10 colourful craft ideas for Summer

In planning your craft times for the summer term, it's good to provide a variety of experiences, including: a food craft, a colouring craft, a sticking craft, a painting craft, a model-making craft and a gardening craft.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it ensures the children experience a variety of materials and techniques, and so develop as wide a range of skills as possible. Secondly, you're likely to hit on at least one thing they like doing, even if it's only eating all the items you have provided for decorating the pizzas!

1. Pizza faces
   Buy mini cheese and tomato pizzas, and provide bowls of different toppings for them to add. Good choices include: squares of ham, circles of pepperami, slices of red, yellow, orange and green peppers, tinned sweetcorn, slices of cherry tomato and button mushrooms, chunks of pineapple and even halves of grapes.
   
   At the end you can provide a little more grated cheese to stop them drying out, and then bake them, as per instructions on the pizzas, until lightly browned.
   
   Assemble them on squares of foil labelled with the child's name in permanent marker pen. Later the foil can be used to wrap the pizza to take home for tea.
   
   Provide a bowl of soapy water and a towel for washing hands before and after. And always remember to check for any FOOD ALLERGIES.
2. Finger puppets
   Print off and colour in these simple animal finger puppets (PDF). You can cut them out, bend them into a ring shape and secure them with sticky tape. Linked to a relevant storytime, you can use them to encourage group participation.
3. Boat collage
   Use layers of different shades of blue tissue paper to make an effective 'sea' for a simple boat collage.
4. Hand and footprints
   Parents love to have a memento of their children's early years to keep or to give away. Handprints are great fun with the older toddlers. However, the little ones often clench their fists or try to put their painted fingers in their mouths, so it's easier to do footprints with babies.
   
   You can buy special non-toxic paint wipes, use water-based paint pads (now available in Tesco), or just apply the paint with a sponge or brush.
   
   Inform the parents in advance so they can dress their children in old clothes. Have plenty of adult helpers - at least one to look after the child and one to look after the paper and paint! Make sure you have wet-wipes or a bowl of soapy water and towel to hand for an instant clean-up.
   
   If you'd like to turn it into a keepsake, then print off a suitable poem about handprints (PDF) or footprints (PDF) and laminate them once they are dry.
   
   Make sure you have plenty of copies as you'll find that lots will get smudged and most children will want to do several. Alternatively, make hand and foot imprints in clay or saltdough plaques, then bake, paint and varnish them.
5. Washing-up sponge boats
   Decorate triangles of craft foam or card to make sails and attach to a straw 'mast' with sticky tape. Pierce a hole in a washing-up sponge using a pencil and insert bottom of mast. Your boat is now ready to sail. Try making these on a sunny day and provide a well-supervised paddling pool pond for the maiden voyage.
6. Mr Grasshead
   This craft gets really messy, but as one of my kids pointed out, "At least it's clean mess, Mum!" Take an old stocking and put a handful of grass seed in the bottom. Pack it tightly with sawdust (available from pet shops) to make a head shape and tie a knot in the bottom. Pinch out a nose, eyes and ears and secure with clear TPU bands (available from hairdressing suppliers) or small rubber bands. Use a permanent marker to colour in the eyes.
   
   Instruct the children to take Mr Grasshead home, soak him in a bowl of water, and then stand him in a saucer. If they keep him watered, his 'hair' should begin to grow in about two weeks and will need styling after a month or so!
7. Glueless spaghetti pictures
   Lightly cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 5 minutes, until pliable. Allow it to cool and then make pictures on sheets of thin card. There's no need to use glue for these 3D pictures as the starch from the pasta will cause it to stick to the paper like magic!
   
   Try drawing simple outlines on the card for the children to follow with the spaghetti. This will develop their hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.
   
   Full instructions for this activity are available in the craft section of the Playtime website.
8. Stained glass windows
   Cut 'window' shapes from a piece of black card. Using sticky tape, fix a sheet of sticky-backed plastic on top with the sticky side up. The children can tear up different coloured pieces of tissue paper to stick on top. When you turn it over, you have a beautiful stained glass window. Other shapes could be made to fit in with a theme. How about a cross, butterfly, fish, heart, crown, balloons or rainbow?
9. Peppermint creams for Fathers' Day on 19 June 2011
   What dad could resist sweets which have been lovingly crafted by their own child? That's assuming the sweets make it home!
   
   Peppermint creams can be made by stirring approximately 1lb of sieved icing sugar into the beaten egg white from one egg, and a few drops of peppermint essence to give a smooth, firm dough. Or you can cheat by adding the peppermint essence to a packet of ready-to-roll fondant icing.
   
   Allow the children to roll it out and cut out small shapes as if it was playdough.
   
   Place on sheets of greaseproofed paper to dry overnight. If there's time, you could get them to decorate a box to hold the sweets.
10. Postcard collage
    Print off A5 postcards, with space for the address and stamp on the right-hand side, and a simple message such as 'Having a lovely time at Little Fishes Toddler group. Love from,' and space to write their name on the left. Provide the children with lots of pictures cut from old holiday brochures to make a collage on the back. You could then provide a stamp for each one and a makeshift post box so that they can mail them.

Need more ideas?

Inspiration can come from books and websites, and also from a trip to a scrapstore or craft shop. If you have toddlers of your own, you can adopt or adapt the best ideas from their nurseries. The cheapest activities will recycle junk that friends or family are throwing out - soon you will probably end up with an eye for 'creative' junk and start your own collection!

Fiona Burt

Last Updated 13 December 2010