Rainy Day Crafts for Toddlers

April showers bring crafty powers!

Because some afternoons in Florida look like this.

#1 Umbrella & Rain

This is for our alphabet book (it IS coming soon! I promise!), but it’s a pretty easy activity, although it does have a couple steps. First, cut out an umbrella shape and let your toddler color it (aka scribble all over it) with crayons.

You don’t have to wait for paint to dry, so glue it right on a white paper and draw on a handle. Then it’s time to fingerpaint some rain!

I would say an inkpad is best, except that even better than that is a homemade inkpad. I make this by wetting a sponge, then spooning some regular tempera paint on it. It’s the same consistency as an inkpad (except fluffier, so more fun), but it washes off easier!

After our handprint calendar, our toddlers have had a lot of experience with just using “one finger” to add details to projects, so I just let them at it.

Some of the “raindrops” ended up on the umbrella, some ended up in the sky, and some ended up under the umbrella.

But one thing they all had in common was that they were made with laughter, intensity, and diligence!

#2 Storm Cloud Windsock

This is a little more involved, but definitely worth it! I’ve also done this project with 4-year-olds, who loved it as well.

The first step involves fingerpainting on wax paper. (It should be the size of the construction paper you’ll later be using.) Tape it down so it doesn’t slide all over the place, then drop a spoonful of black, white, and blue fingerpaint on the wax paper.

Let the kiddos go to town!

They loved this step, as is very apparent.

Some were a little slow getting started…

…but they quickly got into it!

Make sure the entire piece of wax paper is covered with paint!

While they are smearing and sliding and immersing themselves in the paint, you can talk about dark storm clouds bringing rain and how they are mixing black and white to make gray (the blue adds a nice dimension too though).

As you can see, the paint didn’t entirely stay on the wax paper! haha

While the paintings are still wet, press a white piece of construction paper on top. (Yep, this is another project where you don’t have to wait for paint to dry – yay!)

Turn it over, and it should look like this – the storm cloud painting will stand out on the white paper background.

The next step is one that I did myself with the toddlers, but I would definitely have older kids help out with – tape strips of blue ribbon all along the bottom (rain!) and yellow lightning bolts onto the cloud itself.

Then simply roll it up and tape/staple it together like a cylinder, and add some ribbon for hanging!

P.S. I forgot that before adding the rain ribbons, I was going to cut the top and bottom with wavy lines to look like a cloud.

I don’t remember where I got this idea… maybe Mailbox? 

 

In any case, it is a lot of fun, and the kids love seeing their storm clouds hanging from the ceiling!