Firecracker
Centerpieces
Older children
will love making firecracker centerpieces for the table. Purchase wooden dowels
(should be about an inch in diameter or so). Cut each into pieces 4, 5 and
6" long. Give the kids
red, white, and blue paint to paint the dowels. They can then sponge paint
on stars or decorate
in many ways (let them be creative). When dry, tie together with raffia in
clusters of 3. Oh....ahead
of time drill or make a hole with a nail in the top of each dowel and add
a silver or gold shiny chenille
stem for the wick. When you use them on your table, sit some upright and
some laying down.
Fourth Of July
T-Shirt
You
could also have each child bring a white t-shirt to paint. Have fabric
paints and
sponges cut into star shapes ready. Let each child decorate his/her own
t-shirt to take home.
Independence
Day Hatband
This one is
really a no-brainer. Simply cut two strips of red, white, or blue paper
that
are 2-3 inches wide. Staple the ends together and then fit it around the
child's head.
Staple in place. Decorate it with stars and stripes, stickers, glitter,
etc. We made the
headband out of a sheet of white foam. Then the children attached
their stars to their
headbands, some decorated using glitter and markers and some chose not to.
(photo submitted by
Shell)
Fourth of July
Noise Makers
Take 2 paper
plates staple them together with rice or beans in them and paint them red,
white, and blue you can also add red, white, and blue streamers to them
for a noise maker.
Toilet Tube
Firecrackers
Decorate paper towel rolls with paints and collage material. The kids
used
them to march in a parade, they pretended they were firecrackers, etc
4th of July
Wand
Take a large
sheet of newspaper and fold in half. Start at one corner and roll into
a
long stick shape. Tape. Children can color newspaper with markers/paint, etc. Attach
crepe
paper streamers or strips of tissue paper at one end (or anywhere) with a glue stick.
Decorate with foil star stickers. Can be used for a parade, dancing, etc.
Torches
Use old
newspapers and roll them in a large cone shape. Let children paint the
cones.
When dry, stuff with red and yellow tissue paper to be the "flame" of the
torch.
Have the children make crowns, and then they can be the statue of Liberty.
~ or ~
Lady Liberty's
Torch
Use
several stacked pieces of newspaper and roll them up into a fairly tight
cone shape.
Staple or tape in place. Paint the cone gray and let dry completely.
Crumple up pieces of tissue
paper and stuff it into the end of the cone so that it looks like there
are flames coming out of the torch.
You can use spray glitter over the entire torch and flame to make this
project sparkle. You'll have to
talk about the Statue of Liberty and what it means so that little kids can
connect this craft with the holiday.
Stars And
Stripes Collage
Set out
materials such as blue construction paper, red and white construction
paper cut into 1" strips, silver star stickers, and glue and let the kids
create.
Stars And
Stripes Sponge Painting
Cut sponges
into stars and long strips. Let the children make
sponge prints on the white paper with the red and blue paint.
(Without the stripes -
submitted by Shell)
Red, White, And
Blue Salt Jars
(AN
ADULT MUST DO THIS PART)
To make the
colored rock salt: Measure 3 cups of rock salt to be blue, 3 cups to be
white,
and 3 cups to be red, and place each in three separate bowls. Combine ¼
cup of rubbing
alcohol with ½ a bottle or more of red food coloring (you want the colors
to be bright).
Do the same for the blue food coloring. Mix the red alcohol mixture into
one of the
bowls of rock salt. Mix well and let sit for about 1 minute. Drain the
excess alcohol
mixture off of the rock salt. (WARNING: This will smell pretty yucky!)
Spread the colored rock salt on cookie sheets and set outside in the sun
to dry
(this will take only an hour or so). Repeat the same procedure for the
blue food coloring.
Do nothing with the remaining rock salt because you want it to stay white.
(ACTIVITY FOR THE CHILDREN)
Once the
different colors of salt are dry, place them on a table with spoons and
baby food jars.
Guide the children to spoon the colored rock salt into their jars. Seal
the children's creation with the lid.
More Fireworks
Put blue and
red paint on white paper. Take a straw and blow the paint blobs around to
look like fireworks. Just make sure you poke a little pin prick hole at
the top of the straw so they do not inhale the paint.
~or~
Use a large, clean plastic
bottle, (the ones from
Costco or Sam's Club that have the cookies in
them
are the best) and put a piece of white paper into it around the sides of
the bottle.
