Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Sink or Float?

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Summer is in full swing around here, but that doesn’t mean we’ve shut off our brains. We’ve got plenty of outdoor play, plenty of free play, and plenty of reading. But, we’re also planning plenty of fun (emphasis on fun) learning activities. This easy sink or float experiment helped us brush up on our science skills and also added some real-life writing practice.

I set the stage with a large tub of water. This plastic container was perfect. I also went around the house and found several things that we could test. Go through your junk drawer or art supplies for some fun ideas. Just make sure the water won’t hurt it. I found a plastic ruler, a fork, piece of sponge, plastic ring, bottle cap, rock, pine cone, nickel, and foam block. Try to find a good selection of both floating or sinking items.

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.

Before beginning our experiment, we made a simple chart. We had a columns for our items, our predictions, and the actual outcome. The girls took turns choosing one item at a time. They would pick an item, write down the name, and make their prediction. Then, it was time to see the actual results. It turned out that our prediction skills were spot on. And, it wasn’t just lucky guesses, the girls could explain why they chose sink or float.

This is an easy science project and it may be one that your child has already done in school. (My oldest daughter did.) But, it’s a good one for practicing those observation and prediction skills that are so important for young scientists. Adding the chart element also gave us a chance to practice our writing, a skill that needs to be second nature.

Adapt this for younger children: This project can also be done with pre-writers. Set the invitation the same way, but skip the chart. You can keep the chart for them if you want that element. Otherwise, just choose one item, make a prediction, and then find your results. It’s a great way to introduce prediction to your younger kids.

Have you ever done this experiment?

Are you looking for fun science ideas for preschoolers? Check out Three to Five: Playful Preschool for science ideas and more. Click here for purchasing information.

https://www.creativefamilyfun.net/2014/05/three-to-five-playful-preschool.html

Craft Stick Collage

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I’ve always got craft sticks in the supply closet.

We’ve used them for so many things, from picture frames to bracelets, and even for learning games like Math Fact Sticks.

There are so many things you can do.

This time, we kept it simple with a creative process art activity. We used a pile of colored craft sticks to make this Craft Stick Collage.

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.
Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

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.

Supplies Needed:

Cereal box
Black paint
Colored craft sticks
White glue

If you don’t have any colored craft sticks, you can add an extra step to this project and paint plain crafts sticks in a few vibrant colors.

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

Prep your project

Since we were going to be gluing our craft sticks, I knew we needed something sturdy as a canvas. Plain paper would just not work.

So, we went to the recycling bin for a cereal box.

We cut off the two largest panels to use for our canvasses and painted them black. The colors of our craft sticks would pop so much more against the black than they would have against the cardboard brown.

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

Time to create your craft stick collage

Once the paint was dry, it was time to create.

We put the pile of crafts sticks in the middle of the table, pulled out a couple of bottles of glue, and got to work.

There were no rules and no suggestions. I walked away for awhile to get the girls to start creating without my input.

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

One of my daughters stacked and one laid them all side-by-side.

One started creating a colorful flower.

One had an idea in mind before she even started and the other went with the flow to see what would happen.

I love the way their craft stick art projects turned out. I love the way their minds work.

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating this craft stick collage. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

The contrast of the colored craft sticks with the black canvas on our craft stick collage was so striking. I’m so glad we used that instead of plain paper.

I think I need a pile of black cardboard around for creating. It would be a great canvas for chalk pastels and other collages. What would you use it for?

Grab a pile of colorful craft sticks and start creating. You'll love the results of this craft stick art project for kids.

You may also like one of these fun craft projects:

Egg Carton Fairy Houses

Classic Crafts ~ Pom Pom Caterpillar

Craft Stick Initial Plaque

Tie-Dye Suns

Are you looking for more preschool art projects?  Check out Three to Five: Playful Preschool. Get over 25 activities, 10 printables, and links to even more play-based preschool activities in this new e-book. Download it here.

https://www.creativefamilyfun.net/2014/05/three-to-five-playful-preschool.html 

Loon Craft and Learning About the Lakes of Minnesota

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Welcome to Minnesota!

The weather is finally getting nice. We’re know for our cold winters, with plenty of snow and temperatures plunging down below zero degrees Fahrenheit. But when the weather is nice, we get outside.

Minnesota marks the beginning of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park. It begins as a small stream that you can walk across.

We’re known for our lakes and have over 90,000 miles of shoreline. That’s more than California and Florida – combined!

The lakes are where you often find our state bird, the common loon. And to celebrate our state bird, we’re going to make a fun loon craft.

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book, Travels With Charlie: Across the Midwest, in order to create this post. All opinions and activities are my own. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.

The common loon makes its summer home along the shorelines of our lakes. We’re always so excited to see a loon family, especially when their babies are little as they often ride on their mother’s back.

Even when you can’t see the loons, you can hear them. Their call is distinct and sometimes quite haunting.

If you want to hear a loon, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds site. They have several recordings of a loon call.

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

We are already big fans of the common loon and wanted to their image in an art project. This project is easy to do with a very pretty result.

