Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Printable Family Summer Bucket List

By

I must have blinked. That’s the only explanation.

One day I was taking first day of school pictures. And the next… my kids are bringing home backpacks full of all their stuff from school. Yep. It’s time for summer.

And guess what, I have no idea what we’re going to do!

So, it’s time to create our family summer bucket list.

Plan your family summer bucket list with this fun printable. Use your own ideas or use some of our suggestions for summer fun!

Why should you create a summer bucket list?

There are a few reasons why I love creating a bucket list for summer. First, it’s a great resource for ideas. That brainstorming session you had to create your list is so useful when everyone is sitting around bored. Don’t know what to do? Check your list!

Plus, it gives everyone a chance to provide input. Maybe your kids were hoping for some specific activities this summer. This gives them a chance to tell you their wishes for summer fun. And you can record them and make sure everyone gets to do something they were wishing for.

I always think of our bucket list as a source of inspiration for the summer. It’s not a requirement at all. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever had a year where we crossed off everything on the list!

Family Summer Bucket List Ideas

So what are you going to add to your bucket list?

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Go to the beach
  2. Make a blanket fort
  3. Have a picnic
  4. Go camping
  5. Make root beer floats
  6. Build a photo album
  7. Catch fireflies
  8. Have a water balloon fight
  9. Tie dye shirts
  10. Plant a garden
  11. Make s’mores
  12. Feed the ducks. But, don’t feed them bread! Here’s a better option for duck food at Playground Park Bench.
  13. Watch fireworks
  14. Go fishing
  15. Go to a drive in movie
  16. Roller blade
  17. Make ice cream
  18. Ride a ferris wheel
  19. Build a sandcastle
  20. Go on a hike
  21. Make suncatchers, like these easy painted suncatchers!
  22. Bury a time capsule
  23. Volunteer (Here are some great ideas if you want to help your local animal shelter).
  24. Go on a boat ride
  25. Run a 5K
  26. Visit a museum

And if that’s not enough ideas. Here are 200 more fun ideas for your summer bucket list!

Plan your family summer bucket list with this fun printable. Use your own ideas or use some of our suggestions for summer fun!

Record Your Summer Bucket List Ideas

Now that you’ve come up with your fun summer ideas, you need to write them down.

I’ve got just the thing for you, a cute watermelon-themed summer bucket list printable.

Just save and print. You’ll find space to record 10 ideas and also a printable with all the ideas I listed above. If you have more than 10 ideas, just print multiple copies!

Get your Watermelon Summer Bucket List here.

Are you ready for some summer fun? We are!

You may also like one of these summer fun ideas:

10 Fun Walk Ideas for Families

July Simple Family Fun Ideas

Tips for Hiking with Young Children

Summer Science Challenges at Science Sparks

Low Stress Summer Fun for Kids at Mama Smiles

Awesome summer fun resources:

In addition to all the fun ideas listed above, you could also add one of these fun outdoor activities to your list. Play ring toss, ladder toss, laws darts or more! So much fun!

Get more family fun ideas here:

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Melting Crayon Science Experiment

By

Will crayons melt in the sun? If so, how long will it take?

We set out to find the answer to that question one day with a melting crayon science experiment.

It took a bit of patience and some problem solving. But, in the end, our science brains found an answer.

Will crayons melt in the sun? Find the answer to this question with a fun melting crayon science experiment. It's a perfect summer science project.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Gather your supplies for your crayon melting experiment

Broken bits of crayons
Muffin tin or mold (silicon ones work best)
My Science Experiment page
A sunny day

If you don’t want to use a muffin tin, you can also use an ice cube tray or even several small disposable bathroom cups.

First, ask a few questions

We began our melting crayon science experiment by gathering supplies and asking a few questions.

The experiment itself was fun, but I wanted to challenge my girls to think like scientists during our experiment.

I created our My Science Experiment page to help us record our observations.

If you want to do this experiment too, please download and print your own science experiment page at this link.

We asked our question, do crayons melt in the sun?

We then made our predictions. The girls thought they would melt.

We also talked a bit about the things that would help the crayons melt. We determined that we needed to put our crayons out in the bright sunlight.

Set up your melting crayon science activity

We found all of our broken bits of crayons and put them in a silicon muffin tin. I found the silicon works the best, because it is easy to pop the crayons out of later.

Once we had our muffin cups filled, we took it all outside and found one of the sunniest spots in our yard.

We left the crayons bits outside for about two hours before we checked on them for the first time.

The main reason we waited that long was because while it was sunny, the temperature was only around 80 degrees F.

The crayons would melt, but slowly.

If you’re doing this on a hotter day, check it sooner! I’d recommend checking after the first 30 minutes and then every 30 minutes after.

We had some melting after 2 hours, then started checking every hour.

