Parade Stick

You need:

Pattern (see below)
Newspaper
Glue Stick
Red, White and Blue Crepe Paper Streamers
Tape
Scissors

Instructions

1. Roll a piece of newspaper tightly into a slim, long cone. Wrap tape around cone in several places to strengthen.
2. Wrap cone completely with white crepe paper, gluing in place. Cut a 5' length of red crepe paper in half lengthwise. Wrap diagonally around cone, spacing as shown in picture. Glue in place.
3. Cut five 4' lengths of blue crepe paper. Fold in half. Tape folded ends securely around wider cone end. Print pattern here.
4. Cut out stars and glue to blue streamers.

Flameless Sparkler

What You Need:

Drinking straws
Strips of construction paper or shiny wrapping paper
Tape

What You Do:

1. Place strips of paper into one end of straw. The more strips -- the fuller it looks.
2. Use scotch tape to tape srips in place.
3. Now you have a flameless sparkler.

Scratch Some Fireworks

What You Need:

Manilla tag (8 1/2 x 11)
crayons
black paint & paint brushes
wooden skewers

What You Do:

1. Look at pictures of fireworks or, if possible, home videos or movies that have firework displays.
2. Talk a little bit about fireworks, what they are, how to be safe when using them or watching a fireworks display.
3. Then, have the children take a sturdy piece of art paper.
4. The entire sheet is coloreds over with crayon using a variety of bold firework colors. None of the manilla tag should show through.
5. Once this is completed paint over the entire piece with black paint. The paint should be black like the night sky.
6. The paint should cover the entire crayon work, but not be so thick that it will crack when it dries.
7. Once the paint has dried, each student takes a wooden skewer and scrapes off a fabulous firework design.
8. The colors showing through will appear as the fireworks appear in the black night sky.

Shakers

What You Need:

toilet paper tube (empty)
tissue paper
uncooked beans
scissors
glue
2 nut cups
glitter

What You Do:

1. Glue a nut cup to one end of the toilet paper tube.
2. Pour a handful of beans into the tube.
3. Glue another nut cup to the other end of the tube.
4. Use tissue paper and glitter to make the shaker look like a rocket ship. Strips of paper glued to one end will look like fire streaming from the rocket.
5. Pick up your shaker and blast off.

Craft Stick Flag

Materials:

11 craft sticks
Red and white poster paint
Paint brush
Blue construction paper
White glue
Silver glitter
Scissors

Directions:

1. Paint 4 craft sticks red and 3 craft sticks white. Allow to dry.
2. Arrange painted sticks with back sides up alternating red and white sticks.
3. Break two sticks to 2 3/4 inches. Glue to back as shown in fig. 1. Glue another stick to back to create a handle. Allow glue to dry completely.
4. Turn flag over. Cut a 1 1/2-inch square from the blue construction paper. Glue to top left corner of flag. Drip several dots of white glue on blue construction paper for the stars. Sprinkle with glitter and shake off.

Ball Catchers

What You Need

2 Plastic milk cartons or laundry detergent bottles
Sharp scissors
Colored electrical tape or "Painters" paint markers
Ball to play with

How To Make It

Wash and let dry the milk cartons well before starting. Note: It may be easier to cut the bottom off of the containers first.
Use the sharp scissors to cut the milk carton or detergent bottle. First cut off the bottom, then cut a U shape under the handle. Make sure you don't cut into the handle so you can hold on the ball catch. (see photo)
Use the colored electrical tape or "Painters" paint markers to decorate the milk cartons.
Have fun playing catch and toss with these fun toys.

Kool-Aid Art Bottles

What You Need

Inexpensive glass bottle with cork; found at craft stores or any bottle with lid
Several different and colorful flavors of Kool-Aid (8 quart presweetened) or other brands
Dry pudding mix or cocoa, if desired for brown color
Ice tea spoon
Small funnel or frosting decorating tips
Hot glue gun and glue sticks

How To Make It

Open the top of each Kool-Aid container so you can see all of the different colors.
Place the funnel in the top of the bottle. If the funnel is too large, use a frosting decorating tip to work as a funnel.
Spoon the different kinds of Kool-Aid into the bottle through the funnel in the order that you desire.
Fill up the bottle with all of the different colors.
Put hot glue around the edge of the cork and place it in the top of the bottle.

Tips

You can also do this craft in a baby food jar with a lid. You can poke a toothpick down the sides of the bottle to form designs in the sand.

Side walk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk is not an expensive craft item, so making
your own is really about adding to the fun!

You'll Need:
Wax coated paper cups
2 Cups cold water
2 Cups plaster of Paris
2 TBS. powdered tempera paint
Using a bucket mix all of the ingredients together.
Pour into cups and let stand until semi firm. Peel off cup sides and let it dry completely. Ready to use in
1-2 hours.
**DO NOT DISCARD remaining plaster down any plumbing!
Scrape or pour it out into a box and throw it away.

Pinwheels

The children may wish to decorate the pinwheels with tiny stickers before assembling them.

Parental supervision is recommended due to the straight pins!

This project is rated EASY to do.

What You Need
 
To make 1 pinwheel:
* Colored or Clear Tabbed plastic file folder, letter size
* Ruler
* Thin line marker
* Scissors
* Needle
* Straight Pin
* Unsharpened pencil with eraser
* Dime
 
How To Make It
 
Note: You can make about 8 pinwheels from one folder.
1. If short side of the folder is closed, try popping open the end. Lie the folder out flat.
2. Mark and cut a 4 1/2" square out of the plastic file folder.
3. Place the dime in the middle of the square. Trace around it.
4. Cut diagonally from one corner towards the opposite corner. Stop cutting when you reach the mark you made from the dime.
5. Repeat for following 3 corners.
6. You now have 4 cut sections.
7. Take the needle and push through the very center of the pinwheel, coming from the back of the pinwheel. (Do not push the needle all the way through, it will hold the points of the pinwheel)
8. Take the right corner of the first section and bend to the middle of the pinwheel. Push over the needle to hold.
9. Take one corner of the NEXT section and bend the right corner to the middle of the pinwheel. Push over the needle to hold.
10. Repeat for other two sections.
11. Remove from needle, carefully holding the sections together.
12. Push the straight pin through the front of the pinwheel completely through the back.
13. Push the pinwheel into the eraser of the pencil. Let the pinwheel loosen up between the corners and the back. Blow on the pinwheel and watch it spin.

Note: Please watch the children with the straight pins!

Courtesy of Kids Domain

Bubble Pictures -

This is a great craft idea for the summer. We tack up some pieces of construction paper on a fence at the children's face height. Then we mix a little bit of food coloring in some bubble solution. We usually mix up a couple of bottles in different colors. Then we have the kids blow bubbles onto the paper. They have a ball doing this, but make sure they are wearing old clothes or swimsuits so they won't get food coloring on good clothes -- it could stain.