Rainy days can be boring for kids stuck inside, but they also present a perfect opportunity for some creative DIY crafts! Keep your kids engaged and having fun with these unique rainy day craft ideas that will unleash their imagination.
Make Homemade Playdough
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Kids love playdough, and making it themselves doubles the fun. All you need is flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil, food colouring and water. Let your kids choose their favourite colour combinations and watch the magic as simple ingredients are transformed into mouldable clay. Encourage creative play by providing cookie cutters, straws and other objects to stamp and cut shapes out of their homemade playdough. The textures and scents will keep them busy for hours.
Build a Cardboard Fort
What child doesn’t love building a cardboard fort? Clear some space and let them use boxes, cushions, blankets and other items to construct their ideal indoor fort. They’ll be excited to decorate the inside with crayons, pictures and stickers to make it their own. Once they are built, cardboard forts spark imaginative play and provide a cosy spot for your kids to read books, play games or just relax inside on a rainy day. It’s a great way to bond with children you are fostering with an agency like Foster Care Associates.
Make Rain Art
Here’s a fun craft that incorporates the weather outside! Pour paint (acrylic works best) onto a sheet of paper or canvas. Then let your kids make impressions in the paint using water droplets. They can use droppers, shake rain off their umbrellas, or even sprinkle water with their fingers to create unique raindrop designs. The droplets will cause the paint to spread and swirl into cool patterns. Finish by letting the art dry fully before displaying it.
Create Coffee Filter Butterflies
Coffee filters are perfect for shaping adorable butterflies. Let your kids cut coffee filters into butterfly wing shapes and decorate them by colouring with markers. Then attach two wings to a clothes peg body using glue or tape. These delicate coffee filter butterflies make a pretty rainy day craft to put on display. Add curly pipe cleaner antennae for the finishing touch.
Make Handprint Bugs
Your kids can use their own hands to make creative crawler creatures. Have them trace their handprints on paper and cut them out. Then they can transform the handprints into cute bugs and insects by adding googly eyes, pipe cleaner antennae, pom pom bodies and decorative wings. Encourage them to make different kinds of bugs like ladybugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, etc. These handprint bugs will liven up any room.
Upcycled Rainbow Crayons
This project transforms broken crayons into rainbow crayons your kids will love using. Peel the paper off old crayon stubs and sort them by colour. Fill fun shaped moulds with the crayon bits. Then melt them in the oven just until they are warm and malleable before reshaping them and letting them cool. Your children will be amazed at the vibrant rainbow colours they can draw with.
Hopefully these unique DIY crafts will keep your kids engaged and unleash their creativity on the next rainy day! The hands-on fun of making items themselves is extra exciting for kids. So, set up a craft space and let their imaginations run wild. Which rainy day activity do they want to try first?
