Kaleidocycles: Paper Toys to Color and Fold

Have you ever heard of kaleidocycles or flextangles? These paper toys are printed with different images or patterns on different faces, so when you fold the paper in different ways it shows different designs.

Sort of like a kaleidoscope you can fidget with and color how you like.

Hattifant has a bunch of these printable toys that you can explore, download and play with. The ones that caught my eye were these patterned ones, which look like they would be a lot of fun to color and to play with.

I’m thinking printing out some of these to take on a road trip would be fun, because kids (and adults!) could color and assemble them and then play with them, too.

[Photo: Hattifant.]

check out these DIY kaleidoscope kits

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Paper Fidgets and Games to Make for Kids

Whether you have snow where you live or are on the wrong side of the world for that, these snow glob crafts for kids are a lot of fun to put together at home or in the classroom.

If you want to keep it super basic, you can download some snow globe coloring pages from Monday Mandala and have kids drawn in their own images (or color in what is there for the ones that are already filled). This could be a fun way to play with different media, having kids paint in one, draw in another, or use crayons in one, colored pencils in another, etc.

Or you can add your kid (or a classroom full of kids) to snowglobes with this craft from Twitchetts. It’s easy to make and fun for kids to help with, too.

You can also make snow globes with paper plates pretty easily, and there are lots of different options out there that should give you some ideas. This one from In the Playroom uses blue glittery pompoms as the snow and has a snowman in the background (though you can use whatever you want).

Mas and Pas uses a clear plate on top of a regular plate to make its snow globe, and Daydream into Reality just uses a paper plate to make the snow globe shape but there’s no snow involved. Their template includes different images you can put in the snow globe, or draw your own.

If you want to make a snow globe without the watery (so potentially less mess) you can make a waterless snow globe out of a plastic cup with this tutorial from The Pragmatic Parent. It uses tiny foam balls as the snow. Tidy Mom’s version uses a real glass jar and fake snow to flurry around.

And if you’re OK with using liquids in your snow globe, which will allow the snow to flutter like in a real snow globe, check out this version from 123 Homeschool 4 Me, which uses water and baby oil.

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