12 Patriotic Crafts and Games for the Fourth of July: Independence Day Activities for Kids

Hey Kids! Celebrate with these Games and Patriotic Activities for the Fourth of July

America likes to celebrate her Independence. We celebrate many holidays with fireworks and patriotic activities. If you like to craft or need activities for summer camp or a family reunion party, you've come to the right place. We are sharing a round-up of our favorite Fourth of July holiday activities for preschoolers, school age, teenagers, and adults too. Enjoy!

Fourth of July games for children from Better Homes and Gardens.

Some of the best Summer Games from the list below include an Uncle Sam Patriotic Hat competition. This is fun for a family reunion.

Lay out the supplies needed to make a paper hat: Construction Paper, Paper Plates, Tape, Glue Sticks, Scissors, Glitter, even Cheap Birthday Hats to decorate, and Star Stickers. Then, have the party guests (at their own leisure) sit down at the crafting table and make a cool hat for the Fourth of July. Explain it is a decorating contest.

Guest wear the hats while playing games, eating barbecue, and enjoying the party. Pass out squares of paper (post it notes work great) and have everyone vote for their favorite hat. For example, "Uncle Mike's hat is the best" or ""I like Johnny's hat". The winner of the "best patriotic hat" gets a tiny flag to celebrate the win. Don't forget to share all the fun hats on Instagram and Pinterest!

• Patriotic Fruit Kabobs from Pinterest
• Fourth of July Games for Preschoolers
• How to use Sparklers and other Fireworks Safely
• Patriotic Games for Kids to play Outdoors
• Simple Fourth of July Projects for Preschoolers
• Independence Day Games to Play at Summer Camp
• Make your own Firework: Candy Rocket from Cardboard Tube
• Patriotic Party Games for Adults
• How to Make a Patriotic Hat for Independence Day
• Make a Star Spangled WhirlyGig to Hang from the Ceiling
• Free Printable American Flag

Click the image for Patriotic Party Games for Adults from Reader's Digest.

Recommended Reading:

Other Holidays in July

History for Kids: The Fourth of July for Kids - The Incredible Story of Independence Day - Including an Interactive Fourth of July QUIZ! (History for Children)

A Catered Fourth of July (A Mystery With Recipes)

Schedule Dates with Your Children: Mommy and Me Days Make Lifetime Memories

Tracey Thomas is the Chief Elf at Santa's Elves of Indy. She is a frequent guest blogger for Kids Creative Chaos. This week, she shares her insights on the Mommy Share. Do you take your kids out for special alone time with Mommy or Daddy? Here are some ideas for mommy-dates with your children.

Mom and Me Day

We have a large family, which means busy schedules and lots of group interaction. Don’t get me wrong, I love our big family, but sometimes the craziness that is our lives leaves little room for individual time with the kids. With my oldest son, “mommy and me” time wasn’t scarce at all, because he had no competition, but after baby #2 came along, it started becoming evident that I would need to build in time to spend one-on-one with him. It is now 12 years later and, not only have I acquired 4 children of my own, but also 2 step-children and I still try to build in that individual time with the kids.

A trip to the orchard is a special treat that doubles as edutainment.

In a perfect world, I would have an endless bank account to pull from that would allow me to take each child on an exotic weekend excursion, but here in the real world, this isn’t exactly the case. Ok, so it isn’t the case AT ALL. So to preserve the budget and to help keep our time special, each month a different child gets to have their day. Sometimes, it’s something as simple as driving to the nearby frozen yogurt shop and sometimes, when the funds allow, we will plan something a little more expensive, like going to the movies, or out to dinner, etc.

What kid doesn't love the movies, even better when you only have to share popcorn with  Mommy.

For my son’s 12^th birthday, he opted to combine his birthday present with his “Mom & Me” day and was able to have an afternoon downtown with his friends. To date, this was actually one of my favorite “Mom & Me” days with him because, even though I had to share it with four other 12 year old boys, the extra-sweet bonus was when he still wanted to sit by good ole Mom during the basketball game at the end of the night.

Too cool for Mom... not this boy!

As our kids get older, make new friends, and gain new freedoms, they will have less time for Mom. Until that time, and as far into it as I can get, I will always try to maintain the one-on-one visits with the kids. It’s our time to catch up, hang out, and stay connected. And I hope that “Mom & Me Day” will become as important to them as it is to me. 

Check out her other posts in the boxes below and on the sidebar.  She is the author of "Slurpin' for Worms".

