Bubbles abound at the MiniFest Family Zone at ManyFest in downtown Winnipeg on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11! Join Children’s Museum staff and volunteers as we create DIY bubble wands and participate in some creative bubble activity stations.
Event Partner: Downtown Winnipeg BIZ
Bubbles abound at the MiniFest Family Zone at ManyFest in downtown Winnipeg on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11! Join Children’s Museum staff and volunteers as we create DIY bubble wands and participate in some creative bubble activity stations.
Event Partner: Downtown Winnipeg BIZ
Bubbles abound at the MiniFest Family Zone at ManyFest in downtown Winnipeg on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11! Join Children’s Museum staff and volunteers as we create DIY bubble wands and participate in some creative bubble activity stations.
Event Partner: Downtown Winnipeg BIZ
Bubbles abound at the MiniFest Family Zone at ManyFest in downtown Winnipeg on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11! Join Children’s Museum staff and volunteers as we create DIY bubble wands and participate in some creative bubble activity stations.
Event Partner: Downtown Winnipeg BIZ
Source: masandpas.com
Make a butterfly with this exciting coffee filter and watercolour technique!
Materials
- Coffee filter papers – you need four circles for each butterfly
- Washable felt pens
- Pipe cleaners
- Pipette/spray bottle/large paintbrush
- Water
Directions
- You need four coffee filter circles for your butterfly. Split your circles into two pairs of two coffee filters. Put each circle neatly one on top of the other so that you have two piles of two.
- Decorate the top coffee filter with washable felt pens. Use nice bright colours and have fun making any patterns you like. Don’t worry if the designs look rough or messy at this stage. They will soon be transformed completely.
- Place the coffee filter circles on a baking tray. (Take care not to move the undecorated bottom layers.)
- Now for the exciting bit: drop water all over the surface. You can use a little water bottle pipette or spray bottle or even a fat paintbrush dipped in water. Cover the entire circle with water drops.
- Then watch the colours start to blend into each other. Once the whole circle is wet, the blank coffee filter underneath will soak up the colours. You should get two matching pairs of coffee filters.
- Separate the top and bottom layers of each pair. Put the four coffee filters onto a piece of kitchen towel to dry.
- When they are completely dry, accordion fold each circle. Fold it one way and then another into thin accordion folds. Now you have four folded ‘wings’. Bring the top two wings together by overlapping the folds slightly. Do the same for the bottom pair of wings.
- To tie the wings together fold a pipe cleaner in half, then wrap it around the centre of the two sets of coffee filters. Twist the pipe cleaner so all that all four pieces are held securely in place. To finish, fan out the four wing parts. Curl the ends of the pipe cleaner around to make the butterfly’s ‘antennae’.
Source: pick-ease.com
Make a simple giraffe craft with your kids! Start by cutting out the individual giraffe shape pieces (pictured here) ahead of time, then have the kids glue the pieces in the appropriate spots to build their giraffe. Once the giraffes are assembled, use markers, bingo dabbers, Do-A-Dot markers, or other drawing tools to make spots! Display on your fridge or continue and make a zoo’s worth of animals.
Source: messylittlemonster.com
Display this clover canvas on your wall and brighten up your house, or the kids could give it to someone special as a thoughtful gift.
Materials
- Q-Tips
- Green craft paint
- Paper plates
- Small blank canvas
- Green or brown fine tip marker
Directions
- Gather and layout all of your supplies. Cover the surface you’re working on just to be safe – we’re working with green paint, after all! Start by applying a small amount of green craft paint on the paper plate – it’ll be easier to access it this way.
- Dip the Q-Tip in the green paint. You can give it a few tries at first, and practice dabbing on the paper plate or a paper towel at first until you get the hang of it.
- You want to use the Q-tip as a stamp. Just dab, press and release to create the small leaves of your clover. You can do three or four-leaf clovers (or shamrocks), or both, to have more variety in your design.
