Miffy Outdoor Activitie

April showers bring May and June flowers and warm weather for Miffy to play outdoors. She loves spending time outside in the fresh air, making delicious dishes with ingredients from the garden and creating works of art with objects she finds in nature. Below are three activities Miffy enjoys doing while outside, and she thinks you’d have fun doing, too.

“Rock-ing Good Times” Artwork

 Supplies

1 stone

Paint, either store-bought or homemade. If you’re making paint on your own, you will need 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup pepper. 1/2 cup flour and food coloring.

Bundle of sticks. Sticks should be at least half the length of an adult’s forearm.

4-5 bushy pieces of a plant

2 heavy duty rubber bands

Glue

Instructions:

1. Find one stone the size of a child’s palm.
2. Gather a bundle of sticks or branches. The sticks should be at least half the length of an adult’s forearm. You should have a minimum of ten of these. Separate them into several different groups, with at least three sticks in each bundle.  Place bushy part of plant against the end of one group of sticks so that some of the plan rests on top of the stick.  Wrap 2 rubber bands tightly around this area, making sure to contain the bushy portion in each.
3. Paint rock yellow or orange. Press rock face down on paper and hold for 20 seconds somewhere at the top of the picture.   This will be your sun.
4. Wipe and rinse rock off until base color disappears or paint over base color.
5. Choose which type of insect you’d like feature in the picture. Dip stone in paint again and place rock down for 20 seconds somewhere near the bottom of the picture. Hold for 20 seconds. Remove.  This will be the body of your insect.
6. Decorate insect with items found outside. Small pebbles dipped in paint make nice spots! Grass dipped in paint can be used for legs and glued to picture! Flower petals make great wings!
7. To finish the picture use the homemade paint brush to add other elements. It’s easy to dip the brush in blue for the sky, white for clouds or green for the bushes. For older children, find a variety of different plants and create brushes with each material. That way, the designs will look different with each paintbrush.
8. Stand back, admire and hang up in the house for everyone to see!