July 4th Arts and Crafts

Cheer your way through the Fourth of July with these fun arts and crafts projects.  Kids of all ages will find something to do, whether it's stringing up stars to decorate your campsite or making a red, white, and blue pinwheel.  Be sure to plan ahead and bring all the supplies you'll need!

Stars and Stripes Pinwheel

Best for older children.

Supplies:
2 pieces of white construction paper (the thicker the better)
Scissors
A pushpin
A pencil with an eraser
Crayons

To start, make two square pieces of paper by folding a triangle out of one end of each sheet and trimming off the upper edge.  Unfold your paper and decorate one side of each sheet. Place the undecorated sides of the paper together.

Fold your paper into a triangle, then fold that triangle in half.  Unfold the papers and find the center point.  Make cuts running from each corner toward the center, stopping at about the halfway point.  

Gently gather each corner, taking care to be consistent in taking either the left or right corner from each triangle.  Let the paper bend and billow up as you bring the corners together. Push a pushpin through the four overlapped corners and through the center of the pinwheel.  Then push the pin into a pencil's eraser.


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Rockin' July 4th

Paint your own rock -- 4th of July style! Your rock will make a great table decoration, door stop, paper weight, or memento of the trip.

Supplies:
a large, clean, and smooth stone
a pencil
red, white, and blue tempera paint
paint brushes
varnish or other glossy finish (not required)

Begin by using your pencil to sketch out the flag.  Make a square in the upper left for stars and paint that blue.  While you let that paint dry, paint all the rest of your rock white.

Let the paint dry.  Next, use your pencil to lightly draw stripes in the white paint (if you can, fit all 13 stripes.  Hint: the top and bottom stripes should be red.) You might consider using a pencil or straight stick as a guide to help you make the lines.  Paint in the red stripes.

Paint some white stars on the blue area.  In the real US flag there are 50 white stars that represent the 50 U.S. states, but you might consider having fewer, especially if your stone is on the small side. If you'd like a shiny finish, coat with an acrylic varnish after the paint has dried completely.

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Star String

Decorate your campsite for the Grand Old 4th by making a colorful star string.  

Supplies:
red, white, and blue construction paper
scissors
string or yarn (red, white or blue)
stapler, tape, or glue
crayons or pens
sequins, glitter, extra yarn, and other decorations (optional)

Directions:
Draw a large star on a piece of construction paper.  Cut it out and use it as a template for cutting out the rest of the stars for your string.  Decorate all the stars, then either cut a hole out of the top point of each star or use the stapler, tape, or glue to attach your stars to the string.  (Hint, to make a hole, fold over one point of the star.  Use your scissors to cut a pie-shaped wedge into the fold.)

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Glitter Fireworks
Make your own fireworks with paper and glitter!  The black-paper background makes your "glitter"works pop like bombs bursting in air.  

Supplies:
black construction paper
red, blue, and white or silver glitter
white glue
newspapers for underneath the project
a straw (optional)

Working on top of newspapers, use the glue to make fireworks stars on your paper.  If your glue is soft, try dropping a blob on the paper and blowing on it through the straw.  See what kinds of shapes you make.

Sprinkle glitter onto the glue. Tip your paper up and slide the excess glitter off your picture and back into the glitter container.
    
Let the glue dry and display your picture!

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Beaded July 4th Safety Pin Art

Supplies:
13 medium (inch long) safety pins
red, white, and blue beads

Separate out six safety pins.  Slide beads along the pin of each one until you have three full pins of red and three of white beads.  Take the remaining pins and fill each one about two-thirds of the way, three with white beads and four with red.  Fill the rest of each pin with blue beads, adding in a white one from time to time to represent the 50 stars.  For an advanced challenge, try to design a circle of white beads into your blue patch.

When you're finished, pin the beads in the right order to make a downward-hanging flag on your backpack or jacket.  The blue goes in the upper left-hand corner, and the full red and white pins go to the right of that.  (Hint: Both the far left and far right edges are red.)

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July 4th Campground Invitations
Whether you're having everyone over or are taking part in your campground's July 4th celebration, you can have a great time making Independence Day invitations.

Supplies:
Paper
Pens or crayons
Other decorations
Tape

Cut each piece of paper in half.  Using one sheet, fold it in half to make a book.  Decorate your invitations with stars and stripes, and tape them on the RV doors of people you want to invite.  

Plant a Tree

A fun activity that's also great for the planet is tree planting.  If you have space in your yard for a tree or you know someone who does, why not give a young tree the chance to grow there?  Trees clean our air, they provide living space and food for birds and other wild animals, and they give us shade in the summer.  There are so many great reasons to plant a tree!

To get started, you'll need a shovel (or two), a helper, a hose or other watering system, and a sapling.  A sapling is a young tree with a trunk that's only about as thick as a grown-up's finger.  

