Summer holiday activities

ACTIVITY IDEAS
ACTIVITY IDEAS
Summer holiday boredom busters!
If keeping the children entertained all summer
long is a daunting prospect, don’t despair!
Hunting high and low
Try a scavenger hunt, either at
home or in a local park or woods
(with adult supervision):
The classic scavenger hunt: give each
child or team a list of things to find at
home or in the park. (Use picture lists
for non-readers.) The winner is the
individual or team that gets them all
first.
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Ask the children to find items
with specific textures - prickly,
furry, smooth, soft, sticky, rough
and so on - or something beginning
with every letter of the alphabet.
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We all scream for...
Everyone loves ice cream on a hot
day, so try one of these ideas for
making your own at home.
Slice some over-ripe bananas, lay
the slices on a plate and freeze for
about two hours. Then blend them
for a delicious ice-creamy pure fruit
dessert.
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Get two resealable plastic bags,
one large, one small. Into the small
one put one cup of single cream,
two tablespoons of caster sugar, four
tablespoons of crushed strawberries
(or any other flavouring you fancy)
and a teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Into the large one put four handfuls
of ice cubes and four tablespoons
of rock salt. Then seal the small bag,
place it inside the large bag and
seal that, wrap the whole lot in a
towel, and shake non-stop for five
to ten minutes, until the mixture
in the small bag has thickened and
blended. Take it out carefully to
ensure none of the salt gets into your
tasty strawberry ice cream.
Illustrations: Susannah Fishburne
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26 summer 2014
Hide pieces of string of different
lengths. Then split the children into
two teams. The teams hunt for the
string and tie together any pieces they
find. The winning team is the one with
the longest combined length of string,
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For older children, give each team
a digital camera and set a photo
challenge: get a photo on a slide, in a
phone box, doing a handstand, star
jump, piggyback, etc. Back at home,
plug the cameras into your TV or
computer and compare the results.
out on the lawn, checking first that
there are no stones or other sharp
objects underneath. (If your lawn has a
slight slope, so much the better!) Hang
a hosepipe, if possible on a fine spray
or mist setting, above the sheeting,
securely fastened to a washing line or
tree. Then give the sheeting a generous
squirt of no-tears shampoo and slide
away!
Agree rules in advance and
supervise carefully to minimise the
risk of accidents.
Use your loaf
Buy a packet of bread mix and
get the children to bake their own
lunch. Focaccia and ciabatta are
especially satisfying to make as
the olive oil in the dough makes it
wonderfully slippery and stretchy
- and gives a delicious end result.
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Birthday bear
Find an unloved teddy or other soft
toy and announce to the children
that it’s his or her birthday. Ask
them to prepare a party, writing
invitations, wrapping presents,
dressing up, and then enjoying a
tasty party tea.
Slip-sliding away
Get the largest smooth tarpaulin,
groundsheet or roll of heavy duty
polythene you can find and spread it
Up, up and away...
Spend a day making, decorating and
flying paper aeroplanes. Instructions
for different models are easy to find
online (eg at paperaeroplanes.com).
Try them out using different sizes and
thicknesses of paper. Then take the
children’s creations outside and hold
an airshow, giving marks for distance,
style and speed.
On a roll
Can the children get a marble to roll
from table to floor or down a small
flight of steps by making a marblerun out of household junk? As well
as marbles, you’ll want plenty of old
cardboard tubes, boxes and foil trays,
masking tape to stick them together,
and a sturdy pair of scissors to create
some marble-sized holes.
Elyssa Campbell-Barr has some brilliant activity ideas that are fun,
educational, inexpensive and suitable for children of all ages.
Once you pop...
On a rainy day, what could be
better than a movie? A movie with
popcorn, of course! Shop-bought
varieties are often high in fat, refined
sugar and salt, so try this slightly
healthier homemade recipe...
You’ll need
half a cup of popping corn
l two tablespoons of olive oil
l two to three tablespoons of
agave nectar (a plant-derived
sweetener available in most large
supermarkets and health food
shops)
l a level teaspoon of cinnamon.
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Put three or four popping corn
kernels and the olive oil into a large
saucepan with a lid (a non-stick pan
with a glass lid works best) and place
on the stovetop on a high heat. Once
the kernels start to pop, add the rest
of the popping corn, replace the
lid, and keep the pan on a high heat
while the corn pops, giving it a shake
from time to time. When the rate
of popping starts to slow, take the
pan off the heat and stir in the agave
and cinnamon, making sure the
popcorn is well coated. Then spread
the popcorn out on a baking tray (or
two) and bake at gas mark 5/190oC
for 10 minutes. Yum!
Expeditionary force
For a cheap day out, visit a park or
playground in the next village or
borough. Get the children to help
you plan the journey using a mode
of transport you don’t normally
take - bus, bike, tram or train. Make
a picnic together to eat when you
get there.
Hair-raising!
Set up your own hair salon. Braids,
wraps and rag curlers are fun to
try for children with longer hair
(maybe practise on dolls first!),
while those with shorter styles could
use gels or sprays to create a punky
Mohican or funky spikes. Use a
squirt of coloured spray to complete
the look.
Clean machines
On a warm day, keep cool by setting
up a ‘car wash’ for all your bikes,
trikes and garden toys. Some bubbly
water, sponges, brushes and rags for
drying will occupy the children for
hours. If they’re really enthusiastic,
provide some polish for spokes
and saddles too. On a wet day,
you could set up a dolls’ spa in the
bathroom instead.
Walking sticks
As summer turns to autumn, take
a walk in the woods or park. At
the start of the walk each child
finds a stick (about 30cm long
works best) and wraps a few
rubber bands along its length. The
every time they find an interesting
leaf, feather, seed pod, berry,
fallen flower, anything at all,
they tuck one end into one of the
rubber bands until, by the end of
the walk the stick is completely
covered. At home, stand all the
sticks in a flowerpot as a showy
souvenir of your day out.
Grand designs
Gather together as many
cardboard boxes and tubes
as you can find and a roll or
two of masking tape, and
let the children make them
into a magnificent castle
for their little dolls or plastic
figures. Wrapping paper
tubes make great towers, and
older children might like to add
a drawbridge, portcullis and
battlements too. Then they
can become interior designers,
decorating the walls with
paint, gift-wrap or wallpaper
samples, and trawling
catalogues and magazines for
clocks, mirrors, furniture, flowers,
wIdescreen TVs... whatever they
fancy for their fantasy castle!
summer 2014
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