Creative Family Fun

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Terri Thompson

Backyard Measurement Scavenger Hunt

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I’m always trying to come up with ways to take learning outside.

Now, I’m not talking about taking a workbook outside to do instead of working at the kitchen table. I’m talking about using nature as a tool to help with learning.

And, that’s why I love this backyard measurement scavenger hunt.  It’s the perfect combination of math and outdoor learning.

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Grab your supplies

You’ll need a ruler, pencil, clipboard (or other hard surface), your printable scavenger hunt sheet, and a couple of willing participants. That’s all it take to prep this activity.

This scavenger hunt is designed to be done in just about any yard. You should be able to find everything whether you live in the city or country.

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

It’s time to go on our backyard measurement scavenger hunt!

Make sure you have your ruler and head outside.

Can you find something smaller than one inch? Or something larger than six inches? We found a small rock and a length of landscape timber.

Can you line four rocks up side by side and measure them? Ours totaled one and a half feet.

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

Try measuring the length and width of a leaf. We found a big one that was five and a half inches long and two and a half inches wide.

You won’t need a ruler for everything.

Now it’s time to put the ruler away and try a little measuring with nonstandard units.

We’re going to measure with our hands and our feet.

Use your feet to measure the width of your yard and use your hands to measure the width of your back door. What number did you get?

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

It’s fun to do math outside

This backyard measurement scavenger hunt is a great outdoor math activity. You’ll learn about measurement and work on math skills all while getting out and exploring your own backyard.

It’s so much fun to use nature to do math!

Don’t forget to grab your scavenger hunt printable here.

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

If you enjoyed this outdoor math game, you can share the above photo on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest

Take your learning outside with this fun backyard measurement scavenger hunt. Grab your printable scavenger hunt and get ready to learn math outside.

You may also enjoy one of these math activities:

Build Numbers With a Fun Place Value Activity

Subtraction with Loose Parts Math Activity

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game at Creative Family Fun

Hopping Bunnies Measurement Activity at Inspiration Laboratories


4th of July Bunting Kids Craft

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Do you like to decorate for the 4th of July? I always want to, but I don’t always get around to it.

July 4th will be here before we know it, so the girls and I decided to work together to create a fun 4th of July bunting for the holiday, so at least we’ll have something to display.

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

We made this festive and very patriotic bunting with a few simple supplies. The process was so simple and the results were fun.

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

Supplies Needed

Red and blue construction paper
White paint
Sponge cut into a star shape
Crepe paper (found in the party supply section)
Stapler

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

How to make your 4th of July bunting

Before beginning the project, I cut the construction paper into triangles.

One sheet of blue and one sheet of red paper provided us with many triangles.

I folded the paper in half lengthwise, then drew my triangles. I highlighted my lines in the above picture so you could see how I drew my lines. I cut along all the lines as well as cutting along my folded line down the middle.

Once they were all cut out, the girls were ready to start making stars.

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

We used our sponges to stamp one star in the middle of each triangle.

Then came the hard part, waiting for them to dry! But, they did look pretty all spread out on the table!

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

Once everything was dry, we sorted our triangles so that we had a red/blue/red/blue pattern.

We took the red crepe paper and folded it in half. We put one triangle into the fold at a time and stapled it into the crepe paper (see picture below).

We lined the triangles up side by side with the pointed side down to get the bunting look.

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

Now, we’re all ready to decorate! We’ll hang our 4th of July bunting and display a few flags for a fun and festive holiday.

Do you like to decorate for the 4th of July?

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

If you enjoyed this patriotic craft, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest.

Decorate with this simple 4th of July bunting kids craft. It's a fun and festive patriotic craft that your kids will love to make.

You may also like one of these summer craft projects:

Easy Fingerprint Strawberries

Handprint Sunflower

Classic Crafts ~ Pom Pom Caterpillar

Tie-Dye Suns

4th of July Noise Maker at Mess for Less

(Originally published June 2012)

Math Art: Skip Counting Pointillism

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I’m very fascinated with the combination of math and art. There are some truly amazing things you can do. And honestly, the ideas are endless.