When you pick your sapling, be sure to ask what kind of tree it will grow up to be.  Some trees get very tall--as tall as 80 feet or more!  Other trees spread into a wide canopy and need a lot of space to grow.  Big trees like these might seem perfect when they're saplings, but when they grow up they might not fit in your space.  If that's true, don't worry.  Trees come in hundreds of varieties, including dwarf types that never grow taller than five or six feet.  

The first thing you need to do is to dig a hole.  If you bought your tree from a nursery or plant store, ask them if there are any specific directions for planting your tree.  As a general rule, you'll want to plant your tree as deep in the ground as it was set in soil at the nursery or in the pot it comes in.  So, if the soil in the pot is about a foot and a half deep, your hole will need to be at the least that deep.  Use a ruler to measure the depth.

Once your hole is deep enough, you'll need to keep digging to make it wide enough.  Your hole should be three times the width of the container your tree came in.  So if your tree came in a pot that's six inches wide, your hole will need to be eighteen inches wide.

When your hole is finished, have someone help you remove it from the container and set it in the hole.  Take your time placing the tree, making sure the trunk is straight.  You might have to look at your tree from several different angles to be sure!  Then have one person hold the tree steady while the other shovels the loose dirt back into the hole.

Use your hands to gently compress the soil around the tree.  Don't push the soil too hard; just pack it down nicely, then give your tree a nice, long drink of water.  Your tree is now safely planted, but because it's a young tree, you'll still need to check on it from time to time.  Depending on the temperature, you'll need to give your tree a long watering with a hose every few weeks.  

If you go through a very hot and dry spell, check the moisture level of your tree by pushing your finger into the soil near its trunk.  If the soil is damp, your tree is fine.  However, if it's very dry, it's time to give your tree another drink.  After a year, your tree will be old enough to live on its own without being watered, except during very hot and dry periods in the summer.

Kite Flying

You've seen other people flying kites, watching their paper creations float up into the clouds on a windy day.  Are you ready to give it a try yourself?  Kite flying isn't hard, and it's a lot of fun!  

The first step is to get a kite (you can make your own out of paper, sticks, and glue) and find a large, open area.  Then wait for a nice windy day.  Ideally, your location won't have any trees or power lines, since kites can get hung up on either of these.  Parks with lots of grass and beaches are both great places to try kite flying.

If you have a friend to help you, have one person hold the kite while the other person holds the spool of string.  The one with the kite should hold it overhead in both hands and toss it lightly up into the wind.  If the wind is strong enough, it will catch the kite and lift it up, pulling the string taut.

This works well on windy days, but what if the wind isn't brisk enough to catch your kite?  Then you need to let out some string and have your friend run with the kite behind them.  With this added burst of speed, the kite should catch.

Once your kite catches, start letting out string, little by little.  Keep going until your kite is at the height you want, somewhere between fifty and a hundred feet overhead.  Spread your legs to keep yourself firmly rooted to the ground, and hold the spool with both hands.  You're flying!

As you fly your kite, keep an eye on it.  Sometimes changes in the wind level or air pockets can cause your kite to make a sudden dip.  If that happens, reel in your kite until you feel that it's safe in the wind again.  The string between the reel and the kite will feel taut.  Then you can slowly let string out again until the kite reaches its original position.

To finish flying, reel the kite in slowly.  When the kite is close to the ground, have someone catch it so it doesn't get torn or break any spars.  Wind up the rest of your twine and keep your kite safe until the next time you're ready to fly.

Nature Games

The kids in your life can have a great time playing in nature when they join in these terrific games. No matter what size your group is, you can have fun giving these a try on your next camping trip. Many of these games are also fun to do during nature hikes, walks, and around the campfire in the evening.

What if?
This imagination game is perfect for hikes and long drives. Ask the kids in your group to describe what the world would look like if they slept for a hundred years. How would things be different? What would be the same? Would there be people? What would they find to eat? See if you can come up with some other creative 'what if' questions.

Leaf Rainbow.
Collect leaves and items off the ground and arrange them in a rainbow. Don't forget to use sticks, rocks, pine needles, found feathers, and other unexpected objects.

Secret Smells.
Have each person in your group collect things near your campsite that have a smell. Have one person close their eyes while the other person presents them with their items to smell, one at a time. The person with closed eyes can try to guess what each thing is, going by smell alone. Then the two switch places.

Act an Animal.
As a group, remember all the wild animals you've seen during your trip. One at a time, have the kids act like each animal. Can they flap like a bird? Scramble on all fours like a squirrel? Walk silently like a deer? Encourage them to describe what they look like, talk about what they eat and where they live, and to imagine what people must look like from their point of view.

Make a natural orchestra.
Make a natural orchestra. Collect things from your campsite to make an all natural band using instruments you create yourself. If you're feeling stumped, try using twigs and sticks of different sizes, blades of grass, and see if you can find a sound to make with pine cones or stones.