Fireworks for Toddlers

Happy Fourth of July! I’ve been hearing the fireworks all day and look forward to more tonight. Until then, here are some fireworks crafts that our toddlers painted last week! These projects are both great ways to practice fine motor skills, talk about colors, and get in some sensory play.

Incidentally, I wish I could write a how-to blog about how I took this fireworks picture. Unfortunately, the only thing I could write about it would be that I pointed my camera and took hundreds of bad shots and was all discouraged editing my photos until I came across this one. I have no idea what I did, but it was a pleasant surprise!

But on to the toddler crafts!

Pompom Fireworks

This works great with those shiny sunburst pompoms because they have those “spikes” already emanating out from their round, soft middles. I just clipped each one into a pompom and placed them on a recycled foam tray with red or blue paint. The 14-16 month olds were quite intrigued and inadvertently practiced their fine motor skills in picking them up! (They also enjoyed just looking at and touching the pompoms!) I placed the trays of paint to their left so they were also practicing pre-reading skills as they dipped the pompom in the paint, then moved over to their paper to stamp it. The paint’s splashes after a big slam were also lots of fun and laughter-provoking! I originally found the idea through Pinterest on this site.

Pipecleaner Fireworks

More bursts of color and fine motor skills as the toddlers grasped these pipecleaner structures (find out how to fold them here) and then slapped them onto their papers! We also made sounds like fireworks every time the pipecleaner crashed into the paper – “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” The kids laughed as I made the sounds at first, then started trying to copy me soon thereafter… anything to get them talking! (They weren’t quite able to say “fireworks” yet.)

Also, as an added bonus, I am sharing my patriotic toenails with you! They were surprisingly quick and easy to paint – my little nail art skinny brush helped a lot! And the toddlers enjoyed pointing to the stars and stripes. 

Happy Birthday, America!

Be sure to check out my patriotic garlands, flag cake, and stars & stripes crafts too!