Halloween Hands

A little hand becomes a smiling pumpkin. The next one turns into a friendly vampire. She looks across the table at the orange fingers, pointy teeth, and crooked smiles, then reaches for another piece of paper. “Can mine be a ghost?” Soon, another little hand is spread across the page.

Ghost Activities for Kids

It starts with a leaf. Two crooked eyes and a little mouth are all it takes. “It’s a ghost.” After that, they start turning up everywhere. One hides in the rice. Another stretches between two hands. One disappears beneath a pile of bubbles. Then a little white ghost shoots straight into the air. Apparently, ghosts don’t have very many rules.

Marshmallow Dough

There are some ingredients you can bring to the table without anyone noticing. Marshmallows aren't one of them. The bag isn't even open yet, and the kids already want in. A few tumble into the bowl. They know these soft, squishy things. They've dropped them into cups of hot chocolate, toasted them over fires, and eaten plenty straight from the bag. But today, we're going to find out what happens when we don't eat them. Soon they will puff and stretch and stick to just about everything. And somewhere in all that mess, the marshmallows will stop being a treat waiting in a bowl and become something little hands can really get into. Marshmallow play dough. For more homemade doughs that begin in the kitchen and end up on the play table, explore our Play Dough Recipes for Kids collection. And if this has the kids looking at the pantry a little differently, our Play Recipes for Kids collection is full of more ingredients that don't stay ordinary for long. What You...

Bread Clay

Some afternoons, the best thing to do isn't waiting in the craft cabinet. It's hiding in the kitchen. A few slices of bread land on the table, and little hands begin tearing them into a bowl. At first, it's exactly what it looks like: bread being pulled into smaller and smaller pieces. Then we pour in the glue. The pieces stick to fingers, then to each other. The squeezing begins, and slowly the bowl of bread starts becoming something no one would have guessed from where we started. Clay. Made from bread. And now there is plenty to do.