15 Favorite Creative Activities for Kids

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Creative activities are great for kids in many ways. They keep them entertained for quite a long time, spark their curiosity and cognitive development, and help them adapt to school subjects easier.

Kids- creative activities for toddlers

To help you spend quality time with your kid and encourage their learning abilities, in this blog we’ve compiled all the fun crafts and creative activities for kids. From fun outdoor craft activities to indoor creative art exercises, through this blog, you will discover the best creative daily activities for kids. Let’s get started!

The Most Entertaining Creative Indoor Activities for Kids

Kids need to spend part of their daily free time occupied with fun and creative indoor activities. Here are the most enjoyable creative thinking activities and fun things to do with kids:

1. Finger Puppets

Kids love playing story-telling-based activities and spending time imagining magical stories. So finger puppets are your partner in crime for encouraging your child to think more creatively and helping them expand their imagination.

creative activities easy for kids

To create a unique puppet show with your kids, you need felt, scissors, glue, markers, and puppet templates. Then, kids can create and decorate their puppets and play with them. You can also integrate the puppet show into your kid’s favorite stories or even help them shoot a puppet TV show.

2. MentalUP

Choosing technology-based creative thinking activities for kids is a great way to use technology in a beneficial way for kids. As a scientifically designed learning app, MentalUP offers the best online creative activities for kids of all ages.

Best online creative activities for kids.

The app includes 150+ games and activities specially designed to improve your kid's cognitive skills like imagination, creative thinking, problem solving, logical thinking, memory, and attention. 🚀

Thanks to its user-friendly interface, you can easily find games and activities that fit your kid's age and learning abilities and track their development with interactive dashboards. 📝

Plus, by utilizing the app’s screen-limiting feature, you can prevent the negative effects of too much screen time. 😇

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3. Spider Web Search

Spider web is one of the most challenging and beneficial creativity activities for kids. The game enhances kids' motor skills, enables them to practice problem-solving skills, and improves their creative thinking skills.

creative projects and activities for elementary kids

So if you are looking for creative fall activities for kids to play when the weather gets cold, this is the one for you. Make a prize bag for each kid and tie a piece of different colored string to each bag.

Then, wrap the ends of the strings over or around objects in the room. Weave each string across other strings to entwine them and create your web so that kids can unravel the web and reach their prizes.

4. Bath Paint

If you are googling for “creative activities easy for kids,” look no further. This bath paint activity is a simple yet fun activity to spark kids' imagination, color recognition, and fine motor skills.

Fun creative indoor activities for kids

All you need is some shaving cream, a muffin tin, and some neon coloring that doesn't stain. Your kids will enjoy creating a variety of colors by mixing shaving cream with colors and creating a masterpiece in the bath.

Let your kids use their imagination and make a mess to keep them entertained with this artistic sensory experience. Plus, you can take a photo of the final creation each time after the activity to see your kids' artistic progress. You can always benefit from this alternative as one of the best rainy day activities for kids.

5. Trivia Game

As trivia games require kids to keep thinking in spite of obstacles, they are great creative perserverance activities for kids. Additionally, they exercise kids' minds to retain information and use their reasoning skills.

Creative perserverance activities for kids

You can create trivia sticks and trivia cards or simply use Disney trivia questions to play with your kid anytime and anywhere. By choosing topics from a variety of subjects according to your kid’s interests, you can ask them some questions to challenge their mind to think more creatively and use their logic skills.

Don’t forget that indoor activities for kids, such as card games help kids learn how to relate with other people, practice empathy, enhance their motor skills, and improve their overall social skills. 🎈

If you need a safe online source for your kids to play card games. The certified app MentalUP is here for you with its lots of improving games. It is time to guide your children into this expansive world. 🌏

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6. Finish the Story

This one is one of the most beneficial creative writing activities for kids. The activity can be played both at home or in the classroom and sparks kids' creative thinking, literacy, problem-solving, and analysis skills.

creative activities for kids at school

Just discuss some topics with your kids, like animals, weather conditions, or whatever they are interested in, and write some sentences about that topic. Then, your kids can continue writing to create a short novel about the designated topic. You can always include writing prompts for kids in the activity and make it more fun.

