Springtime is a great season to enjoy some creative activities. My kids love doing crafty projects, such as going on a spring-inspired scavenger hunt and dying eggs in colorful natural dyes. Yard toys make outdoor play fun and interactive, especially for kids who have gotten used to being inside during colder weather. The whole family can enjoy these fun spring activities!
1. Go on a Spring Nature Hunt
My kids sometimes have a hard time playing independently. I made them an outdoor scavenger hunt so they could explore the yard and find treasures. I’ve discovered that kids enjoy searching for things, such as objects in nature, painted rocks and Easter eggs. You can create a scavenger hunt in your own backyard by making your kids a list of items to find!
Nature Hunt Printable
This object of a scavenger hunt is to find as many cool treasures in nature as possible.
Download, save or print off this Nature Hunt printable for your own use. Click the image to open the printable a new window and print it off. To download, right click the image to “save as”.
Nature Scavenger Hunt List
- pine cone
- feather
- berry
- shell
- clump of moss
- shiny rock
- egg shell
- live insect
- flower
- seed pod
- smooth pebble
- acorn
- big leaf
When we go on nature scavenger hunts, often my kids spend 30 minutes to an hour finding things in our yard. Once they find everything on the official nature hunt list, my kids sometimes create their own lists of more treasures to find!
2. Dye Eggs Using Natural Food Coloring
Dying eggs is another classic Spring family activity. Did you know you can color Easter eggs with natural food dyes? You can make yellow dye with Turmeric, blue dye with blueberries and pink dye with beets. My kids enjoyed learning how to make natural food coloring and helping to dye the hard boiled eggs. Learn how you and your own kids can make natural food coloring to dye eggs!
3. Get Exercise with a Stomp Rocket Yard Activity
My kids love running and stomping on things, which makes Stomp Rocket a super fun interactive yard activity! Kids can enjoy the satisfaction of shooting a rocket or plane high into the air by stomping on the air powered launch pad. Stomp Rocket comes in a variety of designs, complete with launch stand connected by an air hose to the launch pad.
My kids enjoy this activity because it’s 100% kid-powered and it’s easy to set up and play right away. My kids can practice taking turns, which is great training for siblings. When they play nicely together, my kids can all have fun sending the foam-tipped rockets up to 200 feet in the air. I appreciate interactive activities like Stomp Rockets, which also encourage my kids to get some exercise.
4. Make Rainbow Unicorn Playdough
My kids love color, glitter and playdough. We combined all three of these and made rainbow unicorn playdough! This easy salt dough recipe involves creating a range of playdough colors and mixing them all together. Of course, a generous sprinkling of glitter is the finishing touch.
Make homemade playdough using our Best Playdough Recipe, which uses a few simple ingredients.
Add Glitter & Essential Oils
Sprinkle your homemade unicorn playdough with glitter and let your kids have fun mixing the colors. I reminded my kids that mixing all of the colors will eventually create brown. However, they had a lot of fun making colorful playdough creations! We were even able to salvage some of the individual playdough colors to save for later. If your kids mix all the playdough together into brown, you can always make more!
We also added some lavender essential oil to our playdough. Essential oils make the dough smell not so salty and turns regular playdough into an aromatherapy activity!
My kids always enjoy making playdough and it’s an easy project I can whip up to fill an afternoon. Playdough also teaches kids how to play independently and provides opportunities to practice sharing. My girls love any creative activity that involves glitter and color!
Colorful glittery unicorn playdough is easy to make and fun to play with. Your kids will love making shimmery creations with this fun sensory activity. Which colors will you create?
5. Create a Whimsical Flower Crown
Arrange an assortment of silk flowers and leaves to make a cute flower crown. This simple accessory is fun for dress-up, photo shoots, and pretend play. You can find our complete flower crown tutorial here!
6. Design Tape Painting Art
Transform a blank canvas into colorful wall art using painter’s tape! Paint the canvas a base color and let it dry, then arrange strips of narrow blue painter’s tape into geometric shapes, angles or wavy patterns. Fill in each section with acrylic paint, and when it’s dry, peel off the tape to reveal crisp lines of the base color underneath. I made this creative tape painting art with my kids and each of our paintings turned out differently! Get all the tips in our full tape painting art tutorial.
7. Create Potato Stamp Art
Cut potatoes in half and design your own paint stamps! We made stamps inspired by an orange slice and a tropical leaf. Dip the stamp in a light layer of craft paint and press it firmly onto paper — kids can easily do this project by themselves. Tip: stamp onto a cut-up brown paper bag to make whimsical DIY gift wrap or book covers! See our full potato stamp art tutorial for more ideas.
8. Recycle Cans to Make Flower Vases
Spring flowers deserve a pretty vase, and recycled tin cans and glass jars make the best ones! Remove the labels, wash them out, and paint the cans white (or any color) to make the blooms pop. In the summer, my kids are constantly bringing me flowers from our yard, so I keep a whole flower collection on our kitchen windowsill. Kids can pick the flowers, and even help paint the cans! Here’s our full DIY flower vases tutorial.
9. Make Hot Air Balloon Suncatchers
Turn a sunny window into stained glass with this colorful paper craft! Cut the hot air balloon template out of card stock, then glue squares of colored tissue paper over the openings. When the sun shines through, the layered colors glow beautifully. This design is part of our tissue paper suncatchers tutorial, which includes free printable templates for the balloon, animals and fall leaves.
10. Paint Egg Cartons to Create Caterpillars
Turn an empty egg carton into a friendly caterpillar! Cut the carton into strips, paint each bump a bright color, and add pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes. Kids will love customizing this ordinary item headed for the trash into something imaginative and new!
Supplies: 1 egg carton, craft paint, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, rhinestones & decorative accents.
- To make cute egg carton caterpillars, simply cut an egg carton into individual strips.
- Kids can paint each bump using a bright color of craft paint. Allow it to fully dry.
- Add personality with curly pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes.
- Decorate the caterpillar with rhinestones, buttons, and stickers.
- These little recycled pals easily brighten up a school room or playroom!
From backyard scavenger hunts and stomp rockets to unicorn playdough, potato stamps, and egg carton caterpillars, spring is the perfect season to get creative with your kids. Whether you’re making flower crowns for photos or dying eggs as a family tradition, these simple projects turn ordinary spring days into memories!
What are some of the activities you’ve done to make spring special for your family?
Hi, I’m Katie! I’m a homeschool mom who’s traveling the world with my husband and 4 kids. We raised our family in North Idaho and currently live in Mérida, Mexico. I love Jesus, coffee, creative projects, photography, and traveling. I hope you enjoy our creative ideas and family adventures!