We recorded each of our observations on our science experiment recording sheet.

After several hours, we had partially melted crayons and we wanted to try to speed up the process.

We did some brainstorming and decided to put our crayons in our car which was sitting in the sun.

The hot car did the trick and our crayons finished melting. Make sure you have an adult and oven mitts to remove your muffin tin from the car. It’s as hot as an oven!

Will crayons melt in the sun? Find the answer to this question with a fun melting crayon science experiment. It's a perfect summer science project.

Our conclusion

We took our melted crayons inside and let them cool.

In the meantime, we wrote our conclusion. Yes, crayons did melt in the sun. The higher the temperature, the quicker they will melt.

After the crayons cooled and hardened, we popped them out of the muffin tray and tried them out. Our melting crayons science activity was a success!

Yield: 1 experiment

Melting Crayon Science Experiment

Melting Crayon Science Experiment

Can you melt crayons in the sun? Find out with this fun melting crayon science experiment that explores heat, the sun, and changing states of matter.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Active Time 20 minutes
Additional Time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 25 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

Instructions

  1. Print out your recording sheet and make your prediction. Will crayons melt in the sun? How long do you think it will take?
  2. Peel all the paper off your broken crayons. Break them into smaller pieces if needed to fit in your mini muffin pan.
  3. Add 5 to 6 pieces of crayon into each cup. Mix the colors up or keep similar colors together.
  4. Bring the crayons outside on a hot, sunny day. Make sure to set them someplace where they will get a lot of sunshine.
  5. Check back after 30 minutes. Have they started to melt? Record your observations.
  6. Keep checking every half hour. Record your observations each time.
  7. Once your crayons have fully melted, record your time. How long did it take?
  8. Bring your crayons to a cooler place to cool and harden again. Once you pop them out of the muffin cups, you'll have some fun new muffin tin crayons!

Notes

If you don't have a mini muffin tray, you could also use an ice cube tray or even small bathroom cups to hold your crayons.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

© Terri Thompson
Project Type: Science Experiment / Category: Science
Will crayons melt in the sun? Find the answer to this question with a fun melting crayon science experiment. It's a perfect summer science project.
Will crayons melt in the sun? Find the answer to this question with a fun melting crayon science experiment. It's a perfect summer science project.

You may also like one of these science experiments:

Chemical Reactions with Pennies

Hockey Science Experiment

Hot Chocolate Science

My favorite resource for science at home

Have you ever tried Green Kid Craft kids? We’ve got a yearly subscription and absolutely love it. Each month we get a box with everything we need for 3-4 themed STEM projects (plus a booklet with even more projects you can). Our last shipment was full of chemistry projects!

Green Kid Crafts is a great way to have science projects ready to go. You can get a subscription like we have or buy single boxes.

Get a subscription here.

Find other themed boxes here.

You can find even more fun projects for your 2nd grader by visiting the rest of the team. You’ll find math, reading, writing, and more.

Free Addition Facts Game from Live Over C’s

Number Ordering Activity from Sallie Borrink Learning

Interest Based Learning Project from Still Playing School

Free Back to School Noun Practice from Look! We’re Learning!

What I Love About School Art Project from Planet Smarty Pants

All About Me Flag Project from School Time Snippets

Getting to Know You Back to School Game from Preschool Powol Packets

Free All About Me Worksheets (LEGO Style) at 124 Homeschool 4 Me

Me Llamo – Simple Spanish Game from Rainy Day Mum

Setting Up a Homework Station at Crafty Kids at Home

Get more STEM projects delivered to your inbox

Wouldn’t it be so much fun to get STEAM family activities delivered to your inbox? I think so! That’s why I’ve created this fun series, STEAM Family Fun, to be delivered to your inbox. After going through all the letters in STEAM each week with a fun activity devoted to each, you’ll start receiving a fun STEAM activity once a month. (And I’ll also pop up in your inbox occasionally if I’ve got other fun things to share.)

Fill out the form below to start receiving STEAM Family Fun in your inbox.



Panda Reading Pointer Craft

By

A reading pointer is a great tool for beginning readers. It helps them track the words on a page and trains the eyes to follow along.

You can grab any sort of reading pointer, but if you’ve got a kid that loves animals, they’re going to definitely love this fun panda reading pointer.

Use a craft stick to make this simple panda reading pointer for kids. It's a fun tool for beginning readers and animal lovers!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Also, CraftProjectIdeas.com sent me some of the supplies used on this project. All ideas are my own.

Supplies needed for your panda reading pointer

Jumbo craft stick
White craft paint
Black craft paint
Black felt
Glue
Small googly eyes

How to make your panda bear reading pointer

First, paint the entire front and back of your craft stick with white paint. Allow it to dry completely.