Put red and blue tempera paint in the bottom and a wooden block or rubber
ball
(something that can be washed off). Shake or Roll the big bottle around,
he/she
will be decorating their very own picture for the Fourth of July! When
they are done,
just remove paper and hang to dry, and rinse out the bottle to reuse! (It
also makes a lot of noise!)
Fireworks
Put
watered down red and blue tempera paint in a spray bottle. Let the
children
spray it on a large piece of white paper . You can tape the paper on a
fence or lay
it in the grass to decorate. It looks like fireworks, and glitter can be
added too.
Flags
Start with
white construction paper. Children glue on red tissue paper strips, to
make
red and white stripes. Then glue a blue tissue paper square in the top
left corner.
For the stars you can use white tissue paper, crumpled up, or star
stickers.
Bells
Use paper
cups and let children decorate them. (have them add a "Crack", like the
Liberty Bell) use string through the bottom of the cup, and tie on a small
'jingle bell.'
Rockets
Make a cone
shape, out of construction paper. Decorate with markers. Cut a narrow
(approx. 2" long)
slits on opposite sides of the wide open end. Use 18" of string, and with
the point up, put the
string through the slits, and pull sharply on the ends of relaxed string
(rocket will fly into air)
Wind Socks
Use red,
white or blue construction paper and roll it length wise. Glue, tape or
staple together.
Add string as a handle to one end. Add red, white and blue streamers to
the other end.
~ or ~
Red, White, and
Blue Windsock
Paint
a toilet paper tube red, white, or blue (or all three if you want). Let
dry. Staple pieces of red
white and blue yarn (or streamers, strips of paper, ribbons, etc.) around
one end of the tube. Each
piece of yarn should be about 8-12 inches long. On the other end of the
tube, punch two holes across
from each other. Thread a piece of string through the two holes and tie
off to make a hanger. NOTE:
You can just cover the tube with paper instead of painting it to make this
craft go a little more quickly.
Red, White, And
Blue Puffy Paint Picture
Mix equal
parts of flour, salt, and water to make the puffy paint. Divide mixture
into three different bowls and
color one bowl of mixture blue, one bowl red, and leave the last one
white. Fill empty mustard squeeze
bottles with the mixture (one color per squeeze bottle). Let the children
squeeze the different colors onto the
cardboard. Allow the children's artwork to dry. When it is dry, the design
will be raised and will sparkle!
Tissue
Fireworks
Cut white
and colored tissue paper into 1" squares. Draw fireworks patterns on black
construction paper with chalk (3 per paper). Give each child one piece of
prepared
black paper and a container of 1" tissue paper squares and a container of
white glue with
a squeeze top. Instruct the children to use their finger tips and
ball up each square of tissue.
Be sure they pick up only one piece at a time. Instruct the children to
place glue dots along
one line of a firework, and to place the balled-up tissue on the glue.
Have them complete the task, using any color patterns they desire.
Firecracker
Finger Puppet
Materials
Needed:
Reddish Brown coin Wrapper (penny)
2 wiggle eyes
sticker stars (or draw your own)
red marker
small bubble wrap
2 - 23 inch sparkle pipe cleaners
scissors
small red pom-poms
white glue
Cut the 2 sparkle stems in half. Glue the ends of the 4 pieces inside one
end of the coin wrapper.
Let the glue dry, than fan the stems out to look like an exploding
firecracker. Glue the 2 wiggle
eyes on ones side of the wrapper, just below the stems. Glue on a pom-pom
nose below the eyes.
Use the marker to give the firecracker a smile. Decorate the wrapper
with stickers (star) or make
your own. Cut 2 or 3 bubbles from the small bubble wrap and slip them
inside the firecracker.
Pop the bubbles to make the firecracker "explode" Have lots of extra
bubbles ready for reloading.
Slip the firecracker over your finger and go wish someone a happy 4th of
July
Glitter Paint
Fireworks Pictures
Paint the
entire surface of a matte board or cardboard with
thinned white glue. Fill shakers that have large holes with powdered
tempera and glitter. Shake the paint glitter mixture onto the glue to
make "fireworks". Dry the project for a long time (a couple of days).
Statue of
Liberty Crown
Cut
the center from a paper plate, cut the outside ring in a 3/4" section and
fold back each end.
Cut 5 points from construction paper and staple or glue to the paper
plate.
Decorate with crayons, markers, paint and glitter. If you cut just enough
of the
paper
plate ring then it should sit easily on the child's head without head
pins.
