toucanBox

For all you chocolate lovers! Looking for ways to keep your little ones busy during the summer break? Why not get them to help you to make this yummy chocolate sauce? It tastes great with waffles and ice-cream.

Ingredients:

• Mars chocolate (2 bars)
• Double cream (about 100 ml)
• Golden syrup ( 1tbsp)
• Butter (just about 15 grams (or 0.52 ounces) to make the sauce glossy)

Directions:

• In a small to medium sized saucepan, melt chocolate bars and cream together along with the golden syrup
• Beat well and stir the mixture
• Now add butter

Serve warm!

These cute sparkly butterflies are great to give or keep! Kids can personalize this craft by adding a little message on the wings or simple decorate it with various sparkling materials.

Here’s what we made:

And here’s what you’ll need to make this beautiful craft:

• Small or medium sized googly eyes
• Coloured cardboard paper (any 2 of your choice)
• Green cardboard paper for antennas
• Thin nib pen or marker
• Glitter or any other decorating material
• Scissors and glue

Instructions:

• Trace around both of your child’s hands and cut out (if you want bigger wings then you can trace yours and have your kid to cut it)
• Draw an elongated oval shaped body and cut out
• Also, draw and cut out two antennas
• Now glue the hands to the back of the elongated oval to create wings of your sparkly butterfly (Use image for reference)
• Decorate the butterfly with sparkling materials such as glitter glue, sequence, pom poms, sparkles etc
• ** Note: If your kids enjoy colouring then use plain white cardboard paper and let the kids colour the butterfly themselves**

Here’s an easy way to create your own ring toss game at home:

What you’ll need:

• 3 different coloured paints. We used yellow, green and red
• Cardboard roll (found inside a kitchen roll)
• Good quality paper plates (make sure they are heavy or you’ll have to glue 2 or 3 together to increase the weight of each ring)
• Scissors and glue to cut and paste
• Any other material to decorate the game such as markers, stamps, stickers, colours etc.
• Blue tag (or sello tape)

Instructions:

• First, cut the centres of each paper plate – these will be your rings
• Now paint each one of them (use different colours)
• Have kids to colour or decorate the cardboard roll
• Now stick the cardboard roll on the floor with blue tag so it stays in place

Enjoy the game!

Hello everyone! Today we have an exciting craft…happy sheep! This craft can teach kids about different shapes, colours, and fine motor skills such as gluing, cutting and arranging various materials.

Things you’ll need:

• Cotton balls
• White cardboard paper
• Black and red cardboard paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• 2 googly eyes

Instructions:

• Prep: draw and cut the following (or trace and have your kid to cut it): a) cloud shape for the sheep’s body b) 4 legs (black) c) oval shape for sheep’s face (black) d) ears (black) e) smile (red). Image below will help you to get an idea of how to trace and cut each body part :

• Have your child glue each cotton ball on the cloud shape
• Glue the sheep’s face on the cotton balls and the ears on top
• Glue the four legs and googly eyes
• And lastly – glue the bright smile!

Rain, rain go away…Come again some other day!

So it’s raining again? Not too sure how to keep your kids busy? We have a perfect craft idea for you and yes! You read it right – it is called the ‘rainbow caterpillar’. This adorable craft is simple, fun and educational!

We hope that the colourful activity will brighten up your day!

Things you need:

• Coloured papers
• Scissors
• Pair of wiggly eyes
• Glue stick
• White cardboard paper
• Pen or pencil

Instructions:

• Start with drawing and cutting circles! Have a look at the image below to get an idea of how to create perfect circles (we used cardboard tube of a kitchen role):

• After cutting circles, draw and cut two antennas that will be glued to the caterpillars head
• Now start sticking the circles on the white paper
• Make sure you are not gluing circles in a straight line
• Once you’re done with the circles, glue antennas on top of the head and wiggly eyes right in the middle

What you’ll need:

• 2 litre soda bottle (clear works the best!)
• 2 medium sized googly eyes
• Craft glue
• Sellotape (optional)
• Scissors
• Cotton balls (enough to fill the entire 2 litre soda bottle)
• Coloured cardboard papers (orange and black)
• 3 dark coloured feathers (preferably black)

Instructions:

• First, prepare templates of wings (black), feet (black) and a triangular beak (orange)

• Also, cut out a black rectangle to wrap around the neck of the bottle (googly eyes, beak and feathers will be attached on this rectangle)
• Then fill the empty bottle with cotton balls

• After filling the bottle, glue the wings one each side of the bottle and feet under the bottle

NOTE: if you’re unable to glue the feet to the bottle, then use sellotape to stick. Have a look at the following image:

• Stick the small triangular beak to the black cardboard under the googly eyes

• Now glue feathers on top

Cootie catch is not only a fun activity to do with your kids – it is also a brilliant tool to teach various educational topics. For instance it can be used to teach and test spelling practice, mathematical facts and figures, and historical events. It can also be used on occasions such as father’s day and as a birthday activity (for example kids can write something about the birthday person).