While your paint is drying, cut two small circles from your black felt to use as your ears.

Once your white paint is dry, add your details with the black craft paint. Add too ovals for the eyes and a small circles underneath for the nose. Draw your simple mouth details. Finally, add two half circles under your face for your paws. Let all your black paint dry.

If you need something to do while your waiting for paint to dry, read a great book about pandas! Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim is a fun choice. It’s a Chinese American retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

After your paint is dry, glue your felt ears to the back of the top of your craft stick.

Attach your googly eyes on your eye ovals. I found that using self-sticking googly eyes made this step really easy!

Once your glue is dry, your reading pointer is ready to use! Let this cute panda help your child practice reading.

Make this simple panda bear reading pointer for your beginning readers.
Yield: 1 Reading Pointer

Panda Reading Pointer

Panda Reading Pointer

Make this simple panda reading pointer out of a craft stick. It's a great tool for your beginning reader.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Active Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

Instructions

  1. Paint your entire craft stick with the white paint. Let dry.
  2. While your paint dries, cut two small circles out of your black felt for your panda's ears.
  3. Once the paint is dry, add details with your black paint. Add two ovals for your eyes and a small circle for the nose. Add a simple mouth and two half circles for your paws. Let dry.
  4. Once your black paint is dry. Glue your two ears to the back of the craft stick at the top.
  5. Add your two small eyes to the black ovals.

Notes

If you don't have any black felt you can use craft foam or black card stock instead.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

© Terri Thompson
Project Type: reading pointer / Category: Crafts
Use a craft stick to make this simple panda reading pointer for kids. It's a fun tool for beginning readers and animal lovers!

You may also like one of these animal crafts

Cardboard Tube Panda Craft

Arctic Fox Camouflage Craft

Koala Bear Bookmark Craft

The Cutest Panda Crafts for Kids

Panda Corner Bookmark at Red Ted Art

Use a craft stick to make this simple panda reading pointer for kids. It's a fun tool for beginning readers and animal lovers!

Use your panda bear reading pointer with one of these great books:

It would be so much fun to use your new reading pointer with a great book about pandas.

For nonfiction, try National Geographic Readers – Level 2: Pandas by Anne Schreiber.

Or, if you’re up to chapter books, try Magic Treehouse: A Perfect Time for Pandas by Mary Pope Osborne.

Here are some other books you may like:

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Spring Family Fun Ideas to Do in May

By

I don’t know about you, but it can be quite difficult to come up with simple family fun ideas, especially ideas that are inexpensive (or even free).

My mind always goes to ideas like a trip to the movies, or to bowling, or dinner at a restaurant. They’re all fun ideas but can end up costing a lot of money. You can’t do these all the time, so you end up skipping family time.

So what can you do? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of inexpensive and simple family fun ideas that could be done any time? I think so.

Luckily, I’ve got just the list for you – some Spring Family Fun Ideas you’ll love!

Enjoy some simple and fun quality time with your family this May with these Spring Family Fun Ideas. Print off the list and go have some fun together!

Here are some ideas for the month of May. The weather is warmer and daylight lasts longer so you can spend time together outside. These ideas are perfect for springtime and May, but many can be done at anytime of the year.

So, print out your list, hang it up, and plan some family fun time.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Spend some time with your family this spring with these simple family fun ideas for the month of May. Print out the idea list and have some fun!

Spring Family Fun Ideas for May

Go bird watching

Grab a bird book and go on a bird-watching hike. Choose a park or a nice hiking trail. Watch, observe, and listen. If you don’t already have a bird guide, you can borrow one from your local library for your hike. You can find some more family bird-watching tips at this post, Family Bird Watching Club.

If you’re looking to add a great bird field guide to your family library, I’d recommend either the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America or The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region or Western Region.

Have a favorite food dinner

Have a dinner consisting of each person’s favorite food. Don’t worry if they don’t exactly make up your ideal meal. That’s part of the fun! Pizza, peas, and ice cream sound perfect.

If your kids are old enough, let each person in the family prepare their favorite. You can have fun in the kitchen and at the dinner table!

Clouds against a blue sky

Look at the clouds

Lie on your backs and find pictures in the clouds. What do you see? Can you make up stories about the pictures you find?

Turn this simple cloud watching time into story time and bring along a copy of Little Cloud by Eric Carle to read.

Create a family mural

Tape a large piece of paper to the wall and create a family mural.

You can cut off a large piece from a roll of paper to make a large enough mural the whole family can work on together.

Draw separate images or work together to make one larger image.

Play with balloons

Have a balloon party!

Play “keep it in the air”, where everyone works together to keep the balloon from falling on the ground, or play a game of living room volleyball.

You can also rub the balloons in your hair to try and get them to stick to the wall or ceiling. Warning: this activity can cause a lot of laughter!

