest, simply multiply the ingredients by the number of nests you want to make more.
Shiny Art: Embossed Foil Pics
Using Sharpies to color on foil makes shiny art. You can also create embossed edges to your pictures by using glue to trace an outline underneath the foil. This is an especially cool effect for pictures of fish as they glimmer as if they were rushing through the water!
Sun Prints
Sun Prints are fantastic fun. All you need is a pack of light sensitive paper and your imagination! This is a great project for young and old alike. Younger kids will be fascinated by the magic of this project. Older kids will be able to use their imaginations to create pictures from objects - and a great opportunity to talk about the science of light and photography too!
Glowing Glow Bugs
These super cute glow bugs had my children captivated. They were flying them round the yard for ages - and then they lined up on their shelf as night lights when they went to bed!
Homemade Sidewalk Chalk
Sidewalk Chalk is so much fun any time of year, but particularly in the summer. Making your own is super easy, way cheaper than the store bought options and kids of any age will enjoy helping out.
Popped Bubble Art
I've done this activity with my kids a few times now and it never fails to fascinate them - and me! Simply color bubble mix with food coloring and blow bubbles onto paper - as the bubbles land and pop, they create beautiful works of art. It goes without saying that this project is best done outdoors. A great one for those lazy summer afternoons.
Noodle Sprinkler
This homemade sprinkler was a huge hit for my family - a perfect way for them to cool down in our recent heat wave.
Soda Bottle Shower
Fascinating fact: Soda bottle tops are the same fitting as a standard garden hose faucet. That means that you can screw a garden hose onto a soda bottle. Drill a few holes in the bottle, and string it up a tree (or as we did - up a basketball hoop) and you have a fun outdoor shower for cooling off on those summer days.
Soap Boats
Ivory Brand Soap Floats when dropped in water making it the perfect base for little boats. These are fun to sail in the bath - or in the summer months in a kiddie pool in the yard. Try racing them!
Sand Hand Prints
This is a really cute project to do: a sand covered hand print! It's simple to do on the beach and makes a wonderful memory of your vacation. Older kids will be able to do this themselves.
Watermelon Popsicles
A fun, refreshing and super healthy treat for the kids - watermelon popsicles! These are straightforward to make with a little patience and are guaranteed to be popular with the whole family. Make them for National Watermelon Day - celebrated on August 3rd each year.
Monster Pencil Holders
These cute little monsters will keep your pencils in reach. Let your imaginations run wild to create weird and wonderful monsters of any shape and color out of air dry clay. A great project for boys to have on hand for a rainy day, as a back to school project or just as fun.
Flower Pencil Holders
These flower pencil holders made of air dry clay will brighten up the desk of any little girl. They also make great gifts for mothers day, for teacher appreciation or for Grandma's Birthday.
Milk Art Science!
This project is incredible. The results are not only dramatic but are beautiful too - you'll be making art whilst learning about science. Your kids (whatever their age) will want to do this over and over so make sure that you have plenty of milk!
Dinosaur Fossils
Little dinosaur lovers and wannabe geologists will just LOVE creating these dinosaur fossils. The project is so easy that even older preschoolers can do it with a little help. A great project for a dinosaur theme in the classroom, to do with a small group at a dinosaur party, or just because!
Hatching Dinosaur Eggs
The ultimate little dinosaur lovers activity - dinosaur egg hunts - with "real" hatching dinosaurs. Little plastic dinosaurs can be inexpensively purchased from party supply stores or online, making this not only an easy project - but a frugal one as well. Hide your eggs in a sand box, in a dinosaur nest made from shredded paper in a kiddie pool, or around the house or garden for the ultimate prehistoric egg hunt
Blown Bubble Prints
What child with a drink and a straw doesn't love blowing bubbles? Not exactly behavior that we're generally encouraging (it doesn't exactly go down well at the dinner table). Which is why toddlers and preschoolers will love this activity: using straws to blow LOTS of bubbles in soapy water colored with food coloring - and then making art by placing paper on top of the bubbles.
Sparkly Spider Web
These amazing sparkly Spider's Webs are deceptively easy to create. White glue is used to create a spider web shape on watercolor paper. Once dry, watercolor paint is then brushed over. The glue will resist the paint so that the web shape stands out from the painted background. The addition of glitter gives the web that glittery effect reminiscent of an early dew covered morning. A simple glittery eyed spider finishes the effect.
