How to Make Shrinky Dinks from Materials You Have at Home

I always loved Shrinky Dinks, because they seem kind of magical. Put the plasticy material in the oven and it shrinks, but your image still looks pretty much the same as when you made it in larger form.

Did you know you can make shrink plastic from materials you’re probably throwing out right now?

Get all the details on the right plastic to use and how to use it to make your own shrinking projects at Little Sprouts Learning. The post talks about using them for Valentine’s Day projects, but they’d make a great Earth Day project, or when you just need something to do on a summer day or any other time.

[Photo: Little Sprouts Learning.]

Looking for some books to pair with these crafts? Check these out.

When my daughter was younger she had a ton of LEGO bricks, and I’m honestly a little sad we got rid of most of them because there are so many fun things to do with LEGOs outside of the kits you bought them in.

I love seeing all the ideas people have for LEGO building challenges, and I have shared some ideas for LEGO games before, but I saw one on Pinterest the other day that I felt was worth a mention.

This one is for those ’80s and ’90s kids who spent sick days home from school watching “The Price is Right”: LEGO Plinko!

For those who don’t know about Plinko, the original was a giant peg board set up at an angle and the contestant would drop a flat disc at the top of the board. As it moved down the board it would hit the pegs and change the way it moved, and there would be different prizes in the slots at the bottom where the piece would land.

This version from Play Party Game works on the same principle, using LEGO bricks to make the game board and marbles in place of the Plinko disc since your game board isn’t flat.

You can really use whatever bricks you have for this build, and while it shows all the pegs the same size and evenly spaced, you can play with different configurations and see what happens. It’s engineering and a game!

And while you’re playing with your LEGOs, make sure to check out this post from Kids Craft Room that includes minute to win it style games you can do with LEGO. From speed sorting to tower building as fast as you can, these ideas are sure to get you thinking about different ways to play with LEGO.

And if you need even more ideas, check out my post with LEGO building challenges you can print out for kids (and adults!) to try.

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