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Build it for the Great Outdoors
- Make a walking stick
A good height for a walking stick is a bit higher than your waist when it is touching the ground. This way, you can reach forward with your walking stick without having to hunch over as you walk. The stick also needs to be narrow enough that you can comfortably wrap your hand around it, but strong and straight enough that it doesn’t bend or break if you place weight on it.
Once you have found a good stick, remove the little sticks, twigs or leaves off the main, long stick. You can either use your walking stick the way it is, or put more work into it. If you want to make it smoother, you can use sandpaper to sand it smooth. To make it shiny, you can place a coat (or two) of polyurethane (available at paint and hardware stores) on your walking stick. You can also make your walking stick more decorative by tying ribbons to it, and wrapping ribbons or yarn around it.
- Rain gauge
Materials needed: a wide mouth jar, a short plastic ruler, and waterproof tape.
A rain gauge measures the amount of rain that falls.
To make your gauge, stand the ruler inside the jar so that it touches the bottom. Tape it in place. When it is going to rain, put the jar outside to collect rain. When it is done raining, use the ruler to measure how much rain is in your rain gauge. (You can do this with snow too.) Make sure you place your jar somewhere away from trees and buildings, so the rain can fall into your jar.
- Raft
You can make a miniature one for a doll to use in the bathtub, or if you have the supplies and adult help, you can make one big enough for you to use in the water. Don’t forget your life jacket and a paddle!
- Birdhouse
You can find plans/kits at your local hardware store, book store, library or on the Internet.
Weird and Wonderful
- Tin can shoes
Materials needed: 2 large coffee cans, 2 pieces of long, tough string or cord (over 1 metre (3 feet) long for each one), something sharp to make holes in the cans (a nail carefully hammered through the can works well), and an adult to help you out.
Have an adult make one small hole on either side of the can. (Two holes, one across the can from the other.) Make the holes as close to the can bottoms as possible. Thread the long string through the holes and tie the ends together, making a large loop. The string loop needs to be long enough that you can hold onto it while standing on the can's bottom. Do the same with the other can
Turn the cans upside down and carefully place your feet on the can bottoms. Hold onto the strings and pull up lightly to keep the cans tight to your feet as you walk.
HINT: If you are smaller, you can use tomato cans.
- Grass head
Materials needed:
An old knee-high stocking (or the leg cut off of an old pair of nylons)
15 mL (1 tablespoon) grass seed
750 mL (3 cups) sawdust or peat moss
Bowl
Saucer or plate
Water
Markers, white glue, goggly eyes
Place grass seed in the toe of the stocking. Fill the foot of the stocking with sawdust or peat moss. Add just enough to make a nice round ‘head’. Make sure you don’t mix the grass seed into the stocking too much. Tie a knot in the stocking right above the level of sawdust/peat moss. You may have to squeeze the material down to make a tight round ball.
Soak your grass head in a bowl of water for 2-3 minutes, then place it on a saucer or plate so it doesn’t drip everywhere. Once the head is dried out (about a day) you can give your grass head a face with markers. If you have wiggly eyes you can glue them on.
HINTS:
Keep your grass head on a plate or saucer and in the sun, but don’t let him get too dry. To keep him damp, dip the top of his head (the toe of the stocking where the seeds are) in water every day. In about a week, hair (grass) should start sprouting. Once it starts growing you can give him funky haircuts! Don’t forget to keep watering him!
- Time capsule
A time capsule is a container that you fill with things to be opened in the future. Some are opened in a year; some aren’t opened for 100 years! When do you want to open your time capsule?
Choose a container with a lid to be your time capsule. Shoe boxes or ice-cream pails make good time-capsule containers.
What would be interesting to put in your time capsule? You can put toys, a letter to yourself in the future, a newspaper from today and other mementos in your time capsule. (I don’t recommend putting things that will go bad like food or something that you will miss--like a favourite toy--in the time capsule. Close your time capsule and write on the lid when you want to open it
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Easy Construction
- Make a car/truck/submarine
Using a large cardboard box, build yourself a vehicle (or fort if you like). To make your vehicle bigger, tape two boxes together or use a large fridge box.
