5 FUN KITCHEN PAPER TOWEL ACTIVITIES

Kitchen roll - readily available at home and reasonably affordable, so what could be more perfect than to use it for a science experiment, crafting, magic and fun? Here are some paper towel activities that the kids have been doing recently and really enjoyed, so I thought it was worth sharing with you all.

1. Colourful caterpillars:

x3 of our colourful caterpillars

You'll need:

- A piece of kitchen roll paper for each caterpillar

- Felt tip pens

- Pencil

- Large dish

- Pipettes

- Water

Steps:

- Have your child(ren) draw a design on the piece of paper.

- Roll it around a pencil and scrunch it up (the 'scrunchier' the better).

- Remove the pencil by sliding it out.

- Place your caterpillar(s) in a dish next to one another with space between.

- Using a pipette add droplets of water onto the caterpillar (one at a time is best) and watch it wiggle and squirm.

2. Grow a Rainbow:

The steps to growing our kitchen paper roll rainbow

You'll need:

- A piece of kitchen roll paper cut length ways

- x2 glasses with water in the bottom

- Felt tip pens

Steps:

- On each end of the piece of kitchen roll paper draw the rainbow in blocks of colour next to each other - purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Make sure to use lots of ink and try and line up the colours either side.

- Place the glasses with the water in them next to one another.

- Tell your child(ren) that you are going to put each end of the paper in the glasses of water. You could ask - What do you think will happen to the water? What do you think will happen to the ink?

- Then place each rainbow end into the water. Ensure you don't fully submerge the whole rainbow into the water, otherwise it will wash out into the water. We had just under half of the rainbow in the water.

- Then watch the colours move up the paper to create the rainbow. It won't happen immediately. Ours took about ~10-15 minutes. Times will vary depending on the absorbency of your paper.

- Whilst watching you could ask - What do you notice? You can talk about how the water is absorbed through the kitchen roll and drawn up by a process called capillary action. It's never too early to learn scientific words!

- Relating it to real life - You could also give a real life example of capillary action in nature, as it's the way that plants bring up water through the roots and stem to the branches and leaves. It is also important for moving water in and out of the cells in our bodies!

3. Rainbow Artwork:

Creating our rainbow artwork

You'll need:

- Kitchen roll sheets

- Felt tip pens

- A dish of water

- Pipette

- Glue stick

- Scissors

- Card

Steps:

- Decorate a piece of kitchen roll paper with felt tip pens (we did x3 pieces).

- Using a pipette add drops of water to the paper and enjoy watching the colours spread.

- Let the paper dry.

- Then cut out the shapes that you want to create your artwork.

- Stick the shapes onto card and display. Or you could use your artwork as a storyboard.

4. Drawing Magic Trick:

Some of our magic trick art

You'll need:

- x1 piece of kitchen roll paper for each magic trick

- Felt tip pens

- Dish/tray

- Water

Steps:

- This one requires a little bit of prep depending on how many magic tricks you want to perform.

- Fold the piece of paper in half and position it so that you could open it like a book.

- On the front of the paper draw what you want your child(ren) to see initially with the felt tip pen. Press hard so that it goes through underneath.

- Open the paper and draw over the outline of what was drawn on the front. Then colour it in and add anything else that you want to appear once it is wet.

- For example, you may want to draw the outline of a flower and then on the inside colour in the petals so when wet it shows a colourful flower. Alternatively, you could do what I did above and draw the outline of one object and then when wet it will reveal a picture with lots of different objects and colours.

- Once you are ready to perform the trick, fill up a dish or tray with a small amount of water (just covering the surface area) and gently place the paper in the water.

- Warning: it is highly likely that your child(ren) will want to see more than one trick!

5. Dancing Paper:

Our two little people having an afternoon boogie

You'll need:

- Kitchen roll paper

- Scissors

- Cellotape

- Balloon

Steps:

- This will work best if the paper is really thin (with the paper that we were using you could tease apart the two layers on a sheet to make a thinner piece).

- Cut out a shape in the kitchen paper of whatever it is that you would like to dance - a person, butterfly, ghost etc.

- Cellotape the bottom of the shape to the table.

- Rub a balloon on hair or a jumper to make it static, and then hold it above the paper to lift it off the table. Moving the balloon will lead to the shapes moving too.