Supplies Needed:

Watercolor paper (this works best, but you can use any white paper you have on hand)
Watercolors
Black construction paper
Oil pastels
Scissors
Glue

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

Create your loon craft

We began by painting our background.

Loons are often found swimming on a lake, so we used blue and white watercolors to paint lake waters for our background.

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

While waiting for our background to dry, we worked on our loon.

We drew a simple silhouette on the black construction paper and cut it out.

We copied an image found in the book, Loon at Northwood Lake by Elizabeth Ring. It’s a wonderful book to read if you want to learn more about the common loon.

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

Next, we used our oil pastels to draw the details on the loon.

My preschooler drew a red eye and white details. She opted for spots instead of the checked pattern on the loons back and included the white belly. She’s never been one to get bogged down in the details!

Once our background was dry, we glued our loon to it.

Learn about Minnesota, its 10,000 lakes, and its state bird when you make this fun loon craft while you craft through all 50 states.

I love the results of our loon craft and love learning more about Minnesota. Travels With Charlie: Across the Midwest served as our jumping off point for this project. It was so much fun to hear about some of the more quirky finds in our state, like the Giant Prairie Chicken Statue and the Jolly Green Giant Statue. I’ve got to see them both sometime!

About Booking Across the USA

Booking Across the USA is a collaborative project with over 50 bloggers participating. Stop by the landing page and see all the other stops on the route. You’ll be able to find a project for each of the 50 states. What fun! Hope you enjoy traveling across all 50 states.

You May Also Enjoy One of These Fun Projects:

Aboriginal Dot Painting: Exploring Australia Through Art

Cityscape Printmaking

Moose Silhouette Paintings

US State Trading Cards at Royal Baloo

100 Ideas for a Summer Bucket List

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Are you ready to create your summer bucket list?

I’ve got a HUGE round-up for you. My first “200 Fun Activities for Your Summer Bucket List” is by far my most viewed post. There have been so many more wonderful summer ideas published since I first made the list, so, I thought I’d give you 100 more summer bucket list ideas. It’s a big job, but, I’m happy to do it for you!

Here are 100 fun ideas for a summer bucket list.

Have fun this summer with these 100 fun ideas for your summer bucket list for kids. You'll have so much fun with these awesome summer boredom busters.

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 Ideas for a Summer Bucket List

1. Explore a small town. Read this post at JDaniel4’s Mom and see why this is such a fun and valuable experience.

2. Make sun prints with Creative Family Fun.

3. Go on a looking walk with Teach Preschool.

4. Make a foil river with I Can Teach My Child.

5. Make ice cream in a bag with East Coast Mommy.

6. Play Kick the Can with Coffee Cups and Crayons.

7. Create with mud bricks you made yourself with Planet Smartypants.

8. Paint with ice with this fun idea from Mommy’s Bundle.

9. Create rainbow bubble snakes with Housing a Forest.

10. Make nature faces with Happy Hooligans.

11. Go ice bowling with Learn Play Imagine.

12. Go on a water balloon hunt with Mess for Less.

13. Explore a pond with Buggy & Buddy.

14. Make a DIY Recycled Marble Run with Lemon Lime Adventures.

15. Play sight word Twister with Confidence Meets Parenting.

16. Plant a fairy garden with Inner Child Fun.

17. Learn about bike safety with Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

18. Start a nature journal with Peace but not Quiet.

19. Make a sun dial with Happy Brown House.

20. Make a nature mobile with Danya Banya.

21. Make paper bag books with Creative Family Fun.

22. Create and play in a water obstacle course with Meaningful Mama.

23. Go on a backyard safari with East Coast Mommy.

24. Dissect a bean seed with Buggy and Buddy.

25. Make giant paper airplanes with Fireflies and Mud Pies.

More summer bucket list ideas

26. Paint with giant homemade paint brushes with Learn Play Imagine.

27. Make and eat fruit on a stick with Teach Me Mommy.

28. Play with sand play dough with Homegrown Friends.

29. Create fireworks in a jar with I Can Teach My Child.

30. Make your own water wall with Toddler Approved.

31. Go on an ABC Scavenger Hunt at the park with Craftulate.

32. Make a log pile home for the wildlife that visit your yard with Rainy Day Mum.

33. Learn about snails and make a snail habitat with Preschool Powol Packets.

34. Create nature mandalas with NurtureStore

35. Make fairy soup with Happy Hooligans.

36. Make and play with homemade bubbles with Coffee Cups and Crayons.

37. Create a backyard water park and play, play, play with East Coast Mommy.

Have fun this summer with these 100 fun ideas for your summer bucket list for kids. You'll have so much fun with these awesome summer boredom busters.

