Looking for ideas for some easy spring crafts and activities for your baby or toddler? We’ve drawn together our favourite ideas for you to try now spring is here (hurrah!) So look no further than our handy guide of crafts and activities you can do both inside and out.
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1. Handprinted Flower Cards
These are so simple to make, yet look so cute. For handprinted flower cards, your toddler simply dips their hand in green washable finger-printing paint and presses their hand down on the card. The fingers form the flower stems. Then stick or draw petals all around the top of each ‘stalk’. Babies and toddlers can finger-print the petals. These cards are great for Easter, spring or Mother’s Day cards.
2. Gardening – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
Even young toddlers will enjoy ‘digging’. Use plastic spoons or small handheld spades for the beach if your toddler isn’t ready for real tools yet (metal ones usually say 3 +). Your toddler can move soil from one container to another, fill up plant pots and help put seeds into the soil. If you don’t have a garden, you can still do this inside by planting some small pots for growing herbs on the windowsill.
3. Painted Egg Shells Or Decorated Craft Balls
Boil an egg or two for about 10 minutes. Leave it in the water to cool down, then lift out the egg carefully and pop on a plate to fully cool. Then let your toddler’s imagination run wild in decorating it. They can draw squiggles, stick on sequins and glitter or add tissue paper. Even babies can decorate using finger-printing paints. Just make sure you get rid of the eggs after a week or so!
You could also crack the eggs, take out the yolks/whites for cooking later and save the shells. Give them a good wash-out before using them. Empty egg shells are more delicate for a toddler to decorate, so maybe prepare a few in case the shells get broken.
If you don’t want to use eggs, craft balls are great alternatives to make ‘eggs’ instead. You can pick up craft balls in large packs very easily. Or go for white plastic eggs.
4. Cress Head Eggs – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
On the theme of eggs, why not help your baby or toddler to make a cress head egg? You just need an empty, washed egg shell (when you crack the egg, try to save as much as you can of the bottom half). Draw on a face (your toddler may need some help with this) or stick on googly eyes. Place some damp tissue paper or cotton wool inside the empty shell, then sprinkle on about a teaspoonful of cress seeds. Pop in an old egg box to keep it upright, and watch the ‘hair’ grow in a few days.
5. Egg Threaders – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
Cut out an egg shape from a piece of card. Cereal packets or thin card work well for this as they’re not too hard to cut for a toddler (if you draw the outline first). Then (and an adult will probably need to do this bit), cut out the middle of the shape. Now you have an oval with a hole in it. Punch out some holes for your toddler round the cardboard oval, get some wool and help them thread the wool from one side to the other.
These look great mounted on a windowpane with the light shining through, particularly if you used coloured paper or card as the outline shape.
6. Chalk The Pavement – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
Large floor chalks are great for mark-making in spring. If you have patio slabs, a driveway or stone nearby, see what squiggles and art your little one can come up with. Spray on some water for a different effect. We’ve also seen young children happily decorating the floor at their local park – the beauty of this being that it’ll be a blank canvas again once it rains! Think colourful, bright patterns and flowers to go with the fresh spring days!
7. Orange Bird Feeder – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
The orange bird feeder is one of Happity’s favourites for feeding the birds all through the spring, autumn and winter. Cut a large orange in half and use a spoon to scoop out the middle. Next, use a blunt needle to make four holes on the sides of the orange – one for each compass point. Get two piece of string and thread each one diagonally through two of the holes. The string should cross in the middle. Then tie the ends of the string under the orange.
Get some seeds, nuts and peanut butter (check allergies first). Your toddler can help spoon the food into the orange. Once they have filled it with yummy treats for the birds, bring the tied strings back up to the top. Now it’s all ready to hang outside.
8. Paper Plate Or Cloud Dream Catcher
Get a paper plate and cut a hole in the middle (an adult will need to do this). Get some washable finger paint for your toddler to dip their finger in and dab spots all over the circle. Cut some strips of tissue paper as streamers and glue these on the bottom.
For the hanger, punch two holes at the top of the plate and thread through a piece of wool or string to tie together at the top. When you hang your dream catcher near an open window, it should flutter gently in the breeze.
As an alternative, make a cloud dream catcher. Cut out the rough shape of a cloud from a piece of cardboard. First, stick some ribbons or tissue paper on the bottom of the cardboard. Your toddler can then stick on cotton wool or tissue paper to make it look fluffy, and eyes.
9. Chick, Egg and Lamb Shapes
Get some Easter templates – you can download these or draw some chicks, eggs or lambs by hand. Trace these onto cardboard or paper. Give your toddler some paint and large brushes. See if they can make spotty eggs, coloured eggs etc. Use one of those sponge paint dabbers if it makes it easier for them to add spots (babies can also grip these).
A lovely book to read alongside with your child while doing this is called Hen’s Pens, all about a hen’s love of drawing – which leads to her decorating different eggs around the farmyard.
10. Nature Scavenger Hunt
Go on a nature walk and see what you can spot. You can either have a list (like this sheet here) of what you’re looking for, or just go with the flow and see what your toddler can find. For slightly older children, try an A-Z of what you can see outdoors in nature. Even if you say the next letter for them, this can be a fun ‘I-Spy’ for the Great Outdoors! We also love all these outdoor activities from the National Trust.
11. Chocolate Nests – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
Make chocolate rice crispy or chocolate cornflake nests. You basically melt butter (or a dairy-free alternative), golden syrup and chocolate together in a pan on a low heat. Then stir in cornflakes or rice crispies and turn out into paper cases. Leave them to cool slightly, then add mini eggs or smarties. See our recipe in more baking ideas for toddlers.
12. Chick Treasure Hunt
Rather than a chocolate Easter hunt (which you may want to save for Easter Sunday), why not try a chick treasure hunt? You just need some of those yellow fluffy chick decorations which lots of us have around the house at Easter time. Hide them round the house or garden and see if your toddler can find them. They will probably want to rehide them afterwards for you to find!
If you’re doing this activity with a baby, you could use larger plastic animals or anything where you have several similar items. Bath toy ducks would work well! Help your baby ‘look’ for the objects and make lots of excited noise when your baby ‘spots’ one.
13. Spring or Easter Tree
Bring the outdoors indoors with a simple Spring or Easter tree. Go on a walk to your local park and see if you can find some twigs or a small branch with twigs. Or, if you have a garden, you can take a small cutting from a tree. This will be your inside Spring or Easter tree. Stand it up or ‘plant’ it in a flower pot or vase. Then hang small eggs and decorations on the branches. You can add glitter, sequins and anything else you like.
14. Pom Pom Chicks – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
Get a small yellow pom pom and a piece of orange felt. With your toddler, cut out some eyes, beak and feet. Use PVA glue to stick these on the pom-pom. Voilà – a chick! If you want, you can make a whole brood of springtime chicks.
15. Farmyard Scenarios – Toddler Crafts And Activities For Spring
If you’re anything like us at Happity, we’ll bet you have some rubber animal stamps hanging around the house. Now’s the time to get them out! Your toddler can fill a page with spring animals. Add footprints using washable finger prints if you like.
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