~ or ~
Glue or
staple strips of tissue paper onto a paper towel roll for fire.
Decorate the roll with markers, crayons and glitter.
4th of July
Flyers
Cut a piece
of construction paper to fit around toilet tissue roll. Have the children
glue that on.
Then have them put stars on the construction papered tube. Cut crepe paper
about the same
length as the tube, maybe a little longer then cut in half, to make narrow
strips, (length wise)
and glue them at one end of the tube on the inside. (looks like a mini
windsock).
Togetherness
Flag
On the large
sheet of paper (2'x3'), draw lines for stripes and paint a blue square in
the
upper left corner. Have the children fill in the bottom stripe by dipping
their hands in red
paint and pressing them end to end within the lines of the stripe. Using
the white paint,
have them make a white stripe just above it the same way.
Continue until you have all 13 stripes
filled with hand prints. Have the children dip their fingertips in paint
and make the "stars" in the blue square.
Torn Paper Flag
Give each
child one whole piece of white paper. Then give them scraps of red,
white and blue paper. Show them a flag and discuss the many parts of the
flag.
Now using their fingers to rip the paper instead of cutting, have them
create a flag.
Be sure to go over the sizes they will need for the blue box, stripes, and
stars.
Star Cookie
Cutters
Gather a few
star-shaped cookie cutters and shallow bowls of red and blue tempera
paint.
Allow each child to have a turn pressing the cookie cutters into the
paint,
then onto a piece of construction paper to make star shaped prints.
Patriotic Bead
Patterning
Gather
several packages of red, white, and blue beads and pipe cleaners. Make a
few example patterns
with the beads on the pipe cleaners. Set the remaining beads and pipe
cleaners on a table and
allow the children to copy any of the patterns on their own pipe cleaners.
When they are all finish you can
place the pipe cleaner around the child wrist and twist the ends together.
Now you have a patriotic bracelet.
Patriotic
Necklace
The
day before (or earlier) an adult needs to collect together sufficient
dried
pasta pieces with a hole up the middle (like macaroni) to form the
necklace/bracelet.
The dried pasta can be colored by briefly submerging it in a cup of almost
neat
food coloring and placing it on kitchen towel to dry. Once pasta is "dry"
give to child
with length of shearing elastic to thread into a wonderful necklace or
bracelet.
The larger the hole in the pasta the easier it is for a small child to
thread it onto
the elastic. I did this craft last year for the golden jubilee and
colored the pasta blue and red and left some uncolored (creamy).
Uncle Sam Hats
I
Cut top hat
shape out of white paper. Glue two red strips of paper to the front,
put small blue band of construction paper where a hat band would be, and
decorate
hat band with white stars. Attach hat to sentence strip and staple shut.
Place on a child's head.
~or~
 |
Uncle
Sam Hats II
Encourage your
children to cut out 4 strips of red paper (lengthwise).
Glue onto a sheet of white construction paper. Have your
children cut 9 strips of white paper. Staple two together for
the headband and staple another two together for the beard
strips to be glued on. To curl the beard strips, show the
children how to wrap the paper strips around a marker and hold
for a couple seconds. Taaa Daaa!!! For the hat, you may
want to cut the blue bottom portion and stars before hand.
Let the children glue the pieces together to create their Uncle
Sam Hat.
(Photo
submitted by Shell) |
Craft Stick
American Flag
Have the
children paint about 8 tongue depressors red. Cut a blue paper square
about 1/4 the size of a sheet of white paper. Glue it in the left hand
corner.
When sticks are dry, glue them on the page making a red stripe, then the
white paper,
another red and continue on. Have the children glue cotton balls on the
blue part to be stars.
Making Flags
Cut the
shape of a flag from construction paper. Cut designs from red, white and
blue paper.
Stars and stripes can be used for decoration, or anything else the child
wants to create.
Glue the designs onto the flag. Use tape to attach the outer edge of the
flag to a cardboard tube
from a paper towel roll. Put on some marching music and have the kids make
a parade waving their flags.
Patriotic Flags
Go to Home
Depot and grab a bunch of sticks (to mix the paint, they are free).
Divide the sticks in three parts, have the children paint one blue, one
red and the
other one white (for the little ones you can cover two parts of the stick
with tape
so they don't mix the colors) and let it dry and then put stars on the
blue part of
the stick (use star shape stickers. It looks very pretty).
