Craft Activities for Children’s Parties That are Kinder to Our Planet.
Crafty activities are a great way to keep the children entertained and there are lots of ways you can ensure they are a little kinder to our planet at the same time. There are lots of craft activities in my blog Craft Activities for Children’s Parties, which could be made more eco-friendly by sourcing more ‘green’ materials. For example you could source materials from your local scrap scheme store; they usually have a great selection of wool, scrap fabrics, beads, sequins, paper and card etc. Alternatively you could find materials from charity shops or car boot sales that you could repurpose, such as second hand necklaces which you could take apart and re-thread to make new jewellery items. Or collect items at home that you could reuse such as wrapping paper, packaging and toilet rolls, all of which can be turned into something fun with a little imagination and some paint. There are also some lovely nature inspired crafts that will cut down on some of the plastic and will be a little kinder to our planet:
Decorate a Bird House
Baker Ross and The Works have little wooden bird houses that the children can decorate and take home.
Make a Bug Hotel
It’s easy enough to gather together the materials you need for this and you can find lots of ideas online. Alternatively, you can buy kits from Baker Ross.
Hapa Zome
The art of Japanese leaf printing. You can also download free pdf instructions from Little Wood Walkers.
Bird Feeder
You can make these with bird seed and either coconut oil or gelatine. There are lots of options as to the mould you use; biscuit cutter, yogurt pot, paper cup etc. There are lots of videos on YouTube on how to make these, or Little Wood Walkers has a nice recipe using stale bread that you can download for free.
Blue Peter Style
If you want a very cheap and eco idea, you could have the children build things from waste materials such as toilet rolls, egg boxes, yogurt pots, washing up liquid bottles etc, just as they did on Blue Peter. You could even ask all the children to bring some items with them. There are heaps of ideas online and on Pinterest of things they can build with these sorts of things.
Grow, Forage, Make
‘Grow Forage and Make’ is a lovely book by Alys Fowler. There are full instructions, including lists of equipment required for fun activities such as; growing your own tomato or avocado plant, making a home for minibeasts, grow your own lunch, make your own flower perfume, grow an air plant or succulent, make your own plant pot or watering can, how to make wildflower seed paper, make vegetable ink dye, make art with leaf pounding, use kitchen scraps to grow new plants and how to make a willow star wand.
Nature Inspired Art
If you have access to an outside area for the party, the children could collect leaves, pine cones etc and make paintings or animals with them, or create a spring stick, mobiles or other decorations.
The Wildlings Crafts Instagram account is a great source of inspiration for eco arts and craft activities for children’s parties. You can also get lots of great crafting materials from your local scrap scheme. If you want to use glitter and would like an eco option, you can buy biodegradable glitter from Hobbycraft, eco glitter fun or The Original Party Bag Company.
