Skip to main content

Messy Play Activities For The Backyard

Summer is the perfect time of year for some messy play! Most kids are off from school, and if things get too messy, it's warm enough to rinse off with a hose. Here are a few of my family's favorite messy backyard activities.

#thebarefootmom


Squirt Gun Painting:

For this activity you will need:
-Squirt gun
-Food coloring
-White Paper
-Duct Tape

 Start by adding 10-15 drops of food coloring to a cup and add 1/2 cup of water. Use this colored water to fill your squirt gun.

 Tape a white piece of paper to a tree or fence with the duct tape. Or try just lying the paper on the ground.

 Make pretty designs on the paper by squirting the squirt gun at it.

 Make a new color and add to your art work.



Water Balloon Art:

For this activity you will need:
-Food coloring
-Water Balloons
-An old white sheet or table cloth you don't mind staining up.

 Add about 15-20 drops of food coloring to a water balloon, then fill it with water and tie. Make about 20 water balloons like this with various colors of food coloring.

 Hang the sheet or table cloth outside over a fence.

 Have your kids create art by throwing the balloons at the sheet or tablecloth.

 If your kids have trouble getting the balloons to pop on impact, try laying the sheet flat on the ground and throwing the balloons straight down at it.

Sidewalk Paint:

For this activity you will need:
-Cornstarch
-Water
-Food coloring
-Medium or large sized paint brushes. Sponge brushes work great for this activity.

 Mix 2 cups of cornstarch to 3-4 cups of water. Then pour the mixture into several small cups and add a different color food coloring to each cup (15-20 drops).

 Now you have sidewalk paint! Go outside and paint your driveway, sidewalk, or deck.




Mud Cake Decorating:

For this activity you will need:
-Mud
-Some sticks, leaves, berries, pine cones, rocks, etc...
-A couple old pie or cake pans you don't mind getting muddy

 This activity is super simple but my kids love it.

 Have your kids collect some cool nature items from around your yard like leaves, small sticks, small pine cones, pretty rocks, berries, whatever they think would make a nice decoration for a mud cake.

 Then build mud pies and cakes in your old pans and decorate using the items you collected.



What are your kiddos favorite messy play activities?
If you enjoyed this post, check out:

 Nature Stamping

 Backyard Nature Activities For Kids
Follow me on:
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram
Labels:

Comments

  1. Kristen of A Mom's Quest to TeachJuly 9, 2018 at 7:41 AM

    They just love to play with chalk and bubbles outdoors. Not really messy. They are not huge fans of getting dirty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brandy NicoleJuly 10, 2018 at 10:39 AM

    We love playing with bubbles and chalk too :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In  this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place.  Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team.  The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo
2 comments
Read more

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here:  Printable Rock and Mineral Journal ,  and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet  -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional)  -Rock and mineral guide (optional)  -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight
1 comment
Read more

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects  Penny Spinners-   Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo
Post a Comment
Read more

40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope

Microscopes are a scientific instrument that all kids should get a chance to learn how to use. There are so many everyday things that look really amazing up-close. Under a microscope you can see that objects and even plants and animals are made of tiny intricate parts. The microscopic world is amazing! In this post I share 40 things to try looking at up-close under a microscope. 40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope: 1. A feather  2. Soil 3. An insect wing 4. A human hair 5. An animal hair 6. Pond water 7. Diatomacious earth-  diatomacious earth looks SO cool magnified! 8. Cheek swab 9. An insect leg 10. A drop of blood 11. Mold 12. Sand 13. A shaving from a chicken bone- try both a piece of hard bone from the outside and some spongy bone from inside a bone. 14. Kombucha 15. Snake or lizard skin after they shed  16. A flower petal 17. A sliver of wood 18. Sugar 19. Salt- try different types 20. Thread 21. Saliva 22. A s
2 comments
Read more

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems  here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems  here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean
5 comments
Read more