Hands-On Learning: Fun & Engaging DIY Projects to Keep Kids Creative This Summer

6 ways to promote summer intrigue and creativity in your kids 

Summer is a great time to let kids explore and build interest in new things. There is time and space to dive into new experiences. These projects are examples of different things that you and your kids can spend time learning about together. This will keep their brains active and growing while also building stronger relationships with you. 

1. Stargazing

Starry summer nights are such a fun way to explore how big and beautiful our world is. You can get your child excited to explore the science behind the stars by reading books, watching videos or simply talking about what stars are made of. Then tell them they will get to stay up late to look up into the night sky and then to create different replicas of what they are seeing in the sky. Make sure to have all the elements prepared beforehand. Use your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out the different sizes of the stars using the Stars #3 Die Cut. Have your child look at different parts of the sky and then create the patterns they see by gluing their stars onto blue construction paper. They can then connect their different portions together to make a large poster of the stars they saw that night.  

2. Summer Science Observation Journal

Spending some of your extra time in the summer exploring science is a great use of your time. Have your students try out some different experiments and they can write their discoveries in their journals. To make these use your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine and the Book-Owl Die Cut. Start by cutting the front cover using the decorated owl using brown and black construction paper and a back cover from brown construction paper from the plain page owl. Next, cut multiple pages of plain text and lined paper from the plain page owl for the inner pages of the book.

You can then decorate the face of the owl using yellow and black construction paper. Lastly, add a title to the journal using stickers or simply by writing it using permanent marker. 

3. Balanced Diet Model

It is likely that your family will be spending more time together during the summer than you do in the school year. Utilize this and work together as a family to plan and create balanced meals. Invite your children to participate in this planning by educating them on what a balanced meal should include. Spend some intentional time teaching them how to plan a meal that includes all of the food groups. Discuss the importance of having protein and nutrients in the food that they eat. Once you have spent time talking about how to plan a healthy meal you can have each of your kids create a balanced diet plate to use as a reference when you do your meal planning together for each week. Grab your  MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine so that you can cut out the Nutrition Plate Set elements. Begin by cutting out all the mini food shapes out of white paper for each student to color. Then cut out a plate from white and different colored paper for each of the five food groups for each student. Next, cut out the varied size of the vegetable, protein, fruit, grain and dairy portions of the plate using construction paper. After that, have your children color all of their food, hand out a small envelope and a piece of yarn. Place an adhesive on the back of the envelope and adhere it to the large sheet of paper (on the bottom left corner) by placing the yarn underneath the envelope leaving the ends hanging out from the top and bottom. Lastly, place food in the envelope and bring the yarn ends up to tie the envelope shut.

4. Summer Meals Recipe Book

Take your healthy meal preparation to another level by creating a Summer Meals Recipe Book. As you make your plans you can also have your kids write the recipe and then make their own grocery lists to help plan for the week. This is a book they can take out for summers to come to add to and to pull recipes from former summers to make. Use your MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out both the Measuring Cup Die Cut and the Measuring Spoons Die Cut. You can also pull out a 1” alphabet letter set that you may have. Create the book by using construction paper decorated with the measuring cup and spoons. Add lined paper pages inside the book and bind them with binder rings, twine, metal brads or stapling them together.  

5. Plant Life Cycle Diagram and Observation

Summer is a time of thriving plant life. This could be a great time to plant and grow a small plant to observe. If you live near any farms you could take an opportunity to go and see how crops grow over the season and how harvesting crops such as corn is done firsthand. Making a display to showcase what the plant cycle looks like, and you can explore how this process looks for different plants such as flowers and trees. Take out the MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine to cut out the Plant Life Cycle Die Cut. Have each of your kids begin by grabbing a large sheet of blue construction paper. Then they will each need to tear brown construction paper to make dirt, then glue it to the blue background. Next, cut out the white seed and sprout shapes. After that they need to cut green and light green sprouts, cotyledons and leaf shapes. With scissors, have them trim the light green pieces as shown and glue on top of green shapes. The next step is to cut brown "root" shapes and trim them so they can line up with the dirt edge when layered on the poster. Lastly, glue all the pieces to the blue construction paper and add the labels with a marker.

6. Plant Parts Diagram

Extend your learning about a plant's life cycle by dividing deeper into the part of a flower. You could start by explaining the parts of the flower and then you can spend time picking out and planting flowers of your own. Take it a step further by planting flowers in pots and taking them to neighbors, family members or even residents of a nursing home. This can turn into an additional conversation about being a kind and uplifting community member. Make these flower diagrams by using your  MARK 5 Die Cutting Machine and the Flower Cross-Stem Die Cut as well as the Border-Leafy #2 DIe Cut to create the different elements. Start by cutting the flower parts from colors that you so choose. Each child will need to assemble the parts and glue them to paper. They can also outline with a black marker, if they would like to. Lastly, add typed or handwritten labels. Go outside and look at some summer flowers that are in bloom and have them find the different parts. 

All of these projects are fun and engaging ways to get creative in the summers while also learning about new things when they get some extra time with their families. These activities will also promote relationship building with their adults. Finding ways to come together and get creative in the summer is a worthy investment. 

Written by Amy Pinegar.