Birthday Craft for Toddler

For my son's second birthday a few weeks ago I went to Micheal's and bought these little paint your own ceramic kit. They come with two little figures, I picked out different ones, and some paint and a little paint brush in the kit. I bought one kit for each child and this also served as their favor at the end. I didn't want to spend money on cheap toys and I avoid candy. $1 each. Kids had fun picking out which one they wanted to paint and sat there for a long time painting. I did it outside, but if you want to do it inside I would buy a cheap curtain liner that way clean up is easy.

You could make a craft and take home gift in one! Get turquoise or purple paint,light blue card stock, wiggly eyes and sand. Pre glue bottom part of card stock, put sand on it, let each child paint their hand, turn it upside down, place it on card stock, it's an octopus! After drying, place eyes on. You could also take green crepe paper and tear into thick strips and glue on for seaweed! Make some finger print fish swimming around as well! Should take up a little time!
Have fun!

They have a lot of summer craft kits at Michael's and Jo-Ann's. I also like those foam sun visors that you decorate with those foam stickers. They can wear them and have their own shade! Heh.

I like the idea of centers. Also the older kids might have more fun helping with the little kids at the centers than actually doing the crafts themselves. If they are the type who prefer to be "in charge" you might want to ask them to each take a center for a little while and just help out. Fun for them and easier for you!

My daughter's preschool had an "Art Festival" where they had different tables set up with different crafts for the kids to do. They had 2 different painting tables where the kids were painting with different fruits and vegetables, it was pretty neat. At the fruit table they had paper plates of paint and instead of a brush they had cut limes, lemons, oranges and apples in half and the kids painted (or stamped) with them. At another table they used stalks of celery to paint with. The leafy end was like a paint brush or the flat end was like a stamp. In their case they had the kindergarten students stationed at each table to help the little ones and the older kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Good luck,
K.

Two activities come to mind.

Take solid color party hats and allow each kid to decorate a hat. (stickers, lace trim, pom pom balls, paint them, u can even hot glue small plastic toys)

The other is butcher paper summer kids. Roll out the paper. ( u can roll it out on the garage floor) Have each child lay on the paper. Each kid decorates their outline. This is good for all ages. You will have more detail from the older kids and scribbles from the little ones. The big kids can help the little kids.

I would have the party activities first and then let everyone have free play for water activities.

Keep it simple and have fun.

We made build your own pizzas for my daughter's 3rd birthday. The kids had a blast and made their own meals. I premade the pizza dough and crusts, added the sauce and then let them add the toppings from portioned out bowls. I had a range of kids 2 - 11 so it worked well. Then they played with the extra dough while the pizzas baked. If you don't want to make the dough you can use french bread slices.