3 Fun Indoor Activities For Rainy Days

Sunshine, flowers blooming, and days spent outside are all signs of spring. But sometimes those spring flowers come alongside spring showers. Even when it’s not raining outside, you should always have some good activities stored away that can be easily accomplished in the event of a downpour. Here are three fun activities to stick up your sleeve that you can do with your child to bring the outside inside on those days when the rain is falling.

Happy Elephant Game

This game is so much fun for rainy days because it gets a lot of energy out and has kids entertained for hours! It’s also minimal-mess, and can be used again and again on family trips, snow days, or any other time your kids get bored.

You Need:

• 30 strips of paper; 15 labeled with animals and 15 labeled with emotions

• 1 pen

• 2 bowls

Instructions: Place the strips with the animal names in one bowl, and then place the strips with the emotions in another bowl. Have your child pull one out from each bowl act out what the result is (for example, a sad lion, a happy elephant, a shy snake, etc) while the others try to guess. You can also write the animal names and emotions in another language to practice learning it!

Tissue Paper Suncatchers

Bring the sunshine inside with this fun and easy craft. Your child will create his or her own sun catcher, so when you hang them in the windows it brings an extra sunny aspect to your living room.

You Need:

• 2-3 sheets of yellow, red, and orange tissue paper

• 2 sheets of yellow or orange construction paper

• 1 pair of safety scissors

• 1 bottle of glue

• 1 roll of string

• 1 hole punch

• 1 roll of wax paper

Instructions:

1. Cut a sun shape, including the fiery rays, out of each piece of construction paper, and cut a large hole out of the middle.

2. Have your child tear the tissue paper into little square-shaped pieces, and then begin gluing the pieces flat to the wax paper. Once finished, glue the sun shapes they made with the construction paper (see step 1) to each side of the wax paper, sandwiching it. Then, trim the edges around the rays of the sun so the wax paper isn’t visible except in the hole.

3. Once dry, punch a hole through the top of the sun and run your string through it. Then hang in a window and watch your sun catcher light up!

Construction Paper Constellations

Just because you can’t see the stars doesn’t mean you can’t have your own starry night indoors! Have your child put on their favorite pajamas ( http://www.crazyforbargains.com/ ) and wind down before bed with this minimal-mess nighttime activity.

You Need:

• 3-4 sheets of yellow construction paper

• 1 pair of safety scissors (and adult supervision!)

• 1 marker or pen

• 1 star-shaped cookie cutter (or any star-shaped object)

Instructions:

To prepare, trace 20 stars onto the construction paper with the cookie cutter and cut them out. Apply a small piece of masking tape curled back on itself to the back of each star (so it can stick to the window). Then read to your child about the constellations and the myths behind them. Afterward, have your child pick their favorite myth and stick the stars to the window in the shape of that constellation. Repeat until your window is full, then turn off the lights and have your child drift off to sleep under a starry sky.

Just because it’s raining outside doesn’t mean you can’t have a great time inside learning. It’s always best to keep your child active and entertained, and these activities help engage their minds. What’s great is that they are so simple and fun they can be redone time and time again on future rainy days!