Moon Paintings
One of our favorite activities is using salt to create texture on watercolor paintings. In this activity Salt and Glue are used to turn a simple watercolor painting into the surface of the moon! Leave as is for a great Space themed project or add some black card silhouettes and you have a spooky Halloween picture.
Lemon!
Once finished these lemons feel (to touch) remarkably like real lemons, which is cool! And also makes this a great sensory project for preschoolers: touch (texture), sight (vibrant yellow colors) and taste - because it is just wrong not to accompany this activity with either a wedge of lemon to explore or a small glass of lemonade!
Tissue Paper Painted Fall Leaves
Toddlers and Preschoolers will love this autumn project. Simply pile small pieces of torn tissue paper onto a sheet of paper and spray with water. The colors from the tissue paper will bleed onto the paper and will merge, mingle and blend to make beautiful subtle patterns. Using fall colored tissue paper (reds oranges and yellows) and cutting out the finished art work into leaf shapes makes beautiful fall leaves. Mount the leaves onto a paper branch for a beautiful fall picture.
Halloween Monster Egg Heads
Let your imagination go wild creating these fun crazy hair monsters. Have your kids start them a couple of weeks before Halloween and they will be ready to sit alongside your jack-o-lanterns on your doorstep, or take pride of place on your Halloween Party Table.
Egg Heads
This is a fantastic project that will provide much entertainment for the kids. It is very exciting to watch as the hair begins to grow, and grow and grow. Use wheat grass seeds (available in most hardware or garden stores) for truly spectacular hairy growth.
Splatter Paintings - Pollock Style
Jackson Pollock was made famous for producing art from splatter's of paint. It's not uncommon to hear people viewing his art say - "my kids could do that". In this project, you let your kids try to do just that - and you will be amazed by the results. The finished artwork will be probably be worthy of a space on your living room wall. But, the best part of this project is the process - it is truly a means for self expression. There is something incredibly therapeutic about watching the art emerge as you splash the paint onto the canvas. Just be sure to do it outside with where the mess is ok, and wear clothes you don't mind being covered in paint!
Sparkling Bonfire / Campfire Picture
There's nothing like gathering round a nice roaring fire, whether that be at the end of a day's camping or as part of Bonfire Night Celebrations (in the UK) on the 5th November. This cute fire picture allows you to safely bring some of the fun inside.
Cheerful Fall Tree
Creating your own fall tree can be super fun - and although this one looks time consuming it's really easy to put together. What's more, all the members of your family can take part making the leaves. This would be a great group project in a preschool or kindergarten classroom as you could create a class tree with leaves from each child. The leaves can be as small or large as you like - and so can the tree!
Sparkly Christmas Tree
I was so excited by the results of this festive holiday project. It's simple to do, but engaging for kids of any age - and the results are so pretty. You can make the finished trees into pictures - or turn them into special, one of a kind greetings cards.
Painting in the Rain
This project is the perfect way to brighten up a grey and gloomy rainy day by using the rain itself to create beautiful artwork. What better excuse to don those raincoats and rainboots and combine making art with some puddle stomping! No rain? Just use a watering can with a fine nozzle, or a spray water bottle to create the same effect.
Watercolor Flowers
These are SO SIMPLE to make and yet they look fantastic. It's worth doing a few and keeping them on hand as they are really useful to make gift tags and birthday cards. Or combine several to make a collage or a spring wreath. Preschoolers will have fun doing this project and older kids (and adults) will enjoy creating more complex designs.
Gelatin Printing Adventure
This project is seriously addictive! The process is extremely fun and interactive. And the results are amazing. In other words this is a great introduction to print making for kids - and one that even smaller kids can do and enjoy. First, you make a gelatin plate. This is quite straightforward and basically involves creating a slab of firm gelatin: a process that is fun for older kids to help with. then you have fun applying paint to the plate, and using everyday objects as brushes and stencils to ensure that when you place the paper over the top of the plate to make print, you get fantastic results. Note: don't be put off by the wordy instructions - the procedure is actually very quick and easy once you get the hang of it!