Five Dollars, Five Ways is a series that explores a variety of activities for your kiddos based on a trip to the dollar store with a five dollar budget. We show you how to maximize a few bucks for hours of fun and entertainment!
Bright colors and rainbows are always a big hit with kids. This is a collection of activities involving blending colors, sorting colors, and making art with a variety of colors. Enjoy!
You will need shaving cream, pom poms (or other small objects in a variety of colors), tissue paper, foam sheets (or construction paper), and coffee filters. Five dollars at the dollar store will it get it all!
You will also need markers, white glue, zippered sandwich bags, a paint brush, scissors, and food coloring. If you don’t already have these things in your home, they should all be available at the dollar store.
Activity 1: Color Sorting
Line up foam sheets (or sheets of construction paper) of different colors. Place a bowl of pom poms (or other small objects) next to the foam sheets. Encourage your child to sort pom poms onto the same colored foam sheet.
Activity 2: Coffee Filter Art
This activity (and variations of it) are all over the internet. We love it at our house. Color on a coffee filter with markers. Drop water onto the coffee filter (a drop or two at a time), and watch the colors spread. Place coffee filters on white paper to dry. You will have bonus artwork on the paper after wards! We like to display ours by hanging them in a window. So pretty!
Activity 3: Making a Mosaic
Cut small shapes from foam pieces (or construction paper). Your child can glue these pieces on to a larger piece of foam or paper. Glue sticks or white glue and a paint brush work well for this.
Activity 4: Puffy Paint
My mom has no idea where she found this recipe, but she shared it with me recently, and my kids and I have fallen in love. Put equal parts shaving cream and white glue in a zippered sandwich bag. Add some food coloring, seal the bag, and squish ingredients until mixed. Cut a small tip off the corner of the bag and then squeeze the mixture onto paper. Let picture dry over night. The paint expands and puffs and has to been seen to believed!
Activity 5: Faux Stained Glass
Cut various colors of tissue paper into one inch squares. Cut a simple shape out of foam (construction paper or poster board will also work). Make the same shape again out of foam and also out of white tissue paper or wax paper. Cut the inside out of the foam pieces (but not the white tissue paper), so that you have two “frames.” Glue the white tissue paper shape to one of the frames with white glue. Fill the white tissue paper area with the colored squares of tissue paper. Glue squares with white glue and a paint brush. Once the area is filled with colored squares, cover squares with a thin later of white glue, and top with second frame. Allow to dry over night and hang in a window!
