Thanks to Play Fest you should never be short of an idea or two for creative play ever again. During two Play Fest parties we set a challenge for mums and dads to brainstorm 100 creative play ideas for kids. And guess what you came up with 137 creative play ideas! Well done to everyone who took part. Here is a list of 137 kids creative play ideas that came out of the Play Fest. You should never find yourself stuck for a creative play activity ever again! You even have printer friendly version, how handy is that? Feel free to add your ideas in the comments too.
1. Give a child a kitchen roll tube and ask your child how many things they can do with it e.g. telescope, trumpet, rolling pin
2. Make a flying saucer from paper plate and clear plastic cup for dome on top… could even put alien inside!
3. Hand painting and then use markers to turn them into something e.g. animal
4. Wooden spoon people!
5. Decorate an empty cardboard box to make a spaceship.
6. Crumpled tissue paper pictures – great as you get to use tearing action!
7. Give your child a cardboard box and see what they come up with. Will it be a house, car, speedboat, cave?
8. Making potions!! Very fun and great sensory play too. Usually best to do together. Make sure your little one is clear that they must not drink anything that you make together.
9. Give your child some everyday objects (e.g. measuring cups, wooden spoons) and see what happens!
10. A pop up tent in the corner of the living room.. they use it as their house!!!… even host tea parties in it!
11. Get your kids to decorate large bits of paper and then use as wrapping paper
12. Any painting, poster paints, water colours, finger painting- on paper, card, boxes!
13. Making wind chimes or dream catchers with recycled bits, feathers, old cutlery, environmental art
14. Just make a mess! Sandbox, waterhose, painting, baking & playdough
15. Make a fan, concertina a piece of A4 paper and decorate it.
16. Make some puppets – either with socks, wooden spoons, pieces of felt or whatever else you have. The only limit is your imagination
17. You can make puppets by putting fruit on sticks too and making googly eyes
18. Make up new words to old tunes – You can make fun of Dad!
19. Make big big pictures with coloured chalks to draw on the patio the rain washes it away
20. Ice mobiles (freeze them outside if cold or in the freezer) and then have a race to see which melts the quickest
21. Use toy cars instead of brushes to make pictures!
22. Massive pieces of paper (preferably unused lining paper) Paint on feet, stomp about! Messy but fun :O)
23. Put googly eyes on people’s faces in the old magazines. A lot of fun!
24. Build old boxes into pirate ship in garden – add steering wheel and paint flag to put up!
25. Ice ornaments-put berries/leaves in bowl,fill with water and freeze then use. Good for xmas and FREE! http://yfrog.com/h840302078j
26. Just lay out lots of art and craft materials and see what your little one comes up with.
27. Encourage some roleplaying – Throw yourself into it with them, they love it. Monsters or animals or pirates etc.
28. Give your little ones pegs and material and let them build the ultimate den! Go with the flow-is it a spaceship, perhaps a castle!
29. Potato stamping where you half a spud and cut a shape out of middle.
30. If you make a made up potion then you can use the liquid the potion produces to paint with.
31. Dark den adventures… collect loads of torches and light (like the handheld ones you get that flash etc..) , make your room really dark, and explore them … you could use them to draw shapes on the walls or make shadows!
32. Get a roll of old wallpaper, get your little one to lie down, draw round them & get them to colour in. Cut out, put on wall. You never know, your little one might use their cut out as an imaginary friend.
33. Save everyday items such as corks from wine bottles and silver foil from food (i.e. jam tarts) and make interesting structures
34. Concertina fold up an A4 piece of paper and then cut half a boy or girl out of the folded side to reveal a line of boys or girls holding hands.
35. Make some home made play dough. You can add glitter, essential oils, cacao,cinnamon etc
36. Get a huge cardboard box. Open each end. Tah dah! You have a tunnel! (Boxes of different sizes make a great assault course)
37. Buy some canvasses and let your little one do their worst and you would be surprised at what fab art you have for their rooms.
38. Laminate pictures: allow your little one to arrange materials (feathers, sequins, leaves, tinsel, etc) and put it through the laminator to keep
39. Create some gift tags with old cards. Just cut and hole punch and attach some ribbon
40. Save shiny sweetie wrappers for collage making
41. See what creative ring tone the kids can record for your mobile phone
42. Make a postbox out of a shoebox and make letters to pretend post to the family
43. Weaving with natural materials e.g. long leaves, sticks etc
44. Create vegetable sculptures. Have creative fun with food with this book http://t.co/7yPL0EB
45. Make sitters by weaving folded newspaper. Little hardwearing newspaper mat kinda things.
46. Design a t-shirt. Need some cheap plain tops and a pack of special crayons… colour, create then iron to fix!
47. Make pom poms. Great fun with older children and keeps them occupied for a while. You can add eyes or things to make into stuff
48. Make homemade instruments – shakers, paper plate tambourines, drums, tissue-box guitars
49. Paper mache on a balloon and make planets.
50. Make mini films on a digital camera or make a radio show on a voice recorder e.g. from mobile phone.
51. pasta pictures, sticking dry pasta to make pictures, and you can paint too. Flashback to my childhood
52. Cutting up cooked spaghetti in a bowl to practice using scissors
53. Make faces using food http://ht.ly/4WOGJ
54. Ice Painting – Freeze paint in ice cube trays or containers and give to your little one with a blank sheet of paper.
55. Mirror face printing: Your little one can paint their own reflection onto the mirror and then use paper to make a print of their picture.
