Firework Painting
Materials: paint, straw, black paper
Directions:
Put a few drops of paint on each child’s paper.
Discuss straw safety with children — they should take the straw out of their mouth to take a breath in, then breathe gently through the straw onto the paint drops.
Encourage children to spread the paint around the paper until it looks like fireworks in the night sky!
Milk Fireworks
Materials: whole milk, food coloring, dish soap, cotton swab, cup
Directions:
Give each child a cup of milk.
Tell children to carefully place one drop of two different colors of food coloring right in the center of the cup. Younger children may need your help with this part. Explain that they should try not to bump the cup or table on which it is sitting.
Children should apply a tiny bit of dish soap to one end of a cotton swab.
Count down from 10 for the fireworks to start!
Children should gently dip the cotton swab into the middle of the cup of milk where the food coloring was placed and observe what happens.
Explanation: Milk has fat in it, and dish soap breaks up fat. When soap touches milk, it starts chasing and breaking up the fat, and this makes the food coloring swirl around.
Three-Legged Wrapping Paper Race
Materials: wrapping paper, bows, tape
Directions:
Pair up children for a race.
Help each pair of children wrap the wrapping paper so that it goes around the right leg of one partner and the left leg of the other partner, securing them together. This is easiest to do while partners are standing next to each other.
Have children stand on one side of the playing area and place a bunch of bows on the other side of the playing area.
On your signal, the children will run with their partners from the starting area to the other side to get a bow and return with it. Children should repeat until all bows have been collected and brought back or until their wrapping paper rips apart.
The winning team is the team with the most bows at the end of the game.
Snowman Cookies
Materials: round wafer cookies, candy eyes, powdered sugar, orange juice, spoon, bowl
Directions:
Give each child three wafer cookies, a bowl, and a spoon.
Have children add two spoons of powdered sugar and one spoon of orange juice to the bowl. Have them mix it until it becomes smooth. This is the frosting.
Children should use the back of the spoon to spread the frosting onto the cookies to stick them together.
Give each child two candy eyes that they can stick onto the top cookie using icing.
Enjoy a snowman cookie snack!
Amy Middleton has 25 years of experience as a teacher and camp director and knows how to make every moment count with campers. Her book, 50+ Nifty Ways to Keep Little Hands Busy, available through the ACA Bookstore, shares quality activities that provide simple, hands-on fun for kids.