7. Egg Decorating

Clearly, egg decorating is one of the most creative Easter activities for kids, and it is also great for encouraging kids' color recognition, creativity, and artistic skills. You can use this one as one of the most effective after-school activities for kids and support your kids’ academic success at home.

creative easter activities for kids

All you need is some paint, brushes, crayons, tape, and some boiled eggs to keep kids safe from bacteria in raw eggs. Then, your kids can start decorating as they wish by drawing flowers, dots, shapes and etc., on those eggs.

To spice things up and challenge your kid a bit further, you can set a specific time for them to finish decorating their eggs.

8. Marbled Paper

If you are looking for rainbow-themed creative activities for kids to ignite their sensory development, this marbled paper activity which can also be used as one of the best extracurricular activities for kids, is a great idea.

creative projects and activities for elementary kids

The process of making marbled papers is easy yet open to exploration. Fill a tub with shaving cream to enable kids to add paint on the top and swirl it with a stick.

Then, they can lay a piece of paper on top and create a unique marbled paper. When the papers are dry, you can organize a gift card decoration activity with them to make it even more fun.

9. Shaving Cream Play Dough

This is one of the most fun creative activities for kids to encourage social and emotional development, as it is great for playdates and gatherings.

creative activities easy for kids

To prepare this fun, creative activity, all you need is food coloring in desired colors, one cup of shaving cream, and two cups of cornstarch. Then, kids can knead all the ingredients together and play with them.

This process will provide a great sensory learning experience for your kids, improve their fine motor skills, and make group activities more enjoyable.

The Best Exciting Creative Outdoor Activities for Kids

So far, we have discovered all the fun, creative indoor activities for kids. Still, all kids need to spend some time outdoors when the weather is nice to stay active and enjoy the fresh air. So now, let’s deep dive into the most exciting creative outdoor activities for kids.

1. Color Scavenger Hunt

This is a great activity to give kids a small exercise, support their creativity, and ignite their color recognition and naturalistic skills.

Creative outdoor activities for kids

You can walk into your garden or organize a family nature trip and encourage the kids to find matching items with the colors of nature, like green, brown, and black. Kids will need to find creative ways to look for these items and enjoy using these items in their decoration activities.

2. Sports Games

Exercising with sports games improves divergent and convergent thinking, which are the two main components of creative thinking. Therefore, kids need to spend time both outdoors and indoors with some sports games to improve their mental and physical abilities.

MentalUP fitness app

If you are looking for a safe and trustable source providing your kids with fun activities and exercises that can be done both indoors and outdoors, MentalUP fitness is here with 240+ exercise games and educational activities for kids of all ages!

From daily workouts to physical education activities, you can find all the games and activities that will improve your kid’s physical fitness and benefit their mental and physical wellness in the app.

All you need to do is get started with MentalUP right now! Then you can reach the appropriate physical activities for your kids’ age and body condition and start tracking their progress with MentalUP’s rich reporting module. ✨

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3. Nature Journals

Keeping a nature journal is one of the best creative projects and activities for elementary kids. The activity boosts kids' observation skills, reinforces their biology, science, naturalistic, and linguistic skills, and expands their vision to think more creatively.

creative thinking activities for kids

To create this fun and beneficial project, kids need an empty notebook and some pencils. Then, they can start keeping their journal during nature trips.

You can ask your kids to record the animals they see during the trips in their journals, draw pictures of them, and write what they think about these animals. Also, you can expand the subjects to plants or other components of nature.

4. Natural Brushes

Creating natural brushes is a great activity to foster kids' interest in experimentation, artistic expression, and color and shape recognition skills. Also, it is a great excuse to give kids a little exercise.

creative projects and activities for elementary kids

You can go on a nature walk with your kids and ask them to collect some branches and leaves. Then, kids can create natural brushes by taping or tying these branches and leaves together. Kids can use these hand-made brushes to create art pieces with different patterns, shapes, or items.

