Rainy Day Fun Activities
If you follow the news, you know that last week, Florida was inundated with rain, getting more than 7 inches in some part of the state. It is quite an unusual start to our rainy season, in which we normally get a few quick showers each afternoon. I'm sure I don't have to tell you which we prefer.
The weather last week required me to get pretty creative on our usual 'go to the park' day. So, I grabbed a bag and started pillaging my art closet before we headed to a friend's house. All of the items were pretty random but sure to provide a decent amount of fun for whatever set-up and clean-up effort they required.
In no certain order, here are some of the events that filled our rainy day.
Silly Photo Session (even more fun if you have a new camera!) - Just let the kids go making faces, dancing, doing somersaults, jumping, holding hands, whatever they enjoy doing. You can take pictures with their favorite toys, or of them imitating their favorite animals.
Temporary Tattoos - Never underestimate the cool factor of a full sleeve of these temporary images. I spaced the tattoos out over the entire morning, giving the kids one before or after each activity. There were several to choose from and the picking out each time, as well as the application time, gave us several 5-minute breaks of activity.
Dot Art - Pretty simple idea here. All you need are bingo stampers and paper. Kids can draw with the stampers or make dot designs. You can use paper with pre-printed designs to be filled in, or just let them go crazy with abstract designs of their own. I limited each child to two different colors at a time and when they had filled a page (or before it got too crazy!) I made them switch their color combinations and work on a clean sheet of paper.
Bug Play - I had a new dollar store pack of plastic bugs that entertained even my 21-month old daughter. Bugs can go on a parade. Bugs can buzz and fly around the room. Bugs can play hide and seek. Just make sure you know how many buggy friends you have so they all get picked up at the end.
Stringing Cheerios - Pipe cleaners in assorted colors and cheerios. It's a snack and an activity all in one! Even Charlotte can manage to get a few cheerios on her pipe cleaner all by herself. I used the pipe cleaners instead of string so that young hands can manipulate the materials better. This one is great for building fine-motor skills and is also very entertaining when you are eating out at a restaurant. You could take this to the next level with Fruit Loops and have your child sort them by color or put them in a particular pattern.
Creative Lunch - Instead of just slapping a sandwich and fruit on a plate, I prepared lunch with a little more attention to detail and tried to make a more attractive layout than normal. Both plates got cleaned! This didn't really entertain the kids any longer, but it was another fun element to make them forget we weren't going on a picnic.
I never did get to making pipe cleaner animals or to using the finger paint, but there were handy in case we needed them. Of course, also had story time and clean-up time in between each activity. Overall, it was a very full and busy day.
What do you like to do on Rainy Days?
The weather last week required me to get pretty creative on our usual 'go to the park' day. So, I grabbed a bag and started pillaging my art closet before we headed to a friend's house. All of the items were pretty random but sure to provide a decent amount of fun for whatever set-up and clean-up effort they required.
In no certain order, here are some of the events that filled our rainy day.Silly Photo Session (even more fun if you have a new camera!) - Just let the kids go making faces, dancing, doing somersaults, jumping, holding hands, whatever they enjoy doing. You can take pictures with their favorite toys, or of them imitating their favorite animals.
Temporary Tattoos - Never underestimate the cool factor of a full sleeve of these temporary images. I spaced the tattoos out over the entire morning, giving the kids one before or after each activity. There were several to choose from and the picking out each time, as well as the application time, gave us several 5-minute breaks of activity.
Stringing Cheerios - Pipe cleaners in assorted colors and cheerios. It's a snack and an activity all in one! Even Charlotte can manage to get a few cheerios on her pipe cleaner all by herself. I used the pipe cleaners instead of string so that young hands can manipulate the materials better. This one is great for building fine-motor skills and is also very entertaining when you are eating out at a restaurant. You could take this to the next level with Fruit Loops and have your child sort them by color or put them in a particular pattern.
Creative Lunch - Instead of just slapping a sandwich and fruit on a plate, I prepared lunch with a little more attention to detail and tried to make a more attractive layout than normal. Both plates got cleaned! This didn't really entertain the kids any longer, but it was another fun element to make them forget we weren't going on a picnic.I never did get to making pipe cleaner animals or to using the finger paint, but there were handy in case we needed them. Of course, also had story time and clean-up time in between each activity. Overall, it was a very full and busy day.
What do you like to do on Rainy Days?
Very creative! I love the pipecleaner idea. I plan to keep that activity in my purse for restaurants and unexpected waits.
ReplyDeleteWe love to bake on rainy days (sunny ones,too!). Our new favorite is banana nut bread. Our stand-by is oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Yummy!