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Homemade Rainbow Slushy Recipe How to Make with Ice Pops

Homemade Rainbow Slushy Recipe to Make at Home

Guest Post by Tracey Thomas:  My kids and I decided to try out a cool “recipe” how to we discovered on Pinterest: Rainbow Slushies!  While it looks very cool, and it is something I never would have thought of on my own, it only cost us a whopping $3 to make! Which is great, since I am ALWAYS on the lookout for fun, inexpensive things we can do together. This is also a fun activity for all ages; my 4 year old was very involved, and it kept the interest of my older kids, as well. Target age: Preschooler to Fourth Grade

Rainbow Slushy How to... It's an Ice Cone in a party dish.

The steps are very simple; buy ‘ice pop’ style POPSICLES, freeze, and sort them by color (ours did not have the same amount of each color, but we made it work!).

Choose a glass dish (we used a 2 qt casserole dish) and pop it into the freezer to get it nice and cold.

After sorting the popsicles, place all of them back into the freezer to keep them from thawing out and only take out one color at a time as you are using it.

Prepping for Snow Cone.

• We started with grape at the bottom; open each grape popsicle and dump into a smaller bowl and crush them up. Be careful not to mush it up to the point that they are melting! (We eventually found it easier to crush them with a glass while still unopened and then dump them into the bowl and mix together.)

• Dump the smashed up bits into the glass dish that has been waiting in the freezer, and smooth it out with a fork or spoon.

Layering Popsicle Shaved Ice for a Rainbow Effect.

• Repeat with each color! Be sure to place glass dish back into the freezer between each color to prevent colors from running together.

Time to Party and Eat a yummy homemade slushy.

This would be great for birthday parties or pitch-ins, but we made it just because!

Rainbow Ice in a giant slushy. No cone needed.

Recommended Reading:


People's Pops: 55 Recipes for Ice Pops, Shave Ice, and Boozy Pops from Brooklyn's Coolest Pop Shop*

Rainbow Graham Cracker Sandwiches

What Makes a Rainbow*

Scrappy Leprechaun Shamrock Stick Puppet Saint Patrick Day Craft Preschool Activity

Easy Leprechaun Stick Puppet

Grab a box of scrap paper, some knick-knacks, and pipecleaners, and create this Leprechaun stick puppet or use him as a magical bookmark for Saint Patrick Day. He's made of mostly recycled items. So, pull out the scrap box and Enjoy!

This silly leprechaun is all scrap. Just add a stick to make a fun puppet or go big and make a mask to hold over your face during a St. Patrick's Day Parade around the hallways of Preschool. After the parade, he serves double duty as a bookmark for your favorite leprechaun story.

Easy Leprechaun Stick Puppet.

Plan ahead by cutting the scraps into triangles, circles, half-moons, trapezoids, and shamrocks for a quick Shape Lesson for preschoolers.



Recommended:


More St. Patrick's Day Crafts

ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Pin it! Online Scavenger Hunt

Preschool Scavenger Hunt: Pin it!

~ Join us on Pinterest to Pin it! and Win it ~

Give Crafty Bloggers a Boost 

Have fun scavenging the internet, pin it @ Pinterest, and get to know more Crafty Bloggers. Your Mission, if you choose to accept it, is:

1. Type the words below into a Google Search. Find an image 
(Right click and copy url or save as the title below)


2. Pin it to Pinterest, follow our boards, and we'll add you to the contributor board where you can begin pinning away to your heart's content to win, learn, and make new friends.


3. Follow Kids Creative Chaos on FB or leave a comment for an extra entry.


Be sure to leave your two cents worth. You have exactly one week to complete the mission. Everyone who completes Scavenger Hunt tasks will be entered to win! There's a new list every Monday.  Let me know if you have an image you want included in the hunt. This week's prize is a kid's crafting essentials kit: everything a kid needs to get inspired ($20).

~Happy Hunting~

• Popcorn Hearts
• Tree of Love
• Heart Shaped Pizza
• Tube Crafts
• Superbowl Craft

Indy 500 activities for kids: It's that time of year again... Vroom Vroom! Let's go to the Races: Balloon Glow

What is a Balloon Glow Festival? Giant Hot Air Balloons with Fun Shapes at the Indianapolis 500 Track!

Benefits truly abound when living near a capital city. We live about 15 minutes from downtown Indy and a few minutes from the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway. When I saw a tweet inviting everyone to the Centennial Celebration at the track, I immediately 'Googled' it. Just in the nick of time!

The Indianapolis 500 Race Track Start/Finish Line.