56. Make an elephant out of a milk carton. http://wp.me/p1d7pP-f1
57. A roasting tin, ripped up paper and home made glue will keep your little one quiet for ages!
58. Paint half a picture and fold paper to make a mirror image e.g. butterfly
59. Make your own pet piggy http://ht.ly/4WOQC
60. Blow some bubbles onto paint on picture. Makes an interesting effect.
61. Use food colouring to ‘paint’ a slice of bread and then toast it to have rainbow toast! (just beware of allergies!)
62. Rubbing! Put something under the paper and colour on top, making rubbing of it
63. Bird feeder with seeds and lard
64. Make a pinata out of paper mache. You just need to blow up a balloon to paper mache and the rest is your imagination.
65. Make an origami snail http://tinyurl.com/3c5jz67
66. Pressing flowers. All you need are flowers, heavy books and some paper.
67. Paper aeroplanes
68. Simple sewing- Create a purse or puppet, great for motor skills and sense of achievement!
69. Scribble on paper in coloured wax crayon in rainbow form. Cover in black paint and scratch through when dried to make a patter.
70. Make paper hats and boats and you can decorate them too!
71. Have a paper aeroplane competition and see who can hit a target or go the furthest. http://ht.ly/4WPtZ
72. Clothes peg doll with wool for hair
73. Threading beads or for cheapness buttons – great for fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination
74. Paper snowflakes are a good. Fold A4 sheet of paper up in to 4 and cut with scissors. See what emerges.
75. Balloon modelling.
76. Make stain glass pictures to stick in your window. You can use pva glue mixed with paint, just make a picture out of the mixture on some cling film or cellophane wait for it to dry then peel it off and stick it up
77. Stick old buttons and milk lids to make a crown on cardboard
78. Make some paper chains and colour them too
79. Make some paper lanterns
80. One play fester used to bake empty crisp packets in the oven. Not for too long, and they would crumple and harden, you could add safety pins to make badges, or could make key rings!
81. Make a future predictor. You fold paper and kids have to choose a colour, number, answer a question.
82. Scrap book
83. Finger Paints – lots of mess!! http://ht.ly/4WPFE
84. Sponge painting
85. Face painting
86. Make some binoculars from kitchen roll or loo roll tubes and put string on them to wear round neck
87. Turn plastic bottles into skittles… fill with rice and paint!
88. Make Angry Bird Babybel! #playfest http://ht.ly/4WPSU
89. Make some music. Fill glasses with different amounts of water and making a tune.
90. Pipecleaners are great for making into creatures or anything and you can buy big packs for a pound in the works
91. Paint stones/rocks
92. Use fabric to create pictures, multiple sensory too
93. Making biscuit boots/dresses and decorating them
94. Cutting fingers off old gloves to put faces on to do finger puppets
95. Cutting loads of old postcards in half, mix them up & letting the kids match them up?
96. Cut up a old catalogue and make a picture collage
97. Bubbles! Simple as. Blow ‘em, Catch ‘em, run around lots. So easy and so much fun.
98. Blowing paint around through a straw
99. Painting with pain paper and marbels
100. Colouring in pictures
101. Make cornflour gloop
102. Writing poems can be fun.
103. Roll out old rolls of wallpaper to draw on or paint in the garden x
104. Sticker mosaics, cut up gummed square paper into smaller square and create patterns
105. collecting natural stuff, leaves, sticks etc and use in art
106. Cutting up old birthday and Xmas cards to use to make new ones or just to stick on paper
107. Making necklaces out of leaves
108. Halloween pumpkins
109. Spray paint pine cones
110. Painting sticks
112. Sew wool into paper to make a fab picture
113. Cross stick patterns
114. Dressing up and mixing and matching colours
115. Draw around your hands, cut them out then make a picture with them eg a peacock etc
116. Painting with your feet…. big sheets of paper, tread in paint and walk around!
117. String pictures- dipping string in the paint then making patterns with it on paper
118. Fill the bath with water a guess which things will float or sink.. then test them!!!
119. Coin rubbings
120. Make a plasticine dog
121. Make a scarecrow
122. Cork and cotton reel rolling and stamping with paint
123. Bubble wrap printing
124. Pipe cleaner animals
125. Make a mobile out of old wire coat hanger. Thread pictures and children can decorate them with objects.
126. Make tissue paper flowers with straw stalks
127. Springy snakes – draw a spiral, colour as a snake, cut along line but keep centre together, thread string through middle and hang!
128. Flowers made out of cut up egg boxes, painted and use a straw for the stem.
129. Making daisy chains
130. Use egg boxes to make a caterpillar – paint and stick!
131. Just make some glue out of flour and water and get creative
132. Make and write a book (not a big 1 of course)
133. A pencil roll made out of old jeans
134. Make flubber http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyIegV1DkE
135. Painting with an old tooth brush! dip it in the paint and flick it at the paper best to be done outside because it is messy but its great fun!
136. On a sunny day give your child a tub with just water in and a paint brush and let them ‘paint’ a picture with the water on pavement or a wooden fence, they can see the water picture and they can also watch it dissapeare too as the water evaporates but the best thing about this theres no mess to clean off.
137.
Indoor camping Two chairs with a sheet draped between them, pillows underneath so it’s like a tent + snacks
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] 137 Easy Creative Play Ideas from Play Fest Print Friendly [...]
[...] – You have come up with literally hundreds if not thousands of inspirational play ideas, 137 of which were captured in one Play Fest alone. [...]