Have you seen a lot of dandelions this spring? We have a lot in our yard and we’ve been seeing them everywhere! It got me thinking that I could do something with these crazy weeds. Troy calls them “daisy-lions” and both boys think they are the coolest flowers. Ha! So for this activity, I had them pick ALL the dandelions out of our yard! It was good work for them. 🙂 Then we went on a walk to enjoy the sunshine and pick a few more along the way.
It was very warm out, so we came back and cooled down with water and watermelon! (Please ignore my terrible looking deck. We power washed it yesterday and are getting ready to stain it! Should look a lot better soon!)
So for the first activity, we took our basket of “daisy-lions” and stuck the stems through an upside-down colander.
This was such a good activity for working on fine motor skills! If they are too hard to poke through, try cutting them stems so they are shorter. It helped my kids!
Here was our final product…
Next, we painted with dandelions. I put our paint cloth down and taped the paper to it. Then I let Wes dip the dandelions in the paint and he created some art.
He had a lot of fun!
But it was messy because he wanted to use his hands…and then rub it on his belly!
It was worth it because we had fun! So the next time you see a bunch of dandelions, remember you can use them for some fun kid activities!! Have a great day!
what a great idea! I think we’ll try this with my grandkids. We’re getting some hot weather, so washing off in the hose or sprinkler will be the perfect way to clean up. Thanks for sharing!
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You’re welcome! I hope you’ll try it out with your grandkids. And you are right–clean up is easy with a hose! 🙂
I can’t believe how creative you were with some weeds. I’m definitely inspired to do something with all those dandelions in our backyard. Hope your deck turns out great!
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Thanks! 🙂 I just saw them all out in the yard and knew there would be some sort of activity I could do with them!!
Cute ideas! Please come link up with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Eco-Kids%20Tuesday
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Thanks! I’ll go link up!
I love love love these ideas! I will be doing this with my son today 🙂
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Thanks, Amy!! Hope it went well.
my kids will love this. I am thinking of doing daisies and a sieve after to extend it for them as they are that little bit older. Will not be hosing them down as it actually snowed here last week and suspect we may have had our uk summer a couple of weeks ago!
That is a great idea! Let me know how it goes. WOW I can’t believe it snowed! We’ve had weird weather this year.
Genius! I have a 4 yr old who LOVES dandelions. She would spend hours picking them and keeps telling me how pretty they are :-). This will be great, she can make a bouquet.
Thank you! I’m sure if I had a girl, she would be picking them and making bouquets! My boys like to pick them, but then throw them. Thanks for your comment!
great idea to use those dandelions!
Thanks, Lauren! We have way too many around our house not to use them for something!
Love this! So many great ideas! Thanks for sharing with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! I featured your post today. Hope you stop by again! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/05/eco-kids-tuesday_21.html
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