We had a great time preparing cootie catcher at ToucanBox HQ and we hope that you guys enjoy as much as we did!

1. Things you need : a) blank paper b) scissors c) pen or pencil for writing d) 4 different coloured thin nib markers or colouring pencils
2. Get a blank paper (Make sure you have a square shaped paper. If you’re using a standard a4 sized paper, then follow step-by-step, if you already have a square paper, then skip to step 5)
3. Fold one corner over to the edge (see image 3)
4. Cut of the extra flap (extra flap is labelled in image 4)
5. Now unfold it and you will have a perfect square!
6. After this, fold the other corner and crease (see image 6)
7. Now unfold it once again so you are back to the square shaped paper (you will be able to see a cross)
8. Can you see the spot where two creases are meeting? Now one-by-one, take each point of the square paper and fold it so it meets the centre
9. Keep folding all corners
10. This is how it will look like once you’ve folded the 4 points of the square paper
11. Now flip it over to the other side
12. Again, fold each corner of the square towards the centre
13. Keep folding it one by one
14. This is how it will look like if you’ve followed each step properly
15. Hurray! You’re done with the cutting and folding! Now time to write numbers on each of the triangle (1 to 8)
16. Now lift the flaps (each triangle) and write fortunes here
17. Once you’re done with the fortunes and numbers, flip it over and use for different colours/ or simply write the name of 4 different colours on each section
18. Crease it along the flap line
19. The last bit – Stick your two thumbs and forefingers in each of the pocket section (under the colours) and push it inwards towards the centre

ENJOY!

END

Kids simply love to paint, particularly younger kids, as it allows them to express their creativity the way they want. Moreover, it is a perfect indoor activity for child development. Here are some of the advantages of painting:

• Painting helps to develop critical thinking skills
• Blending different colours can teach the idea of primary and secondary colours
• Enhances eye coordination and fine motor skills

These paints are easily available in any toy stores. However, you could also make your own paints at home. Click here to see easy peasy recipe

Note : Make sure you wear old clothes that you don’t care about as things can get a little messy! and place old newspapers in the area where you’ll be painting with your kids. You may also want to cover any nearby furniture and other items.

ToucanBox idea #1 : Blow paint monsters

What you need :

• Paper
• Straws
• Runny paints
• Googly eyes
• Glue
• Black marker (thin nib)

Instructions :

• Put a small blob of paint on the paper
• Use the straw to blow the paint in different directions
• You can also use the end of the straw to make the edges
• Repeat the process with different colours
• Once the paint is completely dry – glue the googly eyes on each coloured blob
• Use a black thin nib marker to make a smile one each monster

ToucanBox idea # 2 : Sparkling blossoms with soda bottle

What you need :

• Plastic bottle (1 or 2 litre plastic soda bottle)
• Finger paint in a plate (not too thick)
• Different coloured glitters (optional)
• Paper

Instructions :

• Use dark brown or green paint to make the branches (these don’t have to be in a straight line)
• Let the paint dry
• Pour runny paint in a plate and dip the end of a plastic bottle
• Now press the dipped plastic bottle on the paper and remove after 3 seconds
• Add as many blossoms as you want!

ToucanBox idea #3 : Finger paint scenery

Easy and fun activity : Simply Draw flowers with your fingers. Add different colours to the scenery.

Note : You can also use cotton to make clouds and add glitter to make the scenery more exciting!

ToucanBox idea #4 : Splatter pain with an old toothbrush

Instructions :

• Put different coloured paints in separate small bowls or containers
• Place one toothbrush with each colour of paint
• Dip the toothbrush in the runny paint (Make sure that the toothbrush head is down and bristles are facing the paper)
• With the forefinger, fan the paint covered bristle
• Repeat the process with different colours
• Let it dry completely!

ToucanBox idea #5 : Popcorn blossom tree

What you need :

• Paper
• Popcorns
• Brown paint or colour
• Glue

Instructions :

Draw tree with brown marker or paint (just the branches) and glue popcorns at the end of each branch.

Tic Tac Toe is one of the most popular games among children of all age groups. However, for the younger kids, playing with paper and pen can be slightly boring. This giant tic tac toe idea is great as it involves kids to paint and arrange the game on the floor themselves.

What you need :

• Masking tape
• Different coloured papers to make playing pieces of your choice (We made 5 Xs and 5 Os)
• Scissors to cut the shapes

Note : You can also play with two different kinds of candies for example m&m and gummy bear (winner will get all the candies!)

Enjoy!