Use these fun ideas to keep little hands and minds busy at your next kid’s birthday party!
Pipe Cleaner Disguises
Materials needed: Lots of different colours and sizes of pipe cleaners and glue dots or double-sided tape.
Create a unique pipe cleaner disguise for yourself. We have some suggestions…
Spy glasses: Take a pipe cleaner and make it into a spiral like a shell – you will need two. When finished, push the centre of the spirals out to create a sort of cone. Attach the “cones” to the centre of eyeglasses formed from pipe cleaners.
Get your bug on! Create antennae and pretend to be an insect… or an alien. Use a couple of pipe cleaners to create a headband. Add antennae. Consider making the antennae from spirals or curling the ends of them.
Other pipe cleaner accessories you can make: Swords, mustaches, bushy eyebrows, hats, cat whiskers, flowers – the options are endless!
Tips: Are you worried about the ends of the pipe cleaners poking you child? Just fold the sharp end in and twist it inside itself. Your pipe cleaner should now be blunted and safer for small tots to enjoy.
This is also a great activity for kids to do on a long car trip.
Bouncing Balloons
While you can’t do all the traditional yo-yo tricks with this homemade version, it’s a fun way to practice eye-hand coordination and is much easier to control.
Materials:
- Colourful balloons, play dough, sand or flour
- Scissors
- Large rubber band (or multiple bands if small)
- Masking tape
Fill the balloon with the playdough (or flour or sand). Then, tie the balloon shut.
Cut some small holes into a second balloon. Carefully stretch the second balloon over the playdough-filled balloon, allowing the colour of the lower balloon to peek through the top layer holes.
Tie the rubber band around the knot in the balloon. If your rubber band is not long enough, make a “string” of bands by tying them to each other.
Modifications for younger kids: Skip the rubber bands and let the kids squish the filled yo-yo ball.
Tip: Playdough, sand or flour in a balloon mimics the adult “stress ball” and can be a source of calming sensation to kids.
Source: www.kidsactivitiesblog.com.