To make your box look like a car or boat, draw or paint the outside. You can also use paper plates to make a steering wheel or wheels. Smaller plates taped or glued on will make great headlights.
- Build a project from your imagination
Use scrap wood (sometimes lumber stores have bits and ends that you can have for free). Hammer or glue the pieces together to make something interesting. Or, you can buy a kit from a hardware or craft store and put it together.
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- Puppets
Paper Bag Puppets: You can make a simple puppet out of a paper lunch bag. Where the bottom of the bag folds, create a face. The fold will be the mouth of your puppet. You can colour, paint or glue things to the bag to give your puppet a face and hair.
Sock Puppets: Take an old sock that you can fit your hand into. The toe of the sock will be the mouth and nose area of the puppet. You can glue or sew scrap material to the sock to make a mouth, nose and eyes. You can also sew buttons on for eyes, glue yarn or string on to the top for hair. Finger Puppets: Take a piece of cardboard and cut it out into the shape of a person or an animal, but don't give it legs, just a head, arms and body. Your fingers will become the puppet’s legs. To do this, cut holes in the bottom of the puppet for your fingers to fit through.
Decorate your puppet. If you would like a template (something you can print off and cut out) look for ‘finger puppet templates’ on the Internet or in a puppet book.
- Paper mache
Materials needed:
Strips of newspaper about 3 cm (1 inch) wide and strips of white paper for the last layer.
Bucket and spoon
A mold for paper maching (like a balloon, cardboard or wire structure)
250 mL (1 cup) of flour
30 mL (2 tablespoons) of salt
250 mL (1 cup) of warm water
There are many things you can make out of paper mache. You can make animals, shapes, piñatas, in fact, just about anything you can think of! Decide what you would like to make and prepare a ‘structure’ out of wire, cardboard or a balloon to lay your paper mache over.
Mix together: flour, salt and warm water. Stir.
Place plastic or newspaper where you are going to work as this can get messy. Dip your newspaper strips into the mix and wipe the extra mixture off by running the strip through your fingers. Place about 4 layers of strips on your balloon, cardboard or wire. Allow the layers to dry (this may take hours or days) before adding 4 more layers. Keep adding layers until you have the shape and strength you need. With the last layer, use white paper (or paper towel) instead of newspaper strips. When it is dry, you can paint it and decorate it however you like.
HINT:
If you have to wait for layers to dry, but still have mix left, seal it with plastic wrap. Stir it before reusing it. It may turn light brown, but it will still work.
- Piñata
You can make a piñata out of paper mache (see above) and fill it with candy or other treats so when you break it open, all the treats fall out.
To make a hollow area for your treats, create your piñata's structure with a balloon instead of cardboard or wire. Once you have dried 2 layers over the balloon, cut a small hole (don't throw out the piece) in the bottom of the piñata. Pop the balloon and fill the space where the balloon was with treats. Place the piece that was cut out of the piñata back over the hole and tape or paper mache it back into place. Attach a loop of yarn to the top of your piñata when you are adding more layers so you will be able to hang your piñata. Add more layers to the piñata now that you have the bottom back on in order to make it stronger. When it is dry, decorate it with paint and sparkles.
Once your piñata is ready, invite friends over to take turns hitting it with a stick. When it breaks, the goodies will go everywhere.
- Make clay and sculpt something
Materials needed:
250 mL (1 cup) flour
75 mL (1/3 cup) warm water
60 mL (1/4 cup) salt
Bowl
Spoon
Baking sheet
Food colouring (for coloured clay)
Mix the ingredients. (If the dough is too dry add more water.) Create a hand print or shape something from the clay. Have an adult bake your creation at 65 C (150F) for 1-2 hours on a cookie sheet. Once your creation has cooled, you can paint it.
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