what shall we do on a rainy day?

For most of the summer we have had hardly any rain. Lately, every day is a soggy one. Lucky I have a few tricks up my sleeve here at home to keep us busy when we can't go out and burn energy!

1. Paint some shirts--

This summer our Dollar Tree sold tee-shirts. I grabbed a bunch of them and keep them in my craft closet, just in case. I give the kids fabric paint and they love to decorate their shirts. The last time I drew their names out in block letters with a fabric marker and they painted in the letters.

2. Maracas

Materials you will need: an empty jar or plastic container. Beads, uncooked pasta, beans, etc. (anything that makes a cool noise when you shake it). Let the kids fill them up and then shake around and have some fun!! I attached the lid with a glue gun so the kids wouldn't be tempted to open them up and make a enormous mess!
They also decorated their maracas with stickers. I was so proud of Zan for helping his two-year old friend with the stickers.



And this was the funniest part. The kids figured out a new way to use their instruments all on their own!

3. Little Monsters

Before we made these I read the book Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli. They designed their monsters to look like the guys in this book. I got this idea from an preschool-lesson plan book and also got the feet template from it. I think however, that you could draw your own feet to attach.

We first stuffed grocery bags into a foam bag. You could also use a paper bag to stuff or use tissue paper or newspaper to do the stuffing. I then attached the feet to the bag with my handy-dandy glue gun. I also got a ferocious blister using my glue gun so be careful if you try this at home! Then the kids decorated (well Kaya decorated hers, I helped the boys quite a bit) their monsters with googly eyes, fabrics, pipe cleaners, etc.

Hope you can use these ideas for the next rainy day you are stuck inside!