Homemade Bird Feeder

Tweet, tweet! Repurpose a milk carton into an easy DIY bird feeder for kids with this clever upcycled craft idea. A very simple activity that will keep them busy long enough for a cuppa. Plus they can enjoy a bit of bird watching afterwards too. This activity only requires an empty clean Milk carton, scissors, string, felt tip pens and bird seed.

1. On the 2 wider sides of the upcycled carton, draw the outline for an opening. Cut out the openings.
2. Let your children colour in their Milk cartons with felt tip pens.
3. Pierce a hole in each side of the milk carton. Feed twine through the holes and tie ends into a knot.
4. Fill with bird seed & hang outside.

Balloon Blow Up Experiment

You can save this activity for a rainy day! Your children will love using items easily found at home, to see if they can blow up a balloon without using their mouth or their own breath! This activity isn’t magic; it’s science!

You’ll need:

• Empty bottle with a small neck
• Balloon
• Baking Soda
• Vinegar
• Small funnel
• Teaspoon
• Small measuring cup

Here’s how:

1. Have your children scoop the baking soda into the balloon using the funnel
2. Help your children put the vinegar into the flask using a pipette or small measuring cup
3. Next, attach the balloon to the top of the bottle; make sure not to pour the baking soda into the
   vinegar!
4. Ask your children what might happen, and why.
5. Count to 3 and everyone holds up their balloon so the baking soda falls into the vinegar,
   creating a chemical reaction and blowing up their balloon.
6. Let the kids know what will happen scientifically
   SCIENCE: When baking soda and vinegar are mixed together, it creates a gas called carbon dioxide. The gas begins to expand in the bottle and starts to inflate the balloon. The more gas that is created, the larger the balloon will inflate.

Dino Egg Excavation

Preschoolers & children of all ages love being ice excavators and archeologists – tapping away at these Dino Ice Eggs to find the hidden dinosaurs inside!

This is super easy to prepare – carefully place a small dinosaur toy inside a balloon, then fill the balloon with water (don’t over fill it) and leave it to freeze for a few hours. Repeat for around 3-5 baloons, per child. Once frozen, set up this activity in a large tub or tuff tray. Add a collection of play tools (or small, blunt real tools) to get them started.

The excavation gets easier as the ice melts. You can also give them warm water to spoon onto the Ice eggs & salt to sprinkle on to help melt the ice and turn this activity into a little science lesson too!

Bubble Foam

Messy Foam is the perfect fun for those Sunshine days! This is sure to keep all ages, even babies, occupied for ages! There is so many ways to play with this Foam, Scoop, Pour, Create your own art from it, or use it to clean your favourite toys, bikes and more! A great way to keep all ages busy whilst you get on with jobs outside.

You'll need:

 Water
 Washing Up Liquid
 2 tbsp Sugar
 Food Colouring (optional)

Place all ingredient above into a bowl and whisk until you have a thick foam, use an electric whisk for the best foam.

Solar S'moores

Harness the energy of the Sun to make the best snack ever invented, S’mores! A solar oven is a box that traps some of the Sun’s energy to make the air inside the box hotter than the air outside the box. In other words, the solar oven is like a super greenhouse. Your children will find this fascinating, plus the added bonus of a tasty delicious snack at the end to eat!

You will need:

• A Cardboard box (cereal box works well)
• Tin foil
• Cling Film
• Glue
• Tape (transparent tape, duct tape, masking tape, or whatever you have)
• Stick (about 1 foot long) to prop open reflector flap. (Use a skewer, knitting needle, ruler, or whatever you have.)
• Ruler or straight-edge
• Scissors / Stanley Knife

To make the Solar Oven:

1. Using the straight edge as a guide, cut a three-sided flap out of the biggest side of the box, leaving at least a 1-inch border around the three sides.
2. Cover the inside of the flap with tin foil, spreading a coat of glue onto the cardboard first and making the foil as smooth as possible.
3. Line the inside of the box with tin foil, again gluing it down and making it as smooth as possible.
4. Test the stick you will use to prop the lid up. You may have to use tape or figure another way to make the stick stay put.
5. Pop your S’more inside, the cover the opening with 2 layers of cling film, taping it down on all sides.
6. Prop up your lid with the stick and place your oven outside in the Sunshine. Wait around 30 minutes for your S’more to be ready!

To make the S’mores

• Crackers or Digestive Biscuits
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate

Place some chocolate and marshmallows onto a biscuit and place another biscuit on top.