In celebration of the Track Centennial and the first hot air balloon race held there, a special balloon glow was held in Indy in May. The balloons were on display and began 'glowing' at dusk, and the evening ended with fireworks! This was well worth the money :-) Totally Free! My kids woke up anxious to check the early morning sky for the balloon race. Memories were made. Way to go IMS, you made our day!

Energizer Bunny Balloon goes up slowly. He is over 60' tall and cannot participate in the race due to size. Here, he looks like he is doing push-ups!

Bunny and Balloon Coloring Sheet

A crowd pleaser, staff handed out Energizer bunny
balloon ears to all attendees.

Hot Air Balloon Glow at dusk in Indianapolis.

Hot Air Balloon Festival.

United Truck Hot Air Balloon.

Mayhem  disliked the fire. At first, Jake did too. He wanted to stay on the pavement and admire the balloons from a distance until he saw the truck. 

Daddy took him to touch the bumper and everything changed...

That's one happy face!  He got to make the fire.

Balloon #21 is the Breast Cancer Awareness Balloon. Special thanks to the crew! They were so nice and patient! Jake even got to light the balloon. His little body shook all over as he pulled on the mechanism to start the flame, but you can see from his face- it was worth it. He begged to take a ride!

In the morning, he awoke bright and early because he wanted to race his balloon. Unfortunately, he was only allowed to peek up into the sky in hopes of catching a glimpse of the balloons in flight.

These flames are not only noisy but fiercely hot.

Hot Air Balloon Glow and Go.

Recommended Reading:

Racecar Alphabet

Racecar Activities for Kids

SHAMROCKS Wand Rocks your Saint Patrick Day Parade Craft activity for kids

Easy craft activity for kids Shamrock HAT and WAND for your Saint Patrick Day Parade

Not feeling crafty? If you can fold paper in half and cut out a heart, you can make this easy St. Patrick's day shamrock craft. Yep, you can do it. Enjoy!

Wand shamrock craft for Saint Patrick Day.

Shamrocks are so easy to make; just fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a heart- three times. Paste these together, give them a stem, voila! Instant Shamrocks. Next, make a rainbow link chain to decorate your hat or wear as a boa. You can even hang them from the ceiling for a fun, festive room!

 Simple: 3 hearts glued together, taped to a straw with shiny ribbon =  instant magic leprechaun wand to carry and wave in your very own parade! We painted ours with glitter glue for added sparkle. Paint your straw green too!

Shamrock Hat with Rainbow Links for St. Patrick's Day.

Silly: The hat above was once a paper plate. We cut the center out but left a rectangle to use as a stem. Next, we painted it all with green paint mixed with glitter.

After it dries, add your shamrock hearts to top and bottom of the "stem".  The bottom shamrock make the bill of your hat and the top one makes a silly finial. We glued a rainbow linky around the back because every leprechaun loves a good rainbow.

Be careful... our paint was too watery and our plate went limp. You might want to use a styro-foam plate and paste your hearts to cardboard so your hat doesn't WILT like ours did. Above all, have fun....

Kids can't wait to begin the parade. They don't care how perfect the hat turns out! Now start marching around the house or classroom and have a scavenger hunt for a POT of GOLD. Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Recommended Reading:


Greening of Indy Canal

St. Paddy's Preschool Craft

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day*














ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Recycle Scrabble Games for Language Arts Literacy Centers

How to Recycle Scrabble into a Literacy Center for Sight Words and Language Arts 

Scrabble. Kids love it! Don't be a stickler for the rules. Let your preschoolers play by their own rules or follow these. You'll be amazed at their ability to sound out sight words or guess what the word will be when it's finished. Scroll down to see how we recycled Scrabble games into a literacy center for sight words. Enjoy!

How to Recycle Scrabble into a Literacy Center for 
Sight Words and Language Arts.

How to Use Scrabble as a Preschool Literacy Center

Things to do with Scrabble: Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse. We placed all of the letters right side up in the Scrabble box. We built sight words like Foot and made magic by switching the two o's for two e's to get Feet. See if you can think of more words. The kids were giggling as they realized what was about to happen.

Tree. Leaf. Leap. Roof. Reef. Wreath....

Think of patterns to keep your little reader on the right track. Let them guess. Guessing helps them learn new sight words.  For example, I built coal but my son said it was cola. His mind saw all of the letters for cola. Praise them on a great guess and awesome letter recognition. Then, show them how coal can magically become cola!

