Paper Fidgets and Games to Make for Kids

These paper fidgets and brain teaser games are great to have on hand for road trips or when kids say they are bored. Older kids can make the projects themselves and then play with them, or you can take care of the setup and just let them play.

The hexaflexagon (instructions from Chaotically Yours) is a fun flippy floppy folding shape that can be used as a fidget. It’s made with a single piece of paper cut into strips, folded, and glued. There are videos as well as text instructions in the post if you need help figuring out how to make it. Using different patterns on the paper makes it extra fun to play with.

This magic paper art cube from Hello Wonderful is kind of like a puzzle in how it fits together. It’s a bunch of little cubes that are joined together and can be folded and stacked in different ways to make different images show on the faces. And while they have provided printables you can color and cut out to attach to the cubes, you can also just follow those size templates and draw anything you like to include on the puzzle.

Here’s another one with cubes but it’s actually more of a puzzle that can be solved. There are different puzzle options available to print and assemble from What Do We Do All Day, but the concept is the same whether you’re using numbers or patterns: try to line up the cubes so that no one number or pattern is visible on more than one face at the same time (so no matter which way you turn them, you’ll see each number or pattern exactly once). It’s a challenging brain teaser, but the solution is also in the blog post should you need it.

Looking for more fun paper crafts? Check out this post full of things to make out of paper (for kids and adults) from The Craft Patch Blog.

Learning Activities with Fidget Spinners

Multiplying and Dividing Decimals Printable Games

Fall is a great time to learn about and observe the birds in your area, but you can do this any time of year. Whether you’re watching from a backyard or a playground, you’re sure to find a few birds and can learn about the birds that are native to your region in any case.

If you do see birds at home or where your classroom is, the Merlin app is a great one (if your school allows phones). If you don’t already know it, it listens to the sounds around you and can identify birds based on their calls. Very cool and a reason for kids to be quiet while you’re observing nature. Having an old fashioned paper guidebook to the birds where you live is also a great idea because kids can use it to look up birds and it’s just fun to have in the science center.

The specific birds involved in your learning will vary depending on where you live, but here are some bird activities you can do with your kids at home or in the classroom.

Natural Beach Living set up a simple bird nature study center that includes bird books and feathers in front of a big window. There are also some printables you’ll find links to in this post including three part cards and bird observation charts for birds local to them and a bird unit study with lots of great printables (this is a paid resource).

Adventure in a Box has a printable birds of the world bingo game, which might inspire you to learn more about some of the 48 different birds included, from emu to snowy owl, grackle to Atlantic puffin.

If you’re American you’ll enjoy these state bird coloring pages from Flanders Family Home Life. If I can count, only 48 states are listed (which I wouldn’t have noticed except Arkansas isn’t there; it’s one of many whose state bird is the mockingbird). Print out all of them or just your home state, or give each child a bird to research and color to do a presentation in the classroom.

And you can learn more about the different types of bird nests and see if you can observe any of them on a nature walk with this guide to bird nests from Fun Mom Printables on Etsy. It includes information about eight types of nests with drawings and three part cards.

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