Creative Ideas
Create a treasure basket- add to it
Make art on the window with dry erase markers
Create a story box to retell a favorite story
Use a salad spinner to create some spin art
Paint the bottoms of different objects and use them as stamps. Print with broccoli, peppers, spaghetti, toy cars, muffin tins, cardboard tubes, egg cartons or cookie cutters
Make salt dough and use it to create hand and foot prints, ornaments, leaf prints or letters
Use stickers to tell stories or make quick art work
Use wool to wrap around cardboard shapes, introduce weaving or make a birds nest
Set some toys in jello and dig them out, simply play and explore with it, freeze and defrost it
Play with shaving cream, stir in colors …
Freeze some toys in ice and try and have a race to see who can excavate them the quickest
Construct paper tube chutes out of old paper towel rolls for dropping beans and pom poms
Go on a color hunt and make a giant rainbow collage
Turn a box into a town and draw roads and buildings inside, or turn it into a train track with a station
Set up a role play coffee shop, shoe shop, doctor’s surgery, hospital, post office, library
Practice writing letters and numbers in salt
Use handprints or your hand to measure things
Make catchers from milk jugs and play with a ball
Set up a reading tent and read a pile of books together
Freeze some rice for cool sensory play on a hot day
Paint a table top with chalkboard paint then draw on it, make train tracks and create a city
Make a rainstick
Use shells to create your own fossils in salt dough
Make a pirate map, a treasure chest from a cardboard box, a sandy pirate island and go on adventures
Experiment with magnets
Scrape forks or combs through paint
Make a rain gauge
Paint with fly swatters
Blow paint through a straw
Make wrapping paper and gift tags
Celebrate with a pretend play party
Put paper all over the floor and have a huge doodling session
Make a leaf or flower crown
Thread a rainbow pasta necklace
Paint bubble wrap and use it to make pictures
Crush chalk to make paint
Use household objects to make music
Have an impromptu tea party
Plant a little garden in a garden pot
Paint with cotton balls
Decorate a flower pot and plant seeds
Create land art with natural materials found on a walk
Paint in the bath or on the windows with colored shaving cream
Play with real cooking equipment and dried beans
Cut potatoes to make shapes and then print them in paint
Make glitter sidewalk/ pavement paints for outdoor art work
Create an ocean in a bottle
Change the color of flowers in a science experiment
