*First published on FathersofMultiples.com
Spring has sprung in most parts of the Country. The birds are singing, the frogs are croaking, and the puddles have made their return to the glee of little rubber boots everywhere. If Mother Nature is being unkind in your corner of the world and you see no signs of Spring in your future, most of these awesome crafts for kids can be done right inside. From bird feeders and butterflies to rainbows and rain-sticks, we're sharing 10 Spring crafts that you and your kids will want to repeat year after year.
Enjoy!
Flower Hands. Paint or draw your flower stem and leaves. With that in place, have the kiddos wet their palms with their favorite colors and palm “flowers” into the hand-flower bouquet. Be careful with the handprints…or it can get a bit messy. If it gets messy, the end product can be a bit rough. Practice makes perfect.
Cork Painting. Cork painting is pretty easy. Have your kids draw the parts of the picture that can’t be done with the circle shaped end of a cork. In the image here, they drew the stem and leaves of a flower. Then you dip the cork into some paint and form the rest of the picture with circles. In this image, one end of the cork made the yellow center of the flower, then the other end made all of the pink petals.
Bird Feeder. Of all of the Springs crafts, this one is a favorite of ours (and our birds). This is a very simple project, and your kids will love watching the different birds that show up to eat at “their feeder”. All you have to do is smear peanut butter all over a pine cone. Then, dribble bird seed over the peanut butter. The seeds stick to the peanut butter and, voila, you have a bird feeder. Tie a string to it, and tie the other end to a tree limb. Then, just wait for the birds to show up.
Potato stamp. Cut a potato (or apple if you can’t get your hands on a spud) in half. Carve a design into the face of one of the halves. For this image, we chose a flower for the spring theme. Paint the image with the right coloring for your picture, then use your potato half as a stamper onto a piece of paper.
Butterfly TP Roll. Did you think we could make a list of Spring crafts and not include butterflies? Get a toilet paper roll, paint it and decorate it as the body of your butterfly. Then cut out wings from construction paper, add eyes and pipe cleaner antennae. Now take it outside and fly it around the yard, making sure not to drop it in a puddle.
Rain Stick. What better way to call in spring than to make it rain with a rain stick. Rain sticks are musical instruments from Australia. As for their craft version, they’re pretty easy to make. Get a paper towel roll, wrap it in construction paper and decorate however you’d like. Wrap one end with plastic wrap, held on by a rubber band. Crumble paper or aluminum foil throughout the inside of the roll, leaving space for small items to still be able to travel through the roll. Put a spoonful of popcorn kernels into the roll, then cap off the other end with plastic wrap and another rubber band. Now, turn the rain stick from end to end and listen to the kernels bounce down the path through the crumbled paper or foil.
Rainbow Craft. April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring RAINBOWS! It only makes sense that in our list of Spring crafts we include a rainbow. Cut a strip of each color of your rainbow and help teach that ROY G. BIV concept to your kids by having them put the colors in order. Next, have them glue one end to a sheet of construction paper. Then, glue the other end, but create an arch with your paper strips to really add to the rainbow effect. One end of the rainbow gets a sun, the other gets cotton balls to create the look of the rainbow ending in a cloud.
Ladybug Craft. For this craft, you’ll need a toilet paper roll painted black. Cut out a circle of red construction paper, then cut the circle in half. Add black polka dots to the red half circles. Next, about an inch and a half from one end of the roll, paste your half circles onto the roll as the ladybug’s wings. Leave them a bit open so the ladybug can be in flight. Add googly eyes and little black antennae to complete your ladybug.
Caterpillar Craft. What kid hasn’t read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or had it read to them? That green bodied, red headed caterpillar is iconic. It’s also the basis of our caterpillar craft. Link green construction paper loops into a chain. Add a red loop at one end of your chain. Then, add a face and antennae to the red loop to finish your caterpillar homage to our leaf eating friend.
Flower Craft. Once again, you’ll need a toilet paper roll. Be sure to save these things! I once told my boys we needed one but didn’t have an empty roll. A few minutes later we magically had an empty roll…and a bathroom floor full of toilet paper! However you get your roll, once you have it, paint it green to serve as your flower stem. Cut out some green leaves for the greenery at the base of your flower stem and paste them to one end of your roll. Then cut out some flowers from brightly colored construction paper. Make a slit across the top of your “stem” and fit your flower into the slit. Make a few and you’ll have a whole flower garden!
There you have it! 10 Spring crafts! If you didn't get excited and do them all in one day, you should have enough to keep you and the kids busy until Summer. .