38. Go on a Sense of Touch Walk with Confidence Meets Parenting.

39. Make Painted Turtle Rocks with Creative Family Fun.

40. Create Crayon Art Sculptures with Meri Cherry.

41. Do math on a Driveway Hundred Chart with Creative Family Fun.

42. Go on an All About Birds Scavenger Hunt with Inspiration Laboratories.

43. Do an amazing science experiment. Make Mentos geysers with I Can Teach My Child.

44. Make craft stick bracelets with Creative Family Fun.

45. Feed the butterflies with a kid-made butterfly feeder with Reading Confetti.

46. Do some water science experiments with Science Sparks.

47. Do some melting insect sensory painting with Crayon Box Chronicles.

48. Make magnetic slime with Frugal Fun 4 Boys.

49. Have ice cream for supper with East Coast Mommy.

50. Paint the clouds with Happy Hooligans.

More awesome summer bucket list ideas

51. Use chemistry to blow up a balloon with What Do We Do All Day.

52. Use the sun to make upcycled crayons with Mama Smiles.

53. Make a pile of handmade books with Bounceback Parenting.

54. Can you drop an egg without breaking it? Try this egg drop experiment with Planet Smartypants.

55. Make a shadow puppet theater with True Aim Education.

56. Paint the driveway (with water) with Hands On As We Grow.

57. Memorize a poem with Imagination Soup.

58. Start a new tradition to go on after dinner walks with Mama Smiles.

59. Do a service project. Kid World Citizen has 35 suggestions.

60. Make a cardboard pirate ship with MollyMoo.

61. Build a stage and put on a show with Teach Mama.

62. Make recycled paper bead bracelets with Kids STEAM Lab.

63. Make ice castles with Fun-A-Day.

64. Build with block and trace their shadows with How Wee Learn.

65. How fast does a plant grow? Track a plant and find out with KCEdventures.

Have fun this summer with these 100 fun ideas for your summer bucket list for kids. You'll have so much fun with these awesome summer boredom busters.

66. Make grass caterpillars with Red Ted Art.

67. Make dandelion crowns with Pink Stripey Socks.

68. Make painted salt sculptures with Fun and Home with Kids.

69. Go on a listening walk with Creative Family Fun.

70. Do some ice experiments with Creative Family Fun.

71. Go diving for sight words with I Can Teach My Child.

72. Do a few Jello science experiments with The Chaos and The Clutter.

73. Challenge yourself to build a bridge with Inspiration Laboratories.

74. Make clay fossils with Mother Natured.

Even more ideas for your summer bucket list

75. Play a nature color matching game with NurtureStore.

76. Express your gratitude to service workers with Growing Book by Book.

77. Learn all about rocks with Carrots are Orange.

78. Paint with mud paint with Learn Play Imagine.

79. Make folded paper bracelets with Picklebums.

80. Create with homemade fizzing sidewalk paint with Hands On: As We Grow.

81. Play with Ice Cream Playdough with Playdough to Plato.

82. Have popsicles for breakfast! Make breakfast popsicles with Caramel Potatoes.

83. Make some found object nature art with Inspiration Laboratories.

84. Paint with your feet with Homegrown Friends.

85. Make washer wind chimes with One Time Through.

86. Decorate your own washi tape with My Little Bookcase.

87. Make Jackson Pollock inspired cupcakes with Mini Monets and Mommies.

88. Be a backyard explorer with your own DIY Backyard Explorer Dress-Up Kit with Confidence Meets Parenting.

89. Do a classic craft and make God’s Eyes with Creative Family Fun.

90. Go on a Sight and Sound Nature Scavenger Hunt with Inspiration Laboratories.

91. Stretch your photography skills and make your own digital photo alphabet with Kids STEAM Lab.

92. Do 3-D String Art with Buggy and Buddy.

93. Make whimsical wind chimes with Happy Hooligans.

94. Do some container gardening with The Educators’ Spin On It.

95. Play Colors BINGO with Fun With Mama.

96. Make lunch sack kites with Lovely Commotion.

97. Go on a family adventure and visit a “New to You” Park with Creative Family Fun.

98. Build a chain reaction with craft sticks with Frugal Fun for Boys.

100. Paint with nature with Danya Banya.

What are you adding to your summer bucket list?

Remember, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Make it short. Make it fun. And, don’t worry if you don’t do it all. Just add a few of these fun ideas for your summer bucket list.

Family Adventures ~ A Subscriber Freebie

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If you’re already a subscriber of the Creative Family Fun Weekly Wrap-Up newsletter, you may have noticed a fun freebie in the last newsletter. (And if you’re already a subscriber – you rock!) In order to help you make the most of  your family time, I’m creating a new Family Adventures sheet each month.

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.

The Family Adventures sheet is a one-page, free printable. Print it out. Post it somewhere for everyone to see. And, get ready for a few family adventures.

You’ll find 10 ideas each month. Each ideas is low-prep and inexpensive. You won’t need to click a link to find instructions. Most of the ideas can be done spur-of-the-moment and won’t require a trip to the store for supplies. I try to balance things out between indoor and outdoor activities.

Sample activities for May:

Grab a bird book and go on a bird watching hike.

Have a balloon party!

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

Each month you’ll get a new Family Adventure sheet. But, you need to be a subscriber to the Creative Family Fun Weekly Wrap-Up Newsletter to grab a copy. As a subscriber, you’ll get a weekly email every Saturday. You’ll get a overview of my posts from the past week, a sneak peek of the coming week, plus a few family friendly activities from around the web. I’ll also keep you updated on any exciting happenings going on at Creative Family Fun.