Since school has begun, I thought this week I would celebrate it by doing an educational craft. I love science so making a simple erupting volcano was perfect. It is the perfect craft to teach kids with because it has a little bit of everything from geography to chemistry. Plus it is something fun to watch.

Materials Needed:

1. Attach the paper cup to the plate by taping the bottom of the cup to the middle of the plate.
2. Tear off a piece of foil large enough to completely cover the cup and plate.
3. Place the foil over the cup and plate and turn the foil under the plate edge.
4. Tape the foil in place.
5. Poke a hole through the foil into the middle of the cup.
6. Use scissors to make slits from the middle of the cup to the inside edge of the cup. Tape the foil to the inside of the cup. (see photo)
7. Now make your volcano erupt! (see below)

How to Erupt:

1. Place the volcano on a pan or tray (or you’ll get lava all over the place!)
2. Fill the volcano with 2 tablespoons of water and stir in a tablespoon of baking soda until it dissolves.
3. Measure 2 tablespoons of vinegar into a separate cup.
4. Pour the vinegar, all at once into the water/baking soda mixture and watch your lava bubble up!

Now that it is August, parents all over the country are having to think about kids going back to school. This of course means thinking about buying school supplies that your kids will like and want to take to school. This is an easy way to make sure your kids will like their school supplies as well as something that they can do themselves when they need new notebooks for school.

Materials Needed:

• Notebooks
• Tacky Glue
• Pipe Cleaners, whichever colors you want
• Constructions Paper

Instructions:

1. Spruce up a plain spiral bound notebook with bold stripes by using tacky glue to stick pipe cleaners (the extra wide, fuzzy type work especially well) onto the cover.
2. Fold the pipe cleaner ends against the top and bottom edges of the inner cover, then conceal them with a glued-on sheet of colored paper on the inside of the cover.

It getting close to back to school time, which means it is time to think about school supplies again. For high school kids this can sometimes be difficult to find stuff they like. This is the perfect solution for kids of all ages, plus it is easy enough for them to do themselves.

Materials Needed:

• 3 ring binder with clear inserts
• 2 sheets purple construction paper
• 1 sheet pink construction paper
• 1 sheet white construction paper
• Clear tape
• Photos or printouts of online photos
• Scrapbook phrase stickers
• Black fine tip marker
• Scissors
• Stickers
• Old magazines
• Glue stick

Instructions:

1. Remove any labels and advertisement inserts from binder.
2. Insert a piece of construction paper and figure out how much more you will need in addition to the one piece, to fill the width. Cut enough off of the second piece of construction paper and tape it to the first, making one large sheet.
3. Insert again, this time making note of the height. Trim excess so that construction paper fits nicely inside the insert. Remove from clear insert.
4. Repeat this process for the binding insert as well, using second sheet of construction paper, trimming where needed. Remove from clear insert.
5. Cut letters from an old magazine to spell out child’s name.
6. Glue letters to a piece of pink construction paper, spelling out child’s name.
7. Trim pink construction paper into a rectangle.
8. Glue pink rectangle to a white sheet of paper and trim around that, leaving a white border around the pink paper.
9. Glue the name tag you just created to the top of the purple construction paper, angled and offset in the corner.
10. Cut out photographs or print outs of photographs and trim as desired.
11. Position photos on the purple construction paper until you have the desired design.
12. Glue photos in place using glue stick.
13. Use scrapbook phrase stickers and a fine point marker to identify and accent photos.
14. Add accent stickers such as hearts, flowers and stars to fill in empty areas.
15. Decorate purple construction paper strip for binding with stickers and phrase stickers.
16. Insert both pieces into their proper slots.

If your kids are anything like ours, then they are already bored with summer vacation. There are many things that you can do to keep them entertained. One way is to hold your own treasure hunt. If you make it hard enough, you can keep the kids going all day or even several.

Materials Needed:

• Large piece of drawing paper
• Crayons
• Treasures to hide and be found
• Stop watch
• Paper lunch bag or plastic grocery bag
• Brown paint
• Water
• Paintbrush

Instructions:

1. First survey the campground area  or backyard that you would like to use for your treasure hunt.
2. Take a piece of paper and a pencil with you to jot down notes so you can create your map.
3. Draw out your map and decide where the “treasures” will be hidden.
4. Mark hiding spots with a red or pink “X”.
   
5. Age your map by carefully crumpling it up in your hands. Open it back up then crumple it again.
6. Tear the edges of the paper to give it a worn look.
7. Add a small amount of brown paint (about the size of a dime) to 2 tablespoon of water. Mix together and use the watered down paint to darken the edges of your map. Water the mixture down even more and paint the entire map. Let dry in the sun.
8. Go and hide your treasures. Some ideas might include a small stuffed toy, a plastic fork, a stick with a scrap of material tied to it, and so on.
9. Make a list of the treasure that need to be found and any additional instructions. For example, in addition to finding the treasures, one instruction may by to stop at the big rocks by the water and use a bucket (that you placed there) to collect some water. Use the water in the bucket to water a tree.
10. To play the game, you can either tell the player what they are looking for or give them a list. Hand them the map and paper bag. They are to use the pink or red X’s to find their treasures. Start the stopwatch and end it when they return with all the treasures. The player with the best time wins!

Piggy banks are something that everyone should have, young or old. What could be better than taking an afternoon and making a bank that your child can save for something special. This is something that I have done for myself to save for a trip West next year, so it can be used for older “children.”

Materials Needed:

• One plastic bleach bottle
• Felt
• Four tapered fabric softener bottle caps
• Pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Pencil

Instructions:

1. Remove the handle and bottle neck from a half gallon bleach bottle by sawing across the bottle just below the upper end of the handle.
2. Using a knife, cut around the other end of the handle, leaving as small an opening as possible. Close the opening at the top of the bottle by inserting the bottle cap into the hole. Glue a felt flower cutout over the other opening.
3. Glue floppy felt ears in place. Glue on felt eyes and mouth. For the snout, glue a felt circle over the inverted bottle cap. Glue a narrow felt strip around the outside edge of the circle.
4. To make snug-fitting legs, glue a strip of felt around four identical 1-1/2″ to 2″ fabric softener bottle caps. Cut holes to accommodate legs in the bleach bottle. Insert the tapered ends of the felt-covered softener caps into the bleach bottle. Secure with glue.
5. To make a tail, curl a pipe cleaner around a pencil. Punch a hole in the bleach bottle to accommodate a tail. Insert the pipe cleaner coil and glue to secure.