This time we kept it simple with a math art project that combined pointillism and skip counting. It was simple and the results were fun.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

What is pointillism?

Before we begin, we need to understand our art term, pointillism. To create pointillism, a painter uses small, distinct dots in varying colors applied in a pattern to form an image.

One of the most famous paintings that uses this technique is A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. You can see it here.

So, for the art portion of our project, we’ll be using dots to create our pictures.

What is skip counting?

Skip counting is basically counting by any number other than one. You can count by 2s: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Or, you can count by 5s: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25.

You can find a detailed explanation of skip counting here at Creative Family Fun.

We’ll be counting by 10s for this project.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

Now let’s combine pointillism and skip counting for a fun math art project.

First, you’ll need a few supplies: paint, cotton swabs, marker, and paper.

Next, you’ll need to lay your foundation. We were skip counting by 10 all the way to 100 so I drew ten simple circles on my paper for each of my set of dots.

Don’t limit yourself to circles. You can do triangles, squares, ovals, or any fun design of your choice. You just need one shape for each set of ten.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

Once you’ve got your foundation, it’s time to paint. Dip your cotton swabs in paint and use them to create a design of dots in each circle. Put ten dots inside each circle.

Use a simple design or just random dots. The important part of the project is to make sure you only have 10 dots in each shape.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

Now it’s time to skip count!

Once you have your dots in each circles, you’ve got a pretty representation of skip counting by ten.

Count your circles: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. You’ve got one hundred dots total on your skip counting math art project!

When you’re done, feel free to be creative and add even more dots to make an art project you’re proud of. Our skip counting is inside our shapes and the embellishment is just for fun.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

More versions of this math art project:

Paint a picture for each set of skip counting numbers. What shapes will you use when you’re counting by twos? What shapes for counting by fives? Can you make a unique painting for each skip counting set?

Can you create skip counting sets without drawing the foundation shapes? Use just your dots to create ten different design sets.

Use this project to illustrate a multiplication problem. Do a math pointillism project for 5×5, 6×9, or 8×4. Fun, right?

How else can you do math pointillism?

How would you mix this project up?

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

If you enjoyed this math art project, the above picture is perfect for sharing on Facebook, or you can share the picture below on Pinterest.

Add some creativity to your math practice with this fun math art project for kids. Learn about pointillism and do practice skip counting at the same time.

You may also like one of these math activities:

Fine Motor Skip Counting Activity

Making Ten With Cars

Skip Counting by Tens with Bottle Caps at Creative Family Fun

Potato Printing Tesselations at Rainy Day Mum


Fun Night Sky Activities for Kids

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The night sky is such an endlessly fascinating subject. It’s so much fun to learn about the moon and the stars.

You’ll have so much fun trying out these fun and creative night sky activities for kids. Whether you play with outer space play dough or make a moon phases mobile, your kids (and you) will have tons of fun!

Have fun learning about the moon, space, and stars with these awesome night sky activities and crafts for kids. These space themed ideas are awesome!

If you’re looking to extend your study of the night sky, or just looking for a great family activity, this list should have you covered. Pick out one, or two, or all of the ideas and have some fun.

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.

Fun Night Sky Activities for Kids

Play and learn with a homemade constellation geoboard from Babble Dabble Doo.

Make a shooting star spinning toy with this fun STEM activity from Teach Beside Me.

Do a simple experiment to learn how and why there are different moon phases with We-Made-That.com.

Learn about the different moon phases and make a moon phase mobile.

Make DIY constellation cards and learn about some of the myths behind them with How Wee Learn.

Shine the constellations on your wall with a homemade constellation projector from Playground Parkbench.

Learn about some of the different constellations with this Constellation Sewing Cards from Kids Activities Blog.

Make your own constellation wall hangings with this simple constellation sewing project.

Create your own moon phase calendar with What Do We Do All Day?