Child on slide

Take a picnic to the park

Have a picnic at the park and spend the evening playing together on the playground.

If you enjoy picnics with the family, invest in some tools like a nice personalized picnic blanket and an insulated picnic basket so it’s easy to head out anytime you want.

Bake cookies

Bake cookies as a family. Make a family favorite recipe or try something new like these Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies at Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

If you make too many, package some up to deliver to friends or neighbors!

Go on a twilight walk

Go on a walk at twilight.

Look and listen. Do you hear different sounds at this time of day than you do in the middle of the day?

Pay attention to the sky and watch the change from daytime to nighttime.

Take silly pictures

Get out a camera or a smart phone and take silly pictures of each other.

You never know, you may find a new masterpiece that need to be printed and framed.

You could even make some of these simple Craft Stick Picture Frames to display your fun picture.

Have a dance party

Crank up the music and have a living room dance party!

It’s a great way to get moving, blow off steam, and have a lot of fun together.

Spend some time with your family this spring with these simple family fun ideas for the month of May. Print out the idea list and have some fun!

Print out your spring family fun ideas and have some fun.

In order to make things easy for you, I’ve put all of these ideas in a simple printable list.. Print it out, stick it to the front of your fridge with magnets, and use it for family fun ideas all month long.

Get your printable May Family Adventures here.

Schedule your spring family fun time.

In order to make sure that we fit in some family time each month, I’ve found that it can help to schedule a couple of activities for the month. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, but if you plan on going on a bird-watching hike on Saturday, scribble it on the calendar and let the whole family know. They’ll look forward to it and so will you, which makes it less likely that you will skip it.

Which of these ideas are you going to add to your calendar this month?

Enjoy some simple and fun quality time with your family this May with these Spring Family Fun Ideas. Print off the list and go have some fun together!

You may also like one of these family fun ideas:

June Simple Family Fun Ideas

10 Ways to Make a Walk More Fun

Discover a New Playground for Outdoor Family Fun

Spring Muffin Tin Scavenger Hunt at Mama Papa Bubba

Family fun activities I recommend

It’s so easy to have some family fun if you keep a few outdoor games around. Grab one and head outside for simple fun!

Here’s some fun ideas:

Ladder Toss Game

Ring Toss

Lawn Darts

Or one of these other ideas below.

Join our community for even more family activities

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Easy Word Family Match Game

By

Word families are one of the building blocks for learning to read.

If you have a good grasp on word families, you’ll be well on your way to decoding words. And, the more words you can decode, the better you can read.

Word families are that important.

This simple word family match game is easy to make and a fun way for your child to practice recognizing and reading word families.

Practice reading and rhyming with this simple word family match game for kids. It's easy to make and can be used for any set of word families.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Word Families, sometimes known as phonograms, are the one syllable endings of a group of words. For example, the -at family would contain the words hat, cat, chat, that, sat, etc.

This game supports any group of word families. Select the ones that your child is working on in class or any that you see your child struggling with. I do like this list to use for reference. You can find the most common word families and many examples of each at this link.

Supplies Needed

2 different colors of construction paper
Ruler
Scissors
Black marker

How to make your word family match game

Begin by cutting off enough extra paper from each sheet of construction paper to turn it into a large square. My squares were 9 inches by 9 inches. Divide each large square into 16 equal-sized smaller squares (2-1/4 inches each). You’ll have 32 total squares. (I know, that’s a lot!)

Next, choose your words. You will need eight different sets of word families, each set will have four words. Use two squares of one color and two squares of your second color for each set.

For example, in the above picture, I used the -en family: den, men, when, then.

Put words on each of your squares.

How to play this word family match game

Mix up all your word family and spread them out.

Challenge your child to create eight different four squares of words by sorting the squares into word families.

This words best as a single-player game. But, two kids can play together. Just have them take turns putting together their four squares.

When you’re done, you’ll have eight different larger squares for each word family. If you put them all together, you’ll have a larger word quilt.

Practice reading and rhyming with this simple word family match game for kids. It's easy to make and can be used for any set of word families.

Extend the fun with some more versions of this game

Practice reading the words out loud after you create a four square.

Can you name even more words for each word family? After your child makes a four square, challenge them to name two more words for each word family.

Choose one of the word family squares and see if you can find more examples in a favorite book.

How would you add to the fun?

Practice reading and rhyming with this simple word family match game for kids. It's easy to make and can be used for any set of word families.

If you liked this word family match game, you may also like one of these reading games:

Stacking Rhyming Words

AD Word Family Activity: Highlighter Words

Word Family Slam

Sight Word Tallies

LEGO Word Family Sorting at This Reading Mama

More games to make reading fun

In addition to this fun word family game, here are some other fun options to help your child practice their reading skills.

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.