5. Mud Kitchen

Organizing a mud kitchen is a great idea to promote sensory play outdoors, inspire imagination, and keep kids occupied for enough time to spend their energy.

creative activities for autism kids that involes learning

Simply put, a mud kitchen is a toy kitchen that is built for backyard play. Instead of kitchen ingredients, in a mud kitchen, kids use natural ingredients, like soil, flowers, leaves, and branches, during pretend play activities.

So it is great for encouraging kids to get closer to nature and teaching them about botany and biology.

6. Capturing a Time-Lapse Video

If your kid is into cinematography and enjoys watching movies or documentaries, you can spark their interest with this activity. It is simple yet beneficial for supporting kids artistic, imagination, and observation skills.

creative activities for kids to encourage social and emotional development

Just set up your phone or tablet to shoot a video and choose the time-lapse mode in your camera app. Then, kids can capture a video while building a treehouse, walking around, or observing animals, plants, and the sky.

After filming, you can watch these videos and discuss them to make the activity even more beneficial.

Beyond expanding kids' imagination, all creative activities come with additional values, like improving kids' problem-solving skills, allowing them to explore the world around them, supporting their mental development, and keeping them more active. 🌈

Additionally, good creative activities can improve kids' core skills, like fine motor and hand-eye coordination. You can benefit from all these advantages by using the multi-awarded app MentalUP which offers 150+ games and 240+ fitness exercises. 🏆

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Tips to Choose the Most Appropriate Creative Activities for Kids

If you want to get the best out of creative activities, you should choose age- and level-appropriate activities that fit your kid's interests.

creative activities easy for kids

Here are some tips that will help you choose suitable creative activities for your kids:

  • Avoid creative activities that can intimidate them.
  • Offer creative activities as a free time activity, not a task to complete.
  • Look for co-curricular activities that include practicing social and emotional skills.
  • Be careful about accessories and utensils used in the activities and choose ones with safe ingredients.
  • Check the additional values of activities, like motor-skill development or mental and physical development.
  • Choose creative activities that can be played in a variety of ways, allowing them to experiment and observe.

Frequently Asked Questions

So far, we have shared the best indoor and outdoor creative activities for kids and shared some tips to help you choose the best ones for your kids. Now, it is time to answer all the questions that might come to your mind. Here are the most commonly asked questions about creative activities for kids.

Why are creative activities important for kids to develop?

Creative activities have numerous benefits for kids' mental and physical development. These activities can develop imagination and creativity enormously and help kids build confidence, express themselves better, and learn about the world around them.

How can you encourage school-age children to enjoy creative activities?

If you want to encourage school-age children to enjoy creative activities, you can choose ones that are suitable for their interests and open to collaboration. As school-age kids enjoy spending time with their peers and participating in team activities, they may enjoy creative group activities.

What kinds of creative activities keep kids entertained for hours?

Creative activities that encourage exploration and require self-learning can keep kids entertained for hours. Also, if you choose the right creative activities for your kid and their interests, you can make sure that they will enjoy doing these activities for quite a long time.

How can you use crafts and creative activities for kids to support their learning processes?

By integrating crafts and creative activities into your kid's daily routines and using them as an opportunity to teach new things to your kids, you can support their learning processes.

Repeating the same activities might be boring for your kid and useless to spark their learning process. In this case, you can check out the MentalUP educational games app to reach a wide range of activities that will boost your kid’s mental and physical abilities and support their development in an enjoyable way. 🎯

Additionally, you can use MentalUP on any PC, tablet, or phone for both indoor and outdoor activities, which makes the app both a great resource for continuous learning and one of the best games to play on zoom with students. 🎮

So, if you want to boost your kid’s potential anytime and anywhere, it is time to benefit from MentalUP! ✅

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