I've been lucky in the past - Mr's 10, 5 and 21m are big fans of bangers and have never been bothered by the noise, so we have always embraced Bonfire Night in all its glory. Some years we've even been fortunate enough to get a double dose - with displays in our town and at grandparents.
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This year we will be having a little fire and some sparklers in our garden, but it's not the same as the big event. I will miss huddling together in our bobble hats munching hot dogs.
Luckily there are lots of ways we can celebrate at home without the displays. Here are some of our favourite firework-themed activities to give you some inspiration.
Fireworks playdough
We are playdough addicts and I've been known to make an invitation for pretty much everything under the sun, but this has to be one of our favourites! The glittery night sky playdough makes the perfect backdrop for pipe-cleaner catherine wheels and whizzing strings of beads.
We use the recipe by BBC Good Food for our playdough:
Makes 1 coloured ball Prep 10 minutes
You will need
8 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp table salt
60ml warm water
food colouring
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Method
1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the water, a few drops of food colouring and the oil.
2. Pour the coloured water into the flour mix and bring together with a spoon.
3. Dust a work surface with a little flour and turn out the dough. Knead together for a few minutes to form a smooth, pliable dough. If you want a more intense colour you can work in a few extra drops of food colouring.
It's really fun creating little displays and seeing what pretty prints you can make in the dough. Homemade playdough lasts for a few weeks in an airtight jar or bag, so you can get lots of playtime out of this one.
Firework pompom push
A pompom push is basically anything with holes in that your child can push pompoms through. It's a really fun way to develop fine motor skills. To make one, take a cardboard box and cut some holes in it using a craft knife - a box will collect any pompoms that are pushed through ready to be tipped out at the end.
To give ours a bonfire twist, I just drew some fireworks around the holes in felt tips and gave Mr 4 pompoms in colours he could match to the holes.
He loved poking them through the holes and them tipping them all out.
Cupcake liner fireworks
This is a sweet craft that's perfect for even the littlest hands and it's so easy to make!
You will need
White cupcake liners
Scissors
Black card stock
PVA glue
Use your water colours to paint the liners - it doesn't have to be evenly painted, it actually looks better with some light and dark patches.
Once dry, cut about an inch in all around the outside of the liners (little ones will need some help with this).
If you want some smaller
You can then spread out your fireworks and glue them onto your cardstock 'night sky'.
Loose parts fireworks
We love tinkering with loose parts, and they are perfect for creating fireworks - think buttons, beads, matchsticks, pompoms - anything colourful or sparkly is perfect for creating with. Grab a tray and some black card stock and have fun creating together!
Fuzzy felt fireworks
If you're a child of the eighties like me, you'll remember Fuzzy Felts - those little sets where you take felt shapes or pictures and create your own scene. Well this is a great DIY version that is perfect for Bonfire Night. You just need felt in various colours (we got our hands on some glitter felt too) and some sharp scissors.
Cut your coloured/glitter felt into different shapes and designs. We made the following to go with our black night sky:
- Blue swirls for catherine wheels
- White / red rectangles and triangles for rockets
- Orange points for the sparks
- Red, silver and gold star 'bursts'
The beauty of the felt is it slightly sticks together so the shapes hold in place. What's I particularly love about this activity is the fireworks can be rolled up inside the black mat and played with time and time again!
Fireworks sensory tray
Sensory trays are a great way to keep a pre-schoolers entertained, and they are perfect for exploring textures and material properties.
To make ours we added black sand, glitter pompoms, pipecleaners and gift bows to a large deep tray. I also gave Mr 21m a little spoon for scooping. Putting it on a white tray meant that he could make some lovely marks with his fingers.
PIN IT FOR LATER!
