Easy Springtime Crafts for Kids

Something about the warmth and sun marking the change of the seasons gets us all feeling a little jittery with excitement and anticipation. If you’re looking for ways to keep the kids or grandkids busy after school, these two projects using easy-to-find supplies around your house or at any store may just do the trick. 

Windsock

Who doesn’t love fun garden décor? And with the weather at the perfect temperature to sit outside and watch the natural world go by, this project is sure to get your kiddos excited for spring.  

What You’ll Need:

–      Sheet of any color construction paper

–      Paints, markers, stickers, cut-outs or other décor

–      Ribbons, crepe paper or colorful string

–      Old shoelace or strong string

–      Scissors

–      Hole puncher

–      Binding device; glue gun, stapler or strong tape

Steps:

To help your child create a fun windsock for the garden, start by having them decorate one side of the construction paper any way they’d like – the more design the better! While they are decorating, you can cut the strips of ribbon, crepe paper or string to the correct length (about 1.5 ft) for the final step.

Next, help your child roll the decorated paper widthwise into a long, fat tube making sure the decorated side is facing out. Here you’ll want to securely staple, tape or glue it together.

If you used glue for the previous step, take a break and wait for it to harden. Then you’ll want to glue or staple the ribbon/crepe paper/string to the bottom of the windsock so that they dangle down and will gently float in the wind. Play around with alternating colors or even lengths!

To finish, you’ll want to punch two holes at the top of the sock directly across from each other. Then you thread the string or shoelace through the holes and tie large knots that keep them secure. Now hang it up outside and watch it dance in the breeze!

Bird Feeder

This is a great craft for anyone with kids that love animals – this nifty little craft can be hung outside a window so as an added activity you and your family can watch birds and squirrels come and get a snack while you work on other projects.  

What you need: 

–      Pinecone

–      10 inches of string or yarn

–      A few tbsps. of peanut butter

–      Half a cup of birdseed  

Steps:

To make this feeder, start by finding a pine cone with ample space between the spikes or remove a few of them to manually create more space. Once you have the pinecone ready, wrap the string around the cone towards whichever end you want to be the top. Make sure the string is snared and covered by the scales to ensure it’s secure and won’t come undone. Leave some of the string free so that it can be used to tie and dangle the feeder from a branch.

Next, get your peanut butter ready and with a spoon help your child to apply the sticky snack onto the scales and in the cracks in between. If your peanut butter is natural, make sure to stir it up really well or even pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to get it in a spreadable state.

Lastly, cover the peanut butter in the birdseed! Once you’ve gotten it covered to your liking, take the leftover birdseed with you and pour it on the ground underneath where you hang up the pinecone to attract even more birds to the spot!