Make your own DIY Puffy Paint Moon with Rainy Day Mum.

Have fun learning about the moon, space, and stars with these awesome night sky activities and crafts for kids. These space themed ideas are awesome!

Make some constellation art with rocks and sidewalk chalk with Creekside Learning

Learn about the planets with this DIY Planet Board Game from Inspiration Laboratories.

Have fun playing with homemade outer space playdough from NurtureStore

Learn how craters are formed and make your own moon craters with Science Sparks.

Make a cardboard space shuttle and travel to far off galaxies with Mama Smiles.

Make yourself into a constellation with Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational.

Play with a simple constellation sensory bag from Playground Parkbench.

Use watercolors to make beautiful space paintings with this fun technique from Adventure in a Box.

Head out and explore the night sky with these tips for a successful star gazing night and printable night sky journal pages.

Go on a star gazing scavenger hunt with this printable guide from Real Life At Home.

Have a great time crafting and learning with these fun night sky activities for kids. Which ideas do you think you’re going to try?

Have fun learning about the moon, space, and stars with these awesome night sky activities and crafts for kids. These space themed ideas are awesome!

You may also like one of these kids activities:

Stop Summer Slide While Learning in the Garden

Melting Crayons Science Activity

Family Bird Watching Club

Parts of a Dandelion Nature Exploration

Sun and Rain Sensory Bottles

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I’ve long admired sensory bottles and have been wanting to make a few of my own.

There are so many incredible versions, but this time, I opted for a simple glittery bottle.

We used sunshine and rain as our inspirations to make these gorgeous Sun and Rain Sensory Bottles.

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

*Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided some of the supplies used in this project. This  post also contains Amazon Affiliate and other links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed

Empty plastic bottles (We used these.)
Water
Food Coloring
Glitter
Tri-beads
Super glue (adult use only!)

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

How to make your sun and rain sensory bottles

To make your bottles, fill an empty bottle with water. Leave some space at the top for your add-ins.

Next, add 5 to 6 drops of food coloring. My 4-year-old was in charge of the food coloring, so we ended up with more a lot more drops.

Now it’s time to add the glitter. We have an abundant supply of glitter, so we added quite a bit. The more glitter the better, I say!

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

Next, add your tri-beads. We picked out orange and yellow beads for our sunshine bottle and blue and clear beads for our rain bottle.

Previously, we experimented with a few different items until we hit on something that would work in our bottles. We tried foam shapes, but they only float to the top and we couldn’t get them to mix in with the water and glitter. After a lot of experimenting, we discovered that items that sink mix together nicely when you’re shaking the bottle.

Once you have everything in your bottle, add a little more water to fill your bottle to the top.

Finally, super glue the cap onto the bottle. Now you won’t have to worry about it opening and spilling water and glitter all over your floor!

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

(Here’s a little behind the scene picture for you! My daughter was taking her own pics right beside me. We found ourselves racing against time to catch all the glitter before it settled!)

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

I just love the final result of these sun and rain sensory bottles. My 6-year-old can sit and watch them for a long time while rolling them around and around.

They’re quite beautiful!

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

Make this a family adventure!

This is a perfect craft to do together as a family.
Cost: Under $10. It all depends on what supplies you already have on hand.
Prep time: Under 10 minutes + a trip to the store for supplies, if needed.
Ages: 4 and up. Certain steps will need adult supervision.
Time needed: 20 minutes (plus drying time for the super glue)

More Great Sensory Bottle Ideas

Babbling Brook sensory bottle from House of Burke.
Spring flower sensory bottle from My Little 3 and Me.
Making waves sensory bottle from Hands On: As We Grow.
Magnetic sensory bottle from Munchkin and Bean.

Making sensory bottles is always fun, especially when you're inspired by the weather. These sun and rain sensory bottles are simple and fun to make.

You make also like one of these fun ideas:

Colored Ice Fun

Raindrop Mobiles

10 Ways to Learn About the Weather