Under £5
15 mins
Ages 4+
Fluffy cloud slime
Three cupboard ingredients and the stretchiest slime you'll ever wash out of a jumper.
Crafts and slime
Snapping paper beak
A few folds turn a single sheet of paper into a beak that pecks and snaps when you squeeze it. Paint on eyes and it's a bird, add a row of zigzag teeth and it's a crocodile or a shark.
Ages6+
Time20 mins
CostFree
MessLow mess
WhereIndoors
What you need
Little hands may need a grown-up for the tiny snips.
Let's go
Fold the paper in half, top edge to bottom edge, with the fold at the top.
Fold it in half again from side to side, make a sharp crease, then open that last fold back out so you have a crease down the middle.
Fold the two top corners down so they meet at the middle crease, like the start of a paper aeroplane. You'll have a triangle roof on top of a strip at the bottom.
Fold the front bottom strip up over the triangle. Turn it over and fold the back strip up too. It now looks like a paper hat.
Press every crease firmly. Make a tiny snip in the middle of each long edge and at each end, then fold a narrow strip of the edge back all the way round to make a rim.
Hold it by the two pointed ends and push them towards each other. The middle pops open into a mouth, and the rim becomes the lips of the beak.
Open and close it to make it snap and peck, then draw on eyes, nostrils, teeth or a tongue.
Real talk
- Make a whole flock in different colours and put on a puppet show.
- Bigger paper makes a bigger beak. Try wrapping paper for a giant crocodile.
- If it won't open, the creases probably need pressing harder. Run a thumbnail along each fold.
Bird spotters?
Birds of prey centres often run flying displays where kids can see real beaks and talons up close.
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