This easy craft will keep kids busy on summer afternoons

Whether it’s a rainy day or it’s just too hot to go outside, this fun and easy activity is a great way to keep your kids entertained on a summer afternoon. It’s fun for all ages and is something the kids can do on their own, or parents are welcome to join in on the action, too.

The video posted by Jinny Noosa on Facebook shows how you can create a caterpillar racing game with very few materials. All you’ll need are some straws, strips of paper, scissors and a marker to bring little adorable caterpillars to life.

You’ll start by cutting long strips of paper and then folding the paper accordion style. Start by folding the strip in half and then folding the ends in to meet in the middle. Trim the edges round, then unfold. On one end of the strip, use markers to draw a face for your caterpillar.

Then, it’s time to race! Using straws pointed at the unfolded caterpillar, blow to get the paper to move. The motion resembles the up and down crawling of an actual caterpillar, which your kids are sure to get a kick out of!

The Facebook video shows you how this simple DIY is done:

There’s room for creativity with this project. You can go crazy with color and decorations before ever cutting or folding the strips of paper, allowing kids to imagine and draw what their cute caterpillars will look like. Will they be purple and glittery? Why not?!

You can also bring in additions such as pipe cleaners to create a track to race on, or at the very least, a start and finish line for these quick little caterpillars to race across. This project is great because it can be as involved or as simple as you want it to be, and it will provide plenty of entertainment for kids either way.

While this game is best done at home since a stationary, flat surface is helpful for racing your caterpillars, there are plenty of other fun DIY games that might be better suited for summer road trips, at the park, or wherever you travel this summer.

For example, this sensory rainbow game can be made with a zip-close plastic bag, hand sanitizer, colorful counters (which can be found on Amazon) and a variety of colored permanent markers.

This video from the Raising Dragons Facebook page shows how simple this is to make:

Get ready for plenty of playtime wherever you and the kids go this summer thanks to these DIY activities!