Fourth of July
Light
Use old
sponges or paint brushes to paint the inside of a baby jar red or blue.
Set aside to dry. It doesn't matter if their are some streaks. Next put
sticker stars
on the outside of the jar. These can be in any order or design. Just don't
cover the
whole thing. Then, put the white tempera paint over the top of the baby
jar, stars
included. This might need to be done twice. Set aside to dry. When dry
peel the
stickers off. The color on the inside should be revealed in the shape of a
star
. We put votive candles on the inside of our baby jars and made our own
4th of July light.
It looks almost like stained glass and is non-flammable.
3-D Fireworks
Mix a batch
of clear gelatin (Sur-Jel) Have children choose any small or medium size
container to
use as a Jell-O mold. Bowls work well, but the more interesting the
better. Once the Jell-O sets well,
remove from the mold and place upside down on plate or work surface. Using
colored water or tempera
paint (red, blue, etc...) in eye droppers, have the kids insert the
droppers into the middle of the jell
and slowly remove as they squeeze in the colors. Repeat around the mold
until the desired 3-D fireworks
production is complete. To add to the effect, play Patriotic music or
Marches in the background!
Blow Painting
Fireworks
Put a few
drops of watered down paint onto a piece of construction paper.
Use a straw cut in half to blow the paint around on the paper. When you
blow
in the center of the drops, they fan out like fireworks. You can try to
put these on dark paper,
but they probably won't show up very well unless you put glitter in the
paint after you blow it.
B.B.Q.
Hamburgers
What's "The
Fourth" without a B.B.Q picnic? Cut out 2 round hamburger buns ror each
child from brown
construction paper. paper, lettuce, and from red a tomato slice, and you
might want cheese to go on your
'burger so a cut out of cheese from yellow Then from black paper cut out a
patty, and from green paper.
Have the children paste it together as they think a hamburger should be.
You could do the same with
hotdog shapes. As a final touch to your picnic, glue hamburgers to paper
plates, and add cut-out chips.
Toothbrush
Fireworks
Pour watered
down tempera paint on a paper plate or shallow container;
have kids dip toothbrushes in paint, bend bristles back with fingers onto
black construction paper.
Creates a neat "spray" design. Sprinkle lightly with glitter for an even
more sparkly effect.
Fire Crackers
Have the
children make "4th of July Firecrackers" by painting a toilet paper tube
red, white, or blue.
After paint has dried, glue red, white and blue crepe paper streamers to
tube. For variation, close off
one end and fill with rice; then close off to make a noise shaker. After
ends are glued shut, then glue on
streamers. Children can stick on stars. Then play a variety of patriotic
songs such as Yankee Doodle,
Stars and Stripes Forever, you're a Grand Old Flag, etc. and let the
children march and dance to the music.
Independence
Day Bells
Give each
child a paper cup and sheet of tinfoil and have them "wrap" the cup
creating a silver bell.
Help children poke popsicle sticks through top of "bell", securing
popsicle stick with tape.
Let each child thread a short piece of string/yarn through a bead or
washer and tie to
inside portion of popsicle stick. Have children decorate bells as desired.
Patriotic
Candle Holder
Thin down some plain white glue and paint the outside of a baby food
jar with it.
(You don't need to paint the bottom, just around the sides.) Stick small
pieces of red,
white, and blue tissue paper all around the jar and let dry. You can also
paint over
the tissue paper to seal it if you want, but that's not necessary. Now all
you have to do is drop
in a votive or tea light candle. The light of the burning candle looks
pretty shining through the
colored bits of paper -- but make sure you keep burning candles out of
reach of your little ones.
These make nice decorations for a 4th of July party even if you don't
light them.
Safe
Sparklers
Children love to dance
around with sparklers for the Forth of July but it is dangerous. So I
developed my own
safe sparklers for my 3-4 year old class. Materials: Plastic Straws,
Curling ribbon in red, white, and blue,
and either star garland or metallic pipe cleaners. Take the pipe cleaners
or garland and bend it in half (no
sharp wire edges will be exposed). On the open side, tape differing
lengths of curling ribbon. Place the taped
end into the straw. Turn down the lights and watch the sparks fly as the
children wave their "sparklers".
Fireworks in
the Sky
Using a black piece of
construction paper, straws, and various colored paint allow the
children to drop
a small amount of paint onto paper and gently blow through the straw for
fireworks in the sky effects
Spray Bottle
Fireworks
Put
watered down tempera paint in a spray bottle. (Red and Blue makes sense to
me!).
