4th of July Activities: Day 2

Red, White and Blue

Chalk Fireworks
and
Pipe Cleaner Fireworks

Last summer, when we spent the 4th of July at the lake with my family and the kids saw fireworks for the first time... they immediately fell asleep. Because it was a little past 8 and that's their usual bedtime. It was a bummer for me, because I was hoping they'd love them as much as I do. There is just something serenely beautiful about fireworks bursting against a starlit sky... So although they might sleep through fireworks again this year, I've prepared a few activities that I hope will delight them and spark in them the same love that I have for fireworks.

Our first activity is Chalk Fireworks. And we actually did this one yesterday when J was still visiting with us.

We used black construction paper for the night sky and red, white and blue chalk. The kids also used a few other colours, since fireworks aren't limited to patriotic colours. :) Bean also added some stars to hers, to make it more like a night sky. 

They look really pretty hung up on the fridge. :)

Our second activity of the day is pipe cleaner fireworks! These are really neat and we decided to hang them on the window. All you need are a few pipe cleaners. We used red, white and blue plain and sparkly ones. We cut a few on them in half to make smaller fireworks and one great big one. All you need to do is line them up so they are even, fold them in half so you know where the middle point is...

Twist them together in the middle and then fan them out. Then you can bend them whichever way you want to make your fireworks look like they are exploding.

We made a few simple zig-zag ones. 

And then we hung them up on the window. They look really cute! They are hung up using clear suction cups with hooks, so they can be taken down and played with or rearranged. :) 

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