Paper Fidgets and Games to Make for Kids

June 7, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

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

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Road Trip Printables

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America 250 Fourth of July Activities for Kids

A lot of kids aren’t in school for the Fourth of July, but whether you’re in a classroom or at home, you’ll probably want to mark July 4, 2026, in a special way because it is America’s 250th birthday. And there are lots of ways to learn and celebrate, as we’ll see below.

The Homeschool Bee has a big bundle of resources for the big day, including timelines, information about the founding fathers, silly word fill ins, pages showing the evolution of the American flag and information on constitutional amendments. In all it is 35 pages and it’s great for a variety of ages. You can find it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Another printable activity set, this one aimed at grades 2-5, is available on TpT from George Kipriot Classroom Resources. This one includes a word search, crossword puzzle, maze, word scramble, coloring pages and more, plus a timeline and reading about the Declaration of Independence.

It wouldn’t be a birthday party without party hats, and there are a few different versions of print, color and cut party hats with a patriotic theme at Teachers Pay Teachers. The Internet Research Project has a set with an Uncle Sam kind of hat, a crown with the Statue of Liberty on it and one that says America 250.

There’s also a Happy Birthday America hat from Sweet Sensations, which features the years, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty and declaration of Independence.

You can find a lot of Fourth of July coloring pages with a 250th birthday theme. For example Britts Digital Paper Co on Etsy has some cute pages, including a patriotic goose reading a book for some reason (I also like their printable firework craft). eParenting also has an America 250 coloring page that includes the shape of the country and an American flag.

And if you want to try some more general Fourth of July projects, check out this collection of patriotic STEM activities from Homeschool Giveaways. Make your own “fireworks,” sensory activities, make a fizzy flag, build a graham cracker White House and more.

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