Let the children spray it on a large piece of white paper. Can be done on
an easel, or outside
w/ the paper taped to the fence. It looks like fireworks, and glitter can
be added too.
Fireworks
Display
In
advance, collect a class supply of empty film canisters; then make a hole
in the lid of each one.
Cut a large supply of 16 inch curling ribbon lengths in a variety of
bright colors. To begin, instruct
each child to paint a thin layer of glue on the sides and bottom of
a film canister. Then have
him/her lightly sprinkle glitter onto the wet glue. Assist him/her
in pulling several lengths
of curling ribbon through the hole in the lid. Knot the ribbons
together under the lid.
When the glue has dried, have each youngster place the lid on his/her
canister.
Take the students outside to a large play area and encourage them to
throw their fireworks into the air.
Magic Flags
Cut a
6" x 10" rectangle of white construction paper for each child; then fold
back about two inches on
one short side of each paper. Using a white crayon, draw a rectangle
in the upper left corner of each
flag-to-be; then add stars. Next, use waxed paper to mask the area
inside the white rectangle you drew.
Then invite a child to use a mini paint roller to paint seven red stripes
over the rest of the rectangle. When
the red paint is dry, have the child remove the waxed paper and color the
upper left corner with a blue bingo
marker. The stars will magically appear. When the blue paint
is also dry, wrap the folded edge of the
paper around a drinking straw and glue it in place. Then watch those flags
wave.
Holiday Shakers
Create
festive shakers for the children to use during 4th of July activities.
Decorate the backs
of two aluminum pie plates with paints, markers, stickers, or glue and
glitter. Cut two red, blue,
and white crepe paper streamers about 6" long for each child. Glue or tape
the streamers to the
inside of one of the plates, positioning them so that the streamers will
dangle from the edges.
Place a handful of dried beans, peas, or pasta shapes on one of the
plates. Place the second plate on
top of the first with the decorated side up. Use a stapler or wide clear
tape to secure the two plates together.
Uncle Sam Mask
Materials
Needed:
9 in paper plate
red, white, and blue construction paper
fiberfill
white glue
scissors
stapler
Directions:
Cut the center out of the paper plate, so that you are left with just
rim
Cut an 8inby9in piece of blue construction paper for the hat. cut 2in by
12in
blue rectangle for the brim of the hat. Glue the brim across the bottom of
one
of the shorter sides of the hat piece. Cut a band and stripes for
the hat from the
red and white paper. Arrange them in a way you like, then glue them in
place.
Finish the hat by decorating it with sticker stars or make you own. Glue a
fiber
fill (or cotton) beard around 1/2 of the plate rim. Staple the hate to the
plate rim
above the beard. Cut a paper band that will be just long enough to fit
around
you head when attached to each side of the plate rim behind the hat.
Staple the band to the plate rim.
Spattered
Fireworks
Materials
Needed:
watered down red, white and blue paint, blue construction paper, large
bristled
paintbrushes, paint shirts, gold glitter, shaker, three containers-one for
each color
Directions:
This is a great project for outside!!!! Provide each child with a
piece of blue construction paper. Have them
dip their paint brush into the paint, pull back on the bristles and
spatter the paint onto their paper. When
they have finished spattering, sprinkle gold glitter onto the paint, allow
to dry and shake off the excess.
Fourth of July
Windsock
This is
a two stage project. First, cut blue construction paper in half
lengthwise.
Have each child sponge paint stars on one piece of the construction paper.
On the other end of the table, put a piece of white construction paper
in a pizza box.
Put marbles dipped in red tempera in the box and let the children roll
them around.
After the paint has dried, cut the red and white paper into strips
about an inch wide.
Staple the two ends of the blue paper design together then staple the
strips of red and
white paper so that they are hanging down from the blue piece to make a
great windsock!
Poke two holes in the top of the top of the blue star paper and insert
yarn,
knot it at the top and viola! A festive patriotic decoration they are
proud to display!
~or~
Give
each child a red, white, or blue construction paper rectangle. Set
out star shaped sponges
and red, white, and blue tempera paint. Let them sponge paint stars
onto the construction paper
triangle. They could also add Fourth of July stickers instead of
using paint. Connect the two ends
of the rectangle with glue or tape to create the tube shape of the
windsock. Glue red, white, and
blue streamers at the bottom of the windsock. Punch two holes at top
(on sides) to attach string.
