Summer Activities 2015 Part 2 By: Siobhan

Summer Activities II

We are back with some more summer activities. We had a lot of fun choosing some crafts and making them. Today we made some Glue Suncatchers and Ice Chalk. 

Click here to view our first summer activities post. 

Click here to see my Kids' DIY and Crafts Board on Pinterest.

---Glue Suncatchers---

All you need for these suncatchers is some glue (we used Elmer's) some food coloring, a lid, a hole punch, a pencil or toothpick, and some string.

Pour the glue into the lid and add some drops of coloring. A little goes a LONG way with this project.

 After doing this project, I would suggest using two colors, a lighter color and a darker color. Rus used red and blue and it became a little too dark when it dried. 

Tert used green and a light yellow and it worked really well.

Let the suncatchers dry completely (about 24 hours) and then pop them out of the lids, punch a hole in them and hang them

 -Ice Chalk-

For the ice chalk, you'll need some ice trays (we used regular ice trays, but you can buy shaped ice trays here.)

The recipe is very simple. Use equal parts of cornstarch and water. Mix immediately, as the cornstarch will harden. 

Add a little baking soda and some gel food coloring. Mix together until runny.

What a mess!

 Pour the chalk into your molds.

We tried some mixing of the colors and some that were solid colors.

Once the chalk is frozen, bring it outside and color! 

The reason we put baking soda in the chalk was so that we could have fun playing with the chemical reaction between it and vinegar. Rus and Tert poured vinegar over some of the chalk...

Baseball 2015

-Baseball 2015-

Rus is definitely our baseball star. 

He was one of three kids picked on his team to represent the Merrimack Valley Baseball League in a rookie all-stars game. Both teams played an incredible game, but Rus' team won 21-19. I forgot to bring my camera to the game, but thankfully someone else took pictures.

Great job Rus!

Summer Activities 2015 Part 1 By: Siobhan

Summer Activities I

Happy first day of summer everyone! I looked around on Pinterest for a while and found some very easy summer crafts and activities which I did with the kids this afternoon. We had a lot of fun. These are definitely outdoor crafts, but I just had the kids put on their bathing suits so they could run through the hose when they were done. 

Today we made some silly putty and rainbow bubble snakes. 

---Silly Putty---

All you need for this is some containers, corn starch, and dish soap. Keep in mind that if you use colored dish soap, your putty will come out the color of the dish soap. If you use non-colored soap, you can color it with a bit of food coloring.

We mixed together about 3 T of cornstarch to 1 T of dish soap.

 

 The recipe is not at all precise. Add extra dish soap if your putty is too thick or extra cornstarch if it's runny.

 Mix with your fingers!

 Get messy and have fun!

 The putty cleans up very easily since it is made up out of lots of soap!

 Washing out the containers made tons of bubbles. We just used the hose so all the mess was outside.

The kids took a 'flavored water break' so we had some bottles for our next activity :) 

                           Bubble Beards :P

 

                       

 The kids called these their 'bubble volcanoes.' They filled a water bottle with a little dish soap and added water.

 

---Bubble Snakes---

For the bubble snakes you will need some dish soap, an empty water bottle, some scissors, a sock you don't want anymore (thick cotton ones work best), and a rubber band

Begin by cutting the end off an empty water bottle 

Put the sock on the back of the water bottle (the part you cut off) and add some drops of food coloring. (Filia's hair is green in this picture because of all of the bubbles!)

You only need a couple drops of coloring, especially if you are using colored dish soap like we did.

Dip the sock part of your bubble maker into some water mixed with a little dish soap. 

Next blow through the mouth of the bottle (don't suck in!) and...

...colored bubble 'snakes' come pouring out!

Tert experimented with tons of coloring

Leo didn't use a lot, but the bubbles still looked amazing!

Bubble Hair!

I hope you enjoyed these activities. We can't wait to try out some more this summer, and I'll make sure to take/post lots of pictures :)