- Keep creating clusters of little leaves using the Q-Tip as a stamp until you’re happy with your work. Let it dry once you’re done.
- To add the finishing touches to your clover canvas, check the paint is dry, and then use a fine tip marker to create a stem for each clover. Just make a quick and fine line below each clover.
- You’re done! Now you can display your fabulous painted canvas any way you want to. You could frame it or add a ribbon to hang it up on the wall. It would also make a great gift to give to someone for St. Patrick’s Day.
Source: iheartcraftythings.com
A sweet skunk for Valentine’s Day! If you’re making this fun craft with toddlers or preschoolers and feel the 3D heart is too complicated for them to make, simply omit that step and have them glue one single heart on their animal.
Materials
- Animal valentine templates
- Coloured cardstock paper or construction paper
- Large googly eyes
- Black marker (or crayon)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil for tracing (optional)
Directions
- Print out the skunk craft template. Cut out each of the pieces from the template and use them as a pattern to trace and cut out each of the pieces on coloured cardstock or construction paper. You can also print out the pieces directly on coloured cardstock, or have children color the pieces with crayons.
- Create the 3D heart for your animal to hold. Start by folding each of the five hearts in half. Add glue on one folded side of each heart and glue the halves together to create a 3D heart shape.
- Glue the heart at the bottom of the skunk body. Close the 3D heart and add glue to one side. Open it back up, position it in the center of the body and glue it down in place. Close the heart again to reveal the unglued section. Add glue to it, open the heart again and press the glued section down onto the animal body.
- Glue the skunk face at the top of the body. Add glue to the back of the white face strip and pink nose and glue them on the skunk face.
- Glue the ears at the top of the skunk. Glue large googly on your skunk face. Add glue on the back of the white tail stripe and glue it onto the tail. Then glue the tail on the side of the skunk body.
- Add glue on the back of each of the arms and glue them on the skunk body inside the 3D heart so it looks like the skunk is holding it.
Source: the-gingerbread-house.co.uk
Here’s a heart-shaped tangram inspired by the well-known Chinese puzzles. Turn it into a card for Valentine’s Day!
Materials
- Valentine tangram puzzle sheet template (available for free download here)
- Scissors
- You can easily turn this tangram into a card for Valentine’s Day, in which case, you’ll need some stiff card stock, markers or something for colouring, and a glue stick to do this
Directions
- Download and print the tangram heart puzzle template. Cut out the seven shapes along the bold lines.
- Arrange the shapes to form a (angular) heart shape.
- This fun puzzle activity can also be coloured in and stuck (in its heart shape) onto card stock as a Valentine’s Day card.
Spark Creative Learning!
A tangram is a two-dimensional puzzle of Chinese origin, created by cutting a square into seven pieces. The puzzle consists of one parallelogram, one square, and five different sized triangles. The goal of tangram puzzling is to reproduce various shapes that use all of the pieces with every piece touching and none overlapping. Learn more about tangrams.
Source: capturingparenthood.com
If it’s too cold to go skating, bring a fun skating activity indoors with this cute, wintery craft!
Materials
- White paper
- Markers, bingo dabbers, or other decorating tool of your choice
- Scissors
- Two popsicle sticks
- Glue
- Hole punch
- Yarn
Directions
- Fold a piece of paper in two and cut out a simple boot shape, leaving the two bottom components of each skate attached. (This provides a resting spot for the popsicle stick blades when the paper is folded back together.)
- Stamp or colour the skate boots however you like! (If your kids are heavy-handed on the dot marker stamping, your paper skates might start rolling up as they dry. Nothing that laying them flat underneath a couple of heavy books can’t fix.)
- Once the paper is dry, attach the popsicle sticks with a small dab of glue, then proceed by gluing the two interior sides of each paper skate together. Set aside for the glue to dry completely.
- The final step is to add the laces by simply weaving yarn through a handful of holes created using a single-hole punch. Then you can use the tops of the laces to tie the skates together!
