To help you and your family celebrate the Fourth, we have found some fun and safe activities to do with your children.
Balloon Fireworks: Create these exciting attention grabbers to display then use as a fun party game. Take regular balloons (red, white and blue) and a funnel. Pour paper confetti or glitter through the funnel into the balloon. Once the confetti is and the balloon is one-quarter full, blow the balloon up using a hand pump. Display the balloons as decoration then when it is time for the children to set off their fireworks, take them outside and give each child a balloon and let them set off their ‘firework’ using a sharpened pencil. A variation of this is to hang the balloons on a board and to have the children use darts to try and pop the balloons. Such fun!
Sparkler Pretzels: Create this fun dish with your children using pretzel rods, chocolate or almond bark, and sprinkles! Parents: Using a double boiler, melt the almond bark or chocolate. Once it is melted, dip the pretzel rods into the mixture, covering about one-third to half of the pretzel. Kids: Once the pretzel is covered with chocolate or almond bark, be careful not to touch that end of the rod. Take colored sprinkles and pour onto the melted chocolate creating a colorful sparkler! The children can pretend to use their Sparkler Pretzels like actual sparklers by writing their names in the air!
Bike Parade: Have your own neighborhood parade with decorated bikes. Take colored crepe paper and weave it in and out of the bike spokes. Add embellishments to the handle bars like garland or a feather boa with colorful pom-poms on either handle. You could even string some noisemakers to drag behind the bike as they ride!
Straw Rockets: Create a safe rocket for your kids to enjoy on the fourth! Take a sheet of colored paper and roll it around a drinking straw. Take the paper closed, so that it makes a loose tube around the straw. Tape up the sides of the paper and then take one end of the tube and fold it down. Secure the tip with tape, making sure that no air can escape. Using another piece of paper, cut 4 triangles out to be rocket fins. Fold one side of each triangle about a half inch and tape them to the open end of the rocket. Once the rocket is assembled, have them try it out! What do they observe about their rocket? Have extra paper, tape, and straws handy for your kids to fix and manipulate their rocket.
Patriotic Flowers: Create a festive bouquet! Gather some daisies or chrysanthemums from your local store, red and blue food coloring, cups, and knife and cutting board or scissors. In each cup, pour about an inch of water and add many food coloring drops to the water. Use a knife or scissors to slice the flower stems in half length-wise, leaving about two inches of sold stem below the flower head. To dye the flowers, stick one side of the stem into the cup of red water and the other side of stem into the cup of blue water. Leave the flowers in the water to soak up the color. When the flowers are double-dyed to perfection, take them out of the water and use as decoration!
