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Description

Aim: Creative opportunities to work with the children outside. Easy to make and great to decorate, kites that are fun in the sun. To go for a trip to collect shells and to make a shell wind chime. To create an Easter garden. To make a bird house and hang food from it. These activities may also be used with Juniors. Taken from the BB Anchors Pro pack CR-2-6

Resources

Activity 1
• Crafts knife
• Two flat sticks: 1/2x3/8x42 inches and 1/2x3/8x38 inches
• String or twine: at least 60 feet
• Glue
• Vellum or paper: 45 x 45 inches
• Pencil
• Paint, glitter glue sticks, crayons, and colourful markers
• Crepe paper and ribbons in various sizes
• Fast-drying glue

Activity 2
Some buckets or bags to collect shells and wood.

Activity 3
• A shallow tray or dish
• Garden soil or potting compost
• Moss, cut grass or sand
• Dried twigs
• Sewing thread / string
• Small pot
• Flat stone large enough to cover the mouth of the pot and large stone with a hole in it
• Egg cups (or other small containers)
• Small flowers
• Gravel

Activity 4
• Empty, Clean Juice Carton
• Black, Brown or Grey Paint
• Lots of Twigs
• Low Temp Glue Gun or Tacky Glue
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• String or Fishing Line

Instructions

Activity 1 - Make & Decorate a Kite

Aim: Easy to make and great to decorate, these kites are for fun in the sun.

Preparation:
Put the notches into the ends of each stick.

Instructions:
Great, fun, summer craft that can be made in early summer time and then taken out to fly in a later session. Make an example or two so that the children can see what possibilities there are,

• Have a leader use a craft knife to carve a lengthwise notch 1/4 inch deep into both ends of each stick.
• Notches should be deep enough to tightly hold the string.
• Place the middle of the short stick over the long stick about 9 inches from one end of the long stick. Where the sticks intersect, tie them together with string. Knot; cut excess string. Add glue for extra holding power. Starting at the top, thread string through each notch all the way around; repeat, keeping string taut. Finish at the top and tie a knot but don’t cut the string. This is the kite’s frame. To make the bridle (where you’ll attach the flying string). draw the knotted string back from the top and tie it off where the sticks intersect Cut the string, leaving a 3-inch tail.
• Place the frame flat onto the vellum or paper, and lightly draw an outline of the kite frame, adding 3/4 inch all the way around. The extra eventually will be folded over the string and glued. With scissors, cut out the sail, then set the frame aside until the sail is decorated.
• Use paint, glitter, crayons, and markers to decorate the sail.
• When the decorating is finished, allow 10 minutes to dry. Place the frame flat against the sail. Pour fast-drying glue onto the edges of the sail, and fold edges over the string. Allow to dry for five minutes.
• Tie the remainder of your string to the bridle tail to create a flying string. Use crepe paper and/or ribbon to make a kite tail.

Tips/Advice:
There may be parts of this activity that are quite complicated for the Anchors. This could be used for Juniors and allow them to do more. However if you have all the pieces cut out the children will be able to follow instructions and really enjoy this activity.

Activity 2 - Shell Wind Chime.

Aim: To go for a trip to collect shells and to make a shell wind chime.

Preparation:
Make a wind chime prior to the session so that the Anchors can see how to make it and what the finished item looks like.

Instructions:
• Starting with two sticks 6 and 3 inches long and cotton string of varying lengths.
• Tie one end of a string piece around a shell or piece of sea glass and the other end to one of the sticks.
• Use same-size pieces of string to connect the two sticks, and tie a 24-inch string to the top stick for hanging.

Tips/Advice:
This is an opportunity to create something from collecting bits and pieces from the beach. Some children may need help with tying the string This activity could be run over a few sessions.

Extension Tasks/Adaptations:
If you do not have access to a beach, shells can be bought quite cheaply or collected prior to the session and children can pick from a selection what they would like to add to their wind chime.

Activity 3 - Easter Garden

Aim: To create an Easter garden.

Preparation:
Depending on what is available around the church/hall bring in any extra equipment that you may need. This whole project could be run outside or use tarpaulin to cover tables when creating the garden.

Instructions:
To make the garden:
• Fill a shallow tray with soil or potting compost and arrange it to make a hill on one side of the tray.
• Cover the soil or compost with moss, grass or sand.
• Make three crosses from dried twigs and tie them together with sewing thread or string and stick into the hilltop.
• Press a small pot/stone with a hole in it into the hillside to make a tomb. Place the other stone over the tomb.
• Press egg-cups full of water into the soil around the garden and fill with small flowers.
• Make a path coming from the tomb with gravel, to show how the disciples ran to the tomb on Easter morning.
• Early on Easter morning, move back the stone from the tomb — showing that it is empty.

Tips/Advice:
This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to get messy, creative and learn about the Easter story. Let the children do as much as possible and collect as much as they can from the grounds of the church.

Extension Tasks/Adaptations:
Easter Story

Activity 4 Making & Hanging A Bird House and Feeder.

Aim: To make a bird house and hang food from it.

Instructions:
Making bird feeders is a classic outdoor craft that all the children will enjoy.
• Measure and mark 3’ from the bottom all around an empty juice carton.
• Cut into 2 pieces. Saving both the top and the bottom for the bird house,
• Cut a 2’ circle in the middle front of the top piece.
• Cut the bottom piece down to 1” high.
• Put some glue on all four sides of the bottom piece on the outside.
• Push the bottom piece into the bottom of the top piece, making a new base for the milk carton.
• Glue pour spout closed.
• Paint the outside of the milk carton in a dark color.
• This will help the spaces you will have between the sticks blend in. Set aside to dry.
• Take the children outside to gather loads of thin, straight sticks. Thin sticks, as shown in the picture can be broken to size.
• Poke a hole through the middle of the top ridge.
• Push string or line through the hole to hang the bird house.
• Break or cut sticks to cover the bottom and all sides working around the hole cut in the centre front.
• Glue them into place.
• Glue a small stick under the hole for a perch.
• Cut or break sticks for the roof.
• Glue into place.
• Glue stick to cover the top ridge.

Let every child put his or her touch to the bird house and make an extra one that can be hung outside the church or hail. The children can take theirs home.

Extension Tasks/Adaptations:
You can make a feeder to hang from the bird house using a pine cone.

Pine Cone Feeder
Making a bird feeder from a pine cone is quite easy. This is one of the simplest feeders that will be great for an Anchor craft All that it consists of is a pine cone, which is hung from some string under the bird house, that is covered in some kind of bird food. Taking a pine cone and filling the spaces with peanut butter, before hanging it, is a great way to attract finches, sparrows, tits, and other birds. Simply spread it into the gaps in the pine cone. Stirring seeds, like sunflower seeds or thistle seeds, or raisins and small nuts or pieces of nuts into the peanut butter is also appealing to the birds.

For full details see the BB Anchors Pro Pack CR2-6

Tags

• anchors
• bird feeder
• creativity
• Easter Activities
• Juniors
• Kite making
• Kites
• Outdoor
• wind

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