Then, Jake thought this was the coolest thing he had ever seen.  Don't force it. Don't make them read it if they'd rather build nonsense words on the letter rack. Whatever they choose to do they have tangible letters and they are visualizing them. Letter play reinforces letter recognition, and if it's fun they will keep coming back for more.

Help them spell their names or yours. Let them build words and have you guess what they are- even if they aren't real words. Keep encouraging them to use letters in a fun way. My son began reading at two and half without the "Your Baby Can Read" products.  I never did flash cards or forced it. It just happened with fun ideas.  Never underestimate the power of "WORD WORLD" and "BETWEEN THE LIONS".

You will need more letters to spell "PIZZA". Make your own from cardboard or collect old games at garage sales. Scrabble Letters are great for crafts:  personalize picture frames, Greek paddles, or toy bins.  Let your imagination run wild. SCRABBLE is more than just a game.

Each time your kids do a craft project with the letter, they are learning!  Just be careful, the tiles could pose a choking hazard for little ones.

Oh and a post note:  In kindergarten, Jake read at 12th grade level! Thanks to PBS and fun. Don't expect those results, just appreciate that your child is learning and enjoying it!


Recommended Reading:


100 Write-and-Learn Sight Word Practice Pages: Reproducible Activity Pages*

Homeschool Projects

Preschool Activities

















ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Turkey Footprint Art for Thanksgiving

Paper Footprint Art Turkey Thanksgiving: Easy, Cute Craft for Preschool

This turkey Footprint paper craft for Preschoolers is easy and fun for kids to make at home. Little ones will get a kick out of tracing their feet. Make it a sensory activity by tracing their feet for them- it tickles! Gobble Gobble. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links.

Paper Footprint Art Turkey Thanksgiving.

For the turkey above, use four feathers (footprints). The fourth
footprint becomes the turkey's body. Just attach feathers on the toes.

Paper footprint turkeys with handprint neck.

Paper Thanksgiving Turkey Footprint Craft.

You can also use four or more feet for feathers, and cut a body from brown paper. Don't forget to give your turkey feet.

Make a Footprint Turkey for Thanksgiving.

How to Make Footprint Turkey

Stand on construction paper and trace your feet. Bigger feet need two sheets, little feet only require one. Jake thought this was fun. He loved the idea of taking his shoes and socks off to do a craft project.

How to Make Footprint Turkey.

Make a fist and have someone trace it for you.

Trace your feet.

Trace your fist to make the turkey body and head.

 Cut the fist and the feet out.

Paper footprint craft.

Baby Feet.

Glue the feet together in a fan shape. The more feet you trace, the fuller your turkey feathers will turn out. Then, glue the fist cut-out into the middle of the feet-feathers.

The fist is the turkey's head and neck. Add feet, eyes, beak, and a gobbler. We added a body, because we thought he looked off balance. Additional feathers solve that problem.

When it's all done, cut up an old fridge magnet, and glue it to the back of the turkey with tacky glue. Pictured below is the head from Amanda's Turkey Snack Cup.

 

Magnet Turkey Craft.

  

Recommended Reading:

Eatable Edible Turkey Craft

All New Crafts for Thanksgiving (All-New Holiday Crafts for Kids)

Fall and Halloween Crafts for Children

Jake's Jokes for Kid: Waiter Joke? Ba Dump Dump

In this addition of Jake's Jokes, Jake is confused by the waiter and says the funniest thing. 

Jokes, jokes, jokes! Kids are full of funny things to say. Make sure you write them down. In this issue of Jake's Jokes: The perfect waiter joke. Ba Dump Dump. Click the tab above for more Jokes for Kids!

Jake's Jokes for Kids: Excuse me Waiter?

A family walked into a restaurant...

Waiter:  I'll be your server tonight.  Jimmy over there is helping out.

The Daddy was being difficult.  He didn't want to order until after he ate his appetizers.  Appetizers might be enough he just didn't know.  The waiter came back several times before and after the appetizers were served.  Everyone else ordered food.   Daddy waited.  The waiter didn't understand.

Waiter:  Are you ready to get some real food now?

Jake's jokes for kids. Waiter...

Daddy:  Nope.  I told you I'd let you know when or if I'm ready.

Waiter:  Can I take your menus.

Daddy:  Nope.

Mommy:  Are you sure you don't want to trade places with Jimmy now?

Waiter:  What? No way, I can take it.  Jimmy's a lightweight compared to me.

Jake looked at the stocky man behind the bar and then back at our waiter.

Jake:  Really?  How much do you weigh? (Insert Ba Dump Dump here)


Recommended Reading:

Circle Time Activities for Children


Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids


Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids